Ghost of a Smile by Simon R. Green
“I know, I know, find a computer. Got one right here.”
“Then boot it up and get me some answers,” JC said brusquely. “In particular—why this whole floor feels so bad . . .”
Melody sat down before the computer, and it turned itself on before she could even touch it. She scowled at the glowing monitor for a moment, then stabbed at the keyboard. Files came and went on the screen. Melody sniffed loudly. “No firewalls, not even basic security protocols, just like before . . . Someone is definitely going out of their way to make this easy for me.” She glared up at the ceiling. “I do not need any help! I am a genius, dammit! I do not need my hand held!”
“Never mind the mysterious helper,” said JC. “What appalling and completely illegal things were these scientists up to?”
“It confirms what was in the papers I found,” said Melody. “None of the work on this floor had anything to do with ReSet. The work here was MSI’s original research, before the extra funding diverted them. The company kept this research going in the background, just in case . . . The scientists were trying to develop improved human organs, to be better than the originals. Organs that would be far more resistant to damage and could actually supercharge the human body.”
“I told you,” said Kim. “Monsters. They were making monsters here.”
“They were working with individual organs, not creating Frankenstein creatures,” Melody said dryly. “And according to this, they weren’t having much success. Stem cells to organs to superorgans—a lot can go wrong along the way. But something happened on this floor when the New People were created below. Strange energies were released. They sleeted through the whole building, changing everything they touched. It affected the organs being produced by the Bio Reactor. It made things. New things. The scientists took one look and ran screaming.”
“Took one look at what?” said Happy.
“I don’t know,” said Melody. “But I’m pretty sure whatever these things were, they’re still here.”
She shut down the computer and stood up abruptly, glaring about her. The others huddled together unconsciously, checking out every possible hiding place with a hard look, and still they couldn’t see anything. The atmosphere had moved beyond tense to actually oppressive. They all felt like they were being watched, studied, by cold, unseen eyes. Happy sniffed the air.
“Is it only me, or can you smell something?”
“Yes,” said JC. “A ripe, spoiled sort of smell. Meat that’s gone off. Blood, too. Other things of that nature, none of them good.”
“It’s getting stronger,” said Happy. “It’s leaving a really nasty taste in the back of my mouth.”
“Hush,” said Melody. “I can hear something . . .”
They all stood very still, straining their ears against the
quiet, and slowly they began to hear soft, approaching sounds. Dragging sounds, of something heavy hauling itself along the floor, through sheer will-power. Wet, slapping sounds, slipping and sliding, coming from a dozen different directions at once.
“Oh no,” said Happy. “I know it’s going to be some horrible human shape of patched-together organs, probably all red and blobby with no proper exterior, so you can see things moving inside, with dozens of eyes bobbing about at the top. Dripping blood and bile and leaving a smoking trail of acid behind it . . .”
He stopped as he realised they were all looking at him.
“You’ve been watching those Japanese manga movies again, haven’t you?” said JC.
Happy wrapped his dignity around him, and stared back. “Legend of the Overfiend is a classic! Though it does practically define the phrase guilty pleasure.”
“Take a few of your little chemical helpers, and get yourself together,” said JC. “You’re no use to me if you can’t keep your head in the game.”
“I am trying to cope without them,” said Happy. “Ever since my piss started turning funny colours. Better living through chemistry is all very well, but in practice it doesn’t half take it out on your liver.”
“And because you can’t get it up when you’re trashed,” said Melody.
“Why do you keep putting mental images into my head that I know I’m going to have to scour out with wire wool?” said JC.
“Heh-heh,” said Melody.
Kim drifted in beside her. “Maybe we should make time for some girlie talk, later,” she said. “It’s not easy having a love life when you’re dead.”
They all looked round sharply. The heavy, dragging sounds were definitely closer. Wet, slippery sounds accompanied them, sounds that grated on the nerves and upset the stomach. All of them heading straight for the group, with definite purpose.
“I suppose a big transplant Frankenstein thing isn’t entirely out of the question,” said Melody. “But the noises don’t seem right for that.”
“Definitely organic,” said Kim. “And kind of squishy.”
“They were only developing organs,” JC said firmly. “Not building actual people.”
“Who knows what happened after the new energies changed things?” said Melody.
“Hell with this,” JC said briskly. “I’m not built for standing around and waiting.”
He strode down the long, open floor, towards the sounds. It took him a while to realise that none of the others were following him. Not even Kim. JC stopped and looked back.
“Oh come on! This is definitely time for Go team go!”
“Not even for a substantial raise and a stretch limo all my own,” said Happy. “I know my limitations. And they very definitely include squishy things.”
“Right,” said Melody. “I have a really bad feeling about this. I say we skip this floor and go straight up to face the New People. I could cope with New People. Strange, invisible, squishy things is something else entirely.”
“What is the matter with you people?” said JC. “Big Black Dogges with mouthfuls of huge jaggedy teeth didn’t even slow you down!”
“Don’t like strange squelchy things,” Kim said firmly. “Especially ones I can’t see.”
“Right,” said Happy.
“Damn right,” said Melody.
JC looked round suddenly. Something was moving about very near him. He spun round and round, glaring in every direction, and then, finally, he looked down. And said, “Oh shit.”
“What?” said Happy. “What?”
But JC was already sprinting back to join the group. He stumbled to a halt before them and put a hand on Melody’s and Happy’s shoulders to support himself while he got his breath back. His face was slack with shock. The others stared wildly back to where he’d been, but they still couldn’t see anything.
“Damn, JC,” said Melody. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you move that fast before.”
“Should we be leaving?” said Happy, practical as ever.
“JC, talk to me, sweetie,” said Kim. “What was it? What did you see?”
“Should we be running?” said Happy. “JC, what did you see?”
“They’re coming,” said JC.
“What’s coming?” said Melody.
“We were looking in the wrong places,” said JC, straightening up and regaining his composure. He glared back the way he’d come. “We should have been looking down. At the floor.”
He pointed, and they all looked, just in time to see the first attackers hump and slide into view. The things were crawling across the floor, humping along like massively oversized worms or slugs, leaving long smeared trails of blood and filth and steaming acid behind them. They were red and purple and black, lumpy and distorted, though their basic shapes were still recognisable—and they were all much larger than they should have been. More of them came crawling across the walls, leaving streaky viscous trails behind them, and even more hung from the ceiling. Hundreds of modified, improved, augmented human organs, made strong and self-sufficient by the Bio Reactor and unknown energies, set loose to move independently, with implacable progress and intent.
Th
“You have got to be fucking kidding,” said Melody.
“Oh, that is gross,” said Happy. “Seriously gross, with a whole side order of disgusting. Human insides should stay on the inside, where they belong. But they’re still an improvement on the Frankenstein blobby thing I was expecting, I suppose. I mean, those things are wrong, on so many levels, but they’re not exactly dangerous, are they? Just big lumps of meat, humping across the floor. What are they going to do—hump our legs to death?”
“You don’t get it,” said JC. “When you’re up close like I was, you can sense what they’re thinking, what they want. Though it’s not so much thought—it’s more like brute, basic instinct, turned up to eleven. They want something from us . . .”
“What?” said Melody. “What does a living organ want?”
“They know they can’t survive for long like this,” said JC. “They were built to survive, but they’re not self-sufficient. So they want in, where it’s safe. Don’t you get it? They want to get inside us!”
“I am leaving now,” said Happy. “Women and children should try and keep up.”
“Too late,” said Kim.
They all looked at her, and she pointed behind them. While they’d been discussing the situation, the living organs had quietly surrounded them. They were crawling across the walls and the windows, and hanging from the ceiling, and rows of the red and purple things had moved to block the way back to the exit doors. And all of them were slowly closing in on the group, with blind, unstoppable purpose.
“Now can I use my machine pistol?” said Melody.
“Be my guest,” said JC. “Go for it.”
The machine pistol was already in Melody’s hand. She smiled tightly as she opened fire on the living organs. Hearts and livers the size of heads exploded messily, spattering the surrounding organs with rich red blood. The membranous surfaces drank it all up thirstily. Melody raked her gun back and forth, blasting away organ after organ; and then she ran out of bullets. She looked at the gun and shook it angrily, like that might help. She swore briefly and looked at the others.
“You have used up a lot of ammo recently,” said Happy. “Dare I inquire whether you have any more? Only I think we really should—Oh shit!”
“Don’t let it touch you!” yelled Kim, as Happy retreated quickly from a rapidly pulsing heart. “It could be really bad if it touches you!”
“Blunt-instrument time, people!” said JC, grabbing up a very large, very heavy microscope from a nearby table. The others quickly armed themselves with similar items, except for Kim, who drew up her legs and hovered, sitting in mid air. The living organs hunched up and launched themselves through the air at their targets. They flew at impossible speed, on the unseen wings of unknown energies. JC lashed out with his improvised weapon and caught a pulsating heart in mid air. His hands and arms vibrated painfully from the impact. It was like striking something really hard and solid, and he remembered that a heart is basically one big muscle. But the sheer impact smashed the oversized organ apart, scattering bloody pieces like a rain of offal. More organs launched themselves, and the group stood together, guarding each other’s backs, lashing out with their blunt instruments, sending blood and bloody pieces flying through the air every time they connected. It was hard work, every impact shaking the group to their bones, and they were soon sweating profusely and gasping for breath. And still the living organs came, driven by brute basic instinct to get back where they belonged, inside a human body. Happy cried out with disgust every time he hit something, and Kim moaned in terror as the things drew steadily closer.
An oversized liver, dark purple like a veined balloon, shot straight for Melody’s face. It came at her from an unexpected angle, and she only got an arm up in time to block it. The heavy organ clamped onto her arm, wrapping around it, and the sheer weight was almost enough to pull her over. The heavy muscles in the liver ground against her arm, trying to crawl up the arm to reach her face, her mouth. Melody dropped her weapon and grabbed at the organ with her hand. Her fingers skidded helplessly from the tough, leathery exterior. Secreted acids stung her palm and fingers.
“Don’t let it near your mouth!” yelled Kim. “It wants to crawl inside you!”
“I know!” yelled Melody.
She stopped grabbing at the liver, pulled back her head, and head-butted the ugly thing. The impact sent her staggering backwards, but the liver lost its grip on her arm and fell away. It hit the floor hard but didn’t break. Melody picked up the nearest chair and clubbed the organ to death.
Happy tried to stop the advancing organs with a telepathic blast, summoning all his mental strength to force an attack past the deadening oppression that weighed on his mind, but even his concentrated disbelief couldn’t affect things that had no minds, no sense of self, only the brute will to survive. A heart the size of a pit bull terrier came flying in out of nowhere and slammed against his chest, driving him back several steps. It clung to him, pulsing in rhythm to his own heart, sweating heavy acids as it tried to burn its way through his chest, to burn out his heart and replace it. Happy didn’t know whether he’d survive such a process and didn’t want to find out the hard way. The heart snuggled against his chest with horrid familiarity. It wanted in. It wanted to be in him. Happy tried to pry the thing loose, crying out with horror and disgust.
Kim floated this way and that, her face screwed up with indecision, not knowing what to do for the best. JC seemed to be holding his own, and Melody was doing bloody business with her chair. Happy seemed to be the most in trouble, so she dropped her feet to the floor again, strode forward, and grabbed at the heart on Happy’s chest with her ghostly hands. Her fingers plunged deep inside, and the huge heart convulsed, turned grey, withered, and fell away. It was dead before it hit the floor. Happy clawed at his acid-holed shirt with both hands, making mindless noises of distress.
“That’s it!” said JC. “They can’t stand contact with you, Kim! Because you’re dead, because the energies that manifest you clash with the energies that motivate them . . . Something like that. I don’t know! Maybe you just scare them to death! Everyone crowd around Kim!”
He and Happy and Melody formed a tight circle around Kim. The living organs surrounded them, but stopped dead when they got too close, as though there was some invisible barrier they couldn’t cross. They obviously couldn’t stand to get too close to the dead girl.
“All right,” said Melody. “Now what? They can’t get to us, but we still appear to be trapped.”
“I’m thinking,” said JC.
“Think faster!” said Happy.
“The Bio Reactor!” said JC. “All of these things were born of the Bio Reactor, which I’m guessing is tucked away behind that far partition. Happy, can you see any connection between the living organs and the Reactor?”
“Yes . . . something!” said Happy. “Don’t ask me what it is, but it’s there!”
“Kim, head straight for it,” said JC. “Walk slowly and carefully, and we’ll all stick close to you.”
“Very close,” said Happy.
Kim stepped forward, and the others moved with her. The organs fell back, as though panicked by something they couldn’t stand or understand. Kim and JC, Happy and Melody made their way down the long length of the open-plan floor, and the organs moved along with them, still surrounding them but maintaining a more-than-respectful distance. A few let go of the ceiling overhead and dropped on the group, but JC and Melody were always ready to beat them aside. Happy would have, too, but he was so completely unsettled, he was never ready in time. He
They finally eased past the partition wall, and there was the Bio Reactor, waiting for them. It didn’t look like much—a great metal kiln some ten feet tall, its top brushing against the ceiling tiles, maybe eight feet wide around the base. A single hatch faced them, closed, with a wild flaring light rising and falling behind it. The glowing hatch glared at them all like a single unblinking eye.
“I’m still not picking up a single intelligent thought,” said Happy, his voice definitely a little higher than it should have been. “But I am getting a sense of presence . . . From the Bio Reactor, not the organs. It knows we’re here. It knows we’re the enemy. It’s planning something . . .”
The metal hatch slammed open, and a huge leathery tentacle shot out. It was made up of organ and muscle tissue, bonded together, to make a single gripping organism. It lunged at the group, and they scattered despite themselves. Kim cried out as she was left alone, and the tentacle shot straight at her. It whipped right through her, and immediately the whole tentacle withered and shrivelled up, all the life going out of it as it fell limply to the floor.
“That’s it!” said JC. “Kim, walk right into the Bio Reactor! All the way in and out the other side!”
He stepped forward to encourage her, and the tentacle came to life again. It still had one end inside the Bio Reactor, and new life pulsed down the length of it. It snapped around JC and pulled him down. He cried out as the muscle tissue constricted around him like a snake. Melody and Happy rushed forward, grabbed at the tentacle and tried to pry it off, but it was stronger than all three of them put together. Kim hesitated, and JC yelled at her.
“Never mind me! Walk through the Reactor! It can’t hurt you!”
“I can’t leave you!” said Kim.
“You have to! Now move! Move!”
Kim ran forward, plunging through the open hatch and inside the Bio Reactor. The moment she entered the huge device, the fierce light snapped off, and the tentacle dropped down, dead. JC wriggled his way out of its grasp with help from Happy and Melody. They put him back on his feet and let him lean inconspicuously on them until his legs were firm again. Kim came out from behind the lifeless machine and floated back to glare at JC.