“All right, ladies,” Dr. Hadron appeared while they were eating lunch together in the

  common room the quartet had set aside. “We’re going to do some practice shooting

  before we try a little case.”

  “It’s about time,” said Jean. “Crenshaw has been running the police scared the last

  couple of weeks while we have been holed up in here.”

  “Patience.” Dr. Hadron held up the hand with the hole in it as a stop sign. “You can’t

  expect to hunt the big game if you can’t shoot a gun.”

  Patty wiped the egg yolk off of her plate with a piece of toast. She felt a thrill of

  anticipation run through her spine. It was nearing the time they would be actively

  doing their future jobs. She silently agreed with Jean. Crenshaw had been running

  around town, stalling the police and some of the local vigilantes with his sharks and

  musket.

  It was time he was run out of town.

  “As soon as you’re done eating, please join me on the roof.” Dr. Hadron retreated

  from the room.

  Patty put her plate in the sink. She washed it off, but left it in place. She could wash

  it later.

  She headed for the roof, climbing the stairs. She heard the others clattering around

  behind her. She had helped put the equipment together. She already knew how they

  were supposed to work. She just wanted enough practice to get on the job and do

  something other than work on their proposed headquarters.

  Patty pushed through the roof access door. She stopped after she crossed the

  threshold. A target range had been put together with targets on ropes at one end, and

  a table to mark where the shooters should stand. Some of the Lamplighter weapons

  had been assembled and plugged into small lamps. Dr. Hadron stood at one end of the

  counter.

  “Is this safe?,” she asked.

  “As long as you don’t hit anything alive.” Dr. Hadron gestured for her to take a slot.

  She picked one of the smaller weapons, a rifle that resembled a small flamethrower.

  She went over it to make sure it would shoot when she wanted to shoot. The last thing

  she wanted was to be caught trying to use a weapon that wasn’t ready to be fired.

  The others arrived and Jean whistled at the shooting gallery.

  “Ladies, pick a weapon so we can get started.” Dr. Hadron gestured at the counter.

  “I expect you to pick this up fairly fast. If you guys are good shots, we’ll move on to

  your practice case before the sun goes down.”

  “How good do you want us to get with these?” Lin picked a weapon close to what

  Patty had picked for herself.

  “Let’s say three hundred.” Dr. Hadron walked to one of the targets and pointed to a

  general circle close to the center of the thing. “Say ten shots inside this ring.”

  “And these are harmless against people?” Lin gestured to the rifle in front of her.

  “Mostly harmless.” Dr. Hadron put his hands behind his back. “One shot might be

  survivable, but multiple shots will drain a normal human of their life energy until it’s

  gone. If it’s weak in the first place, you might kill the person accidentally.”

  “Why are we doing this?,” asked Lin.

  “We’re the only ones who can.” Jean shook her head. “Who else is going to protect

  the city? No one else can do what Lamplighters did.”

  “If you want to walk away, Miss Qi, it’s okay.” Dr. Hadron’s one eye squinted

  slightly as he spoke. “I’ll have Janie cut your contract, and access.”

  “He’s right, Lin.” Patty picked up the rifle. “What we are about to do will be really

  dangerous. No one will fault you for leaving.”

  Lin froze in indecision. She could make excuses and bow out after the hard work she

  had put in. She didn’t need the money as much as the others, and could go back to her

  old job in a heartbeat. Did she want to leave her friends in a lurch when they needed

  her?

  Did they really need her?

  She picked up the rifle and checked it over. She didn’t want to do anything

  dangerous, but she didn’t want to let her friends down.

  Jean nodded as the moment of dissent passed. She picked up a weapon with a rotary

  barrel assembly and made sure all the connections were in place. It felt as light as a

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  Nerf gun to her.

  Kate picked up the last gun. She smiled at the design. It was a copy of the Fireflash

  Hadron had tried to dump on them when they had met in New York. She placed the

  stock to her shoulder and sighted down the long barrel. The targets jumped closer as

  she readied for a shot.

  This was a weapon she had at least held before this small exercise.

  “All right, ladies,” said Dr. Hadron. “When I give the word, commence shooting at

  the closest target. The weapons will tally the hits for me. As soon as all of you hit

  three hundred, we will move on to field testing.”

  “I can’t miss with this gatling gun.” Jean smiled. “I’ll see the rest of you downstairs.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Kate readied her own weapon.

  “Go,” said Dr. Hadron. He pulled a lever at his end of the counter. The targets started

  dancing across the roof at the trainees.

  Patty opened fire in short bursts. She reached her three hundred points before the

  others could open fire. She stepped back when she heard the loud ding from the

  computer. She put the weapon down on the counter, and switched it off.

  Everyone looked at her in astonishment.

  “Kevin showed me how to shoot when we got married.” Patty shrugged. “Go ahead.

  Get your points so we can move on.”

  “You heard her, ladies.” Dr. Hadron waved a hand at the closing targets. “Go ahead.”

  The others look longer to reach their goal. Lin took the longest, carefully trying to

  line up shots instead of hosing the targets like Jean and Kathy. The rotating barrel hit

  the same target five, or six, times as the paper swung out of the way. Stray shots hit

  the building behind the target in a rain of blue light. Kathy rapidly blasted her targets,

  but only one at a time.

  Dr. Hadron twitched his lips when the group had amassed the passing points. The

  look was not quite satisfaction at a job well done, but it meant they could move on to

  the next step.

  “Pack up your gear, and meet me downstairs.” He headed for the roof door. “We’ll

  get started on your case.”

  He vanished through the door as Patty shut off her lamp. She found a carrying case

  with padded insets that looked like it would match the pieces of her weapon. She took

  the pieces apart with a few twists of her hand. She pulled the cable connectors that

  held the weapon to the lamp. She put the pieces and cable in the box.

  She looked up. Jean already had her weapon packed up. Kathy was halfway there. Lin

  hadn’t been able to do anything but shut the lamp off.

  Patty walked over. Lin looked up. She blushed slightly.

  “Let me help you.” Patty turned the weapon off so it could be taken apart without

  discharging.

  She pulled the cable loose, then broke the weapon down into pieces. She put the

  pieces in their carrying case. She noticed that a number was inscribed on the lid of the

  case. It must be the number of the weapon so they knew what they were grabbing to

  put together if they came under assault from a monster.

  “Are you okay, Lin?,” asked Patty. “You can sit this out if you want.”

  “I’ll be okay,” said Lin. “I just keep thinking about the risk. The casebook didn’t

  help.”

  “I know.” Patty picked up the case. “Luckily, San Francisco is quieter than other

  cities. Once we take care of Crenshaw, the next ghost will be easier.”

  “You’re humoring me,” said Lin. She took the case. “We both know that’s not true.”

  “I know that you don’t think we have a chance.” Patty picked up her own case. The

  others had gone ahead. “But we do. We can protect the city if it needs it, we can

  protect the whole state if we have to do that. We can’t do anything if we’re afraid of

  the future. We can do this. We’ve done worse.”

  “I don’t remember doing anything like this ever.” Lin pushed open the roof door so

  they could go downstairs. “I think that I would.”

  “You saved that guy on the bridge.” Patty led the way down. “This is the same thing.”

  “I don’t agree.” Lin shook her head. “I didn’t intend to help that man. I acted without

  thinking and grabbed his shirt before he could jump.”

  “You still saved him.” Patty smiled. “You got a commendation from the mayor for

  bravery.”

  “It was sheer luck, Patty.” Lin frowned. “We both ran to stop the guy. I got there first.

  That was why I got all the credit even though we both tried to help.”

  “This is the same situation.” Patty held the door open so they could step into the top

  hall and ride the elevator down. “We’re going to be helping people who need the kind

  of help only we can provide.”

  “I don’t like the fact we could get killed instead of leaving things alone.” Lin pushed

  the button for the doors.

  “It’ll work out.” Patty shrugged. “We have to make sure that we’re textbook as much

  as we can so we can avoid dangerous things happening.”

  “I don’t think there’s a textbook that big that could keep those things from coming

  this way.” Lin paused as the doors opened. “Maybe we can divert some of the bad

  things on other rails.”

  “I’ll protect you as much as I can.” Patty smiled. That was an easy promise to make

  since if something went after Lin, it would probably also be trying to kill her too.

  The ladies found Dr. Hadron pulling on overalls over his clothes. He zipped the front

  up as he walked to a van parked in their lot. A blue flame decorated the hood of the

  vehicle.

  “I got this second hand.” He pulled open the back door. “Place your cases here and

  we’ll head out.”

  “Do we get overalls too?” Jean placed her case in the van.

  “Yes,” said Dr. Hadron. “They should be arriving in a few days. It takes a while for

  them to put in the kevlar panels I like.”

  “Cool.” Jean took the other cases and stored them in the space at the back of the van.

  “Let’s get going.” Dr. Hadron walked to the passenger side of the van and climbed

  into the shotgun seat. “We’ll want to look the field over before the sun goes down.”

  The ladies piled in, Patty getting behind the wheel. She started the engine.

  “Where to, Dr. Hadron,” said Patty. She glanced in the mirror to make sure the others

  strapped in before she pulled out of the lot.

  “Here’s the address.” He worked on a GPS and showed her the destination and route.

  “This is your test case site.”

  “A haunted house?,” said Patty. “How hard can that be to clear out?”

  “Depends on how much the ghost wants to stay in place.” Hadron leaned back in his

  chair. “We’ll see how it goes when the chips go down.”

  “This is cool,” said Jean. “We might see a real ghost.”

  “We might have to fight it,” said Lin. “It could be dangerous.”

  “That’s even better,” said Jean.