“Oh come on; there’s always something,” Melody insisted. “Just because we can’t detect it, or recognise it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We need to run some experiments, collect some new data.”

“Spoken like a true scientist,” said Happy. “Remember that time when you wanted to stick a thermometer up that ghost’s behind, so you could measure its core temperature?”

“That would have worked if you hadn’t stopped me.”

“Yeah, right,” said Happy.

“You want a slap?” said Melody. “I’m sure I’ve got one here somewhere.”

JC left them to it and walked up and down the platform for a while, listening to the flat sound of his footsteps, trying to pin down exactly what it was that so bothered him about the place. They’d been there for some time, making all kinds of noise, more than enough to draw anyone’s attention, but . . . No ghosts, no manifestations, not even a black cat with a bad attitude. Still, there was no doubt that he was looking very cool and elegant in his smart cream suit, and that was a comfort.

JC liked to remind himself, now and again, of what was really important.

He looked back at his team. Melody was busy with her equipment, doing things only she understood. Happy was sulking quietly on his metal seat. So, when in doubt, keep them busy and keep them occupied, and they won’t have time to be scared. It always worked for JC. He clapped his hands sharply to get their attention. The sound hardly echoed at all.

“Talk to me, Melody,” he said cheerfully. “Tell me things of importance and interest.”

“Getting definite readings now, of a single great intrusion from the Past,” said Melody. “Deep Past. And I do mean really Deep Past.”

JC looked at her thoughtfully. “The same kind of entity we encountered in the car park?”

“I said Deep Time, and I meant it,” said Melody. “We are talking ancient, maybe even primordial. So powerful it’s like a gravity well, without the well, a spiritual maelstrom . . . only pushing out, not in. Something so powerful it distorts and transforms its whole environment merely by being here. But I’m also getting a whole bunch of more recent readings, from what are quite definitely contemporary phenomena. People and events imprinted on Time, hauntings only days or weeks old. Ghosts, JC. Lots and lots of ghosts.”

“A new energy source, reinvigorating lesser patterns,” JC said thoughtfully. “But what kind of energy source?”

“I hate to say it,” said Melody, turning to look directly at JC for the first time, “but I think we have to consider the possibility of an other-dimensional intrusion. That something from a higher dimension has descended into our world and made itself at home here.”