“Er .. fine, thanks,” Bert
replied. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t wake you. I-I was just sitting here.
Okay?”
“I
know. It’s them,” Merlin said, her gaze swiveling toward open
air.
“You
can .. see them?” he whispered.
*****
“I
think she can see us!” Lassie warned, backing away.
“She’s
bluffing. We’re ghosts. Nobody can see us unless we want them to.”
“S’right. That’s the rules.”
Merlin was looking right at them. “You think I’m bluffing, huh? Think again.”
“She
can see us,” Lassie declared.
“I
can hear you too, unfortunately,” Merlin added. “I’m not nice when I first wake up. Free advice, folks, beat a hasty retreat while you still can.”
Lassie
grabbed the other two, hauled them up and hustled them from the diner. “We have a situation, guys,” she
hissed. “Conference. Now!”
*****
Merlin
got up and stretched. Bert sat
still. He wasn’t sure but he thought he
might be paralyzed. Merlin went to find
coffee and returned to the booth. She
sat down, sipped the hot, black liquid, then lit a cigarette.
“Um
.. there’s no smoking in here,” Bert commented.
She
looked at him.
Meekly,
Bert pointed to the sign.
Merlin
glanced at where he pointed. “Who gives
a shit? I don’t.” She exhaled smoke as she considered some
more. “No, I really don’t.”
“Okay,”
Bert said quickly.
“So
.. we got ghosts here, have we?”
He
nodded. Quickly.
She
watched him. “You scared of me?”
Bert
shrugged. A fast up and down twitch of
his shoulders.
“Don’t
be. I’m a miserable bitch if I get
woken suddenly but it happens a lot so I live with it. Few cups of coffee an’ some smokes, I’ll be
a little more amenable.” She stretched
again. “What’s been going on?”
“Maybe
the others should tell you.”
“I’m
asking you, Bert.”
Bert
hastily scrambled to erect his defenses again.
“Hey, Peri, c’mon. Everyone else
calls me Buck. You’re my friend, right? Why can’t you call me Buck?”
Merlin’s
eyes narrowed. “Straight answer? Because your name is Bert, not Buck. Bert’s a good name. Your parents gave it to you. Now, they could’ve called you Buck because
they were big fans of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century but I am
willing to put money on the chance that you first got called Buck when you were
either in High School or college because you were convenient to take the
blame. The buck stopped with you.” She took another long pull on her cigarette. “And you, desperate to keep in with the
crowd, took everything they gave you.”
Bert
had flushed. “Actually .. my parents were big fans of Buck Rogers. My Mom liked Buck, my Dad had a thing for
Wilma .. but you’re right. I got the
name in High School an’ it’s stayed with me ever since. The buck .. does stop with me.”
“So why do you tell people that it’s
okay to reinforce that? Hey, call me
Buck just means walk all over me. I
won’t do that. I believe that everyone,
no matter who they are, should take responsibility for their lives, including
all their actions, emotions, words and expressions. The only person who can make you feel anything is you.
And, if you feel hurt by what someone says to you, it’s because,
somewhere inside, there’s a little bit of truth in it .. an’ you buy into their
words.” She shook her head. “Bert, turn the corner, man. You want respect, start giving it out. You want people to like you, start liking
yourself. You need permission? Okay, I give you permission.”
His shoulders gently dropped as the
tension left his body. “I wish you
weren’t married to Nick,” he remarked quietly.
“I could get used to having you around.”
“Well, I am married to him .. so live
with it,” she grinned.
The door from the passage opened and
Derek led the others back in. “We heard
voices – Oh, Peri. You’re awake. Has Buck – ?”
“It’s Bert,” Bert said. “Call me Bert. It’s my name.”
Rachel smiled to herself. Merlin had worked that special kind of magic
again. If Rachel could bottle it, she’d
make a fortune.
“How’s the arm?” Nick asked carefully.
“Good enough to do whatever’s
necessary,” Merlin replied. “That sleep
did wonders. Look, I’m mad as hell cos
those three won’t keep the noise down but I won’t bite off any of your heads
cos me being awake now isn’t your fault.
Bert says you’ll tell me what’s been going down here. Right now, we’re on our own. I’ll make sure it stays that way. Good a time as any for an update.”
“You scared ’em off?” Rachel queried.
“Big time,” Bert grinned.
*****
“You got a cake in the face?”
Nick said nothing. He wanted to put the incident behind him.
“It was done to provoke violence,”
Derek remarked. “And it nearly
succeeded.”
“I don’t think it was,” Merlin
countered. “Provoke a reaction,
sure. Violence .. no. I think what they wanted was action. A chase.
A scuffle, maybe. And they got
that. It did succeed.”
“You’ve seen them?” Alex asked,
leaning forward.
Merlin nodded. “Girl, two guys. In appearance, early twenties.
In attitude, late teens. In noise
level, early teens with rising hormones.
They do nothing but bitch at each other.”
“How come you can see them?” Bert
frowned. “You’re a bounty hunter.”
“Never said what I track down, did I?”
she responded.
Bert sat back, staring. The revelations were coming thick and fast.
“And they are definitely not here
now,” Derek said.
“No.
They took the free advice I gave and made a fast retreat.”
“Good,” Derek commented with fat
satisfaction. “Now we can talk freely.”
“They were here all the time?” Bert
gasped. “Spying on us?”
“Bert, you can’t say that,” Alex
laughed. “They’re ghosts. It isn’t their fault that they can’t be
seen.”
“But they can,” he argued. “I saw one, in the restroom. Nick saw two of them. They were spying. Eavesdropping.”
“You saw a ghost!” Merlin
congratulated. “That’s great. A life wish fulfilled. Don’t you feel good about that?”
“I guess so. I fainted when Alex pointed it out to me but .. yeah. I guess I do feel good about it,” Bert
nodded. “And .. I feel a little scared
as well.”
“It’s the unknown,” Rachel
commented. “It’s natural to feel uneasy
faced with something totally alien to the everyday world.”
“But you’re with people who are
accustomed to this,” Alex went on. “To
us .. this is the everyday world.”
“And it’s all good research for you,”
Nick remarked. “For your TV show.”
“What? Oh. Yeah.” Bert sounded distracted, almost reluctant to
be reminded of that, the big reason he was here at all. “Yeah, it is why I’m with you guys.”
Derek hesitated. “Maybe now is the time to .. bring you up to
speed. Until now, the mood hasn’t been
right. I feel that, now, it is.”
“You mean I’m prepared to listen.”
“Yes.
That is exactly what I mean,” Derek confirmed. “Your experience here has shown that .. we have a purpose, that
our work is not a waste of our time or yours.
Maybe now we can make some serious progress with your task. Let’s start with the cold drafts, shall we?”
“Okay,” Bert agreed.
“It isn’t because the spirits are
dead. A spirit cannot die, only the
body housing it. Spirits are immortal
but they do not belong here and they invariably first announce their presence
by lowering the temperature wherever they are.
Most haunted houses, but not all, have cold spots. An accurate thermometer is necessary to record
their existence. It gives us physical
proof that the environment has been changed by another force. Amateurs use regular household mercury
thermometers but, as you’ve seen at the cabin, we use electronic thermometers
so even miniscule variations in temperature can be recorded. Spectral manifestations can occur in several
ways,” Derek went on, “but, usually, one thing links them all – fluctuations in
the EM field.”
“The what?” Bert queried.
“Electromagnetic field,” Nick
explained. “We can rig monitors in
rooms to constantly measure the background EM field. Normal conditions, the reading is between two an’ seven
milligauss.”
Alex felt a tug of sympathy because
Bert’s expression was one of worry brought on by blank incomprehension.
“Over seven would get our interest,”
she said. “Of course, there could be a
perfectly reasonable explanation, such as voices in the next room, so we always
check and we try to keep conversation to a minimum in sensitive areas. Having said that, it could be the voices
aren’t coming from us.”
“Uh huh. I understand, I think.
Derek, you said manifestations can occur in several ways. Now that I actually have some experience of
that, can you go into more detail?”
“Of course. What would you like to know?”
“What are the several ways?”
“As with living human beings, there are
three kinds of ghosts – visual, auditory and kinetic. In other words, ghosts you can see, ghosts you can hear, and
ghosts which move things around.”
“Ah, right. Poltergeists.”
Derek laughed softly. “The noisy ghost, which is what poltergeist
means. No, poltergeists are not the
ghosts who move things around.”
“They’re not?” Bert queried, biting at
his lower lip.
“I warn you, this learning curve will
not have much of a curve to it.”
“Oh, I’ve gotten that much. But my job’s riding on this. I really have to go back with hard facts.”
Derek paused. “Will you take some advice?”
“Willingly.”
Derek leaned forward. “Forget your TV show.”
“But, as Nick just pointed out, it’s
why I’m here.”
“Listen to me. Forget your TV show. Help us here, tonight. Learn from the experience. Pretend you are not an Associate Producer
but someone who is working in the Luna Foundation. Tomorrow, assuming we can get out, apply what you’ve learned to
your needs. In this way, your show will
be dramatic fiction based on hard fact.
You will be able to talk with authority, because you’ll know what you’re
talking about.”
Bert frowned warily. Merlin leaned toward him, putting a hand
over his.
“Hey, Bert, brave new world,
right? Sometimes .. you gotta take a
leap of faith. So far, all you’ve
really had from these guys is what you’ve given them. No time. Disdain. Even a little contempt. You don’t have to give that. Derek’s telling it to you straight. We understand that you’re a newbie to all
this. We can make allowances for ..
genuine questions, y’know? Work with us
and you’ll get the cooperation you want.
Nick is an excellent technician.
Alex is an expert with the computer.
Rachel knows all about how the mind works. An’ Derek .. when your back’s against the wall, you won’t find a
better friend. Best way to learn is to
be a willing helper. Believe me, I
speak from experience.”
He slowly nodded. “Okay.
I’ll try. I’ll try real hard.”
“No one can ask more,” Rachel smiled.
“Okay, you set for your first lesson
in the subject of the paranormal with regard to spectral manifestations?” Nick
grinned.
“I wish I could take notes,” Bert
remarked, “but .. I’ll just listen and hope the rest of the night rams it
home.”
“Alex, could you get us some coffee?”
Derek requested.
“I’ll fetch it,” Merlin offered. “I need the exercise and Alex should be here
cos she’s a great teacher as well.”
“Thank you,” Alex smiled. “Well, Bert, there are four kinds of
spectral manifestation. The first is
ghosts. As Derek said, ghosts can be
visual, auditory or kinetic. Sometimes,
they can be a mixture but they tend to be rare. I think the kids here are a mixture and, therefore, very
special.”
“Ghosts haunt locations,” Nick
added. “Such as this diner.”
“The second type of manifestation is
poltergeists,” Derek continued.
“Poltergeists are primarily kinetic.
They attach to people. So, from
this, you will see that, if a house is torn down and a new house is built, the
ghost will haunt the new house. It is
the location, the inorganic, which roots them in this world. Similarly, if a poltergeist attaches to a
person and that person moves to escape the manifestation, the poltergeist
simply moves with them. Distance
appears to be no problem.”
Bert nodded.
“Ghosts have no time limit,” Rachel
remarked. “In England, in the city of
York, there are reportedly ghosts of Roman soldiers marching along the old
Roman road. The road is now beneath
other structures, so they appear to be walking thru floors and they walk thru
walls because, in their time, there were no walls there. Poltergeists, however, are short term. Their manifestation is usually over in less
than five years. .. but they do pack a lot of activity into their time and it
can be violent an’ frightening.
Poltergeists seems to fall into two categories – good an’ bad. The good type is really .. more of a
pest. They move things because it’s
fun. They sometimes leave gifts of
money. The bad kind can be
destructive. Gifts of fire, for
example. People affected by that kind
see it more as a plague, especially when their home is burnt out.”
“There is a school of thought which
says poltergeists are born from children who have higher than normal psi
ratings,” Nick shrugged. “Could explain
why there’s a time factor involved with them.
Once the kids hit their middle teens, the manifestations seem to fizzle
out.”
“Can you communicate with them? Educate them, like how Alex said earlier?”
“You can certainly attempt to reason
with them. Voice communication is only
one way, us to them. Poltergeists are
never seen and they don’t talk, although they can write messages .. usually all
over the walls, and not always using .. shall we say, family language,” Rachel
replied.
“The third kind of manifestation is
what we call elementals,” Derek said.
“These are not souls of dead people, they are .. energy, spirits,
forces, the things we call creatures because we don’t know what else to call
them. Imps. Devils, maybe. Sometimes
they are visual, often they are kinetic.”
“The last kind is the .. imprint on
time,” Alex related. “Again, not souls
of dead people but .. how to put this into words so you’ll see what I mean …
” She frowned. Merlin put coffee mugs in front of everyone
then resumed her place. “When something
big happens – a battle, a shipwreck, or a big automobile pile up, for example –
the event itself can be imprinted on the area and, when someone comes by who is
tuned to the right frequency, it triggers a replay of the event. Like switching on a video recording. When the recording is done, it rewinds and
replays to the next person. These can
last for hours. They seem to be ghosts
because, in some cases, it gets very cold, it’s in one place, and the images
are misty, ghostlike, but they’re not, only a snapshot into the past, imprinted
on the fabric of a location.”
“Wow, yeah, that makes a lotta sense,”
Bert murmured. “I never realized there
was so much to it.” He laughed quietly
as he shook his head. “I must’ve seemed
like a real jerk to you guys.”
“We were more .. irritated that you
wouldn’t listen,” Merlin commented. “We
had so much to tell you – it was like shouting in a hurricane. No one could hear.”
“But you are listening now,” Derek
pointed out. “And this is very
important. This is .. the heart of what
we do. It will help us deal with the
situation here. To return, then, to the
first kind – ”
“Ghosts,” Bert said to show he’d been
paying attention.
“Yes, ghosts. Visual ghosts. Ghosts you can see. These
can be, as you’ve learned, fully formed or they can be partial, appearing as a
blurred outline. Sometimes, you don’t
see them directly but only as reflections, in windows or mirrors, for
example. It is extremely rare that a
visual ghost has substance – if you touch it, it feels like a solid
person. Did you touch the one you saw
in the restroom?”
“No,” Bert replied. “To be honest .. I didn’t want to and I
didn’t want it to touch me. I thought
it was Nick and .. I thought he’d hurt me so I kept a distance.”
“Hmm.
I expect, despite the menacing aspect, it kept a distance as well so as
not to give the game away. It is
obvious that it was also an auditory ghost.
A ghost you can hear. These, in
their pure form, are possibly the most frightening. They make noises – banging, tapping. Often, the noise is deafening and very frightening to hear, and
the terror is increased because the victim doesn’t know from where the noise is
coming. Or, as happened to you, they
can speak. You hear voices. They may be repeating conversations from hundreds
of years ago or, as with you, they could be attempting to communicate with
someone on this side. Kinetic ghosts.
Ghosts who move things. Often as
a cry for help. To get your
attention. You leave your cup here, on
the table. You come back, it’s over
there, on the shelf. Or .. at the risk
of mentioning something best forgotten, they can throw things, like cakes. They can be immature, they can be angry, the
kinetic ghosts, which is why people tend to say they are the poltergeists but
they’re not.”
Bert nodded.
“We will not be using equipment here
tonight and, anyway, that is a subject I’ve already dealt with, but the one
item of equipment I did not mention before .. and that was because it is not an
item of equipment at all, is the psychic.
The person sensitive to the other side.
The one who can see and hear and interact with these manifestations.”
Bert grinned.
“Have I said something to amuse you?”
Derek inquired.
“I’ve been listening, Derek, an’ very
carefully. And it all seems good. But, c’mon .. psychics?”
Derek regarded him. “Bert, it is no secret that you do not
believe in ghosts. Why then did you
come to us?”
“Because the idea of ghosts fascinates
me. I think they make good TV. Special effects these days are ..
incredible. Have you seen Poltergeist,
the movie? When that ghost floats down
the stairs ..?”
“No,” Derek replied. “I’ve seen too much of the real thing.”
Bert stared at him and swallowed
suddenly. “I .. interacted here. Does that mean I’m a psychic?”
“Would you want to be?” Merlin asked.
“No.
Nothing weird like this, or anything like this, has ever happened to me
before tonight.”
“Then I’d say you’re not a
psychic. You didn’t instigate
contact. They contacted you. Psychics .. can reach out to the other
side.”
“Like mediums?”
“Same thing,” she winked.
“I’m a psychic,” Derek admitted.
“So am I,” Alex added.
“But I’m not,” Nick said. “Yet we’ve all seen ghosts, Bert. Maybe not here, but in our time at the Luna
Foundation. Kinda goes with the job.”
“We’ve experienced every kind of
spectral manifestation,” Rachel said on a brief sigh. “And it always wrings you dry.”
“The time imprint is rare but totally
harmless and we investigate it when one is reported,” Derek remarked. “Ghosts cannot harm you – ”
“Unless you get hit by a flying cake,”
Nick commented.
“Or a flying plate, or pot, or curtain
pole. Poltergeists can hurt you. Elementals certainly can. Fortunately, we are not dealing with either
of those tonight.”
“That’s good to know,” Bert agreed, his
voice stronger. “One question I have
which hasn’t been answered yet is .. why are there ghosts? What roots them to a location?”
“Why do ghosts haunt … ” Derek
breathed.
“I think we can all recite this one by
heart,” Rachel smiled. “There are four main
reasons. One – violent death. Two – unexpected death.”
“Three – unfinished business,” Alex
went on.
“An’ four – a need to pass on
information,” Nick concluded.
“So .. these kids,” Bert mused, his
eyes narrowed, “they fit reasons one an’ two.”
“Maybe even three,” Derek
responded. “Possibly all four.”
“That’s what we have to find out,”
Alex said. “Amongst other things.”
Bert nodded again. “But .. why are they here? If their car went off
the road, just over the pass, why aren’t they haunting somewhere at the bottom
of the sheer drop?” He looked quickly
around the table. “Or is that a dumb
question?”
“No, it’s very relevant,” Derek
replied.
Rachel hunched her shoulders as she
leaned forward. “He told you they were
tired, right? They stopped here for
coffee. Maybe they planned to stay a
few hours to rest up before going on.”
“That’s right, yeah. But the place was closing so they had to
leave.”
She frowned. “They should’ve slept in the car in the parking lot but they
didn’t. They drove on. They could’ve been more exhausted than they
realized. The pass is only just up the
road. One cup of coffee wouldn’t have
been enough of a stimulant and it didn’t have enough time to do its work
anyway.” She shrugged. “You don’t have to close your eyes to
sleep. Your brain, when it’s tired
enough, will switch off an’ you can still look awake. Up to a point, the body can function on auto-pilot. A long straight road, an automobile in good
condition, you could sleep for an hour an’ still drive without an accident or
worse. Then you blink an’ realize you
have no recollection of the last hour.
I think they’re here because it’s the last place they remember. Chances are, they were falling asleep as
they left the parking lot. On a road
like this .. they didn’t stand a chance.”
“Poor kids,” Bert murmured.
“What we have to determine now is who
they are,” Derek stated. “And finding
out may not be so easy.”
*****
Lassie paced, biting a knuckle. The two guys, chastened and silent, leaned
against the counter in the janitor’s storeroom. She’d called a conference.
So far, no one had said a word.
They didn’t dare.
“Girls sure have changed,” one of them
murmured eventually. “Did you hear what
she said? Man, I didn’t know girls even knew
words like that.”
“How come she could see us? She shouldn’t be able to do that! It isn’t fair. It’s breaking all the rules.”
“And now we can’t have any more
fun. Gee, this sucks.”
“If you two hadn’t been fighting,”
Lassie said, rounding on them, “an’ making so much damned noise, she wouldn’t
have woken up. That’s down to you.”
“So it’s our fault.”
“Yeah,” Lassie nodded. “Absolutely, it is your fault.”
“Okay, you’re right.”
“What are you gonna do about it?” she
asked.
“Us? I don’t know!”
“You made it go wrong. What are you gonna do to make it right? Now that Peri’s awake, they could use her
like a bloodhound. Track us down. Keep
us in one place. Interrogate us. Do we want that?”
“No.”
“No, not really. Maybe .. we should approach her. Try to … ”
“Apologize?” Lassie suggested. “That’d be a good first move.”
“Okay, apologize, an’ then .. talk
things out with her. Enough to keep her
off our backs.”
Lassie laughed without humor. “Right, as if that would happen. You heard her. You saw her. Did she look
like someone who’d just roll over?”
“She looked like someone who isn’t
scared of ghosts. Someone who .. might
go off on her own. If she does, we can
try being one of the others.”
“Try being the operative word.”
“I wanna talk with the TV producer
again. We have to get him on his own.”
“Uh huh,” Lassie said, folding her
arms. “How do you plan to do that?”
“Well .. we know where they are. That means the rest of the place is
ours. We don’t have to hide away in
here till they go. We set up a series
of diversions. While they deal with
those, we .. trick him into moving away.”
“Flipper, that sounds incredibly
dumb. And you were always the smart
ass,” she said flatly.
“When your back’s in a corner an’ all
you have left is desperation, even the dumbest ideas can work for you,” he
commented. “Up for it?”
“Sure! Count me in. If nothing
else, it’ll be fun.”
Lassie sighed and shook her head. “Okay.
Why not?”
*****
“I left your supper in the kitchen,”
Rachel remarked. “I figured you’d be
hungry when you woke .. but I never expected you to wake just yet.” She hugged her shoulders and briskly rubbed
her arms. “I’m not sure if it’s good or
bad.”
Merlin raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Good for us, bad for you,” Rachel
explained with a quick grin. “How’s
that arm?”
Merlin knew a brief reply would not
cut it. Rachel wasn’t the kind to let
something like this rest. She slipped
off her jacket and rolled up the sleeve of her sweater. The gash was, by now, a fine dark pink line
and a lot shorter than it had been.
“I’d say good for you that I woke
now,” Merlin replied, allowing Rachel to examine the fading wound. “Bad for them.”
Rachel glanced up quickly. “You won’t hurt them, will you?”
“I can’t. The line they’re crossing is the line of civilized behavior. They’re kicking over the traces, that’s
all. But I don’t have to hurt them,
Rachel. I’m awake now and just knowing
that might be enough to keep ’em on the right side of the line.” Merlin tugged down her sleeve. “I don’t have a problem with kids being
kids. I don’t have a problem with
ghosts having some fun cos they’re bored rigid. I know what that’s
like. But I can deal with the ..
excesses so they don’t cause you trouble.”
She shook her head. “I wish I
could’ve seen that … ”
“What?”
“The cake.”
Rachel risked a smile. “We didn’t dare laugh although I swear Alex
was on the point of cracking. Bert came
flying in an’ hid behind her. And then
this .. apparition burst thru the door after him, bits of chocolate sponge an’
frosting hanging off his face. Nick was
just about to do some serious damage.
Derek had to grab him an’ pin his arms.”
Merlin grinned broadly. “I miss all the good stuff. Well, I think I’ll go warm over my
supper. I’m starved.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Derek’s orders. No one goes anywhere alone.”
Merlin shrugged. “Those are Luna Foundation orders. I’m kinda exempt. I can see these kids, I’ll be okay.”
“And if one of them decides to
masquerade as you?” Rachel queried.
“They don’t know me well enough to
carry off a trick. Ask to see the
sleeve of my sweater. I bet it won’t
have a big rip down it,” she winked.
“I’ll be fine. Soon as I’m back,
I think you should try getting some sleep, even if you do it turn an’ turn
about. It’s nearly eleven thirty. I’m fresh.
I’ll stand guard. Or .. come the
morning, we could end up doing what those kids did.”
Merlin went out into the passage and
turned left toward the kitchen. She
went on a small detour, checking the layout just as Nick had done, then
continued on to where her supper awaited on a white china plate on the counter
next to the microwave. Her stomach
rumbled. It had been a long time since
breakfast, and a cup of hot soup from a Thermos hadn’t done much for her in the
hours since. The smell of fried onions
and hot meat made her mouth water.
“What are you doing?”
“Eating my supper .. or I’m about
to.” The microwave switched off and she
opened the door. “Doesn’t that smell
great?”
“Yeah. But I ate earlier,” Nick said, coming closer. “Derek’s orders don’t mean anything to you?”
Merlin turned to lean against the
counter. “He’s used to me doing my own
thing.” She studied his face. “How you doing?”
Nick shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
“You look tired. It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah. Very long. But I’m
hanging in there.”
Merlin chewed and swallowed. “What d’you think our .. friends will try
next?”
“Maybe nothing, not now you’re awake
an’ on the case.”
“True. You think we’ll be able to leave in the morning?”
“I don’t know,” Nick replied. “It’s snowing pretty bad. We may be stuck here a while yet. Got plenty to eat though. We won’t starve. We got shelter.
Heat. Why we stopped here in the
first place. We can last out till we’re
rescued.”
“I bet they taught you all the basics
for survival in the Army, didn’t they?”
Nick shrugged again. “Yeah.
Got me thru some tough times.”
“What were you again? Rangers or Airborne?”
“Rangers.”
She finished her first burger and
picked up the second. “You know, don’t
you, that my husband doesn’t like me spending time with you.” Merlin leaned nearer. “He gets jealous that we’re so close. He thinks something’s going on between us.”
Nick looked away and ran a hand around
the back of his neck. “I might want
that but .. it isn’t true. It won’t
happen.”
“You want something to happen between
us?” Merlin asked softly. “I wouldn’t
put up that much of a fight.”
“And ruin a good working
relationship?”
Merlin took a bite from the second
burger. “Might not ruin anything,” she
remarked.
“I won’t deny you’re a great looking
woman, Peri.”
She nodded slowly, put the burger down
and wiped her fingers on a cloth. Then
she faced him again. “Why don’t you
drop the act now?”
“What d’you mean?” Nick frowned. “What act?”
“You’ve made four errors so far. Nick wasn’t in the Rangers, the Rangers are
airborne, there’s already something going on between me an’ him, an’ he never
calls me Peri when we’re alone. Plus
you’re in here on your own against Derek’s orders. Or would you like me to throw out some more test questions for
you to attempt? You don’t know him well
enough to pull a stunt like this on me.”
Nick’s face rippled and a younger guy
stood there. He had long, dark hair and
bright green eyes. He looked a little
embarrassed. “It was worth a try.”
“Sure. Was it you who threw the cake?”
“Nah.
That was Skippy. He’s got the
power to move things. Um .. I wanna
apologize on behalf of the three of us.
We’re sorry we woke you up.”
“I bet you are.”
He half grinned as he ran a hand thru
his hair. “Yeah, it put a serious crimp
in our style. But .. you don’t
understand – ”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Merlin
breathed.
“It’s just .. I’ve heard the same
conversation for twenty years. Okay,
there’s been slight variations but it’s basically the same. Mostly, we’ve seen the same faces. A lot older now. Some have gone an’ have been replaced by younger faces. We’ve watched the same sports on TV. For twenty years … ”
“You’re bored.”
“A plank of wood has a more interesting
life than I do.”
“You don’t have a life.”
“Tell me about it,” he commented
darkly. “So, when they shut early cos
of the weather, we thought we were gonna have another long night of our own
company. And, after this long, our own
company is starting to stretch very thin.”
“So you enliven it by fighting amongst
yourselves.”
“Yeah. No one’s ever been disturbed by it before. If we’d known, we would have kept the noise
down.”
“I believe you,” Merlin nodded.
“You can .. maybe .. imagine how
intrigued we were when people broke in.
This was different big time for us.
New faces, fresh conversation.
We just wanted a little fun with ’em.
No big deal.”
“You shut Rachel in the freezer.”
“That was Skippy. He can get a little wild. We never meant to hurt anyone. He would’ve let her out again. He did it just to freak her, y’know?”
Merlin nodded again. “I know.”
“Look .. is there any chance you could
back off?” he asked. “It’s one
night. Tomorrow, you’ll all be gone an’
we’ll go back to more of the same old routine.”
“Not necessarily. It’s snowing hard. There’s no guarantee we’ll get out tomorrow. And there’s no guarantee that, come the
dawn, you’ll still be here.”
He looked up quickly. “They’re real ghost hunters?”
“Oh yeah. They want to help you .. move on. If you want that to happen, it won’t take much.”
“We’re all kinda scared. I mean, we never thought we’d die that night
so we weren’t scared of it. And I know
this isn’t really living but it’s damned close. It’s just .. we’re stuck here.
I was going to Hollywood, to try an’ make it big in the movies. Passing over, moving on .. that’s the
unknown and we’re all kinda scared at what’s to come.”
“Don’t be. You’ll have a lot more freedom over there. Sky’s the limit. You can do anything you want, be anyone you wanna be. Start up your own studio.”
“Really?” He sounded painfully cautious.
“Absolutely.”
“Wow … It does sound great.”
“It has to be your decision. We won’t force you to go if you’d prefer to stay
here .. with all these familiar things.”
“We’ll think about it.”
“I’ll do a deal with you,” Merlin
said, picking up her burger again.
He angled his head. “On one condition.”
“You don’t know what I want yet.”
“Whatever. One condition.”
“Name it,” she requested.
“That weedy guy. He’s in TV, right?”
“Associate producer. His name is Bert.”
“Right. I wanna talk with him. I
wanna know what it’s like to be in TV.
All the details. Get him on his
own for us. That’s the condition.”
“I may have to be with him. At first, anyway. To .. make the introductions.”
“Okay. What’s the deal?”
“Bert has no experience of the
paranormal, the supernatural. He’s with
us to do research for a show he wants to make about ghosts. So far, he hasn’t really gained a true
insight. You’re the first ghost he’s
ever seen. You wanna ask him about
TV. He’ll tell you. It’ll be tough to shut him up because he’s
passionate about his job. In return,
let him ask you all about being a ghost.
Put on a show for him. Scare him
if you want but not too much. He’s
kinda nervous, highly strung. You got
the rest of the night. Come dawn, I
want Bert to leave here one happy an’ fulfilled individual who can go back to
LA with a light heart. You get what you
want, he gets what he wants. You do
that, an’ you decide you wanna move on, I’ll help you.”
“What’s the catch?” Flipper asked,
frowning.
“No catch. I’ll keep the others outta your way, give you a free hand ..
within reason. They could use some
sleep cos they are exhausted. They are
not included in this deal. You leave
’em alone. You let Bert think he’s
doing a real investigation. Let him
track you down .. with my help. He
doesn’t know about this conversation.
And no more cakes.”
He thought it over. “Deal.”
“You speak for everyone?”
“If it means we can have a little fun
.. yeah. They’ll do what I say.”
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