Chapter Seven
Ray, Winston, and Egon were downstairs showing our new rookie the ropes. I exited the kitchen with a sandwich and stopped in my tracks when I saw a man with fiery red hair sitting in my brother's office. I walked over to Janine and looked at her.
"Who the hell is that?" I whispered.
"His name's Walter Peck, he wants to see Peter when comes back after his walk."
"Where's he from?"
"EPA."
I glanced over my shoulder at the man who was waiting, it seemed, rather impatiently. Peter walked in and saw my sandwich.
"Thank you, I'm starving."
"This isn't for you." I took a big bite of the sandwich. Janine walked up to him.
"There's a man from the EPA here to see you. He's waiting in your office." She said.
"EPA? What's he want?"
"I don't know. All I do know is I've been working for two weeks without a break and you promised me you'd hire more help."
"Janine, someone with your qualifications would have no trouble finding a topflight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries." The phone began to ring off the hook. "Are you gonna answer that?"
"I've quit better jobs than this." Janine answered the phone angrily. "Ghostbusters! What do you want?" she snapped. Peter and I walked into his office, where Walter Peck was seated by the map.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm Walter Peck." He stood. Peter held his hand out and he took it. "I represent the Environmental Protection Agency, the third district." They stopped and Peck looked at his hand that was now covered in slime.
"Great, how's it going down there?" Peter asked, patting his shoulder. He went behind his desk.
"Are you Peter Venkman?"
"Yes, I'm..." Peter paused for dramatic effect. "Dr. Venkman. This is my sister Nancy, by the way, hope you don't mind visitors. We tell each other everything anyway, so she would figure it out sooner or later." He sat down.
"Hello." I extended my free hand. Peck looked at it for half a second and then shook it, relieved there was no slime left on it. I stood behind my brother's desk.
"Exactly what are you a doctor of, Mr. Venkman?"
"Well, I have Ph.D.'s in parapsychology and psychology."
"I see... And now you catch ghosts."
"Yeah, you could say that."
"And how many ghosts have you caught, Mr. Venkman?"
"I'm not at liberty to say."
Peck looked at me as I finished my sandwich. "And you? Are you at liberty to say?"
"No sir, I'm sorry." I shook my head. Peck eyed us for a second.
"And where do you put these ghosts once you catch them?"
"Into a storage facility."
I saw Janine poke her head around the file cabinets as Peck continued to interview my brother. "And would this storage facility be located on these premises?" he asked.
"Yes."
"And may I see this storage facility?"
Peter and I looked at each other for a second and then back at Peck, who had his back to us.
"No." we answered in unison.
"And why not, Mr. Venkman?" Peck made his way over to us and sat down.
"Because you did not use the magic word."
"What is the magic word, Mr. Venkman?"
Peter and I looked at each other again and then back at Peck. ""Please."" We answered.
Peck got a weird smile on his face. It seemed a little shady to me. "May I please see the storage facility, Mr. and Miss Venkman?"
Wow he actually included me that time.
"Why do you want to see the storage facility?" Peter asked.
"Well, because I'm curious. I want to know more about what you do here. Frankly there have been a lot of wild stories in the media and we want to assess any possible environmental impact from your operation. For instance, the presence of noxious, possibly hazardous waste chemicals in your basement. Now, you either show me what is down there, or I come back with a court order."
Well, the sound of the ultimatum pissed Peter off pretty good. He held the anger in the best he could stood, and leaned forward.
"You go get a court order, and I'll sue your ass for wrongful prosecution!" he yelled. Peck got up and got into Peter's face.
"You can have it your way, Mr. Venkman." He spoke quietly but threateningly. Then he left. I shook my head.
"What if he does come back with one?"
"I'll sue his ass, just like I said." Peter went downstairs and I followed.
"...a PKE surge of incredible, even dangerous proportions!" I heard Ray exclaim.
"We just had a visit from the Environmental Protection Agency." Peter announced. He walked over to the grid and drifted over to where Egon was holding half of a Twinkie.
"Twinkie?" I asked.
"No." Egon jerked it away. "My Twinkie."
"How's the grid holding up?" Peter asked.
"Not good." Egon said.
"Tell him about the Twinkie." Winston put a hand in his pocket. Peter looked up quickly.
"What about the Twinkie?"
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Around eight o'clock Peter came downstairs wearing some of his best clothes.
"What's with the getup?" Ray asked. He and Winston were about to get into Ecto 1.
"I have a date. Where're you goons going?"
"The library." Winston answered as he got in the car.
"We're going to check out the structural details in Dana's apartment building, look at the blueprints, things like that. You wouldn't be interested."
"You're right." Peter went to the door.
"Who's the unlucky lady?" I teased.
"Dana Barrett. Who else?" Peter glared and left. Egon and I looked at each other. Winston and Ray shook their heads and left.
"Anyone hungry?" Janine asked.
"Yeah, I could go for some pizza." Egon nodded.
"Pizza it is." I smiled.
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There was a knock at the door and Janine went to answer it.
"Dropping off or picking up?" I heard her ask.
"Dropping off." Came the reply.
"Just a moment." Janine shut the door and walked over to us. "There's a cop standing outside, he wants to drop off something."
Egon and I looked at each other, stood and then walked outside.
"You Ghostbusters?" the man, a cop, asked.
"Yes." Egon answered.
"We picked up this guy. Now we don't know what to do with him." The three of us, along with the cop, walked over to the car. "Bellevue doesn't want him and I'm afraid to put him in the lock up. I know you guys are into this stuff, so I figured we'd check with you." When we reached the back of the car, we saw a man with his hair strung out in all different directions, (think Reverend Jim Ignatowski off of Taxi), huge glasses and a wild look on his face. I suddenly recognized the guy. It was the nerdy dude from Dana's apartment building.
"Are you the Gatekeeper?" he asked. Egon held up his PKE and it went insane. The man looked at it with wide eyes. Egon looked at the officer.
"You better bring him inside." We started for the building again. Janine linked her arm with his and jealously bubbled up inside of me.
"You are so kind to take care of that man." She said. "You know, you are a real humanitarian."
"I don't think he's human."