Green mist covered the yard. It seemed thickest around where the pool had been.

Maybe something was producing the stuff from the bottom of the hole. Patty doubted

it was coming from the bay.

“I don’t see anything moving in the fog,” said Patty. “Kathy and I will move forward.

Jean, get ready to shoot over us. Lin, I’m going to need you to hit anything that Jean

misses.”

“Why are we going out there?,” asked Lin. “Can’t we wait for it to come in after us?”

“It might not.” Patty grimaced. “If we can’t take it right now, we might have to come

back if we can figure out when it shows up. That might take months. We can’t wait

that long. Kathy has the big gun, and I’m a pretty good shot. Once we get it out in the

open, you two can wrap things up for us.”

“It sounds okay,” said Jean. “Make sure to duck. I don’t want to kill you by accident.”

“Good point,” said Patty. “Right, or left, Kathy?”

“I’ll take the right,” said Kathy. She gestured at the corner of the yard next to the

house. “That will put me in the triangle so Jean can’t shoot me in the back.”

“All right,” said Patty. “Let’s do this before I decide to run.”

Patty ducked around the door. She slid down the wall to the left corner formed by the

house and fence. Kathy jogged to the opposite corner, long rifle pointing at the

disturbance in the yard. Jean and Lin pushed to the edge of the glass doors, taking a

side and bracing against the frames as they waited.

Patty looked around. Nothing moved in the yard. She frowned. Something had to

happen so they could get to business.

She move forward, rifle ready to shoot. She had quick reflexes as far she thought

about it. She doubted she was a quick draw like Wild Bill Hickok. She didn’t have

to be. She just had to lure the thing out so the others could take care of business.

The mist doubled up, cutting into her line of sight. The edges of the fence vanished

in the green fog. She decided that what they were trying to take care of was doing it.

What did it plan to do now that she was in the yard with it?

She realized this was what the scanner and lens were designed to deal with. Too bad

they were still in the house. Nothing to do about it now. She had to go with what she

had at hand.

She paused when she reached a point next to the pool. She couldn’t hear anything in

the fog with her. She didn’t like that. Why had the others stopped talking?

What did she do to move this forward? Why was nothing happening? Shouldn’t there

be a ghost threatening her at the moment?

“Do you want to talk?,” asked Patty. She looked around. She couldn’t see anything

in the fog. “We were wondering why you were producing this green fog?”

A low growl filled the air around her. She waited. Her rifle felt cold and slick in her

hands. She decided that she should have worn gloves because of the sudden sweat in

the palms of her hands.

Could the others see her? She doubted it. She might have to drop once she started

shooting with her pop gun. She didn’t want to get shot in the back.

“I just wanted you to know that we’re setting up as Lamplighters,” said Patty. “You’re

going to have to quit haunting this house and move on to some other spot.”

Growling answered her words. She looked around. Spots floated in the fog.

Was she standing in the middle of a wolf pack? What did she have to do to get out of

this? Maybe she should have sent Jean out with her cannon.

She smiled. Jean wouldn’t like this.

“What comes next?,” asked Patty. “I don’t have all night. Dr. Hadron seems to think

we should deal with you and move on to the next training exercise. I think you can

clear up out of here if you don’t mind.”

The sparks multiplied as she turned in a circle. It sounded like buzzsaws all around

her. She decided that maybe she should retreat. She couldn’t see the house. She

decided that it would be good to have a wall to her back.

She decided that a wall wouldn’t stop a real ghost, but it would make her feel better

while she was defending herself.

“This is my last warning.” Patty started backing away from the pool. “Don’t make me

light you up.”

Things with too many teeth appeared to match the glowing sparks in the fog. They

glared at Patty as they slowly advanced. It was time for food. This one should last for

months.

A shape emerged from the pool. It was another wolf, but ten times as big. Teeth jutted

out of its muzzle the length of Patty’s forearm. Its growl shook the yard as it looked

at Patty retreating from the pool.

“I guess we can’t be friends.” Patty pulled the trigger on her rifle as she backed up

from the crowd.

The lamp bouncing against Patty’s leg glowed brighter with every shot that connected

with a target. The struck pack member vanished partially from the impact. She

understood Dr. Hadron’s warning as she backed up.

The weapons turned their targets into energy that fed the lamps. Trying to absorb too

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

much would blow the lamps up.

She had to get back to the shelter of the house if she wanted to keep working as a

Lamplighter. The things were trying to surround her. She couldn’t let them cut her off

while she was out in the open.

She heard a whine and smiled. Jean was getting into the action. That was good.

Maybe the big gun would give her cover to get back to the house.

Light streams of blue fire ripped through the green mist. They didn’t seem as bright

as Patty’s own, but there were so many of them cutting the air. She backed up as the

spray sliced across the yard. The wolf pack rushed the house to cut off the hose.

Kathy shot the biggest one with her rifle. The beam lit up the yard as the wolf howled.

The pack paused at the sound of pain from their leader. She fired again as the green

monster plunged toward her. The blast sucked the wolf into the ether as smoke drifted

around the long gun.

Patty fired bursts as she broke out of the fading fog. She looked around. The fog was

streamers fading away. She shot the pool as she hit the wall. A column of water

blasted up from the bowl in the ground.

She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand. That hadn’t seemed so

tough. She hated having to put down dogs, but she didn’t want to be bit by something

resembling Cujo.

Kathy smiled as she cradled the rifle in her arms.

“You vanished for a few seconds,” said Kathy. “We don’t separate during future

jobs.”

“Sounds like a good rule to me,” said Patty. She slung her shorter rifle. “Did we get

them all?”

“I hope so.” Kathy walked to the back door. “I could feel the snapping of teeth and

bad breath when I shot the big dog.”

“You shot the brain.” Patty smiled. “That was a good call.”

“There’s an aiming lens on the top of the rifle.” Kathy indicated the piece of

equipment. “It helps screen out some of the weirder stuff so you can shoot at

something.”

“I don’t have one of those.” Patty sniffed. “Why do you get all the cool toys?”

“Cause I’m fabulous.” Kathy grinned at her friend.

“Someone might want to make sure the area is clear.” Dr. Hadron stood with his

hands behind his back. “We don’t want something attracted by the firefight to try to

take up residence now that the old resident is stuffed and cuffed.”

“I got that.” Jean smiled. She grabbed the psychic lens and headed for the door. “I’ll

be right back.”

“Go with her, Lin.” Patty smiled. “She might do something reckless without you

around to keep her in check.”

“Keep her in check?,” Lin said as she jogged after her friend.

“All right, ladies.” Dr. Hadron picked up the scanner. “I have to do some readings

before we go. You’ll have to write the experience up when we get back to base. I’ll

send the reports back to Janie in the morning.”

Patty unslung her rifle as she followed him into the yard. They had stopped something

in the enclosed space. Was it permanently gone? Would they have to keep coming

back to deal with the problem?

Dr. Hadron pointed the scanner into the pool. He studied the screen with his one eye.

He squinted at the reading.

“Hold this.” He handed the unit to Patty. He pulled a knife from his pocket and

opened it. He knelt and probed the bottom of the bowl with the point. He pried up a

small emerald out of the concrete. He placed the gem in a small plastic bag and put

it into his pocket. He put the knife away.

“What’s that?” Kathy stood behind Patty and Dr. Hadron. She indicated the gem with

a finger.

“I think it’s the cause of the wolf problem.” Dr. Hadron held out his hand for the

scanner. He looked at the screen and nodded at the number. “The background

radiation is down. It looks like our job is done here.”

“How did you get onto this, Doc?,” said Kathy. One eyebrow was higher than the

other as she waited for an explanation.

“A friend of mine did surveys for me.” Dr. Hadron carried the scanner into the house.

“This place was marked out on his readouts as a likely source of energy. The fence

helped keep the wolves in, but anyone walking into the yard might have triggered

what we saw.”

“How dangerous were those things?,” asked Kathy.

“Who knows?,” said Dr. Hadron. He put the scanner in its case. “Basic research

indicated a lot of pet deaths when residents were here.”

“So we could have been killed,” asked Kathy.

“Yep.” Dr. Hadron nodded. “Good thing you weren’t. Janie would be mad as a hatter

after all the work we did to get you set up.”

“That would be too bad,” said Kathy.

“I know.” Dr. Hadron walked out of the house with scanner case and empty box in

hand. He paused to look for Jean and Lin.

“It couldn’t have been that dangerous,” Patty said. She looked down at the rifle and

lamp. “He didn’t draw a weapon for himself.”

“Or he’s gone crazy since...,” Kathy waved her hand at her face. “You know.”

Patty nodded. The reports on the last case had been written by Janie Hillsmierer after

the fact. Dr. Hadron had been in the hospital, getting over losing his eye and part of

his hand. It looked like he had never gotten over losing the eye.

She didn’t blame him for trying to scare them off after facing something that could

have been extremely dangerous and killed them before they got started.

“Let’s stow this gear,” Patty said. “We’ll have to write our reports about this and I

don’t know what to say.”

“I know what mine is going to say,” said Kathy. “Patricia Page triggered ghost wolves

that the rest of us had to shoot for her so she wouldn’t be mauled to death.”

“I don’t think it was like that at all.” Patty shrugged. She led the way out of the house.

“I think that they were protecting their range, whatever that was.”

“If you say so,” said Kathy. She went back inside to check if the back door was closed

before coming back to the front and locking the front up so they could leave.

“All right, ladies.” Dr. Hadron took the range finder from Jean and packed it up.

“You’re carrying a charge from all the ghost energy you drained. If you turn off the

lamps, the ghost wolves might escape to go back to hunting.”

“So what do we do about it?,” asked Lin. She looked down at the lamp burning at her

hip.

“Disconnect the weapons and pack them up.” Dr. Hadron gestured with a hand.

“Hand over the lamps.”

The assembled lamps were put in the van. Green fog mixed with the blue flame inside

the plastic faces. Dr. Hadron inserted each lamp one at a time into a bigger lamp he

had taken from its spot between the front seats. The green fog rushed into the bigger

lamp and lit it up.

“This lamp gets loaded into the big lamp back at the building.” Dr. Hadron locked the

lamp down in the van floor. “Never carry ghost energy longer than you have to. If you

think you’re going to be on a big job, bring as many of the storage lamps as you think

you’ll need and dump your working lamps as often as you can.”

“Will they overload?,” asked Patty. She started taking her weapon apart to be stored.

“They’re made to hold one twenty, so you can store a lot of the smaller numbers in

one lamp.” Dr. Hadron indicated the top of the lamp. “If this strip turns red, don’t put

any more ghosts in the storage lamp. Get a new one.”

“That’s good to know.” Jean looked at the house one last time. “Was that it? Will the

house be clear from now on?”

“You’ll have to do a survey later, but I think I have the culprit here.” Dr. Hadron

showed her the jewel he had dug up. “I have a feeling this was acting as some kind

of booster.”

“So there might be someone behind the wolf pack.” Lin grimaced at the thought.

“A monster making monsters.” Dr. Hadron put the jewel away. “Hopefully you ladies

have crimped up his plans.”

They finished packing up so they could drive home and work on finishing the rest of

the duties involved with their job.