Stony Silence

Virtual Season Episode 10: Stony Silence

Written by Jake Collins

Eduardo was lounging on the firehouse couch when he felt a book fall onto his face. He opened his eyes and picked up his copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

'Thanks for that,' said Kylie, leaning on the back of the couch and smiling down wryly at Eduardo. 'I'm gonna start The Chamber of Secrets tonight.'

'Great,' Eduardo grinned back at her, before pulling himself into a sitting position. 'So, what did you think?'

'I can see why everyone likes it so much,' Kylie shrugged. 'The first few chapters were particularly intriguing. I also liked the scene where Dumbledore talks to Harry in front of the mirror... and I get your socks reference now, when you got that demon to open his trench coat.'

'Did you feel like you just had to read the next chapter every time you wanted to take a break?'

'Well... yeah, kinda. J.K. Rowling sure knows how to make her readers want to keep reading. I thought it was kind of rushed after he got to Hogwarts, though. The story was a little reliant on the beginning and end – it could've done with more middle.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean,' said Eduardo. 'I always wanted to know what Professor Quirrell was like in his classes before we found out he was actually evil. But you gotta admit, it's an instant classic!'

'Yes, it is,' Kylie admitted with a small smile. 'I can't wait to get started on the next one.'

'You'll love it,' Eduardo promised. 'It's real exciting.'

At that moment Garrett entered the room. He cast a reproachful glance at Eduardo.

'What's the deal, Eddie – you got some kind of black market book dealer in your pocket?' he asked.

'Say what?' said Eduardo.

'I've searched every book store from here to the Bronx and I can't find one measly copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!' Garrett announced in aggrieved tones.

'Oh, yeah, it's not available in North America yet,' Eduardo replied. 'Sorry, I guess I should've mentioned that.'

'You think?' Garrett scowled. 'So where did you get yours?'

'Amazon-dot-co-dot-uk,' said Eduardo. 'They'll ship one out to you for a reasonable price, man.'

'Hmm, I see,' said Garrett, looking thoughtful. 'Hey, couldn't I just borrow your copy?'

'Um... yeah, I guess so,' said Eduardo. 'When Kylie's done with it.'

'Sweet,' said Garrett.

The alarm bell suddenly intervened, banishing all thoughts of Harry Potter from everyone's minds. Janine's head appeared around the doorframe.

'There's been a demon sighting at the docks,' she announced. 'I've just had a hysterical supervisor in my ear telling me that half his workforce has been turned to stone.'

'Sounds fun,' said Garrett.

'Sounds interesting,' said Kylie.

'Sounds complicated,' said Eduardo.

'Sounds like you need to get moving,' said Janine.

A little later, in the dock supervisor's office, Roland was listening to a full account of the incident.

'It was like something out of The Twilight Zone,' the supervisor was saying, sipping a hot drink at regular intervals. 'One minute everything was normal – the guys were unloading the cargo, I was ticking off the check-list – and then suddenly...'

'Suddenly?' Roland prompted him.

'Suddenly this massive creature came bursting out of the hold and started turning my guys into stone!'

'How, exactly? Did it use some kind of a ray, or...?'

'No – it just looked at them!' the supervisor screeched, threatening to become hysterical again. 'It just turned its huge red eyes on them, and they turned to stone! I ran in here and hid under the desk before it saw me, thank goodness. I called you guys straightaway, but the creature had gone when I went back outside to take a look.'

'Yes, I see,' said Roland. 'You don't have any idea where it went, then?'

'No,' said the supervisor.

'So it could still be hiding somewhere around the docks, for all you know,' Roland theorised.

The supervisor adopted a look of extreme distress and dived back under his desk, spilling his drink as he did so. Roland knelt down on the floor to continue the conversation.

'Just a couple more questions if you don't mind,' he said. 'What was this cargo ship's point of origin?'

'Um... the Arctic,' said the supervisor, his eyes still darting from side to side. 'It was harvesting minerals up in Nunavut. It also dropped off some supplies to several bases up there, and picked up their trash and mail.'

'And what did the creature look like?' Roland asked.

'Like a snake,' said the supervisor. 'Yeah, a huge, long snake... with a chicken's head.'

'A chicken's head?' Roland could not help but query in surprise.

'Yeah, a chicken's head... well, more like a chicken's head than anything else,' said the supervisor. 'It moved like a snake and it was real fast... and anyone it looked at turned to stone!'

'What colour was it?'

'Um... green, mostly.'

'Thanks,' said Roland. 'Don't worry about your workers – we'll soon have them back to their old selves.'

'You mean you can change them back?' asked the supervisor.

'Well, if we can get this snake creature into our containment unit, I'd say your men's prognosis would be a full and swift recovery,' Roland said reassuringly. 'Thanks for all your help.'

'No problem,' said the supervisor. 'I'm just glad you guys are around to deal with stuff like this. I don't know what I'm gonna put in the incident report!'

Roland went back out onto the pier to join the other Ghostbusters. Garrett and Kylie were running PKE meters up and down the stone statues that had recently been dock workers.

'Any interesting readings?' asked Roland.

'More like no readings,' said Garrett.

'No readings?' Roland asked, sounding a little worried.

'Not even residual traces,' Kylie sighed, turning off her useless meter.

'This thing sure knows how to cover its tracks,' said Garrett. 'Did you get anything out of the supervisor?'

'It was a giant snake with a chicken's head,' said Roland. 'It just looked at these guys and they turned to stone. The ship had come back from the Arctic.'

'Any ideas what this thing could be, Kylie?' asked Garrett.

'The only comparable creature I can think of is Medusa from Greek Mythology,' said Kylie. 'But she wasn't a snake – she just had snakes for hair.'

'Did she have a chicken's head?' asked Garrett.

'I don't think so,' said Kylie, 'but I guess you never know.'

At that moment, Eduardo appeared on the deck of the Arctic trawler and climbed down to join them.

'You find anything?' asked Roland.

'Nada,' said Eduardo. 'Not even residual traces. Did you find out what we're dealing with?'

'Giant snake with a chicken's head,' said Roland.

'A giant snake... and it turned these guys to stone...' Eduardo mused. 'It must be a basilisk!'

'A what?' said Garrett.

'A basilisk!' Eduardo repeated. 'It's a... oh, no, maybe I shouldn't tell you.'

'Why not?' asked Kylie.

''Cause I don't want to spoil The Chamber of Secrets for you!'

'This basilisk thing is in Harry Potter?' asked Roland.

'Sure it is,' said Eduardo.

'Is that the monster from the Chamber of Secrets it mentions in the blurb?' asked Kylie.

'Yes,' said Eduardo. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the ending for you.'

'It's okay,' said Kylie. 'Dealing with this case is more important.'

'Eduardo, I think you'd better fill us in on this creature on the way back to the firehouse,' said Roland. 'We should take these stone people with us and see what Egon makes of them.'

'Shouldn't we try to track down the creature first?' asked Eduardo.

'Yes, we should, but we can't!' Roland pointed out. 'It hasn't left a PKE trail to follow, and there's no physical evidence to show where it might've gone.'

'We're going to have to wait for it to turn more people to stone before we can track it down,' Kylie realised, not sounding very comfortable with the idea.

'Okay, so let's load up these stiffs and get out of here,' said Garrett.

'Don't call them stiffs!' said Kylie. 'They're not dead.'

'How do you know they're not?' Garrett shot back.

'Well... I guess I don't, but I'm sure being turned to stone doesn't have any more lasting effects than having all your bones removed or getting all the water sucked out of your body, so we'll be able to help them!'

'Fortunately the back of the Ecto-1 is specially designed to carry rigid, prostrate bodies,' Eduardo pointed out. 'You think we can take them all in one trip?'

'How many are there?' asked Roland.

'Seven,' said Kylie.

'We can squeeze them all in,' Roland predicted.

Back at the firehouse, Roland and Eduardo carried the final stone figure into the basement and leant it carefully against the wall. Egon was manipulating some scientific equipment that he had attached to one of the statues; he removed a stethoscope from his ears and turned to face Roland and Eduardo.

'Careful, he'll topple over if you leave him like that,' Roland was saying.

'Relax, man – I'm just straightening him,' said Eduardo. 'There, that's got it.'

'Is that the last one?' asked Egon.

'Yeah,' said Roland.

'I've run a full structural analysis on the first one you brought in,' Egon announced. 'These stone people have not been turned to stone, technically – they've been fossilised.'

'Doesn't that mean they are made of stone now?' asked Eduardo.

'Well, yes and no,' said Egon. 'They are still made of organic matter, but the carbon and calcium in their bodies has been replaced with more stone-like elements.'

'But the carbon and calcium will come back when we trap the basilisk, right?' said Eduardo.

'In theory, yes,' said Egon. 'The complete absence of psychokinetic energy at the scene worries me somewhat, though. We might be dealing with a demon the like of which we've never seen before.'

'No big,' said Eduardo. 'We can work with that.'

'I need to read up on documented basilisk sightings,' said Egon. 'J.K. Rowling's information is all well and good, but it may not tally exactly with real life.'

'The basilisk in the book doesn't have a chicken's head,' Eduardo admitted. 'In fact, the sound of the cockerel is supposed to be deadly to it.'

'That just goes to show how legends and myths get interpreted in different ways down through the years,' said Roland.

'Yes,' Egon agreed, 'but now we'll need to get to the truth of where all the world's differing basilisk interpretations originate from. I must say, I'm very interested in the fact that the cargo ship had just returned from the Arctic – if the demon had been lying there, dormant in the ice, then the trawler must have done something to awaken it.'

'You mean like they accidentally thawed it out or something?' asked Eduardo.

'Something along those lines seems entirely feasible at this stage,' said Egon.

'I've read a few stories about ancient creatures and even gods being thawed out of Arctic ice,' said Roland.

'You mean you've read Thor, the comic book,' said Eduardo.

'And other stuff!' Roland bristled. 'More reliably documented stuff!'

'I'll be sure to research the matter thoroughly,' said Egon. 'While I do that, I suggest the rest of you go back to the docks and start canvassing people for information – if you can't track this thing down with PKE meters, maybe you can do it the old-fashioned way.'

'There's no need to go to the docks, Egon,' said Janine, appearing at the top of the stairway gantry. 'I've got a hot lead for you – some guy on Staten Island has been turned to stone while sunbathing in his front yard, and his wife claims she's locked the monster that did it inside their garage!'

'We'll get right on it,' said Roland.

Roland and Eduardo manoeuvred the stone sunbather into the back of the Ecto-1 while Kylie and Garrett talked to his wife.

'You say it came out of the water, ma'am?' said Kylie.

'That's right,' said the wife. 'I saw it slithering all the way up from the beach while I was washing the dishes, and when I came outside to investigate it was going into the garage and my husband had been turned to stone!'

'It's almost a straight line to the docks,' Garrett observed, looking out over the nearby expanse of water. 'It must've swum right here.'

'But what is it?' the woman demanded.

'A basilisk,' said Kylie. 'Don't worry – we know what we're dealing with and we have procedures in place to deal with it.'

'We do?' said Garrett.

'Yes, of course we do!' Kylie insisted. 'But if we can catch it right now, that'd sure be a help. Are you sure there's no way out of that garage?'

'Just the door, and I slammed it and locked it before the thing even knew I was there!' the woman said proudly.

'Great job,' said Kylie. 'If you could unlock it for us now, we'll capture the creature.'

Roland and Eduardo came to join their companions; they all armed themselves with their proton guns and stood in front of the garage door, which the woman proceeded to open.

'Don't let it slip by us,' said Roland. 'We see it, we fire!'

'Um... sorry to say this, man,' said Eduardo, 'but I don't see anything.'

The others quickly saw that Eduardo was right. The garage was empty apart from a few paint tins on a shelf at the back and some old sacks in the far corner.

'No, that's impossible!' exclaimed the woman. 'It couldn't have gone anywhere, it just couldn't!'

'Any chance it could be hiding in one of those tins, or under the sacks?' asked Kylie.

'No – it's too big for that!' said the woman.

'Maybe it can change its size,' Eduardo suggested.

'Or go invisible,' Garrett added.

Roland cautiously approached the open garage, and swept his PKE meter across the entrance. Nothing happened.

'That didn't work before,' Garrett pointed out. 'It could still be in there.'

'I'll take a look,' Roland decided, his brow furrowing in determination. 'If it turns me to stone, you guys shoot in its general area and make sure you trap it.'

They all nodded, and Roland entered the garage. He took a few tentative steps towards the far end, but stumbled before he had gone very far. He looked down to see a loose manhole cover beneath his feet.

'There's a drain here!' he announced in surprise.

'Oh yes, I forgot about that,' said the woman. 'It used to lead straight out to the ocean, but my husband had it concreted in when the garage flooded during a storm.'

'Still, the cover's loose,' said Roland, kneeling down to investigate. 'Could we get some light in here?'

Everyone else entered the garage, and the woman turned on an electric ceiling light. Roland started to prise the manhole cover free.

'Be careful, man,' said Eduardo. 'If it's down there, and it sees you...'

'I know,' said Roland, 'but somebody's got to take a look.'

With a grinding screech and a metallic clang, the drain cover came free. Apprehensively, Roland peered into the hole.

'You see anything?' Kylie asked after a couple of seconds.

'Yes,' said Roland, 'and I think it's okay. Come and take a look.'

Everyone crowded round the hole. There was a shaft about five feet deep which evidently had a hole in one of the walls at the bottom, as about three feet of thick, green, scaly snake was sticking out into the shaft.

'The basilisk!' Eduardo exclaimed.

'I think it's stuck,' said Garrett.

'Yes,' said the woman, 'it must have tried to crawl along the old drainage pipe and come to the concrete barrier.'

'Clearly it doesn't have phasing powers, then,' Kylie remarked.

'We'll never have a better chance to trap it,' said Roland. 'Quick, Kylie – direct the trap beam into the hole.'

Kylie retrieved the ghost trap from her back and did as Roland instructed. The light from the containment beam filled the shaft, but the snake remained trapped in the hole.

'Um, guys,' Kylie said uncertainly, 'it's not being sucked in.'

'It has no PKE readings, it won't go into the trap...' Roland mused. 'The proton streams almost certainly won't do anything to it, in that case.'

'Except maybe blow it up!' Eduardo pointed out. 'And then we'll never get those people turned back to normal.'

'Oh, but you must!' the woman said in alarm.

'We will,' said Garrett. 'We'll just have to trap it the old-fashioned way, won't we? Tell me, ma'am, do you have an animal cage of any kind lying around your house?'

'Um... well, there's an old dog basket in the attic,' the woman said. 'We used to take our Alsatian to the vet in it.'

'An Alsatian – excellent,' Garrett approved. 'It must be a big one, then.'

'Well... yes, it is,' the woman agreed.

'You've seen the full length of the basilisk, ma'am,' said Kylie. 'Do you think it'd fit in your Alsatian carrier?'

'Um... yes, I think it would,' said the woman.

'I'll help you get it down from the attic,' said Eduardo. 'Lead the way, please.'

'Er, well... all right,' the woman agreed. 'I suppose if it'll help to get my husband back...'

'It will,' Kylie assured her. 'When this is all over, we'll return both your husband and your dog carrier to you in perfect working order.'

While the woman showed Eduardo into the house, Roland retrieved a fire extinguisher from the Ecto-1. He returned to the garage and handed the extinguisher to Garrett, before retrieving a sack from the far corner and giving it to Kylie.

'Okay, here's what we're gonna do,' Roland announced. 'I'm gonna grab that tail and yank the basilisk back up into the garage. Garrett, as soon as you see the first flash of green, you blast it with the fire extinguisher.'

'Why?' asked Garrett.

'To make it sluggish,' Roland explained. 'Snakes are cold-blooded, and a blast of freezing carbon dioxide should slow it down.'

'But chickens are warm-blooded,' Garrett pointed out, 'so how do we know which one the basilisk is?'

'Well, I guess we don't,' Roland admitted, 'but we're gonna try it anyway. Kylie, when you see the head come out of the hole, you ram that bag over it, okay?'

'Sure,' said Kylie. 'You do realise there's a high chance that at least one of us will be turned to stone during this little operation, don't you?'

'Yes,' said Roland, 'but at least we'll have captured the creature and we'll be able to turn everyone back.'

'Hopefully,' Garrett added.

'Okay, let's do it,' said Roland. 'Are you both ready?'

'Yes,' said Garrett and Kylie.

'Okay.'

With that, Roland plunged the top half of his body into the hole and started writhing around. There came the sound of muffled hissing, squawking and sliding before Roland started to emerge from the hole. Garrett saw a flash of green scales, and discharged the fire extinguisher. Kylie then dived into the pall of freezing gas and slipped the bag over the large red comb and yellow beak, which she was able to discern fairly easily.

'Keep hold of it, Roland!' Garrett encouraged his colleague, who was fighting to keep the writhing snake under control.

'We should've waited till Eduardo brought the basket!' Kylie realised.

'The cavalry is here, man!'

Eduardo ran into the garage and placed the large pet carrier onto the floor, flicking the door open as he did so. Roland propelled the struggling basilisk towards the opening, with Kylie gathering up the undulating tail as it flopped onto the floor. Eduardo held the basket steady as Roland bundled the creature into it. At the last moment, Roland lost his grip and the tail began to snake away from the opening, but Garrett ran it over with his wheelchair and the final few inches of the basilisk retreated into the dog carrier, which Eduardo quickly shut and locked.

'Phew, we got it!' Eduardo panted in relief.

'Now we can get it back to Egon and see what he makes of it,' said Kylie.

'No ecto signature, no phasing powers, not trappable...' said Garrett. 'Whatever Egon makes of it, it'll be a lot more than what I can!'

Eduardo wandered into the living area to see Kylie relaxing on the couch with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

'Enjoying it?' he asked.

'Yeah,' said Kylie. 'I don't think I like Dobby, though. What even is the point of him?'

'You'll find out later,' Eduardo grinned. 'You haven't been skipping ahead to see how to fight the basilisk, have you?'

'Well, maybe a little,' Kylie admitted. 'I don't think the basilisk in the book is much like our basilisk, though. It just kind of freezes people rather than turning them to stone, doesn't it?'

'Yeah, so J.K. shouldn't really call that petrifying, seeing as petrify actually means turn to stone.'

'We have to allow her a bit of dramatic licence, don't we? How do they unfreeze the basilisk's victims in the end? I couldn't find the part where they explained how to do it.'

'Oh, they have to make a potion out of these Mandrake things,' said Eduardo. 'They're plants.'

'Made-up plants,' Kylie added, 'so I guess that's not gonna help us much.'

'Oh yeah, I was meant to tell you, Egon wants to talk to us about our basilisk,' Eduardo suddenly remembered. 'I'm supposed to be telling everyone to go to his lab.'

'Okay,' said Kylie, 'I'll just read the last three pages of this chapter.'

Kylie sloped into Egon's lab looking rather sheepish.

'Thank you for joining us,' Egon said heavily.

'Sorry,' said Kylie, 'I just had to read another chapter of Harry Potter.'

'Well, never mind – we're all here now,' said Egon. 'All documented references to the basilisk I could find mentioned some kind of Norse connection, so it seems entirely probable that this creature was indeed trapped in Arctic ice for quite some time before the supply vessel disturbed it, but that's not really important now – the fact is that the creature is here in the firehouse, and we need to work out what to do with it and how to change its victims back to normal.'

'Did you find out why it doesn't have an ecto signature and wouldn't go in the trap?' asked Roland.

'Yes, I did, and the reason is the simplest one possible,' said Egon. 'It's not an ectoplasmic entity – it's a real animal. A very ancient and unfamiliar animal, certainly – but an animal nonetheless.'

'But how can a normal animal turn people to stone?' asked Garrett.

'Petrifaction is a purely scientific process,' said Egon. 'It involves the removal of carbon and calcium from the body – or being turned to stone, in layman's terms. It just means fossilisation, really.'

'So somehow this animal is able to cause this process by natural, scientific means,' said Kylie. 'And I guess that means we're gonna have to reverse the process in the same way!'

'Sounds difficult,' Eduardo remarked.

'It sounds impossible,' said Egon. 'Leastways, it's completely unprecedented and I have no idea how to go about doing it.'

'Are you saying those people are gonna be stone statues forever?' asked Roland.

'Not necessarily,' said Egon. 'If we can understand exactly how the basilisk causes the fossilisation process to activate, we might be able to reverse it in the same way.'

'That sounds more like science fiction than science,' Garrett remarked.

'The basilisk is science fiction,' said Egon, 'or at least it was until today – we're now making up science-fact as we go along!'

'Can we really do that?' asked Eduardo.

'We can certainly try,' said Egon. 'Now, if you'll all turn your attention to the specimen tank to my right... Slimer, remove the cover, please.'

Slimer saluted Egon and removed the red cloth from the large cubic structure that Egon had indicated. The others drew back in alarm and closed their eyes as they caught sight of the basilisk in all its glory, its snake's body curled up like a spring and its cockerel's head wearing a distinctly peeved expression.

'Hey Egon, are you trying to turn us all to stone?' Eduardo squeaked.

'Don't worry; it's quite safe,' said Egon. 'That tank is made of one-way glass – all the basilisk can see is itself.'

'Shouldn't it have turned itself into stone, then?' asked Garrett.

'That is what happened to Medusa,' Kylie added.

'Clearly the science-fact in this case is that the creature's power does not work on itself, or that it does not reflect off a mirror, or both,' said Egon. 'My best guess is that it emits some form of radiation from its eyes – either voluntarily or involuntarily – when it sees another living thing.'

'Does that help us?' asked Roland.

'Possibly,' said Egon. 'I've rigged a Geiger counter up to the tank. If we can get the basilisk to look at something and turn it to stone, the radiation will register on the counter as it passes through the glass. From the readings, I should be able to identify the radiation signature.'

'So we'll need a willing victim to become a statue,' said Garrett. 'You can count me out, for one!'

'I'll get hold of an animal of some kind for the experiment,' Egon proposed. 'It's not really animal cruelty – we'll be able to change it back afterward.'

'If you can work out how to do it,' Kylie pointed out.

'Yes, but I think taking a risk on a lab mouse is worth procuring the chance to revive those eight people,' Egon said. 'Does anyone disagree with me?'

Nobody did.

'I'll have one sent over in the morning,' said Egon.

'So, what're we gonna do with the basilisk when we've changed all its victims back?' asked Garrett. 'Seeing as it's so dangerous, shouldn't we – like – kill it?'

'That seems harsh,' said Kylie. 'It's just an animal, trying to survive like anyone else.'

'I don't see why it needs to turn people to stone to survive,' said Eduardo.

'It's obviously some kind of ancient defence mechanism,' said Kylie.

'One that stinks of overkill,' said Garrett. 'Turning every creature you see to stone just in case it wants to attack you – it's like cutting off your leg to cure an in-growing toenail!'

'That wouldn't make much difference to you, man,' Eduardo could not help but quip.

'Kinda the same difference you'd feel if we cut your head off to get rid of that goatee,' Garrett shot back. 'Y'know, as in you'd still have the same brain function as before.'

'To get back to the point, I wouldn't feel happy about killing it,' said Egon. 'It's an important scientific discovery – possibly the last of its kind – as well, of course, as being a living creature with as much right to life as anyone else. I have contacts – I think I could find a safe and secure home for it.'

'Be careful who you give it to, Egon,' Kylie advised. 'I just bet some people out there would like to turn its unique ability into some kind of weapon!'

'Agreed,' said Egon. 'I'll be very careful. Now, there's nothing else we can do tonight, so I suggest you all go home and get some sleep. Come back tomorrow morning and we'll see what we can do about saving those people.'

Eduardo was just about to leave the firehouse when he heard a loud crash coming from the floor above. He turned away from the front door and rushed upstairs to investigate.

'Hey, Egon, are you up here?' he called. 'What's going on? Is everything okay?'

He went into the lab and switched on the light. The basilisk tank was on the floor, a huge crack running up one side. As Eduardo looked on in alarm, the animal began to thrash around inside and hurl the various sinews of its body against the glass.

'What's happening in here?'

Eduardo jumped violently and turned to face the speaker in the doorway behind him. It was Roland.

'Jeez, man, you startled me,' said Eduardo. 'I thought you'd gone home.'

'No, not yet,' said Roland. 'Why is the tank on the floor?'

'The basilisk's trying to escape,' Eduardo explained. 'I heard the tank fall from downstairs.'

'It sure is trying to escape,' said Roland, watching the thrashing creature closely, 'and it'll do it in a couple of minutes!'

'We'll have to recapture it,' said Eduardo.

'Yes... but it'll destroy the tank, and the radiation from its eyes won't be able to pass through the glass, and we won't get the reading we need,' Roland mused.

'Egon can always get another tank,' Eduardo pointed out.

'Yes, I suppose so,' said Roland, obviously in the middle of some complicated thought process. 'But the wires are still attached to the Geiger-counter – they didn't come loose in the fall – and time could be precious for those people...'

'What're you planning, Roland?' Eduardo asked suspiciously.

'Um... no, nothing,' Roland said unconvincingly. 'Eduardo, could you find a blanket or a towel or something to throw over the basilisk when it escapes? I'll open the Alsatian carrier and you bundle it in there again, okay?'

'Er... yeah, sure, I guess so,' said Eduardo.

He wandered into the bathroom and found a large white towel, which he brought back to the lab. He found Roland crouching in front of the rapidly disintegrating tank, one finger hovering over a button at the bottom.

'What are you doing, man?' Eduardo demanded.

'We need to get that reading,' said Roland. 'Put it in the carrier like we planned, Eduardo. Don't let it get you too or it'll escape and we'll never find it again.'

'Roland, what are you talking about?' Eduardo failed to comprehend. 'You can't...'

Roland flicked the switch and the one-way glass was deactivated. The basilisk snarled and roared and hissed, and Roland turned to stone. A fraction of a second later, the glass of the tank exploded in all directions and the basilisk was free.

'Oh, man...' Eduardo muttered. 'I should've just gone home when I had the chance.'

Before the animal could get its bearings, Eduardo ran up behind it and covered it with the towel. Fighting to control the writhing creature, he ran across the room and bundled it back into the dog carrier, which Roland had opened as promised while Eduardo was out of the room.

'What on earth is going on in here?'

Eduardo finished securing the carrier and turned back towards the doorway, where Egon was standing with a puzzled expression on his face.

'The basilisk broke out of the tank,' Eduardo explained breathlessly. 'Roland let it look at him through the glass before it escaped so you could get your radiation reading.'

Egon looked from Eduardo to Roland to the shattered tank to the Geiger-counter, and dashed across the room to inspect the readings.

'It's beta radiation,' Egon announced. 'By sacrificing himself, Roland achieved his goal.'

'But why did he do it?' said Eduardo. 'This isn't the first time he's put himself in danger during this case. Do you think he wanted to prove he was still up to the job after all that possessed book stuff last week?'

'Quite possibly,' said Egon. 'Perhaps we can ask him later.'

'So... you'll be able to save him, right?' asked Eduardo. 'And all the other victims too?'

'I've now got all the information I need to start working on a possible solution to the problem,' said Egon. 'But there are no guarantees, Eduardo – as I said earlier, I'm making up the science of this case as I go along, and we can only hope that my methods and conclusions match up with the facts of the matter.'

'Aw, man,' said Eduardo, 'why couldn't he just wait for a new tank and a lab mouse?'

'Well, he's done it now,' Egon sighed, 'so we might as well just get on with the next stage of the plan. I'll do my best, of course, but I have to confess that I'm far from certain that it'll be good enough.'

'Well, I'm certain,' said Eduardo. 'You're Egon Spengler – you can do this.'

'Thanks,' said Egon.

'Do you think I should go to Roland's place on my way home and tell his family what happened to him?' asked Eduardo.

'It's significantly out of your way, isn't it?'

'Yeah... but I don't mind.'

'You just get yourself home, Eduardo,' Egon instructed. 'I'll call Roland's family and explain the situation.'

'What'll you tell them about bringing him back?' asked Eduardo.

'The truth,' said Egon. 'That there is a chance.'

'Can't you lie and say that everything's definitely gonna be fine?'

'I could, but I'm not going to. Go home now, Eduardo, and try to get some sleep – there's nothing else we can do tonight.'

The next morning, Eduardo, Kylie and Garrett arrived at the firehouse to find Janine waving to an armoured truck as it came through the double doors and roared off down the street.

'Hi, Janine,' said Garrett. 'What's going on?'

'The basilisk has just been collected,' Janine replied.

'Who by?' asked Garrett, peering after the receding form of the truck.

'Egon didn't say exactly,' said Janine. 'But I have every trust in his judgement.'

'We all do,' said Kylie.

'All the same, can Egon really be sure he doesn't need to keep the creature around to find a cure?' Garrett wondered.

'He got his radiation reading last night, like I told you,' said Eduardo. 'There's nothing else he can do with the basilisk... except dissect it.'

'And that wouldn't help anyone,' said Janine, 'least of all the basilisk. But Egon's been working all night on a cure to turn everyone back to normal. I don't think he's had any sleep.'

'When he said there was nothing else we could do last night,' said Eduardo, 'I guess he was just talking about me.'

Janine led the way up to Egon's lab. He was on the phone when they entered.

'Yes, I promise I'll have it back by the end of the day,' Egon said into the mouthpiece. 'Yes, I understand the long-term effects of exposure. No, it won't leave the firehouse. Yes, only I will operate it. Yes, I appreciate that. I know, and I'm very grateful. Okay, I'll meet you at the back entrance in half an hour. Yes, I know. Thanks, Doug. Bye.'

Egon put down the receiver, removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes.

'Who were you talking to, Egon?' asked Garrett.

'An old friend of mine who works in the radiology department at the hospital,' said Egon, replacing his glasses. 'He's going to lend me a radiation machine for the day.'

'By lend you mean steal, right?' asked Eduardo.

'No, I mean lend,' said Egon. 'It will be back in its proper place by five o'clock this afternoon; the fact that no one knows about its little sojourn is completely irrelevant.'

'What are you going to do with it, Egon?' asked Kylie. 'You're going to save the basilisk's victims, aren't you?'

'I'm going to try,' Egon sighed. 'Come into the bathroom, everyone.'

They all followed Egon and crowded into the bathroom. They saw at once that the bathtub was full of a strange, quite thick, off-white solution of some kind.

'What the heck is that?' asked Garrett.

'It's a concentrated mix of calcium and carbon,' said Egon. 'My plan is to put one of the basilisk's victims into the bathtub, expose him to as much beta radiation as I dare, and hope that the process will be reversed.'

They all looked at him with obvious uncertainty.

'Do you really think that'll work?' asked Eduardo.

'I think it might work,' said Egon. 'As I've said twice before, I'm making up science-fact as I go along here – there are no guarantees!'

'You don't make it sound like the victims have much of a chance,' said Garrett.

'I don't know how much of a chance they have, but this is the only possible solution I can think of!' said Egon. 'Does anyone else have a better idea?'

Unsurprisingly, nobody volunteered an alternative suggestion.

'Now, Egon, don't get yourself all worked up,' Janine said soothingly. 'We all have faith in you, don't we, everyone?'

'Of course,' said Kylie.

'Sure,' said Eduardo.

'Well... I suppose it might work,' said Garrett.

'Right, so let's get ready to do this thing!' said Janine. 'Egon, is your friend bringing the machine here or are you going to collect it?'

'I'm collecting it from the back entrance of the radiology building in half an hour,' said Egon.

'Okay, well one of us is going to drive you down there,' said Janine. 'You've been up all night and you're not in a fit state to drive yourself. In the meantime, I suggest the rest of us get to work carrying all the statues up from the basement. Eduardo, you definitely need to stay and do that.'

'Yeah,' said Eduardo. 'Too bad Roland can't help me this time.'

'I'll drive Egon to the hospital,' said Kylie. 'I wouldn't be much help with the statues.'

'Okay,' said Janine, 'so I'll help Eduardo with the heavy lifting.'

'Janine, I can't let you do that,' said Egon. 'Maybe you should go to the hospital with Kylie, and I'll help with the statues.'

'No, Egon – your friend won't give the machine to anyone but you,' Janine pointed out. 'I'll help with the statues – it'll be fine.'

'Hey, and I can help too,' said Garrett. 'I know I can't carry them up the stairs, but I can shunt them around up here.'

'Okay, then that's what we'll do,' said Egon. 'You might as well put one of the statues in the bathtub straightaway – we'll need a test subject, as it were.'

'A test subject?' Garrett asked uncertainly. 'You mean, if it doesn't work, whoever we try it out on could be worse off than he is now?'

'Who can say?' said Egon. 'Radiation exposure always carries risks with it – potentially, anything could happen.'

'So who do we put in the bathtub, then?' asked Janine.

'Roland,' Eduardo said quietly.

'What?' said Garrett.

'Seriously, we need to try it out on Roland,' said Eduardo. 'He's been trying to prove himself all through this basilisk case – that's why got himself turned to stone. He sacrificed himself to help the other victims – he gave himself to us as a test subject. If he could talk right now, he'd volunteer to go in the bathtub first. Who here thinks I'm wrong, huh?'

Nobody thought Eduardo was wrong.

'All right,' said Egon, 'then bring Roland up first and put him in the bathtub. Kylie, let's go.'

Later, everyone except Egon was sitting in the lounge, sipping from mugs of coffee.

'What if it doesn't work?' Garrett piped up suddenly.

'Garrett, hush!' Janine admonished him.

'It's a fair question,' said Eduardo. 'We're totally out of our depth here – even Egon doesn't really know what he's doing.'

'None of the great scientific discoveries in history happened when the scientists knew what they were doing,' said Kylie. 'If this method doesn't work, Egon will try something else... and he'll keep on trying until he turns all those people back to normal.'

'What happens if he can't?' said Garrett.

'There's no point living in a world of ifs,' said Janine.

'Maybe we could see if that Mandrake potion of J.K.'s really exists,' Eduardo suggested. 'Maybe we could get in touch with her and ask her where she gets her ideas from.'

'The answer to that is myths, legends, real life, her own imagination and another UK children's book series called The Worst Witch,' said Kylie.

'So the Mandrake plants could come from real life, couldn't they?' Eduardo reasoned. 'It's got to be worth asking her – I'm sure she'd help us.'

'You think she's heard of us?' asked Garrett.

'Sure,' said Eduardo, 'everyone's heard of the Ghostbusters!'

'What I don't get is,' said Janine, 'if Harry Potter's supposed to be so famous and important in the wizarding world, why does Dumbledore make him live with his awful family instead of finding a nice childless wizard couple who'd like to adopt him?'

'Well,' said Eduardo, 'I got a theory about that. You see...'

But he stopped speaking at once as the unmistakable sound of the bathroom door opening reverberated around the upper level. Everyone rushed towards the source of the sound to find a figure wrapped in a white towel emerging from the bathroom.

'Roland!' everyone cried in delight.

'Oh, hey guys,' said Roland. 'What's going on?'

He was then almost flung off his feet as everyone hugged him at once. Egon – wearing a radiation suit – emerged from the bathroom.

'Oh Egon, you did it!' Janine celebrated, hugging Egon in his turn. 'You're a genius.'

'Yes, I do seem to be, don't I?' said Egon, allowing himself a small smile.

'Why did you take his clothes off?' asked Garrett.

'I didn't,' Egon replied. 'The reversal doesn't seem to work on clothes – they disintegrated during the process.'

'That's a small price to pay for what you've achieved here, Egon,' said Kylie.

'Yes, I thought so,' said Egon. 'It does mean we're going to need more towels, though.'

'I'll find some,' said Garrett.

'And Eduardo and I will bring in the next statue,' said Janine.

'Oh no, Janine – I'll help Eduardo with that,' said Roland.

'No you won't!' Kylie said firmly. 'You're coming to the kitchen with me for a cup of coffee!'

'Make it tea,' said Egon. 'Strong and sweet. And give him one of those energy bars too – he needs to build his protein levels back up.'

'Okay, Egon,' said Kylie.

Roland, wearing a fresh jumpsuit, sipped his tea and took a bite of his energy bar. Kylie stared at him across the tabletop.

'Do I have a zit or something?' Roland asked.

'Huh? Oh, no, it's nothing like that,' said Kylie, snapping out of her reverie. 'It's just that I can't believe you're here – back to normal, I mean.'

'Neither can I,' said Roland. 'Egon really is a genius.'

'He sure is,' said Kylie. 'You must've had enormous faith in him to sacrifice yourself like that.'

'Yes, I had faith in him,' said Roland, 'but I knew there were no guarantees.'

'It was very brave of you,' said Kylie. 'Did you realise that we brought you back first because Egon couldn't be sure if the process would work? Or even that it wouldn't do more damage to you?'

'Yes, I realise that,' said Roland.

'Eduardo said it was what you wanted when you sacrificed yourself.'

'Eduardo was right.'

'You know, you... you don't have to worry that anyone's still holding anything against you after that haunted book stuff,' said Kylie. 'You don't need to prove yourself to us, Roland.'

'I didn't do it to prove myself... well, not exactly,' said Roland. 'I did it because... because... because it was the right thing to do.'

Kylie smiled, and patted his hand across the table.

'You're one of the good ones, Roland,' she said. 'That T'Keysha or T'Meyah or K'Deysha or whatever she's called is a very lucky girl. If you're still seeing her, that is.'

Roland smiled enigmatically, and returned to his tea.