(no subject)
"Are you sure you're all right with this, Ray?" asked Egon as the guards led the two of them down to Walter Peck's former cell. "You don't have to be here, you know. There's plenty of documentation you could be going through."
"No, I'm fine," said Ray firmly. "A, a nonviolent offender's cell in a federal prison is light-years away from a no-tech shack in the middle of Montana, and b, unless he somehow translated himself into the invisible writing on the walls, Peck isn't actually going to be there. Besides, I think I'm entitled to see this."
Egon eyed him sidelong, but nodded.
Truth be told, Ray just wanted to get out of the place as quickly as possible. If Peck, of all people, had figured out some kind of occult method that worked for him- Peck, who'd called them all charlatans- then the amount of bad mojo surrounding the situation was absoultely astronomical. Not just for Ray, either, but for all the Ghostbusters. The fact that that much magic could be done that effectively was bad enough. You didn't normally see that kind of thing outside of October, or possibly during one of the rare astrological conjunctions appropriate to the raising of unspeakable horrors from- hm. He'd have to check the almanac- anyway, the fact of the matter was that if this was genuinely a spell capable of teleporting a man out of a Federal prison cell, they were really in for a world of trouble.
Egon was talking with Mr. Mulroe in the meanwhile. "And what did the FBI investigators have to say about that?"
"Well, Agent Remington said she's investigated a lot of cult-related crimes in the past, but most of the ones she knows don't generally start recruiting members who're already incarcerated. She's still looking for his outside contact. Agent Trilli's going through- oh, here we are."
It looked, frankly, like every other cell they'd walked past- except for the 'do not enter' tape and signs left behind by the FBI. Mulroe took that down and gestured to the two men to go on ahead. "Is there anything you'll need from me for this?"
"Just the keys," said Egon absently. "Ray, are you ready?"
Ray held up his ectoscopes with a grim little smile. "Pretty much as ready as I'll ever be."
Egon switched on his PKE meter. The device's arms lit up immediately, swinging wildly this way and that. "We've got a hot zone, all right," he said. "Although I'm getting some strange background readings. Ray?"
"Oh. Oh wow. Spengs, you need to see this." Ray was swiveling around to stare at everything in the room like a first-time tourist dropped in Times Square. "It's like a Llewellyn editor's wet dream in here."
Egon glanced over his shoulder. "How do you mean?"
"I've never seen so many unnecessary and outright useless elements combined into a single attempted working. Seriously, Spengs, he covered the walls in here in so much crap I'm surprised the actual procedure worked at all." Ray shook his head. "I'll give him this, though. He's cleverer than I thought."
"Don't tell me. He never actually left the cell?"
"Not until the first guard opened the door," Ray said. He raised one hand to trace one of the invisibly-drawn designs on the wall. "It wasn't a teleport spell after all. He's just figured out how to make himself invisible."
"No, I'm fine," said Ray firmly. "A, a nonviolent offender's cell in a federal prison is light-years away from a no-tech shack in the middle of Montana, and b, unless he somehow translated himself into the invisible writing on the walls, Peck isn't actually going to be there. Besides, I think I'm entitled to see this."
Egon eyed him sidelong, but nodded.
Truth be told, Ray just wanted to get out of the place as quickly as possible. If Peck, of all people, had figured out some kind of occult method that worked for him- Peck, who'd called them all charlatans- then the amount of bad mojo surrounding the situation was absoultely astronomical. Not just for Ray, either, but for all the Ghostbusters. The fact that that much magic could be done that effectively was bad enough. You didn't normally see that kind of thing outside of October, or possibly during one of the rare astrological conjunctions appropriate to the raising of unspeakable horrors from- hm. He'd have to check the almanac- anyway, the fact of the matter was that if this was genuinely a spell capable of teleporting a man out of a Federal prison cell, they were really in for a world of trouble.
Egon was talking with Mr. Mulroe in the meanwhile. "And what did the FBI investigators have to say about that?"
"Well, Agent Remington said she's investigated a lot of cult-related crimes in the past, but most of the ones she knows don't generally start recruiting members who're already incarcerated. She's still looking for his outside contact. Agent Trilli's going through- oh, here we are."
It looked, frankly, like every other cell they'd walked past- except for the 'do not enter' tape and signs left behind by the FBI. Mulroe took that down and gestured to the two men to go on ahead. "Is there anything you'll need from me for this?"
"Just the keys," said Egon absently. "Ray, are you ready?"
Ray held up his ectoscopes with a grim little smile. "Pretty much as ready as I'll ever be."
Egon switched on his PKE meter. The device's arms lit up immediately, swinging wildly this way and that. "We've got a hot zone, all right," he said. "Although I'm getting some strange background readings. Ray?"
"Oh. Oh wow. Spengs, you need to see this." Ray was swiveling around to stare at everything in the room like a first-time tourist dropped in Times Square. "It's like a Llewellyn editor's wet dream in here."
Egon glanced over his shoulder. "How do you mean?"
"I've never seen so many unnecessary and outright useless elements combined into a single attempted working. Seriously, Spengs, he covered the walls in here in so much crap I'm surprised the actual procedure worked at all." Ray shook his head. "I'll give him this, though. He's cleverer than I thought."
"Don't tell me. He never actually left the cell?"
"Not until the first guard opened the door," Ray said. He raised one hand to trace one of the invisibly-drawn designs on the wall. "It wasn't a teleport spell after all. He's just figured out how to make himself invisible."