“No way,” Nick declared.
“C’mon, you have a lot of
sweaters. People borrow them all the
time. You could easily let Bert borrow
one.”
Nick shook his head.
“Why?” Merlin asked. “Why are you being .. more obstinate than
usual?”
“Something about that guy just …
” He fell silent but his face was
animated. It was the face he usually
had just before he hit something.
“Nick, he’s harmless.” She sat on the bed and watched him pace. “Yes, he’s a nuisance but we can work around
him. He isn’t the first nuisance we’ve
had here and we’ve done it before. And
it’s only four days.”
“He compromises our security.”
“How? He doesn’t know about the Legacy so he won‘t
ask any difficult questions. He hardly
knows about the Luna Foundation, only what he was told by people who’d seen the
website. He thinks we’re a group of
cranks with nothing better to do with our time than chase a pipe dream. So, for four days, we act the part. Tell him what he wants to know, let him draw
his own conclusions, then wave him bye bye and get on with our real lives. Four days in a lifetime. What’s the big deal?”
Nick knew he was sounding
unreasonable. He knew it showed in his
face and his body language. But he
couldn’t help the fact that he didn’t like people – anyone – just turning up at
the door and taking over, and that was what Bert had done. Very mildly, yes. He hadn’t come in and laid down the law, as had others, and
expected Nick to jump and obey without question. But, for the next four days, Bert was expecting them to answer
each and every question he put to them, he expected them to adjust their lives
to fit in with what he wanted, and he wanted to be a part of something he just
didn’t believe in.
“Merli, I do a lotta things here but,
mostly, I do research. I dig out
facts. Bert’s here to do the same. And he never once thought that, maybe, San
Francisco in January would be cold?”
“So you’re feeling this way because
Bert isn’t being thorough?”
“I’m feeling this way because .. he
shouldn’t be here! Period. There are lots of
groups like us. They don’t have the
contacts we do or the expertise, but they do basically the same job. Why us?”
She considered. “You ask that because you think he’s some
kinda spy ..? He is but he’s being open
about it. The obvious answer to your
question is because we have the contacts and the expertise. The Luna Foundation has a good rep, like he
said. What’s really eating you? C’mon, spit it out.”
Nick halted. “I don’t want a TV show modeled on us. Okay?”
“Sure it isn’t because he said Army
Ranger?”
Nick’s expression darkened. “That too.”
“Would you have preferred him to say
Navy SEAL?”
“No!
They never get it right. The way
they show SEALs on TV and in movies .. it’s a farce.”
“And, of course, you couldn’t tell him
.. cos then you’d have to shoot him.”
Nick glared at her and she
laughed. Slowly, he lost the anger and
began to smile. “Maybe I should tell
him then. Get him off my case once an’
for all.”
“Maybe Army Ranger would be for the
best. Nicky, you got off lightly – ”
“Because I didn’t spill my guts like
the others.”
“Okay, but imagine how Rachel
feels. Or Alex. Or Derek, for that matter – the leader of
this house, a Legacy Precept, reduced to an accent. Bert’s just a motormouth.
If you’ve ever done a road trip with Jack, you learn how to shut it out
before it drives you insane. So .. just
play along with him. In four days,
he’ll be gone. Hold on to that thought.”
Nick grunted. “I’ll try.
No promises.”
“Let him borrow a sweater. An old one will do. One you won’t miss.”
“I want it back!” Nick said quickly.
“You will. It’s only a few hours.
We’ll be home by nightfall.”
He glanced at her.
“Okay, maybe just after,” she
conceded.
“What do you feel about him?”
“Like I told Derek, he’s an
opportunity, not a threat.”
“I noticed. Bounty hunter?”
“Exaggerate some things, underplay
others. Divert the attention away from
critical areas onto minor ones.”
“What about the sexual relief?”
Merlin grinned. “Wanna work out some of that tension, tough
guy?”
Nick didn’t trust Bert so he made sure
the door was locked.
*****
“Dr Rayne, do you have a moment?”
Andrew inquired. He saw Bert look
round. “It’s about domestic matters,
sir.”
“Of course, Andrew. Buck .. would you excuse me?”
“Sure, go ahead. I guess domestic matters are no different
here to anyplace else.”
Derek left the library and closed the
doors behind him. “What is it, Andrew?”
“Dr Rayne .. I’m not one for making
threats,” Andrew began softly, “but, if you go away and leave that guy here
alone with me, I am going to resign.
I’m sorry, sir, but I won’t have the choice”
Derek smiled wryly. “Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for
you, Mr Burko has expressed the wish to accompany us on investigations. Your threat is appreciated but unnecessary.”
“Thank God for that,” Andrew
muttered. “I’m sorry, sir. That came out totally wrong.”
“I understand.” Derek straightened. “We have to go upstate tomorrow, leaving
early, and we’ll be gone all day.”
“Really, sir. The forecast’s pretty bad.”
“Hmm.
We’ll have to take two vehicles … ”
“I’ll prepare Thermos flasks of hot
coffee and soup, and an early, substantial breakfast.”
“Bless you,” Derek smiled.
“Good luck, sir,” Andrew said
pointedly.
“I think we’ll all need it,” Derek
responded.
*****
“Can you believe that guy?” Alex
muttered, sorting thru her closet for extra warm clothes. “How insulting can he be?”
“He works in a different frame of
reference,” Rachel remarked, sitting on the corner of the bed and watching
Alex’s stiff, jerky movements.
At this, Alex turned. “You’re defending him?”
“No, I’m not. What he said was offensive and I am just glad Kat isn’t here and that I said
nothing much about her. I think I got
off lightly with ‘single mother’. What
he said to you … ” She shook her head. “But, we have to remember that, in his line
of work, those expressions, derogatory or not, are used a lot. If you worked in the TV industry, you
probably wouldn’t have reacted at all.
But you don’t, so I understand.
We all do. You have to tell him
his behavior is unacceptable and that, if he wants your cooperation, he has to
treat you with the respect you deserve.
Similarly, you have to make allowances for his thought processes. Education is always a two way deal.”
Alex pulled out a thick sweater and
tossed it onto a chair. “The thought of
spending another hour in that man’s company is enough to sicken me, and, thanks
to London, he’s here for four more days.”
“Maybe not,” Rachel commented. “If this house we’re checking out tomorrow
is the real deal, maybe he’ll either learn enough or be scared enough to back
off an’ go home.”
“I can but hope,” Alex grumbled.
“Peri seems to get on okay with him,”
Rachel remarked.
Alex laughed quietly. “Have you noticed how she always does get
along with society’s misfits?”
“That’s a little harsh,” Rachel
grinned. “She knows how to adapt her
behavior instantly so she gives people what they expect and, therefore, doesn’t
stand out in a crowd. It’s a defense
mechanism to protect herself. When in
Rome, an’ all that. And it works. Bert thinks she’s great.”
“Well .. maybe she’ll be his escort
for us,” Alex suggested. “Keep him occupied
with some tall tales of her bounty hunting days before she married Nick. I think I could cope with Bert being here if
she ran interference and answered his questions. He can learn about us
by pure observation.”
“It would solve a lot of problems,” Rachel
agreed. “And possibly create new
ones. Nick won’t be happy about
it. He already dislikes the guy. How’s he gonna feel about losing Peri to him
for all that time? On the other hand,”
she went on, more slowly, “maybe he’ll get so ticked off, he’ll hit him and
Bert will go home.” Rachel glanced
up. “We can’t lose. I’ll ask her.”
*****
“So .. Derek. We’re going on an investigation,” Bert
began. “I listened to the briefing they
gave you earlier. Is that about
standard?”
“I’d say so, for the amount of detail
we were initially given.”
“So some .. calls for help go into
more detail.”
“Of course. If you had seen something with your own eyes, you could describe
it accurately.”
“I see. And .. the more detail you have .. means what?”
“We have a greater idea of what we’re
dealing with. It’s easiest to remember
it this way – a simple case, even if that is only on the surface, means less
in-depth digging before we go. A
complicated case means more working up, more research, before we go into the
field.”
“They, er, dug out some records on the
house an’ previous owners. What other
kind of research would you do?”
“If it proved necessary, the town in
which a property is located would be checked out. Senior figures in the local community. Crimes committed in the area, is there a pattern? If a violent death had occurred, we would look into the circumstances surrounding it
and what became of the people involved.”
“I see. Just a second while I write this down.”
Derek gazed at the far wall, fondly
yearning for his office by the control room.
A little haven of peace and quiet.
He felt like he was being interrogated, and he was. He wondered mildly how Bert would react if
he refused to answer. Would it shut him
up, make him think – and just what
would he think? – or would it make him worse?
“Okay, that’s great. Let’s go back to the briefing today. Was it enough for you to make a decision to
investigate?”
“Obviously.”
“Are there any occasions when you
refuse to investigate?”
“We never turn down a genuine call for
help.”
“So, if someone didn’t check out, if
they were a fraud, you’d tell ’em to get lost.”
“The Luna Foundation has more than
enough real work to do than become involved in hoaxes, either as a victim or to
perpetuate them, Mr Burko. Your visit,
unannounced, has thrown several projects onto the backburner. If you had contacted us in advance of your
arrival, we could have arranged a more suitable time. We could have prepared.”
This rebuke went straight over Bert’s
head. “I answer to my bosses at
Quadrangle, Derek, not you. They want
this information. I have to get it to
’em. What other projects do you have on
the go?”
“Deciphering a piece of text found on
a tomb for the museum in Mexico City.
Reconstructing a floor plan for a temple site being excavated in Egypt –
”
“Whoa, back up, dude! How does this fit in with ghost busting?”
“We are not ghost busters,” Derek
corrected. “This is a foundation, Mr
Burko. We are involved in many
areas. Investigating the supernatural,
the paranormal, the metaphysical is only one area of our skills here.”
Bert stared at him. At last, Derek thought, I’m starting to get
thru.
“Whoa .. that’s just .. fabulous. What was that word again? Metaphorical?”
“Metaphysical,” Derek replied with a
brief sigh. Inwardly, the sigh was
bigger. A lot bigger. It seemed the
man was here merely to gather information.
He did not appear to want to learn at the same time.
“Metaphysical … I can use that, for sure!”
“Do you know what it means?”
“Haven’t got a clue but that doesn’t
matter. The target demographic won’t
know either and we are not in the business to blind ’em with science, only to
give ’em dramatic TV.” Bert scanned his
notes. “So, this other stuff you do,
that’s money earners for you, time fillers, in between the important things.”
Derek thought of the Cairo house,
anxiously awaiting the temple plan and, now, having to wait a little
longer. Like four more days. He thought of Pablo Eban in Mexico, sweating
over the string of letters he’d discovered and only lacking the translation
before he could publish a ground-breaking article. He would not think of his request as a time filler.
Yet what could Derek say?
“Not exactly. It has equal importance. And it has deadlines.”
“Okay, that brings us onto the next
area.”
I expect it does, Derek agreed. Sweep the implications aside and march
on. As Karl Kraus once said, stupidity
is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
“What kinda hours do you guys work?”
Bert inquired.
“It depends on what work is in
progress and how urgent it is. Nick is
usually up earliest but doesn’t begin work until eight, eight thirty. There again, he is still working when the
rest of us have retired for the night.
Alex may get something finished before breakfast and she usually calls
it a day around six or seven in the evening.
And, occasionally, we are working all night.”
“Five days a week?”
“Seven. If we’re lucky, we get Christmas and New Years off.”
Bert shook his head slowly, frowning
and muttering under his breath.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,”
Derek remarked.
“I was just thinking out loud. You guys must be exceptionally thorough or
exceptionally slow to fill that much time with .. nothing much at all.”
“I would like to think we are the
first,” Derek ground out.
“Okay. Well, that’s all very useful information. It sure fills out the picture a whole
lot. Equipment, for this trip tomorrow,
but, first, let’s go over equipment in general.”
Derek smiled coolly. “How technical would you like me to be,
bearing in mind your target demographic?”
Bert grinned. “An overview at this stage would be
good. I can take photos later for the
props people, close ups for the details an’ as it’s being used for the set
decorators.”
Derek nodded and sighed again. This time, he didn’t try to hide it. He didn’t think Bert would notice, and he
was right.
*****
Andrew opened the front door. “Yes?”
The man studied him. “You’re the new butler.”
“Yes, sir. Andrew.”
“The gate let me on thru. Pete Miller. Detective Pete Miller.
I’m a friend of Rachel Corrigan.
Is she here?”
“Yes, sir,” Andrew replied. “Please come in. I’ll find her for you.”
Pete stepped into the foyer and looked
around carefully. It had cleaned up
pretty good, considering. He hadn’t
been back here since .. what he called ‘the night’. The house seemed quiet enough now. Well, it seemed normal.
Quiet, he’d learned, hadn’t always meant normal – at least, not in this house.
“If you’d like to wait in the music
room, Detective Miller? I won’t be a
moment.”
“Thank you, Andrew.”
He wanted to ask how Andrew was
settling in, but he didn’t. Somehow,
‘need to know’ worked very well in this house and Pete really didn’t need to
know.
He was standing by the window, gazing
out at the view, when Rachel came in.
“Pete! Well, this is a big
surprise! How you doing?” she greeted
with a broad smile.
“Busy, very busy,” he replied,
sounding like he was complaining yet his face told the truth. He was loving it. “How about you, doc?”
“You know how it is around here,” she
said, rolling her eyes.
“You look great on it,” Pete
complimented.
“Thank you,” she blushed.
“How’s Kat?”
“She’s fine. Away at the moment.
School trip.” Rachel’s voice altered. “Just as well, really.”
Pete felt his mouth dry. “Is something going on ..?”
She blinked. “Oh! No. No, nothing like that.” Rachel shrugged. “It’s just that .. we have a guest staying here and he’s … ”
“Not normal? Not human?” Pete ventured warily.
“He’s a pain. Let’s leave it at that, huh?” She smiled again. “What brings you all the way out here?”
“Dr Corrigan, I’m sorry for
interrupting but would you and Detective Miller care for refreshments?” Andrew
politely inquired.
“I’d love some tea,” Rachel
responded. “Pete?”
“Coffee would be good. Thank you.”
Andrew inclined his head and
retreated.
“Seems better than the last one,” Pete
commented.
“Joseph?”
“The one who came at me with a meat
cleaver.”
“Oh .. well, yeah. Andrew is .. very good at his job. Sit down,” she invited. “Now, why are you here?”
“Something weird is going on. I got the case, I’ve talked to the people
involved, and I know I can’t solve this.
I think you can.”
Rachel nodded. “Before you say any more, let me fetch the
others. Okay?”
“Sure.”
Alex arrived first, and Nick and
Merlin followed a few minutes later with Rachel. Andrew followed them in, put down the tray, and immediately went
for more coffee.
“Hi,” Nick nodded, shaking Pete’s
hand. “Good to see you again.”
“Nick, you too. Peri, I’m glad to see you recovered.”
She grinned. “I owe you a big thank you.”
“So .. what’s this something weird?”
Rachel asked.
“There’s a bar in San Bruno. The Gold Rush. It’s been in business .. a month? Five weeks? Not more than
that. The manager called us about a
week ago to report that his staff are being attacked,” Pete replied. “Glasses thrown at them. Scratches.
They’re .. confused and now they’re getting scared, because no one is
throwing the glasses or scratching them.
At least,” he added, “no one they can see. Luke Miles, the manager, wants a quick result because his staff
aren’t staying long and the place is starting to go downhill.” He sipped his coffee. “I’ve looked the place over and I can’t see,
or sense, anything there .. but then I’m a cop and my training doesn’t cover
things like that. My gut says I could
stake the place out for a year an’ get nowhere. However, you guys deal with things like this all the time. Can you take a look?”
Alex, Rachel and Nick exchanged
glances.
“Problem?” Pete wondered.
“No, not a problem,” Alex
replied. “Its just there’s this … ”
“The visitor,” Pete deduced.
“He wants to experience the work we
do, accompany us,” Rachel explained.
“Is he certifiable?” Pete frowned.
Rachel laughed. “I haven’t spoken with him long enough to
give a definite answer to that either way.”
“We’ll take a look,” Nick agreed. “If he gets hurt, that’s his business. He’ll have to deal with it. When?” he asked Pete.
“Sooner the better. Tomorrow?”
Alex bit at her lip. “We already had something lined up for
tomorrow .. but I guess we can put that back.
After all, people are being hurt and scared. That has to take priority over strange noises.”
“What’s the address?” Nick asked.
Pete wrote it down and handed it to
him along with a card. “Call me?”
“Sure,” Nick responded.
*****
Derek was quickly reaching the end of
his rope, as Nick would have said if he’d been there. His words were becoming ever more clipped and precise, he sat up
straight, and his eyes were giving very clear warning signals to anyone
prepared to notice. Bert,
unfortunately, was not prepared.
“How’s it going?” Nick asked as he
came in, leading what almost seemed like a procession.
“I believe we are just about done for
the equipment for tomorrow,” Derek replied.
“Change of plan,” Nick said, leaning
against the edge of the table and folding his arms.
“Oh?” Derek queried.
“You let them talk to you like that?”
Bert wondered.
“I trust their judgment,” Derek
snapped. It’s Paul Emery’s judgment I’m
having major problems with …
“Pete Miller called by,” Rachel began.
“Is he still here?” Derek inquired,
almost pleading.
She smiled sympathetically. “You just missed him, I’m sorry,” she
replied and watched his face fall, like someone had deflated it with a pin.
“Who’s Pete Miller?” Bert asked.
“A friend,” Nick answered.
“A cop,” Rachel added. “Derek, he wants us to look at The Gold
Rush, a bar down in San Bruno.
Apparently – ”
“Whoa, whoa, wait just a second here!”
Bert cut in. “You guys know I wanna sit
in on all your meetings. And yet .. you
did all this without telling me?”
“You were already in a meeting,” Nick pointed out.
“That was routine stuff. Background.
Nothing important. I could do
that anytime. C’mon, guys, work with me
here. Don’t shut me out.”
“What did Pete say?” Derek asked,
shutting Bert out. He deserved nothing
less after dismissing Derek’s time and assistance as unimportant.
“The Gold Rush, a bar down in San
Bruno. Apparently,” Rachel repeated,
“the staff are confused and now they’re getting scared because something is
attacking them. The manager wants a
quick result.”
“As there are people involved, we
figured it should take priority,” Alex concluded.
“Absolutely,” Derek agreed. “I’ll go tell Andrew that we won’t require
coffee and soup tomorrow. Nick, will
you make a start on assessing the risk?”
“Sure.”
“And I’ll watch over your shoulder,”
Bert declared.
They all saw Nick’s eyes go cold and
remote. He got that resolved, distant
expression on his face, the one he used when he was confronted by a situation
he didn’t like yet couldn’t avoid.
“Bert,” Merlin smiled. “How about I give you the ten dollar tour instead?”
“I don’t think you quite understand
what’s going on here,” Bert replied gently.
“I’m here .. to learn. I can’t do
that if I’m not here watching how these people work.”
“Well, I know I’m just a minor
character an’ I don’t know squat about anything but, believe me – an’ I speak
from long experience – watching them work on a computer is incredibly
boring. I can tell you how it’ll be
done. I’ll even demonstrate it to you
later. But, for now, your research is
not as important as theirs. Okay?”
He nodded. “I hear what you’re saying, Peri, and I appreciate the offer – ”
“Good. Let’s go.” She looped her
arm thru his and pulled him toward the door.
He resisted but she was stronger than she looked. Bert had no choice but to go with her.
“Nick,” Derek breathed as they all
headed to the control room, “thank you for marrying that woman.”
*****
In the calm sanity of the control
room, they could .. almost forget about Bert Burko. Derek had attempted to call London again but Paul was long gone for
the night. There was no chance of
getting him to reverse his decision today.
It would have to wait till the morning, but Derek promised he would try
again .. and keep trying .. even if he had to set his alarm clock to be up in
time to make the call.
Nick and Alex got to work on the new
case and were soon absorbed. The Gold
Rush might be a bar now but it had been thru many incarnations.
And, while they dug into the layers,
and while Derek relished the peace and quiet of his office, Merlin got to grips
with the visitor. The afternoon was
fading fast toward twilight so the stroll around the garden was rather brisk
and more like a march.
“So, Bert, tell me about yourself,”
she invited.
He glanced sideways, his eyes
suspicious. “Why would you wanna know
about me?”
“Oh, any number of reasons, I guess,
but the main one is because you haven’t really said anything about
yourself. You’ve asked a lotta
questions about us an’ volunteered nothing in return.”
“But I’m not important.”
“Who told you that?”
“No one told me that, it’s just how things are. I’m a nobody. But that’s
now. One day, I’m gonna be somebody,
yessir.” His shoulders pulled back and
his chin lifted defiantly. “One day, I’m gonna be calling the shots an’
telling people what to do, when to do it, how
to do it.”
“Stifle their creativity, their
personality, hopes an’ dreams,” Merlin agreed.
“Way to go, Bert.”
He
halted, peering thru the growing gloom.
“Are you doing that deliberately?”
“What? Agreeing with you?”
“You’re
taking my words and twisting them. That isn’t what I said.”
“Isn’t
it?” She leaned in closer. “Bert, you’re only a nobody if you believe
you are. You’re only unimportant if you
let others walk over you. Fact of
life. And most people who are victims
become bullies and then make victims of others. You don’t wanna go there.
So, as of this second, you’ve turned a corner. You are somebody and you are important. Now .. tell me about yourself.”
Bert
gazed at her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m
fine. How are you?”
He
hesitated again. “I feel I’m wasting my
time. I should be doing my job and
you’re not letting me.”
“What
time did you leave LA this morning?”
“Early. Very early.”
“It’s
just about four in the afternoon now.
Don’t you feel you’ve earned some time out?”
Bert
laughed quickly. “Yes, I do, but I can
take it later. Right now, I have to
remember that I only have four days to get as much as I can.”
Merlin
smiled. “What would you learn from
watching someone work a keyboard?”
“The
data they gather, where they get it, how they use it – ”
“Sure,
but you’re only getting a general impression while you’re here. All you need to know for your TV show is
that they use a computer to gather data.
You can make it big with lots of flashing lights or not. That’s up to you. A computer can be anything, Bert. As for where they get their information .. ask ’em for a
list. You don’t need to stand there an’
watch. You only need to do that if you’re thinking of going into the same type of
work. Are you?”
“No!”
he denied.
Her
smile grew. “Okay, I’ll go with that
for now. It isn’t quite the truth,
y’know, but I'll let it pass.”
Bert
Burko walked away and halted, staring at the ground. Then he turned to face her.
Merlin hadn’t moved.
“Look,”
he said, and his voice was totally different.
Quieter. Less intrusive, more
real. “The idea of ghosts fascinates
me. Has done ever since I was a
kid. Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Blithe Spirit. The Ghost an’ Mrs Muir.
The Canterville Ghost. But ..
they aren’t real. I know that. If they were … ”
“Yeah,
if they were ..?”
“Everyone
would see them.” He shook his
head. “I realized what fascinated me
really was the fact that I could only see these ghosts when they were on TV. On TV, you can suspend disbelief. You can really be in space, flying faster
than light, meeting aliens. The laws of
physics don’t apply on TV. On TV, all
your dreams can be made real. And that
includes the idea of ghosts, right?
It’s all special effects, CGI, sound effects. The whole package. But ..
there, they are real. Yet it only really works if you anchor it in
real life. That’s why my time here is
so important.”
He
took a few steps toward her. “I believe
that you believe. And .. I guess, deep
inside, I wanna believe too. But, for now,
I don’t. I can’t. My job means
everything to me and I have worked so hard to get where I am .. an’ that’s
hardly anywhere. This show .. it’s my idea. I took a huge risk pitching it to my bosses but it’s something I
believe in. I think it could work ..
but I need that real life anchor. I
came here because .. this is the best.”
Merlin
nodded. “That’s better. Now you’re talking like you’re somebody and
not just an image of a man. No one here
has much time for the corporate mouthpiece spouting someone else’s words or
pretending to be something they’re not.
Keep it real, Bert, keep it honest; you’ll be amazed at the reaction.”
Bert
laughed softly as he shivered. “An’ go
into battle without my armor?”
“Honesty
isn’t weakness. It isn’t vulnerability. Often, it’s the thing which makes you strong
and gains you respect. Push at a lie,
it falls over. Push at the truth, it
won’t ever break.” She watched
him. “But maybe you need a little more time to understand
that. Your image, your .. persona, is
one you feel comfortable wearing an’ projecting. It’s like an old jacket.
It smells right, it fits your body thru years of use. The day will come when you take a look at
yourself wearing it an’ you’ll see that .. it just isn’t you anymore. Then you’ll
throw it away an’ not think twice.”
Bert
cleared his throat, moistened his lips, and twitched slightly. “So,” he said, in the voice which was so
grating, “you’ll give me a list an’ show me how to look things up just like
they’re doing? Cos, I have to tell ya,
this is important stuff. My whole
future success is riding on this.”
“Yeah,
I’ll give you a list an’ show you,” Merlin replied. “You wanna go up to the top of the tower? The view from up there is spectacular. You can see Alcatraz an’ the city.”
“In
this light? Man, the director would’ve yelled wrap long ago.”
“Really? You must know so much about TV. Do you
spend a lot of your time on the set?”
“Yeah,”
Bert replied. “Mostly to run errands,
but .. yeah.”
Merlin
grinned. “Tell me all about it.”
*****
Derek
sighed as he came to stand beside Nick.
Nick was like a rock. His feet
were slightly spread, his arms were folded.
His expression .. well, Derek was pleased he wasn’t on the receiving
end.
“We
never expected this,” he murmured.
The
muscle along Nick’s jaw jumped.
“I
feel like a prisoner,” Derek went on quietly.
“You
are,” Nick breathed. “We all are.”
“How
much longer is he going to stand there ..?” Alex asked softly.
Bert
was on the other side of the holographic wall where he was studying the
map. He’d been there over twenty
minutes, totally absorbed in the image.
They’d been waiting to get out for fifteen of those minutes.
“There you are!” Merlin said, coming thru
the door.
“I
was hoping to find Nick still crunching the numbers but I seem to have missed
him,” Bert responded.
“I won’t miss,” Nick warned, raising his
right hand, forming it into a gun and pulling an imaginary trigger. “Right between the eyes.”
“Or
Derek,” Bert added.
“Please,
God, no,” Derek said in a hollow voice.
“Nick, shoot me instead. I beg you.”
“Or
Alex or Rachel .. but they’ve all disappeared.”
Alex
and Rachel, for all that they were presently trapped in the control room, were
rather glad to have the barrier between them and Bert.
Merlin
cast a bright glance at the map and promptly looped her arm thru Bert’s. The muscle along Nick’s jaw jumped again,
harder.
“Well,
I expect they’re getting ready for supper.
Andrew’s just told me that it’s in the dining room. C’mon, let’s go eat.”
“Will
they tell me what they found out about the bar?” Bert asked, going with her,
and, Nick noticed, not resisting at all this time. “Are we really going there tomorrow? How can people get scratched when there’s nothing there to do
it?”
“Yes,
yes, and that is just one of the mysteries we get to investigate,” she
said. “Life is just a big series of
them, isn’t it?”
“Mysteries
… Yeah, y’know that could work. Expand the premise beyond ghosts … Gee, thanks,
Peri!”
“Well,
you are very welcome, Bert,” Merlin responded.
Their
voices faded and Nick was thru the wall in a flash. “I’m gonna kill him. So
help me, God, I really am gonna kill that guy.” He waited then looked back at the others. “Isn’t anyone
gonna even try an’ talk me out of
it?”
Derek,
Rachel and Alex glanced at each other.
“No,”
Alex said.
“Not
this time,” Rachel added.
“You
should .. play your hunches, Nick,” Derek concluded. “We’ll back you all the way.”
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