Forces from Beyond (33 page)

“It’s time,” said Katt. “I feel it is my duty to ask. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“No,” said JC. “But it’s the job. Besides, after everything we’ve already been through on this ship, we might actually be safer at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Don’t stay down there one minute longer than you absolutely have to,” said Katt.

“Damn right,” said JC.

Chang beamed at them all. “Such an exciting adventure! The things you’re going to see . . . I wish I was going with you!”

“No you don’t,” said Happy.

Chang rounded on him. “Stay out of my head!”

“I wouldn’t go in there on a bet,” Happy said loftily. “When did you last have it cleaned?”

Chang deliberately turned her back on him, to give JC her full attention and her biggest smile. “Do find a way for us to kill the Flesh Undying, darling. I would love to have a kill that big on my résumé.”

“And, you’ll have helped save the world,” said JC. “Probably a first for the Crowley Project.”

Chang pouted. “You’re forgetting; I helped you stop Fenris Tenebrae, down in the London Underground.”

“You were there,” said Melody. “But I don’t remember your actually contributing much. We did all the heavy lifting.”

“Speaking of which,” Chang said brightly, ignoring Melody so she could concentrate on JC, “isn’t it time you were loading yourselves into the big, round suicide machine?”

“It is time,” said Katt. “We have to do this. Now.”

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JC and Happy and Melody gathered together in front of the small circular air-lock that was the only entrance to the bathysphere. They looked at each other, more than ready to let someone else go first, and in the end JC took the lead. Because in any dangerous situation, he always liked to be first on the scene. If only so he got to be the first to kick the bad guy in the nads, metaphorically speaking. He stepped up onto the rough wooden platform provided, ducked his head more than was comfortable, and squeezed through the opening.

Inside, the sphere was seriously short of open space. It had been packed full of bulky scientific equipment, piled almost to the curving ceiling. Just enough room had been left in the middle for three chairs. JC stepped over and around various pieces of high tech, chose a chair, and sat down. It seemed to fit him well enough. He started to stretch his legs, then had to stop as he discovered there wasn’t enough room. Melody looked in through the air-lock, with Happy peering over her shoulder.

“What’s it like in there?” said Melody.

“The belly of the whale,” said JC. “After a really big dinner.”

“Think I’ll go for a little walk,” said Happy.

Melody took a firm hold on his arm and bundled him inside, with minimum violence. And then she entered quickly behind him, so he had no room to retreat. Happy struggled past the piled-up equipment, sniffing loudly.

“If they’ve got all this, what do they need us for?”

“In case it all goes wrong,” said JC. “We have no way of knowing what might happen once we get close to the living mountain.”

“Let me out of here, right now,” said Happy. “There aren’t enough drugs in the world to make this seem like a good idea.”

“Sit down and shut up,” said Melody. “You volunteered for this.”

Happy looked at her. “I did? When?”

“When I told you to,” said Melody.

“Oh, well, that’s all right then,” said Happy. He sat down.

Melody looked over the various equipment, taking her time. She didn’t appear particularly impressed.

“Recognise anything?” said JC.

“Most of it,” said Melody. “It’s all top of the range, state-of-the-art, and all that . . . Remind me to steal some of it later. We should be able to discover a lot about the true nature of the Flesh Undying with sensors this powerful.”

“But?” said JC. “I take it there is a but?”

“But . . .” said Melody, “Everything here was designed to probe and investigate the natural world. The Flesh is something else entirely.”

“We have to try,” said JC.

“Yes,” said Melody. “We do.” She sat down in the remaining chair.

They sat quietly for a while, listening to the crew bustling around outside. JC fidgeted. He would have liked to be doing something, but there was nothing for him to do.

“It smells in here,” said Happy.

“That’s you,” said Melody.

“Oh yes,” said Happy. “So it is. Sorry about that, people. It’s just the chemicals leaking out through my perspiration. And other things.”

“Where’s Kim?” said Melody. “Isn’t she making the journey with us?”

“I’m right here,” said Kim’s voice, apparently out of nowhere. “I’m with you in spirit. Like Happy, I think it best I conceal my presence from the Flesh Undying. So I’ve reduced myself to the barest essentials, hardly pressing down on the world at all. Besides, it’s cramped enough in here as it is without me floating around.”

“Why not hide inside JC again?” said Melody.

“Because that generates power,” said Kim. “Real power. The Flesh Undying couldn’t help but notice.”

The three Ghost Finders sat in their chairs, keeping their hands and feet to themselves for fear of bumping something. There wasn’t room to get up and move about, so they just leaned this way and that and craned their heads back, to get a good look at everything. The ship’s light spilled in through two small port-holes on opposite sides of the bathysphere, pushing back the sphere’s dim and almost cosy glow. It only possessed one small light, set into the curving ceiling, but various pieces of equipment flickered with glowing readouts, along with several small monitor screens. More tech had been layered over the interior walls and ceiling, like silicon coral.

Captain Katt stuck his head in through the air-lock, careful not to disturb his peaked cap. He looked the equipment over carefully and only then nodded to the Ghost Finders.

“We’re ready to go. Last chance to change your minds.”

“Oh good!” said Happy. He started to get up. Melody grabbed his arm and slammed him back into his chair.

“You’re staying!”

Happy looked at Katt. “I’m staying.”

“Send us down, Captain,” said JC.

“Good luck,” said Katt. “Guard the equipment, and try not to get yourselves killed.”

He pulled back, and the air-lock closed. The sound of the heavy door slamming into position and locking sounded very final. The bathysphere rocked from side to side as it was jerked up into the air. JC grabbed onto the arms of his chair and swallowed hard. It felt like someone had just kicked the world out from under his feet. There was the sound of rattling cables and straining machinery, as the sphere was winched up. JC breathed steadily, calming himself. Kim murmured softly in his ear.

“I’m here, JC. I’m always here, with you.”

They all hung on tightly, as the bathysphere was put out over the side of the ship and lowered toward the water. Light coming through the port-holes was cut off, replaced by night sky. The sphere swung slowly back and forth, offering brief glimpses of the
Moonchilde
. And then even that disappeared as the bathysphere plunged down into the ocean. All outside light was gone, replaced by complete darkness . . . the only sounds quiet murmurings from various piece of equipment. One monitor screen blazed brightly. JC looked at Melody.

“Is it supposed to be doing that?”

“Probably,” said Melody.

“Are we nearly there yet?” said Happy.

And down they went, into the dark, and the deepest part of the world.

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For a long time, the three of them just sat patiently, waiting for something to happen. The sphere tilted slightly from side to side as it descended, but apart from that, there was nothing to tell them they were moving. No sense of progress, of getting anywhere. Just darkness without and flickering lights within. JC felt hot, then cold, and hoped it was all in his mind. Melody leaned forward in her chair to study the instruments before her and finally got up to lean over the monitor screens. She fiddled with the controls, muttering to herself.

“They said not to touch anything!” said JC, just a bit urgently.

“I know,” said Melody, not looking round from what she was doing. “I was there, I heard them. When has that ever stopped me? Okay . . . I’ve transferred the input from the short-range sensors to these monitor screens. So we’ll have some idea of what’s happening outside. It won’t interfere with reception topside.”

She sank back into her chair, and they all stared fixedly at the monitor screens. They showed nothing but the dark.

“That’s it?” said Happy.

“No light in the ocean this far down, remember?” said Melody.

“Then what’s the point of the screens?” said JC.

“To make us feel better,” said Melody.

“Not really working,” said Happy.

“There’s no telling what local conditions will be like, once we get up close and personal with the Flesh Undying,” Melody said patiently. “Or what kind of phenomena we’re going to encounter. We might be alone down there; and we might not. Any advance warning has got to be a good thing . . . Assuming this shit works.”

“Really not feeling better at all,” said Happy.

They sat together in the limited light of the sphere’s interior, which felt less cosy and more oppressive the deeper they went. There was a growing feeling of having left the world behind, of moving into unknown and unfriendly territory. The sphere’s outer shell made slow, creaking sounds, and JC flinched a little every time. He was pretty sure it was just the metal layers adjusting to the changing pressure, but that didn’t help. He didn’t like to think about what was going on outside the sphere, about the steadily increasing tons of pressure per square inch, and how it would crush the sphere’s contents to the size of a walnut if anything went wrong. He looked at Happy. Sweat was coursing down the telepath’s face, his eyes squeezed tightly shut as he struggled to keep everything out. JC hoped that was working. He looked at Melody, focusing all her attention on the monitor screens before her. JC wanted to ask if the information scrolling across the bottom of the screens meant anything important, but didn’t like to. He just knew he wouldn’t understand the answers.

Down and down they went, into the endless night of the world, until JC lost all track of how far they’d come. He wondered if someone on the
Moonchilde
should have talked to them by now, just to make sure they were all right, and only then remembered that communications were supposed to be limited to emergencies. He really should have asked someone how long the descent would take, or at the very least insisted on some kind of depth-gauge. But everything had happened in such a hurry . . . One of the machines made a sudden pinging noise.

“What?” JC said immediately. “What was that?”

“Calm down,” said Melody, still intent on the screens. “It’s just the sonar. It’s picking up movement in the vicinity of the sphere.”

“Something’s alive out there?” said JC.

“Could be,” said Melody. “Happy, can you . . . ?”

“Don’t ask me,” said the telepath, not opening his eyes. “I’m shut down.”

“You can look out a port-hole, can’t you?” said Melody.

Happy reluctantly opened his eyes and got up out of his chair. He stepped over and around piled-up equipment to get to the nearest port-hole and pressed his face up against the reinforced glass.

“Well?” said JC.

“Can’t see a damned thing,” said Happy. “Just the dark. It’s like night down here, but a night that never knew a moon or any stars . . .”

The sonar made new sounds, louder and more urgent, then closer and closer together.

“That’s not good, is it?” said JC.

“Sonar is picking up multiple signals,” said Melody, frowning. “Seems like our arrival is attracting a crowd.”

“How many?” said JC.

“Lots,” said Melody. “Apparently from all directions.”

Happy made a sudden, shocked noise, and jerked his face back from the port-hole. “We are definitely not alone down here, people! The welcoming committee is here, and I want to go back up again, right now.”

JC got up out of his chair and struggled over to the other port-hole. And from out of the endless dark, strange, living things came surging forward to stare at him. Weird, distorted shapes, glowing with their own light, came swarming all around the bathysphere. They had eyes and teeth and some things that made no sense at all.

“Talk to me, JC,” said Melody. “What are you seeing?”

“Nothing I can put a name to,” JC said steadily. “And I have seen some pretty odd things on deep-water documentaries. These shapes don’t make any sense . . . It’s like somebody crammed a dozen different species into a blender and hit shuffle. They’re more like . . . dreams and fancies, given shape and form.”

He couldn’t look away, fascinated by the lengths life could go to, away from the normal restrictions of light and warmth and gravity. Impossibly long eels, with forests of trailing tentacles. Huge squid with massive, unblinking eyes and bodies like exploded flowers. Many-legged things that seemed to scull through the water, so transparent JC could see their inner organs pulsing. Some were the size of goldfish, others looked big enough to swallow the bathysphere whole. None of them seemed to want to get too close to the sphere or interfere with its descent. They were just . . . interested. They circled around and around, as though curious at this strange intruder from above, dropping down into their world.

“These things are seriously ugly,” said JC after a while. “I’m surprised simple probability hasn’t produced something more . . . aesthetically pleasing.”

“Hush,” said Happy. “They might read lips.”

JC pulled his face back from the port-hole. “I can honestly say that never even occurred to me.”

“I’m chemically altered, not stupid,” said Happy.

“It is amazing, what the ocean depths can produce in the way of new life,” said JC.

“No,” said Happy. “There’s nothing natural about these creatures. You were right the first time—they were made like this. Separated parts of the Flesh Undying, operating as drones, on sentry duty.”

JC looked back at Happy. The telepath was staring out his port-hole at the weird creatures with a calm, thoughtful expression. Without glancing back at JC, Happy smiled briefly.