Ghostfinders 01 - Ghost of a Chance Read Free Page B

suddenly infused with real threat and menace by some unknown force.
    JC realised that his hands had clenched into fists at his sides, and he made himself relax. Just looking at the cars and the carts made his flesh creep, but then, that was the idea. To unnerve them, to frighten them, to prepare them for what was coming. Something was playing mind games. JC smiled his widest smile. No-one played those games better than he.
    One by one, the car park’s electric lights started to go out. Fading away one after another like so many guttering candles, the lights disappeared. Starting at the outskirts, moving slowly but inexorably inwards, darkness crept across the car park. It closed in on the three ghost finders, cutting them off, until there was nothing left but the dark, surrounding a small circle of light produced by Melody’s instruments. Her panels blinked and flickered, stubbornly holding out against a malign outside influence. The only other light now was the harsh blue-white glare of the full moon. What used to be called, in the old days, a hunter’s moon.
    “All right,” said Happy. “This is not good. Officially, and very definitely, not good. Melody?”
    “Don’t look at me,” she said immediately. “It’s all I can do to keep my tech operating. There’s so much power out there, in the night, in the dark—power off the scale. It’s like we’re in the eye of the hurricane, and I can’t guarantee how long that’s going to last.”
    “Wonderful,” said Happy, bitterly. “Don’t suppose there’s any chance this supermarket was built over an old Indian burial ground, like in that movie?”
    “In south-west England?” said Melody. “Roman burial site, maybe. But the one thing my instruments agree on is that we’re facing something much older than that. What was here, before the Romans? History never was my strong point.”
    “Ah . . .” said JC.
    “What?” said Happy, suspiciously. “That was your I’ve just remembered something, and you’re really not going to like it voice. Ah what ?”
    “If either of you had taken the time to read the briefing files thoroughly, you’d know there are reports of Iron Age settlements all through this area,” said JC, keeping a careful eye on the shopping carts as they slowed smoothly to a halt. They still looked like they were watching. “Even some Neolithic sites. Stone Age human settlements, thousands of years old. Back when we were still learning how to be people. Primitive people, with primitive but still-powerful beliefs. Melody, can your instruments confirm whether there is any such evidence here, right under our feet?”
    “Easy-peasy,” said Melody, her fingers moving rapidly over the keyboards. “Yes . . . Yes! Definite traces of some kind of ancient settlement; and not that far down, either. The evidence suggests it was recently disturbed, then covered over again.”
    “Of course,” said JC. “It’s all coming clear now.”
    “Is it?” said Happy. “If it did, it missed me completely. Spell it out, for the hard of thinking among us.”
    “The building contractors must have found the ancient site when they were laying the foundations for this new car park,” JC said patiently. “Unknowingly, they uncovered a seat of power that hadn’t been disturbed for thousands of years.”
    “Is it just me,” said Melody, “or are those cars . . . a bit closer than they used to be?”
    “The cars aren’t the problem,” said JC, staring out into the dark. “They’re not part of the haunting. That’s simply the ancient Power, stretching its muscles.”
    “Power?” said Happy. “What Power?”
    Light blazed up all around them, hot and fierce, fire-light thousands of years old. It jumped and leapt, and so did the men and women around it, as the Present was abruptly shouldered aside and replaced by the Past. The three ghost finders huddled together, hanging on to each other, as Time Past filled their eyes. Flames burned fiercely, leaping