R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 07 (4 page)

The wind made his raincoat flap behind him. He wore a black suit underneath it, a white shirt with a stiff collar, and a plain blue tie.

“Your parents are brilliant scientists,” he
said. “Oh. Sorry. I mean they
were
brilliant scientists.”

“And what do you want with Nicky and Tara?” I asked.

He kept his eyes on them. “I think I can help you,” he said.

“Help us? How?” Tara hung back. I could tell she was still suspicious.

Dr. Smollet rubbed his beard. “Where are your parents?” he asked. “I can help them, too.”

Nicky kicked a clump of dirt off the sidewalk. “We don't know where they went,” he said. “They've been gone a long time.”

Tara crossed her arms in front of her chest. “How can you help us?” she demanded.

A smile slowly spread over Dr. Smollet's face, making his cheeks wrinkle. “I have someone with me. At my lab,” he said. “His name is Mr. Harvey. I believe he can help bring you back to life.”

Nicky and Tara both gasped.

“You're kidding,” Tara blurted out.

Dr. Smollet's smile faded. “I'm not kidding. I think I know how to do it. I wish your parents were here. I owe them a lot. I want to help them.”

Nicky sighed. “I wish they were here too,” he murmured.

I felt the deck of cards in my pocket. Ballantine the Nearly Amazing was already at the magic store. I wanted to get there to perform for him.

Tara still had her arms crossed. “How can you bring us back to life?” she asked Dr. Smollet.

He pulled his raincoat around him. “I can't do it here in the middle of the street,” he said, glancing around. “I need for you to come to my lab.”

“Where's your lab?” Nicky asked.

Dr. Smollet pointed with his head. “On the other side of town,” he said. “I'll take you there. You can meet Mr. Harvey. Then you can decide if you want me to help you.”

Tara pulled back. “You're a total stranger. You want us to go with you?”

Dr. Smollet shrugged. “I only want to help you. If your parents were here, they would tell you to trust me. I don't know what else I can say.”

He pointed again. “My lab is just on the other side of town. You only have to stay a few minutes to meet Mr. Harvey. Then I will take you anywhere you want to go.”

Nicky, Tara, and I huddled on the curb. I heard a cat crying from the house behind us. An SUV rolled past, loud rap music blasting from its open windows.

“Is this guy for real?” Tara whispered.

“I think he's telling the truth,” Nicky said.

I glanced at Dr. Smollet. “It might be some kind of trap,” I said.

“If it is a trap, Nicky and I will just go invisible,” Tara said. “No problem.”

“It's one of the good things about being a ghost,” Nicky said.

“If he
is
telling the truth,” I said, “this could be an awesome day for you. This is what you've been praying for!”

“I don't want to get excited yet,” Nicky said. “But I am. I really am. If this scientist really knows how to return us to life …”

He started jumping up and down. He couldn't hold back his excitement.

Tara grabbed Nicky by the shoulders and held him down. “Don't get your hopes up.”

“Too late,” Nicky said. “My hopes are already up. I can't
wait
to be alive again!”

Tara turned to me. “Nicky and I will go with Dr. Smollet,” she said. “But you don't have to take the risk, Max. Go to the magic store. You don't want to be late for your audition.”

“But—” I started.

Tara stepped up to Dr. Smollet. “Nicky and I will go with you to your lab,” she said. “But Max has other things to do in town.”

Dr. Smollet frowned and shook his head. He raised his blue eyes to me. “Oh no,” he said softly. “That won't do.”

He motioned for me to follow him. “You come too, Max. We need you. You're going to be
very
important.”

D
R
. S
MOLLET'S LAB WAS
in a three-story white stucco building. A barbed wire fence surrounded the place. I saw empty lots on both sides. No stores or houses on the block.

He opened the gate with a key and led us to the white front door. I saw rows of tiny windows rising up to the flat red roof. All the windows were barred.

As soon as we stepped inside, I heard the shrill cries.

Animal cries. Shrieks and howls. Muffled behind a long row of closed doors.

Dr. Smollet noticed my surprise. “Don't pay any attention,” he said. “We do a lot of animal experiments here. The animals are all well cared for.”

We started down a long white hall. Even the carpet was white. The animal cries became fainter as we turned a corner that led into another white hall.

Nicky and Tara glanced around nervously. “Did our parents work here?” Tara asked.

Dr. Smollet nodded. He led us into a big square room filled with computer equipment. The walls were solid white. Bright lights beamed down from the low ceiling.

I saw rows of laptops on two long tables. Cables stretched above our heads. Large electronic machines beeped and hummed against one wall. Red and blue lights blinked.

Flat-screen monitors filled another wall. The monitors flashed numbers and equations and formulas.

Dr. Smollet pulled off his raincoat and suit jacket and tossed them on a chair. He tugged down the sleeves of his starched white shirt.

I could still hear the animal shrieks in the distance. Sad, frightened cries. They made me feel frightened too.

Had we made a big mistake?

I swallowed hard. My mouth was suddenly very dry, and my hands felt as cold as ice. I jammed them into my jeans pockets—and felt the deck of trick cards.

Will I get out of here in time to see Ballantine?

The lab was neat and clean. The monitors blinked silently. The big electronic machines clicked and hummed. Dr. Smollet smiled as the three of us gazed around.

“This lab belonged to your parents,” he told
Nicky and Tara. “This is where they worked. And I worked here alongside them.”

“Wow,” Nicky said, shaking his head. He walked up to a long table of laptops. “I think I remember being here. It's a faint memory. But it's coming back to me.”

“Yes, I remember the computers,” Tara said. “And all those wires and cables on the ceiling.”

She tugged at her dangling plastic earrings. She always pulled them when she was thinking hard or trying to remember something.

“We were here, Nicky,” she said. “I know we were. Why can't I remember it better?”

Dr. Smollet leaned on the table with his hands. “That's what we're here to find out,” he said.

He pointed to the machines against the wall. “Your parents and I worked here, capturing evil ghosts. Your parents were on a mission. They believed that a lot of the evil in the world was caused by these spirits. Your parents found a way to capture them and keep them prisoner here.”

Dr. Smollet sighed. “But one evil ghost—a man named Phears—escaped. I tried to fight him off. But he was too powerful for me. He injured me. He knocked me out. When I came to,
all
the evil ghosts had escaped. Phears had freed them all.”

“We—we've run into Phears,” Nicky said.

Dr. Smollet's blue eyes grew wide. “You and
your sister were here in the lab on that awful day. Don't you remember? Don't you understand?”

Nicky and Tara froze. They stared at him. Speechless.

“We … didn't know,” Tara said finally.

“You were visiting your parents here,” Dr. Smollet said. “When Phears escaped, he did something to your family. To all four of you.”

“You were here,” I said. “Didn't you see what happened to them?”

Dr. Smollet shook his head. “No. I didn't see anything. I was out cold.”

He took a deep breath and smoothed back his white hair. “But I have someone here who saw everything,” he said. “I have a witness. I told you his name. Mr. Harvey.”

“Where is he?” Tara asked.

Nicky strode up to Dr. Smollet. “Can we talk to him? Is he here now?”

Dr. Smollet nodded. “Mr. Harvey is the only one who saw everything that happened that day. He saw Phears escape. He saw Phears free the other ghosts. And he saw what Phears did to you and your parents.”

The scientist loosened his tie. It was cool in the lab, but beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

“Mr. Harvey
may
know the secret. He may know how to bring your family back to life,” he said, gazing intently at my two ghost friends.

“Please—can we see him?” Tara cried. “Can we talk to him now?”

Dr. Smollet cleared his throat. He tugged at his tie again. “Well … there's a small problem. I'll show you.”

He swung away from the table and walked quickly out of the lab. The door closed behind him.

Nicky and Tara stared at each other. Then they turned to me.

“I … I don't know what to say,” Tara confessed. “I'm shaking!”

“Me too,” Nicky said, his voice cracking. He pumped his fists in the air. “This is too good to be true. Do you think Mr. Harvey really can bring us back to life? And tell us what happened to us?”

The lab door swung open.

Dr. Smollet stepped in, followed by another figure.

“This is Mr. Harvey,” Dr. Smollet said.

Tara's mouth dropped open.

Nicky gasped.

I stared hard at Mr. Harvey. My brain felt as if it was spinning in my head. “But … but …,” I stammered. “Mr. Harvey is a
chimp!”

D
R
. S
MOLLET LED THE
chimp by the hand.

Mr. Harvey loped into the room, bouncing as he walked. He kept shaking his head, his lips moving silently. Then he pulled back his lips and gave us a toothy grin.

The chimp was about three feet tall. He wore bright red spandex bike shorts. He had a red baseball cap on his head. But as he crossed the room toward us, he pulled the cap off and tossed it across the lab.

“Hoo hoo hoo.” He made chimp noises and bobbed up and down, his hands on his hairy knees.

Tara stormed up to Dr. Smollet angrily. “Is this some kind of stupid joke?” she demanded.

Nicky pulled Tara back. “Let's go,” he muttered. “This is totally insane.”

“No, wait—” the scientist said. He petted the back of the chimp's head. Mr. Harvey flashed us another grin.

“I told you there was a problem,” Dr. Smollet said.

“How could you do that to them?” I cried. “How could you get their hopes up like that?” I felt as disappointed as Nicky and Tara.

“Please let me explain,” Dr. Smollet said. He lifted Mr. Harvey onto a tall wooden lab stool at the counter. The chimp reached out and started to play with Dr. Smollet's white hair.

Dr. Smollet pulled the chimp's hand away. “Be a good boy, Mr. Harvey. This is a big day for you,” he said.

He turned to us. “Yes, Mr. Harvey is a chimp. But he was here in the lab when Phears escaped. He saw what happened to you and your parents. He was the only witness.”

“But he
can't talk!”
Tara screamed.

“Hoo hoo hoo,” Mr. Harvey said. He reached for Dr. Smollet's hair again.

Dr. Smollet raised a finger. “But I've found a way to make him talk,” he said. “Just listen to me.”

He motioned to the stools at the counter. The three of us took seats.

“It's simple, really,” Dr. Smollet said. “It sounds more frightening than it is.”

“What are you talking about?” Tara demanded.

“There's only one way to learn what Mr. Harvey knows,” Dr. Smollet said. “We switch his brain with the brain of a live human.”

Nicky and Tara both turned to me. “You mean
Max?”