Free Voices From Beyond (A Ghost Finders Novel) by Simon R. Green Page B

has changed so much . . . and I haven’t. Sometimes I’ll find myself watching some old black-and-white film, on late-night television; something from the forties or fifties . . . And that world looks more familiar, more comfortable to me, than the world I live in now. So many things I miss . . . and so few I value, now. I really think I would step down tomorrow if I thought there were anybody ready to take over. Or at least anyone I thought I could trust. But I can’t go . . . Not until I’ve put a name to the main traitor and made sure how deep the rot goes. Not until I can be sure of how badly the Carnacki Institute has been compromised. I have to stay in charge. I know I can trust me.”
    “You know you can trust me,” said JC.
    “Yes, I can,” said Catherine. “But not as head of the Carnacki Institute.”
    “What?” said JC, bristling. “Why not?”
    “Because you don’t have enough iron in your soul,” said Catherine Latimer. “Not yet, anyway.”
    “Well,” said JC. “That’s something to look forward to . . .”
    They walked on. Such a perfect summer’s day. Not a cloud in the sky, not a shadow out of place. Nothing to worry about . . . Except . . .
    “Why did you want me to come here?” said JC. “What was so important that I had to drop everything and come all the way across London, and you had to leave your very safe and protected private office . . . so we could have this conversation? Was it only to tell me about what you’ve had Kim doing for you? Or to lecture us about our unnatural relationship again?”
    “No,” said Catherine. She glanced at him; and her eyes flashed briefly golden again. “I wanted you to know you’re not alone.”
    She increased her pace suddenly, leaving JC and Kim behind. JC stumbled to a halt and watched her go. Kim stayed with him, her arm still linked carefully through his. JC couldn’t help noticing that everyone in Catherine Latimer’s way seemed to step aside for her, without even noticing they were doing it.
    “I can’t see anyone protecting her,” said JC, after a while. “Can you see anyone protecting her, Kim?”
    “No,” said the girl ghost. “That’s sort of the point, isn’t it?”
    JC looked at her steadily. “How long has this spying business been going on, Kim? How long have you been working exclusively for the Boss?”
    “A while,” said Kim, looking back at him as steadily. “Ever since she promised me she could find me a body. A proper physical form, so I could be human and alive, again. So you and I could be together, properly.”
    “She can do that?”
    “She says she knows someone who can.”
    “So you’re saying; you did this for me?”
    “For us!”
    JC smiled, tiredly. “Typical Boss. Using our own needs to control us . . .”
    “Of course,” said Kim. “That’s why she’s the Boss.”
    “But when did all this start?” said JC. “Exactly?”
    “When she summoned me to her office,” said Kim. “Against my will. She called me, and I had to go even though I fought her all the way. She had this old and very powerful device . . . There was nothing I could do.”
    “The rotten cow,” said JC; and his voice was very cold.
    “Hush, hush, sweetie,” Kim said quickly. “It’s all right; really it is! It doesn’t matter! Not if she can deliver on her promise, so we can be a man and a woman, together. You don’t know how hard it is for me, not to be able to hold you, touch you . . .”
    “I know,” said JC. “I feel the same way. You know I do. How . . . dangerous, is this? What she has you doing for her?”
    “Dangerous?” said Kim. “I’m dead, darling!”
    “I could still lose you,” said JC. “If something were to happen; if someone broke your contact with the world, and me.”
    “I could still lose you,” said Kim. “If one of your Ghost Finder cases went really wrong.”
    “I don’t think I could live without you,” said JC.
    “I couldn’t die without you,” said Kim. “JC . . .