In fact, it wasn’t until we arrived at the dorm’s parking lot that anyone really spoke. I had my head in the back of the Tahoe, helping unload the Super Soakers, when I heard Delaney clear as a bell.
“After we’ve got the third story blocked off, I’m coming back out. I’m not staying in the building when she goes in.”
The tone he used suggested he was trying to speak privately to someone, but he was a touch too loud. I turned and leaned out, staring around the side of the SUV to see him. Brandon stopped mid-motion too, craning backwards a few inches to look. Delaney had his back to me, facing Falisa, and the look on her face was priceless. Her jaw was in danger of hitting the ground, she was so speechless. And she looked ready to hit him.
“Delaney,” Ken said far more patiently than I would have, “you cannot just say no to a job. If we’re going to successfully trap this thing, we need all hands on deck. Splitting up was a mistake.”
Delaney’s voice slid into a whine. “I don’t want to deal with a ghost an exorcist can’t take out. And she’s weak, she lost to the ghost in two seconds.”
Now wait a minute. That was hardly fair. No one could completely defend themselves in pitch darkness. And Eli knew that, was pulling out when she’d been hit. It had been bad luck on her part more than anything.
Eli clearly heard him, and she stomped around the car to get right in his face. “First of all, I’m not a fucking ninja. No one is. I dare you to go into a pitch-black room and be able to fend off flying objects. Second, shit goes wrong on jobs like these. If you’re not willing to take the heat, then get out of the damn kitchen.”
“Delaney,” Falisa sighed and it was not a good sigh. It was an ‘I’m done with this idiot’ sigh. “Just go home. If you’re not willing to face any dangers, just go home.”
Delaney got that sour look on his face he always did when he was scolded and didn’t agree with it. “My fears are valid!”
“Kid.” Ken’s patience clearly had evaporated although he kept his voice level. “I’ve had easier jobs than this one. I’ve also had worse, when bad luck hit and everything that could possibly go wrong, did. You seem to think you can just walk away from this, hand it off to someone else. You’re forgetting. You’re the one they call when the situation’s fucked up and people need help. We’re the emergency response team. You can’t walk away from this. There’s no one else to call.”
Yes, that was exactly it. Ken couldn’t have put it more perfectly. We were the ones to fix the problem. We were the only ones who could. As a child, I’d have given my eye teeth to be able to call someone to help me. In fact, the division had existed back then—I just hadn’t known I could, in fact, call for help. Now, as an adult, I did know. And I was one of the people who chose to stand on the front line and battle.
Either someone hadn’t explained this well enough for Delaney to get it, or he’d not paid attention when he’d signed on. Maybe he thought the FBI would just show up and wave their hands, and the problem would magically solve itself without him having to crease his suit. Who the hell knew? But I knew this: I didn’t want him at my back. He didn’t have the grit or determination to get this job done.
Brandon apparently thought the same as he softly ordered, “Sit this out, Delaney. Go back to the hotel. We’ll get you a plane ticket home after we’re done here.”
Delaney turned on him so fast, I heard vertebrae pop. “You don’t get to fucking tell me what to do! Fine. Fine, I’ll do it.” Without another word, he stomped toward the front door. He looked remarkably like a toddler mid-tantrum, looking for something to break.
I watched him go with severe misgivings. I didn’t like the thought of such a bad-tempered adult in there with an already volatile malevolent. I wasn’t alone in that opinion, as everyone else looked to Falisa with the same expression of doubt.
“Look, I don’t like it either.” Falisa spread her hands in a helpless shrug. “But I’ve been ordered to let him work. Unless he does something inexcusable, he’s to work.”
“Who is he related to?” Eli asked suspiciously.
Quinn was just as suspicious. “Or does he have dirty pictures of someone’s wife?”
Falisa grimaced. “Could be either. I don’t know. I do know they’re giving him every chance. Trouble is, he’s not really interested in taking them. Anyway, let’s get in and get this done. Maybe all our plans will work this time, and we can get this settled.”
“Don’t jinx us like that,” I complained to her, ducking back into the vehicle. “Alright, two more Super Soakers, who wants them?”
I handed off the water guns—one of them even had a tank for the user to wear like a backpack—with Brandon and Quinn picking up multiple bags of salt. It amused me to no end that, even though Eli and I were a sure thing when it came to our men, they still felt this need to show off for us.
We walked through the front door to find that, while Delaney had entered, he’d not gone far. Or done anything useful. I wasn’t even surprised.
Yesterday, we’d done a lot of prepping and planning for this, so we all knew what to do. Falisa and Ken tackled the two hallways, blocking them off entirely with salt and seals on the walls. Eli and Booker did the same on the stairway going up, and the elevator. Brandon and I cleared the main room of glass, sweeping it all up and into a large trash can before laying out four circles of salt with a gas lantern in each to give us safe places to dart into, in case we needed them.
Brandon and I made several trips to the SUV, bringing back every light we had, from portable LEDs to flashlights to more gas lanterns. We attached them to the wall with duct tape, trying to cut down on the possibility of flying objects while at the same time flooding the room with light. We didn’t want a repeat of the basement in any form or fashion. We moved the tables and chairs out of the room as much as possible, stacking them in an out-of-the-way area in the foyer to cut down on obstacles. Delaney seemed most comfortable doing that, so we left him to it.
Eventually, we were ready. I faced the entrance to the basement stairs with severe misgivings. Someone would have to go down there to erase the three seals and the salt line in order to give that thing a way to come up. Booker had volunteered to do it; he held a water gun with plain old tap water to easily erase everything.
“Yeah, I’m not comfortable with that,” Brandon announced out of the blue. “Booker, how about I come down and have your back, man?”
Booker shot him a smile, one of the first I’d ever seen on the normally poker-faced man. “I’d be honored. Need water?”
“Naw, you do water. I’ll take salt with me. Just in case that thing charges us.” Brandon turned to look at me, and I could read his expression well enough.
“I’ll stay parked next to Eli and Quinn,” I promised.
Relieved, he shot me a wink before hefting one of the half-filled bags of salt and heading down with Booker. Fully decked out in gear, they looked like they were trooping off to some steampunk battle. I almost couldn’t take it seriously.
We all waited with bated breath. I didn’t know what else we could do to prep for this. Even if it all went to shit again and we had to boogey, the front door was open to us, the building still sealed on the outside. We wouldn’t unwillingly unleash this thing on the world if we had to retreat. Again.