Read Online Forces from Beyond by Simon R. Green - Free Book Online

Marty Hopkins.”
    The Goth started to say something cutting, then broke off as Happy stepped suddenly forward to glare at him.
    “Piss off, Brian,” said Happy. “Your mother’s looking for you.”
    The Goth looked startled, then uneasy. He moved away quickly, losing himself in the crowd.
    “How did you know that his name was Brian?” said Melody.
    “Not good form, Happy, reading civilian minds,” JC said sternly.
    “Oh please,” said Happy. “Like I’d lower myself. He just looked like a Brian.”
    And then JC said something really bad under his breath as he saw something displayed on a table that had no business being there. Because it was real. He wandered casually over for a closer look, and Happy and Melody moved in on either side of him.
    “Is that . . . what I think it is?” Happy said finally.
    “Looks like the real thing,” said Melody.
    “It is,” said JC. “A Hand of Glory. Made from the severed hand of a hanged man, with the fingers turned into candles. Light them up, say the right Words, and the Hand will reveal hidden treasures, open locked doors, and slow down the passing of Time. Very dangerous in the hands of someone who only thinks he knows what he’s doing.”
    “Where the hell did these people acquire something as spiritually toxic as that?” said Melody.
    “I did hear of a Russian Hand that turned up loose in London a while back,” said JC. “God alone knows how it ended up here. They can’t know what it is, what they’ve got . . . probably think it’s just some movie prop. We can’t risk its getting out on the open market. Anyone activating the Hand could open doors to . . . anywhere. And let anything in. I really wouldn’t want to be on the team that had to clean up after that.”
    “So what do we do?” said Happy. “Buy it ourselves, to take it off the market?”
    “Are you kidding?” said JC. “Have you seen how much they’re asking for it? And good luck getting a receipt for expenses . . . No, I’ve a better idea. Kim, are you with us?”
    “Right here, darling,” Kim said breathily in JC’s ear. Which was actually a pretty good trick for someone who didn’t breathe any more. “I thought I’d stay unseen so I could watch your back. I don’t like the feel of this place.”
    “We need a distraction,” said JC. “Something big and noisy but essentially harmless, to hold everyone’s attention. Think you could oblige?”
    “Love to,” said Kim.
    A sudden hurricane squall rushed through the tables and stalls, rocking them violently back and forth and sending goods flying through the air. People ducked and shouted as heavy objects shot past their heads, and stall-holders clung desperately onto their tables, trying to hold them down. Several supposedly mystical artefacts burst into brightly coloured flames, while other equally impressive things just lay there and did nothing. While everyone’s attention was fixed on the weird happenings, JC chose his moment carefully, picked up the Hand of Glory, stuffed it inside his jacket, and casually strolled away. Melody and Happy went with him, trying hard to look innocent.
    They’d almost reached the exit doors when they swung suddenly open, and a familiar figure stood facing them. Catherine Latimer beckoned them out of the dealers room with an imperative gesture, and the Ghost Finders hurried into the corridor to join her. The doors shut behind them of their own accord as everything in the hall fell suddenly quiet.
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    Looking professionally calm and immaculate in her usual expensively cut grey suit, the Boss was smoking a black Turkish cigarette in a long ivory holder, in defiance of several prominent
No Smoking
signs. She had to be well into her eighties now, but she still burned with a fierce and almost certainly unnatural energy. Latimer wore her grey hair cropped in a severe bowl cut, and her face was all hard edges, harsh lines, and cold, cold