“Did you make him understand that we would have given him full immunity, and round-the-clock protection, in return for information?” said the Boss.
JC met her gaze steadily. “He was more afraid of his own people than he was of us.”
“It’s true,” said Happy. “He said he’d rather die than betray them. He did. I was there.”
The Boss looked at Melody. “Do you have anything useful to add?”
“He wasn’t the man you thought he was,” said Melody, as kindly as she could. “He wasn’t the man any of us thought he was.”
The Boss nodded slowly. “I want every bit of information you have about this secret organisation Patterson answered to. Every word he said about them. I want fully detailed reports from all three of you on my desk before the end of day.” She looked back at Chimera House. “These… New People. Were they really living gods, or the final destiny of human evolution? I would have liked to have seen them. It’s not often you get to see something completely new, in this business.” She looked back at JC and his team. “You got lucky. You do realise that, don’t you? This could all have gone horribly wrong, in so many appalling ways. But, still-you did good. Well done. Don’t even think of asking for a raise.”
She drew heavily on her ivory holder, and blew a thick cloud of aromatic smoke out onto the early-morning air. “How could something as important, as extreme as this, have got so far completely undetected by anyone in the Institute? Patterson wasn’t that high up, or that connected… He couldn’t have managed all this on his own. You’re sure he didn’t mention any other names… Of course not. You would have said.”
JC could have said something there but didn’t. Happy and Melody took their cues from him.
“Reports,” the Boss said savagely. “Extremely detailed reports. And God have mercy on your souls if they aren’t in on time.”
She turned her back and strode off, to organise things and shout at people a lot. JC, Happy, and Melody all breathed a little more easily, and moved away to find somewhere quiet, and private, so they could talk. Once they were safely away from the crowds, Kim manifested again, a vague impression on the air, an outline of a young woman in pastel colours, so the others could see and hear her. She hated to be left out of things just because she was dead.
“We’re going to have to be very careful about what we say in our reports,” said JC. “And careful that they all agree with each other, in the things that matter. Because there’s a lot we’re going to have to leave out, or at the very least fudge around. We don’t know how many other traitors there might be, hidden away inside the Carnacki Institute.”
“Are you saying we can’t even trust the Boss?” said Happy, his eyes widening at the thought of trying to keep things from the dreaded Catherine Latimer.
“She’s the Boss!” said Melody. “She’s in charge of everything! If she’s gone over to the dark side, we are all royally screwed!”
“I think we can still trust her,” JC said steadily. “If only because she’s got too much pride to hide her dark side under a bushel. If she was the villain of the piece, she’d want everyone to know, and bow down to her. No-I was thinking more that whatever we tell the Boss might not stay with the Boss.”
They all paused to consider the implications of that, and none of them liked what they were thinking.
“We have to go our own way now,” JC said finally. “Follow the leads we’ve got and run our own very secret investigations into who’s really who, and what’s really what, inside the Carnacki Institute.”
“We can’t trust anyone any more, can we?” said Melody.
“Welcome to my world,” said Happy. “Lonely, isn’t it?”
“We only trust each other,” said JC.
“Situation entirely bloody normal,” said Happy. But he couldn’t keep from grinning.
“Just because one conspiracy theory has turned out to be true, it doesn’t mean they all are,” JC said sternly. “Let us all please concentrate on the matter at hand. The Carnacki Institute is far too important to the world to remain compromised in this way.”
“What is this other secret organisation?” said Melody. “We don’t have a name, or a statement of intent.”
“They have got to be big,” said Happy. “And I mean really, really big to have the connections and resources to pull off something like this, right under the Boss’s radar.”
“So how come no-one even heard a whisper?” said Melody. “You can’t put something like ReSet together without making serious waves.”
“We did hear a whisper,” said JC. “Those agents from the Crowley Project, Natasha Chang and Erik Grossman. They said there were forces at work bigger than either the Institute or the Project. But we didn’t believe them because Project agents lie like they breathe. They live to spread lies and paranoia. But now…”
“We have one end of the string,” said Happy. “I say we tug on it and see what unravels.”
“You are enjoying this entirely too much,” said Melody.
“My entire paranoid existence has been justified,” said Happy. “I am a deeply satisfied man.”
“We’re not going to solve this mess overnight,” said JC. “We have to be in this for the long haul… all the way to the end. So we carry on taking cases, going on missions, as though everything were still normal. People… some people… are going to be watching us very carefully.”
“But… wouldn’t it be safer to let it go?” said Kim. “I mean, what can the four of us do, against a secret society this big, this dangerous?”
“We go on,” said JC. “Because we have to. Because it’s part of the job. And because no-one plays us and gets away with it.”
“Right,” said Happy.
“Damn right,” said Melody.
“Oh well, if you put it like that,” said Kim. “Kill them all, and let God sort them out.”
They walked away from Chimera House, putting it all behind them, for the time being at least. Happy looked sideways at JC.
“So,” he said casually, “did you really steal that Hand of Glory thing from the Carnacki Institute’s Armoury?”
“You’d be surprised at what I’ve gotten away with, over the years,” JC said solemnly.
They all stopped abruptly as Kim clapped both her hands to her head and cried out in pain. The sound rose and rose, a miserable howl of horror and agony, filling the night, continuing on long after living lungs would have been unable to sustain it. She swayed on her feet, eyes clenched shut. JC stood before her, saying her name over and over, trying to make himself heard over the deafening noise she was making, reaching out but unable to touch or comfort her. Melody and Happy looked at each other, both of them lost for anything useful to do. Latimer came hurrying back to join them. And Kim stopped screaming as suddenly as she’d begun. The returning quiet would have been a relief, if it hadn’t been for the horror and abject misery still filling her pale face.
“What is it?” said Latimer. “What’s happening? Why was she making that God-awful noise?”
“I don’t know,” said JC. “Nothing happened… Kim? Kim, sweetie, what is it? What’s upsetting you… Kim, look at me!”
Kim finally forced her eyes open but didn’t look at JC. She only had eyes for Chimera House, staring at the tall building as though it was the entrance to Hell itself. JC looked, too, but it all seemed perfectly ordinary to him. Everything was as it should be. He could see silhouettes of the Institute people outlined against brightly lit windows, going about their business.
“It’s not over,” said Kim. “It’s not finished. Not yet.”
“What do you mean?” said Latimer. “Is it the New People? You said they were gone.”
“They are gone,” JC said impatiently. “We all saw them move on.. . Kim, did you… hear something?”
Kim looked at him for the first time, her pale features still slack with shock. “You didn’t hear that? You didn’t hear anything?”
“I didn’t hear a damned thing,” said Melody. “Except you, screaming fit to burst my eardrums.” She looked at Happy, and he shrugged quickly.
“Don’t look at me. I’m not picking up anything. If this night was any quieter, it would be tucked up in bed with a nice cup of hot milk.”