Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

was?”
    “No,” said Happy. “He’s gone. No trace of him in the body, or anywhere in the area. I’d know.” He looked briefly about him. “Quite a few other ghosts, though. Lot of good people died here. Most are already dissipating, fading away, passing on . . . You’d better bring another field team in to do the mopping up. This place is going to be a spiritual black spot for years. Too much has happened here.”
    “Are you sure the other A team is dead?” said Latimer. “I mean—Diego and his people . . . I depended on them for years! They always got the job done!”
    “They got arrogant and cocky,” said JC. “And they got caught by surprise. Can happen to the best of us.”
    “None of them are here,” said Happy. “No ghosts, nothing. They’re gone.”
    “Pity,” said JC. “I would have liked a chance to say I told you so .”
    “Cold, JC,” said Melody.
    “Stick to the point,” Latimer said sternly. “What is so important that you need to tell me all about it right now?”
    “We found something inside the dead man’s head,” said JC. “A memory, but not from Patterson. Maybe not even from the rider. Maybe something the rider saw, or was exposed to . . . A memory or recording of past events, featuring the appearance on this Earth of something from Outside.”
    “A memory, or a vision,” said Happy. “I stored it, because I knew you’d want to see it. So come here, oh Boss and mighty one, and See what we Saw.”
    Latimer moved forward, one slow step at a time. Not because she didn’t trust Happy but because part of her really didn’t want to see what he had to show her. Happy thrust the memory into her head, and she cried out in spite of herself.
    The ocean, blue and grey and green, a choppy surface stretching away forever, miles and miles and far and far from land, under a clear blue sky. And then a door opened in that sky, and something fell through. A great crack in the sky, dark and crimson and full of roiling energies like the opening of some great eye of terrible aspect. A crack in Time & Space & Other Things, a split in Reality itself, and a brief glimpse into what lay beyond. Things came and went on the other side of the door, huge and awful shapes, big as cities, then a bright shaft of light shone through from the other place, into this world. A light that was so much more than any light should be. It scorched through the air, slammed down into the sea, and ploughed on down through the waters like some great driven force. Even in the stored memory, so many years after the original intrusion, the light was unbearably bright to look at, overpowering to merely human eyes. A kind of light that didn’t belong in this world, this smaller reality.
    And in the short moment the door was open, Something came through. It fell down through the light, huge and awful, its shape meaningless to human eyes and consciousness. It existed in more than three spatial dimensions, its extremities stretching off in directions the human mind couldn’t follow. It fell into the sea like a falling mountain, and the waters rose violently as it plunged deep beneath the surface. The waters boiled, and dead fish rose in their thousands, to float on the surface and stare up at the broken sky with unseeing eyes. The door closed, and the light snapped off. Everything returned to normal.
    Except, nothing would ever be the same again, because something new and terrible and utterly Other had come into this world, and it would not rest until it could find a way back again.
    Latimer swayed on her feet as the mental images came to an end. Happy put out a hand to steady her, then snatched it back as she shot him a hard look. She shuddered once, then stood up straight, immediately back in control again. The others looked at her carefully to see what she made of what they’d all Seen in the dead man’s head. There was something new in the world, and it was not good.
    “I suppose the first question,” JC said finally, “has to be—did it fall, or was it pushed? Was it some kind of accident, or did Something Else push that thing through the door, against its will?”
    “No, that can wait,” Happy said immediately. “What matters is, something really quite appalling has entered our world from the Outer Reaches, and we have no idea what it is, or what it can do. It’s trapped here . . . and you all felt the same things I did. It’s awful and it’s vast and it’s powerful, and it wants to go home.