“So who was it?” said JC.
“It was Heather,” said Kim. “The Boss’s personal secretary and last line of defence.”
JC, Melody, and Happy all turned immediately to stare at Latimer, who didn’t appear in the least surprised. Chang looked on, fascinated.
“That’s why I had to stay away for so long,” said Kim. “Keep separate from all of you, on the Boss’s orders. So Heather wouldn’t suspect anyone knew about her.”
“Heather?” said Melody. “The secretary? That’s like saying the butler did it . . .”
“She was always more than just a secretary,” said Happy. And he went back to looking at the door.
“You knew,” JC said to Latimer. “How long have you known?”
“I had my suspicions,” Latimer said evenly. “Heather had access to everything because I gave it to her. And there were things she said . . . things she did, or didn’t do . . . I’ve had a great many secretaries down the years; I can always tell when something’s wrong. When Kim came to tell me what she’d discovered, I wasn’t surprised. Just terribly disappointed. Just as I’d been disappointed in Patterson. I put years of my life into training those two, raising them up and giving them every advantage because it’s a lonely job to do on your own. I really believed I could depend on them.”
“When you put Kim to work,” said JC, “you put her in danger.”
“She volunteered!” said Latimer. “To protect you! And your team. I couldn’t send any of my usual people after Heather; what with the Flesh Undying and the cabal, I didn’t know whom I could trust. So I chose Kim. A spy who couldn’t be detected because she wasn’t really there.”
“I haunted Heather,” said Kim. “Followed her everywhere, unseen and unsuspected, learned all I could and finally reported back. But I still couldn’t tell you anything, JC, in case you gave it away. You still thought of Heather as your friend. And you’ve always been far too honest and open for your own good.”
“Goes with the job,” said JC. He still felt hurt that she hadn’t felt able to confide in him. Even though he knew she was right.
“And now Heather’s here,” said Kim. “Right outside that door. Come to murder us all in the hottest of hot blood.”
“Hold it,” said JC. “Hold everything. How does Heather know it’s us in here? No-one saw us enter the office.”
“She knows,” said Happy.
“Allbright must have installed one hell of an alarm system,” said Latimer. “And once the cabal knew we were here, Heather was given her orders. Kill us all while she had the chance. No survivors, no excuses. It’s what I would have done.”
“And I am here to tell you,” said Happy, “that Heather is really looking forward to it. Like a predator with the scent of prey in her nostrils and a thirst for blood and suffering.”
“Why is she mad at us?” said JC, just a bit plaintively. “The Boss, yes, I get that; but I always thought of Heather as . . . one of us.”
“It seems our little Heather has developed a taste for the kill,” said Happy. His mouth twisted. “You wouldn’t believe what it’s like inside her head right now. I could never see before; the Boss’s shields kept me out. But now Heather wants me to see, wants me to know. She can feel my disgust. She thinks it’s funny.”
“Rotten cow,” said Melody.
“Can you see Heather through the door?” said Latimer.
“Sort of,” said Happy.
“What kind of weapons has she got?” said Latimer.
“The really bad kind,” said Happy. His scowl deepened, as though he wanted to look away but wouldn’t let himself. “They aren’t . . . ordinary weapons. Unnatural things, horribly powerful. Hurts my head just to look at them. I can’t believe the cabal gave them to her . . . They must really want us dead. Hold it . . . I’m getting something else. Oh shit . . .”
“Oh come on!” said JC. “How much worse can it be?”
“Heather isn’t just working for the cabal,” Happy said steadily. “She’s also an agent for the Flesh Undying. A personal agent, like the Faust. She has its power within her.”
“Okay,” said JC. “You’re right. That is worse.”
“Heather?” said Melody. “Our Heather? I can’t believe it . . .”
“We never knew Heather,” said Happy. “Not really. All we ever saw was the smiling face she let us see. Someone else was watching, from behind that mask. Now she wants us to see the real her, before we die, screaming in horror.”
“You finally start talking again,” said JC. “And every word makes me wince.”
“It gets worse . . .” said Happy.
“Time we were leaving,” said Latimer.
She took the portable door out of her pocket; but the black blob just lay there in her hand, unmoving and unresponsive.
“Has it died?” said JC.
“It’s not listening to me,” Latimer said steadily. “Something has shut it down.”
“Heather,” said Happy. “She really is starting to get on my nerves . . .”
“So we can’t leave,” said Melody. “Not until we take Heather down.”
Latimer put the blob away and sat back in her chair, thinking hard.
“We’re trapped in here,” said Chang. “You’ve got to do something! I don’t do trapped!”
“Could we blast our way out, through the walls?” said JC.
Latimer gave him a pitying look. “This office was designed to be impossible to get into, except through that door. That was the point. For my protection . . .”
“Well, that’s worked out wonderfully, hasn’t it?” said Melody.
JC strode back to the desk and leaned over it, so he could glare right into Latimer’s face. “Haven’t you got anything here we can use against Heather?”
She ignored him, still thinking.
“Weapons!” Happy said loudly, not taking his eyes off the door. “We need weapons! Really big weapons!”
“I have weapons!” said Melody, filling her hands with the two heavy pistols from her holsters. Happy glanced briefly back at her.
“Where did you get those from?”
“JC’s lockup,” said Melody. “Remember?”
“No,” Happy said sadly. “I don’t.” And he went back to staring at the door. “Nothing as simple as guns is going to stop Heather. Not with what she’s got and what’s been done to her. She’s been made over by the Flesh Undying, made strong . . .”
“How strong, exactly?” said JC.
“It’s changed her like it did the Faust,” said Happy. “I think she’s part of its Flesh now. Channelling its unnatural power . . .”
“Dear Lord,” said Latimer. “How ambitious was she that she’d agree to that?”
“She’s not crazy,” said Happy. “Just . . . very driven to succeed. And kill as many people as possible along the way. She likes that. She thinks she’s found her true calling.”
“I’m not sure any weapon would be enough to help us here,” JC said slowly. “But, we used combined spiritual strength against the Faust, back at the Haybarn Theatre. The power of human souls, joined and working together . . .”
“It took a theatre full of ghosts to overcome the Faust!” said Melody. “All we have is us!”
“But there’s no-one like us,” said JC.
“We need a Soul Gun!” said Happy.
JC looked at Melody. “Either he’s taking too many pills or not enough.”
“There was a Soul Gun!” said Happy. “There was! Manifest Destiny used one, against the Drood family!”
“The Droods destroyed it,” said Latimer. “And anyway, it wasn’t what you seem to think it was.”
“The world never fails to disappoint me,” said Happy. “Don’t we have anything like a Soul Gun?”
“No,” said Latimer. “And I don’t think I’d trust any organisation
that did.”
She looked meaningfully at Chang, who just smiled and shrugged.
“I wouldn’t know, darlings. All a bit above my pay grade. But I think if the Project did have something like that, we’d have used it against the Flesh Undying by now. Rather than agree to work with you people. Though I have to say, a Soul Gun does sound rather fun. A gun that used souls as ammunition . . . I could fire that all day and never get bored!”
“You are seriously weird,” said JC.
“Thank you, sweetie,” said Chang.
They all jumped and looked back at the door as something hammered fiercely on the other side, slamming into it so hard it shook and shuddered in its frame. Happy slowly retreated back into the office, step by step, never once taking his gaze off the door.
“Your shields and protections are going down, Boss,” he said steadily. “Cracking and shattering, falling apart, layer by layer . . . There. That’s it. The last shield just went down. I can hear it screaming. All that’s left between us and Heather is the door itself. And that won’t last long.”
“That door is solid steel!” said Latimer.
“Won’t mean a damned thing to Heather,” said Happy. “Not with what she’s been given.”
“Well, what has she been given?” asked Melody.
“I don’t know,” said Happy. “Weapons, but . . . I’ve never seen anything like them before . . . And I’ve seen things that don’t even necessarily exist. She’s been given things from out of this world. Things that shouldn’t exist in any world.”
“You’re right,” Latimer said to JC. “The more he speaks, the worse I feel.”
Melody trained both her guns on the juddering door, then looked down at the two pistols and seemed to lose confidence in them. She slammed them back into their holsters and produced several explosive devices and incendiaries from various places about her person. She sorted quickly through them, muttering under her breath.
“Can I just point out, in a calm but very emphatic voice, that any explosion in a confined space like this office would be a really bad idea,” said JC.
“I know!” said Melody. She clutched the dangerous objects to her with one arm as she pulled odd bits of tech out of her pockets with her free hand. “I’m working on a shaped, directional charge, if I can cobble something together . . . Buy me some time!”
JC turned back to Latimer. “You’ve got a lifetime’s collection of weird shit in here! Are you really telling me there’s nothing we can use to defend ourselves?”
“Do you really think I’d keep anything that dangerous on open display?” said Latimer. “I never needed to defend myself; I had Heather for that . . . There are a few things here that might slow her down . . . But even before the cabal adopted her and the Flesh Undying adapted her, Heather still had access to weapons no-one could hope to stand against. That was the whole point of being my secretary.”
Chang nodded reluctantly. “Exactly. We knew about Heather at the Project. And all your previous secretaries. One of the reasons why we never launched an open attack against the Institute. Dear God. The irony in here is so thick, you could cut it with a butter knife . . .”
“Is anyone else feeling nervous?” said Happy. “I’m feeling very nervous.”
“Take a pill,” said Melody.
“Don’t think I’ve got anything that strong,” said Happy.
The heavy steel door shuddered violently. The whole office shook. Books and files tumbled from the shelves. The desk and chairs jumped around as though the office had been hit by an earthquake. Several important souvenirs fell from their places of honour, and Latimer had to jump out from behind her desk to catch the goldfish bowl before it could shatter on the floor. She put it down in a corner, out of the way. The ghostly goldfish still swam calmly backwards, entirely untroubled. Great dents rose up on the inside of the steel door as something hit it impossibly hard from the other side. JC stared at the door, breathing hard. The sheer strength such an attack would take had to be much more than human . . .
“What have they done to you, Heather?” said JC.
“Only what she wanted them to,” said Happy. “Some people just can’t wait to throw away their humanity because they think it’s holding them back. And afterwards . . . they don’t even recognise what they’ve lost. If you could see what I’m seeing, JC, you’d weep hot, bitter tears for Heather. Because everything about her that mattered is already dead and gone.”
Chang stepped suddenly forward to face the shaking door, smiling unpleasantly. “Open the door! Let the bitch in. And I’ll eat the soul right out of her head.”
“You can’t,” said Latimer. “She’s protected against things like that. Things like you. Comes with the job.”
“You gave her all these privileges and protections!” said JC. “Can’t you just take them away? You’re her Boss!”
“If they were that easy to take away, anyone might do it,” said Latimer. “I set the revocation process in motion the moment I walked out of this office, just on general principles. But that will take hours, maybe even days. And who knows what the cabal and the Flesh Undying have given her. Doubtless things I would never have authorised . . .”
“There must be something in here we can use against her!” JC said desperately. “Think!”
“Against anyone else, I’m sure I could suggest something,” said Latimer. “But this is Heather.”
“Well, it used to be Heather,” said Happy. “What’s outside is so much less, and more, now. Did you ever see a nightmare walking . . .”
“Everyone has their Achilles’ heel,” said Kim. Everyone looked sharply at her. They’d forgotten she was there. People did because she was dead. Kim smiled. “Remember the Faust? Everyone who serves the Flesh Undying is supposed to have some small piece of it inside them, so they can be in permanent contact with it and wield its power. But we dealt with the Faust, didn’t we?”
Her smile slowly widened, and there was something in her smile and in her eyes that made all the living turn away and shudder briefly. Even JC. Perhaps especially JC. He sometimes allowed himself to forget that Kim died long ago and had moved beyond human limitations. Until he was forcibly reminded.
“We only thought we knew about Heather,” said Kim. “But she only thinks she knows about us. So let her in.”
Latimer fished in one of the drawers of her desk and brought out a thick wooden stick, covered in deeply carved runes. She took the stick in both hands, muttered a few Words under her breath, then snapped the stick in half. There was a sudden pause, as everything went quiet outside the office, and the solid steel door swung slowly open on its own. JC and Happy and Melody moved to stand together.
Heather slammed the door all the way open, sending it crashing back against the inner wall, and stormed into the Boss’s office. She was carrying weapons in both hands, things so terrible no-one else could stand to look at them. Shimmering, uncertain shapes, vile and malevolent. Chang threw herself at Heather, grabbing at the secretary’s soul with psychic claws, to rip it free so she could eat it. Only to find there was nothing left in Heather that Chang could recognise as a soul. The psychic recoil sent Chang staggering backwards, dazed and disorientated.
Melody stepped forward, her hands full of the awkward shape she’d pieced together. A blast of intense heat erupted out of her hands, flying straight at Heather. Only to stop dead at the last moment, unable to reach her. Heather smiled triumphantly. The blast collapsed and was gone. Melody tried again, and the contraption fell apart in her hands. Happy grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
Catherine Latimer threw the Stone of Whitby at Heather. The Head grew rapidly in size as it flew through the air, becoming strange and awful, becoming alive. Its crude features contorted as it roared hungrily. It corrupts souls . . . Heather pointed one of her shimmering weapons, almost lazily, and the Head just disappeared. Blasted right o
ut of this world. A chill ran through JC as he realised what Heather meant to do to all of them: destroy them not just in this world but the next.
He turned to Kim and nodded sharply, and she stepped inside him. The golden glow burst out all around his body, fierce and unforgiving, filling the whole office with a light so bright even Heather had to turn her face away for a moment. JC smiled reassuringly to Happy and Melody and reached out a hand to both of them. They took his hands in theirs; and all four of them joined together. Physically and spiritually, wielding power bestowed on them by forces from Outside. Latimer’s eyes glowed golden too as she looked at the others; but she didn’t try to join with them. That had not been allowed her. Chang looked on, fascinated, shaken . . . and scared, though she’d never admit it. The sheer presence of the four joined souls beat on the air like the slow wing-beats of some gigantic bird of prey.
JC’s sunglasses slid down to the end of his nose, revealing his glowing eyes. Happy’s and Melody’s eyes blazed with the same golden light. Together, they turned their gaze on Heather; and she stood fixed to the spot. Unable to move, unable even to look away. Her terrible weapons fell from her hands and disappeared before they hit the floor. Unable to exist in this world without her will to hold them there. She’d been ready and prepared for any physical defence, but nothing could have prepared her for this. From the joined power of four people made into spiritual weapons by Outside forces.
Heather cried out as her power left her. Swept away, in a moment, by something far greater. She collapsed, falling forward onto her knees. She lowered her head and vomited up the piece of Flesh inside her. It fell wetly onto the floor, dark purple and darkly veined, twitching and pulsating. Chang rushed forward, to grab the Flesh up and eat it; but Latimer got there first. She brought her foot down hard and crushed the Flesh into bloody pulp.
Heather scrabbled backwards across the floor, desperate to get away from the glowing eyes of the Ghost Finders. Her back slammed up against the far wall, and she whimpered as she realised there was nowhere left for her to go. She glared wildly about her, like an animal incapable of understanding the trap it had fallen into. Latimer moved cautiously forward, to address the four glowing figures. She’d let the glow in her eyes go out.