The Monster Catchers--A Bailey Buckleby Story

by George Brewington

  Bailey took command. “Drive.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  BETRAYED

  IS IT EMBARRASSING for a heroic monster hunter who grew up on the shore of the Pacific Ocean to get seasick? Bailey wished he could steel his belly, especially when Savannah was running up and down the deck of the little yacht with ease, even as it bobbed up and down on the choppy waves. But instead, he leaned over the aft side of The Sweet Tooth and puked his guts out. Dehydration and lack of sleep and the fear that he might not save his father and Henry in time did not help matters, but luckily Savannah was not the sort of prude to be grossed out by a bit of vomit. In fact, she found a towel in the galley and wiped it off his face.

  With the swells caused by the oncoming sea giants’ footsteps, the yacht bobbed up ten feet and often caught air before it dropped back down. The wind from the storm pushed back at them, too, and several times Mr. Boom shouted from the steering wheel that they ought to turn back before the boat flipped. He yelled that they would surely drown.

  “What good will one hundred grand do me if I’m dead?” he screamed into the wind, but Nikos stood in front of him, fists clenched, threatening his former employer with a different kind of painful death if he tried to turn the yacht back to shore.

  Candycane Boom was, from bald head to big toe, an entirely selfish thug. But somewhere under his puffy winter coat burned a small ember of compassion. He removed a package of Dramamine from his pocket and handed it to the minotaur.

  “Give this to the boy. He’s going to need all his strength.”

  Nikos gave the tablets to Bailey, who swallowed them whole.

  “When we overtake the wind demon’s sailboat, we must be ready to fight,” Nikos said, placing his giant fingers gently on Bailey’s shoulder. “The sea giants will do anything to have their son returned to them, and knowing this, Axel will use their son like a carrot on a stick—baiting them—keeping them under his command. He’ll lead them to Los Angeles, tell them their son is there, and then lead them on with more and more lies. He intends to threaten every coastal human city with destruction if he isn’t paid in gold.”

  “He could blackmail humans forever,” Bailey said, shaking his head, willing himself to stop retching. “Why does he want gold so badly?”

  Nikos shrugged. “Like all cynocephali, he’s addicted to getting gold and addicted to losing it. In the past, he’s invested in a hot-air balloon mail delivery service for nonhumans, holiday sweaters for cats and dogs, and even iceberg vacation homes for yeti, but they were all very poor investments. You’d think after a few thousand years on this planet, wind demons would have a better grasp of consumer trends.”

  Axel Pazuzu’s sloop was zigzagging into the wind ahead of them, tugging along the two rowboats. The Sweet Tooth was indeed gaining on them, having the advantage of a motor and no weighted rowboats tethered behind it.

  In twenty minutes, Bailey felt his stomach calming, but the waves only grew, throwing The Sweet Tooth up and down like a rubber ducky in a baby’s tub. Thankfully, the Dramamine kicked in, and Bailey gripped a Frisbee between both hands with determination.

  Savannah raised her sword above her head.

  “We will fight him together,” she said as Candycane kept the pedal down and the distance between the boats began to visibly shorten.

  Nikos smiled broadly at Savannah. “I will be honored to fight alongside a descendant of the Bullhead Brigade. When humans have an honorable cause to fight for, they rise to become their best selves. The Bullhead Brigade fought for freedom, and we fight for the innocent who know not what threatens them. You know, young lady, you might really have minotaur blood running in your veins. Our species have intermingled once or twice.”

  “Really?” Savannah said, proud as could be. “No wonder I’m so strong!”

  Candycane yelled over the roar of the waves and the wind. “What the blazes do you nuts want me to do? Ram her? Give me a plan, kid!”

  And then they saw him.

  Axel appeared on the bow of his boat and stood looking at them through a pair of binoculars. He wore the same slick black wet suit that he was wearing when Bailey met him on the shore of Whalefat Beach days ago. Then he lowered the binoculars and gave them all a friendly wave.

  The twelve goblins in scuba gear stood up, not much taller than the sides of the rowboats that had been buffeted by the waves so much that they had become quite waterlogged. It was their weight that had been keeping the sloop from reaching its maximum speed, allowing The Sweet Tooth to come so close. The wind demon had proven that he could deftly maneuver a sailboat, but even he could not outrace a Riviera 4400 if he was weighed down by a boatload of goblins and a pile of electrical lighting fixtures.

  Which is why Axel knelt down at the bow end of the boat and began to unloosen the knots.

  “What is he doing?” Savannah gasped in horror.

  “No,” Bailey said desperately. “He can’t do that to them.”

  “They will drown!” Nikos shouted over the wind, looking over the side as The Sweet Tooth quickly gained on the drifting rowboats.

  “Let them drown!” Mr. Boom yelled from the steering wheel, swerving to avoid crashing into the abandoned rowboat full of lighting fixtures.

  “No, we can’t!” Savannah shouted back.

  The goblins in the drifting rowboat stood up and begged for Axel to come back, but not for very long. Once they saw their rowboat of fallen stars thrown about on the surface of the turbulent ocean, they all took up oars and started paddling heroically toward it. Bailey watched as the boat full of lights bounced off a wave and came crashing down. A chandelier fell into the water.

  One brave goblin jumped in after it.

  “Quick,” Bailey said. “We have to get that boat and get the lights up in here, otherwise all those goblins will go in after them.” He watched as the goblin swam toward the chandelier as it bobbed and began to sink. The goblin dove under the water and grabbed it in time, and the other goblins in scuba gear cheered and applauded her victory.

  “Are you crazy?” Candycane yelled over his shoulder. Savannah was tying a nylon rope to the deck with a tight slip knot.

  “Let’s go,” she said, ready to dive into the water.

  “No,” Nikos said. “You children will freeze to death. We’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This water is too cold!”

  Bailey gripped the handrail. “I promised the goblins a Buckleby would never harm them again. Letting them drown is the same thing.” He ran up to Mr. Boom. “Go alongside the boat carrying the lights,” he said urgently.

  “Okay, kid. It’s your dime.”

  Candycane tried to steer alongside the rowboat, but it was obvious to Bailey that Axel’s sloop was rapidly getting away.

  Bailey stood up on the rails. “I’m going to jump.” The goblins in the other boat were all standing up now, most of them anxiously covering their mouths with their hands.

  Savannah tied the rope to his waist. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “You can do it, Bailey boy.”

  Without hesitation, he jumped—and landed on a stack of headlights. The goblins gasped, horrified that his fall might have broken one, but all the lights remained intact. Bailey tied the rope to the rowboat and Nikos started pulling him in.

  “I’m next!” Savannah yelled, already tying another rope to her waist.

  “No, girl, don’t!” Nikos protested, reaching out to stop her before she jumped. But she leapt—into the goblins’ rowboat. She fell short because their driver hadn’t even been given time to get close enough. But the goblins pulled her out of the water and patted her on the back for her bravery. She tethered the rowboats to each other and to The Sweet Tooth so that they had both rowboats in tow. Candycane brought the yacht to a stop as they hoisted up Bailey, Savannah, all twelve goblins, and every last one of the electrical lights.

  “Are you really going to let those wild animals ride with us?” he asked.

  While the other goblins checked on t
heir fallen stars to make sure none had broken, Capella spoke up. “We have no intention of eating you, sir. We appreciate the effort you have made. We obviously have been betrayed.”

  “Obviously,” Canopus said mournfully.

  Capella bowed her head in shame. Canopus put his arm around her. “It’s okay,” he said. “At least we didn’t lose the stars.”

  “Or our gold,” Capella muttered.

  “Gold?” Candycane asked, his eyes widening as his suspicion of the goblins was immediately replaced with ravenous greed.

  “The gold we were going to pay Mr. Pazuzu,” she said, showing them seven T-shirts tied into bundles that each contained hundreds of tiny gold nuggets. “These bundles are heavy and helped keep the boat from flipping over. He was going to translate for us. We were going to dive into the sea and give the giants their son, and Mr. Pazuzu was going to politely ask them in their language if they could repay the favor by putting the stars back in the sky. That’s all we wanted from him—just to ask a simple question. Why would he cut us loose?”

  Nikos couldn’t help but pull at his own beard at the sight of so much gold. “Cynocephali always choose the wrong investment, my little friend. Clearly he should have invested in you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  HIT THE GAS

  MR. BOOM WANTED to start counting the gold nuggets, but Bailey reminded him that he had been hired for one job only—to drive The Sweet Tooth until midnight.

  “Hit the gas!” Bailey commanded, and they were chasing Axel Pazuzu again. We must reach him before he gets to the giants, Bailey thought. Before he can feed them his lies.

  He saw the sloop’s yellow sails turn dramatically, cutting through the wind and sending the boat directly south. Mr. Boom wasted no time, pulling hard on the wheel as he angled toward the escaping craft.

  “What’s that dog-head doing?” Savannah yelled, the ocean wind soaking and whipping her hair back as she stepped up onto the rail to get a closer look. The cynocephaly stood at the stern of his boat staring straight at them.

  “His plans are wicked and cruel,” Capella said to Bailey. “We should never have trusted such a horrible creature.”

  Thunder cracked, and a second formation of helicopters flew over their heads.

  Axel lifted his megaphone up to his dog lips. “STOP FOLLOWING ME! IT’S VERY RUDE!”

  “You’re rude!” Savannah shouted as loudly as her lungs would allow, but the wind blew her retort right back in her face.

  The waves crashed against all sides of The Sweet Tooth as the giants churned the waters, marching to the cynocephaly who had promised the return of their son. Axel pointed his boat to lead them south—toward Los Angeles.

  The wind bellowed against them from the west, pushing The Sweet Tooth dangerously close to horizontal, so that if Bailey or Savannah were to reach down on the opposite side, their fingers would touch the water. As they shortened the distance between themselves and Axel, Bailey readied a Frisbee, although he knew that even he would not be able to overcome the force of the wind and his Frisbee would fly uselessly into the water.

  “You’re going to have to throw me when we’re close enough,” he said to Nikos. “I have to get on that boat.”

  But Nikos was pointing south, and now Bailey and Savannah could see it—a looming black shadow in stark contrast to the gray storm clouds. It was large and round like an alien obsidian moon rising from the ocean.

  “Is that another sea giant?” Savannah gasped.

  “Maybe it’s a battleship,” Bailey suggested.

  Nikos shook his head. “I hope you are wrong, young Buckleby. A battleship would be no match against a sea giant. If Pazuzu tells the giants their son is threatened by a human-made machine, they will simply scoop up the ship in their hands and throw it at the nearest human city, killing millions. I would hope your human leaders have learned their lesson after San Francisco.”

  A V-formation of fighter jets raced ahead of them, searing the sky with plumes of exhaust and a roar that filled their ears, even drowning out the wind and the ocean. To the west, up in the clouds that obscured the great titans, orange and black explosions blossomed, and Bailey heard the sea giants scream for the first time. Their cries droned out the boom of the jets, and they all had to put their hands to their ears. Savannah pointed with an inaudible Look! as a fighter jet spiraled and splashed into the ocean. Soon after, they saw the parachute of the pilot who had ejected. He disappeared into the blur of clouds and water, and Bailey wondered if he would drown out there. The other four jets circled in and out of the dark belt of clouds, as if they were mosquitoes seeking a vulnerable spot of giant skin. But the giants swatted at them like the tiny annoyances they were. The fighter jets buzzed and circled one more time and then raced back to the east to regroup.

  “Sea giants are peaceful,” Nikos said. “They mean humans no harm. They only want their son returned to them.”

  “DID YOU SEE THAT?” Pazuzu’s voice echoed across the water. He stood on the stern with one fist up, his pointed ears pushed back by the wind. His sloop rocked back and forth, but he stood tall and straight and easy, as if the boat were nothing but an oversized surfboard. “I WILL TELL THE GIANTS YOU MEAN TO KIDNAP THEIR BABY AGAIN! I WILL TELL THEM TO CRUSH YOU! YOU WILL ALL BE DROWNED! TURN BACK, HUMANS!”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Nikos said grimly. “He could command the giants to destroy whatever or whomever he pleases.”

  “You’re going to have to throw me over to his boat,” Bailey said again.

  “Me first!” Savannah screamed into the wind. Bailey shook his head no, but he really did want her help. How could he defeat this mad cynocephaly alone?

  Nikos looked horrified but also realized there was nothing else to be done. As The Sweet Tooth pulled within just twenty feet of the demon’s boat and thunder cracked right over their heads, the sea giants’ legs lifted and came ever closer. Nikos picked up Bailey with both of his hands and prepared to twirl around and shot-put him over.

  “Okay!” Bailey yelled. “DO IT!”

  Nikos almost did throw Bailey, but the cynocephaly reappeared on his deck, pulling Bailey’s blindfolded and handcuffed father behind him. He threw Dougie down to the deck, belly first, and lifted his megaphone.

  “DO YOU WANT YOUR FATHER TO LIVE?”

  Of course Bailey did, but before he could answer, the wind demon put one foot on his father’s back and gave him a strong push.

  “THEN GO GET HIM.”

  And Bailey’s father slid headfirst, blindfolded and handcuffed, into the dark green water.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  SHOULD A SON JUMP?

  “PUT ME DOWN! Throw me in! Help me save him!” Bailey demanded. One of the goblins gave him a pair of goggles and he quickly put them on.

  “Bailey, no. Listen!” Nikos pleaded. Mr. Boom stepped off the gas, and the cynocephaly’s boat zigged and zagged toward the giants’ legs, quickly getting away. He swung The Sweet Tooth around to Dougie, who took one final breath before sinking beneath a dark green wave.

  Should a son jump into turbulent ice-cold water to save his drowning father? What if the son is barely one hundred pounds and the father well over three hundred? Even if he could swim down fast enough, how could he possibly pull him up? And of course his love for his father would prevent him from letting go, so if he were to jump and if he were able to swim down fast enough and if he were to grab hold of his sinking father’s shirt, the outcome would be death for both of them. Bailey would drown with his father, so there would be no one to save poor kidnapped Henry, no one to return him to his giant parents, and no one to prevent all the people of all the coastal cities from being subjected to the wind demon’s threats. So obviously, though it would be a horrible and difficult decision to make, the son should choose not to jump in to save his father.

  But Bailey plunged into the water.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  A PLEASANT DREAM TO COMFORT HIM WHILE HE DROWNED

  BA
ILEY HELD ON to his Frisbee because there was nothing else he could do. A Frisbee in his hand prevented him from panicking, and he knew that if he panicked, he would only drown that much faster. His father had to be sinking below him, so he forced himself to somersault in the water, to kick his feet, and to dive down, down, down.

  Was that him? The cold salt water swirled all around, but a bright green figure was floating toward him. Bailey dove in its direction, thinking, If that’s not him, I have to go up for air or die.

  Bailey’s first delirious thought was that she was beautiful. She was pale with bright green eyes and blue lips and a halo of golden hair. Cold hands grabbed on to his so that he could only be still, could no longer kick, and so that she could kiss him on the mouth. The surprise of the kiss excited him, but he assumed he was dreaming or dying, because when she kissed him, he felt his lungs relax. Air rushed in; air flowed out. He inhaled, he exhaled, as if his body was breathing in rhythm with the golden-haired angel. Or demon. What was she? When her lungs emptied, his lungs filled, and she intertwined her arms with his so that his wrists crossed behind his back.

  She pushed him down into the water, and with her green-and-gold-scaled tail flicking back and forth, she guided him deeper. Although he knew the water must be cold enough to kill him, he tingled with warmth. This surely was a dream.

  Bailey could see his father sinking near him, and he felt horrible for having failed him. Blindfolded and handcuffed, his father was drowning. But suddenly Bailey saw twelve little scuba divers surround him. They each wore headlamps and were looping a nylon rope around his father’s waist and under his armpits. Then, with all the force their little legs could muster, they swam upward. How beautiful, Bailey thought, if only it were real, because this was nothing more than a pleasant dream to comfort him while he drowned.