Scott then led us to the mortuary attached to the facility where the deceased agent’s
body was being held. An autopsy had already been carried out by a Home Office
pathologist but revealed only what we had already heard from Mr J.
We were shown into the examination room where the body lay waiting. Agent Scott
and the facility director, Mr Benjamin, maintained their composure but the corpse made
the rest of us distinctly nervous. Obviously in my time as a journalist I’ve seen many
unfortunate sights and dead bodies have been among them but that was with the
backdrop of war and distant lands, not laid bare (so to speak) on a sterile slab in the
heart of Cheltenham. My comrades seemed equally reluctant to make a close
examination of the body, even Agent Jones, whose strong soldier’s stomach wasn’t up
to the task. We were preparing to leave when Billy asked if he could be left alone with
the body – Fox, Jones and I were a little surprised at this but Patrick persuaded us to
leave the Psychic alone while he employed his own special methods.
I questioned Agent Scott about the autopsy while we awaited the quiet Irishman’s
return and learned that small particles of a foreign substance had been found on the
body. I surmised that Lux must have thrown some powder or dust at Baines, though
what its nature was and how it related to the radiation burst was still unclear. We were
also given a flyer found on Baines when he died, which indicated that the Church of the
Inner Light was holding a meeting at six that very evening. Scott expressed
considerable surprise at this, in the past the cult had only met on Sundays.
Moments later Billy returned, looking pale and haggard. He needed a few moments to
recover before telling us that the unfortunate agent had been destroyed by a terrible
occult force that had burnt out his very soul. Billy’s eyes darted furtively about and had
clearly been seriously disturbed by the whole event.
A few years ago I would have dismissed this tale as mere gibberish but, having seen
what I saw amid those dark stones in the jungles of Borneo, I could not dismiss it out
of hand.
Ushered out of the facility by Mr. Benjamin we repaired to the college diner to make our
plans.