“The first thing on a call is to look at the target structure.” Dr. Hadron pulled a hard

hat from behind his seat and placed it on his head. “How many exits, where are the

exits, who else is in the building with you? Then you can start your survey.”

The target in question was a squat house in the middle of a row of houses pushed

together on the way up a hill. There were no alleys to go down the sides of the place

to get to the back. If the ladies wanted to take a look around back there, they would

have to go through the place, or go around the block.

“Is there anybody home?” Kate went to the door, looking up and down the block.

Nothing moved on the street as far as she could tell. She rang the bell.

“No one is home.” Lin didn’t move from the van. “The house is empty.”

“So we can’t go in.” Patty put her hands in her pockets. “We don’t have permission

to enter.”

“We can still look around.” Jean pursed her lips. “Let’s look at the back.”

“We’ll have to walk around the end of the block.” Kathy smiled. “Time to get some

exercise, ladies.”

“Jogging?” Patty made a face. “I can do without that.”

“Come on, lazy bones.” Kathy jogged down the steps and headed down the hill. “It’s

all downhill to the end of the block.”

“You do need to work out a little, Patty.” Jean followed Kathy, running easily in her

boots.

“I’m walking.” Lin suited actions to words, placing her hands in her pockets as she

strolled after her friends.

“Miss Page?,” Dr. Hadron frowned at her. His one eye gleamed slightly in the setting

sun.

“I’m not walking around to the back of the place.” Patty took a bag holding a set of

picks from her pocket. She opened up the locks in a few seconds.

“Is this legal?,” Dr. Hadron almost smiled.

“Only if Lin is right.” She pushed her way into the row house, pausing on the

threshold before moving further inside the house.

Dr. Hadron followed quietly. He paused to take in the house before taking the next

step and doing a search. Patty stood on the other side of the house, checking things

out.

“Are you going upstairs?,” asked Dr. Hadron. He didn’t move from the welcome rug.

“Not yet.” Patty moved to the kitchen. “There’s a lot of dust here. No one lives here,

do they?”

“Check the refrigerator.” Dr. Hadron crossed his arms. “That usually tells you

something about the tenant.”

“Empty.” Patty looked around the open kitchen after closing the refrigerator door. She

tried the faucets for the sink. Water didn’t drop into the sink.

“All right.” Patty brushed her hands together. “We have two exits, plus five windows

on the bottom floor. Steps going upstairs. I’m going to say no one lives here.”

“All right.” Dr. Hadron smiled. “I’ll wait down here while you search.”

Patty walked upstairs. The bedrooms and baths had been stripped of anything from

the owner. She put aside the question of why she was searching an empty house. It

was a test. There might not be anything horrible in the house at all.

She doubted there was nothing there. Dr. Hadron had been all over the city while

setting up their new quarters. He probably had already broke in and done his own

search of the place.

“There’s eight more windows upstairs,” Patty said as she walked back down to the

ground floor. “Nobody has lived here in a long time. What’s next, Doctor?”

“You get the scanner and reader to examine the place’s energy output.” Dr. Hadron

waved her through the door. “Go ahead. The others will be in the back yard in a few

minutes.”

“In the van?,” asked Patty.

“Yep,” said Dr. Hadron. “It’s under my seat.”

“I’ll be right back.” Patty headed for the van.

Dr. Hadron walked to the back of the living room. He looked out glass sliding doors

to the small yard behind the house. A fence blocked his view of yards on either side,

and the alley behind the house. Another row of houses stood on the other side of the

back fence.

Kathy vaulted over the fence. She looked around the yard. She turned and helped Lin

over the wooden boards. Jean climbed over with a small amount of grace.

Dr. Hadron waved at them from behind the glass doors. They frowned back at him.

He opened the glass door. The women walked toward the house.

“How did you get in there?” Kathy waved at the house.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Miss Page didn’t want to take a nature walk.” Dr. Hadron stepped aside. “The house

is empty, but you might want to familiarize yourselves with the layout in case of

trouble.”

“Are we getting into trouble breaking in?” Lin squinted at him.

“No, Miss Qi.” Dr. Hadron smiled. “No one lives here.”

“So we didn’t have to climb that fence?” Jean crossed her arms.

“Nope.” Dr. Hadron smiled at her.

“You are too young to be so cantankerous,” Kathy pursed her lips. “You don’t have

to be so uptight all the time.”

“Thank you for your opinion.” Dr. Hadron stepped out in the back yard. He looked

around, sniffing the air.

“The place is empty.” Jean turned around in a circle in the living room. “What kind

of ghost would haunt this place?”

“A level six morph with attendant psychic energy.” Dr. Hadron paused to look at a

half-empty shallow pool in the middle of yard.

“What does that mean?,” asked Jean.

“It means that we could get killed if the thing shows up and we’re not ready to deal

with it.” Kathy touched her friend’s shoulder. “I think we need to get our weapons

and see if there are more hard hats in the van.”

“I totally agree with that,” said Lin. “I don’t want to be caught without some way to

defend myself from anything that shows up.”

“Hey guys,” said Patty. She put down two cases. “It looks like this place might be a

bust. No one has lived here in while.”

“Breaking in, Patty,” said Lin. “This could be trouble.”

“Only if we get killed while we’re looking around.” Patty smiled. “Let’s see if there

is anything here that needs Lamplighters to deal with before we worry about what the

police will do when they catch us here.”

“Okay.” Lin didn’t look that convinced about the logic.

“We got the guns.” Jean and Kathy plunked the weapon cases down. “Let’s put them

together before things get crazy.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Lin went to her box and opened it up. She put the

small rifle together in a few seconds. She lit the lamp and plugged the weapon into

its power source.

Patty opened the two boxes she had brought in. One held what looked like a laser

distance reader. The other thing was something with a dish and what looked like a

smart phone. She took that out of its padding and found a cable to hook the dish to

the box.

“These two things are the most important equipment you’ll need to use other than the

guns.” Dr. Hadron came in from the back door. He took the dish and phone from

Patty and plugged the pieces together. He pushed the button to turn the device on.

“This is a scanner. It looks for activity.”

“That’s good.” Jean made an eyeroll at the explanation.

“So the basic energy from this empty house is a one or less.” Dr. Hadron pointed the

dish at Kathy. “Miss Baker has a three plus. Anything stronger than that will be in the

superhuman or metaphysical range.”

“Sounds reasonable,” said Jean. “So what does the other thing do?”

“Take it out of the box and turn it on.” Dr. Hadron handed the scanner to Lin. He

smiled slightly.

Jean picked the yellow device up and flipped the switch on the side. A small light like

a flashlight beam shot out. She waved the thing around.

“What is it supposed to do?” She frowned at the offending machine.

“You put it up to your eye.” Dr. Hadron gestured with his hand at the empty socket

next to his remaining eye.

She put the device to her face, finding a scope to look through. She made a noise as

she looked. She pulled the device from her face.

“That is not good,” she choked out. “What did I see?”

“It’s the way the world interacts with the past.” Dr. Hadron held out his hand. “A lot

of people can’t deal with what goes on beside their reality.”

“I don’t even want to know what that means,” said Jean. She handed over the light.

“Some things don’t just exist on this part of reality.” Dr. Hadron took the light to the

back door. “They touch other places too. That’s what creates the reading on the

scanner, and what we call turbulence.”

“So the overlap causes turbulence.” Jean shrugged at the other women. “What does

that mean for us?”

“It’s what makes ghosts and evil spirits.” Dr. Hadron used the light on the back yard.

He made a sound as he looked through the finder. “Miss Qi, please point the scanner

out there.”

Lin did as he requested. The numbers climbed up to a six before leveling off. There

was some wiggling, but she decided that six was the number she should have from

the screen.

“How bad is a six?,” she asked before letting the device point at the floor.

“It’s doable with you four.” Dr. Hadron let the light fall from his face. He thumbed

off the switch. “Do you think you can handle it?”

“Yes,” said Kathy. She had her own rifle ready to go. “How long do you think we’ll

have to wait before it shows up?”

“Not long.” Dr. Hadron put the view finder back in its case. “Someone is in the house.

That should give things a jolt.”

“It’ll come after us because we just happen to be standing in an abandoned house next

to where it lives?” Lin put the scanner down on a counter between the kitchen and the

open living and dining area.

“Yep.” Dr. Hadron smiled at her. “Get ready. This should be easy, but things can

happen in the middle of a roundup. This is where you guys should talk over what you

are going to do when the thing shows up.”

“Kathy and I will take one side of the room.” Patty pointed to where she meant. “Jean

and Lin will take the other side. Jean and Kathy are our firepower. We need them to

shoot the thing with their weapons. Lin and I will try to keep it in the door with our

smaller weapons until the heavy weapons can do what they need to do.”

“Sounds good.” Dr. Hadron retreated to the front door. “Remember to keep an eye on

your lamps. You don’t want the ghost to overpower them and blow them up.”

“Right.” Patty put her rifle and lamp together. She nodded when she heard the

weapon hum to life. “We can do this. All we have to do is pin it, and then chew it up.

How hard could that be?”

“There are so many ways this can go wrong,” said Lin. She took cover behind the

kitchen counter. Jean followed her. They used the counter as a rest so they could

shoot at the door without worrying about tiring their arms before the thing showed

up.

“It won’t,” said Patty. “We can handle a six. If we can’t, there’s no way we can

handle Crenshaw, or anything else that has to be put down.”

“That doesn’t quite follow,” said Kathy. She shrugged at the look she got. “Just

saying.”

“Don’t be afraid.” Dr. Hadron stood beside the front door. One of his hands rested on

the handle. “Everything will go really smooth.”

The scanner made a sound like a barking dog and a hissing cat meeting each other in

a dark alley. The women glanced at the device before turning their attention back to

the door. A mist floated outside, blocking out the setting sun.

“That doesn’t look good.” Jean took aim at the door. “What do we do if it won’t come

inside?”

“We’ll have to go out there and get it.” Patty tried to relax. “We’ll cover one side

while you guys cover the other. We should be able to catch it between us and put it

down.”

“We should let one team move up first.” Jean looked around to make sure nothing

was trying to sneak up on her. “The other team moves up after the first team settles

into position.”

“We’re the first team.” Patty walked forward, lamp banging against her leg. “You got

the heavy duty firepower.”

She eased against the wall to look out in the yard. She felt Kathy getting behind her.

All they needed was a target.