“Please, sir, remember where you are!”
“Go to Hell!” said Happy. “How long have you had this? You had this here; and you didn’t think to tell us?”
Kim appeared out of nowhere to stand next to Happy, calming him with her proximity. JC and Melody came running through the stacks to join them. The Empty Librarian fell back, as Happy gestured wildly at the thing in the display case.
“That, right there, is supposed to be an actual part of The Flesh Undying!” he said loudly.
They all gathered together before the display case, maintaining a safe and respectful distance. Beyond the reinforced glass was a small, pulsating blob of. . something. Something that didn’t belong in this world. It was no colour they could name, no consistency that made any sense, and it never stayed one shape for long. It rose and fell, turning itself inside out, throwing itself back and forth against the sides of the steel-and-glass case that contained it. Like a caged animal, desperate to be free.
“Someone put a bit of The Flesh Undying inside a box?” said JC.
“That is not a box, sir,” said the Empty Librarian. “That is a display case. Though I am forced to admit, it is one of our more secure display cases.”
“How was it brought here?” said Melody, staring fascinated at the writhing, pulsating thing.
“I’m not exactly sure, miss. It appeared here, a few weeks ago, already contained within its case. Along with an account of its acquisition.”
With the end of an empty sleeve, he indicated a heavy note-book set beneath the display case. JC and the rest of his team looked at the note-book, each of them quietly wondering why they hadn’t noticed it before. JC finally picked up the note-book, very carefully and very gingerly, and opened it, holding it out so they could all see. The handwritten pages contained a brief account of how this particular piece of The Flesh Undying had come into the possession of the Carnacki Institute.
They all recognised the handwriting. It was Catherine Latimer’s.
Apparently, a large communications company had been laying a new section of transatlantic cable. The machinery hit something, on the very bottom of the ocean, and the ship laying the cable was mysteriously lost, with all hands. Other ships went to investigate; and as a result the cable was redirected to another section of the ocean, many miles away. And to hell with the extra expense. Somewhere along the way, a small piece of what the original cable-laying ship had encountered had been acquired, then gifted to the Institute. No names, no details. And there the record ended.
JC put the note-book back under the display case and looked at the others. And then they all looked at the raging thing in its case.
“I’ve been trying to examine it through my Sight,” said Happy. “But forcing my mind through the defensive shields takes so much out of me. . What I can See makes no sense at all. There’s so much of it, I can’t get a grip on it. As though it’s denser, realer, than everything else.”
“I wish I had my equipment with me,” said Melody. “I’d make this thing talk. Hell, I’d make it sing and dance and give up all its secrets.”
“It’s been tried,” said the Empty Librarian.
Melody bristled and glared at him. “You don’t even know what I have in mind!”
“I don’t need to, miss,” said the Empty Librarian. “It’s been tried. It’s all been tried. Long before it got here. It’s all in the back of the note-book.”
Kim drifted forward and stuck her face right up against the glass side, so she could look directly at the blob. It became increasingly agitated under her steady gaze, throwing itself back and forth and flailing at the glass sides. It suddenly expanded, growing greatly in size, pushing outwards until it filled the entire display case, pressed flat against each of the glass walls. And the heavily reinforced glass began to crack. Jagged lines shot across the sides of the case, splintering the glass. Everyone fell back sharply, including the Empty Librarian.
“It’s a trap!” shouted Happy. “It’s another bloody trap! The Flesh Undying gave up part of itself so it could be brought here! I can hear it now; its thoughts are as loud as a thunderstorm, powerful as an earthquake. . That blobby thing may be separated from the main body, but it’s still connected, still part of The Flesh Undying!”
“But what does it want?” said JC. He grabbed Happy by the shoulders and held him in place. “Concentrate, Happy. Why did it want to be brought here?”
“Because it knew we’d come to look at it!” said Happy. “It wants us dead, JC. The whole team! It wants us destroyed because. . we’re dangerous to it! Damn. I didn’t know that. Kind of heartening, really. . JC, you’ve got to Do Something! It’s getting out! The glass is cracking and the shields are failing and once that thing has escaped from its cage, there’s nothing here that can stop its growing big enough to. . Oh. Oh no. . You really don’t want to know what it wants to do to us. .”
The blob had filled every square inch of its container now, not a gap or bubble anywhere, seething and straining against the glass sides of the display case. Strange lights sparked and flared inside it, multi-coloured threads of energy snapping back and forth like illuminated blood-vessels. Melody pointed her machine-pistol at the case, then lowered it again, uncertainly. Happy stepped forward and put himself bodily between her and the thing in the case. Melody smiled briefly and stepped forward to stand beside him. She put an arm across his shoulders, and he put an arm around her waist.
JC took off his sunglasses and turned the full force of his golden eyes on the thing in the case. The blob shook and shuddered but didn’t withdraw an inch.
“Rather hoped for more than that,” said JC. “Kim, this might be a good time for you to teleport out of here.”
“I won’t leave you,” said Kim. “I only just got you back. There must be something you can do.”
“I don’t have my equipment,” said Melody.
“We could still run,” said Happy. “Running’s always good. But I don’t think we’d get very far. .”
“And we can’t leave the Libraries undefended,” said JC. “We stand and fight; that’s the job. Except, we have no tech, no weapons, no magics or special Institute techniques that would do any good. I suppose we could eat it. .”
“After you,” said Happy.
“The Acquisitions!” JC said sharply. “That’s the answer! Objects of Power, right? Smash the cases, everyone, and grab anything that looks useful!”
“That really won’t be necessary,” said the Empty Librarian. Everyone stopped and looked at him. The empty suit of clothes didn’t seem at all worried.
“What?” said JC.
“Refreshing though your zeal to protect the Libraries is, before you go wild and start smashing all the exhibits, I feel I should point out that we here at the Libraries are perfectly capable of dealing with a rogue exhibit. Tommy Atkins! Your presence is required!”
The uniformed soldier appeared out of nowhere, standing before the display case. And then there was another soldier, standing on the opposite side. And then more, and more, dozens of Tommy Atkinses, surrounding the case in row after row. They didn’t raise their rifles; they simply glared at the blob in its case, concentrating their full attention on it. The blob faltered and fell back, falling in upon itself, until there was nothing left of it in the display case but a small ball of suppurating organic matter, barely moving at all.
“Of course,” said JC. “That. . thing, is just flesh. While Tommy Atkins, all of him, are pure spirit. It has no effect on them and no defences against them. They outnumbered it, and overwhelmed it, through sheer spiritual presence.”