Ghost of a Chance Ch. 06

"Where's the other one?"

"'Dirty Harry' over here shot him," the one barking orders thumbed at the goon next to him, then reached around to slap him upside the head, "You dumb fuck! He wanted both of them, alive!"

"I'm sorry!" the nitwit whined back, "He came at us; what were we suppose to do?"

"Follow fucking orders, you asshole!"

"Shut up, all of you!" This came from the front of the van. The man in the driver's seat turned back to the rest and continued, "We've got one of them; if the other one isn't dead, he'll come to us to get his partner back. Let's just go before the cops get here!"

The rest of the group piled into the van, which roared to life and pulled out of the alley.

A few minutes later, hidden underneath mounds of garbage and trash can lids, Ghost pulled himself out of the mess slowly and winced when he twisted the wrong way. The pain from the bullet that smashed into his vest shot through his chest and up into his shoulder.

Oh, Christ; I didn't think getting shot would hurt so much.

On his feet again and getting his bearings, Ghost looked around for his partner... and didn't see her anywhere.

"Ghoul?"

No answer. He looked down at the ground to see if she was in the same unconscious situation as he was.

Nothing.

"Ghoul?" he said louder.

Still nothing.

He then touched the other side of his throat and clicked on a switch that directly connected his voice to her earpiece.

"Ghoul, come in."

He didn't get a response.

"Brenda?" he called out, louder this time, and again didn't get a reply.

Tom frantically looked all around the alleyway and around the buildings. She was no where in sight. Then he remembered what happened: the van, the broken steam pipe, the shooting, and then...

They took her; they saw us coming. But how?

As Ghost walked back into the alley, he noticed something peculiar about the puffs of steam he passed through. When he looked at his hand, a fine steamy mist was all around it... with the exception of the half an inch of nothing between it and his hand and arm. The space in between where the invisible power field hugged his form was as clear as crystal, and that's when he figured it out.

The power field left a 'hole' in the cloud of steam; they 'saw' us from the impression we left in the mist!

Tom looked at the now empty space where the van used to be, a trickle of fear running down his spine.

Oh, God; Brenda...

This was one possibility he didn't see coming...

...to be continued.