by Martha Carr
“All right. Come here.”
Lisa joined him at the stern and darted glances over her shoulder at the Logree hurtling along the coastline.
“Keep this control stick steady and the fan pointin’ us right at it, yeah?”
“What are you gonna do?”
“I aim to catch the bastard.” With a nod, he stepped past her toward the harpoon gun bolted to the starboard side of the deck. “Hold her steady, darlin’. I’ll do the rest.”
“Sure.” She barely had to move the control stick. “Good thing you have a partner to steer the boat while you aim the gun. It seems like that’d be hard to do all on your own.”
He frowned over his shoulder at her and snorted. “Naw. I would’ve rigged somethin’ else up to do both. It’s nice to have a second, though.”
Johnny returned his attention to the scope on the harpoon gun and fiddled with the dial.
The agent focused on the Logree’s wake moving quickly up the coastline, although it made the creature seem much smaller than it was. “Partner,” she muttered with a small smile.
They gained on their quarry, and the bounty hunter swiveled the harpoon gun an inch to the left and down. “Hold on tight, darlin’.”
“For what?”
He pulled the trigger, the gun fired with a muffled boom, and the harpoon sailed over the gentle waves. The cable at the end wobbled after the heavy projectile, then entered the water with a splash. A puff of purple mist rose from the waves, followed by a warbled cry drowned out by the roar of the crashing surf.
Johnny pulled his face away from the gun’s scope and grinned.
The cable drew taut and jerked the airboat forward with a groan as the Logree raced through the water and dragged them with it.
Lisa shouted and stumbled against the fan mount. He laughed and steadied himself against the mounted gun. “For that!”
The Logree swung away from the shore and turned tightly to double back toward the airboat while it towed it simultaneously farther out to sea.
“It’s gonna ram into us,” the agent shouted.
“No, it ain’t.” Johnny pulled the crossbow strap over his head and shoulder, then fitted a bolt into the barrel. The cable attached to the harpoon gun thrummed with tension, and it creaked as the Logree pulled them along and doubled back past the airboat. The angle made the boat tilt violently to the starboard side. “Turn the fan!”
“What?”
“Starboard!”
“Johnny, I don’t—”
“Push the damn thing as far as you can away from you!”
She leaned forward against the slope of the listing deck and shoved the throttle control stick away from her with both hands. The heavy fan turned and blasted air at the water to push the tipping boat upright again. They leveled out and turned to face the Logree, which jerked them forward again as it increased its speed down the coastline and away from Naples.
The airboat lurched with a groan and skipped over the waves. Lisa stumbled against the fan base but didn’t need to be told to pull the control stick toward her and level the fan.
Yeah, she’s gettin’ the hang of it now.
Johnny hooked his left leg and arm around the harpoon mount in case the Logree tried any other smartass moves and aimed his crossbow at the creature’s wide wake ahead of them. The crossbow fired with a thump and a twang, and he immediately drew another bolt from the case at his back to re-load.
“Come on, you big bastard,” he muttered and stared at the water as the tentacled creature hauled them down the coastline. “You know what’s holdin’ you back.”
A puff of purple mist and a spray of water as if from a spouting whale burst from the waves before the harpoon cable slackened. The airboat sloshed across the water and slowed to its regular speed.
“That’s right. Come to Johnny.”
“What’s it doing?” Lisa asked and ignored the pain in her hand clenched tightly around the control stick.
“Makin’ a stand.” The dwarf fired another bolt into where he thought the Logree’s domed body should be. It’s hard to tell with all those tentacles.
The harpoon cable slackened completely and dropped with a clank against the hull. In the next moment, the creature’s huge wake broke across the waves and raced toward them at frightening speed.
“Okay, so now you’re gonna take it down.” Lisa tried to step back, but her shoe knocked against the fan base and reminded her there was nowhere else to go.
“Yep.” Johnny drew, reloaded, and fired again. A burst of blue-white light illuminated below the surface of the water and filtered quickly around the massive creature that simply plowed toward them as if it hadn’t noticed. “Bingo.”
“Johnny—”
“We’re good.”
“I don’t think—”
“Not now, Lisa.” He loaded another bolt and fired. Then another. “We’re fixin’ for a showdown.”
“Shit.”
The Logree raced toward them and spouted puffs of purple vapor above the waves. It pulled up fifteen feet from the airboat and sent a violent wave of seawater splashing onto the prow.
“Ha!” The bounty hunter shook the water out of his eyes, blew it off his mouth and beard, and unhooked himself from the harpoon mount to stride toward the prow. “Come on!”
Two huge tentacles elevated from the water, followed by a couple of inches of the Logree’s glistening domed head. The appendages slapped the surface and two more rose to join them. These were much wider and studded along the underside with suckers Johnny expected them to open and drip their flammable goo at any minute.
“Just fuckin’ try it.” The tentacles reared and the suckers fluttered open, and he fired.
His Crystal-magic-laced bolt pierced one of the openings in the center and a flash of blue-white light raced across the tentacle and petered out quickly. The Logree bellowed and slapped the appendage onto the water to break the bolt, but the magic-imbued projectile had already done its part.
The creature’s goo-spraying tentacles opened all their sucker-shaped valves, but only another puff of purple mist sputtered out, nothing else. The suckers squelched open and closed a few more times before the thick tentacles dropped beneath the water again.
“Good tip, Sevol.” Grinning madly, Johnny raced toward the stern as the Logree raised half a dozen more appendages into the air and held them there. The airboat skimmed toward the creature. “Watch yourself.”
“What?” Lisa stepped away from him quickly and almost slipped on the drenched deck. “What are you doing?”
He pushed the throttle away to steer them to the creature’s right, then pulled it back past the center. “Hold it right there.”
“Johnny!”
He slid across the deck toward his net gun invention bolted on the port side and swung the swiveling head toward his quarry as the airboat made a wide circle around eight black-purple tentacles undulating above the waves like flames. “Hold it, darlin’! We ain’t done yet.”
The dwarf fired the net gun with a bang, and a wad of twisted rope launched toward the Logree, fell around half the tentacles, and knocked the others down. The creature’s limbs slipped through the holes in the net to resume their waving in the air.
After snapping another canister off from where it dangled on the side of the net gun mount, Johnny shoved it into the back of the gun and pulled on the swiveling mount again to take aim.
Two thin, surprisingly long tentacles rose at the side of the boat and snuck up over the side of the deck.
“Woah. Uh-uh!” Lisa reached out toward them and launched a yellow attack spell from her fingertips. Her aim was perfect, and they whipped away from the boat before they fell and submerged again. It’s not as good as a fireball, but it’ll do. I’m not trying to blow all three of us out of the water.
Four more wavering limbs sloshed out of the water and reached for the airboat that circled the creature relentlessly. Johnny fired the net gun again, oblivious to the close call with the L
ogree’s longer tentacles, and caught the new ones in the second net.
“That’s it.” He darted starboard toward the harpoon gun and punched the button to turn on the mechanical reel. The cable wound through the mount and pulled taut again with a metallic groan and a clunk. He stopped the reel when the Logree and the airboat jerked toward each other.
The creature’s netted tentacles shuddered, then dropped to the water with multiple wet slaps and a splash of salty spray.
The bounty hunter stared at the two inches of dark-purple domed flesh protruding from the surface as the creature bobbed just below. The Logree snorted and more water sloshed into his face, but it made no further effort to attack.
“Shit.” Lisa breathed deeply and wiped seawater off her face. “Is it dead?”
Johnny stared at the tentacles that swayed slowly on the surface of the gentle waves—not like seaweed or drifting plants caught in the tide but as if the Logree had focused on treading water now instead. The net around its tentacles dipped below the water and reappeared, but the creature had stopped fighting altogether.
“Naw. It’s restin’ for a spell.” He sniffed and locked the harpoon gun’s swiveling head into place. “Reckon we wore it out—for a few minutes at least.”
“A few minutes. That doesn’t leave us with many options.”
“Maybe longer. Who knows?” The dwarf hurried to the stern and reached for the throttle control stick. “You can let go now, darlin’.”
“Oh. Right.” The agent relinquished the control stick and stretched the cramp out of her hand. He took his place in front of the massive fan and steered the airboat south in the direction from which they’d come. “It’s the first time I’ve seen someone shoot like that.”
The dwarf glanced over his shoulder with a smirk as the harpoon cable tightened again. The netted Logree was hauled along behind them and created a wake in theirs without resistance. “I reckon it’s the first time anyone’s gone up against one of these.”
“Well, you got it.”
He looked directly ahead, his hand loosely around the control stick, and nodded. “Yes, we did.”
Where she stood and wrung seawater from the hem of her soaked shirt, she stared at him with the hint of a smile. It’s “we” now. Johnny Walker might finally be coming around. “So now we take it to your place, right? Tie it up and call it in?”
“Naw, not yet. I wanna get a good look at it before I hand it over to Nelson’s goons.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You can leave that out of the report.”
“Not a problem.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
They stopped along the river at a soggy mess of land in the swamp which Johnny said was good enough to study an Oriceran monster. He tied the airboat off, retrieved a pair of gloves from the black box hooked to the stern, and hopped off the deck with a splash. The harpoon cable grew taut in his hands as he followed it behind the boat and tugged the Logree toward him with every step. Lisa remained where she was and watched him, ready to draw her weapon if necessary.
“All right, now. It’s time to see what we’re workin’ with.” He waded farther into the swamp until the water reached the middle of his thighs. With his feet stabilized, he reached for the closest end of the net and pulled.
The creature snorted with another spray of water but didn’t attempt to fight. With a grunt, the dwarf hauled it toward the swampy bank and kicked aside a floating log. He managed to drag the netted tentacles and only a quarter of the domed purple-black body onto the mud before he dropped the net and wiped the sweat and seawater off his forehead with a forearm covered in thick red hair.
“Damn. Hell of a big’un, ain'tcha?” One tentacle curled away from the nets and unfurled gently in front of his boot. “Sevol said you ain’t as brainless as everyone thinks. Now would be your chance to prove him right.”
Half a dozen eyes on the Logree’s uncovered head blinked open. All six of the glowing orbs with slitted pupils centered on him, and the creature snorted with far less force this time.
“Yeah, I see you too.” Johnny folded his arms and inclined his head. “Remember me?”
A large bubble emerged from its underbelly and popped stickily in the mud. “What do you want from me, dwarf?”
“Johnny?” the agent called from the airboat.
“Lisa.”
“Did that thing just talk to you?”
“This thing has a name,” the Logree replied in an unmistakably female voice, “if either of you had bothered to ask it.”
“Huh.” He chuckled. “You know, I remember tryin’ to talk to you the last time we crossed paths.”
The creature snorted. “That was different.”
“Yep. Last time, you took my weapon instead of agreein’ to a little chat. This time, I got you tied up and half out of the water.”
“You were in my way. I was gentle.”
“With me, sure.” The bounty hunter sniffed and stood his ground as the outstretched tentacle at his boot flicked its glistening tip toward his face. If that had fur, a tail, and four legs, I’d say it’s lookin’ at me like a hungry hound does when he’s beggin’. “But you weren’t gentle with that market. Or the gas station. Or that resort in the Keys. I bet you didn’t plan on bein’ gentle with wherever you were headin’ tonight. It looked very much like Naples.”
“And you stopped me.” The Logree sighed heavily, and it sounded surprisingly like relief. “Thank you.”
Johnny gaped at it. “Say again?”
“I’m so tired.”
“Lisa,” the dwarf called. “Come on down here and say hello. It sounds like we did this one a favor without even knowin’ it.”
With a frown, she slid off the boat and squelched through the swampy mud to stand beside him. “Um…hello.”
She cast him a sidelong glance, and he shrugged.
“I am called Una,” the Logree said as her tentacles inched slowly and unthreateningly along the mud toward them. Her uncovered golden eyes all moving independently to study her captors at the same time. “And you are?”
The dwarf cleared his throat. “Johnny. Lisa.”
“A pleasure.”
“Yeah, see, that’s the part that’s trippin’ me up. Most times, a creature I haul up on land don’t thank me and introduce themselves.”
Una sighed again. “I can only assume most of those creatures are not being forced to wreak havoc against their will.”
The agent scratched the side of her face and lowered slowly into a crouch. “So all the explosions—the attacks over the last few weeks. You’re saying someone else is making you do it?”
A small tentacle slithered across the mud toward her, and the Logree’s domed head and body underwater swelled even larger with a deep breath. “He has the perfect leverage. My offspring.”
“Shit.” Johnny rubbed his mouth. “More goddamn child kidnappers.”
“Who?” Lisa asked.
“I do not know. Six weeks ago, I heard my offspring calling to me from this planet. Terrified, alone, and lost.” Her eyes closed slowly and she snorted again. “I crossed through the open gates to retrieve her.”
Johnny frowned. “From Oriceran?”
“Yes.”
“You heard your kid calling you from Earth and no one else heard it?”
“We do not often use our voices to reach each other, dwarf.” The Logree sighed again and focused all six eyes not buried beneath her body on him. “She called to my being.”
“Intelligent, well-mannered, and telepathic.” He glanced at Lisa. “Sevol left that out.”
The agent leaned closer toward the creature. “So someone has your offspring and is using her to blackmail you into destroying Florida property?”
“Yes. I have no other interest in this planet.”
“And this asshole tells you where to go and what to blow up with your…goo?” he asked.
“The attacks are not random if that’s what you’re asking.” Una’s tentacles curled and uncurled, burie
d themselves in the mud, and slid out to coat her head and body with the dampness. “They are only made to look so.”
“Like a mindless beast on a violent rampage up and down the coast,” the bounty hunter muttered.
“Which you’re not,” Lisa added.
The Logree heaved another sigh. “Indeed I’m not.”
Johnny lowered his head with a frown. “What can you tell us about the bastard who has your kid?”
“That his focus is on the more populated areas. Those like the first one I attacked.”
“The resorts.” The agent nodded.
“If that is what they are. I only know where I am to go next and that when I finish, if this monster keeps his word, my offspring will be returned to me.” Una closed her eyes again and her body shuddered in the mud. “I have to believe he will.”
“Do you know where he’s keeping her?” Lisa asked.
“No. But she sends me bits and pieces. An image of a dark room. Snippets of conversation—things like ‘wiping out the competition.’ Her view from the inside of a tank.”
“Jesus.” Lisa stood and looked at Johnny. “We had this all wrong.”
“Uh-huh. So did the department.” He shook his head and grimaced. “The plan’s changed.”
“Now that I am caught, yes. But I fear for my offspring if I do not finish what I was sent to do tonight.”
“Well, you ain’t caught anymore.” Johnny took his knife from his belt and whipped it open. Una’s tentacles jerked away from him. “Not for you. For the nets.”
He waded into the swamp again to cut the ropes and returned his knife to his belt as the Logree’s appendages slithered out of their bonds. As he hauled the damaged nets onto the shore, he shook his head. “Sorry about the harpoon.”
“I will heal if you remove it.”
“Yep.” He returned to the creature’s side, and Una lifted herself out of the swamp and turned slowly to offer her glistening side with the harpoon embedded four inches into her flesh. “It ain’t gonna be a tickle.”
“Do it.”
Lisa winced as he wrapped both hands around the steel barb and gave one mighty jerk. It pulled free with a wet pop, followed by a cascade of glowing violet liquid from the hole in Una’s side before the wound sealed itself. A burst of purple mist preceded the last piece of flesh knitting together and in a moment, it was finished.
