Chapter 39

Friday, February 7, 1936

Castle Henry

 

It was as if Johnny and his companions didn’t exist.

The brigadier jumped to his feet and snapped at the radioman in the corner, hunched over his equipment. “You heard the lieutenant. Notify the Ministry of War that we’re threatened with attack. And the rest of you—to your posts!”

Then the brigadier and the lieutenant led a hurried exodus from the cramped office. Except for the radioman, all the soldiers working there headed outside, grabbing rifles that were leaning against the wall by the door and snatching battle helmets from pegs. No one even gave a backward glance to the civilians left behind.

Dame Honoria groaned. “It looks like my darling sweetums has thrown us into the soup again!”

Johnny noticed that, at last, Dame Honoria was pronouncing her former term of endearment for her son with a tone of sarcasm. He felt sorry for her. What must it be like to have your own flesh and blood become a megalomaniac? For a few seconds, he tried to imagine Mel as a dark force of evil. The thought was so ridiculous he almost laughed out loud.

Nina was rubbing the temples of her head with her fingers. “Maybe those ghosts we saw this morning weren’t even heading for Royalton.”

“Maybe Percy has been after the king all along,” Mel said.

Johnny had a very scary thought. “Or maybe Percy has enough ghosts and zombies to attack several places at once.”

“Well, we can’t let him capture the king,” Mel declared. “Snatching the head of state would give Percy incredible power to extort concessions.”

Johnny stood up and started to pace. “So what can we do to help?”

“These are professional soldiers, Johnny,” said Dame Honoria. “Not too likely they would appreciate having women and children manning the battlements with them.”

“But we have far more experience fighting zombies and ghosts than any of them,” he protested. “They need to know that zombies have weak knees and you can finish them off—at least release the ghost inside of ’em—by decapitation. And Sparks could tell them her idea about the zombie skin.”

Johnny looked at Nina for confirmation and noticed that she appeared uncomfortable, almost sick. He knew that her right arm still hurt a bit and was sometimes numb, from whatever had happened to her in Bilbury Hall.

“Are you okay, Sparks?” This had been the day from hell, and it looked like it would stretch long into the night. Nina probably wouldn’t have a chance to rest anytime soon.

“I’m all right,” she answered. “Just a little pooped.”

“Tell them about seeing the bog zombies and the potion,” Johnny urged. “It might be important.”

Nina turned to Dame Honoria and Mel, who both looked quite interested. “Before they took me upstairs to the room where they held me, I saw them doing something kind of weird in the kitchen at Bilbury Hall.”

Dame Honoria nodded encouragingly. “Yes, my dear, go ahead.”

“Well,” Nina began, “they had tubs of some kind of thick cream or soft wax. The zombies took it, and rubbed it all over their faces, hands, arms, and legs. And it was as if it made them more flexible. After they put it on, they kind of stretched, as if they’d been stiff or something.”

“Hmm, I wonder,” Mel said.

Dame Honoria raised her eyebrows. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Well, it does seem a bit obvious. Those corpses have been in the bogs for a thousand years, under the cold, damp pressure of the peat. What if, when they come up into the regular atmosphere, their skin starts drying out? What if they need some kind of lubrication to stay limber?”

“Yes. If their skin dries out too much, it would be very difficult for them to move, much less make mayhem.”

“Did you see them doing anything else, Nina?” asked Mel.

“No,” Nina replied. “Some of them started to take their clothes off, to put on more of the cream, I guess. That’s when I pretended to pass out. I didn’t want to see any of those naked, wrinkled-up, disgusting dead bodies.”

“Very understandable,” Dame Honoria observed.

“There’s one other thing,” Mel said, almost to herself. “The reason those bodies were so well preserved is that the bog environment prevented bacteria from decomposing them. Wonder what would happen if they were exposed to a solution of some type with a high bacteria count.”

Johnny could almost see the wheels turning around in his sister’s head. What was she coming up with?

“It’s important that we tell the brigadier what Nina saw,” Dame Honoria intoned. “There may yet be time to act upon her information.”

 

* * *

 

Johnny was afraid the brigadier would forget all about them, seeing as how he had his hands full commanding the defense of Castle Henry. And they did sit in the office for a while, darkly communing with their own thoughts. Johnny paced. Mel hunched over in her chair, chin in hand, probably pondering some kind of anti-zombie tactic. Dame Honoria had shut her eyes, pretending to sleep. And Nina just looked beat, drooping in her chair.

So far they had heard no gunfire, no sounds of conflict. Johnny figured that meant the ghosts and zombies surrounding the great estate had avoided contact with the brigadier’s troops. But just after midnight, Lieutenant McKenzie came rushing in.

“The brigadier said that he saw the ghost soldiers from the First Border War when you arrived this evening.”

“They’re just outside,” Mel said. “Colonel MacFarlane and the boys.”

The baby-faced lieutenant looked immeasurably relieved. “The truth of the matter, miss, is that while we have some lads from the Special Ghost Service and a handful of regular troops who can see ghosts, we are a bit short in that department. I am confident that we can handle the, uh, zombies…” He shook his head as he uttered that word, as if his military training had never prepared him for such a situation. “But we surely could use the help of your dead friends to defend against any ghosts that we may be facing. And your good selves, as well, if you’re willing to go into harm’s way.”

About time we were asked to help, Johnny thought. “We’ve been in harm’s way pretty much steadily since the beginning of October, Lieutenant. Ghost assassins, midair battles, blindness, the biggest bomb ever…”

The lieutenant seemed a stoic sort of guy, but even he looked a little shocked at Johnny’s litany of perils. “You saw the etheric bomb?”

“Nearly got killed by it,” Johnny said.

“Some of the things we’ve seen and done have to remain top secret for many years to come,” Mel added. “That’s the honest truth. We’d get in big trouble if we told you anything more.”

“Of course. Now come with me.”

They all trooped out of the office, across the courtyard, and into a large army tent that smelled damp and mildewy. The brigadier was in there, talking intensely with a group of soldiers—officers, sergeants, and enlisted men. When he saw Johnny and the others, he waved them to come over.

Lieutenant McKenzie snapped off a salute. “Our friends here have agreed to your request, Brigadier.”

“Good, good, thank you all,” the brigadier said. “Now, these lads can see ghosts.” He gestured at the soldiers he had been talking to. “With your permission, I would like to divide up your Border War troopers and place them with these men. We’re going to attempt to cover the entire perimeter of Castle Henry. That is about three miles of line. The mission is to minimize any infiltration of ghosts. Will that be agreeable?”

Mel and Johnny turned simultaneously to the colonel, who had followed them in.

“You heard the man, Colonel,” said Mel. “Is that okay?”

“That would be absolutely splendid, Commander,” the colonel answered. “The boys are itching for another go at the enemy.”

“And the rest of you can do tremendous good,” the brigadier continued, “by taking places at observation posts along our perimeter. I’m promised reinforcements by morning, but we need to hold Castle Henry until then.”

This time Dame Honoria answered for the group.

“You can count on us, Brigadier. But before we leave for the… Well, for the front, my young friend here, Miss Nina Bain, has interesting tactical intelligence about some of our adversaries’ potential vulnerabilities.”