#47 Unity, part 1

Dear diary,

We’d just closed up the library last night. SIR had chased all the patrons out (literally, in a few cases), and so I stored him in his cupboard and plugged him into the power point. Goldie left hurriedly, as though she was afraid to stay one minute longer in the library. It was just Shannon and I left. We hadn’t spoken to each other all night – we’d avoided each other as per usual – so I knew something was up when she approached me in the staffroom.

“Care for a little sabotage, Mr Mack?”

There was a susurrus behind me, and an eerily familiar rasping noise. I froze. Surely not… I forced myself to turn around, very slowly. My eyes were closed. I really wasn’t in the mood for ghosts. There was the sound of books being whipped off the shelves (you become acutely aware of any book-related sounds, working in a library), and then I saw…

The Book Man floated in mid-air directly in front of Shannon. There were ghosts all around the library: from my vantage point I could see them hovering in Large Print, in Junior, in the remains of Community Languages, around the catalogs and the computers, just waiting there patiently.

Shannon and the Book Man were talking to each other in hushed tones. When they’d finished they both turned to face me, and I noticed the uncanny likeness in their features. Shannon must’ve seen my expression, for she then said,

“Jay this is my dad. Dad, this is Jay. He’s not that bright but he’s pretty good with books.”

Suddenly it clicked. “Mr Colin Harper?” I asked.

A receipt paper roll and a pen flew towards us and stopped in mid-air. The pen wrote furiously.

\“Not bad Jay, not bad at all. Please excuse my daughter’s rudeness. I believe her to be inaccurate on one count. You have it in you to do many great things. Which is why I have chosen to appear before you now. I need to ask a favour of you.”

Shannon’s father’s ghost told me his sad story. He had died seen years ago, of a sudden stroke. He remembered falling over in his bathroom one minute, and then wandering around the library the next. He found out from the other ghosts that they were all former library workers who had died in the line of duty. While they can move between libraries using something called L-Space, they are unable to actually move outside of a library environment.

The ghosts were there when BiblioTech took over a different library. It went bankrupt and closed down two months later. The library ghosts lost part of their world, and vowed to seek vengeance on those responsible. Mr Harper explained that he believed BiblioTech had taken over the library without official authorisation. He said (or rather, wrote) that he needed Shannon and I to steal the documents and expose BiblioTech’s fraud.

Part of me really wanted to say no and walk out of the building right then. But I didn’t: I stayed and signed my name on the printer receipt roll in agreement. I knew I couldn’t just leave the library to crumble. It was worth getting a criminal record for, despite Shannon’s assurance that we would never be caught.

Shannon unveiled a plan of the Council building, drawn hastily on a sheet of the blueprint paper Pepper always keeps in her drawers. It stung to think that there was nobody else left from the library who could do this – they’d all left or weren’t willing to put themselves at further risk.

We discussed the best way to break into the building – our swipe cards could get us into anywhere, so that was no drama – and how to deactivate the alarm system. Once we had the documents the ghosts would hide them and essentially cover our tracks. And then we were all set to go. Shannon had brought camouflage gear for the two of us, and I had my trusty penknife ready to perform a multitude of different functions.

Suddenly I heard an angry whirring sound come from behind. I leapt out and tackled Shannon to the ground, just as a heavy Reference book sailed past where her head was a fraction of a second ago. We both looked up from our position and saw SIR, it’s eyes flashing red with the word TRAITOR. Its attached shelving platform was rotating wildly, and there was a mechanically maniacal gleam in its eyes. It sped forward, through the Book Man, coming straight towards us.

To be continued...