by SM Reine
“I see.” The set of Temi’s jaw suggested she wouldn’t have minded the information without the condescending tone.
I gave her an apologetic wave. Autumn had always been brusque and not particularly interested in bothering with social niceties, but she also didn’t care about my unique new career choice.
“I’ll definitely be curious to find out that information,” I said, trying to steer the attention away from Temi. “I’ll be even more curious to find out if this blood belongs to the creature or the interesting men I mentioned.”
“Your interesting men aren’t human?” Autumn asked.
“I... don’t know.”
“They’re a little too pretty to be bonobos too,” Simon said, surprising me by chiming in.
“Got my mp3 sample yet?” I asked him.
“No, but I have the information on those plates.”
“Butch and Bruno?”
“Elizabeth and Maude Somersett from Deer Lodge, Montana,” Simon said.
“Are those lovers or sisters?” Autumn asked.
“The DMV records didn’t mention it, though the Silver State Post does have a blurb on the theft of the ladies’ motorcycles. Apparently, they’re retired grandmothers whose hobbies include crocheting, running a book club, and cruising through the Rockies on their bikes.”
I wasn’t sure what made me scratch my head more, the idea of grannies on Harleys or the idea of our interesting men stealing Harleys from grannies.
“There’s one way we could find out whose blood it is,” Temi said.
“Go ask?” Simon suggested.
Temi nodded. “We could visit their hotel room and see if they’d like to join us for pizza. If one of them is wearing a bandage or limping, we’ll have a good idea that it was their blood.”
Simon checked his phone. “The tracking device is back outside the Vendome.”
“Tracking device?” Autumn mouthed.
“I believe the rules of stalking say that you’re not supposed to actually let your target know you’re stalking them,” I told Temi. “Asking them out to pizza might give us away.”
“Perhaps so,” she said, “but it would give us a chance to talk to them instead of simply guessing as to their plans and motivations.”
“I didn’t know you’d developed that much of an interest in their plans and motivations,” I said. “Or is this only since you decided the older one is striking?”
“Of course not.” With her dark skin, it was hard to tell when she was blushing, but she did avoid my eyes when she spoke.
Simon craned his neck around to frown in Temi’s direction.
Lovely. My best friend had a crush on a former pro tennis player, and a former pro tennis player had a crush on an alien. When had my life gotten so odd?
A firm, crisp knock sounded on the door. We all looked at each other.
“Any chance someone ordered a pizza?” I asked.
Three people shook their heads. The curtains were closed, so we couldn’t see outside without alerting our knockers, but I hesitated to hustle over to answer the door. We weren’t expecting anyone, and at this point, I couldn’t imagine anything good finding us.
Temi slid off the bed and headed for the door.
I nudged Simon. “As the man in the room, don’t you think you should go help her?”
“How?” he whispered.
“You could loom threateningly at her shoulder.”
“She’s taller than I am. I don’t think it’s possible to loom threateningly from under a woman’s armpit.”
Temi fastened the chain, then opened the door the couple of inches it allowed. “Yes?” she asked.
I shifted from foot to foot. Short of jumping up on the bed, I couldn’t see past her to who stood out there. Nor could I hear enough of the soft-spoken voice on the other side of the door to guess at the owner’s identity. I scooted forward, thinking that I wasn’t beneath peering underneath her armpit, but she said, “I’ll check,” and closed the door.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Our interesting men,” Temi said.
“Do they want to punch, strangle, pummel, or otherwise maim us for following them today?” Simon asked.
“No.” Temi gave him a curious look. “They want to hire you.”
CHAPTER 18
“Erp?” Simon said.
I didn’t say anything, but my response would have been similar. I stared around the bland hotel room, wondering if this was a trick and if we should all be fleeing, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. The bathroom lacked a window. There wasn’t even a closet with proper doors one could hide behind. I hadn’t peeked under the southwest-print bedspreads yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the frames were too low to hide beneath.
For some reason, everyone’s gaze turned toward me. Was I in charge here? We hadn’t decided how much of the business Temi would control yet, but Simon and I were equal partners. Surely we should share such big decisions as whether or not a door should be opened. Autumn waited with her back to the wall, her elbow propped on the television stand. She had the look of someone wishing she had a bowl of popcorn to enjoy while she watched the entertainment.
“Let’s see what they want,” I said.
Temi unchained the door and opened it.
Eleriss and Jakatra, still wearing the same black leather and the same wool caps, stepped inside.
“Good evening,” I said cheerfully—it seemed like a good way to greet people one had been stalking of late. “Can we assist you?”
The riders exchanged long looks, and I sensed there’d been an argument or two as to whether they should come here. Jakatra took a single step to the side of the door, putting his back to the wall, and crossed his arms over his chest. His sleeve shifted enough that a hint of something white came into view. A bandage encircling his wrist? My breath caught. If that was his blood sample and not the monster’s... Dear Lord, they weren’t human, not at all. Even a genetically modified human ought to have A, B, or O blood, right? I glanced at Autumn, but she shrugged, probably not understanding my unspoken question. She hadn’t seen enough, didn’t know all that had happened.
Calm down, I told myself. Just because he was bandaged didn’t mean that had been his blood I collected. The monster might have been wounded too. Except the monster was apparently made of plastic...
Eleriss stepped forward and smiled at us. “Greetings,” he said in the same tone of voice I’d used. “It is unfortunate that you did not leave to go to your Alaska. Further, by following us, you’ve exposed yourself to great dangers.”
I flicked a hand. “Danger is our middle name.”
I didn’t feel the casualness I feigned, but putting up a brave facade seemed important. I wasn’t sure why. It was clear from Eleriss’s curious head tilt that he wasn’t familiar with the expression. He was probably trying to figure out how we’d all come to have the same middle names.
“How did you find us in the forest?” Eleriss asked. He didn’t seem angry or irritated, merely curious. Mr. Stony and Silent by the door was another matter. Jakatra appeared irked by the entire situation.
“You first. How’d you find us here?” I gestured toward the hotel room.
“You have our blood,” Eleriss said, as if that explained everything.
Jakatra hissed something to him in his own tongue. A troubled expression flashed across Eleriss’s face, but he shrugged and dismissed the comment.
“This is your blood?” Autumn asked, losing her I’m-just-here-for-the-entertainment mien. She flicked her thumb toward the microscope. “From your veins?”
Eleriss stared down at his wrists thoughtfully. Jakatra stalked past him to the television stand, his face hard and cold. I’d always considered Autumn a tough girl, but she shrank back at his approach. He removed the slide from the microscope, pocketed it, and stared at her, as if to ask if she meant to battle him for it.
Eleriss spread his arms in a gesture that he might have intended to be placating, but he got it
wrong, with his palms toward the carpet and his fingers curled. “It is blood that belongs to us,” he said, “and we can find it when it goes missing.”
“What?” Simon mouthed.
“I think they’re bad liars,” I said sotto voce, then raised my voice for Eleriss. “You said you wanted to hire us?”
He nodded firmly and looked relieved to have the blood topic dropped. “You said you are good at research and locating things. We have witnessed that you located us more than once.”
“Yes,” I said carefully. No need to mention the tracking device. As far as I knew, it was still on one of their motorcycles. I’d swat Simon later for not checking in every five minutes to see if those guys were leaving their hotel to cross town and stroll up the stairs to our room.
“We are,” Simon said brightly. “What do you want to hire us to find? And in what currency will you be paying us? I only ask because we’ve learned that your motorcycles aren’t legally yours. Do you have money?”
I winced. I hadn’t been a business owner for long, but I had a feeling it wasn’t a good practice to accuse one’s potential clients of being thieves, even if it happened to be true in this case.
“We wish for you to locate a cavern near this population center,” Eleriss said. “It is deep beneath the ground and may not have been breeched for several hundred years.”
“Near this population center?” Autumn asked. “As in Prescott? You expect them to do an electrical resistance survey of fifty square miles? That’d take a lifetime.”
“Simon has developed some software that taps into the satellite system for remote sensing applications,” I told her. “It might not find an old midden beside a buried building, but it’s good for finding caves and mines. No need to wander around sticking probes in the ground.”
Autumn fiddled with the hoop earring dangling from one of her lobes. “Tapping into the satellite system? Is that... legal? For private citizens?”
“Of course,” Simon said with one of his innocent Coyote smiles.
“This means you may be able to assist us?” Eleriss asked.
“Yes,” Simon said at the same time as I uttered a, “Maybe.”
Simon drove on, adding, “I like a challenge. We do need to discuss payment however, and you’ll need to share any information you might have on depth and location. Do you anticipate an entrance in the hills somewhere? Or is it closed off?”
“We have ascertained that there is not an accessible opening,” Eleriss said. “One will have to be made.”
I thought of the tunnel they’d melted into the solid rock of that cavate. “How far can you excavate to reach an underground chamber?” I wondered if there was any way they’d show me whatever tool they’d used to create that passage. Whatever it was, it must be compact enough that they were able to carry it on their motorcycles. Such a device would be a hit in the world of archaeology, not to mention all the practical applications for miners and engineers.
“As deep as we need,” Eleriss said. “We do not require your assistance in that area. We only seek the location of the cavern. Our historical records tell us that there are several miles of passages with at least three larger chambers.”
“Several miles?” Autumn asked. “I didn’t think there were caves in this part of Arizona.”
“We didn’t either,” I said.
“I’ll find it,” Simon told Eleriss. “Now, about that payment...”
Eleriss slid a hand into his jacket and pulled out an octagon-shaped coin with runes on both sides. “I understand gold is no longer used for currency in your world, but that it retains intrinsic value, is that right?”
Simon’s eyes lit up. An ounce of gold was a generous finder’s fee under any circumstances, but if the coin had a numismatic value, it might be worth even more than the melt price. It’d also be another clue, one that we could carry around with us, as to these people’s origins. Funky blood or not, I wasn’t ready to accept that they, and their language and devices, might not be from Earth. That would be too... farfetched and weird. We might yet find a rational explanation for them.
“Gold’s all right,” Simon said, waving a dismissive hand. “If that’s all you’ve got.”
“One ounce now.” Eleriss laid the coin on the table, the desk lamp highlighting its luster, along with the long elegant fingers of his hand. “One ounce when you have the location of the cavern for us.” He started to step back, but paused, his gaze snagging on Simon’s T-shirt.
I frowned, doubting he’d recognize the movie reference for the “You killed my father, prepare to die” quotation on the chest. Indeed Eleriss’s uncertain glance at Jakatra made me think he was wondering if he needed to draw weapons. Of course, they’d subdued us just fine without weapons before...
“Two ounces,” Simon said, oblivious to his T-shirt and the look, “and we get to go with you to the cave.”
“No,” Jakatra barked.
Eleriss stepped away from Simon and lifted a hand toward his comrade. “We will pay you two ounces if you can locate this cavern for us, but that is all. We must travel alone when we visit it.”
“Then how do we know we’re not helping you set up some subterranean evil overlord lair from whence to launch nuclear weapons or rockets full of biological toxins?” Simon asked.
I tried to get his attention and wave for him to let go of his barter demands—as long as that tracking device was in tact, we could follow them again. Admittedly, an invitation and a guide would be nicer than trailing after them and worrying about being noticed or eaten by monsters roaming the area. But maybe we could wheedle our way into their exploration gig after we’d proven our worth to them.
“Nuclear... weapons?” Eleriss asked.
“We’ve seen your glowing sword. How do we know if you’re trying to help the city or if you’ve got something nasty planned?”
Jakatra’s violet eyes closed to slits. He whispered something to Eleriss. I wanted so much to know what that language was—I’d send the sample file off for analysis as soon as they left.
“It is not unacceptable,” Eleriss said to Jakatra, though he made a point to speak in English. “They are merely demonstrating that they are crafty and that we were right to come here.”
Nothing on Jakatra’s sour face suggested agreement. He raked us all with a gaze that doubtlessly meant he believed us about as crafty as domestic turkeys.
“For now, I can offer only our preliminary payment.” Eleriss pointed at the coin. “If your research is successful, we can negotiate over the information.”
Jakatra’s lips tightened. I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of displeasure or a sign that he looked forward to negotiating the information out of us with his fists—or perhaps with his new sword. Either way, I plucked up the coin before Simon could object and said, “We accept.”
Eleriss inclined his torso in something resembling a bow. Jakatra stalked outside without another word or gesture.
“Can’t we follow them on our own?” I asked Simon once the door had shut. “What was all that angling to go along about?”
“Because—” Simon held up his phone, his expression glum, “—according to my tracker, they never left the Vendome. They must have found it and tossed it into a pile of dog poo.”
“Not necessarily,” Temi said. She’d pushed the curtain aside to watch the retreating riders. “They’re walking to the street. It doesn’t look like they brought their motorcycles.”
“Oh.” Simon brightened. “Well, so long as these caverns aren’t within walking distance, we may be able to follow them after all.”
“Am I the only one here who doesn’t know what’s going on?” Autumn asked. “And who’s now missing a slide?”
“More or less,” I said. “But I have another baggie of blood and dirt in the van if you want to make up another slide. Or take it for that DNA analysis.”
“Unless they already found it,” Simon said. “They do like to make themselves at home in our van.”
�
��It’s in the fridge.”
Simon’s eyebrow quirked up. “Thus insulating it from extrasensory blood-tracking abilities?”
“Well. It’s buried behind cans of Mountain Dew and sticky jars of strawberry jam. That ought to insulate it from... something.”
“Health conscious thieves?” Temi murmured.
“I don’t know.” I waved away the all-too-legitimate objections and told Autumn, “I can go check if you want it.”
“The closest DNA sequencer that I know of is at U of A,” she said.
“Know anybody there that will let you use it?”
“Maybe, but you’re not sending me off on another errand without feeding me first, are you?”
“I think we can afford to buy you those fries now. Maybe even a glass of wine.” I smiled and nodded toward the coin, though I planned to run extensive image searches before handing it over to a dealer. “We’ll explain a few things over dinner too,” I added. Given that Autumn had access to a lab, she’d be good to have on the team.
“Lots of patrol cars cruising the street,” Temi said from the window.
“I hope that monster stays in the woods tonight and doesn’t harass us or anyone else,” I said. “We have a lot of research to do.”
“Sounds... stimulating,” Temi said.
“Hey, you wanted to join us,” I said. “It can’t be all spelunking and monster battles.”
“Oh, I know that,” she said. “I’m just not certain how I can be of assistance in the research arena.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll handle the research, and you sling the fire extinguishers.”
“So I’m your heavy?”
“You’re tall enough for it.” I grinned. “We can set you up with a RealmSaga character in case you get bored.”
“Yes,” Simon said with an enthusiastic snap of his fingers. “What are your thoughts on playing healers?”
CHAPTER 19
