“Of course,” said Patterson, pulling his arrogance around him like a shield. “It wasn’t difficult. They all trusted an obvious authority figure like me, right up to the moment when it became clear that they really shouldn’t have. I killed them all because they were in the way, disposed of the bodies, and held their ghosts here, or what was left of them, to guard the lobby. I knew our revered Boss would be sending a team in soon. I should have known it would be you. You do have a reputation for crashing in where you’re not wanted.”
“Hold it,” said Happy. “The Boss wanted us here? I thought MSI insisted we be sent in?”
“Oh please,” said Patterson. “MSI haven’t a clue about what’s been going on in their building. Haven’t known for ages. ReSet was our very own cuckoo’s egg, set in place to force everything else out of the nest. I only told you MSI insisted on your presence to throw you off the scent.”
“Are you also the one who’s been feeding us information through the building’s computers?” said Melody.
“Smart girl,” he said. “I’ve been telling you what you needed to know, or what I wanted you to know, so you wouldn’t go looking in places I didn’t want you looking. I’ve been leading you round by the nose, all along.”
“All right,” said JC. “ReSet was your baby. Let’s jump to the big question. Why?”
“Human is as human does,” said Patterson. “And frankly, that’s not good enough. What we’ve done with the world so far has been very disappointing. So events were arranged here to lead to the creation of something more than human, better than human. Something that would surpass Humanity and achieve all the things our limited and self-centred species has so signally failed to achieve. Remember poor misunderstood Nietzsche-Man is something to be overcome.”
“How come secret organisations never want to do anything nice?” Kim said wistfully.
“The clue is in the description,” said Happy.
“We’ve been planning this for a very long time,” said Patterson. “And we’re not about to let you butt in and screw it up now. The greatest minds of this generation have been considering a single fundamental question-What if Man was a mistake? What if we were supposed to be so much more, but we fell short of our true potential? We were never meant to be something as small and limited as Man! We were supposed to fly like angels! We were all supposed to be living gods and walk this world in majesty and glory! And it’s not too late. We can all blaze like suns. We can all shine like the stars!”
“Is this like the sixties?” said Happy. “When people thought that taking lots and lots of LSD would turn them into superheroes? The mind’s true liberation, through frequent frying of your neurons? Trust me-that really didn’t work out too well.”
“You think so small,” Patterson said coldly. “Little man. Touched with the gift to see the world clearly, and all you’ve ever done is complain about it. Wake up and smell the gravitas! We weren’t supposed to be like this! We weren’t supposed to suffer, to get ill, to get old and die! ReSet will set us free from all that. We will go on and live lifetimes and become what we were always supposed to be!”
JC considered him thoughtfully. “What if these New People you’ve brought about aren’t human? What if they don’t look like us, think like us, feel like us?”
Patterson smiled. “Would that really be such a bad thing? Would the complete replacement of Humanity be such a great loss?”
“Okay, someone’s taken the train to freaky town,” murmured Happy.
“Why are you here now?” said JC, moving up another step towards Patterson. “Why show yourself to us? You’ve been conspicuous by your absence, until now.”
“You were never really meant to get this far,” said Patterson. “I let you in because… we had to let somebody in. We needed someone to clear up the mess. All the unpleasant side effects to our glorious creation. But now it falls to me to stop you here. To stop you interfering with things you’re incapable of understanding or appreciating. My organisation has plans for the New People. And we can’t have you upsetting them with your unwanted presence.”
“Given everything we’ve overcome and dealt with to get this far,” said JC, “how do you plan to stop us?”
Patterson actually smirked, he was so pleased with himself. “You think you’re the only one to quietly remove useful and highly dangerous items from the Carnacki Institute Armoury? Look what I’ve got here…”
He extended one hand, so they could all see what was nestling on his palm. A small black box, gleaming and glistening, covered with rows of curling brass sigils. Everyone looked at the box, then looked at Patterson.
“I have to say,” said Melody, “I have eaten things that looked more interesting than that.”
“Hell,” said Happy. “I’ve crapped more interesting things than that.”
“Typical,” said Patterson. “I show you a wonder of the world, and all you can manage is vulgarity. This… is a Boojum. Because it makes things softly and silently vanish away. I say the Word, and whatever I point the box at… isn’t, any more. You’re all going to disappear, right here, and no-one will ever know what happened to you. You’ll be a small part of the great Chimera House Mystery-all the people who worked here, or walked in one night and were never seen again.”
“Cut the crap, Patterson,” said Melody. “I hate it when people give cute names to machines. Boojum, my arse. Lewis Carroll has a lot to answer for. That box is nothing more than a simple dimensional frequency adjustor. Took me a moment to recognise it, it’s so primitive. I built one of those when I was sixteen! Out of bits and pieces I ordered from the back pages of the Fortean Times!” She looked at JC and the others because they were all looking at her. “We all have our own basic frequencies, that tell us which dimension of reality we belong to. Or possibly vice versa. That box changes people’s frequencies, so that they drop out of this reality and into another one.”
“And you built one when you were sixteen?” said Happy.
“Well,” said Melody, “I didn’t say it actually worked… But the theory was sound.”
“So,” said JC, “that box is still basically a Boojum, for all practical intents and purposes, in that it can make us all disappear. Do you have any defence against it, Melody?”
“If I had my equipment with me…”
“I’m going to take that as a no,” said JC. “So hush now, children, while daddy negotiates.” He smiled engagingly at Patterson. “Let’s start with a basic Why? shall we…? Why did you, or your unseen lords and masters, set out to create the ReSet drug in the first place? Did you know it would create New People?”
“Let’s just say we had hopes,” said Patterson.
“But Gog and Magog, in their own Beastly way, were quite convinced the New People are going to destroy the world,” said JC. “Tear down human civilisation because they don’t need it. Remake the entire world, and perhaps even reality itself, in their not-at-all-human image. How will your organisation profit from that?”
“Oh, I don’t think things will get that far,” said Patterson. “There are checks and balances in place… things going on behind the scenes, behind the scenery of reality, to ensure nothing too bad happens. Pieces have been moved into place to take advantage of the situation. But I think I’ve said quite enough. You don’t need to know any more. It’s time for you to go.”
He held up the Boojum, and JC produced his Hand of Glory. The two men said their activating Words, pretty much in unison… And the small black box and the small withered paw both vanished, gone in a moment, blinking out of existence simultaneously as two great powers cancelled each other out. Both men looked at their empty hands, and it was all very still and very quiet in the stairwell.