"Hey, guard! Look, I want to make a phone call. I just work with these guys, I wasn't even there!" Winston complained to the guard.
"The structure of this roof cap is exactly like the telemetry tracker NASA uses to identify dead pulsars in deep space," Egon explained as the other inmates around them gathered to listen.
"Cold-riveted girders with cores of pure selenium," Ray said. Peter looked over his shoulder to see a man looking at the blueprints.
"Everybody getting this so far?" Peter asked as if he was a teacher (oh wait, he was one). Egon looked and watched as everyone went back to their corners and left the five of them alone. "So what? I guess they just don't make them like they used to, huh?"
"No!" Ray answered, slapping Peter upside his head. "Nobody ever made them like this! I mean, the architect was either a certified genius or an authentic wacko."
"Ray, for a moment, pretend that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what's going on," Peter says.
"You never studied," Ray answered, Silvia chuckling as she stood beside Egon. "The whole building is a huge superconductive antenna that was designed and built for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend lives in the corner penthouse of spook central."
"She's not my girlfriend. I find her interesting because she's a client and sleeps above her covers. Four feet above her covers. She barks, she drools, she claws." Peter went on, earning weird looks from the other inmates.
"It's not the girl Peter, it's the building. Something terrible is about to enter our world and this building is obviously the door. The architect's name was Ivo Shandor. I found it in Tobins Spirit Guide. He was also a doctor. He performed a lot of unnecessary surgery. And then in 1920, he started a secret society." Egon explained.
"Great. A doctor who was a cult leader." Silvia says.
"Let me guess. Gozer worshippers." Peter says.
"Right," Egon answers.
"No studying," Peter says to Ray, rolling his eyes.
"After the first World War, Shandor decided that society was too sick to survive," Egon said but paused in the middle of his words because people started gathering around again. "He wasn't alone, he had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals up on the roof, bizarre rituals to bring about the end of the world, and now it looks like it may actually happen."
"I thought I was at least gonna make it into my fifties, maybe 1990, but oh well." Silvia shrugs. Peter started singing 'Santa Clause is coming to town' but spirit version while everyone backed away again.
"We have to get out of here and find a judge of something," Ray says.
"Hey wait a minute! Hey, hey, hey! Hold it! Are we actually going to go before a federal judge and say that a Babylonian god is gonna drop in on Central Park West and start tearing up the city?" Winston asked.
"Sumerian, not Babylonian." Egon corrected him.
"Yeah, big difference," Peter said.
"No offense, but I gotta get my own lawyer," Winston says.
"Okay, Ghostbusters. The mayor wants to see you guys. The whole islands going crazy, let's go." A cop from outside the cell said.
"I gotta split, the mayor wants to rap with me about some things," Peter says to the other inmates while Egon folded up the blueprints.
"They better give me my snake back before we go," Silvia said. "They put poor Twinkie in some stupid cardboard box with only five air holes in it!"
"We'll get her before we go, don't worry," Egon said as he walked out of the cell with her.
ââââ
As the five of them (Twinkie was put into the Ecto-1 safe and sound) walk to the mayor with cops around them, fans and paparazzi started to gather around.
"Are you and Spengler significant others??" One of the paparazzi people asked.
"No, what would make you think that??" Silvia asked/shouted over the people talking and yelling. "Idiots.." Silvia muttered to herself under her breath.
"Awkward..." Peter said, looking at Ray.
"Sorry about them, paparazzi have nothing better to do than ask idiotic questions." Silvia apologized to Egon, whose cheeks had turned a light shade of pink.
"It's...fine," Egon answered as they walked up the steps and through the doors of City Hall. As they entered the office of the mayor, the mayor asked "Hey, where's this Peck?" Who is that? Silvia asked herself.
"Peck, I am Walter Peck sir and I'm prepared to make a full report. These men..." Mr. Peck was interrupted by Silvia clearing her throat. "And this woman are consummate snowball artist. They use sense and nerve gases to induce hallucinations. People think they're seeing ghosts and they call these bozos who conveniently show up to deal with the problem with a fake electronic light show."
"Ah, Mr. Pencil-Dick! How nice to see you again!" Silvia said in a cheery voice, visibly pissing off Peck.
"Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here," Ray said.
"They caused an explosion!" Peck shouted in a defensive tone.
"Is this true?" The mayor asks the five of them.
"Yes, it's true. This man has no dick." Silvia answers, which causes Peck to lunge for her and try to fight her. The cops and the mayor's assistants were quick to pull Peck away from Silvia. "Well, that's what I heard! Didn't your mom ever teach you to never hit a woman?" Silvia smiles slyly.
"This is City Hall! Now, what am I gonna do here? What is this?" Mayor asks a man in a military suit/uniform (I'm not sure what to call it).
"All I know is that was no light show we saw this morning. I've seen every form of combustion known to man, but this beats the hell out of me." He answers.
"The walks in the fifty-third precinct were bleeding. How do you explain that?" Another man asked Peck.
"Good afternoon, everyone." A priest said as he walked in.
"Oh, Your Eminence." The Mayor said, kissing the priest's knuckles afterward.
"How are you, Lenny?" The priest asks him.
"You're looking good, Mike," Lenny said to him. "We're in a real fix here. What do you think I should do?"
"Lenny, officially the church will not take any position on the religious implications of these phenomena. Personally, Lenny, I think it's a sign from God. But don't quote me on that." Mike answers him, Peck in the corner of the room rolling his eyes.
"Well, I'm not gonna call a press conference and tell everyone to start praying," Lenny said as he sat down in his chair at his desk.
"Uh, im Winston Zeddermore, Your Honor. Look, I've only been with this company for a couple of weeks, but I gotta tell you, these things are real. Since I joined these men, I have seen shit that'll turn you white." Winston states firmly.
"Well, you can believe Mr. Pecker." Peter says, Silvia snorting at his comment about his name.
"My name is Peck," Peck says.
"Yeah, same difference," Silvia says.
"Or you could accept the fact that this city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions," Peter says.
"What do you mean 'biblical'?" The mayor asked.
"What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath-of-God-type stuff." Ray explains.
"Exactly!" Peter says.
"Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling." Ray says.
"Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!" Egon adds.
"Dead rising from the grave!" Winston says.
"Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!" Peter shouts.
"Enough! I get the point!" The Mayor shouts. "But what if you're wrong?"
"If I'm wrong, nothing happens! We go to jail, peacefully, quietly. We'll enjoy it. But if I'm right...and we can stop this thing...Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters." Peter says.
"I don't believe you're seriously considering listening to these men," Peck says.
"And woman, you sexist idiot!" Silvia comments. The mayor looks at Peter and then back at Peck.
"Get him out of here." The mayor says, pointing at Peck.
"Bye," Peter says with a smug grin on his face.
"I'll fix you Venkman, I'm gonna fix you," Peck says to Peter as he's taken away.
"I'll get you a nice fruit basket. I'm gonna miss him." Peter says as he looks at Silvia, who is sarcastically nodding her head yes.
"Bye, Mr. Dickless! Have a wonderful day!" Silvia shouts to him. "He was a wonderful customer while it lasted."
"I like how it was Egon that was the one trying to fight him, and it's you, Silvia, who's insulting him with me," Peter said to Silvia as they left the City Hall and got back into the Ecto-1.
"Well, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that society hates when women state that someone or something is wrong, regardless of the situation," Silvia says.
"How did you learn this?" Egon asked curiously.
"Because that's how my uncle and father ended up in prison. They were wrongfully accused of a crime they didn't commit and got sentenced to life in prison." Silvia says without batting an eye. "Well, that's what my mother's told me at least. She tried to get them out but the police wouldn't listen to her."
The rest of the car ride back to headquarters was silent.
I shouldn't have said anything. Egon thought to himself and he mentally slapped himself in the face.