Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

despite his strong and even violent objections. And put the device on a train, under guard, to be taken to a place of safety. Where it could be studied, and, if necessary, dismantled. The files don’t say where this would have taken place…Probably the original Dark Heir Headquarters, down in Cornwall. That was the main repository, back then, our very own Area 51, forall the really dangerous weird shit that the world wasn’t ready for. Is it Area 51, the Americans use, these days? I get mixed up, there are so many stories…”
    “It’s Area 52,” said Happy, unexpectedly. “Situated in the Antarctic Circle, up past the McMurdo Sound. So if anything should go suddenly and unpleasantly and explosively wrong, there’s no-one around to be killed, maimed, or nastily transformed. Except a few penguins.”
    “There aren’t any penguins in the Antarctic,” said Melody.
    Happy glared at her. “They had some moved in, for camouflage.”
    “You’ve been working your way through the forbidden files I downloaded, haven’t you?” said Melody. “Good boy. There will be treats later.”
    “Young rebels in love,” said JC. “The horror, the horror…Get on with the story, Melody. It’s getting late.”
    “Later than you think,” said Laurie. The others looked at him, but he had nothing more to say.
    “Anyway,”
said Melody. “Pressing on. Enter Dr. Todd, again. It seems he was now so scared of the Ghost Caller, and what it could do, that he wanted it gone. Destroyed, or at the very least, made safe. Apparently he didn’t trust what Her Majesty’s Government of that time might do with it. So he made a deal with Someone, or Something, presumably the same Power that made the Ghost Caller for him in the first place, and had them send the Ghost Caller…Away. You have to understand, though, all of this is conjecture, put together after the fact. No-one knows anything for sure.”
    “Oh, I think we can make some pretty good guesses,”said JC. “The Ghost Caller was placed on a train, which entered a tunnel, and was never seen again! Because it was sent Away, out of our reality, to some Other Place. So no-one else could have it. And Dr. Todd’s ghost is here to guard the station, to frighten people away…so no-one could do anything that might bring the train back again. He’s stood guard all these years, to protect us all from the terrible machine he made.
    “But the volunteers came and made changes in the station, changing the conditions that helped keep the train Away…And now there’s a dimensional weak spot where the accumulated pressure has burst through. A doorway, or at least a potential doorway, between here and Away.”
    “You think the missing train is coming home, at last?” said Laurie.
    “And bringing the Ghost Caller with it,” said JC.
    “All right, I’m sort of with you,” said Happy. “But none of that explains why the top of Dr. Todd’s head is missing.”
    “One thing at a time,” JC said cheerfully. “Let’s go out onto the platform again. See what there is to see.”
    “It’ll all end in tears,” said Happy. “Probably mine.”

    They went back out onto the station platform, JC leading the way and looking cheerfully about him. He’d recovered a lot of his usual cocky bravado. Happy wasn’t sure whether he approved or not. Yes, it was good to see JC back to his old self again; but the old JC did have a distressing tendency to rush in where angels wouldn’t show up on abet. Usually while shouting
Follow me!
to Happy and Melody. Happy looked nervously up and down the platform, sticking close to Melody. It was very late evening now, not much light left in the sky. Hardly any of the station room’s candlelight followed them out through the doorway, and the lights built into Melody’s instrument rack had dimmed right down. Even the sound of their footsteps seemed muffled, far-away. There was a terrible stillness to everything, as though everything in the station was waiting for something. An almost unbearable sense of anticipation, of something important and significant, about to begin.
    Laurie stayed in the doorway, looking at the three Ghost Finders as much as the station.
    JC strode right up to the edge of the platform and stopped, the tips of his shoes protruding over the drop, and the tracks. He bounced up and down happily, peering into every dark and concealing shadow as though he expected something to emerge and present him with a box of chocolates. He studied