“Yeah,” muttered Happy. “Because you’ve already been so helpful. .”
“Shut up, Happy,” said JC. He gave the Empty Librarian his best determined smile. “How about. . books on suddenly not being dead any longer?”
“Oh, there’s no shortage of those, sir,” said the Empty Librarian. “Most of them entirely contradictory, of course.”
“Of course,” said JC. “How about, more specifically, books on people dying, then being brought back again by forces from Outside?”
“Quite a lot of those, too, sir. Some days it seems like forces from Beyond can’t keep their hands off us. Hanging around our reality like ambulance-chasing lawyers. Or winos outside a bar, looking for a hand-out.”
“Is that what happened to you?” said Melody.
“Nothing happened to me, miss,” said the Empty Librarian.
Melody gave him a hard look, then decided to rise above it. “Do you have any computers here? Anything on-line I can look at?”
“Nothing like that in here, miss,” said the Empty Librarian. “The very idea. . We are a Library; not a video arcade. We do have an Index you might find useful. Connected to every volume here, and voice-activated for easy use. If you’d like to follow me this way, miss. .”
He shambled off, and the team hurried after him. Seen from the back, the empty suit of clothes appeared even more disturbing, if anything. The Empty Librarian led them through several sets of book-shelves, took a sharp left, and stopped abruptly. He waved an empty sleeve at an oversized volume set out on a gleaming brass reading stand. The book reminded JC of an old-fashioned family Bible. Someone had left it open, and the huge pages overflowed the sides of the reading stand. The Empty Librarian gestured for Melody to come forward and stand before the book.
“This is the Index for the entire Secret Libraries, miss. Like many useful things, it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Thinking about that makes my head hurt, and I don’t even have a head. Blame the Travelling Doctor; he founded the Libraries, after all. Speak your wishes aloud, miss, and the Index will give you the name and location of the volume most likely to be of help. Do try to speak clearly. If you mumble, the Index gets confused, then people shout at it, and I have to put up with its sulking, afterwards.”
“Got it,” said Melody. “Now go away and help the others. I don’t like people peering over my shoulder.”
“Of course, miss. I feel the same way. And I don’t even know who’s down here to peer over my shoulder. .”
The Empty Librarian led the rest of the team away. Melody glared at the Index.
“What have you got on strange occurrences down in the London Underground railway system? Ancient and modern? I want book titles, and a precis, if possible.”
The heavy pages fluttered quickly back and forth before her, so fast the print became a blur, then stopped abruptly to show her a double-page spread of book titles, complete with every detail, and a precis. Melody sniffed loudly, to make it clear she wasn’t going to be impressed that easily, and leaned eagerly forward to work her way through the various entries. It soon became apparent to Melody that there was no shortage of books on the subject: private and personal and professional. Strange sightings, encounters with ghosts and demons, weird happenings, and alien encounters. Reports of strange things went all the way back to when the first railway tunnels were dug out of the earth under London. Interestingly, though, there were no reports of any encounters with the old catacombs of London Undertowen. Which confirmed what Melody had already suspected-that the Undertowen wasn’t necessarily, literally, underneath London itself any longer. Melody turned her search to those volumes dealing with intrusions into the Tube system from Outside and was genuinely shocked at how many books there were on the subject. The Empty Librarian had been right; whatever happened to JC was neither a new nor a rare thing. .
Melody asked the Index on where these books could be found and received her second shock. According to the notes that appeared on the pages before her, each and every one of these books had been recently removed from the Secret Libraries. On the orders of Catherine Latimer.
Melody called the Empty Librarian back to her, in a loud and carrying voice. He came striding through the stacks, his empty suit of clothes positively radiating outrage at being summoned in such a peremptory manner; but when Melody showed him how many books were missing, he was genuinely shocked and appalled.
“But this. . this is simply not allowed! Books are never taken out of the Secret Libraries, under any circumstances! And I can tell you for a fact, miss, Catherine Latimer has not paid a visit down here in over a year. Whoever removed these books may have done so in her name, but she did not do it herself. More importantly. . I have no record, and no memory, of these books’ leaving the Libraries. And I am always here! I do not sleep, I do not rest, and I never turn aside from my duties. Though I am forced to admit. . this is not the first time such a thing has happened.” He leaned in close for a conspiratorial murmur, his empty collar close to her ear. “More and more, I get the feeling. . that I am not alone down here.”
“Okay,” said Melody. “Let’s concentrate on the missing books, shall we? Look at the details set out in the Index; do you by any chance remember the contents of these books? What they were about?”
“Of course, miss!” said the Empty Librarian. “I have read every book in the Secret Libraries! Not much else to do down here, you understand. . That title, there, was a detailed account by a young Institute field agent, on how she was attacked on a mission in the Underground, and how Something from Outside intervened to save her. I had the honour of speaking with this remarkable young lady on several occasions. Her eyes glowed like Mr. Chance’s until she learned to control it.”
“Who was this?” said Melody. “Do you remember her name?”
“Of course,” said the Empty Librarian. “It was Catherine Latimer.”
* * *
Sometime later, the Empty Librarian escorted Happy deep into the stacks, to the Acquisitions Suite. Not books, but rather Items of Special Interest that had been gifted to the Carnacki Institute, down the years. Basically, the Suite was an open space set aside to hold several rows of display cases, of varying size, with solid steel and silver surrounds and heavily reinforced glass. Containing things, objects, and general weird shit that had proved important or significant in the past. Happy looked them over dubiously.
“So these are all the important bits and pieces the Institute has gathered to itself, apart from those the Boss keeps in her office?”
“Exactly, sir,” said the Empty Librarian. “All Heads of the Institute like to hang on to reminders of their own time out in the field. Until they retire, and it all ends up down here. In the end, everything turns up down here, one way or another. There was a move, some years back, to have all dead field agents buried down here, as a security measure. But that was considered disrespectful. To the books. Some of them are very sensitive, sir.”
Happy nodded in a way he hoped indicated he neither believed nor disbelieved what he was hearing. He waited until the Empty Librarian had moved off before moving slowly up and down between the rows of display cases, studying their contents thoughtfully, while being very careful to touch nothing. Most of the items on display were simply. . objects, presumably of some importance at some time but now without even a name or case history attached. Only an Index number. A single marble finger, a brass mezzotint, a bottle of comet wine, and a stuffed cat’s head with three eyes and drooping whiskers. A few still had names, or titles: The Merovingian Crown, Cardinal Woolsey’s Scrapbook, The Doom That Came To Liverpool, The Sword Sacnoth.
And then. . Happy looked at the thing in the case before him and felt his strength drop away. He tried to examine it with his Sight, to make sure it was what it claimed to be, but the layers of protection laid down around the display case defeated him. So he stepped back and raised his voice, calling the others to him in an increasingly loud and hysterical tone. The Empty Librarian arrived first, running into the Acquisitions Suite, waving its empty sleeves.