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Ray would've preferred to make this drive with Ecto, but the guys needed her too much back in New York. He's therefore rented a car on the State Department's budget for the sake of getting to Port St. Helena, Oregon, without having to deal with some of the nimrods at the airlines and Amtrak. Said nimrods have an issue with the contents of the passenger seat.

"Okay, Jhalak," Ray says to said contents. "Welcome to Boise, Idaho. We're gonna stop here for the night, if you don't mind. I know it's been tough being stuck in the car and all." Mind you, he's made a point of buying several reference books at any bookstore in each of the towns where they've stopped, along with a big honking quantity of fresh fruit. But still.

Comments

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"Hey, does this mean there's Kzinti running around out there too?" says Stoppard suddenly. "'Cause these guys used to hire them as mercenaries-"

"No, I'm pretty sure Jhalak's the only one of the species to end up here," Ray says. "We're the wrong universe. Trust me on this."

"Well, okay," Stoppard says, though his tone is doubtful. "If you say so."

"I do say so," says Ray. "Now, if you don't mind my asking-"

"Oh! Right, yeah, I'm sorry, Dr. Stantz. Here I am yacking about aliens when you're only gonna be in town for the one night. I was gonna ask you if you'd mind coming down to Night Moves and checking the place out, because the hauntings're starting to get really bad..."

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Jhalak makes cheerful repetitions of some of this exchange, which is its way of listening intently.

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"I didn't bring any of my equipment with me," Ray says. "Except the PKE meter."

"Aw, that'll be fine," says Stoppard. "We just wanna be able to prove it's haunted for real, and not some kind of problem with the wiring or the pipes or something. It's getting kind of hard to get the girls to stick around more than a month or two."

"Oh, it's a restaurant?"

"Nah." Stoppard smiles. "Titty bar."

... at least he's honest?

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"Titty bar," repeats Jhalak with uncomprehending enthusiasm.

...whoops.

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Yeeeeeah.

"Uh," says Ray, and then glances at Jhalak. "You don't need to go repeating that kind of thing in front of people, okay, kiddo?"

"Whoops," says Stoppard. "Still pickin' up the language, huh?"

"Yeah, she is," Ray says resignedly.

"Sorry, Dr. Stantz. I should've known. I'll tell the girls to watch their mouths when you come down, how about that?"

"Well, I-"

"Thanks!" says Stoppard, and claps Ray on the non-occupied shoulder with a grin.

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"Don't need to go repeating that kind of thing in front of people." "Okay kiddo." "Uh." "Well." "You don't need to go repeating that."

...whether or not this is actually a promise, or at least an acknowledgement, is a little hard to tell.

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Stoppard laughs and hands over a business card before slipping out the door. Ray glances sidelong at Jhalak. "Well," he says. "Looks like we're going to be busy tonight after all. What do you think?"

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"What do you think?" "Looks like we're going to be busy tonight." "That's right." "Titty bar!"

It manages to look contrite after that last one. Something about the angle of the arms and the stillness of the thumbs.

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"... I will give you five kiwifruits if you don't say that again."

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"Five kiwifruits," it echoes, opening a hand. "Okay! That's right! Approve!"

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Ray nods and reaches for the room service phone.

The bellhop isn't there when Ray opens the door this time. Just a tray with the kiwifruits on it.

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"Kiwifruits!"

It holds the tray in two hands and dashes back to the table on its remaining three wrists, stretching up a little to settle the food onto the table before it climbs up there itself to eat.

"One, two, three, four, five." "Thank you!" "Kiwifruits!"

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"You're welcome," Ray says. "Enjoy!"

In the meantime, he's going to make a phone call back home. Ecto's got Internet access; she can at least look up Night Moves for- wait wait wait. No. It's one thing to ask his daughter to sift through her paranormal information archives but putting her on a strip club research case? Uh-unh. Therefore, the call begins instead with, "Hey, Janine? Is Peter there?"

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Jhalak, delighted with its prize, divides its attention equally between parroting bits of Ray's phone conversation and eating kiwifruits.

Om nom.

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Ray eventually hangs up the phone and flops back on the bed. "I am never asking that man to do serious research again," he says, either to the ceiling or to Jhalak. "I'll never hear the end of it."

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"Don't need to go repeating that kind of thing," agrees Jhalak, fishing the phrase whole out of its recent conversational memory.

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"That's about right," Ray says. "Except that Dr. Venkman doesn't like kiwifruits, so I can't get him not to repeat stuff."

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"Doesn't like kiwifruits?" "Holy cats!"

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"Well, he's an old friend of mine, so we'll forgive him his lapses in judgment," Ray says. "Anyway, he gave me some information on what's on the net about the Night Moves hauntings. They haven't really got anything solid in the way of evidence- no internal cameras or sound recordings- but they do have a bizarre history of cold areas and electrical fluctuations that none of their repair technicians or HVAC inspectors can account for. Plus there's a pretty substantial list of patrons who've claimed to have seen people who weren't there on the second or third pass, although that could be attributed to the fact that people don't always want to be caught staring in a place like this. I don't have time to do any sort of a background interview or hunt down any of the patrons, which is really annoying, but we've always got the PKE meter... when you're done there, would you like to go for a ride? It's on the other side of town."

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"Pretty substantial list." "Don't always want to be caught staring." "Don't have time to do any sort of a background interview." "We've always got the PKE meter." "He's an old friend of mine." "They haven't really got anything solid in the way of evidence." "Would you like to go for a ride?" "Go for a ride?" "A ride!" "That's right." "Approve."

Jhalak wiggles its digits joyfully.

Cars are fun! Less so when they fail to talk, but still fun!

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"Great," says Ray. "Okay, then. Here-"

He ducks into the bathroom and comes out with a damp towel, which he tosses to Jhalak.

"Clean yourself off with that and we'll head out."

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Jhalak inspects the towel, pokes and prods it a bit, stretches it between two five-thumbed hands, and then delicately rubs itself free of fruit juice.

Hey, nobody likes being messy.

Hopping to the floor, it scrambles Rayward on five wrists and once again climbs to his shoulder with the aid of convenient nearby furniture.

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Ray affectionately ruffles the creature's nonexistent hair and heads out of the room.

Night Moves is across town from Hotel 43. It looks... well, it bills itself as a gentleman's club, which mostly means that on the outside it looks like it could pass as a reasonably upscale bar, albeit one with silhouettes of remarkably well-constructed young women on either side of the door. "Why do things like this come up when Venkman's not around?" Ray wonders aloud.

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"Venkman's not around." "Why?" "Doesn't like kiwifruits," opines freckled(arm) wisely.

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"... that's as good a reason as any," Ray says, and strides up to the door. "Excuse me! Sir? Mr. Bouncer?"

Mr. Bouncer is not a bouncer, exactly, so much as a bored large man settled on a stool just past the entrance. He glances up from the sudoku puzzle he's been working on. "Can I help you?" he says, in a tone that implies most people who come here just hand me the cover charge and go in.

"I certainly hope so. My name's Ray Stantz. Mr. Stoppard wanted me to- um-"

Ray falters; the man is squinting at Jhalak.

"... okay, wanted us to come by and attempt an investigation of the local potentially paranormal phenomena?"