“We’re getting proof,” Trinity said. “Tonight. On camera. And I don’t mean orbs, or funnel ghosts, or swimmers, or ribbon energy. We’re getting actual footage of actual apparitions. Then we’re going to put our reel together, send it to 51 Minds or Antix or one of the other production companies, and they’re going to flip. Boy-girl ghost-hunting teams are totally camera ready. Matt’s going to bring the science and I’m going to bring the sparkle, and our reel is going to blow their minds and get us the hell out of Ohio. Ghost Bomb.”

“What bomb?” Amy asked.

“Ghost Bomb,” Trinity said. “It’s the name of our show. Because it’s about ghosts, and we’re the bomb.”

“Word,” Matt said, high-fiving her.

Amy stared at them in disbelief. “That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard.”

Trinity scowled and extended a beautifully manicured middle finger.

“I think it’s nice,” Ruth Anne said. “Ghost Bomb sounds ‘street.’ Isn’t that what they say?”

“Thank you,” Trinity said before turning to Amy. “Now, I don’t need you creeping around being all negative, because it’s going to jinx us. Tonight is really important. I finally have an opportunity to get footage of a real live ghost. I don’t need you and your negative energy chasing away the spirits.” She turned back to Ruth Anne. “Why don’t you come with me? You can help me put out the EMF meters. We’ll get evidence of ghosts and be famous and awesome.”

Trinity was not to be denied, and as soon as Ruth Anne had applied some Blistex she followed the girl back up the Bright and Shining Path, heading toward Dining Rooms. After a minute, they disappeared into the ranks of furniture, leaving Matt and Amy all alone.

05: Müskk

“Okay,” said Matt, loading a backpack with EMF readers. “We need to put these all along the Bright and Shining Path.”

“Do you really think they’ll record anything?”

“Sure they will,” Matt said. “Look at the size of the lighting grid.”

He pointed at the ceiling. Twelve feet above their heads was a massive crisscrossed network of beams, pipes, wires, and huge HVAC ducts; everything was painted the same off-white color as the ceiling to help camouflage the infrastructure.

“Why do you want to detect the lighting grid?” Amy asked.

“I don’t,” Matt said. “But this store has six hundred eighty fill lights and another two hundred spotlights to hit accents, so it’s generating most of the electromagnetic activity in the building. Which means that’s what the meters are going to pick up.”

He grabbed a meter and waved it in the air like incense.

“Two milligauss,” he said. “That’s what it’ll be reading all night long is my guess.”

“Then why bother putting out the meters?”