Ball Lightning

Ball Lightning

by Damon Nomad

          Cameron parked in his usual spot in the small parking lot north of campus. The old building was originally an aviation hangar for experimental aircraft. Professor Smoot's car and Professor Fink's car were in their assigned spots. The only thing out of place was a state police car parked near the entrance. He pressed his ID card to the reader, pushed open the door, and headed for the office area. It was quiet inside, and the workers painting the ceiling were not on the high scaffolding this morning.
          A square-jawed uniformed state police sergeant was posted at the open door of the conference room. Professor Fink was sitting at the meeting table across from a middle-aged man in a suit. Cameron told the officer who he was, and the sergeant stepped into the room. "This is Cameron Day, a postdoc researcher. Works with Professor Smoot."
          The man looked up from his notebook as he studied the athletically built young man. He waved to a chair next to Fink. "I'm Detective Kramer; have a seat." Kramer nodded to the officer. "Sarge, finish the measurements and photos of the area. You can take the coffee thermos."
          Cameron's attention was on Kramer as he sat down. "What's going on? Where is Professor Smoot?"
          The answer was business-like. "Professor Smoot is dead; early yesterday evening. Painters found him when they came in early this morning. Sorry for your loss." Kramer paused as he measured Cameron's reaction to the news.
          Cameron looked at Fink. "Dead, what happened?"
          Fink's nose twitched and his beady eyes blinked as he looked at Cameron over the top of his dirty spectacles. "Looks like an accident in my lab." He pushed his eyeglasses back up the ridge of his pointy nose.
          Cameron's cold blue-eyed stare focused on Fink. "Your lab? Why would he be in your lab?"
          Kramer held up a hand. "I'm asking the questions." Then looking to Fink. "You said you needed some time to prepare for a meeting. I'll get more background from Mr. Day."
          Fink glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Yes, an update for the research committee this afternoon."
          Cameron turned to Kramer as Fink scurried from the room. "What kind of accident?"
          Kramer rubbed the back of his neck as he stood to stretch. "We will get to that in a bit. I need more coffee and I need you to explain what goes on in this building."
          Cameron headed for the door. "I'll get coffee." He stopped in the small kitchen and started a fresh pot. Then found the large whiteboard in the computer lab and rolled it into the conference room. "Coffee should be ready; be right back."
          Cameron returned with a coffee pot and two cups. He started sketching the layout of the building on the whiteboard as he explained their research work. "I think this place has been the atmospheric discharge laboratory for more than forty years." The different sections of the lab were separated by eight-foot partition walls. Not even close to reaching the ceiling, nearly thirty feet high. Some of the scientific equipment were tall, exotic-looking structures that were visible throughout the building high above the partitions.
          Kramer took a sip of coffee and put his feet up on an empty chair. "Atmospheric discharge? You mean lightning, right?" Kramer scribbled in his notebook and he asked Cameron to continue with his description.

          Cameron sat down as he finished his overview of the lab. "Most of the building is under Smoot's authority. The largest area is the PC Lab, protective countermeasures lab, or countermeasures lab for short. We study ways to protect people, equipment, vehicles, and buildings from the effects of lightning strikes."
          Kramer's finger tapped slowly on the handle of the coffee cup. "Just the three of you working in here. How long have you worked with Smoot?"
          "Seven years, three on my thesis and four years as a post-doctoral researcher."
          Were you and Professor Smoot close, personally?" Kramer instinctively watched for nonverbal cues during interviews. The young man was nothing like the quirky Professor Fink. Cameron Day was calm and confident as he spoke.
          Cameron picked a bit of lint off the sleeve of his sweater. "No, we weren't. A competent scientist, but not a pleasant person to be around."
          Kramer's eyes moved back to the whiteboard. "Professor Fink has that small corner of the building." He read the label Cameron had written on the whiteboard for the spot. "SP Lab." He glanced down at his notes. "Spherical Plasma Laboratory. He studies ball lightning. Is that a real thing?"
          Cameron picked up the cup and took a slow drink of coffee before answering, "It's a controversial phenomenon, not a mainstream area of study. It's never been produced in a research lab."
          "Really? Professor Fink said he was successful this weekend. Said he sent an email to Smoot and other university officials. He suspects Smoot snuck into his lab yesterday to sabotage his research. Professional jealousy."
          Cameron arched an eyebrow with a hint of a smile. "Professor Smoot jealous of rat Fink? Ball lightning may not exist, and he has certainly never produced it in his lab."
          A high-pitched squeal came from the doorway. "Rat fink! I'm a professor you will treat me with respect." Fink scampered into the room as he pointed a finger at Cameron. "I saw his body ten feet from my spherical plasma generator. Head fried to a crisp from a ball lightning strike." Fink chortled with a squeaky snort. "Smoot is proof ball lightning exists."
          Cameron stared at Fink as if he were studying a bug. "I doubt that's what killed him." He huffed, "Respect?" He paused, "Your work is as strange as you."
          Kramer stood up pointing at Fink. "That's enough." Then turning to Cameron, "You too."
          Kramer waved to a chair as he sat down. "Have a seat professor." He turned his attention to Cameron. "The medical examiner says Smoot's injuries are consistent with lightning strike victims he has seen." He glanced at Fink and then back to Cameron. "I need both of you to help me figure out exactly how this happened. No more outbursts." He paused for a moment. "Estimated time of death is between five and seven yesterday evening. Were either of you in the lab yesterday?"
          They both shook their heads, and Cameron spoke first, "Not me." Fink added, "No."
          Kramer looked to Fink, "Where were you yesterday, from four to eight."
          "Home all afternoon and evening."
          "With anyone?"
          Fink shrugged with a furrowed brow. "No. Why?"
          "Just Covering the bases." He turned to Cameron. "What about you?"
          "Me? Rock climbing and mountain biking at Mount Balsam. Camped in a wilderness area since Friday. Got back in town around ten-thirty last night. My gear and bike are still in my SUV."
          "Alone?"
          "Yea. But my mobile phone has a backcountry navigation APP that uses the cellular network. You can use the pings off the cell towers to verify I was there. Right?"
          "We can do that if we need to." Kramer jotted down some notes. "Who knows how to operate the equipment in the lab? The stuff that can generate lightning. Besides you two and Professor Smoot."
          Fink shook his head slowly. "No one. Day is the only other researcher we have had in the lab for years. I don't have any grad students or postdocs."
          Cameron nodded in agreement, "Just the three of us. Professor Smoot was not so great with the hardware, to be honest."
          Kramer stood up. "Let's go to the lab. You have time Professor Fink?" Kramer worried for a moment that he had called him rat instead of professor. He nearly laughed at Cameron's play on words for the rodent-like Ratcliff Fink, Rat Fink. He could see from Fink's response it had not slipped out.

          Fink's head bobbed in agreement. "I have time. The meeting is late this afternoon, and my presentation is ready." He wrinkled his nose as he headed for the door. "Hope the smell is gone."
          The sergeant was leaving just as they got to the door of the SP laboratory. "All done detective."
          "Good job. Please check the security computer logs for the entrance." Kramer moved closer and spoke quietly as he gave the officer additional instructions.
          The SP lab was not small, but only a tiny fraction of the total floor space of the cavernous building. Several heavy work tables to the left were covered with tools and electrical gear. The far wall across from the doorway was full of electrical panel boards that were packed with switches and gages. In front of those panels was a desk that served as a control area. A series of tall gray steel cabinets stood along the wall on the right-hand side. Each one with a signboard in bold red letters, DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE. In front of those cabinets, near the center of the room was the plasma generator. A metal sphere nearly four feet in diameter, about chest high on a sturdy dark gray carbon fiber stand. Cables and wires inside square metal tubes on the floor led to the generator from the cabinets and panels.
          Cameron glanced at a spot on the concrete floor between the doorway and the control area as he walked past. The outline of a body drawn by a grease pencil. The three of them took seats on stools near the desk. Kramer opened his notebook. "Professor, give me the layman's version of how this makes ball lightning."
          Fink hopped off the stool. His voice was a high-pitched buzz as he prattled on about how the orb was supposed to generate balls of plasma, aka ball lightning. Kramer read back through his notes to make sure he understood after Fink wrapped up. "You say there are hundreds of millions of possible combinations of electrical charging patterns created by all of this gear."
          Fink rubbed his small hands together. "That's right, it has taken me a long time to discover the exact combination." He gestured to the sphere. "Ten thousand streams of energetic electrons wrapping tightly together around the focal point like a ball of yarn." Finks's voice went up an octave. "It creates a self-sustaining incandescent sphere of plasma if the sequence and frequency are exactly correct. Emerging from one of those openings in the metal shell that surrounds the spherical plate array." His nose crinkled and his thin lips tightened into a toothless smile as he walked toward the plasma generator. "A beautiful blue ball of energy, about the size of a grapefruit, lasted for nearly ten seconds on Saturday. Floating slowly at first then accelerating."
          Fink pulled on a rod connected to a wire mesh curtain that looked a bit like an oversized fireplace screen. He moved the mesh a few inches along a heavy-duty steel circular track nearly ten feet above the floor. There was a similar wire mesh barrier overhead. A false ceiling that covered the circular area of the track. The curtain and overhead screen formed a safety barrier surrounding the generator. It was designed to stop a plasma ball before it could damage equipment or injure a researcher. "It hit the Faraday shield and dissipated. It might have lasted another ten or twenty seconds. I went back to the charge control computer and saved the pattern. Then I sent the email announcing a demonstration for today before I left the lab."
          Kramer stared at the mesh safety barrier. "You believe Smoot accidentally killed himself trying to sabotage your scientific breakthrough. Any proof of what you think happened?"
          Fink moved close to a console near the desk. "We already know he was hit by a blast of spherical plasma right on that spot." Fink gently tapped on a video screen on the console. "I saw it when I first came back while his body was still here. You can see the status message."
          Kramer leaned on the desk as he read the message out loud, "Plasma discharge complete. Charge control pattern auto purged." Kramer shrugged. "What does that mean?"
          Fink peered over his glasses with a smirk. "His curiosity got the best of him; he wanted to see if I had done it. Smoot set the charge control computer using the data I saved on Saturday. He also set the computer to automatically delete the pattern from memory and purge it from the hard disk after the generator fired the plasma. He figured I might never find the exact combination again. It's a huge amount of data, nearly ten gigabytes. He wanted to destroy my life's work and ruin my demonstration for today." Fink spasmed with a squeaky cackle until he saw Kramer's look of surprise and confusion. Fink paused for a moment as he held a closed fist to his mouth.
          Fink gestured to another cabinet behind the desk. "He checked the settings of the bias and filter circuits, and then he pushed the fire control button. The transformers began charging the capacitor banks in the back of the building, it takes nearly five seconds. As Day said, he wasn't so good with lab equipment. He forgot to deploy the Faraday curtain and wandered toward that spot to get a good look." Fink sneered as he waved a hand in the air. "Probably saw it float for a few seconds then it accelerated and hit that gargantuan head of his. That huge head was like a lightning rod." He quivered with a high-pitched snicker. "Sorry, nothing funny about that." His nose twitched as he looked down at the floor.
          Kramer shook his head as he quietly mumbled, "Not funny at all." He scratched a few observations in his notebook. He looked to Cameron. "So, what do you think? Could it have happened like that?"
          Cameron drifted over to the corner near the power cabinets. He kicked at something small on the floor. "Little bits of black plastic all over the floor. The janitorial crew needs to do a better job in your lab." He stared at the sphere. "Smoot was vindictive and a vocal critic of Fink's theories. I can imagine him trying to sabotage Fink if he thought he had been successful. This thing generating ball lightning after twenty years. Something doesn't feel right about that."
          Kramer waved a hand as Fink crept forward with a finger raised in the air. "I said no more outbursts. You had your say." Then turning back to Cameron. "Are you saying it's impossible or just unlikely that the generator worked?"
          "It's not impossible; just seems unlikely."
          Kramer closed his notebook. "Fair enough, but lightning hit the man right here. The estimated time of death is between five and seven yesterday evening. Is there a way to nail down the time this thing fired a ball of lightning?"
          Fink gestured to the back of the building. "The electric power recorder will show the exact time of all the discharges over the past month. The data will show my test on Saturday and then the one that killed Smoot. There must be a pulse Sunday between five and seven. There hasn't been another plasma shot from any of the other generators in the facility for more than a week."
          Kramer moved off the stool. "Let's stop by that recorder and then wrap things up in the conference room."
          Cameron led the way to the electric power recorder. They stopped at a black box mounted on the wall near a group of large electrical panels at the back of the building. Cameron scrolled through the data stored in the memory. He pointed to the device. "One power pulse on Saturday afternoon and one Sunday evening just after six. The next most recent shot was eight days ago. I remember that one." He turned and pointed at the tallest and most powerful plasma generator in the lab. The large metallic sphere in the countermeasures lab was visible from nearly anywhere in the building. "Lightning arrestor test for a new skyscraper." He tapped a finger on the data recorder. "You can see the exact times."
          Kramer edged closer and wrote down the times in his notebook. "Just like you said, Professor Fink."
          Cameron looked back up at the large sphere and waved at a few small dark spots on the ceiling. "The painters missed a few places."
          Fink looked up at the ceiling. "Left some ceiling windows cracked open again. I know they need the ventilation, but they are supposed to close all of them before they leave for the day. They never close them all; lucky we haven't had any rain damage."
          Kramer studied the spots and looked at the windows. "Let's head back to the office."
          The sergeant had lunch set up in the conference room. Kramer gave a mock salute as he came through the door. "Thanks, Sarge." Kramer waved to the clock. "Let's take an hour for lunch and freshen up. Then wrap up any loose ends."
          Kramer looked around the room when everyone was finished and back in their seats. "The computer log for keycard entry to the lab shows Professor Fink was here from noon until five-fifteen on Saturday. The only other entry between Friday evening and this morning was Professor Smoot. He came in on Sunday at five-thirty two. I have gone back through my notes. I think we have everything we need. Should be able to wrap this up quickly." Kramer nodded to Cameron and stared at Fink for a moment.
          Fink licked a bit of mustard off his finger. "Terrible accident due to professional spite."
          Cameron shook his head in disagreement. "I don't believe that is what happened. He hardly touched his own equipment. He would not feel comfortable operating your plasma generator. But he would know how to access the pattern stored on the charge control computer."
          Cameron paused as he fiddled with the band of his wristwatch. "I think he came here Sunday to study the charging pattern. He would have preempted you if he thought you had been successful. He would have sent an email to everyone in the research community late Sunday evening. He would offer a theory of how it might work based on what he learned from your data. Smoot would try and make it look like he had figured it out before your demonstration. That is how he would have tried to spoil your discovery."

          Fink lowered his head glaring at Cameron over the top of his glasses. "The power recorder shows a plasma discharge killed him in my lab. Dead just ten feet from my generator. He did more than turn on the computer. There is no other explanation."
          Cameron slouched back in his seat and waved toward the ceiling. "More black spots." He slammed a fist to the table. "Fink killed him. And you didn't generate ball lightning."
          Fink screeched as he bolted up from his seat. "Outrageous. I'm not listening to these insults."
          Kramer pointed a finger at Fink. "Sit down professor. You don't want to obstruct a homicide investigation. Okay, Mr. Day. Let's hear it."
          "The dark patches on the ceiling. They aren't random spots the painters missed. There is a trail of them from the large discharge sphere in the countermeasures lab leading to Fink's laboratory. They are arc burns and forensic testing will confirm the scorches are recent."
          Cameron waved a finger at Fink. "You expected him to come in to get a look at the charge control computer. You rigged a wire along the ceiling that connected to the large discharge sphere in the countermeasures lab. It was easy working from the scaffolding the painters had all over the building. The wire was held in place by a series of plastic wire ties wrapped around ceiling trusses and it led to a place just above your laboratory. You connected a drop-down wire to the one you ran along the ceiling. The free end of the drop-down line hung right above the spot on the floor where he was found dead. A spot along the route he would take from the door to the charge control computer. The end of the wire was probably about ten feet above the floor, and he would not notice it. Just the right distance for a powerful arc to strike him in the head."
          Cameron continued in a calm voice, "Probably had a wireless camera in your lab streaming to a laptop as you sat in the countermeasures lab. You pushed the fire control button for the big sphere when he got near that spot. It only took milli-seconds for the hot plasma to travel along the wire from the countermeasures lab to your lab and down the drop line. A bolt of lightning struck the professor in the head as he walked toward your computer. You knew the energetic plasma would vaporize the wire and plastic wire ties, destroying the evidence. But you did not realize it burned a few spots on the ceiling along the way. You also missed the bits of melted plastic wire ties on the floor. More evidence for the forensics people. The power recorder data is only evidence of the pulse of electrical energy. It does not record which generator in the building fired a plasma."
          Fink waved a fist at Cameron. "What about the plasma shot on Saturday? My successful test. What is your explanation?"
          Cameron paused for a moment. "You did run a test of sorts. You wanted to make sure your plan for killing Professor Smoot would work. Probably used one of the steel human-shaped target plates we use in the countermeasures lab as a stand-in for Smoot. It didn't take long to hang a new set of cables when you knew it would work. Then you sent your email as bait to draw Professor Smoot into the lab."
          Fink smirked as he shook his head. "Your theory has a major flaw. I was home all evening Sunday. The security log confirms I was not here. I could not have pressed the button to fire the plasma from the large sphere in the countermeasures lab."
          Cameron stared at the floor for a moment and snapped his fingers as he looked up. "You are good with hardware. You set it up before you left Saturday. A high-tech booby trap waiting for Professor Smoot after the horse races on Sunday. We both know he was there every Sunday this time of year. He was a compulsive gambler."
          Cameron turned to detective Kramer. "You will find some kind of switch mounted on the door to his lab and a wireless transmitter on the top of the wall partition. There will be a wireless receiver inside the fire control box for the large discharge sphere in the countermeasures lab. That receiver will have a built-in timer and was wired to fire the discharge sphere. The timer started when Smoot opened the door. It counted down the few seconds it would take Smoot to be under the drop wire with an allowance for the capacitor charging time. Probably no prints on anything. Fink is clever and cautious."
          Kramer nodded to the sergeant. "Take a quick look at that door and get right back here."
          Kramer skimmed back through his notes. "What about the message on the computer in Fink's lab about the auto-purge of the charging pattern?"
          "Fink must have put a script file on the computer. A short set of instructions to monitor the power recorder via the network and generate that bogus message when it detected a pulse. There never was a pattern from a successful test and Fink knew he was never going to do it. He could make it look like Smoot destroyed the file. He must have planned to delete the script file and retrieve his hidden hardware today before leaving."

          The sergeant rushed back into the room. "There is a magnetic switch on the door. I used one of the stools to take a look. It's connected to a wireless transmitter on the top of the partition."
          Cameron cracked a smile. "You have him. He snapped after twenty years of failing to produce ball lightning. It was the perfect plan for him. He kills Smoot and uses the charade to prove that he had generated ball lightning. With a built-in reason for why he cannot repeat the success." Cameron waved a finger at Fink. "Brilliant plan."
          Fink started pacing the floor and gesticulating wildly. "I made ball lightning and Smoot killed himself with it."
          Cameron crept toward Fink with a menacing stare. "Where's the proof? Do you have a charging pattern to repeat the success?"
          Kramer moved between the two of them. "Both of you sit down." Kramer took a seat after they were back in their chairs. "That's enough. You can tell him now professor."
          Fink's beady eyes danced as he waved a USB in the air. "I have the proof right here. I told the detective during lunch. I saved a copy of the charging pattern before I left on Saturday. I knew Smoot would come into the lab on Sunday and try and sabotage the charge control computer. I could recover from anything he might try if I had the data."
          Kramer saw Cameron clinch his jaws. "Didn't see that coming, did you? That's what Fink kept snickering about in the lab this morning." Kramer winced looking to Fink. "A bit disturbing professor. You were giddy with the idea that Smoot thought he had destroyed your discovery while he accidentally killed himself with your ball lightning. I could see you believed that's what happened."
          Fink's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Seemed like the perfect plan for Smoot if he had not killed himself. He would just need to turn off the video console so the message would be gone and stop by the power recorder and delete the data of the power pulse. He would just wait for me to embarrass myself today and there would be no proof that he had done anything to my equipment. No one would believe me if I pointed a finger at him. He could say he was here working in his office yesterday if someone checked the security log."
          Kramer brought his attention back to Cameron. "I knew when I first got here that this was either an accident or an elaborate scheme. It quickly became clear that it could only be you or the professor if it wasn't an accident. Someone capable of something this complex would have an alibi. Your comment about the mobile phone pings sounded like a carefully conceived cover story. Why offer that for an accident investigation? Made me a bit suspicious of you."
          Kramer leaned back in his seat with his arms folded across his chest. "I needed to keep you two together and try and figure it out. I had a hard time believing Smoot would try to operate the generator after listening to everything. I suspected you when we came back for lunch, but I had no idea how you might have pulled it off. The professor tried to tell us about the USB in the lab after your comment about his generator not working for twenty years, but I shut him down. I knew for sure it was you when he told me about the USB during lunch. He had to be telling the truth. I told him I suspected you and that you were probably trying to frame him. I asked him to play along."
          Kramer nodded to Fink. "Nicely done professor." He had done much better with his role than Kramer had expected.
          Kramer waved a hand at Cameron. "I knew you were too smart to drive your car here from the mountains. But we knew you had your bike, and the sergeant found a few traffic cam photos of you on your bike early Sunday morning and back to the mountains in the early afternoon. You raced through several intersections against red lights. Traces out a route leading to this building. Must be about an hour's bike ride one way, but you are in good shape. You left your phone in your tent for your alibi. I am guessing the cell tower analysis is not going to reveal any rock climbing or mountain biking early Sunday. Staying in exactly one place for several hours is useful evidence. You have the gear and ability to scale the outside of the building. You knew the painters always left a window on the ceiling cracked open. You came in that way and down the scaffolding."
          Kramer waved a finger at Cameron. "I knew you were pointing me to clues of how Smoot had been killed. The bits of plastic on the floor and the dark spots on the ceiling. Evidence of a plot you wanted me to believe Fink had pulled off. The professional rivalry and history between them made for a strong motive." Kramer shook his head. "Sorry, I'm not that clever. No way I was going to put those pieces together for the lightning coming from the countermeasure lab. That part about the booby trap sounded a bit crazy at first. I realized you had to do it that way. You did not know if Fink would have a rock-solid alibi for Sunday. It would also be a stretch to believe that he climbed up the outside of the building to bypass the card reader on the door. I guess you were waiting for me to get started with the other pieces and you would jump in to help me with that bit. I knew you would lay it all out when you saw I had not put the puzzle together. I just had to get the professor to nudge you."
          Cameron's eyes narrowed as his lips tightened into a thin frown. "I did not know about Fink's claim of success on Saturday. He didn't send me his announcement."
          "We checked Smoot's email during lunch. Smoot forwarded it to you Saturday with a note." Kramer glanced at his notes. "Impossible. This cannot be possible." Kramer tapped on his notebook. "I'm sure we will be able to recover it from your mobile phone. You knew Smoot would do something to Fink's computer on Sunday after the horse races. You must have been up half the night coming up with this elaborate means to kill Smoot and frame Fink. Realized you could use your remote location for an alibi. Then a few hours running the wires and setting up the hardware on Sunday. You planned on the burn marks and plastic fragments being left behind. Clues you would feed to the police to help frame Fink. You erased the pattern file from the hard drive and you put that file on the computer to generate the bogus auto-purge message when the power recorder detected the power pulse. You knew Fink would see the message and believe Smoot was accidentally killed by ball lightning. It is a logical conclusion given the totality of circumstances. The message, Smoot's body struck by lightning ten feet from the generator, and the safety curtain was not in place. It all points to an accident caused by Smoot himself."
          Cameron stared at Kramer with a sinister glare. "Old fashioned hate. Everyone knows they hated each other. Vicious name-calling by Smoot and people know that Fink was aware of Smoot's efforts to have him kicked out of the lab. Smoot said it was retribution for sullying the university's reputation with his fringe theories and years of failed research. The peculiar little creature makes a good villain and he has a convincing motive even if he was successful with his ball lightning. Why would I do this?"
          "A brilliant plan to get rid of both of them; one dead and one in prison. Four years as a post-doctoral researcher was too long for someone with your ego. I expect we will find you have made some grumbling complaints. You figured the university administrators would have no choice. They would make you a professor and put you in charge of the laboratory. Your performance this morning when you first arrived was pretty good. The surprised research colleague with mild disdain for the victim but not burning anger. I didn't see much emotion under that calm fade, and a sociopath like you probably has some skeletons in the closet. This was a cold and calculated killing that fits that kind of profile. We will put together a strong case." He winked at Cameron. "It was brilliant, but not so clever to use a murder weapon that only two people could operate. A pretty thin suspect pool. Not so smart of you to give a detailed explanation of exactly how he was killed in front of three witnesses."
          Kramer nodded to the sergeant. "I will call in a forensics team. Take Mr. Day into custody."
          Kramer sat down next to Fink after Cameron was gone. "Can you fire it off after the forensics team is done? I would like to see ball lightning."