PHOENIX: Spooks

by Howard, Paul

  For the better part of an hour Bell tried, without success, to get her to abandon her idea. He not only thought it unseemly for her to do it, he feared for her welfare. Morrison was too dangerous for her to risk herself in this way.

  She took advantage of the opportunity to flirt with him while they talked. The notion of a casual tryst with him appealed her from the moment she saw him again. She knew it was over between them, but reviving it, even if only for a weekend, wouldn’t hurt. She was somewhat surprised at the skillful way he deflected her efforts along those lines.

  “I feel like I’m being hermetically locked in a tomb.” she commented.

  “Well, this is your idea,” he noted, “It’s the only way to stop a Phase 2 Vapor. The walls are made of a non-porous material and so are the floors and ceilings. We’ve sealed all the windows, and the door will be sealed by the officers from the outside. Captain Brawly will have the only key downstairs, and under guard.” She touched his hand.

  “Is all this really necessary?” she asked softly. He looked around and tried to gather his thoughts.

  “Helen, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but we‘ve got a plane standing by,” he looked deeply into her eyes. “I think you should take it.”

  “Go back to Sacramento and wait for him to find me, so I can end up like that judge?” she asked. “I’m thinking clearly, Gordon. This is not only our best chance at stopping him; it’s also my best chance at staying alive! With half of the LAPD and an ecto-cop on hand we stand a damn good chance of catching him. We may not get another window of opportunity like this, that’s why I’m doing it. He will try for me.”

  Brawly approached the couch and decided to take one last stab at it.

  “Ma’am, again, I protest this as strongly as possible,” he said, “Putting yourself up as live bait for a serial killer is not appropriate for a person of your prominence! We cannot justify this.”

  “This is my call, Captain,” she replied, “Inspector White will be right outside. You have complete confidence in him, and so do I. Morrison can’t hurt him.” Bell took her hands in his.

  “If you insist on doing this crazy thing Helen,” he said, “I will be in the next room. He can’t hurt me either!”

  If Dr. Bell had set off a concussion grenade in the room, it could not have had a more stunning effect. Brawly and Sam’s mouths gaped open in surprise and everybody froze. Ryan looked at him in shock and gasped.

  “What did you say?” she asked, hardly able to believe what she had just heard. She pulled her hands out of his as he just looked into her eyes. He could see her pain, as well as the shock.

  “No. Not you? It can’t be…you can’t be!”

  “Yes, I am,” he said softly, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but…” Tears welled up in her eyes and she sighed, painfully. She rubbed her forehead and turned her gaze to the floor.

  “I would like to be alone now,” she said, very hurt. “Leave me! Everyone.”

  No one spoke as they turned and left the room. Bell rose to his feet, never taking his eyes from her. Finally he turned and took a few steps. He stopped and looked back to her. They were alone now.

  “Helen,” he said, “I’m sorry…”

  She got up and moved toward him until she was just in front of him. The tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “Sorry?” she said. “Is that all you can say?” She rushed to put her arms around him, clutching his body to hers. “Oh, Gordon, Gordon, don’t you know how I’ve felt about you? I can’t bear to think that you’re gone!”

  He put his arms around her and tried to give what comfort he could.

  “I’m still here, Helen. I’m here.” he said softly. She pulled away and stared at him, the anger registering at the corners of her mouth.

  “Are you?” she snapped.

  They looked at each other for what seemed like a long time while he tried to think of a reply, but what can an ecto say to a woman who is still love with him?

  “I’ll be in the next room.” he finally said, and left her alone. She stood staring as the door closed and locked from the outside. Finally, like a stricken woman, she sat down on the couch and let the tears go. Gordon was dead. The thought made her sense of solitude more unbearable than she had ever bargained for.

  *****

  The morning hours crept by on the watch outside the Governor’s door.

  To Sam it seemed like the longest morning he had ever lived through. Nobody spoke as the hours dragged by, the silence making the time move even slower, like it always does. Stationed at the far end of the hall, and by the elevators, were several other police officers. Sam finally gave a big yawn. White looked at him and smiled.

  “What time is it?” Sam asked. White glanced at his mobile unit.

  “About noon.” he replied.

  “I’m worn out,” Sam declared, “You don’t get sleepy, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Or hungry?” Sam asked. White shook his head. Sam shifted in his chair and his expression turned very sober.

  “What’s it like, Lenny?”

  “You mean to be dead?” White asked.

  “Yeah, to be a spook.” Sam asked. White thought about the question for a moment and sighed softly.

  “Well,” he explained, “You don’t feel hungry or horny. You don’t have to sleep. You don’t feel pain, or hot and cold. I’ve only been a spook for a couple of days and…” Sam moved closer and looked long into the eyes of his old partner.

  “And what?” he asked.

  “I miss it, Sam,” White replied, “I miss being alive.”

  *****

  An hour later, Helen Ryan rose from a fitful nap. The shock about Bell had left her an emotional wreck, and it was getting muggy inside the airtight suite. Although provisions made sure that she would have sufficient air to breathe, the heat of the day and her own perspiration had made it feel humid and stifling.

  She got up and took a deep breath, fanning herself as she moved to the bathroom. Running some cold water in the sink, she splashed some on her face. Drying herself, she moved back into the spacious living room which now seemed small to her.

  “Goddammit!” she cursed. “There’s no air in here!”

  She moved to the window and looked at the open space outside. The City of Angels sprawled in front of her hundreds of feet below. She strolled back to the couch and picked up the phone. As she began to talk to her personal manager she didn’t notice the faint scraping on the ventilator grate near the door.

  After a few more seconds the grating opened from inside the duct, the tiny point of a flathead screwdriver protruding through imperceptibly. A soft whoosh of air began to come out of it.

  Outside the door Sam was on the verge of nodding off. White leaned back against the wall. He opened his eyes and sat up, sensing that something was wrong. At that moment his mobile unit went off and he looked at it; a change had registered in the ventilation system.

  “That’s the air!” he shouted at Sam. “Get Bell in here!”

  Sam got up as fast as he could and moved to Bell’s door. He emerged before Sam could even knock on it. On the floor below, Brawly was waiting with an escort of six officers surrounding him. At the first beep of his mobile unit he was on the security elevator standing by, praying that the plan to keep the key physically separated from the guards had not backfired.

  White banged on Ryan’s door, shouting as loud as he could.

  “GOVERNOR! CLOSE IT!! CLOSE THE VENT!”

  She dropped the phone and ran to the ventilator, jumping up on a chair and reaching for the control. It had been pried open and she couldn’t unjam it.

  Suddenly, a cloud of blue mist erupted from the vent and knocked her from the chair. Falling hard to the floor, she was badly shaken. Getting up painfully on one arm she looked at the mist. It began to take the form of Morrison in front of her.

  He looked down with glee on his face. An all-encompassing sense of darkness overcame her senses and she began to
freeze. Although it was the middle of the day, she could see nothing but him.

  “Slumming, Governor Bitch?” he mused. Ryan was too frightened to speak. She began to crawl on her back toward the door, as White banged on it louder and louder.

  “Sorry to drop in unannounced like this but I just had to see you!” Morrison crowed.

  “What do you want?” she asked, biding for time. He moved toward her.

  “I wanted you to know that I didn’t vote for you.” he laughed. She reached for the handle on the door, but he swooped down on her and grabbed her blouse. He looked at the print on it with distaste and made a tisk, tisk sound with his lips.

  “How could anybody trust a cunt that wears blouses like this?”

  His touch paralyzed her senses and she found that she could hardly breathe. He ripped the blouse off of her with such violence that it pulled her over onto her face. She tried to turn toward him but he wrapped the blouse around her neck and began to strangle her with it. Outside, White and Sam were both slamming themselves into the door without success.

  The elevator opened and Brawly bounded toward them with the key already in hand. When he tried to place it in the lock, a terrible freezing sensation seized his hand and he dropped the key. White quickly reached down to retrieve it.

  “I would love to give you the personal touch by using my hands,” Morrison whispered into Ryan’s ear, “But thanks to the Marvels of Modern Science, I can’t do that now!” With all the force in her body, she screamed as loud as she could, pulling at the blouse without success. He was too strong. With her air supply cut off, she began to turn red-faced.

  “Say Good-Night, Gracie!” he chuckled.

  The door burst open and White rushed in followed by Bell, Sam and Brawly. The instant they entered the room, Sam and Brawly found themselves immersed in impenetrable darkness and bone chilling cold. White and Bell could see everything perfectly.

  White grabbed at Morrison but his hand went through him. He clutched the blouse and ripped it out of Morrison’s hands. Ryan collapsed in a frozen heap to the floor, gasping to get air into her burning lungs.

  Brawly heard the sound of her struggle and tried to move toward her, tripping blindly over a coffee table and sending himself to the floor along with the lamp that was sitting on it. It shattered loudly as it landed next to him. A piece of broken glass cut into his left hand.

  White swung the blouse around and caught Morrison across his misty face, turning it into a shapeless mass and forcing him to back away. Bell knelt and helped Ryan sit up. She gasped for breath and tried to swallow. He quickly took Brawly’s hand and led them both to a far corner away from the ectos. Morrison became enraged and attacked Sam. White stepped in between them and slapped at the ghostly figure with his open hand, causing him to lose shape once more.

  The blow knocked Morrison back again. He stopped in front of the window and tried to find a crack. Bell quickly took Sam’s hand and led him to the others. White slammed the door shut and barred the way. The three mortals were in total darkness and helplessly freezing. Bell put his arms about them and pushed them together.

  “Hold on to each other and press your bodies together!” he ordered. “Sharing your body heat will help to hold off the cold. I have to help White. Morrison can’t hurt you anymore!”

  White stood blocking the door and glared at the vaporous torso in front of him.

  “There’s no way out for you!” he snarled. Morrison grinned at him with amusement.

  “You cops love to say that shit!” he declared. “I guess you’re one little fish I should’ve thrown back!”

  Bell joined White and looked at Morrison, whose lower body was again becoming visible. The whole appearance of him was now changing into a semi-luminous form, which the mortals could not see, but the ectos could see clearly.

  “He sighs, as if in pain.” Bell muttered and White looked at him puzzled. “It’s Phase 3. He’s crossing over!” Morrison smiled at Bell’s comment and looked down at his naked lower half.

  “Phase 3!” he shouted. “I can pass through anything now! Well, I really must be going! We’ll meet again, Governor!”

  While he said these words he was not yet aware of the soft light that was taking shape only a few feet above him. White looked up at it and realized what it was. It was The Light. He could clearly see it as an ecto, but he felt something inside that said it was not for him.

  Morrison tried to take a step, but froze as The Light grew in brilliance and lit up his form completely. White’s jaw dropped open in amazement as Morrison looked up into it. To White it was a beautiful brilliance unlike anything he had ever imagined. What came next shocked him back to reality.

  Morrison was screaming in terror.

  White began to take a step toward him but Bell quickly, and forcefully, put a hand on his arm.

  “Don’t move!” he said firmly.

  White froze and looked at John Morrison. His facial expression was of pure terror, and he cried out in pain. This was no pain like a living person could feel; it was more like a form of paralyzing fear. Fear so intense, so utterly horrifying, that it transcended all feeling or powers of will. He looked into the agonizing brilliance and found that he could not even divert his eyes away from it.

  “What is this shit?” he screamed. “What is happening to me?” Bell looked at him unemotionally as he spoke to him.

  “It’s The Light. It comes in Phase 3. You are as one truly dead now.”

  The brilliant myriad of colors grew more intense as Morrison began to see indistinct shapes inside of it. The more he saw, the more it terrified him. He began to shiver with fear.

  “There’s something inside of it!” Morrison screamed. “What is in The Light?”

  “Only what you have put there, John,” Bell replied, “Nobody can help you now.”

  As his terror grew, the shapes began to become clearer to John Morrison. He could now see that they were faces, many of them. He had never realized how frightening a human face could be up to that moment. Somehow they seemed familiar to him. That’s what frightened him the most.

  “It’s horrible!” he shouted. “I can’t stand it! Please tell me! What is in The Light?” White turned to Bell, whose expression never changed as he spoke.

  He answered with only one word:

  “Judgment!”

  Morrison screamed in horror as The Light began to consume him. He now realized what the faces were in the light above him. Most of them were victims of his own horrors. Now they rushed out of the brilliance to give him theirs. The shapes of dozens of spirits emerged and began to poke and grasp at him. He looked into their faces as they chastised him, he tried to fend them off without success.

  Judge Hansen emerged as a spectral vapor holding a rope of fire. He threw it on Morrison and it wrapped around his body.

  “You!” Morrison pleaded. “It can’t be. I killed you! I killed you all!”

  The rope cut into him and burned painfully as his screams turned into helpless cries. The spirits now covered him completely, making it impossible for White or Bell to see him. Each time one of them departed another took its place, and every time that it did, there seemed to be less of him. Spiriting his form away, piece by piece, like vengeful harpies of light.

  In the brilliance Bell and White watched in horrified amazement, as the spirits began to whirl around with their gruesome booty and disappear into the Light.

  Morrison was now alone in the unbearable brightness. His entire was body gone except for his face, which was completely engulfed in flames. The flaming eyes turned with agony and malice toward White.

  “I’ll see you again in forty years!” he cried. “You hear me, White? Forty years!”

  “I don’t think so, John.” White replied softly. Somehow he knew he was right, and Morrison realized it too. His eyes widened in fear and defeat. He opened his mouth to speak, but the last of his face violently disappeared into The Light.

  He was gone without a trace.

&nb
sp; The Light closed like a door in the air above where he stood, producing a loud clap like the roar of thunder. The darkness and cold passed, and the sunlight once again filled the room from outside.

  Ryan, Brawly, and Sam shivered as they looked at the daylight around them. Across the space, they saw only Bell and White staring into an empty spot in the room.

  Bell let go of White’s arm and they turned their attention back to the living. Quickly moving over to them, they both helped the shivering mortals up to the couch. Bell took the handkerchief from Sam’s coat pocket and wrapped it around Brawly’s bleeding hand.

  As they looked at the two spooks, the absence of Morrison confused them.

  “What happened?” Sam asked weakly. “Where’s Morrison?”

  “He’s gone,” White replied, “He won’t come back.” Brawly looked up at him confused.

  “You mean he got away?” he asked. Bell and White glanced at each other.

  “No,” White answered softly, “He didn’t get away.” The three of them looked at him with a puzzled expression on their faces.

  “He went into Phase 3.” Bell explained. Ryan looked deep into his eyes.

  “Did he see The Light?” she asked him. He nodded his head.

  “Yes. And it saw him.”

  Epilogue

  After collecting themselves, Governor Ryan and the other mortals sought medical treatment, and a joint press conference was held within the hour. The Governor had not suffered any permanent ill effects from the attack except for a very sore throat. She was already hoarse by the time she spoke into the microphones.

  What had once impressed Sam and Brawly about the Governor before now turned to admiration. She made no mention of her own heroics, and placed the credit squarely on the LAPD, praising them for their resourcefulness and professionalism.

  Dr. Bell addressed how the process had neutralized Morrison. His answers were not very revealing, but adequate.

  “We are still trying to piece together the facts of this case,” he explained, “However one thing is certain; there are very good reasons why ectos do not kill people. Mr. Morrison discovered what those reasons were for himself today. That is why he is dead and gone.”