The call came the next morning.
Scott and Eddie were in the library, going through all the reference books trying to find more information on apparitions seeking out the living, when the phone rang.
Eddie answered and immediately opened his laptop and began typing, the phone cradled under his chin.
Scott got up and went to stand behind Eddie’s chair. What he saw on the screen made him lean forward. Eddie had pulled up the website for a military facility—Blaine Air Force Base.
According to the site, the base was scheduled to open the beginning of next year in California’s Yucca Desert.
The ghost of a soldier.
Eddie put down the phone. “You won’t believe this. At a time when our government is closing military bases all over the world, the one they spend hundreds of millions building turns out to be—”
“Haunted.”
“They want us to fly down to Yucca and get briefed by an official.”
Scott leaned back against the desk so he was facing Eddie. “Have you ever heard of anything like this? An apparition traveling hundreds of miles to deliver a premonitory warning? A warning that comes true?”
“Remember when I told you Vivica was involved in work with the government?”
“Don’t tell me, this is it?”
“No, but thanks to those same contacts she’ll be in Yucca too.” At Scott’s grimace, he grinned. “What can I say? It’s a small field. You’re bound to run into the same people again and again.”
“I hear that the guys who study Mongolian throat singing have the same problem.” Scott pushed off the desk and started pacing. “When do they want us there?”
“Two days. Every day that base stays closed is another gazillion dollars down the toilet.”
The front door slammed shut and Coulter and Anjali’s voices sounded in the hallway. “In here,” Scott called out.
“Nothing like a calorie-loaded champagne brunch to take the edge off a visit from a dead man,” Anjali said by way of greeting. “And I got to hear all about Coulter’s date last night. Turns out Robin Williams does a real funny Johnny Carson bit where he puts on a turban and pretends to be psychic. And Diana Moss can’t seem to enjoy a man without tying him up first.”
Coulter pushed back his Stetson. “We’re goin’ out again tonight. Some pizza and light bondage, I reckon.”
Anjali looked from Scott to Eddie. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve discovered something,” Scott said and told them about the military base.
Anjali went over to the computer screen and studied the website. “Have there been any…deaths?”
“They wouldn’t release any information,” Eddie said. “But based on last night—”
“There have been,” she finished. “So when do we leave?”
Scott touched her shoulder. “Are you sure about this?”
“When a dead man comes from God-knows-where to ask you a favor, I think you should listen.”