The new building didn’t feel right. Patty walked the halls and through the rooms. It

had a waiting aura about it. What would it be like when they got going?

She paused at the lamp room. Dr. Hadron and Jean were surrounded by pieces of

circuitry and wiring. Mechanical casing leaned against a wall. He directed her where

he wanted pieces soldered together with a small torch. She nodded as she went about

her business.

Lin and Kathy had decided to set up a small gym on the second floor. She paused as

they looked at the boxes of parts that made up most of the equipment Kathy wanted.

Dr. Hadron had put it on the company dime.

The bell rang. She headed downstairs to get the door. They kept things locked down

since they didn’t want people wandering around and looking at things.

She looked through the peephole. It was another delivery man from UPS. She opened

the door with a smile.

“Miss Page?,” said the delivery driver. He held an electronic clipboard. A plain

brown box sat at his feet.

“That’s right.” Patty smiled. “I’ll sign for it.”

He handed her the clipboard. She took the stylus from the top and wrote in her name

in the signature screen with a flourish. She handed the thing back to look at the box.

What had been ordered this time?

She picked up the box and looked at the label. The sender was Lamplighters, INC in

New York City. Janie must have sent something to Dr. Hadron. Her name was on the

receiving line. She frowned. Why would Janie send her anything?

She took the box inside as the brown van rolled away from the curb. She locked the

door. Her eyes scanned what would be the lobby of the building. She winced that only

one chair had arrived so far. The desks and the computers were still in transit.

So were the parts for the weapons. She admitted she would feel better if she had

something to stave off a monster at hand.

She sat down in the chair. She placed the box in her lap. She worried at the tape

holding it close with a thumbnail. Finally she had enough to pull on so she could open

the box. Notebooks rested inside.

She pulled out the first notebook and looked inside. Pages of reports and news

clippings mixed together. She opened the others one after the other. They were all the

same. She smiled. These were the copies of casebooks promised for them.

She put the three copies aside. She noted each one had a different name on the cover.

She smiled. Janie was still looking out for them.

She picked up the one with her name on the cover and started reading. No one needed

her at the moment. And Dr. Hadron wanted her to know what it meant to do what they

proposed to do.

Each report was a dry recounting of what the call had been about. Pictures of the

scenes and graphs of the ambient energy index had been included. Several cases had

taken months before something showed itself. Progress reports were included as the

group tried to figure out what was going on.

Patty smiled. She had followed the Lamplighters from afar for a long time. They

weren’t powered like the Mark, or the old Hazard Scouts. They were just some guys

trying to save the day against strangeness. She had cried for two days when the news

came out that they had been decimated.

Then Crenshaw had appeared. It was the same kind of event the Lamplighters chased.

That was what had led her to heading for New York to ask for help. If someone could

handle the ghost pirate, it would be a Lamplighter.

Dr. Hadron’s reaction had been the opposite of what she had expected. It didn’t take

a genius to see how angry he was. She had thought he was going to punch her when

he answered the door.

He might have if Janie hadn’t said what she had. She had been thoughtful and invited

her group into the building. A meal and coffee had not warmed Dr. Hadron to their

presence, but he didn’t seem as inclined to let them kill themselves as he had stated.

She put the casebook aside. The cases swam in her head, the monsters pushing at her

resolve. Did she have the gumption to stand up to the Kansas City Twister Sister, or

the Jersey City Root Man, or the Los Angeles Cliff Dweller? Why had she gotten

involved in this?

She frowned. She checked her watch. She had spent hours on the casebook. Her

stomach growled to let her know of its disapproval. She had to fix that.

She wondered how the others were doing. She hoped they hadn’t noticed her slacking

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off. She should be helping instead of reliving events she had watched from a distance.

She picked up the casebook and put the rest back in the box. She picked up the box

in her free arm. She headed upstairs. She could ask the others what they wanted to

eat, while giving them the casebooks. Maybe they would want to read them while she

was getting food together and bringing it back to the building so they could eat.

She looked in the room that was going to be Kathy’s gym. Kathy and Lin had put

several of the machines together. They were trying them out. Kathy gave instructions

as they rode on what looked like regular exercise bikes to her. She shifted position

and saw that screens on the front of the bikes showed pretend scenery to ride through

instead of the blank walls around them.

“You guys want anything to eat?” Patty put the box down. “I thought I would get

some takeout for us.”

“Sure.” Kathy smiled. “Can you get me a salad?”

“Where are you going, Patty?” Lin let the wheel of her bike spin down.

“I hadn’t considered where yet.” Patty smiled. “I was thinking maybe getting

everyone’s order and then picking up something from somewhere local and bringing

it back.”

“I would like some chicken and rice, maybe some soup.” Lin swung a leg over the

seat of the bike and touched down on the floor. “See if they will give you some

seasoning packets.”

Patty pulled out a pen from her pocket. She wrote salad, then chk r won ton under

that, on the palm of her hand. She put the pen up.

“What’s in the box?” Kate pointed at the package in her friend’s hand.

“The casebooks arrived.” Patty held the box out. “Your names are on the covers.

They’re the same as far as what’s in them.”

“Really?” Lin stepped forward. She took her notebook. She took Kathy’s and handed

it over. “Is there anything bad in them?”

“Just cases.” Patty shrugged. She didn’t want to scare off Lin. Mentioning the

Lamplighters’ last case would do just that.

“Scary cases?” Lin looked down at the front of the book. Her expression said she

didn’t want to look inside.

“The scariest.” Patty shook her head. “Don’t be scared. It’s just a book.”

“I’ll read it with you,” said Kathy. She stopped peddling and dismounted from the

bike. She cut the power to the screen and dashboard. “How bad could it be?”

Patty smiled before moving on. She paused at the room she planned to use for an

apartment. She put the casebook on a window sill. She carried the box to the lamp

room. Jean and Dr. Hadron should still be fixing the lamp and trying to get it online.

She found the two of them talking about what they needed to do next. The lamp’s

base was put together. She could see the lens glittering in the middle of the rig.

“I’m headed out on a food run.” Patty took the last casebook out of the box and

handed it to Jean. “You guys want anything?”

“A couple of hamburgers and a shake would be good,” said Jean. “Do you want me

to ride along?”

“I got it.” Patty wrote down the order under Lin’s order. “Dr. Hadron?”

“Anything is good.” Dr. Hadron turned his eye on her. “What are the local restaurants

like?”

“Same as New York,” said Patty. “Some are good, some are bad, most are average.

It’ll take me a bit to get back. We should have set up for snacks so we could have

something between meals.”

“The refrigerator will be here in a couple of days.” Dr. Hadron almost smiled. “We

need a couple of parts to finish the lamp. There’s not much more we can do tonight.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Patty nodded. “Are we breaking up after dinner?”

“I don’t see why not.” Dr. Hadron checked his watch. “Anything else we need to do

can wait until tomorrow.”

“All right.” Patty smiled. She checked her hand. “I might go by my place and bring

some chairs back. Maybe I can get a coffee table we can use until the official stuff

gets here.”

“Do you want any help?,” Jean asked. She wiped a spray of ash off her forearm with

a thumb.

“I got it,” said Patty. “I still have that thing Kevin’s mother gave us for our

anniversary. I have been wanting to get rid of that table forever.”

“Go ahead.” Dr. Hadron waved his hand at her. “We’re not going anywhere without

you.”

Patty headed down to the exit. She stepped out on the street. At least the fog wasn’t

coming in off the bay. She walked down to the parking lot next to the building. She

raised the gate with her pass key and walked to her car. She smiled when she settled

behind the wheel.

She decided to get the table first. She would pick up the food on the way back from

the restaurants. She shook her head at the different orders. She thought she could get

Kathy’s and Jean’s from the same place while picking up Lin’s last. She made a note

to pick Dr. Hadron up something.

She pulled out of the lot, watching the arm come down as she turned on the street.

Her place was across town. Getting the table out of her living room should be easy.

Maybe she should have brought Jean along.

She drove through the streets, nodding as she turned into a residential neighborhood

made up of condos converted from old houses. She turned into a driveway that wasn’t

meant for her to park in. She got out and let herself inside the main door. She walked

up to her place and let herself in. She cut on the lights. The place didn’t welcome her

like it used to do.

She took the pictures off the oval table and put them on the floor. She lifted the table

and put it outside. She cut the lights and locked up. She carried her wooden prize

down to her car. She opened the trunk and slid the table inside. It didn’t quite fit. She

searched inside the trunk and found two old bungee cords. She used them to pull the

lid down as much as she could to keep the table from falling out on the street.

She went through a drive-thru and got Kathy two of the salads, a couple bottles of

water, Jean’s burgers and milkshake, and Dr. Hadron a kid’s meal. She added a bigger

burger for him. Then she headed for one of the Chinese places to get Lin’s order on

the way back to the Lamplighter building. She pulled into the lot. She gathered the

food up and carried it into the building.

“Thanks, Patty.” Kathy took the food and divided it out. “Didn’t you get something

for yourself?”

“I have some donuts in the car.” Patty smiled. “Let me get the table. I’ll be right

back.”

“Let me help you with that.” Kathy dusted off her hands and the women walked out

to get the prize.