Tales of a Ghost Containment Specialist

Protests

Alpha gave me a thumbs up. He walked towards the tunnel and aimed the extractor at the opening. He flipped a few buttons, and the gear sprang to life. As soon as we saw the clawed hand of the ghost breach the tunnel, Alpha slammed down the button, and the extraction began.

I cannot go into the specifics of the procedure. It's proprietary equipment, and it would violate my NDA if I discussed the process in detail. What I can say, though, is that during the extraction, the energy crackling in the air caused so much light during the extraction process that it looked like high noon for about ten minutes.

I can state that Alpha was only able to capture the ghost inside the tunnel. As soon as they started the process, the tunnel started shrinking and reverting back to that small blue light we had seen at the start. The tunnel totally disappeared as soon as the energy from the many-eyed ghost was contained. It's probably still out there.

When you snag spectral energy from the wild, our gear typically gets warm. Not surprising – energy creates heat. But Alpha had to fling his gear off of him, or he'd have severe burns. Whatever was inside was straining the containment capabilities of our gear.

"What the fuck do we do now?" Omega asked.

"Wait for our ride," Alpha said. "We need to let that cool down, or it's going to burn a hole through the van."

"Where did the tunnel go?" I asked.

"I dunno," Alpha said.

"How did it not get trapped?" Omega asked, "I mean, it didn't even waver when we started blasting it. When has ANYTHING ever resisted our tech?"

"I don't like this," I repeated.

We didn't have time to think. We saw the headlights of the van appear and flash to us. We waited ten minutes for the equipment to cool down and then dragged it back, careful not to touch anything. Along the walk, I kept looking around us. Omega noticed.

"You okay?"

"I have a feeling we're being watched," I said.

"We are," Alpha said, motioning to the van.

"No, I mean by something else."

"There probably are several different energies out here," Omega offered, "they saw what we just saw. They're probably keeping an eye on us."

"I can feel it, though," I said, "their energy is attuned to us. I think we did something bad."

"You feeling okay?" Alpha asked.

"I'm fine," I said, harsher than I should've. I think it put them on edge. Again, I do not have 'the frets.' I'm perfectly fine. But I know when something is going wrong in a job. I can tell when we're being used for something. It felt like that.

"Doesn't this feel off to either of you? When was the last time we had to drag equipment away because it was too hot to touch? When have you ever seen a ghost emerge from another ghost? When has the night sky ever lit up like the middle of the day because of an energy transfer?"

"It's weird, I'll grant you that," Alpha said, "but this whole job is weird."

"But to not tell us who this is for? Or what we're doing? Or hiding us from finding out where we are?"

"People with higher pay grades make those decisions," they added, "I just do my part."

That's when I heard the muttering start. I glanced around to see if anyone else had heard it, but they hadn't. But I know I heard it. And I know where it was coming from: the equipment.

I tried to block them out, but they were constant. I couldn't make out any specific words, but they would not shut up the entire way back to the van. That's not supposed to happen. Once an energy is inside our gear, it doesn't come out until we let it.

The van door opened, and I was surprised to see our boss sitting there. He was never at a job site. Far as I knew, he rarely left his office. He grinned when he saw us.

"Did you get it?"

"Yeah," Alpha said, proudly nodding back to the gear. "It's burning hot, though."

"What's going on?" I asked, tossing my gear down.

"You're doing the job," my boss said.

"What was that? It wasn't like anything we've ever seen."

"World is full of wonder," my boss said, "now load everything in and let's get these blindfolds on."

"We can't bring this thing into the van. It's leaking," I said.

Everyone looked at me. I nodded at it, "I'm hearing...mumbling coming from it. It's leaking energy."

Alpha spoke up, "I gotta say, I'm worried he's showing symptoms of 'the frets.'" He looked at me and shrugged, "Sorry, bud, but I'm doing my job."

"I'm fine," I said.

The boss snapped to Omega. "What about you? You worried?"

Omega swallowed, "I don't think he has 'the frets.' I think he's concerned about the job. That thing... that's not normal spectral energy. I know you saw the light from where you were parked. That's never happened."

"Are you two refusing to go along with the job?"

After a beat, Omega shook their head 'no.' "I just think there is something unnatural about this."

"Our whole job is unnatural," Alpha repeated. It was clear he shared none of our reservations.

"We should bury that thing in the desert and give back the money," I said.

"We are not doing that," my boss said, "Can you finish the job or not?"

I wanted to walk away, but doing so would jeopardize my livelihood. My skill set doesn't exactly translate to other occupations. I silently nodded 'yes.'

"Then load up the van, and let's get going."

Ten minutes later, we very carefully placed the gear in the back of the van. The voices were louder the closer I got to it. The temperature had cooled down, but it was still warm to the touch. I was sure Omega might've heard something too, but they weren't speaking up. We sat in the van, and our boss placed blindfolds over our eyes.