Life goes on—such as it is—for the ghosts and humans of the Wired Monk. The entity known as Piovra is becoming increasingly hard to handle, despite all the training that is being done to harness its energy. Sara the kitten ghost is pleased with how well her friend Mirela has come along with her own training. Together, she feels they are an unbeatable pair. When the CIA asks to see Sara and another ghost for a mission, the feline immediately thinks of Mirela.
Jason Jones is, unfortunately, still in the wind, having escaped his booby-trapped laboratory. There is no doubt he is continuing with his demented experiments, which includes harvesting living human brains to feed to his computer. Unknown to them, though, Jason has taken his experiments a step further, creating an almost human-like AI that calls itself Abigail.
Leanne’s ghost-boyfriend Robin is beginning to feel neglected, as Leanne has a tendency to be mercurial at the best of times. The vulnerable Robin, also a teenager, enters into a relationship which could prove fatal to them all. Meanwhile, Sara and Mirela have to track down the mad scientist and derail his plans before he can unleash his true craziness on the world.
The explosion was tremendous, Sara realized immediately. Five ghosts flew in five different directions, splatting against the barrier Leanne had set up in case of the worst. Which had just happened.
The display cabinets, with their contents of bagged coffee, thermal mugs, and ceramic cups with the Wired Monk logo, exploded with a burst, sending both the cabinets and their contents hurtling against the barrier, grinding them to bits. Black-and-white coffee mugs broke into dozens of pieces or were completely pulverized.
“Noooooo!” screamed Ankeeta, who haunted the Cloverdale library and was visiting. “Look what you’ve done to your haunt!”
“Stupid darn Piovra, look what it made me do!” Leanne shot around the Wired Monk Coffee Shop in a flurry of angry red sparks and then out into the air, shooting up to the clouds.
Sara laughed.
Mirela popped over to the Cloverdale library with Ankeeta for a few nanoseconds until Leanne calmed down.
Robin—brave soul, Sara thought—shot after Leanne.
“Calm down. Leanne. Talk to me. You just need more practice. Let’s go back. Sara and I’ll join with you to fix up the coffee shop.”
Sara, watching all from a distance, squealed with delight and became a huge dust devil that filled the Wired Monk and half of the parking lot. Unhappy sparks flew every time her tornado touched an angry Leanne. Sara swirled and flashed again and again in her merry whirling.
An eternity later—close to eight nanoseconds—Leanne slowed and Robin caught up with her. He passed a translucent hand through her raven hair. Warm yellow sparks soothed her and she slowed to a halt. Then they popped back to the library.
“That darn Piovra!” Leanne sounded as though she wanted to swear even more than that. “It’s so hard to control. Look at the mess I’ve made!”
Sara cracked back to her cute kitten shape and gave Leanne and Robin her toothy, Cheshire grin.
“You have an idea, don’t you,” Robin said. Sara knew he sounded huffy because he felt the girls never listened to his suggestions. He’d told her that made him feel left out at times.
“Mmmm….yeah,” Sara replied in her mischievous voice.
“Well?” grumped Leanne, impatient as ever.
Sara groomed herself for a few moments before she spoke. She liked the way Leanne huffed and blew steam from her eyes and ears when she was in a tiff. Sara found Leanne very entertaining when she was angry. However, Sara did love her. She called Mirela and Ankeeta back from the library before she explained.
“I was thinking we could do some intense practicing somewhere safe. Somewhere we couldn’t do much damage in the living realm before we try to fix the coffee shop.”
“Hey,” Robin piped in. “There’s that old barn off Fraser Highway in Langley where we stored the husks of the ghosts who lost their essences to Jason’s evil computer before you restored them. That’s another thing, Leanne. Remember how much good you’ve been able to do with Piovra, not just the bad stuff.”
Leanne swirled around. “Well, why didn’t you mention that before?” she huffed.
Robin dipped a finger into the whirlwind that was Leanne. Warm sparks flew from the affectionate touch.
“And how was I to know we were going to practice with Piovra?”
She slammed to a halt and eyed Sara, who cocked her cute black head, grinned, and said. “I think it’s a great spot. We certainly couldn’t do much harm to that leaky ol’ barn.”
Leanne shot off again, leaving a frosty wake over the windows, the floor, and the ceiling of their coffee shop haunt. Robin joined her, then Ankeeta and Sara.
Mirela rolled ghost eyes to the high ceiling. “Children,” Sara heard her murmur under her non-breath.
Pop, pop, pop, pop. Mirela must have taken a few moments to realize where they’d gone for quite a few nanoseconds passed before Sara noted her arrival, which came with the usual pop.
