Avalon's old silver blue labaron pulled up to the TAPS office just a couple minutes before nine. She ran up and stopped in front of the door before calmly opening it and walking inside.

"Hey, right on time." Grant smiled as he walked out of the back office.

"I try to be." the young woman smiled.

You have no idea.

"Well, Jason isn't here this morning and you've already met Kris, so I'll introduce you to the other two."

"Okay."

They went down the basement stairs and into a small room where a man who had his back to them was working on some electronic devices. He was maybe slightly taller than average, a little overweight, his short dark brown hair was partially hidden by a baseball cap and there were tattoos all over his arms and legs.

"Hey, Steve?" Grant knocked on the door frame.

"Yes?" he turned around, revealing soft brown eyes and a slight beard.

"This is Avalon Bates. She's our new team member."

Avalon smiled, "Hi."

"Hi." he smiled, "I'm Steve Gonsalves."

"Nice to meet you."

"You too."

"Well, we'd better let you get back to work." Grant started back upstairs.

Avalon followed him back to the main area and into another office. Sitting behind the desk at a computer was a young man. His dark brown eyes were focused on the screen and his short dark brown hair was partially covered by a golf cap.

Grant knocked on the door frame, "Hey, Tango?"

The young man looked up at his boss then his eyes flickered to Avalon, "Yes?"

"Meet your new team mate, Avalon Bates." Grant smiled.

The young man stood up quickly and took off his cap, "Hi. I'm Dave Tango."

Wow. What a gentleman.

Avalon smiled, "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." he smiled.

"Tango do you know if the other desk in Kris's office is ready yet?" Grant spoke up.

"I think so." he started to walk around his desk, "I'll check."

"You don't have to do that." Grant said, but the younger man was already out the door.

Avalon followed him, and her new boss trailed after them. When they entered the other office, Tango was putting pencils in the holder and the computer was booting up.

"You didn't have to do that. But thank you." Avalon smiled.

Tango smiled, "I just thought it would be the nice thing to do."

Just then Grant came in, "So, this is where you'll be working."

Tango nodded to Avalon and left the room.

The young woman brought her attention back to her boss, "What exactly will I be doing?"

"Helping Kris do research on cases and things like that. And of course you'll be an investigator in training."

"Are there certain times when I'm required to be here?"

"Only when Kris needs your help and when we're getting ready to head out on a case."

"So I take it she'll let me know when she needs my help?"

"Yes. I'll give her your phone number."

"Alright then." Avalon grinned, "I still can't believe this is happening."

Grant smiled, "It's good to have a really enthusiastic person around."

Avalon smiled, "So, should I hang around here for awhile?"

"Sure. Get a feel for the place. I'll just be in my office if you need something."

"Okay. Thanks."

After her boss had left, Avalon began wandering through the other rooms.

This isn't a dream. I'm actually here!

Avalon headed back down to the basement and into the equipment room. Steve was still working on a camera.

"Hey." Avalon spoke up.

Steve turned around and smiled a little, "Hey. Do you need something?"

"I just thought I'd come familiarize myself with the equipment."

"Okay. Well, if you come up to the table I can tell you about some of these things."

Avalon walked up, "I already know what most of these are and how they work."

"Alright. Name what you can and explain how it works." he crossed his arms and looked expectantly at her.

She cleared her throat and picked up a rectangular box with lights on it, "This is an EMF detector. It's for finding electro-magnetic fields. They can make people feel creeped out. And spirits can feed off it."

He nodded, "Very good."

She smiled and then picked up something that looked like a digital recorder, "This is for recording EVPs."

"And EVP stands for...?" he prompted.

"Electronic Voice Phenomenon."

"That's right."

Next she picked up a small expensive looking video camera, "This is a mini DV, or miniature digital video recorder. The investigators carry these with them to record things they may not see."

Steve nodded and Avalon picked up an odd looking piece of equipment next, "This is a thermal camera. It's to look for heat signatures and cold spots."

She set it down and clasped her hands in front of her, "That's all I know."

"Well you sure know your stuff." Steve smiled.

Avalon beamed, "Thank you."

He reached for what looked like a security camera, "This is the only thing you missed. It's the digital video recorder. We set these up to keep an eye on the hot spots at an investigation."

"That's right." Avalon hit herself lightly on the forehead, "Now I remember."

"You just might take over as tech manager someday." he smiled.

She shrugged, "You never know."

He went back to his project, "How did you get interested in the paranormal?"

"I've always been interested in it." she leaned against the work table, "But I started to take a real interest in it about four years ago when I was sixteen."

"Have you ever had a paranormal experience?"

"Nothing that exciting. Just hearing voices and footsteps on investigations, seeing things move and seeing shadows." she sighed, "I'm still waiting for 'the big one' you might say."

"Where did you do your investigating?"

"Back in Oregon where I grew up. I formed a team with a few of my friends and we investigated all over the state, as well as northern California, southern Washington, southwestern Idaho and northwestern Nevada."

"Awesome. Is the group still operating without you?"

"Nope. It split up a few months ago. Everyone wanted to go their separate ways."

"I see." he plugged in a piece of equipment to test it.

"Well... I'd better let you work. Thanks for letting me bother you for awhile."

"You weren't bothering me." he smiled.

"Good." Avalon chuckled and gave a slight wave, "See ya later."

He returned the wave, "See ya."

She turned and trotted upstairs. Grant was still in his office and Jason still wasn't there. Avalon's new office was also empty.

Guess Kris isn't coming in today.

The young woman wandered around the main room looking at the posters on the walls.

"Hey."

She jumped and turned to find Tango getting some coffee from the refreshment table, "Oh, hi. You startled me."

"Did you think I was a ghost?" he winked.

She laughed, "Well, they can come into a room silently too."

"If they want to." he took a sip from the styrofoam cup, "And they can also make footsteps."

"Oh, I know. I had one walk right behind me on my first investigation. I just about squeezed all the air out of my friend."

He laughed softly, "Was that your first experience ever?"

"Yeah. But I don't like to call that my big paranormal experience. I'm waiting for something more exciting."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. Just something more exciting than the usual stuff."

He nodded and took another sip of coffee, "Want to see some of the footage from our last case?"

"I'd love to!" she exclaimed.

He grinned and waved for her to follow him back to his office.