Ghost Guard (14 page)

“DELTA X?” ABBY SCOFFED. Ruby, playing catch by herself with a colorful rubber ball, glanced at the monitor sporadically. Brutus hovered silently nearby. “That’s their name? That’s the
specialized team
Mahoney was talking about? They’re the ones who are going to
deal
with Elyxa—Delta X?”

“Correct,” Morris nodded, pressing an icon to bring up the information. “I speculate Delta is
analogous to Delta Force. And the X denotes the paranormal, or things of non-categorical nature.”

She gave him a deadpan glance.

“I got that. What else can you tell me?”

“Well,” his fingers danced on the command screen, summoning up more data. “Thanks to Ruby’s incredible work, we’ve tapped into their uplink, and I can tell you they’re well
-equipped. They’ve got just about every black-ops secret weapon in the books. Directed energy, thermal lasers, and some things even I haven’t heard of. Impressive.”

“Okay, okay,” she said. “So what’s the status?”

“The op’s in preliminary startup phase right now.”

“You mean they’re just about ready? Perfect! Where are we on the radios? Do we have the signals yet?”

“Of course,” he reached for a rack-mounted modulator and turned up the volume.

“
DX3, this is Sky Eye, do you read?”

“
Sky Eye, this is DX3…copy.”

“
DX3, copy that. Standby for green light.”

“That’s them?” Abby was nervous. She wanted to be there—bad.

“That’s them. Here,” he flicked a switch on another modulator and a row of small screens flickered on. Various angles of a towering, abandoned brick warehouse.

“The video feeds. Excellent work, Morris!” she patted his back so hard a piece of popcorn got lodged in his throat.

“It was Ruby’s work, really,” he coughed. Abby gave Ruby the thumbs up. Ruby just giggled as she played with her Koosh ball.

“What’re you guys doing?”
wearing a tuxedo, Rev appeared from nowhere and hung over Morris’s shoulder, peering into the monitors. Abby had sensed him coming, but chose to pretend she hadn’t. “What’s this?”

“
Mahoney said we can’t intervene. He didn’t say anything about watching,” she stared at the screens. “Did he, Morris?”

Morris looked at Rev sheepishly.

“I’m not getting in the middle of this,” Rev raised his hands. “You’re playing with fire.”

“Where are you going?” Abby watched him glide toward the outer wall.

“Out. I’ll be late, so don’t wait up.”

“Don’t you want to see this?”

“Nope,” he answered without looking. “I already know what’s going to happen.”

“You do, huh? Okay smartass, what’s going to happen, then?”

Before he passed through the wall, he sent her a serious look, one of the most serious she’d ever seen from Rev.

“Nothing good.”

With that, he drifted backward, staring at her, and disappeared into the bricks. She knew where he was going. Anywhere he could find the company of a young woman…or three. There were dozens of bars and clubs where he could spin his sexual magic. It made Abby boil inside.

“That son of a—”

“Abby, they’re ready to enter the building.”

She glued her eyes to anything and everything that moved, darting from one screen to the next, watching the images become more and more identifiable.

Morris explained, “These shots are from helmet cameras. They’re the main players, it looks like.”

“The big boys with the big toys, huh?” she shook her head.

“I suppose so. They’re each stationed in different sections of the building. This guy,” he gestured with a pencil to a specific screen. “He’s on the west side. Looks like he’s got a grappling hook and he’s going to scale the building.”

“A grappling hook?
Are you serious? What is this, the
Dirty Dozen
?”

He chuckled. “This is a little more sophisticated. He can aim a rocket
-propelled grapple with a laser.”

“Oh my.
How high-tech,” she chuckled cynically.

“All teams, we have a green light. Repeat. We have a green light. That’s a Go! Go! Go!”

The footage began to shake like a bad movie when the so-called elite paranormal squad stormed the structure. From the looks on the cameras, it seemed the number of personnel was substantial. Three teams, each with ten men. And women. Abby could make out at least one female voice over the radio chatter. It became hard to watch the video while the operatives hurried up stairs and along dim corridors. The building was at about ten stories, and they didn’t use the elevators for obvious reasons. Since they needed to go all the way to the Penthouse on top, they had a lot of running to do.

“DX Teams, this is Sky Eye. We’ve got you all on thermal
.”

Morris switched a button, and a screen showed the view from the air, hovering over the red neon letters:
MONTGOMERY PARK.

“A helicopter,” she shook her head.
“How subtle. Why am I not surprised?”

The camera angles became a little more discernible. Abby saw a hall, a stairway, and several other operatives in tactical gear, carrying all manner of weaponry. She stared a little closer and recognized something that had her
shuddering in disgust.

“They’re fighting with the wrong weapons. You don’t use a gun
against an immortal. Not without parapsychological help at least. Everyone knows that. What kind of team is this? Specialized my ass. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

“You may be right about that,” said Morris.

“I
am
right!”

“Okay. You
are
right. But that doesn’t mean we have to interfere.”

“Morris, look at them! They’re walking into a trap! This is ridiculous…what amateurs!”

He nodded. “Try to relax, Abby. We’re only observing, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, but—”

“But nothing,” Morris insisted. “Maybe Rev was right. We shouldn’t be doing this. All it’s doing is making you want to get involved.”

He reached to turn off the system. She stopped him.

“Wait, Morris, wait. I swear I’m just gonna watch.”

He squinted at her.

“Okay. But remember, we’re only observing.”

She nodded, chewing her thumbnail. The operatives inside the building held their positions, pointing their wholly inadequate weapons at
a set of stairs.

“Let’s see if they can even get to the—”

Before Morris could finish his sentence, Sky Eye shouted.

“We’ve got a bogey
! South stairwell! Whatever it is, it’s coming fast!”

“Roger!”

“Definitely not a friendly, I repeat NOT a friendly.”

“Where is it again?”

“Below you! It’s below you!”

Pandemonium broke out. The
video screens became a chaotic mess. The team under attack scattered for survival as the other teams scrambled to help. Abby studied one monitor in particular. The camera of one of the team leaders. She recognized the voice, but wasn’t sure. Then someone called out his name, and the memories came flooding back.

“Riley!”

Thomas Riley, her ex-training partner from long ago. She hadn’t seen him in so long it felt like a different life, though she didn’t like to think about it. She hadn’t thought about it in years, and that was the way she wanted to keep it. But when she heard that voice, and then the name, she was forced to confront feelings she’d hoped would never resurface.

She felt Ruby’s beneficent touch on her shoulder. The
old yet infantile ghost had a way about her. One of the sweetest souls in existence. Cooing and clicking, she asked if Abby was all right.

“I’m okay,” she shook it off.
Didn’t have time for personal feelings. She had to keep up with the frenzy of activity, with operatives running for cover from a furious sneak attack. Then, after the burst of chaos, things went eerily quiet. All anyone could hear over the speakers was heavy breathing and the occasional
Beep!
of an electronic sensor.

“Sky Eye?
We’ve got nothing here. Where did the bogey go?”

Sky Eye hesitated.

“You’re right. It’s gone. What the hell? Looks like there might have been some sort of glitch in the—WAIT! There it is again! This time it’s above you! It’s right on top of you!”

Mass confusion.
The screams and commands were unintelligible, as well as most of the footage, bouncing and shaking like a horror movie. Abby and Morris and Ruby stared at the monitors without blinking. The only one who didn’t watch was Brutus. He didn’t need to watch. He’d already felt the full wrath of Elyxa, and knew that pitiful show of force wasn’t enough. An army wouldn’t have been enough.

Abby couldn’t look away from the screens, heart racing, forehead boiling. She watched Riley’s camera, the view from his tactical helmet. He spun in circles, scanning the narrow hallway.

“Come on, Riley,” she said out loud.

“Riley?” Morris asked. “You know him?”

Her gaze never left the fast-paced images coming in.

“We were friends a long time ago. He was-is a gifted operative. I just don’t know what he’s doing with these guys.”

More screams, shouts, calls to the mission commander for directions. Abby shook her head.

“They don’t know what they’re doing at all!”

Morris had to agree, but wanted to be cautious.

“The mission’s not over yet. Maybe they’ll surprise you.”

“Trust me,” she bit her lip. “The mission’s over. Watch.”

He stared at the monitors intently. DX1 started scaling stairs on the north end
. Then they reacted to something. Their camera shots, just like other team’s, became erratic and jumpy, as if the men and women were moving fast, frightened for their lives.

Nobody could see exactly what had the operatives so scared. No terrifying bursts of lightning. No fire and brimstone. No supernatural beings. Not a thing seemed to be after them. Yet there they were—three groups of ten, cowering in corners, behind furniture, under staircases, anything to escape some unseen, unheard, unknown horror.

“Something’s wrong with our sensors!”
Riley shouted.
“They’re not responding to what we’re seeing!”

Someone
shouted. That’s when the shooting started. One small
Pop!
and the place erupted in gunfire. Shot after shot. Round after round, ARs and MKs and M4s—dozens of them—all ringing out in a symphony of rapid intensity.

“Oh, my GOD!”
Abby put her hand to her mouth. Her heart pounded even deeper in her chest, stirring her energy level to its maximum. She wasn’t inclined to stand there much longer, and Morris sensed it.

“Abby,
NO!
” he stood in her way, his eyes locked like lasers on the screens. They didn’t show much at all now. Just confusion. In the melee was the occasional glimpse of a face, a doorway, someone’s shoe. And something else. Quick flashes of ashen, luminous entities. Morris shuddered at their grotesque forms.

Then there were the screams.
Screams of pain, of agony, of death.

After the chaos died down, o
ne more figure showed up onscreen, one far too familiar for Abby’s taste. She squinted at the monitor, knowing deep down inside she’d seen that face before. She was about to say it when Ruby beat her to the pronouncement, her strange voice more strident than ever, belting out Rev’s name.

They were all speechless for the longest moment, staring at the grainy image as Rev’s corporeal body faded into reality in front of Riley. Abby couldn’t see the look on Riley’s face, but she sure could guess. He had to be surprised.
They
were surprised.

Rev approached Riley, staring at him with the cool confidence of a poker player about to take down the house. Abby shook her head at the swagger, at the very gall.

“Here, let me take a look at you,”
Rev said.
“You look fine. Can’t say the same for your buddies, though. Do you know what the hell you’ve gotten into?”

He waited.
Silence. Riley only stood there, his mouth a mile wide, his eyes darting all over, trying to make sense of it.

“No, of course you don’t,”
he looked at the rifle in Riley’s hands.
“Otherwise you never would have come into this with these silly, outdated weapons. Like we always say, you don’t bring a gun to a ghost fight.”

“Who…who…”

“Who am I? I’m the guy who’s gonna save your ass, that’s who.”

“Come on!” Abby grabbed her op-pack. Chock-full of everything imaginable for any sort of contingency, the military-style bag was her lifeline
. And it was ready and waiting. She had a feeling she’d need it on this night.