“I hate new couples,” said Happy. “They’re always so pleased with themselves . . . Look, you’re doing the distraction thing again! What the hell have you been up to, JC? You’ve been blazing inside my head like a sun going supernova! That’s how I was able to find you so quickly. For a while there, you were the most powerful thing in this station.”

“I fought an army of demons,” said JC. “And I lost. But at the very last moment . . . a Light came out of nowhere and made me strong enough to fight any number of them. It’s gone now, but . . .”

“It’s still there, in your eyes,” said Melody. “The Light has put its mark on you, JC.”

“And that is rare, so rare,” said Happy, sounding impressed despite himself.

“I know!” said JC. “I think it’s another sign of how important all this is. Whatever it is that’s going on down here. Now, what have you been doing while I was away? What happened to the Project agents I left you fighting?”

“We got away,” said Melody. Her voice was suddenly quiet, and she folded her arms tightly across her chest.

“They hurt us,” said Happy, staring steadily at JC. “They hurt us bad. We could have used your help.”

“You left us!” said Melody. “To chase after her.” She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Kim. “You have no idea what they did to us, JC.”

“I’m sorry,” said JC.

“I’m sorry,” said Happy, “but you and ghost girl can’t be a couple. You just can’t. You know that, JC.”

“You said it yourself,” said Melody. “The living must never get emotionally involved with the dead. It’s not fair to either of you. Love is for the living, for people with a stake in the future.”

“Love conquers all,” murmured Kim. “I heard it in a song, so it must be true.”

“Not this time,” said Melody. “You may not even have an immediate future. It’s looking more and more as though you’re the focal point of this haunting. The central event that supports everything else.”

“Which means,” Happy said slowly, “that the only way to be sure of stopping all this . . . may involve putting you to rest, Kim. Our other-dimensional Intruder is using you to maintain its hold on the material plane. Unless we remove you, and break his hold, he’ll grow stronger and stronger, spreading his horror show across the whole of London. Maybe even further . . .”

“We’ll exorcise that bridge when we come to it,” JC said cheerfully. “I have a plan, a scheme, and a whole bunch of really nasty dirty tricks to try out on our unseen enemy. But first things first. Kim, you’re the only one to have had direct contact with the Intruder. And your dead eyes can see the greater world far more clearly than ours. What can you tell us?”

“Not much,” said Kim. “I’m still getting used to being a ghost. The more I talk with you and your friends, the more awake I feel, the more me . . . But the more human I feel, the harder it is to interpret what I’m seeing and feeling. As though being human . . . limits me. I’ve never seen your Intruder, never heard its voice. But I seem to have this sense of . . . something wild. Something horribly powerful, beyond the laws and limitations of this small world.”

“Not really what I wanted to hear,” said Happy. Melody ignored him, intent on Kim.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” she said bluntly. “From when you were alive?”

Kim frowned, as though trying to remember something that had happened long ago. “There was a phone call, early in the morning. From my agent, telling me I had to come in for a special audition. A really big part, he said, that could make my career. I started to ask for details, but he gave me the address and the time, and told me to hurry. I was so excited . . . I came down into the Underground, waited for my train to come, then someone stabbed me in the back. I never even saw his face. I didn’t understand what had happened, at first. The pain, and falling, and the platform rising to hit me in the face. There were people all around me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. And then . . . I was back standing on the platform, completely alone, waiting for a train that never came. I’d still be standing there if JC hadn’t come and found me . . .”

“This is why I never get anywhere with women,” said Happy. “I can’t stand this soppy sentimental stuff.”

“Trust me,” said JC. “That’s not the only reason.”

“But . . . how does her death tie in with everything that’s happened here?” said Melody. “And why has the Intruder made such a point of using her?”

“Because she’s important to me?” said JC.

Melody sniffed. “Not everything is about you, JC.”

“Look me in the eye and say that,” said JC.

“Sounds like necromancy to me,” Happy said quickly. “Murder magic. Energy generated by the destruction of a life and the loss of all the things that person might have done. Lot of energy in murder. You were lured down here just to be killed, Kim.”

“I want my machines!” said Melody. “Theories are all very well, but I need hard, solid facts to work with! I have got to run some tests on you, Kim. I’ve never encountered such a conscious, interactive, alive-seeming post-mortem presence.”

She walked quickly around Kim, several times, examining the ghost girl from all angles, much to Kim’s quiet amusement.

“Most ghosts run in circles,” said Melody, at least partly to herself. “Endlessly repeating old actions, old emotions, significant events. They don’t react to, or interact with, the real world because they can’t see it. Quite literally lost in their own worlds. The future isn’t important to them because they’re locked in the past.” She turned abruptly to study JC. “And I’m dying to put you under the microscope and see what makes you tick. You’ve changed . . . and I don’t mean only those highly unsettling eyes of yours. I want to know what hosting the Light has done to you. There’s a whole series of serious scientific papers in you, JC, and I want my name on them.”

“You’ve got to do something about those eyes, JC,” said Happy. “They’re too disturbing for mere mortals like us. How about a nice set of designer shades?”

He produced a pair of sunglasses that might have been borderline fashionable, several years previously, and handed them to JC. He slipped them on with a certain amount of self-consciousness.

“Okay, that’s weird,” said Melody. “The glow is actually shining through the sunglasses.”

“Well, yes,” said Happy. “But it is more bearable.”

“Oh yes,” said Melody. “Definitely more bearable.”

JC looked at Kim. “How do I look? Seriously?”

“Well, the shades do help detract from the somewhat shredded suit,” said Kim. “But to be brutally honest . . . you look like a second-rate spy who’s been dragged through a car wash, backwards.”

“I can live with that,” said JC. “Now, let us concentrate on more important problems. We need more information on our unseen Intruder. Happy, crank up your amazing mind and scan Kim. See if you can pick up any traces left behind from contact with our enemy.”

“I can try.” Happy smiled diffidently at Kim. “Don’t worry; you won’t feel a thing. I’m going to take a quick poke around through your recent past.”

“Go ahead,” said Kim. “I’ve always been pretty transparent. Little ghost humour there. Don’t let me spook you.”

Happy scowled, concentrating, all his attention fixed on Kim, then he blushed suddenly and backed away. “Ah. Yes. I see. Sorry!”

“What’s the matter?” said Kim. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“I did,” said Happy. “In fact, I feel in definite need of a cold shower, and a lie-down with an instructional book. Sorry, JC . . . All I’m picking up from her is, well, love. Her love for you. Her feelings are really quite . . . overwhelming. Can’t see anything else through it. I haven’t felt so embarrassed since I walked in on Great-uncle Sebastian and the two parlour-maids. Haven’t felt the same about feather-dusters ever since. I’m babbling, aren’t I? Don’t mind me. I’ll go stand over there by myself and think pure thoughts for a while if that’s all right with everyone.”