Ghostbusters: Des Moines

Episode 4: Slimed! Part 1

Regina was wearing a grey hoodie that had the "No Ghosts" logo over the left side of her chest. With an almost obsessive ferocity, she was regularly checking her watch as she walked east on Locust Avenue in Downtown Des Moines.

"Oh," Simon had said, "almost like it's undercover?"

Regina shrugged. "Undercover, or convenience, but can you do it?"

Simon tilted his head to the side as he ran through the possibilities. "Yeah, I could do it, but it wouldn't have a lot of the functionality of the original P.K.E. Meters."

"Such as?"

"It wouldn't work with the goggles and you wouldn't have the directional functionality." He took off his glasses and started cleaning them. "The type of P.K.E. signature wouldn't be measured either. You also wouldn't be able to record the data."

"Yeah, but it would still measure P.K.E. wherever I'm standing?"

Simon nodded. "That's all it would do."

That was a week ago, and today was the third day that Regina had been using her new phone case. It attached to the back of her phone as a flat black case except for the half of an orb that projected off of the back over where the camera was. The orb was clear, showing the internal antenna and LED's wrapped and against the case. The case ran off of the battery from the phone and used the phone's Near Field Communication technology to report to the phone numerical data on the nearby P.K.E. readings.

It reported all of those readings to a simple application that Simon made. The application also tied to Google Maps, putting a pin into any readings that were abnormal.

The final half of the smaller P.K.E. was entirely Regina's doing. The watch she was wearing was a Pebble Smartwatch. Notifications that Regina wanted would be reported to the watch over Bluetooth. She had asked Simon to add a notification feature to his P.K.E. application. When the numerical P.K.E. data rises above whatever level Regina sets it at, her watch gives her notification.

All Regina has to do is walk around with her phone case turned on. The application will send any P.K.E. spikes as an alert to her watch. No more carrying around the bulky P.K.E. meter unless she needed it. Instead, Regina could walk around all of Des Moines with her hands in her pockets just waiting for it to vibrate that she had found something.

She could locate the Seven Sons of Sibitti. She could locate Erra.

Maybe she could even find her brother.

It was the entire reason that she was on the streets of Des Moines with her newly designed, and highly mobile, P.K.E. meter.

When Locust ended, directly in front of the Capital building, Regina turned north toward Grand. Once she crossed the block she paused in front of the Wallace Building to look at the Capital building. It was beautiful. A large golden dome on top of ...

Bzzt!

Regina pulled her hands out of her pockets and took a look at her watch.

She turned around to face the golden-mirrored windows that covered the southern side of the Wallace Building. She began walking toward it.

Beneath the large windows was a set of doors. Regina walked in and another vibration came to the watch. She looked at the notification and read it.

PKE Reading: 151 Units.

She walked to the right toward a set of doors that were opened onto a large auditorium and the watch vibrated again.

PKE Reading: 110 Units.