“Time is apparently a factor, so we can’t wait for a more experienced team. You get first shot. Go in there, work out what’s going on, and stop it. And if you should happen to find out why the MSI asked for us… there will be honey for tea and generous bonuses all round.”
“Hold everything,” said Happy, raising one hand like a child at school. “We’re supposed to walk into a building that’s already killed a whole bunch of people? With no solid intel, no weapons, and no backup?”
“That’s the job, sometimes,” said JC. “And we don’t know that anyone’s dead yet.”
“I’m not going in there without my equipment!” said Melody. “All my gear’s still packed up on the freight train!”
“I have people bringing it here,” said Patterson. “But you’ll have to make a start without it.”
“What am I supposed to do without equipment?” said Melody, sulking.
“Improvise,” said Patterson. He didn’t smile.
“I think we have to assume that something has gone seriously wrong with the latest drug trial,” JC said quickly. “Remember that case a few years back, when they tried out what they thought was a perfectly safe drug, and half the volunteers exploded? Could be something similar. You can only learn so much from computer modelling. Sooner or later, you have to shove the stuff into somebody’s vein and stand well back. Do you have any information on what MSI was testing?”
“No,” said Patterson. “The MSI spokesman is only telling us what he thinks we need to know. He’s currently hiding behind Proprietary Information. The Boss is putting together enough authority and influence to kick that door down, but it will take time. You should be able to find all the information you need in the building’s various computers. Feel free to look at anything you feel like and make as much mess as you need. You are all officially authorised to act like utter vandals and do any damned thing you feel necessary. That’s it.”
“That’s it?” said Happy. “What if we can’t sort this out? What if we all get killed in there?”
“Don’t,” said Patterson.
He turned sharply and strode back to his silver limo, gleaming at the curb like an expensive ghost in the night. The waiting chauffeur opened the door for him, Patterson disappeared inside, and, within seconds, the car was gliding smoothly away. Kim emerged from the shadows to make a rude gesture after it.
“What an appalling person,” she said.
“Be fair,” said JC. “I can’t think of anyone better suited to take on our enemies. That man could annoy anyone to death.”
They all turned to look at Chimera House. It looked calmly back at them; a tall, imposing structure of steel, glass, and concrete. A building of almost staggering ugliness, with all the aesthetic considerations of a dead rat. It fit right in, in an area where form and function had taken over from pretty much everything else. Lights blazed from every window, but there was no sign that anyone was home.
“Can you see anyone moving in there?” said Happy. “I can’t see anyone moving in there. Where are they?”
“If they were running drug tests, there should be people on duty at all times,” said Melody. “Apart from the test subjects, there should be doctors and nurses, scientists, support staff, building security… They can’t all be dead. Can they?”
“Kim,” said JC. “What do you see?”
“Nothing,” said Kim. “It’s like the whole building is standing in a shadow. A dark veil for someone or something to hide behind. What do you see, JC?”
“Only a building,” said JC. He turned to Happy. “Are you picking anything up, oh master of the mental miracles?”
Happy shrugged unhappily. “Just a feeling… That what we’re looking at is an illusion. A facade. The smile on the face of the tiger.”
They waited, but he had nothing more to say. He was shivering, and not only from the cold. The quiet of the empty street, and the brightly blazing building before them suddenly seemed that much more dangerous, and full of secrets.
“Keep your shields up, Happy,” JC said finally. “Protect yourself in there until we’ve got some idea of what’s going on.”
“Why are you suddenly being nice to me?” said Happy, suspiciously. “That isn’t like you. It’s an improvement, but it’s not like you.”
“Because without Melody’s high-tech toys, you’re the only advantage we’ve got,” JC said calmly. “Our only early-warning system, and probably our only real weapon.”
“Then we are in serious trouble,” said Happy. “Let’s all go home and tell the Boss we couldn’t find the right building.”
“Brace up, man,” said JC. “Be a brave little soldier, and I’ll make you some of my special spag bol afterwards.”
“I miss food,” Kim said wistfully. “I can still enjoy the smell, but anything I put in my mouth drops straight through.”
“Well, there’s a mental image I wasn’t expecting to take home with me,” said Melody.
“Let us not go there,” JC said firmly.
Melody scowled at the brightly lit building before her. “No tech, no proper briefing… I hate going into situations blind.”
“Best way,” JC said cheerfully. “No preconceptions to get in the way. Come, children, let us march into the lobby and claim it as our own.”
He walked forward and darted up the stone steps to the lobby door. It was mostly glass. The others moved quickly after him. JC went right up to it and stuck his nose against the glass. His sunglasses made a loud, clinking sound. He peered carefully round the whole lobby. It was completely open to view, light blazing freely through glass windows. And it was completely empty. No sign of people, no sign of any trouble, or destruction. It looked like a stage set, waiting for the actors to make an entrance and start the scene.
“I don’t see anyone,” said JC, straightening up with definite creaking noises from his spine. “Not even a receptionist. I always thought they were legally obliged to go down with the ship, manning the phones to the end. I see fittings and furnishings, comfortable chairs and potted plants… everything as it should be. But…”
“Where are the bodies?” said Melody, pushing in beside him. “The police and the security men?”
“Why are you so keen that they should be dead?” said JC. “Until proved otherwise, they’re missing in action. This could still turn out to be a rescue mission.”
“They’re dead,” said Happy.
There was something in the way he said it that made everyone else look at him. JC considered him thoughtfully.
“Is that a feeling, or do you know something you really should be sharing with the rest of us?”
“I can feel death in this building,” said Happy. “Like a shroud hanging over everything. And especially in this lobby. Recent death. Sudden death. I don’t think they even knew what hit them until it was too late.”
“Who killed them?” said JC. “Or is it What?”
“I can’t put a name to it,” said Happy. It’s like nothing I’ve seen or felt before. And I’ve been around.”
JC looked at Kim. “Are you picking up any of this?”
“No,” said Kim. “Not a thing. And that’s wrong… If people died here, I should be able to see something… The world is full of ghosts, and fellow travellers, and images that come and go. I see all the things we share the world with. Comes with being a ghost. There are things here on the street with us right now, paying close attention to the building. But when I look into the lobby, there’s nothing there. So I can only assume that someone is hiding what’s happened from me. Which means, I get to go in first.”