Ghost of a Smile by Simon R. Green Read Free Book Online Page B

dark shapes moved in. He held his hands out to them and spoke in a calm, reasonable voice.
    â€œIn the name of the Clear White Light,” he said, “be at peace. Whatever you are, whoever you are, be at peace and at rest. There is nothing here to alarm you, nothing here to threaten you. We are all of us people of goodwill. We want only to help. We can help you find rest, show you the path to the better place that is waiting for all of us. Come to me. Listen to me. The Clear White Light is everywhere. You only have to open yourself to it, and it will embrace you. You don’t have to stay here. There is a better place . . .”
    He broke off. Several of the dark shapes were very close by then. There was power in them, and a remorseless savagery. Rage, hunger, violence beat on the air. Flashes of long, curved claws and sharp, vicious teeth. Eyes that glared with pure spite and hate. And all of them closing in on him. He tried to speak the words of help and comfort, but they wouldn’t come. He could feel his old heart hammering painfully in his chest. Not now, you old fool, he thought. This would be a really stupid way to die.
    JC moved swiftly forward, his bright white suit shining in the gloom, his eyes like spotlights. He put himself between Tiley and the nearest dark shapes, and as he glared about him, they all fell back, reluctant to face the light blazing from his eyes.
    The shapes paused briefly, then snapped suddenly into focus as their forms finally clarified. They were all big Black Dogges, dozens of them, huge and lean and muscular, their dark bodies a good five feet and more at the shoulder. They looked like dogs but moved like wolves, with supernatural speed and grace and awful power. They padded across the open factory floor, blood-red eyes glowing fiercely, heavy claws digging deep grooves in the concrete floor. When they snarled, they showed huge mouths packed with vicious teeth. These were not creatures of the wild; they were unnatural things, from some unimaginable Past, summoned forward into the Present and shaped into the Black Dogges of legend.
    â€œI’ve never liked dogs,” said Happy.
    â€œIt’s the old stories, come to life,” said Tiley. “Only with more teeth and claws than I’d imagined . . .”
    â€œBig, pointy teeth,” said Happy. “Really big, pointy teeth. Anyone got a ball to throw?”
    â€œNo-one move,” said JC, his voice carefully calm and easy. “Everyone watch everyone else’s back.”
    â€œThe stories say, to see the Black Dogge means you’re going to die,” said Tiley.
    â€œNot on my watch,” said JC. “Sometimes, stories are only stories. Happy, concentrate on finding out what they want. Melody, I need more information on what these things are when they’re not being Black Dogges. And Kim . . . You can See things that are hidden from the living. Hidden even from my eyes. Try and find the ghost of the man who was killed here and started all this, Albert Winter.”
    â€œThey’re definitely not dogs,” said Happy, sounding almost surprised. “Not even a little bit doggy. Whoever summoned them up imposed the shape of the Black Dogges on them, to better control them. I don’t know what they were before. Melody?”
    â€œDeep Time, definitely Pre-human,” said Melody. “You wouldn’t believe the tachyon discharges I’m picking up. Whatever they are, they’re from so far in the Past, I don’t think they even exist any more. I think . . . they’re trapped here.”
    â€œI’ve found the ghost of Albert Winter,” said Kim. “He just appeared, along with the Dogges. Am I to take it that the theory of death by manifesting machines has been officially overturned?”
    â€œIt’s the Dogges,” said JC. “When in doubt, always go for the killer dogs with the huge claws and jaggedy teeth. Try and bring the ghost into focus,