psychic SOS

The streets outside were so full of battling constructs that they were literally piling up with bodies, slowing the progress of the enemy—but not stopping it.
Dammit, I felt helpless. Just standing next to the kid wasn’t going to do her any good, but I was holding on to the world by a thread. I just didn’t have the ability to make things happen, either here or in the real world. All I could do was . . .
. . . was use my freaking brain. Duh.
“Wait,” I said. “Molly, I’ve got an idea.”
All the Mollys turned to look at me.
I turned to Captain Molly. “Slow her down,” I said. “You’ve got to slow the Corpsetaker down. Whatever you have to do, you need to buy some time. Go!”
Captain Molly blinked at me. Then she turned and started snapping orders. The bridge Mollys started twisting dials and punching keys.
I turned to Communications Molly. “Hey, you do communications, right?”
She looked baffled. “Right.”
“We need to communicate,” I said. “You need to make a long-distance call.”
“Now?” Communications Molly said, her eyes widening.
“Right the hell now,” I corrected her. I leaned down and explained what I needed in terse tones.
“That’s going to be tricky,” she said. “We’re already at one hundred percent on the reactor.”
I put on my best Sean Connery voice. “Then go to a hundred and ten pershent.”
Science Molly arched an eyebrow at me and punched a button. “Engineering, Bridge.”
“Aye!” screamed a furious Scottish-accented Molly. “What do ye want now?”
“More power, Engineer.”
The answer was a furious rush of pure profanity—but the deep engine-hum in the background around us went upward a bit, and the floor started to vibrate.
Science Molly pointed at Communications Molly and said, “Go.”
“Mayday,” Communications Molly said into her console. “This is a mayday. Emergency transmission. We urgently require assistance. . . .”
Suddenly everything lurched to one side and we all staggered.
“Oh, I don’t believe this crap,” I muttered.
“She’s found us, Captain,” said Science Molly. “Shields at seventy percent.”
“Hit her with everything!” Captain Molly snapped.

Ghost Story Chapter 49, Page 527-528


Molly whimpered, drawing my gaze back to the top of the stairs as her legs gave way. She slid slowly down the wall, her eyes rolling wildly. Her mouth started moving more surely, her voice becoming stronger. And darker. For about two seconds, one of the Corpsetaker’s hate-filled laughs rolled from Molly’s lips. That hideous, slimy mass began to simply ooze into the young woman’s skin.
“Do something,” I said to Uriel.
He shook his head. “I cannot interfere. This battle was Molly’s choice. She knew the risks and chose to hazard them.”
“She isn’t strong enough,” I snapped. “She can’t take on that thing.”
Uriel arched an eyebrow. “Were you under the impression that she did not know that from the beginning, Harry? Yet she did it.”
“Because she feels guilty,” I said. “Because she blames herself for my death. She’s in the same boat I was.”
“No,” Uriel said. “None of the Fallen twisted her path.”
“No, that was me,” I said, “but only because one of them got to me.”
“Nonetheless,” Uriel said, “that choice was yours—and hers.”
“You’re just going to stand there?” I asked.
Uriel folded his arms and tapped his chin with one fingertip. “Mmmm. It does seem that perhaps she deserves some form of aid. Perhaps if I’d had the presence of mind to see to it that some sort of agent had been sent to balance the scales, to give her that one tiny bit of encouragement, that one flicker of inspiration that turned the tide . . .” He shook his head sadly. “Things might be different now.”
And, as if on cue, Mortimer Lindquist, ectomancer, limped out of the lower hallway and into the electrical-junction room, with Sir Stuart’s shade at his right hand.
Mort took a look around, his dark eyes intent, and then his gaze locked onto Molly.
“Hey,” he croaked. “You. Arrogant bitch ghost.”
Molly’s eyes snapped fully open and flicked to Mort. They were filled with more bitter, venomous hate than my apprentice could ever have put into them.
“I’m not really into this whole hero thing,” Mort said. “Don’t have the temperament for it. Don’t know a lot about the villain side of the equation, either.” He planted his feet, facing the Corpsetaker squarely, his hands clenched into fists at his side. “But it seems to me, you half-wit, that you probably shouldn’t have left a freaking ectomancer a pit full of wraiths to play with.”
And with a howl, more than a thousand wraiths came boiling around the corner in a cloud of clawing hands, gnashing teeth, and screaming hunger. They rode on a wave of Mort’s power and no longer drifted with lazy, disconnected grace. Now they came forth like rushing storm clouds, like racing wolves, like hungry sharks, a tide of mindless destruction.
I saw Molly’s eyes widen and the pulsing spiritual mass that was the Corpsetaker began to pull away from the young woman.
My apprentice didn’t let her.
Molly let out a wheezing cackle and both hands formed into claws that clutched at the air. I saw the energy of her own magic surround her fingers so that she grasped onto the Corpsetaker’s essence as if it had been a nearly physical thing. The necromancer’s spirit began to ooze through Molly’s grip. The exhausted girl could only slow the Corpsetaker down.
But it was enough.
The tide of wraiths slammed into the Corpsetaker like a freight train, their wails blending into a sound that I had heard before, in the train tunnel where Carmichael saved me. The Corpsetaker had begun to resume her usual form the instant she disengaged from Molly, and I could see the sudden shock and horror in her beautiful eyes as that spiritual tide overwhelmed her. I saw her struggle uselessly as the wraith train carried her up the stairs and out into the night. The train swept her straight up into the air—and then reversed itself and slammed her down, into the earth.
I saw her try to scream.
But all I heard was the blaring howl of the horn of a southbound train.
And then she was gone.
“You’re right,” Uriel said, his tone filled with a chill satisfaction. “Someone needed to do something.” He glanced aside at me, gave me a slight bow of his head, and said, “Well-done.”
Mort limped up the stairs to check on Molly. “You’re the one who called to me, eh?”
Molly looked up at him, obviously too exhausted to move more than her head. “Harry . . . Well, it’s sort of complicated to explain what was going on. But he told me you could help.”
“Guess he was right,” Mort said.
“Where is he?” Molly asked. “I mean . . . his ghost.”
Mort glanced around and looked right at me—right through me. He shook his head. “Not here.”
Molly closed her eyes and began to cry quietly.
“I got her, boss,” Molly said quietly. “We got her. And I’m still here. Still me. Thank you.”
“She’s thanking me,” I said quietly. “For that.”
“And much more,” Uriel said. “She still has her life. Her future. Her freedom. You did save her, you know. The idea to have her call to Mortimer in the closing moments of the psychic battle was inspired.”
“I’ve cost her too much,” I said quietly.

Ghost Story Chapter 50, Page 552-554