Mortal Ghost (44 page)

‘I’ll get it, then we can eat,’ he said.

He snagged another piece of bacon, licked his fingers with a wink at Meg, and left the room, shutting the kitchen door behind him.

‘Come and sit down,’ Meg said. ‘It’s probably one of those interminable discussions with New York. Those people seem to keep hospital hours, they even work on Sundays.’

‘You don’t think it could be Jesse, do you?’ Sarah couldn’t stop herself from asking.

‘Not that line. Sarah, about Jesse, I hate to lecture you but—’

‘Then don’t!’ snapped Sarah, gesticulating and sloshing some of her coffee. She fetched a sponge from the sink. After mopping up the spill, Sarah opened the newspaper to the film reviews. Meg knew better than to sigh. A recent issue of the
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
on hand for such contingencies, she flipped to an article on antidepressant use among psychiatrists.

Both Sarah and Meg looked up from their reading when Finn returned. His face was grim and set, ashen. Meg moved quickly to his side and laid a hand on his arm.

‘What is it?’ she asked gently.

‘A fire,’ Finn said. He turned his eyes on Sarah, who rose abruptly, knocking over her chair, who wanted to look away but couldn’t. ‘A fire,’ he repeated. His words came to Sarah from a great distance. A rushing sound, the roar of a furnace door opening, of flames rising, swaying no she felt the hot wind tearing at her, tearing away her skin her flesh her . . . ‘Jesse,’ someone cried, and her mother was holding her and she was fighting her fighting to remain upright to remain conscious, she had to hear, to
know
 . . .

‘I need a cup of coffee,’ Finn said. He sat down stiffly, like an old man, and stared into the mug Meg placed before him on the table without drinking.

~~~

Ayen had spoken in a tight cracked voice, so different from her usual cultured vowels that he needed to ask twice who was ringing. At first Finn thought her angry, but soon realised that it was fear distorting her speech.

‘Is Jesse there?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he replied cautiously, ‘he’s gone out.’

‘Where was he last night?’

‘Ayen, just what is this about?’

‘The research complex.’ She took a deep breath which he could hear catching in her throat. ‘It burnt down about three a.m.’

‘A fire? How? You must have superb safety systems in place over there.’

‘We did.’

‘Look, maybe you’d best start at the beginning.’

‘Finn, it’s gone. Everything. Every last—’ She stopped, and Finn listened to the hiss while she got her voice under control again. ‘The alarms worked, and we were able to get everyone out in time. But then—it was as if a nuclear device went off. Total meltdown. I mean it when I say nothing’s left.
Nothing
. I’m not even sure a recovery team will be able to get inside. From what little we can tell, all the passages have collapsed and everything has fused.’

‘Jesus. I’m sorry to hear that. You must have records of your research elsewhere, though.’

‘Some, not much. But there are going to be problems, mammoth problems, until we find out what caused this.’

‘I can imagine. But why are you ringing me?’ He shifted the phone to his other ear. ‘And why are you asking about Jesse?’

‘He was here last night just before everything went haywire.’

‘
What?
’

‘You heard me.’

‘Impossible. How would he get there? He doesn’t have a clue where it is. Or did you send someone out for him?’ His voice hardened. ‘Without asking me?’

‘No.’

‘Then it’s impossible. It’s a high security installation. The highest.’

‘No longer. It’s a solid mass of melted plastic and twisted metal and rubble hardened to something like volcanic rock.’

‘OK. I get the picture. But why do you fancy Jesse was there?’

‘Because I saw him. Finn, I
saw
him in the room with the prototype just before the alarms went off. I was too shocked to react at first. And then everything went crazy. I ran to check the displays, and by the time I looked round, he was gone. Probably. At least I didn’t see him again.’

‘Are you sure? Absolutely sure? Maybe you—’

‘I did
not
imagine it. Don’t even suggest it,’ Ayen interrupted. ‘We’ve started something with that boy. You know it as well as I do. And now it’s—he’s—got out of control. And nobody will believe a word of it, will they?’

Finn closed his eyes for a moment. If Jesse had really been there . . . If he’d been caught in the explosion . . .

‘Finn? Are you still there?’

‘Yes.’ He cleared his throat. He mustn’t show her how seriously he took her account—how much it mattered. ‘Is there any chance Jesse didn’t escape?’

‘How the hell should I know?’ It was the first time he’d ever heard even a mild oath pass her lips. ‘I almost wish he hadn’t.’

‘Ayen! Get hold of yourself. How can you say such a thing? He’s just a boy, a young homeless kid.’

‘He’s no boy. Not any longer.’

Finn had no answer for her. Then he realised what she was in truth afraid of.

‘You reckon he did it, don’t you? Started the fire—or explosion or whatever it was?’

‘There’s no other possible explanation.’

‘Nonsense. Even if Jesse could’ve managed anything remotely like this sort of
incident
’
—
he was glad she couldn’t see
his face, he’d nearly said
friendly fire
, how he hated their bloody doublespeak, if anything had happened to Jesse he’d make sure Ayen saw some real friendly fire—‘there must be any number of parties who would be keen to disrupt the project. And you’re going to face some pretty rigorous investigation about risks, safety measures. I hope there’s nothing you’ve been keeping under wraps.’ Finn smiled, cold as he felt. They always had something they were hiding. ‘What about the prototype?’

‘Gone with all the rest. And that’s the one thing I’m almost certain we can’t rebuild, not easily, maybe not at all . . . at least not now. There was an element of luck, of chance about the whole thing.’

Good.

‘Before you start making any wild accusations about a kid, you’d better be prepared to answer a few perfectly reasonable questions, like why? why would Jesse want to destroy the computer?’ Finn knew the answer, or at least part of it, but he certainly wouldn’t help her out. ‘And even more interesting, how? They’re going to be asking, and soon. Crackpot theories about aliens or teenagers with superpowers don’t go over awfully well with government investigation committees. Especially coming from someone who might be delusional.’

‘Delusional? Finn, you can’t be serious! I tell you, he was there!’

‘Did anyone else see him?’

‘No.’

Even better.

‘What about your security cameras?’

‘At those temperatures?’

‘You can’t mean to tell me you didn’t have the data stored in a backup unit elsewhere?’

‘Extra security risk. We did our own backups right here on auxiliary storage devices. We didn’t anticipate the remotest necessity . . .’

Even better still.

‘Not good, Ayen. There are going to be some very uncomfortable questions about your procedures.’

‘Damn these bureaucrats. I’m not an office drone, for god’s sake. Finn, you
know
I’m not imagining this about Jesse. You saw for yourself what he did with the knife.’

‘Look, I’m just warning you to be prepared. It’s not me you’re going to have to convince. Something like an electrical fault would be a lot easier to swallow. And you know how they are about funding long shots.’

She was quiet for a moment. Finn knew that she was very ambitious. He tried to remember which women scientists since Marie Curie had won the Nobel Prize. There had been some, definitely, in medicine.

‘Finn, if he’s alive we’ve got to find him. Question him. And stop him somehow. We have no idea what he’s capable of.’

‘He hasn’t come back since yesterday evening. We’ve been worried sick about him.’ That, at least, was not far from what he was feeling. ‘There’s no reason for him not to come back unless . . .’ His voice trailed off. ‘Unless he was killed.’ His stomach twisted; he didn’t like using the word. It’s not that he was superstitious, not precisely . . .

‘Somebody should go through his stuff. Maybe we can find a clue to his whereabouts.’

‘Ayen, he
has
no stuff, except the few bits of clothing we’ve bought him. He was homeless, don’t you remember? I’ll have someone from my department go over his room, but I fear it won’t help you.’

‘
Have you uncovered anything at all about his background?’

‘Ayen, forget about Jesse. You’ve got bigger problems to worry about right now. Anyway, what can he do without your prototype? The computer was the key, wasn’t it?’

‘He got through the highest security we’ve been able to devise, hasn’t he?’

‘
Before
the prototype was destroyed. Maybe. You seem to think so. But don’t ever assume anything, that’s what this business has taught me. You only saw him for couple of seconds, at most.
If
you saw him. Maybe the computer was behind it, projecting an illusion at you—some kind of holographic image. It seemed to have some very interesting capabilities of its own.’

‘Yes . . . I suppose.’ Her voice was doubtful, but some of the tension had left it. She wanted to believe that she hadn’t unleashed a monster on the world, or at least on the remnants of her career. Finn just wanted to believe that Jesse was still alive. The rest could wait—together with Jesse he’d find a way to deal with it.

‘Look, Ayen, if he shows up here—and where else does he have to go?—I’ll make sure he stays put. But I expect you’ll find that, even if he’s alive, without the computer he’s nothing more than a bright kid, a bit more sensitive than most.’

‘A bit, you call it?’

‘That doesn’t make him Superman. Don’t forget that he’s been staying with us for a while now. My wife’s a psychiatrist. We would have noticed if something were amiss. He’s no mass murderer, that I can promise you, no psychotic. A perfectly normal teenager with a few paranormal gifts. And aren’t they supposed to fade after puberty?’

‘There’s no real evidence for that.’ But Ayen’s voice had lightened.

They exchanged another sentence or two before Ayen rang off. Finn dropped the phone with an unsteady hand. He’d put her off for now, but Ayen was too smart—and too thorough—to forget about Jesse entirely. Finn hoped he’d given her enough to worry about. If he’d only known what he was getting into when he’d first mentioned Jesse to her . . . He leaned his head on his hands and shut his eyes, trying to think. But all he could see was a scene from one of those disaster movies he’d watched on a recent flight, where a tidal wave of flame raced along a tunnel, consuming everything in its path. He shivered. It was cold in his office. He needed a cup of hot coffee, with plenty of sugar. He didn’t dare take a drink, much as he’d like one.

~~~

‘Tell me,’ Sarah said.

Finn looked up from his coffee.

‘Tell me,’ she repeated, her voice rising sharply.

Finn spread his hands in a gesture of defeat. He couldn’t do it. He glanced at Meg for help.

‘What’s happened, Finn?’ she asked calmly enough. ‘A fire, you said.’

The kitchen door swung open and Jesse walked in.

Finn half rose from his chair. ‘Where the fuck have you been?’ he bellowed.

Jesse took a step backwards. Finn’s face was rigid with anger—the kind of anger painted in lurid colours on a grotesque stage mask. And then Jesse saw it: something else flickered behind the eyeholes. Oh god, not that—not Finn.

Nubi barked.

They all jumped at the unexpected sound and turned towards the doorway. Nubi rushed at Jesse, prancing and springing up and making little yipping cries of joy. Jesse couldn’t help smiling, albeit unsteadily. Nubi was practically wriggling out of his coat from excitement. There was no welcome like a dog’s.

‘Down, Nubi,’ Jesse said, but fondled the dog’s head and scratched him behind the ears. It was easier than looking at Finn, and far easier than at Sarah.