In an instant, the carts are pulled away, heading outside. The rest of the soldiers start moving around, helping load each other's arms full of books.
"Oh! Oh. You guys are worried about us. That makes sense," Sparky comments, stunned by the sudden movement. Tussle gestures for the others to leave, and when they respond by rushing outside after the carts, he hopes they realize they cannot let the soldiers see past the door in the van.
He doesn't know why the soldiers have come across them again, but he knows that his group is suspicious. Suspiciously in places they shouldn't be, and separated enough to be lost. Suspiciously able to get a 'stuck' vehicle out that shouldn't have been stuck at all. Suspiciously still in a place others aren't, raiding things along the way.
If they only know about the library, that's even odder, and the lack of space their van has is already odd, too. But if they prevent others seeing the oddity firsthand, then no one knows. They can guess all they want, as long as they don't know.
"Thanks for the helping hands," Tussle says as he moves towards the captain. His smile is, hopefully, as loose and easy as always. The captain doesn't respond as if suspecting anything, only keeping that naturally stern and neutral face.
"Of course. You shouldn't stay here so long. There are too many spirits haunting this place."
"How bad?" he asks, instead of 'how many are too many'.
"It was evacuated a month ago, before more than a dozen could be taken. The west side of the city is worse, but there's always a chance they decide to roam over here."
He hums, mulling that over.
Too many spirits haunting means this place isn't likely to have investigators. Part of the whole reason that they investigate ghost types is that exorcisms are specific, the ritual for one ghost type not working for another. If they don't have the ghost type, then the exorcists have to guess. Even if someone gets the ghost type wrong, they gather evidence each run, and pass it along at the end.
A new run goes amongst the advanced teams, using the information provided to narrow things down further. Regardless, within two or three rituals, the spirits are gone.
Vesper Vectors is careful, too. They only get rid of the bad ones, the ones that wish harm or can't interact safely with the physical world. The entire point is to prevent places becoming so thin that the living struggle to exist there.
If this city has been evacuated for a month, which would take a few weeks to do it properly for so large a city, and they said that it was before a dozen could be taken...
Is this an apocalypse world but because ghosts have overrun everything?
Really? Yeah, sure, bring Tussle and his interns along, they investigate, they help exorcise a bunch of ghosts, they go home. However, whatever has brought them gave no directions, and they are just wandering around.
Granted, it's not as big a deal as it would be for folks that can die.
"We'll be heading out soon. I got a few tools to make sure we know when they're too close, but we've handled worse. Thank you for your concern, though."
"It's our job. What else are you retrieving?"
Quick! Think of things that take forever and add to the absurdity!
"I saw a brochure for a museum, and I was thinking maybe if there's another library. Honestly, rather surprised that there aren't any tourist maps around. Thought this place was lively before the whole evacuation."
The captain doesn't change his expression, which is honestly impressive. Tussle already has a strong poker face. Meeting his match is pretty interesting indeed.
"We'll take you to the available ones. More hands makes the work faster."
...
Dungface.
"Sure, sure. We could hit the things closer to the west last, so if there are roamers, they go where we were, and the others won't expect us getting that near."
"Pretty risky as is. Your kids got charms?"
"Charms? Like crucifixes and salt and all that? We got plenty of smudges, and we bought some stuff from the supermarket when we got here. Thought it'd be great to try our hand at homemade ones, just in case."
"You planning on a garden? Might be better just to grow it. Plenty of towns have fallen because they forgot to plant and only bought. Supply's cut off to evacuation zones."
"I know, but we haven't had to use any, and we got plenty of other things. Though a garden would be nice, if we drop by a supermarket again. Get some lights and planters, seed 'em, get it going in the van. Portable gardens seem like a good way to help out, right?"
The man quirks one side of his mouth. Showing amusement, then.
"Sure sounds like it."