Ghost Guard (9 page)

MORRIS WOLFED DOWN
two full bags of popcorn while scanning file after file in the extensive Ghost Guard database. Occult practices. Sciences of ancient civilizations. Myths and legends dating back hundreds, in some cases, thousands of years. He had it all at his fingertips. Yet, in his profuse digging, he came up with not one single shred of reliable data about the mysterious and powerful woman who identified herself as Elyxa.

“Tell me I’m not totally insane,”
in the kitchenette of Gasworks’ renovated second story, Morris stood in front of the microwave, waiting for another batch of Orville Redenbacher’s to finish. “You
did
see that woman tonight, right?”

Abby rubbed the back of her neck.

“We all saw her, Morris. More than saw her. We felt her. We have three ghosts in SME chambers at the same time. That’s a first,” she sighed. “She really kicked our asses.”

Morris started pacing and raised an eyebrow.

“Technically, she didn’t defeat Rev. He still had a fighting chance until you hit him with the emitter.”

“He deserved it,” she crossed her arms.

“Abby,” he lowered his voice. “This thing, whatever’s going on between you and Rev. It’s not going to be a problem for the team, is it? Because we already have enough issues.”

“What
thing
? There is no
thing
.”

“I’ve been observing the way you two treat each other. We all have. You act like there’s a lot of animosity
between you two, but we all can tell the sentiment’s exactly the opposite.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He opened the microwave after it beeped to a stop.

“You two are attracted to each other, but you’re both too stubborn to act on it.”

“Ha!” she spouted. “
He’s
not too stubborn to act on anything. He’s always begging me to go out with him.”

“Why don’t you do it then?”

She exhaled hard.

“If you haven’t noticed, he’s a ghost.
Dead. Not alive. Understand?”

“Yeah,” he examined his popcorn thoroughly. Not done yet, as usual. “I suppose.”

“What was that supposed to mean?”

“Hmm?” he plucked out
one of the popped kernels and flipped it into his mouth. “Oh, nothing.”

“Don’t
oh, nothing
me. Tell me.”

He folded the popcorn bag closed again and put it back into the microwave for a few seconds longer.

“It’s no great concern. Don’t worry about it.”

“Morris!” she stood, brandishing a butter knife. “Tell me what you’re thinking.
Now!”

“It’s just that I can tell you care for Rev, that’s all.”

“I care for him, yeah. Just like I care for all you guys. You’re all family to me. You know that.”

“That’s not what I mean,” he observed the microwave, listening for the popping to cease. “I-I should just stay out of it, really.”

“Morris. You can’t do this to me. You can’t just start this and not finish it.”

“Oh, no,” he rolled his eyes. “Not again.”

“That’s right. Now tell me. What the hell are you talking about?”

“I just. That is we just
—”

“WE?”

“Well, yeah.
We
just…well, we can see how you look at him when you think we’re not watching. Little things. You sneak peeks. You treat him differently. It’s not like I’m the only one to see it. Rev sees it too.”

“What! What do you mean? Did he say something?”

“No. You said he keeps making advances toward you. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“Hell. He’s constantly making advances at every woman he sees. That doesn’t mean a thing.”

“I’m not too sure,” he looked at her over his glasses. “Have you ever considered Rev’s womanizing might just be an attempt at getting your attention?”

She sat down and dropped the knife with a
Clank!
on the table.

“That’s ridiculous,” she looked away,
then her eyes snuck over to him again. “Why? What did he say?”

“Listen to yourself, Abby. You sound like a
schoolgirl.”

“Just tell me!”

“He didn’t say anything. I can just tell. We all can. Even Ruby. She can see what’s going on between you two, and it’s confusing her. To tell you the truth it’s confusing me too. I mean, it’s obvious you have amorous feelings toward him. And it’s more than obvious he returns the emotion. What’s stopping you from acting on it already? Seriously, you say he’s dead, but I have to inform you, he’s a whole lot more alive than most living people I know.”

Abby looked down. Morris smelled burnt corn.

“Shoot!” he flung open the microwave. A cloud of toxic smoke assaulted his face. “This darn microwave always does this…either undercooked or charred beyond recognition! One of these days I’m going to fix that!”

A digital alarm rang on Morris’s watch. He glanced at it and frowned.

“Mahoney” he dropped the smoldering bag of blackened popcorn into the sink.

“Of course,” Abby sighed. “I’ll get the ghosts.”

“
GHOST GUARD! What have you done!” Mahoney appeared on every screen in Morris’s workspace, from the tiny ones he used to calibrate his video equipment, to the enormous acrylic panel spanning the wall. Mahoney, a large man with a round face and almost no hair, wasn’t their boss, but he acted like it. “What kind of mess did you people get into!”

“Hi,
Mahoney. Nice to see you too,” Rev tipped the top hat that appeared from the nebulous ether on his head.

“Stop fooling around, Rev. You and your pranks are starting to wear thin
on my patience.”

“Oh. That’s right. I have to worship the ground you people walk on. Forgive me,
Your Excellency,” Rev folded at his waist, dipping into a deep bow.

Ruby giggled, spinning next to Rev and imitating his
false idolatry with a curtsey. Her tiny legs barely bent and her neck was too short to allow her to bow her head, but the effect was the same, possibly even more dramatic due to her impairments. She looked at Rev and he flashed her a wink and a smile. Then she zipped into the air above, patrolling in circles, which is what she loved to do most of the time. It gave her comfort to stay in motion.

“Ruby!”
Mahoney scolded her. “You’ve been picking up too many of this ghost’s bad habits.”

She laughed louder, only in her unique voice it was shrill
and rapid and whiny, like someone twisting up a balloon.

“Just get to it,
Mahoney,” Abby relaxed against the table. “Tell us the bad news.”

“Bad news?
What bad news? There’s only good news. Here’s the good news: you guys are officially ordered to stay away from Elyxa, you got that?”

“I knew it!” Abby exclaimed. “You’re so
predictable…how could you do this?”

“It’s out of my hands,”
Mahoney shook his head.

Abby clenched her teeth. “What do you mean out of your hands? Who the hell else is equipped, trained, and specially assembled for a mission like this,
Mahoney? Who the hell else besides Ghost Guard?”

“Do you know who you’re dealing with?
Elyxa isn’t some smalltime ghost hunter with a night vision camera and a voice recorder. She’s the real deal. She’s what you would call an eternal entity, or, in layman’s terms, an immortal!”

A hush pervaded the room.
To Abby, it wasn’t such a revelation.

“
I knew that. So she’s immortal. We can handle her.”

Mahoney
tilted his considerable forehead closer to the screen.

“You say that as if it was some sort of ice cream flavor. Do you have any idea what an immortal being can do?”

“I
do
know what she’s capable of. I’ve seen it firsthand. We all have,” Abby gestured to her teammates. “We’re not afraid of her, right guys?”

All eyes on the floor
. No one said a word.

“Looks like they don’t share your confidence, Abby,”
Mahoney chortled.

“Shut up,
Mahoney,” she steamed. “You weren’t there. You didn’t have to go up against her. I did.”

“
We
did,” Rev corrected her.

“Rev,” Abby approached him. “Back me up on this. We can stop her, don’t you think?”

He couldn’t look at her. Fear wasn’t something he liked talking about, and Elyxa made his energy field tremble. At the same time, she fascinated him. She was an enigma, certainly.

Mahoney
chuckled again. Abby hated when he made that nasally sound. It grated at her nerves.

“See?” he asked. “Even Rev the Great thinks she’s too much for you guys. Believe me. This is
not
your area of expertise. Ghost Hunters. You guys hunt ghost hunters. Not immortals.”

“So you know what she’s up to?” Abby tested him.

“We know enough. She’s been many things to many people over the centuries. A sorceress. A succubus. A goddess. All you need to know is that you won’t be involved.”

“But who else could possibly do a job like this? It’s not like you can just call the local police and they’ll go and arrest her. Going up against something like that takes preparation and training. And I’m not just talking weapons training, either.
I mean parapsychology, cryptoscience, spiritualism—”

“You mean all the skills you happen to have, right, Abby?”

“Well, yes, of course. Mahoney, you know I’m right, goddammit!” she squared up to the screen again.

“Look,”
Mahoney said. “The important thing is you know your work is very valuable, both to the living
and
the dead. I know it’s thankless work. You can’t even tell anyone about it for God’s sake, and that’s a shame. Believe me, I feel bad about that.”

“Spare me your violin solo,” Abby sneered. “
Among other things, I’m a clairsentient, remember? I can spot a line of bullshit from a thousand miles away, even over a secured line to…where are you, Langley?”

“Where I’m located is of no significance. The only thing that matters to me right now, as your current boss—”

“Correction, Mahoney. You’re not our boss. You’re our contact. Temporarily too.”

He paused, trying not to show any impatience.

“I still have responsibility for you, and I intend on not screwing this up. Like I said, the most important thing right now is the safety of Ghost Guard.”

“That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” Rev laughed.

“You don’t understand. Especially you, Rev. You don’t take much serious lately. I can say this—Elyxa is as serious as it gets,” Mahoney looked to his left, then his right. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but our research department has learned she’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion years old.”

“
A billion—” Abby’s jaw dropped. “How’s that even possible?”

Morris adjusted his glasses. “That
’s not feasible, Mahoney. Earth was barely habitable a billion years ago.”

“
Who’s saying she’s from Earth?” Mahoney asked.

“An ancient immortal from the stars,” Morris
muttered in amazement.

Ruby clicked and whistled
, awestruck at having met a soul more ancient than her.

“And she doesn’t look a year older than thirty,” Rev smiled, staring somewhere faraway.

“Which brings me to the other reason why the brass doesn’t want Ghost Guard having any part of the operation.”

Abby peered at Rev and squinted hard.

“What are you talking about, Mahoney?”

He took a deep breath.

“It’s been decided that it’s best for the team to stay away…for many different reasons, least of which is the conflict of your mission overall. But one of the biggest deciding factors had to do with the possibility of some kind of, well, romantic relationship between Rev and Elyxa.”

“What!” Rev rippled with anger. “How can you say that?”

“Oh, gosh, Rev,” Abby scowled. “I can’t even begin to think of where they’d get such an idea.”

“But I never mix work with pleasure!” he
contended.

“Ha!” Abby laughed in his face.

He passed through her to get to the monitor. She hated when he did that.

“My liaisons are for mission reasons only. Part of the job, that’s all.
For the mission.”

“Part of the job,”
Mahoney snickered. “Nice benefits, right, Rev?”

“
Mahoney, I’m being serious,” he frowned at the screen. “Whenever I have a romantic tryst with a woman, it’s always with the team in mind.”

Ruby beeped and blipped, wiggling to her own feverish giggles. Even Brutus got into it,
huffing a harsh laugh in his deep, gravely bass. Rev looked at each one of them.

“Guys, you have to believe me. I never allow sex to cloud my judgment on the job. It’s strictly professional. You’ve seen me operate. It gets results, doesn’t it?”

Mahoney squelched the argument.

“Your opinions aside, the fact remains.
Elyxa has a history of seducing men and, well, Rev has a history of seducing women. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to see where that one’s heading. So we’ve decided to head it off at the pass, so to speak. The decision’s been made. No contact with Elyxa or any of her associates.”

“So it’s that simple,” Abby summed it up. “We have to leave her alone even though she’s basically breaking every code Ghost Guard stands for. She’s destroying spirits. We protect spirits. What am I missing here?”

“Elyxa will be dealt with. I can assure you of that.”

“I don’t believe there’s a team out there better equipped to handle this than us,
Mahoney.”

Mahoney
sat back. “There is.”

“Bullshit! I want to know who—who is this specialized force you’re talking about?”

“You think Ghost Guard is the only paranormal ops team in existence? In the entire security apparatus of the United States Government, you think Ghost Guard is the only one? Don’t be so naive to presuppose you guys are this country’s first and last line of defense against paranormal threats. Think about it. Wouldn’t that be pretty stupid on the government’s part?”

Abby did think about it. They all thought about it, and
Mahoney was correct.

“I guess.”

“Given that reality, Para-Intel has developed many different groups throughout the country, all with varying levels of training, expertise, and hardware to handle different threat levels.”

“And so you’re saying what? That we’re one of the low threat level teams?”

“Ghost Guard is an experimental team. As you know, we’ve never allowed actual ghosts onto our operational squads before. We’ve used them strictly as interpreters and advisors, until, well, until we discovered Rev.”

“So, at least in that aspect we can say we’re unique, I guess, huh
, guys?” Morris shrugged.

“That still doesn’t answer my question,” Abby squinted. “If we’re so
low-level
, what kind of team does it take to overcome someone with the type of power Elyxa has? What are you planning on, nuking her? Because I gotta tell you, even that won’t do it,” she addressed her teammates. “When she probed my mind, I was able to read hers. She’s immortal. Mahoney’s right. But this being has no soul. That’s why she hunts them. It’s her only link to the spiritual realm, because she only exists in the physical realm, and always will. Forever and ever. Imagine it. Continuing on and on and on. You live when all else dies and is regenerated and reborn. It’s the cycle of the universe, and you’re not welcome in it. You’re banished, an outcast, an outsider looking in.”

“I for one am not going to feel sorry for her,”
Mahoney huffed.

“Neither will
I,” Brutus still fumed about what Elyxa had done to him back at the riverfront.

Ruby squealed and popped in her unique dialect, agreeing with
Mahoney and Brutus. Morris nodded, and Abby glanced at Rev. He sighed, giving her a defeated look.

“I’m not saying we have to pity her,” Abby argued. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. I just wanted to tell you what she communicated to me. On the surface, she’s hard, cold, calculating. But deep down, she’s hurting. She’s hurting worse than any creature on the planet. That’s why she does such horrible things.”

“Misery loves company,” Morris said.

“More like desolation. She’s trapped in her own body and can never die.”

“Thanks for your in-depth profile,” Mahoney nodded. “You see, there’s one little thing you’ve overlooked. THIS ISN’T YOUR MISSION! Ghost Guard, you hereby are ordered to stand down, you hear me?”

“But
Mahoney…I think we can—”

“That’s an order!”

The screen went all black.