Ghostbusters (32 page)

Then who should come crawling out of the varnished oak woodwork but Jennifer Lynch. She snaked over in her snaky way and said, “What did I tell you? People always move on. We want to thank you for your discretion. It's not working at all. But thank you.”

Erin smiled good-naturedly at her. “It's better to keep a low profile. Who cares about credit? Let's just focus on the important stuff.” She loved how Abby smiled at her in return.
I've learned my lesson. And boy, was it the hard way.

“I'm sorry we can't give you any kind of formal recognition,” Ms. Lynch continued, “but please know that what you did was phenomenal.”

Patty spoke for the group. “We appreciate that.”

“Mayor Bradley also sends his thanks. He couldn't voice that out loud, but he said it with his eyes,” his assistant added.

Holtz went next. “Tell him I said…” And she stared back at Ms. Lynch with her eyes.

I love that sassy woman,
Erin thought.

“Well, we'd like you to continue studying this … subject,” Ms. Lynch said. “We need to be better prepared. Just in case. Whatever you need to keep you going. Anything at all.”

Holtz got a calculating look. “Anything?”

The hive mind buzzed as the Ghostbusters pondered the vast possibilities of “anything.” They exchanged looks. And smiled.

*   *   *

A few days later, they stood across the street from the beautiful firehouse with its loft sleeping accommodations and its monthly rent of twenty-one thousand dollars. They had taken the mayor at his word and now this beauty was theirs.

“Oh, hell yes,” Patty crowed.

She and Holtzmann ran off toward it, with Holtzmann shouting, “I claim the upstairs!”

“You can't claim an entire floor!” Patty protested.

“Just did!” Holtzmann riposted.

Erin and Abby shared a moment. This was their doing. Victory was so very sweet.

“Not bad, Ghost Girl,” Abby drawled.

“Thank you.” Erin inclined her head graciously. “I will proudly take that title.”

After exchanging warm smiles, they attempted the elaborate Abby/Holtz handshake. Fingers, thumbs, and elbows went every which way—a total disaster.

“We'll get our own,” Abby promised her.

Their reverie was broken when a black hearse with a red roof slowly rolled up to them. Both of them blanched, and Erin said under her breath, “Oh no. Is that…?”

“Patty's uncle,” Abby confirmed.

Patty's uncle Bill hopped out of the hearse. He was not smiling and telling them they were awesome. He was frowning.

“Where is it?” he demanded.

Patty marched out. “I already told you.”

He scowled. “I don't want to hear that my hearse is in another dimension!”

Patty was indignant. “Look, if I could cross over and get it for you, I would!”

They began to argue. Abby nudged Erin and said, “Let's let them work it out.”

And they did just that.

*   *   *

Over the next two weeks, they had mostly moved everything in. Although there were still a few boxes to unpack, they had settled into their new home.

The more things changed, the more they remained the same: that evening, Abby was standing outside the main door dealing with Benny, the Chinese food delivery guy. He favored her with a knowing nod as he handed her their take-out order. Abby pulled out her soup. It was packed tight with wontons. It was all wontons and no broth.

“I know what you did,” Benny declared. His eyes sparkled with hero worship.

Abby flushed. “All right, don't get weird on me.”

“You're very brave.”

“All I want is a healthy ration of wontons to broth, not this madness. This is just a science laboratory. Keep it cool.”

He nodded, his eyes still sparkling. Abby walked over to Erin, who was opening up a box.

“The new book?” Abby said excitedly.

“It's here.” Erin was just as excited. She pulled out a copy of their brand-new book and examined the back cover. They had updated their author photo. They'd decided on black turtlenecks again. You don't mess with the classics.

Abby took it and read the cover.

“Ah,” she began. “
A Glimpse into the Unknown
—”

“Oh, did we go with the shorter title?” Erin asked, confused. “I thought—”

Abby gave her a look and continued. “‘
A Journey into a Portal: Catching Sight of the Other Dimension: Discovering the Undiscoverable: A Curiosity Piqued
and
Peaked.
'”

Erin smiled. She had gotten her way.

“I still think we should've gone with
There and Back Again: A Scientist's Tale
.”

“Well, next time.”
No way.

The phone rang. Kevin was at his desk and he picked up the phone on the first try. He was finally getting it right.

“Ghostbusters,” he said into the speaker. “Please give a detailed description of your apparition.”

Abby gave Kevin the thumbs-up as she and Erin passed his desk. As they continued walking, Abby handed Erin an envelope. It was from Columbia University. Erin deliberately did not react.

“Something fancy for you there,” Abby said, and there was uncertainty in her voice.

“Not really interested.” Erin tore the envelope in half.

Abby's brows shot up. “Really? Wow.”

“What would I want with those people? We've got a good thing here.” Then, because she didn't want to fly under false colors, she revealed the truth. “Also, I recognized that envelope. It's just the alumni office asking for contributions.”

Abby ducked her head. “But still. I can't help but notice how you've been keeping it real low key. Working hard getting this place together.”

“Well, we've got a lot to do.”

They reached Holtzmann, who was tinkering with some new gadgets. Everything looked very impressive and rather fanciful.

“Speaking of which,” Erin said, “how are you doing over here?”

Holtzmann's natural enthusiasm could not be suppressed. “I am working on some next-level stuff. Real outside the box, like ‘put me back in the box because I'm scared of what I'm doing' sort of stuff.” She made an “eee” face.

Abby checked out the large containment unit. “This thing running?”

“Quite smoothly,” Holtzmann said with pride. “I would say don't be in a room with it for longer than an hour at any one time.”

“Well, I think we can probably aim higher,” Erin ventured. She was about to go on when she noticed a woman in gloves studying some wires behind the unit. She had steampunk stylings—a brown waistcoat over a white blouse and flared trousers. Also, the same “Screw U” pendant as Holtz.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Erin said, alarmed. “I didn't see anyone there.”

“You haven't met?” Holtzmann asked. “This is my mentor.”

Elizabeth Gorin,
Erin filled in.

Abby said, “Oh, it's so nice to finally meet—”

“This is reckless, Jillian,” Dr. Gorin admonished her protégée. “You're breeding fissile plutonium with insufficient criticality moderation. All someone has to do is sneeze too hard and everyone in this building is disintegrated. Do you know how powerful that is?”

Holtzmann shuffled her feet. “I was bad.”

Dr. Gorin thwacked off her gloves, put them on the counter, and stared at Holtzmann.

“And I've never been more proud of you,” she said warmly, gathering Holtzmann up in a hug. “Now let's make this more powerful, shall we?”

“Yeah.” Holtzmann was totally in.

Erin smiled, but she was a little freaked. “Yay … power within reason.”

“But don't limit yourselves,” Abby said.

“Definitely not,” Erin amended. “But at the same time, imagine a ‘responsible cap.'” She made air quotes.

Just then, Patty ran downstairs. She wore an ear-to-ear grin.

“Hey, you gotta check this out! Come up to the roof!” she told the group.

Erin, Abby, and Holtzmann headed up, while Dr. Gorin stayed behind, smiling after them.

Once they were all assembled on the starlit rooftop, Patty opened her arms to the skyline of midtown Manhattan. She said, “I guess it's a thank-you from New York.”

It was a panorama of gratitude written in lights on the tops of buildings, in lights on the sides of buildings:

We
♥
GB

We
♥
New York

Thank you GB

You rock GB

GB Forever

Even the Empire State Building was lit up with the Ghostbusters logo on the side.

Wow
, Erin thought,
and we're not even in
Star Wars
.
It was a truly special moment.

“That's very thoughtful of them,” Holtzmann said.

“Well, that's not terrible,” Abby deadpanned.

“No, it's not.” Erin was happy, so happy. “Not terrible at all.”

As they admired the show, more lights came on up and down the city, revealing dozens of logos—and more messages of thank-you from the people of New York. People who knew that four intrepid women had literally saved them from a fate worse than death.

And that's why we did it,
Erin thought,
and if need be, why we'll do it again.

The expressions on the faces of her sister Ghostbusters assured her that they were all thinking the same thing:

We will protect this city from ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night.

 

EPILOGUE

And so they kept researching the paranormal and fine-tuning their PKE readers and taking lots of notes and eating lots of wonton soup. Benny the delivery guy had developed a massive crush on Abby, and Erin was trying to get her to agree to go out on a date. Dr. Gorin was helping Holtzmann refine the containment unit.

About a month after New York had thanked them, Patty was listening to EVP recordings they had made during their initial consultation with a new client, a woman who claimed to hear whispering at night in her living room.

She sat wearing headphones listening to white noise. Nothing. Then … something. Her brows rose. She rewound the tape and turned up the volume. Then she wrote a note, her forehead furrowed, and took off her headphones. She looked at the other Ghostbusters with consternation.

“What's up?” Erin asked. “Did you get something?”

“Yeah,” Patty replied. “What's ‘Zuul'?”

www.tor-forge.com

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NANCY HOLDER
has published more than eighty books and two hundred short stories. She has received five Bram Stoker awards from the Horror Writers Association, a Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and a Pioneer Award from RT Book Reviews. Her books, which have been translated into more than two dozen languages, include
The Rules
and the
New York Times
bestselling series Wicked. She is on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing program offered through the University of Southern Maine and lives in San Diego with the writer Mark Mandell. You can sign up for email updates
here
.