Patty paused at the stop sign. She looked both ways. The street was empty. Where

were the glowing lines that should be there? Shouldn’t she be able to see even a

spark?

“This survey stuff sucks,” said Jean. She had the passenger seat pushed all the way

back and the seat back lowered so she was almost lying down. “There should be a

faster way to track spooks down than triangulation.”

“We’re almost done checking things over.” Patty smiled. She turned right. “The wolf

pack was a good first test. We cracked them in record time.”

“Hadron hasn’t figured out how that rock works.” Jean pulled her shades down to

cover her eyes so she could drowse in her seat when they weren’t talking. “I’m glad

he put it in a lamp in the vault. Who knows what would happen if it wasn’t kept away

from air.”

“It would probably put another pack out in the middle of the building.” Patty slowed

as she inspected the street. Nothing stood out to her.

“At least we don’t have any other ghosts secured yet.” Jean turned her face to the

door. “They might band together to take us on.”

“Do you think Dr. Hadron is right?” Patty paused at the next stop sign. “Do you think

we can beat Crenshaw?”

“We have to get to one of his targets before he can evaporate.” Jean shrugged. “He

doesn’t need a base, or transportation. That limits the way we can do things.”

“These surveys don’t seem that useful.” Patty turned left. She was working her way

down towards the water. Crenshaw had hit several places along the waterfront. That

seemed natural since he was a pirate.

The scanner buzzed in the back seat. Patty pulled to the curb to look at the reading.

She frowned at the six on the screen. Crenshaw was rated an eight. This couldn’t be

him. She looked around. They were in a small part of the city dealing with jewelry

and money. One of the stores was named the Pearl.

“Let me have the range finder, Jean,” said Patty. She held out her hand for the device.

“We have something we should check before we move on.”

She took the lens and stepped out of the car. She looked through the device and

smiled. The strange lines and mist didn’t bother her. She spotted a shark fin cutting

the air before sinking out of sight as if it was submerging in water.

Patty nodded. This could be the place.

Patty held the lens to her eye again. Lines of force flowed along the street. Some of

it washed against the stores and their doors. The lines turned away from places that

looked shoddy and unkept.

She decided that was Feng Shui in action. She didn’t know how to help the ailing

businesses. That was out of her hands. She had to worry about the one store that

Crenshaw might have interest in.

She handed the lens back and went to the hatch on the back of her car. She opened

it and extracted her work overall. She slipped that on, glad she had worn her tennis

shoes instead of the slippers she preferred.

“What are you doing?,” asked Jean from the front seat. She straightened her seat and

looked through the car at her friend. “Are you getting your gun?”

“This is the place,” said Patty. She opened the case holding her rifle. She opened the

case for the lamp. “Call the others and tell them to come over here.”

“Are you sure?,” asked Jean. She got out of the car. “Why here?”

“Because it’s a pearl.” Patty smiled. She put the rifle together with minimum effort.

She plugged it into the lamp, and lit the flame. Blue fire danced in the cylinder. “We

need those hard hats Dr. Hadron promised.”

“Are we really going to set up an ambush at this place?,” said Jean. She pointed to the

small shop.

“Yes,” said Patty. She slung the rifle so she had free use of her hands. “Please call the

others. Crenshaw might show up at any time.”

“Let me change first.” Jean pulled her folded overall out and put it on. She opened her

weapon case and twisted the pieces together. She hooked the multiple barrel weapon

to its lamp and draped the sling over her shoulder. She hung the lamp from her waist

before pulling on gloves. “The Pearl?”

“Yes,” said Patty. “He might not show up today, but he’s coming. His sharks are in

the air.”

“Sharks.” Jean pulled out her phone. “What is it with pirates and sharks?”

Patty shrugged. She closed the hatch on her car and shut the doors. She walked across

the street to the store. She doubted that professional courtesy was involved in any

personal relationships.

She inspected the outside of the store before going in. If they missed Crenshaw,

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maybe the type of building was a clue in where he was picking his attacks. Was he

going after particular places by anything other than the loot they held? The flow she

had noted might be what he was using to make his selection.

She noted the Pearl had bars over the doors and windows. She pulled on the door. It

was locked to keep people like her out of the building. She rang a doorbell to be let

in.

The manager might not want to listen to her. The best she could do was warn him. If

Crenshaw attacked, normal people didn’t have a chance against him. His sharks

ripped things in half with their bites.

The door buzzed to let Patty in. She stepped inside and looked around. The two men

looked at her with the sure knowledge that they weren’t going to sell this woman

anything from the cases.

“Hi, I’m Patty Page.” She smiled to put them at their ease. “I’m a new hire for the

Lamplighters. We’re trying to find the Shark Thief and I think your place is the

perfect place for him to strike.”

The explanation didn’t improve the two men’s expressions. They frowned at her in

silence for several seconds.

“I know it sounds incredible.” Patty frowned. How did she break through to them?

“I think you’re going to be hit next.”

“I think we should call the police, Phil,” said one of the suits. “That should keep our

shop safe.”

Phil reached for the company phone on the counter. Patty frowned. They were calling

the police on her. How did she change their minds? The buzzer went off.

Jean stood outside, waving the scanner. She pointed at the screen. She indicated her

rifle next.

“Gentlemen, you might want to go in the back.” Patty unslung her rifle. “Crenshaw

is coming.”

Mist crept across the jewelry store floor. It seemed to be seeping from under the front

door. Fins appeared in the air as the three humans watched.

“Get out!” Patty rushed to the front door. She pushed it open to let Jean into the store.

“Kathy and Lin are on the way.” Jean pointed her cannon at the mist. “How do you

want to handle this?”

“We got to get Crenshaw out of here without wrecking the place.” Patty frowned as

more and more fins appeared in the mist. “The place is too small for a fight.”

“Let’s see what happens when I open up.” Jean sprayed small streams of blue fire into

the green cloud. Some of it dispersed under the fire. “Not much.”

“We have to wait for Crenshaw to show up.” Patty fired into the cloud to punch a hole

for her to move through. “Take cover behind the counters.”

Jean jogged to the closest counter and hopped over the top without breaking the glass

top. She dropped on the other side and ducked down. She kept her cannon on the

cloud as she waited.

Patty pushed through the opening in the counters to get to the other side. She let the

lid slam down while waving the employees out of the way. She didn’t have time to

make them believe now.

“The scanner’s going crazy, Patty.” Jean put the box away. “It won’t be long.”

“We just have to keep him busy until the others get here.” Patty frowned. The sound

of the sea hitting the beach drifted to her ears. “Aim for the sharks. We don’t want

them thrashing around in here and wrecking things.”

“Got it.” Jean took aim with her cannon. One trigger pull would spin the wheel of

destruction into the cloud.

Crenshaw appeared on the back of a shark. His out of date clothes were made from

streamers of fog wrapping around his skeletal frame. Wild hair was forced back from

his face by a bandana. Parts of flesh hung on to the skull as he looked around the

room, laughing loudly.

Sharks formed around him, swimming in the air. Giant chompers gnashed as tails

brushed against the counter tops.

“Take everything,” ordered Crenshaw, pointing at the counters with his sword. “The

trove demands more tribute.”

“Take this.” Patty blasted away with her blue flame, hoping the counter would protect

her.

Jean opened up with her own weapon from across the room. The crossfire sliced

through the swarming sharks, dragging parts of them into storage as the fire swept

through the sales area.

Crenshaw laughed as he ducked away from the trail of fire. He dropped from the back

of the shark as it went up in mist and smoke.

“Lady Lamplighters?” The pirate couldn’t stop smiling. “You should know better

than to try to get in my way.”

Patty fired at him as Jean worked her way through the sharks. Once he was in the box,

the rest would break up. Then his spree would be over until he broke out again.

Crenshaw waved his sword. The sharks started taking bites out of the counters,

charging the two Lamplighters for a piece of them. Patty dove to the floor as a ghost

fish ripped through the counter above her. Jean backed up, firing into the ghosts.

They forked around her as the blue flame ate at them.

“Hadron should have known better to send amateurs after me.” Crenshaw advanced

on the counter that had been butchered by his minions. He shook his head. “I think

I’ll give you something to remember me by.”

Patty rolled out of the way as his sword punched into the concrete floor. She blasted

him with the rifle at point blank range. Part of the pirate vanished under the blue

flame.

He fell back from the blast with a howl.

Jean ducked around the frenzied sharks to fire her cannon at the pirate. The flames

ate at the ghost as she smiled. The guy was going down on their first fight. It didn’t

get better than that.

Crenshaw threw himself through the window of the store. He looked down at his

fading body. He shook his sword at the women before calling a shark to carry him off.

“He’s getting away with the loot.” Patty blasted at the sharks to clear them out of the

way as she rushed to the door. “We have to stop him.”

Jean followed, firing to clear some of the beasts out of her way. She stopped when

she was directly behind Patty. She joined the other woman on the street.

Crenshaw faded from sight, shaking his fist at his new enemies as he went. The

sharks followed him. As the last tail vanished, the fog evaporated into the open air.

“We had him, and he got away.” Patty gritted her teeth as she tried to get her

emotions under control.

“Not all of him,” said Jean. “Some of him and his fish are in the lamps.”

“That doesn’t do us any good if we can’t use it to track him down.” Patty slung her

rifle. “We screwed up. We had surprise on our side and he still got away with the

jewels and gold.”

“But he didn’t kill anybody this time.” Jean shook her head. “That has to be more

important than goods.”

“He’s a ghost.” Patty frowned. “What does he want with that stuff anyway?”

“We’ll ask the Doc when we get back home.” Jean brushed back her short hair with

a gloved hand. “We don’t know how much of a kink we put in his plans, but at least

we know we can chase him off.”

“Unless we trap him for good, or find out where he’s buried, he can keep coming

back.” Patty walked to her car. She opened up the hatch. “We need to do better the

next time we run into him.”

“So you’re not giving up?” Jean smiled.

“Heck no.”