A.N.: Same warnings abound for language, sci-fi violence, and intense situations. And I still don't own the characters (see chapter 1 for full disclaimers and credits).
5
"The Trap"
Holtzmann, Abby, Erin, and Kevin had gathered on the second floor of their headquarters, which predominantly served as Holtz's lab. They had laid out three of the proton accelerators, a spectrometer, one of the traps, and a pair of Ecto goggles on one table. Erin and Abby had taken charge of the recalibration for the goggles, which left Holtz to tackle the larger problem of the accelerator and the trap.
"So, Kevin can actually see Holtz and Artie, which means that coma ghosts…" Erin hated the imprecise term, and especially hated using it in reference to her friend, but 'disembodied spirits' was too much of a mouthful. "…do manifest on some part of the visual spectrum. We just have to cycle through until we figure out which part of the spectrum it is. That should give us some sort of starting point."
Abby had settled into a groove: Adjust the Ecto goggles, aim the goggles to the table where Kevin (and presumably Holtz) was standing, and then, seeing nothing but Kevin, making another adjustment to the goggles and trying again.
"Kevin, come here. Stand right behind me." Holtzmann waved him to the table. Despite the appearance of chaos, her lab and equipment were always kept precisely organized, so at least it had been fairly simple to walk him through gathering the items she needed from their various cubbies, shelves, and drawers. Now came the hard part. "We're going to play a game of Follow the Leader. I'm the leader, you're the follower."
He grinned. "I rock at this game."
She extended her hands. "Put your hands right where mine are, okay?"
He did. "I feel like that dude in 'Ghost'."
"That's fine, except we aren't making pottery, Kev, this is nuclear physics," Holtzmann instructed. "Now, here's the game: Whatever I pick up off this table, you pick up. Wherever I move my hands, you move your hands. You follow my movements exactly. No improvising. No messing with anything because you 'think the blinky lights are pretty'. Only do what I do. Am I crystal clear on that?"
"Yeah, yeah. What do I get if I win the game?" Kevin wanted to know.
"I'll buy you that recliner with the ice chest built in the arm rest that you keep babbling about," she promised.
"Oh, sweet! Um, but what happens if I mess it up?"
Holtzmann warned him: "I glue your nostrils together while you're sleeping."
"Fair enough."
"Ask Erin how she's doing with that mass spectrometer?"
Kevin obliged. "Erin, how's the Spirograph?"
"It's still not showing anything," Erin reported. "But, if Holtz is giving off any kind of energy signature, this will find it."
Holtzmann was going that same information when she was ready to do the final recalibration of the proton accelerator. But, first, she had to carefully guide Kevin through disassembling the outer shell of the pack so that she could get to the internal components. She swatted through his hand each time his movements varied from hers. "No…Kevin…that's the wire that makes everyone within a five block radius turn into a little poof of dust if you cut it. Let's not touch that one. Watch me. Like this..."
An hour passed this way.
Finally, Abby let out little strangled cry of joy. She had been up to about the fortieth wavelength test on the Ecto goggles…when she saw something. Overlaid with the human-shaped larger blob that she knew was Kevin, there was definitely a second shape. "Oh my god…I see her! I see you Holtz!"
Erin dropped what she was doing and ran to snatch the goggles out of Abby's hands so she could see for herself. She made a quiet noise like a strangled sob. "It works! I can see you…I mean, you're reading as a blurry blob of blue..."
"You're sure it's me? Quick, how many fingers am I holding up?"
"Oh, that's nice," Erin scolded lightly. "I'm still happy to see you."
Patty was quickly becoming restless waiting at the hospital worrying about what she'd do if that Artie creep attacked before they got their gear recalibrated. Sitting in Abby's abandoned chair by, listening for even the slightest noise that might indicate the ghost's return, she almost jumped out of her skin when her cell phone rang.
"Erin?" Patty answered.
"Patricia Tolan?"
Not Erin. Patty didn't immediately recognize the voice. I've really got to look at the caller id before I answer this thing. "Yeah, what?"
"This is Jennifer Lynch from the Mayor's office," the speaker identified herself.
Patty had almost forgotten the phone call she'd made to the mayor's office that morning. She'd had to sneak in the call while Erin was in the donut shop. It wasn't that she didn't trust Erin or Abby; it was just that this was a personal matter…plus, it bordered on blackmailing an elected official. She didn't want her friends on the hook for that, too. "Sorry, it's been bad day. You find that file I asked you about?"
"I did. However, you do realize it would be illegal for me to release this information to you?" Lynch asked.
"You realize you still owe us for preventing the Apocalypse and getting your boy re-elected?" Patty reminded her. Lynch's silence must have implied agreement. "Put your skinny butt in a cab and bring it down here."
She ended the call before the woman could argue. It wasn't Lynch's fault that Patty was in a pissy mood; Patty knew she shouldn't take it out on her.
"Sorry, didn't mean to yell," she apologized to Holtzmann. "I sure hope you aren't angry with me when you wake up, baby girl. I'm not trying to poke my nose where it doesn't belong. You know that, right?"
Patty watched the blips on the monitors, letting them reassure her that her friend was still with them and therefore, on some level, was listening. She wasn't sure how that worked when Holtz was physically lying in a hospital bed while her spirit was several blocks away in the firehouse. There was no end to the bizarre scenarios Patty had encountered since she joined the Ghostbusters.
She leaned against the bed rail, feeling compelled to explain herself. "It's just-I grew up in a big family. I mean four brothers, two sisters, two step-sisters, nine cousins, three aunts, two uncles, and a partridge in a pear tree. Big. All living within six blocks of each other. We drove each other out of our minds like you wouldn't believe. But, that was fine because family is everything to us. You look out for family and your family looks out for you, and that's all there is to it. It's a great feeling to have that.
"What you told us before, after that whole business with Rowan, about finally having a family-that got to me. I mean you surprised me being real with us like that. I appreciated the sentiment, but I didn't hear what you were really saying. Not until today, anyway. Don't be upset with Abby for telling us about the Englebrights and Chuck and all those other losers, okay? I can't imagine what it was like for you growing up without that feeling. It hurts my heart, baby girl. I know family ain't all fun and games like Brady Bunch. I've worked in the subway. I've been a hospital janitor. I volunteered at the youth center on my block. I've seen how many ways family can go wrong. I've seen all the bad things that can happen on the streets, especially to a kid. The idea of little Jillian Holtzmann being out on those streets, being in families that couldn't appreciate how amazing you must have been-" Patty had a cold shiver of terror down to her soul thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened to a teenage girl. "-I don't know how you could go through all that and still find the joy in life the way you do."
It truly did scare Patty. She'd always been a little extra protective towards the engineer anyway. Maybe it was because Patty had been the one who stopped Rowan from dropping Holtz out a two story window and kept that psycho ax-wielding ghost from decapitating her-that whole philosophy that when you saved someone's life you became responsible for that life (was that Sun Tzu? Buddha? Confucius? Aristotle? Maybe Patty had heard it on an old rerun of Kung Fu.). Maybe it was just because with great big bag of crazy packed into the tiny scientist, Holtzmann needed someone to protect her from her own madness.
Patty continued, "You and Abby and Erin probably don't believe in God? Sorry if that's a touchy question. I took an astronomy class once-no, seriously-and the first day the teacher told us that studying the universe like that made some people lose their faith in God. Not me, though. The more she taught me about the complexities of the universe, how it all fit together, the more I believed. Now that I'm with you all and doing what we do, seeing there really is an afterlife, just makes me believe even more. And I believe that sometimes He has to allow the bad things in our lives come along to help steer eventually steer us to the good."
Patty reached out and squeezed Holtzmann's hand. "I hate that you had to go through all that bad, and if you ever do get around to building that time machine, believe me that's the first thing I'm going back and fixing. But, I'm grateful that all that bad brought you to me and Abby and Erin. I'm honored to have all you for my family."
Footsteps pounding into the room cuts off Patty's words. Dr. Menken rushed into the room with the nurse, another doctor, and a couple of orderlies. They pushed past Patty to gather around Holtzmann. Patty didn't like the look on their faces on bit. "What's going on?"
"Your friend was right to be worried. Our scans found the beginning of a bleeder from the blunt force trauma. It wasn't on the scans when she was first brought in. Fortunately we caught it early," Menken explained.
"A what?" Patty had to jump out of their way. "Wait-what does that mean? You gotta do brain surgery on her?" She needed to call Erin and Abby and hope that isn't as bad as it sounds, but it surely wasn't good…
"Not the brain, the spleen. Probably the impact when she was slammed into the door or the bath tub," Menken guessed.
That was the moment an irregular blip on the monitors that drew all everyone's attention.
Once Holtzmann had the visual wavelength as a jumping off point, it became a pretty simple matter to find the right energy signature with the spectrometer. After that, recalibration of the accelerators had been easy (except for making sure Kevin didn't accidentally vaporize something while he was acting as her hands). From there, Holtzmann walked Kevin in baby steps through making the same adjustment to one of the traps.
She found it actually kind of exhilarating to ponder that there might be more ghosts existing outside the normal human capability to perceive within the limits of their five senses and ESP. Ghosts that might exist within infinite dimensions they didn't have the ability to comprehend much less access with modern technology.
It was also rather unsettling, but Holtzmann didn't want to think about the more negative ramifications of that theory. Arthur was a ghost that they could now see, with energy they could now trace and lock onto with the proton accelerator. In a few minutes, he'd be a ghost they finally had the capability to contain.
For her part, Abby was grateful that, with the Ecto goggles, they were finally able to see Holtzmann and therefore would be able to see Artie next time he took a run at their friend. At the same time, it was deeply unsettling to realize she was basically looking at the ghost of her friend. Calling Jillian a 'psychic imprint' or a 'disembodied spirit' just softens the edges of the harsh reality of the situation. To distract herself from that morbid thought, Abby calibrated a second set of Ecto goggles for Erin.
Erin was on the lower level, which was a safer place to test fire the recalibrated proton packs. She had set up the spectrometer to measure the proton stream's new energy signature and make sure it matched up with Artie's. They wouldn't know for certain it would work until they could actually try it on the ghost himself.
"If this works, the applications could be tremendous," Erin called. "Of course, it's also going to require building some safety protocols into the accelerators. If there are other…others like Artie, who are just out of body and not the malevolent deceased, we don't want to accidentally trap them. Okay, I think this is ready for a test fire."
"Hang on, we're coming." Abby took the stairs, but Kevin naturally had to use the fire pole.
"Kevin, do not drop that trap," Holtzmann called after him.
"Yeah, yeah, I left it on the table. Don't' worry." he waved her off.
"Holtz, are you clear?" Erin called.
"She's fine," Kevin answered. "She's upstairs."
Erin nodded. "All right. Test firing accelerator number one." She let loose a small burst of proton stream. Her first observation was that the stream had blue tint thanks to the recalibrations.
Upstairs, Holtzmann's knees suddenly buckled…or at least she had a similar sensation to that, since technically speaking she didn't have knees at the moment. For an instant, her vision went white. It almost felt like an attack of vertigo…
At the hospital, Patty grabbed Dr. Menken and pointed to Jillian's monitor. "What was that blip? Why's it doing that?"
"Looks like she almost went into V-fib for a moment," Menken says.
"Test firing accelerator number two…" Erin called.
Holtzmann heard the crackle of the particle stream downstairs. There came again the dizzy sensation, the blinding white light that overwhelmed her senses…but this time was worse. She felt something else…some impulse to attack, to shut down the stream, to run away…
Fight or flight response. The distant, intellectual part of her mind recognized this and knew it was some kind of reaction to proximity to the beam. This must be how the ghosts felt when the Ghostbusters fired at them. Understanding the feeling didn't make it easier for Holtzmann to resist.
The monitor blipped a second time. Patty quickly dialed her phone.
The beep of the phone interrupted Erin. She saw Patty's number on the screen and quickly answered. "Patty? Is Holtz okay?"
"No, she's not. Are you all doing something with the gear right now?" Patty asked.
"We test fired the proton accelerators a couple of times, but-"
"Two times?!" Two shots, two fluctuations on the monitor, Patty thought. "You didn't test it on Holtz, did you?"
The question offended Erin. "Patty! Of course not! What kind of question is that-?"
Holtzmann shook off the effects of the proton blast, pushing down the instinct to attack. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since Holtzmann's accident and the weapons could already trigger this strong a reaction…she suddenly had real understanding why Arthur hadn't been able to keep from lashing out.
She stared at the trap that Kevin had left on the work table.
What was the trap going to do to Arthur if they had to use it on him?
Holtzmann had been wrapped up in the challenge of catching ghosts and keeping them in containment when she built the traps. She had never stopped to wonder what the trap would be like from the ghost's perspective. She figured it was contain the ghosts or else they would run amok until they destroyed the living. That choice was a no-brainer.
She'd never faced the possibility on using it to contain someone she actually cared about.
Was it like suspended animation? An eternity without sensation or awareness? Was it like being in some alternate dimension-infinite wandering or cramped and claustrophobic?
And what if the trap failed? Artie might actually kill her next time, or worse, he might kill her friends. Her family.
She couldn't take that chance.
Holtzmann waved her hand and the trap popped open.
Downstairs, Abby and Erin head a familiar roar of energy coming from the second floor. They looked up to see the glow of bright white light from an open trap.
They both ran for the stairs, shouting Jillian's name.
Holtzmann flat-lined.
Dr. Menken and the other medics scrambled for a crash cart, shouting instructions back and forth.
Patty yelled into the phone: "Erin-whatever the hell you just did-STOP! Jillian's crashing!"
"We didn't do anything! Holtz opened the trap herself!" Erin's heart threatened to pound its way out of her chest as she raced up the staircase. Upstairs, she and Abby dove for the trap.
"SHE'S IN THE TRAP?!"
"Hang on a second, Patty." Erin set the phone aside as she and Abby scrambling with shaking hands to deploy the foot pedal and slamming their fists down onto the trigger.
If she were to guess, Holtzmann supposed this is what an 'acid trip' might be like.
The white light when the trap open twisted into a veritable rainbow of distorted colors, feelings of barely controlled terror, the urgent need to escape…it was sensory overload.
Her life really did flash before her eyes, just like it had when Rowan had dangled her out that window. This time, she didn't see Chuck and that rocket or the classroom full of angry students she had almost vaporized back in engineering school…she saw the Holtzmanns. She saw Gary the veteran. They were smiling at Jillian, extending hands that invited her to stay there with them.
Holy shit, was she actually dead? Had the trap just killed her?
Escape, escape, escape…the need was overwhelming…
And then, miraculously, she was out just like waking from a nightmare. The myriad colors and images were gone. There was only the firehouse. Erin and Abby were both holding the open trap while Kevin watched them fumble with the device.
"It's terrible in there!" Holtzmann said. "I mean, it was so freaking awesome! Horrible, but awesome."
"Kevin, is she back?! Is she out?!" Abby screamed at the receptionist. Then she remembered the Ecto goggles perched on her forehead and pulled them down to look for herself. She sagged to the floor in relief when she saw the familiar blue energy blur nearby. She pointed a trembling finger at Jillian, "Holtz…if you ever do that again…oh my god, what does a heart attack feel like? Left arm or right arm?"
Menken had the defibrillator paddles ready when the monitors suddenly kicked back to life. Patty held her breath and prayed, watching as the display settled into what she hoped was normal rhythm.
She became aware that Erin was shouting into the cell phone. "Is she out of the trap?" Patty barked into the phone.
"Yes…is she-?" Erin started.
Patty exhaled. She glanced at Holtzmann. "Damn, you've got to stop scaring me like that, baby." The girl had probably just taken ten years' off Patty's life.
"She's stable for now. We have to get that bleeding under control." Menken and the orderlies resumed their preparations.
Erin overheard that part. "What did he just say?"
"Get back here. Now!" Patty told her.