Ghost guard, p.17
Ghost Guard, page 17
The coroner inhaled sharply and slipped on the blood left by seven gurgling, dying federal agents. He almost lost his balance, but caught himself on the metal bedframe. Then he lost control of his bladder when Elyxa sat up and grasped his throat with one hand. Standing on the bed, she lifted him off his feet, all the way so his back was against the ceiling. The skin on her face flopped open in several places. Her eyes darted left to right, then back to the helpless man in her grasp. With one jerk of her wrist, she snapped his neck, almost taking his head clean off.
“Welcome back,” Aros bowed his head.
FIFTEEN
“ABBY, WE HAVE a message coming in from a secured server. Looks like it’s for you,” Morris handed her his tablet computer.
“Who is it? Mahoney?” Abby glared at the device.
“No, it’s…” he hesitated, then waved his hand and the screen came alight with a man’s face, but this man wasn’t the double-chinned, hairless blowhard from Para-Intel. This man was young, strong, handsome, dark. Wavy, perfectly groomed hair, cropped but not too short. At least not too short for Abby’s taste. She felt a twinge of elated surprise when he popped onscreen, and couldn’t contain herself when she blurted:
“Riley!”
“Riley!” Rev sat up, and right away wished he hadn’t. Both Ruby and Brutus helped comfort him to the cushiony sofa again.
“Hello, Abby,” Riley sounded somber and frantic at the same time. “I just wanted to give you a heads up…and a warning.”
“A warning?” Abby was concerned with his cryptic tone. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s Elyxa.”
“She’s missing, isn’t she?” asked Morris.
Riley’s answer was a deep sigh.
“What!” Rev shouted. The sudden outburst made his head throb. He threw up his hands to cradle his brow. “Ouch!”
“What happened, Riley?” Abby pressed. “I thought you guys had her.”
“We did. Or we thought we did. Turns out she wasn’t dead. Then her friend showed up to get her. They killed seven more of our men, Abby. This woman—this thing has to be stopped…now.”
“Morris, this is really, really bad,” Abby said. “Elyxa’s probably coming for us right now. We have to do something.”
Morris only shook his head.
“If she was going to come after us, she would have already. I suspect she’s still too incapacitated to try anything yet. She needs time to heal. She’s immortal, but she’s not indestructible.”
“Then that should give us some time to come up with a plan,” Abby wasn’t in the least relieved.
“Whatever you guys do, I want in,” Riley said, and to that, Rev sat up again.
“Wait a minute, buddy. We don’t—”
“Rev, shut up,” Abby sliced and diced him with a sharp glare. “Riley, I’m sorry, but Ghost Guard is…I just…I don’t think it would work out.”
Abby wanted to say more, and Riley sensed that. So did Rev. It rubbed him raw like sixteen grit sandpaper.
“Abby, you really need to be careful. Elyxa, she’s…she’s dangerous. I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
“Thanks, Riley,” Abby’s face turned red. Rev’s blood began to boil.
“Abby?” Riley stopped her from terminating the connection. “Abby, I…it’s really good to see you again.”
“Goodbye, Riley,” she collapsed the screen with a grin.
“Oh, please,” Rev laughed. “Can you believe that guy? What a jerk.”
“Why’s he a jerk?” Abby snapped. “Because he’s nice to me?”
“Hey, I’m nice to you.”
“Pfft!”
“Guys,” Morris played referee. “Putting your personal feelings aside, Riley had some pretty disturbing news.”
“We got Elyxa once, we’ll get her again,” Abby declared.
“And next time we’ll finish the job,” Brutus said with more glee than anyone in the group had seen from him in quite a long time, if ever.
“You’re happy about that, aren’t you?” Rev glared at him.
“And you’re not?” Brutus glared back. “I thought we were on the same side, Rev. Why are you so worried about that immortal monster?”
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m back to being a walking, talking slab of meat. Look at me. Let me tell you, this is no picnic. Being alive hurts. And what’s worse is, according to Morris, my life is tied to Elyxa’s. So excuse me if I don’t share your exuberance for making her extinct, because as soon as someone kills her, then I die.”
“What’s the big deal?” Brutus shrugged. “You’ll just become a ghost again.”
“It doesn’t work that way, big fellow,” Morris knew it would come around to him, and he hated giving bad news. It always seemed to be up to him, though. He adjusted his glasses. “Normally we would have no worries. Rev could die at any time and it wouldn’t matter.”
“Hey!” Rev was insulted.
“You know what I mean,” Morris smiled nervously. “You’d normally become a spirit and have the choice to either stay here or go to the next astral plane like every spirit does.”
“So what’s different?” Abby asked.
Ruby chirped with a rare menace in her tone, and everybody knew she was talking about Elyxa.
Morris nodded in confirmation.
“Elyxa’s influence is the problem. Because Rev’s been placed back into this body, and because this body was reanimated by artificial means, it’s an abomination, a freak of nature. I’ve done some investigation on such entities. Few have really existed. Mary Shelly wrote a fictionalized novel about one such case, and as far as we know, when the creation finally died, its spirit was trapped in oblivion.”
“You’re talking about Frankenstein’s monster?” Abby asked. “That was real?”
“The novel was based on a real incident. It wasn’t totally different than Rev’s situation.”
“That’s impossible!” Abby upturned her chin.
“Why is it impossible?” Morris posited. “Authors do such things all the time—change names, places, even the sexes of the characters to protect them. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What concerns us now is the fate of Rev’s soul, which, I’m afraid, is dubious.”
“Dubious?” Rev was confused. Without his ability to tap into the ether and gather any bit of knowledge he so desired, his vocabulary had become quite limited. “What’s that mean? Dubious?”
Ruby moaned in her own unique, squeaky way, ashamed of Rev’s ignorance.
“It means you’re in trouble, buddy,” Abby sighed. “Morris, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re saying we don’t have a clue what will happen if and when Rev’s new physical body dies, right?”
“There’s no guarantee he’ll come back as a ghost. And even if he does, there’s no guarantee he’ll come back as a sentient ghost. My guess is he’ll end up either as a mindless residual haunter, or he’ll be flushed into oblivion.”
Rev shuddered visibly.
“I know,” Morris got the chills himself. “It’s unsettling to think what might happen to you. You could be ejected into the emptiness of space for all we know.”
Brutus scowled, “Sounds like the Ghost Gun.”
“Precisely,” Morris said. “The same basic principal is applied. Forsythe developed a way to tap into that desolate void where all spirits dare not go, for if they do, they never return. Elyxa is from that void, and the key is to send her back there, but we’re not sure if Rev will go with her when he does.”
“Let me get this straight,” Rev’s head was cloudy. He felt heavy. His vision doubled, even tripled in places. His neck stiffened, and a deep bruise in his side was screaming at him. “Because I’m not sure if I’m hearing this right. I’m alive now, but I can’t get used to this, because my life is tied to an immortal we have to destroy. I get the part where, after we destroy her, I die too. But after that, my spirit might extinguish completely?”
“So far so good,” Morris said.
Rev looked at himself in the mirror.
“Life was so much better when I was dead.”
“What’s the matter, Rev?” Abby teased. “Miss your psychic abilities? Can’t sneak into women’s minds and make them want to sleep with you anymore?”
“Of course not,” he laughed uneasily. “But since you brought it up, what about my service to Ghost Guard? Now what am I going to do? I can’t do the same things I used to. I mean, I guess I could keep driving the Phantom, but other than that, I’ll be useless to you guys.”
Ruby whistled and popped, telling Rev they’d be useless without him.
“I’m afraid Ruby’s correct,” Morris confirmed. “Now that Rev’s no longer a ghost, and deprived of his extraordinary powers, Ghost Guard won’t be the same,” he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I’m fearful this might mean the termination of the team.”
“Bullshit,” Abby refused to accept it. “No way. We’ll figure something out. Bottom line is Elyxa needs to be destroyed, and when that happens, we’ll get Rev back as a ghost.”
“It’s good to hear you’ve got your priorities straight, Abby,” Rev smiled smugly. “Finally acknowledging who’s numero uno around here.”
“You know what?” Abby grabbed the nearest thing she could find, a first aid kit, and dropped it on Rev’s foot. He winced at the sudden ache. “I was wrong. This team will do just fine without you. We don’t need you. Never have. You can be replaced—easily!”
“Oh, really?” Rev’s arrogance was matched only by his boldness. “I’d like to see that. You know as well as I do what every paranormal expert from the NSA to the CIA and every other alphabet agency in-between has said—not to mention our own Morris, here. And even you’ve said this once or twice—that my abilities were through the roof. One in a billion.”
“Yeah…WERE. Past tense. Anyway, a billion isn’t that big of a number,” she sneered. “If I have to interview every dead person from here to Hell and back, that’s what I’ll do.”
Ruby squeaked candidly, saying she believed Abby would do it.
“She would not,” Rev crossed his arms over his chest. On the outside, he stayed cool and calm. Inside, he was in anguish.
“Oh, I would. And I will,” Abby turned in a huff and strode out the door.
“She can’t replace me…can she?” Rev questioned to a round of silence. “Can she?”
“HOW MANY HAS it been so far today, Ruby?” Rev asked. Ruby issued a bored yawn and, through a series of clicks, chirps and squeaks, said she’d lost count. Then she huffed and turned up the volume on the TV. El Dorado was on. Her favorite movie. Any movie with John Wayne was her favorite.
“She really thinks she can replace me?” Rev sulked. “Good luck, Sis—” he cut himself short when a spectral apparition drifted through Abby’s office door. Wide-eyed and lethargic, the ghost let his vacant stare drift to Rev, then Ruby, floating in the waiting room like an underinflated balloon. The place was a who’s-who in haunted lore. A woman with her wrists slashed. A man who’d obviously been shot, a hole the size of the grand canyon out the back of his skull. A trio of teenagers who looked like they’d had a little too much to drink and tried to drive, now mangled and twisted, but still hooting and hollering. Among them sauntered the half-conscious first ghost, Abby’s most recent interviewee.
As the lazy spirit drifted up and, finally, began to disappear, the office door opened.
“Thank you so much for coming today, Mister Ridgeway,” Abby forced a smile. “We’ll get ahold of you to let you know what our decision will be. Thanks again for your interest. Take care,” she sighed and let her skeptical gaze travel to those seated. “Who’s next?”
The man with his cranium blown away stood and started for the office. Rev had to intervene.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” he stood in front of the dead man. “Hold on, chief. I’ve got just a little business with this woman.”
“But—” Abby tried to protest. Rev pushed her into the office before she could get out another word.
“Just listen to me,” he closed the door behind him. “Abby, sit.”
She didn’t move except to cross her arms.
“Abby, look at all of those stiffs out there. Do you honestly believe you’ll ever find a ghost with even half the abilities I had?”
“I can and I will,” she leaned her weight on a different heel.
“Not with this bunch of sad sacks, you won’t,” he crossed behind her. Abby hated when he did that as a ghost, and, for some reason, it made her even more uncomfortable as a living person.
“Would you stop it!” she demanded. “You being alive now…it gives me the creeps.”
“Why, Abby? Why would it do that?” Rev forced her to look deep into his eyes. She did for a second, then turned away quickly.
“It just does.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. When I was a ghost—that should have bothered you. I mean, ghosts bother most people, Abby. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”
“I’m not most people,” she sat in her chair, wishing he’d just go away.
“At least you have that one right,” he lunged at her desk. “Go out with me.”
“What?” she smirked. “I thought you were in love with Elyxa.”
“Abby, you know that was just temporary. She made me feel like I was in love with her. That’s all.”
“And now you don’t?”
“Of course not.”
“Oh, so you were just faking it, then? Nice.”
“Abby, stop teasing. Just go out with me.”
“No!”
“Why?”
She exhaled sharply through her nose and clenched her jaw.
“Abby, you’ve got to loosen up or you’ll explode. Look at you. You’re overworked and underplayed. That’s not how a doll as young and as beautiful and,” he looked at her legs sideways. “And as sexy—”
“Get out!”
Rev flinched to an upright position and smiled cheerily.
“What’s wrong with a little…you know?”
“This is a professional team, and we have a serious mission,” Abby kept her teeth clenched. “We don’t have time, nor is it prudent for any of us to be consorting sexually…it’s in the handbook, you should read it.”
“Can you listen to yourself?” he mocked with a falsetto voice. “It’s not prudent…consorting sexually…it’s in the handbook! Are you serious, Abby? Really, it sounds like you need a date more than I do. You’re one sexually frustrated woman.”
“GET OUT!” Rev dodged a six inch pump, dropping just in time before the shoe hit the door right at the same height as his nose.
“Hey!” he stood. “You tried to kill me!”
He only had time to duck out of the way again.
BIFF!
Another shoe, another dent in the door. Rev was surprised at the severity of the gouge. He looked at Abby and found her searching her desk for more things to throw. Before she could get her hands on a glass paperweight, he scurried out and slammed the door behind him. Just as he got it closed, he flinched at another crash against the wood.
“That could’ve hurt,” he said to Ruby, still in her favorite spot—in front of the TV. She smiled at him and gestured at the screen. The Duke was, as usual, in a shootout, and it made Ruby squeal with delight. Rev smiled back at her, but inside he just wanted to be in that office with Abby.
“I DON’T KNOW what to do,” Rev tossed the basketball high, but not high enough. Brutus still found a way to block the shot, snatching the ball in his hands and grinning slightly. That was the most emotion anyone was going to get from Brutus. “She won’t even talk to me now. And I get the feeling if I try to say anything to her, she’s just gonna explode and start throwing things again.”
Brutus banished his grin and got on offense. He spun around the flatfooted Rev and rolled like a thundercloud toward the hoop. A big bounce and he was airborne, slamming the ball hard, shaking the entire backboard.
“What should I do, buddy?” Rev got the ball back and dribbled twice awkwardly. His physical body felt strange still, and he was having a hard time doing anything right. “Should I just leave her alone, wait for her to come around?”
Brutus stole the ball on the third bounce, twirled like a tornado, and dunked it again. Rev kept talking.
“But if I do that, there’s a huge risk she won’t ever come to me. Or, worse, she might fall for that Riley creep. What do you think?”
Brutus spun the basketball on a dark, smoky finger, then flicked it hard at Rev.
“Whoa,” Rev ducked and threw up his hands to catch it. “Whaddya tryin’ to do, take my head off?” he stood and thought about it a second. “You know what? You’re right. I am losing my head over this girl, aren’t I? I mean, why do I let her get me so worked up?” he faked right then dribbled left, angled toward the hoop, and jumped off one foot. Finally, he got a shot past Brutus. Swish. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to being alive again, my man,” he caught the ball and handed it to Brutus, who remained in his usual form—a torrent of dark smoke and dust.
“Don’t you hear me?” Rev tried to get a reaction. “I said I don’t like not being a ghost anymore.”
“Are you crazy?” Brutus uttered. It sounded like large blocks of pumice grinding together. Heavy yet hollow. Coarse and gritty. That was Brutus’s voice. “You get another chance,” he formed a human shape with a haze of elements. He didn’t like looking human, since he wasn’t one anymore. Not technically. “I wish I had another chance. Just one more.”
“Why’s that?” Rev asked.
Brutus stayed silent.
“What do you want another chance at?” Rev couldn’t help asking. Brutus kept the details of his past guarded. Nobody knew where he came from, or what made him so broodingly dark all the time. “Is that why you’re here? I mean, is that why you haven’t crossed over? Because you did something wrong? You made a mistake, and now you want to rectify it?”
Brutus dissipated in a puff of dust and became a shadowy shape above the basketball court. Then the black mist twisted into nothingness.
