Unholy Ghosts - Stacia Kane 5 стр.

The sound of Terribles hard palm striking the boys peaky face seemed impossibly loud. Chess stepped forward, her hand out, before she remembered. Lots of gangs used kids to do their dirty work. Just because the boy said he was innocent didnt mean he was.

You tell me, or you get worse.

The boy rolled his eyes at Chess again, then looked down. I heard there was ghosts. Wanted to see me one.

Who told you?

Nobody.

Another slap. Chess refused to watch.

Okay, okay. I tell you. It were Hunchback, you know him? From Eighty-third. Say he heard from somebody else, who was told by somebody else, that if you comes here some nights, you see them. The ghost planes, right? I came to see, thats all.

Terrible considered this for a minute. What Hunchback look like?

Small guy, dig? With a limp. Crazy eyes and no hair. He call me Brain. Said I got one in my head.

You dont, you come playing here, Terrible replied, but he let go of the boy. The marks made by his meaty palms were fading. No place for kids here.

I come here allI sorry. I just wanted to see me some ghosts, is all.

You here before? You see others here?

No, I never did. Just me. My friend Pat. We come, but we aint seen planes yet. You gonna see them, you here for them?

Here on business. Terrible glanced up, saw Chess watching. She dug her notebook out of her bag and flipped to a fresh page. Hunchback. If he was spreading rumors about the ghost planes, he was as good a place as any to start asking questions.

Terrible must have thought the same thing. He folded his arms across his chest. Go now. No ghosts tonight.

Brain had one leg over the edge of the hole Terrible had made in the wall when Chesss skin blazed with heat, her tattoos practically tearing themselves from her flesh. At the same time the Spectrometer made a long, solid yowling beep, every light on it turning bright red, casting an eerie glow against the damaged walls for a split second before the room lit up like day and the roar of an airplane directly overhead made Chess dive down to the filthy floor.

Chapter Four

It went on forever, the waiting to die, while her heart beat triple-time in her chest and Brains thin, high scream hit her ears, barely audible over the noise. It was coming, it was coming to smash into them all and destroy them in a quick flash of rocket fuel and smoke. She tried to scramble out of the way but there was no way to get out of. The lights didnt dim or change direction, and she had somehow managed to fall against the only unbroken section of wall in the ramshackle place. She wrapped her arms around her head, knowing it wouldnt make one damn bit of difference.

Wood exploded next to her, splinters catching her cheek and bare arms. She tried to duck away from it but something grabbed her arm, something hard and hot, ripping her through the wall.

Terrible. He dragged her through the hole hed punched in the rotted wood and out of the building, to her feet, and as she stood she realized the noise had stopped. There were no lights. There was nothing but Brains panting sobs and the terrible rushing emptiness filling her ears.

Her body felt like rubber as she tried to stand but fell again. Terribles arm wrapped around her chest, just below her breasts, and pressed her to his side.

Nothing here, Chess, nothing here. She didnt know how many times he said it before it finally sank in, before the queasy vibrating stopped in her legs and she could raise her head and look at him.

Thought you was good with the spook stuff, he said. You look like some dead.

And you look like Elvis vomited you up, she managed. So?

Hinges creaked in her ears again as he laughed. So we both looking bad, guesses. But I do always, and you do never. You right now?

Yeah, yeah, Im right. Come on. Show me around outside here.

You little machine made the beeps, before the noise started.

Its a Spectrometer. It measures disturbances in the metaphysical planeghosts exude metaenergy and leave trails of it behind.

His jutting brow furrowed. So

Woo-hoo! Brains cry split the darkness and made Chess jump back against Terrible. The Nips were making her too jumpy, with all the extra adrenaline. She needed to finish this up and take something to come down.

I seen it! I seen a ghost! Waitll I say! They all listen now, they all lis The words turned into a queer gurgle when Terribles hand closed around his throat again.

You say nothing, young one. You say to nobody, dig?

Brain nodded.

Terrible let go. Aint no haunts here. We find whos pulling tricks, we kill them. You dont spread no stories, or I come get you and make sure you dont. Or worse. He turned and gestured toward Chess. You know she, right?

I never seen

You seen her skin, young one, you know she is. You want her after you? She help me find you, but maybe I let her take care of your mouth.

Chess took a step forward, wanting to say something, but nothing came out. This wasnt her business, this was street business, Bumps business, and interference would be unhealthy.

Besides, the last thing any of them needed was for her involvement in the affair to become common knowledge. The Church might look the other way about a lot of things, but using their equipment and her abilities to aid drug traffickers probably wouldnt get her any commendations.

So she just watched while Brain nodded, his wide eyes gleaming white in the darkness, and Terrible dismissed him with a jerk of the head. The boy ran away in a tiny spray of gravel.

Right, Terrible said, turning back to her. Lets finish this up, go home.

The rest of the airport consisted mostly of scrub grass and broken cement. They wandered the perimeter, the breeze cool on her fevered body, but she didnt find anything. No transmitters, no interrupters, no projectors or even electromagnets. Nothing indicated the airport wasnt genuinely haunted.

And her skin, her own powers, clearly indicated it was, even without the Spectrometers sudden violent awakening. But why had it hit her so hard and so suddenly, when the apparition was right on top of them? She should have felt something before that, shivers of warmth, goose-bumps, anything.

Unless that speed was doing more than crazying her up. Her Cepts didnt really interfere with her abilities, at least not in normal doses, but she didnt do speed very often, especially not while working.

It was odd that her Spectrometer hadnt so much as beeped before redlining, but that was easier to explain. Someone could have sent a blast of magical energy to it at the same time as they switched on whatever powered the lights and transmitted the sound; there were lots of illegal gadgets that fucked with Spectrometers, which was why they were simply tools for detection used in addition to the Debunkerss personal powers.

Hell, if the gadget and the sound-and-light set was portable enough and whoever ran it was fast enough, they could have ducked through the fence and been gone before Terrible pulled her out of the building.

Either way, one of the first things shed learned in her training was never to assume anything, and to keep investigating until an undeniable conclusion had been reached. Which meant, damn it, this was going to take a lot longer than shed originally thought.

She was still ruminating on it when they reached the far end of the field. The remains of the building were little more than a shadow when viewed from here, and the grass brushed against her thighs.

Terrible plodded along ahead of her. His tall broad frame parting the weeds sounded like death whispers in the still night, like a predator sliding over the plains.

She took another step, and stopped short. Power shot up her leg, curled over her skin. Something had happened here, a rituala sacrifice, even. Something that cooled her blood and made her wish desperately that she was back home in bed.

Whats troubling, Chess? Why you so white?

She shook her head. It was trying to talk to her, to tell her somethingshe just didnt know what. She couldnt hear it, it was trapped in the whispers, all the voices crowding together in her head.

Her skin crawled as dark energy skimmed over her tattoos. It took everything she had to step back, not to crouch down and listen, to put both feet inside the circle and let the darkness take her where it wanted to go.

Somebodys been doing magic here, she whispered, then, feeling a little foolish, she said it again louder. Forbidden magic.

Like raising ghosts?

Maybe. I dont know.

She took a step to the right, placing her foot carefully, trying to feel the edge of the circle as best as she could. She did not want to walk into it again. At least, most of her didnt.

The breeze picked up, lifting her hair and cooling the back of her sweaty neck. It wasnt old, the spell. A month, six weeks at the most, but probably more recent. She couldnt imagine how much power there must have been here while it was being cast. The kind of power that required either a very experienced, very powerful sorcerer, or a very innocent victim. Or both.

Either way, it wasnt anything she wanted to be around anymore.

Three more careful steps gave her a good idea of how wide the circle was. Nine feet, big enough for several people.

Terrible started toward her, but she put her hand out. Dont. You dont want to chance stepping into it. You still got that flashlight?

He stopped and held it out to her, waiting patiently like a faithful dog while she examined the ground as much as she could from outside the perimeter. The prior weeks rain, if not the general passage of time, had eliminated pretty much anything shed have been able to see, but something glittered on the ground, very faintly, right near the center.

She adjusted the light, holding it high to try and get a better look. Small and gold, shiny as the edge of a razor blade and from what she could make out, almost as sharp. It nestled among several blades of grass, not revealing itself to her.

Get me a stick or something. If it was part of a spell, she could conceivably break it simply by removing the thing. If it wasntshed put it in the African Blackwood trunk where she kept any dodgy magical items she happened to come across. The energy of the wood was strong enough to block just about anything.