Mia looked down at the gondola. “That ought to hold them for a while.”
Mike, who was busy wiping Audrey’s concoction of Vaseline and talcum powder off of his face, observed, “We better warn the rescuers that two of them are armed.”
Audrey ran up to them. “I got through to the state police. They are on the way. Also, I notified the Price Corporation of the problems up here. And Alan of course. I have a feeling, at least one of us is going to have to answer some hard questions,” she said.
“Not it!” Mia and Mike said in chorus.
Mia pushed at Mike, and he at her. Soon the two were squaring off in the muddy yard, laughing too hard to actually do much damage.
Murphy moved beside Audrey and said, “You did well.”
“Thank you, Stephen. It’s my first time being a ghost. It’s tough work.”
Murphy just whistled. He walked over and picked Mia off of Mike, whom she was trying to feed a handful of mud to.
~
Washed and dressed, looking every bit the professional, Mia sat down with the state police and told them almost everything. Ted insisted on staying with her until she was free to travel with him to the hospital. Mike backed up her story. The two of them agreed to leave out anything supernatural. Audrey insisted that the place be condemned until a few licensed engineers located and disabled all the trapdoors.
The three of them packed up all the equipment and gathered all of the team’s belongings. Jake had migrated to Ted’s phone until Ted could download the ghost back into his home in the PEEPs computer system. Mia stopped, at one point, and picked up the pieces of the lone PEEPs casualty. All that was left of one of the Oculars after being shot was its lens and a few twisted wires. She wrapped it up in a pilfered linen napkin and stuck it in her pocket.
“So this is what cleaning up afterwards is like,” Mia said.
“Yes,” Mike said. “This is the kind of thing you always seem to get out of,” he teased.
“Dupree, you did a great job.”
“I’m not sure I’m following you?” he asked.
“You kept the team in one piece. Even down in the cavern, you gave them more than support. You gave them hope. You’re quite a hero, Mike. Be careful or the birdmen will be knocking on your door,” she warned.
“Mia, what’s going on?” he asked seriously.
“I wish I knew. All I know is that we humans are being kept in the dark. Something big is going to happen. I get the idea, it’s all about the struggle of good and evil, and the prize is us.”
“Let’s hope the good guys win.”
“But who are the good guys?” Mia asked. “I can see it from two perspectives, and neither show the other in a very good light.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” he asked.
“I’m going to take my husband and child someplace, without the distraction of ghosts, birdmen, angels, superhumans, cell phones, and computers, where I hope Ted and I can find our way back to each other.”
“Things still rocky?”
Mia’s eyes teared up. “We seem alright physically but…” she paused, pulling herself together. “I’m not giving up. I had a few moments of bliss. I want them back.”
“I hope you find your way back, Mia.”
“Thank you, Mike. If not, we need to find a way to share Brian and PEEPs,” she said.
“So you’re not leaving us?”
“Never!” she said, her face beaming. “I’m here to stay, Dupree, so you better get used to it.”
He laughed. “I was counting on it, Cooper.”
Chapter Twelve
Doctor Walters looked at the files in front of him. The initial X-rays taken at the small hospital in Wisconsin didn’t jive with what the MRIs had illuminated. Cid Garrett, Ted Martin, and Burt Hicks had gone through a remarkable healing in the short few weeks since their initial injuries. He picked up Cid’s file and studied the evidence of a liver perforation but found nothing that could have caused it. The rib closest to the injury looked like there was a fracture repairing, but he found no way to explain how it may have been involved.
Mia sat across from him, waiting for him to answer her questions, or ask her a few.
“You said you found Cid prone on the ground.”
“He was lying with Audrey on top of him. They had fallen thirty feet, possibly hitting an iron beam on the way down. He used his body to shield her. Or that was what I was told. I wasn’t there at the time.”
“Now Burt…”
“Mike Dupree performed first aid on him. He applied a soft cast made up of folded blue jeans. I, with the help of Audrey, realigned the leg and splinted it with something more substantial before evacuating him.”
“And then a mobile cast was fashioned for him. Who did that again?”
“Cid fashioned it first on the computer before building it.”
“I’m going to heavily suggest he patent the cast,” Walters said. “It’s lightweight and seems to have aided in the quick healing.”
“Burt’s always healed quite quickly,” Mia reminded him.
“Now your husband…”
“Yes, that’s why I’m here. You see, I want to take him and Brian on vacation, and I want to make sure he’s ready.”
“Ted’s a lucky guy.”
“Yes, the rebar could have nicked the femoral artery.”
“That’s not what I meant, but that was fortunate. Mia, his blood is free of infection, and the wound has stopped draining, so I’d say, as long as he doesn’t spend his days in fetid water, then he’s good to go.”
Mia rose to leave.
“Not so
