When Cole and Paige drove back into Omaha, they were just in time for rush hour. Compared to the snarled tangle of metal and pissed-off commuters they would have found in Chicago or Kansas City, it was nothing more than a time for drivers to slow down and listen to the radio. The heat had eased off and lunch was still a very fond, very spicy memory, so they took their time and moseyed back to MEG Branch 18. Their easygoing mood lasted until they walked through the doors of the ghost chasers’ office.
“There you are!” Rosetta said from behind the front desk. “You’ll never believe this! We caught a break and we can head out to those homes in Valparaiso tonight!”
Cole blinked and reflexively looked over to Paige. “Really? What happened?”
Mick strode down the short hallway with a spiral notebook in one hand and the nub of a pencil in the other. “I don’t know if it’s what you’re after, but there’s been activity reported. One lady called less than an hour ago and told us she saw some sort of faceless figure in her backyard.”
Still watching Paige, Cole said, “That’s interesting.”
Her poker face held up well enough.
“This isn’t just one isolated instance!” Mick continued. “There really may be something out there. A kid next door to this woman saw a similar figure run down her driveway. She said it had holes in her back and no face. I’ve never even heard of anything like this.”
“Don’t get all worked up,” Paige said. “If we find it, we’ll deal with it.”
“I know, but if there is a presence or some sort of entity there, that falls under our jurisdiction, right?”
Cole saw a flicker of conscience pass across Paige’s face. “Yeah,” she said. “If you find anything in the ghost family, it’s all yours.”
Mick and Rosetta turned to each other, grinned, and went through a few other congratulatory motions. “The lady who called back was freaked out enough to give us free access to her home,” Rosetta said. “I asked about her neighbors and she told me she’d have a word with them. Even if we don’t hear back, once the neighbors see us parked in someone’s driveway, they’ll start asking questions. At the very least, I think we should be able to get in and have a quick look around one or two more houses.”
“Perfect,” Paige said. “When do we leave?”
“I’ve already called Quentin and Val. We’ll have a briefing, I’ll introduce you, we’ll get the equipment together…what’s that smell?”
Cole averted his eyes, but Paige shrugged as if she truly didn’t have remnants of the acrid scent of invisibility oil drifting from her clothes.
Cutting the awkward moment short, Mick said, “We should be on the road by seven-thirty or eight. You guys want to hang out here until then?”
Just as Cole was about to cover for whatever excuse Paige came up with for them to leave, he heard her say, “Sure. I’d like to see what you guys do here.”
Mick and Rosetta were almost as surprised as Cole. Once they got over that, the grand tour began.
“This,” Rosetta said proudly as she waved toward her desk, “is my phone.”
It was just past seven-thirty, and the sun stubbornly refused to drop. In fact, it seemed intent on hanging at just the right angle to blaze directly into Cole’s eyes as he drove toward Valparaiso for the second time that day. It was too low for the car’s visor to do any good and still too high for him to look away. Due to the fact that the driver of the MEG van actually obeyed the speed limit, it took them just over an hour to reach the light blue house Paige had terrorized earlier. The van Cole followed was dark red and had MEG BRANCH 18 stenciled on one side. After pulling into the driveway, Mick hopped out from behind the wheel, waved, pointed toward the front door, and held up five fingers.
Cole parked the Cav and stepped out as the side door of the MEG van noisily rolled open.
The guy who emerged from the van had about a hundred clones wandering the halls of Digital Dreamers, Inc. He was in his mid-to late twenties, a little taller than Cole, but several pounds lighter. Thick, brushy hair looked like an abandoned project residing on his head, and the glasses he wore seemed thick enough to act as windows on a space station.
“Real great to meet you, Cole,” the younger guy said as he approached the Cav. “Is that Paige there with ya?”
Paige got out and shook his hand. “That’s me.”
“I’m Quentin. Historian and director of Special Projects for Branch 18. If you’ve got stories you wouldn’t mind telling or just want to fill me in on what you guys have been up to, I’m ready to listen.”
“He’s not a stalker, by the way,” added a skinny blond girl who looked just old enough to be somewhere in the first couple years of college. “Special Projects is pretty much anything regarding people like you two.”
Quentin nodded. “I probably connected a few phone calls for you both at one time or another.”
Flipping her short hair behind an ear, the blonde stepped past Quentin to say, “And he never lets us hear the end of it. I’m Val. Just an investigator around here, which adds up to a whole lot of walking around in dark rooms and sifting through hours upon hours of video.”
“That cool video they show on TV?” Cole asked.
“Mostly it’s just video of us walking through dark rooms. The audiotapes of that are riveting, by the way.”
Paige grinned and followed Val around to the back of the van. “I like her. Let’s make ourselves useful and unload this stuff.”
While Cole, Paige, and Val unloaded the van, Quentin tried to look busy at a tricked-out laptop. After a few minutes of that, Mick opened the front door of the house and waved at them again.
“Time for us to get set up inside,” Val said.
Paige hefted a large plastic case from the van and set it down on the driveway. “Are all those waves some sort of code?”
“Nah. He waves at us and we do things how we always do them.”
There were a lot fewer wires and cords than Cole had been expecting. Val handed out flashlights, cameras, and digital audio recorders, while Quentin set up his own equipment at the back of the van and Mick escorted the home owner to the next door neighbor’s place. By the time they were ready to head inside, the last remaining traces of sunlight were orange smears across a prairie sky.
“Is there a reason why you always do this in the dark?” Cole asked. “Or is that just to make it all seem scarier?”
“We’re not trying to make anything look scary,” Mick replied. “We need to worry about reflections showing up in pictures or windows, stray light hitting dust particles, not to mention keeping on the lookout for anything giving off its own light. That’s the good stuff, and we can miss it if it’s being washed out by too much sunlight.”
“The short answer for that,” Val said as she walked by, “is yes. There are reasons for doing this in the dark.”
Paige chuckled mostly to herself as she followed along behind Val. “I really do like her.”
They filed into the house, which was an odd mix of decorating styles, including several layers of afghans draped over the sofas and a few pieces of modern art hanging on the walls. The living room was small and led into a smaller dining area, but none of that caught Cole’s attention as much as what was in the back corner near a closet.
“Is that a stripper pole?” he whispered.
Mick leaned over and hissed, “Just keep checking your equipment.”
“If the lady who owns this place has a stripper pole, maybe I should check her equipment.”
“She’s sixty if she’s a day. Besides, we’re not here to make fun of her home. Are you going to do your job or should you wait outside?”
Cole let Val and Paige walk ahead and down a hall that led past a fairly nice kitchen. The light from their flashlights was just enough to cast a dull glow throughout the space.
Mick stood beside him, rummaging through the various pieces of electronics clipped to D-rings on his shirt and belt. “This,” he said while tapping a black box he handed over to Cole, “is a K2 meter. It’s basically a simpler version of our EMF detectors. See those lights?”
The box Cole had been given was bigger than a cigarette lighter but slightly smaller than a glasses case. An arc of little lightbulbs crossing along the top of the box went from green to red as they progressed from left to right. At the moment the first two green lights were flickering.
“Those register fluctuations in the electromagnetic field,” Mick explained. “The field should be pretty stable under normal conditions, but can be affected by other energies. When you see those lights jump into the red, there’s a fluctuation.”
“What about your meter?” Cole asked.
The one Mick held was larger and looked like any number of items pulled from a shelf at Radio Shack. It was larger than a digital camera and about twice as thick. The front was mostly taken up by a gauge with a needle waggling around various numbered scales printed on the face. Mick kept the box cupped in one hand and said, “This is a Tri-Field meter. It measures both AC and DC electrical current along with EMF.”
“How does that help?”
“Spiritual energy is still energy. AC current is man-made, but DC can come from natural sources. One time, I picked up a cat running through some bushes with this thing.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah, it really is. But to get truly accurate readings, this meter needs to stand still. Otherwise, you might just be picking up natural fluctuations of energy coming from the earth’s normal field.”
“Seriously?”
“There’s more to it than that, but basically yes.”
Cole followed Mick around the living room and into the dining room. In the time it took for the equipment to be handed out and the investigation to start, the sunlight had dwindled down to nothing. All that filtered in from outside was the dull glow of streetlights.
“We don’t have enough time to thoroughly check this place from top to bottom,” Mick whispered. “The owner wants us out of here before ten. Do you need any longer than that?”
“I honestly don’t even know what I’m looking for on this meter.”
“You’re after living creatures, right?” Mick asked.
“Yes.”
“Then let me know when you pick up spikes. I’ll let you know what you might have found. We may also catch something from that faceless apparition, so stay alert.”
“Is there a basement?”
Mick nodded. “Yes, but there’s not supposed to be any activity there.”
“The things we’re after are burrowers, so there may be more activity than this lady knows about. Let’s have a look.”
“Hold up.” Mick grabbed his cell phone from his shirt pocket and tapped a button. The phone chirped and established a quick two-way connection that must have cost a bit extra on the service plan. “Quentin, bring the thermal in here.”
After another chirp, Quentin replied, “Be right there.”
Mick continued shuffling through the kitchen. “We’ve had this camera on layaway for months but haven’t had the money to snag it.”
“A thermal camera must be a tax write-off for MEG,” Cole pointed out.
“Yes, but each branch pays its own expenses. Don’t get me wrong,” he quickly added. “You guys make lots of generous donations, but it’s all gotta be spread around. I went and picked it up as soon as I heard why you two were coming, but it’ll have to go back tomorrow before the check is cashed, so don’t scratch it. Just don’t even touch it. Tell me where to point it and I’ll do the rest.”
“That should pick up any living things in here?” Cole asked.
“In here or under here within a reasonable distance.” Mick appeared somewhat menacing with just the faint glow of his little flashlight reflecting up onto his features. “This baby detects heat, so it’ll also pick up changes in temperature due to hollow spaces stuck in the middle of a wall or under the floor. If there are tunnels or even secret compartments where this lady keeps her porn, we should be able to scope them out.”
Cole whistled softly. “That’s really cool.”
“Tell me about it.”
Mick left the kitchen, walked down the short hall, and headed for the room currently filled with an eerie, bobbing white light. Tensing as he tried to get ahead of Mick, Cole almost reached for the spot where his weapon was normally kept. The weapon wasn’t there, but it turned out he didn’t need it. Paige and Val were in the bedroom, checking the floor and walls with penlights that cast the weird shadows.
“You two find anything in here?” Mick asked.
Val nodded enthusiastically. “Paige picked up a hot spot with the K2.”
Walking into the little bedroom, Mick expertly sidestepped piles of dirty clothes and a few shoe boxes to get over to where Paige was standing. “Really? Let’s see.”
Paige crouched down under a window built high up on the wall that looked out to the narrow space between the house and its neighbor. Every time she waved the meter over a spot on the floor, the lights jumped from the first two greens all the way up to the last two reds.
“See if you can confirm that one, Cole,” Mick said.
Stretching out with his right hand, Cole waved his own K2 over the same patch of floor. The spike he got wasn’t quite as drastic, but he also wasn’t able to get the meter as close to the floorboards. Nodding slowly, Mick hunkered down and placed his Tri-Field meter near that spot. Almost instantly, it made a screeching noise, and kept it up even after he and Val pulled Cole and Paige away from it.
After a bit more screeching, Mick nodded and took his meter back. “Could be wires under the floor,” he said. “Could be a naturally occurring magnetic field. It could also be something giving off its own energy. Do you know if these burrowers manipulate magnetic fields at all?”
With a genuinely perplexed look on her face, Paige replied, “That might explain a few things, but I’m not sure. We should definitely take a look under here when we get to the basement.”
Placing his foot on the edge of the bed frame, Cole hoisted himself up to the rectangular window and took a look outside. He then lifted his left hand to wave. “Is the owner a rat-faced lady with her hair in a bun?”
“You could call her that,” Mick replied.
“She’s watching from the next house over.”
“She’ll probably be checking in on us throughout the night.”
Just then the front door opened and thumped shut. Mick’s phone chirped and Quentin said, “I’ve got the thermal. Where are you guys?”
“Bedroom at the end of the hall,” Mick replied.
A few seconds later Quentin stomped into the room carrying a camera in one hand and what looked like a small laptop computer in the other. He handed the camera to Val and then flipped open the laptop to show what the camera was seeing.
The new equipment smelled like an expensive trip to the electronics store. Cole watched intently as it was all switched on. Once it warmed up, Mick aimed the camera at the floor and asked, “See anything, Val?”
“I think we’ve all been spending too much time in this spot. Either that, or there’s too much going on with the wires or insulation or whatever.”
“How about we take this all down to the basement?” Cole asked. “Whatever we’re looking for would most likely be down there anyway.”
Before anyone could say anything, a muted thump echoed through the room.
Val, Mick, and Quentin all looked at each other and then swung their flashlights toward the hall.
“What was that?” Cole asked.
There was another thump, followed by a scratching that seemed to come as much from the floor as it did from the walls.
Val handed the monitor back to Quentin so she could dig a small digital audio recorder from her pocket. She flipped it on and asked, “Is there anyone in here with us?”
When Paige started to say something, she was quickly silenced by the entire MEG team. Walking over to Cole, she whispered, “You brought your spear, right?”
“It’s in the car.”
“Go get it.”
He headed out of the room as they heard more scratches from the vicinity of the closet and under the floor. Instead of the quick, skittering sounds of a critter trapped in a crawl space, the noises were more like thick claws scraping against the underside of the wood beneath Cole’s feet.
Once he was outside, Cole could barely hear anything coming from inside or under the house. A short lady with her hair tied into a bun raced from the neighboring house to meet him at the Cav.
“Did you hear any noises?” she asked. “It’s not rats! I keep a clean house and my son is an exterminator. There’s no rats!”
“I’m just getting some more equipment, ma’am,” Cole said as calmly as he could.
“You’re not making a mess, are you? Maybe I should come over there.”
“We’ve got some expensive stuff set up,” Cole said as he rooted around in the car and took what he needed from under the front seat. “I’ll send Mick out here to answer any questions you may have.” He shut the car door and headed back to the house. “We just don’t want you to trip on anything, that’s all.”
“Expensive equipment, huh?” the lady asked. “Is that a stick you’re carrying?”
Cole pretended not to hear that as he went inside and locked the door behind him. The moment he crossed the threshold, he was surrounded by the scraping sounds, which were now accompanied by the rattle of pots within the lower kitchen cabinets. The lights coming from that area let him know that someone was already investigating the disturbance.
Quentin and Val were in the kitchen, sweeping their meters along the floor and cabinets. “The lady who owns the house was outside and she seemed pretty upset,” he told them.
Turning to look at Cole, Quentin nearly blinded him thanks to the penlight gripped between his teeth. “She’s not gonna come in, is she?” he asked.
“She might. I told her Mick would go out to explain what’s happening.”
“Good. We’re busy in here.”
The two of them switched their lights off so they could use the thermal camera. Val dropped to all fours to get to one of the lower cabinets and pointed the camera in there while Quentin watched the portable monitor.
Although Cole knew the basics of how the camera worked, all he could see on the foldable screen was a mix of bright reds and darker blues. “Find anything?” he asked.
“We’re picking up traces of a heat signature moving around under the floor,” Val said. “There’s a spike in the EMF just before it comes along. It’s really cool!”
Cole hurried to the bedroom, where Paige and Mick were crawling around knocking on the floor. “You might want to go smooth out the lady who owns this place,” he said.
“Why?” Mick asked as he pressed his ear to the floor.
“Because she’s about to come in here, that’s why.” When that didn’t get the other man moving, Cole added, “She seemed to think you guys were breaking stuff in here.”
Mick jumped to his feet and grumbled, “I knew we shouldn’t have asked her to leave. Go against standard practices once and all you get is grief.” He continued grumbling, but couldn’t be heard once he left the room.
“What’s going on in here?” Cole asked.
Paige stood up and waved the K2 meter over the floor. “There’s something under the floor, and I think it knows we’re looking for it. Either that or it’s just getting restless. Did you hear all that scratching a few minutes ago?”
“How could I miss it?”
“Something moved right below the foundation of this house.”
“Hasn’t anyone checked the basement?”
“That’s the thing,” Paige replied. “Val went down there and came right back up again. There’s just a single room big enough for the water heater and some storage located below the living room, but no basement under this half of the house.”
“Then maybe—”
As soon as Cole started to talk, the scratching noises became loud enough to make him hop away from where he’d been standing.
“Are you recording this?” Val shouted.
Heavy steps thumped down some stairs and up again before Quentin replied, “Yeah, but it’s not as loud downstairs. I can hear it, but just a little.”
“Hey!” Paige shouted. “Get that thermal camera in here!”
More heavy steps along with some labored breathing announced Quentin’s arrival.
“Point it right here at the floor,” Paige said.
Quentin nodded and rushed over to her. Aiming the camera at the spot where she’d been pointing, he held the monitor for about two seconds before he nearly dropped it. “Whoa! Did you see that?”
“Sweep that spot again,” Paige said as she took the monitor from him.
The scratching sounded like nails raking against concrete. As it flowed up through the floor, it was distorted by all the layers of wood, insulation, wiring, dirt, and whatever else was between the MEG team and the source of the noise.
Then the scratching stopped.
“Have you heard anything like this before?” Cole asked.
Quentin continued to move the camera back and forth while shaking his head. “A few times, I’ve heard banging and whispers, but nothing this bad.”
“Did the home owner mention anything like this when you talked to her?”
Although he didn’t look away from the floor, Quentin shook his head. “Not that I remember.” He used his free hand to grab his phone and then keyed it to send a few chirps through instead of one.
After a few seconds Mick whispered, “Yeah?”
“Did the home owner ever mention scratching sounds?”
“Yeah. Those and some knocking.”
“I mean loud scratching like what we heard.”
There wasn’t a reply through the phone’s speaker, but Cole could hear muted voices coming from outside. After they died down, the phone chirped and Mick said, “She says there was scratching, but not from rats.”
“There!” Paige said. “Did you see that?”
Cole had been watching the monitor while also glancing down to see where Quentin was aiming the camera. “I saw something flash by on the screen, but don’t know what it was.”
“Here,” Quentin grunted as he got up from where he’d been kneeling. “Rewind the feed. Right here.” He pointed to a button and then tapped it. When he saw the movement in reverse, he backed up another few seconds and played it frame by frame.
Most of the screen was a mess of dark blues and greens. Brighter lines crossed the screen in bundles, which had to be wires or possibly narrow pipes under the floor. The thing that slowly moved from one side of the screen to the other wasn’t a bundle of wires, however, and it sure as hell wasn’t a pipe. It was, however, very hot.
“What the hell?” Quentin gasped.
Val raced into the room and pressed between Cole’s and Paige’s shoulders so she could get a look. “What? What is it? What did you find?”
“Is that…some sort of beak?” Quentin asked as he used his finger to trace a long hooked shape at the bottom of the glowing red and orange blob. “There’s another one. And another! It’s all connected.”
“Maybe it’s some sort of snake,” Val offered. “Looks like those beaks or whatever connect down at a neck and…move it ahead a bit.”
Quentin sped the video up a notch so he could watch the hooked shapes slide along until the bottom of the screen was covered by the larger body. He stopped the video, rolled it back, and played it at regular speed. Although Cole knew what to look for this time around, he still couldn’t see much before the entire shape wriggled past.
“That looks like a big snake to me,” Quentin said. “What do you guys think?”
Paige didn’t say anything, but glanced around as if waiting for the scratching to return. When nothing happened, she looked down and asked, “Where’s that big meter Mick set down?”
“You mean the Tri-Field?” Val asked.
“Yeah. Where is it?”
“I’ve got it,” Quentin replied. “Picked it up so it wouldn’t interfere with the thermal.”
“Let’s get another look downstairs.”
The entire group rushed to the basement. Cole’s first observation was just how small it was. The steps were narrow, and the stairway felt more like a tunnel as it led down to a pair of brick walls and single door to the right. The small storage room was almost directly below the living room, just as the others had mentioned.
“Point that camera there,” Paige said as she slapped the wall to her left.
Quentin did, but the only thing that showed on the monitor was a mix of black and dark blue.
“Give me that Tri-Field thingy,” Paige said.
“Actually, it won’t do much good down here with all the wires and—” Quentin stopped short when he saw the glare on Paige’s face. Knowing that glare all too well, Cole wasn’t surprised when Quentin dug out the meter and handed it over right away.
Paige held the meter in her hand and flipped it on. Almost immediately the needle on its face waggled back and forth. It jumped in one direction, fell back, and then jumped again. All the while, it made the staticky high-pitched wailing that they’d heard before.
“It’s the current down here,” Val said from where she stood halfway up the stairs. “There’s just too many wires and stuff in this cramped space.”
Moving the meter up and down along the wall, Paige looked as if she truly knew what she was doing with it. Within seconds more noise emanated from deep behind the brick wall. It rumbled and scraped until the source got close enough to the back side of the bricks for the screech of nails against rock to be added to the delightful audio mix.
Paige smirked, turned the meter off and waited. When the scratching faded, she smirked again. “There’s something behind this wall, and this meter is driving it nuts.”
“Are you sure about that?” Val asked as she hunkered down to crouch on the stairs.
“Yep. All that scratching started when the meters were on, and it got worse when all of them were gathered in that same spot. Do these things give off any noise besides what we can hear?”
Val shrugged. “Just the normal hum most electronics give off.” Looking to Quentin, she added, “Unless there’s some sort of interaction with the electromagnetic field that the detectors have picked up. We’ve never heard of anything that could hear that sort of thing so well before. Not through a brick wall anyway.”
“There are bats and other rodents that hear plenty we don’t,” Quentin offered, “but nothing that burrows like this. I mean…there can’t really be something under here like what we saw on the thermal. Someone would have seen it, right?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Paige said. “Cole, go outside and look at the ground around the house. Whatever it is must come up for air. If it’s as big as it seems, you might be able to see something squirming around beneath the grass.”
Val’s eyes widened. “Oh, is that what the stick’s for? I want to go with you!”
“No!” Cole snapped. “Stay here and take some more readings.” As he stormed up the stairs, he almost ran into Mick. Paige came up right behind him and pointed back down to the basement.
“They caught something on the thermal,” she said to Mick. “Go take a look.”
The haggard expression on his face brightened and he ran toward the basement door.
Once they were alone, Cole asked, “You think some sort of snake is down there?”
“The thing in that video wasn’t a snake,” Paige told him. “It was a bunch of fingers connected to a hand connected to an arm. It was just a lot closer to the bottom of the floor than anyone thought.”
“Ohhhh, yeahh. Good call.”
“Whatever is underground is moving back and forth from the wall. It’s gotta come up for air, and when it does, try to stick it.”
“We’re not here to kill it,” Cole reminded her. “We need its help, remember?”
Gritting her teeth, Paige said, “Then get its attention or try to draw it out. Do you have your earpiece radio?”
“No. I lost that in Indiana.”
She sighed “What about an earpiece for your phone?”
“It’s one of the smallest models made and I had to import it from a special store in Tokyo that only gets—”
“Great,” Paige snapped. “Put it in and keep in contact with me. I’ll go back to the bedroom and try to stir it up. When you see anything, let me know. Mongrels are hit and miss as far as temperament goes. They’re not all exotic naked cat ladies, so don’t do anything stupid.”
Giving her a quick, halfhearted salute, Cole headed out the front door. There were just enough clouds in the sky to keep the moonlight down to a minimum. It didn’t take long to circle around the little house and get to the side with the bedroom where everyone had been gathered.
A small patch of flowers ran along the front, sectioned off from the lawn by inch-high wooden beams set into the ground. The flowers grew in thick patches, clustered together as if competing to live there. He didn’t hear anything, but he could see lights moving behind the little window a foot or so over his head. Before he could get to his phone’s earpiece, something shifted beneath the ground as though a patch of grass had decided to shrug. Cole held his weapon in both hands and cautiously approached the moving earth. When the hands reached up from the ground to grab his ankles, he was barely able to gulp in some air before being pulled under.