8
They settled on Mediterranean food, crowding into a tiny café squeezed into a crevasse that had once been an alleyway and now served inexpensive falafel and salad platters. Egon stared at the teen contemplatively. Ray seemed simultaneously charmed by her and wary of her. Winston had reluctantly taken on a protective role, and Peter trusted her about as far as he could throw his proton pack. She was disinclined to partake of the meal, but when Ray and Winston offered her morsels she consumed them rapidly and without comment. Egon filled Peter in on the details while savoring an overstuffed, dripping, beef and lamb gyro.
When they figured they'd killed enough time they returned to the firehouse in time to see Janine drive off in her Volkswagen. Winston didn't like the idea of trying anything invasive on her lest something go wrong and her parents showed up with their lawyer in tow, so they decided to start her with Zener cards while Ray assembled his aura analyzing equipment so they could see what sort of energy she radiated.
Egon was seated across from her at the break room table, holding up a card when Winston arrived breathless to report, "The containment unit is empty."
Spengler's face went blank for a second, and then he smiled indulgently. "Ha ha, Winston."
"I'm serious."
"Clearly the readings are off. Recalibrate-"
"I already grabbed Ray and he's rechecking everything right now."
The scientist's brow furrowed. "But a mass containment breach would cause a rift of-"
"There's no evidence of a breach," Winston assured him. "Not that we could determine."
Egon glanced at Amanda. "Excuse me," he said, rising from the table to hurry past his colleague.
The guys spent forty minutes calibrating, adjusting, and running self-checks on the huge, ghost storage unit in the basement. Everything checked out—all systems were functioning within normal parameters and there had been no breaches, no venting, no power failures, no nothing. They didn't like what they were seeing and broke out what still functioned of their ghost-detecting equipment to sweep the entire premises.
"Y'know," Peter finally mentioned, "I haven't seen any evidence of the giant flying booger, either."
"Slimer?" asked Ray from behind a huge pair of spectre-detecting goggles.
"No, Janine."
Egon mentioned, "It would seem…as though every self-respecting spirit in the vicinity has fled elsewhere."
"Or gone into hiding," suggested Zeddemore.
"Which indicates something very big and powerful may be on its way," continued Ray.
"Or," added Peter, hoisting an index finger skyward, "that it's already here…."
The four looked skeptically at each other, their doubt melting into worry.
"Where did you say you found her again?" Pete asked Ray.