Forces from Beyond (11 page)

And then JC leaned suddenly forward in his chair, to fix Allbright with a hard stare. “A thought has just occurred to me. You need us, Boss.”

“What are you talking about?” said Allbright. “What use could I possibly have for such a thoroughly disgraced team?”

“You need us to find Catherine Latimer,” said JC. His smile widened as he took in Allbright’s involuntary reaction, and he sat back in his chair again. “She didn’t just retire, did she? She walked out on you. Catherine Latimer isn’t the sort to go quietly; and you’re scared witless of what she might do, out in the world on her own. She knows all kinds of subterranean people and organisations, and most of them probably still owe her favours. She’s the kind who’d hoard them, for a rainy day.

“You can bet good money that Latimer has her own unofficial support system, assembled on the quiet during decades in office. Because she must have suspected something like this would happen one day. If she has been forced out of the Institute . . . and if you were dumb enough to pressure or threaten her first . . . you know she’s going to want revenge. Against the Institute in general and you in particular, New Boss. Just think of all the damage she could do with what she knows and who she knows. You need her found, and quickly, before she arranges a show of strength to make clear her power and displeasure. And the only people with any hope of tracking her down before that happens . . . are sitting right here in front of you. Because we know her better than anyone.”

“Of course,” said Allbright. “We know you and Latimer were close.”

It was meant to sound intimidating, but JC was more intrigued that Allbright had finally slipped and said
we
for the first time. Confirming there was a group behind her, a group opposed to Catherine Latimer.

“That was then, this is now,” JC said smoothly. “You need us to locate her; and we’re ready and willing to go to work.”

“We are?” said Melody.

“Hush,” said JC. “I’m negotiating.”

“What do you want?” said Allbright. “In return for your services?”

“Reinstatement as an A team, with all privileges,” said JC. “Access to all Institute records and intelligence. And guaranteed immunity from prosecution for all of us. All our sins forgiven . . .”

“Agreed,” said Allbright.

JC didn’t like how quickly she’d given in. Either she’d been ready to offer a lot more . . . Or she had no intention of honouring the deal. JC didn’t let any of what he was thinking appear in his face. He just nodded and went along.

“You have forty-eight hours,” said Allbright. “Starting now. Either you return with Catherine Latimer, suitably subdued and restrained . . . Or you and your team will be shut down. By force if necessary.”

“Agreed,” said JC.

Allbright looked at him steadily, ignoring Melody and Happy. “Are you sure you want to do this, Mr. Chance? Go after one of the most dangerous women in the world, with a damaged and compromised team? You could still have a bright future in the new Institute . . . but your technician is suspect, and your telepath is barely functioning. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather I supply you with replacements?”

“No,” said JC. “They’re my team.”

“On your own head be it,” said Allbright.

“No change there,” said JC.

Allbright gestured imperiously with one hand, and the heavy steel door swung open. JC declined to be impressed. Latimer never needed to rely on dramatic gestures. He got to his feet, and so did Melody and Happy. JC noticed out of the corner of his eye that Happy didn’t need Melody’s help this time. The telepath’s face was still worryingly blank, but his gaze seemed sharp enough. JC deliberately turned his back on Allbright and headed for the open door.

He’d almost reached it when Allbright said, “Forty-eight hours. And not a minute more.”

“I heard you the first time,” said JC, not looking around.

“You never learn, do you? Just for that, you now have thirty-six hours.”

JC stopped and looked back at her. “The deal was for forty-eight. Or there’s no deal.”

“You’re in no position to bargain,” said Allbright.

“Yes I am,” said JC. “Or you wouldn’t feel the need to pressure me. Forty-eight hours, as agreed. Or I walk and take my team with me. And maybe we’ll trash your office before we leave and set the furniture on fire.”

“Right,” said Melody.

“Love to,” said Happy.

Allbright nodded stiffly. Two rising patches of colour showed in her cheeks. “I won’t forget this.”

“That’s the idea,” said JC.

“Forty-eight hours, then I set the hounds on you! As well as Catherine Latimer.”

JC turned his back on her again and led his team out of the Boss’s office. The steel door closed quietly and very firmly behind them.

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Out in the waiting room, Melody started to explode, but JC immediately hushed her.

“Not now,” he said. “Not in front of Heather.”

The busily working secretary made a point of finishing what she was typing before turning to smile brightly at them.

“What’s the matter, JC? Don’t you trust me?”

“You didn’t warn us Catherine Latimer was gone,” said JC. “Dismissed by the new order.”

Heather shrugged. “I work for the Boss. Whoever she is.”

“Don’t we all,” said JC.

Heather cocked her head to one side, listening to something only she could hear. “Ah, apparently I’m to give you and your team all possible support. So what do you need from me?”

“I’ll let you know,” said JC. “When I’ve had time to think.”

“Don’t take too long,” said Heather. “Remember, you only have forty-eight hours. The clock is ticking.”

“My,” said JC. “You are in the loop these days, aren’t you?”

“Some of us have the good sense to make ourselves useful,” said Heather. “We all have to serve someone.”

“But choosing who makes all the difference,” said JC.

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Later, JC drove carefully through London, going nowhere in particular, just driving. He kept a watch in the rear-view mirror but didn’t see anyone following them. Though he couldn’t believe Allbright would send anyone obvious. He scowled at the road ahead, barely noticing the heavy traffic. Thinking hard. In the back seat, Melody and Happy watched him thoughtfully. Waiting for him to say something.

“Are we really going after Catherine Latimer?” Happy said finally. “I mean, she’s dangerous, JC. Particularly if she doesn’t want to be found. And it’s not like we owe this new administration anything.”

“After the way they treated us, and threatened you, they can all go straight to Hell by the direct route,” said Melody. “I say, if Latimer wants to disappear, let her.”

“We can’t let anyone else go after her,” said JC. “They wouldn’t have Latimer’s best interests at heart.”

“And we do?” said Melody. “When has she ever been on our side?”

“I trust her far more than I do the new Boss,” said JC. “At least we always knew where we were, with Latimer. She might regularly send us out on dangerous missions, with far too good a chance of our getting killed; but we could always be sure it was for a good reason, and a good cause. I don’t get that feeling at all from the new Boss. Latimer had our backs when we needed it. I had to blackmail Allbright to get what she should have given us by right. And she shouldn’t have threatened you. No-one threatens my team and gets away with it.”

“All right,” said Melody. “Who are you; and what have you done with the real JC?”

He laughed briefly. “Maybe I just don’t want the hassle of breaking in a new team, at my time of life. But don’t get me wrong; this is all about enlightened self-interest. Having Allbright as Boss is definitely not in our best interests.”

“So . . . we’re not hunting Latimer down?” said Happy. “We’re on her side?”

“We’re going to back her, against the Institute?” said Melody.

“She’s the only one in the Institute we know we can trust,” said JC. “Anyone else could be working for the Flesh Undying.”

“Including Allbright?” said Happy.

“Of course,” said JC. “Or, at the very least, whoever put her there. And besides . . . if this new order is so ready to bring the hammer down on Catherine Latimer, with all her decades of service, how long before they’d come after us? Retraining and re-education, my arse. Probably more like reprogramming. Make us over into smiling little drones, following the party line, only too pleased to do whatever we were told by our new lords and masters . . .”

“People . . .” said Happy. “Is it any wonder I prefer small dogs?”

“You’re right, JC,” said Melody. “Screw the new order. But we’re going to need some really big guns.”

“Let’s hear it one more time, for the Charge of the Light Brigade,” said Happy. “Come on. JC, where do we even start looking? Latimer must know a hundred places to go to ground, in London alone. With all kinds of powerful allies. Notice I didn’t say friends . . . And don’t expect me to track her. She’s bound to have really heavy-duty psychic shields in place.”

JC smiled suddenly. “Why don’t we just ask her where she is?”

Melody and Happy looked at each other, then back at JC.

“Okay,” said Happy. “Suddenly feeling several steps behind . . . What’s going on here?”

“You have the Boss’s private number?” said Melody.

“Better than that,” said JC. And then he broke off, peering into the rear-view mirror. “Hold everything; we have a tail.”

Happy and Melody twisted around, struggling with each other for room on the narrow seat so they could both look out the back window.

“Are you sure?” said Melody. “I don’t see anything . . .”

“And I’m not picking up a damned thing,” said Happy. “If anyone out there is thinking about us, they’re really well shielded.”

“They might not be Institute,” said Melody. “A lot of people, and organisations, are going to be very interested in Catherine Latimer’s whereabouts, now she’s no longer protected. They might believe they can use us to get to her.”

“Paranoia!” said Happy. “The game the whole world can play!”

“You’re back to yourself,” said Melody.

“I know,” said Happy. “Depressing, isn’t it?”

“Which car is it?” said Melody. “JC?”

“The same car has been behind us for some time,” said JC. “Keeping well in the background—sometimes one car back, sometimes two.”

“Well spotted,” said Happy. “For someone who’s not nearly as dangerously deluded as I am, you’re really very observant. Soon you’ll be able to see things that aren’t necessarily there, just like me!”

Kim appeared on the passenger seat beside JC, dressed in a starchy nurse’s outfit, smiling brightly. “It wasn’t him! It was me!”

Melody and Happy both jumped, just a little, despite themselves, then tried very hard to look as though they hadn’t. They glared at the smiling ghost girl.

“How long have you been with us?” said Melody.

“Ever since you left Buck House,” said Kim. “I did try to go in with you, but I can’t get past their shields. They really are obsessed with keeping ghosts out.”

“To be fair,” said JC, “with good reason.”

“Why didn’t you show yourself to us before?” said Melody.

“Because I told her not to,” said JC. “No point having an ace up your sleeve if everyone can see it.”

“Why a nurse?” said Happy.

“Because JC likes the uniform,” said Kim.

“A conversation for another time,” JC said quickly. Happy sniggered.

“What are we going to do about these people following us?” asked Melody. “I don’t have my machine pistol; I knew they wouldn’t let me into the Boss’s office armed. But I do have a few others things of a generally destructive nature.”

“Never knew you when you didn’t,” Happy said kindly.

“I think we need to teach these people a lesson,” said JC. “Kim, be a dear and go do something seriously annoying to them.”

“Love to,” said Kim.

She disappeared from the passenger seat, without even a breath of moving air to mark her passing. There was a pause, and then a car some distance back suddenly veered all over the road. There was an angry sounding of horns, and much squealing of brakes, as the other traffic hurried to get out of the car’s way; and then it suddenly mounted the sidewalk and slammed into a shop-front. Men spilled out of the car and collapsed onto the pavement. Some of them were crying. Kim reappeared in the passenger seat, smiling smugly.

“I won’t ask,” said JC.

“Best not,” Kim agreed.

“Spooky . . .” said Happy.

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Sometime later, JC took a sharp left and brought the car to an abrupt halt half-way down a narrow side street. A tall, graffitied, brick wall loomed menacingly on one side, and the rear entrances of a row of ethnic restaurants slouched together on the other. JC turned the engine off. It was all very quiet, with lots of shadows and only a few people out and about, all of them carefully paying no attention to anything but their own business. JC turned around in his seat to look at Melody.

“I need something that will hide us from all forms of surveillance, and won’t in itself attract unwanted attention.”

“On it,” said Melody.

She produced several bits and pieces of intricate high tech from various pockets and set about assembling something. JC turned to Happy.

“How together are you? Are you feeling strong enough to cover us with a psychic shield, to hide us from the Institute’s telepaths?”

“I’m fine,” said Happy. “But the more I do for you, the sooner I’ll burn out again. So make the most of me while you’ve got me because it won’t last.”

“You keep saying that . . .” said JC.

“Because you keep not listening,” said Happy. “I’m a dead man walking, JC. Get used to it.”

“You don’t look like you’re dying,” said JC.

“Believe it,” said Happy. He concentrated, for a moment. “Yes, there . . . I can feel outside attention, like insects crawling all over me. There are eyes on us. Not properly targeted in yet but definitely looking.”

“Allbright,” said JC. “She doesn’t trust us.”

“Probably never had any friends at school,” Melody said wisely, not looking up from what she was doing.