The hoots of an owl drifted across the lake from the wetlands. I hoped that meant the monster was indeed drowned and buried, even if Simon would doubtlessly complain that he hadn’t had an opportunity to prop a foot on the body and have his picture taken with it.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” Temi said. “It’s hard to believe...” She waved at the granite formations behind us, their lumpy contours black against the starry horizon.
“Except for the fact that even in the dark you can tell the water level has dropped a good foot.” I nodded toward the gently lapping waves. “I bet those caverns have been completely filled in already. We’re lucky we got out, given how much someone delayed us.” I cleared my throat and pinned Simon with a stare.
“What?” he asked innocently. “Don’t act like I’m the only one in the world who would stop to scrape gold flakes out of a lucrative vein, especially when someone in the group is carrying a sword that cuts through rock slicker than a fork chops Jell-O.”
“It wasn’t quite that easy,” Temi murmured.
“That is city land. You know the rules about excavations,” I told Simon, though I was just giving him a hard time. After all, I’d been the one to suggest digging a few ounces out earlier.
“Hey, we need to recoup our expenses. That Greek beefcake swiped my tablet, and you and Temi are going to need stitches. And let’s not forget the van repairs I put on my credit card. I think the city owes us a few ounces of gold for our trouble, especially if that creature ends up being dead and doesn’t eat any other tourists. Besides, it wasn’t like we were going to be able to come back later. Did you hear that final boom?”
Temi smiled at me. “It’s hard to argue with that logic, isn’t it?”
“That logic will either get my debt paid off or it’ll land me in jail. I haven’t figured out which yet.”
“It’ll be interesting to follow along and see which of the two it is,” she said.
“You say that now, but he’s perfectly capable of landing you in jail too.”
“You ladies need to have more faith in me,” Simon said. “I practically saved your lives down there.”
“You saved our lives?” I stopped in the middle of a swath of waist-high grass. “Temi, did you notice him doing that?”
“I suppose he helped with the rope for both of us.”
“Hm, from my point of view, his role seemed more... decorative.”
“Decorative?” Simon lifted his chin. “No, no, I’m the mastermind, you see. I assigned the grunt work to you two ladies, since you’re so capable of doing it.”
“Uh huh. Tell me this, Simon.” I pointed at his feet. “Is it difficult to be a mastermind when you’re only wearing one sandal?”
“Not at all. Masterminds don’t use their feet very often. Though I do wonder when it fell off. I kept it all through that swimming jag. Think the monster ate it?”
“Those of us who are clad in appropriate footwear can only imagine,” I said.
“Indeed,” Temi murmured.
“Oh, well. I’ll buy better sandals next time. Perhaps something with leather instead of rubber.”
“Careful,” I said. “I’m not sure our business can afford such largess yet.”
It took us an hour and a detour through the wetlands around the end of the lake before we drew close to the parking lot, a parking lot unexpectedly bright with headlights and flashlights. I couldn’t tell who they belonged to, but the Jaguar was in the middle of things.
“Is that the police?” Temi asked.
“Not the police.” Simon pointed. “Those are Humvees.”
“Uh.” I stopped on the trail. “Who wants to go tell those nice National Guard folks that the fun is over and they can go back to their units?”
Simon bumped Temi’s arm. “Put out the sword, or they’ll see us.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Drop it,” Simon said at the same time as I grabbed it from her.
The glow disappeared as soon as it left her hand, but a flashlight from the parking lot swept across me, then came back, shining in my eyes. An urge to flee filled my legs, but that would make us look guilty, and those fit men in boots and camouflage could surely outrun a guy in socks and two girls with injured legs.
“You out there,” a man with a deep voice called. “Come here. Slowly. And keep your hands up.”
Simon and Temi lifted their hands. I couldn’t do that without lifting the sword too. How were we going to explain it? Worse, if they searched us, how were we going to explain the gold in Simon’s pocket? It didn’t look like much in its ore form, but I couldn’t count on them not knowing what it was. They’d think we’d stolen it or mugged someone out here, or who knew what?
“You too, lady,” the man growled. “Hands up.” Several more men and a couple of women had joined him at the edge of the parking lot. At least nobody was pointing guns at us yet, though they all had them...
I thought about tossing the sword in the lake, but there were too many flashlights shining on us. Everyone would see it. Sighing, I lifted the weapon along with my hands.
Temi went first down the trail. Maybe they’d see her limp and feel some sympathy for us. I was doing a pretty good limp of my own right now, though I couldn’t imagine these guys giving us the friendly treatment and escorting us to the hospital.
“...that a sword?” someone asked.
“Yes, do we...”
“Just some dumb kids.”
Yes, dumb kids, that was us. And it seemed like a promising angle to play up. These people were out here searching for monsters, so maybe they’d wave us away...
“What are you guys doing out here?” the original speaker asked when we were standing on the pavement a few paces from them. It was too dark to read his nametag, with all the lights being shone on us instead of the other way around, but I figured he was a sergeant, since he was older than the ones holding the flashlights and seemed to be in charge.
“We were going to camp,” I said, “but it got too cold, so we’re going home.”
“Yes, I imagine it’s quite cold when you’re soaking wet,” the sergeant said, lifting bushy black eyebrows.
A shame that jeans didn’t dry very fast...
“Yeah,” I said when neither Simon or Temi spoke. “We fell in.” That might have been a plausible excuse if we were ten, but I doubted they’d buy it. Maybe if they knew we’d been in kayaks, but considering how we’d illegally obtained them—and then left them on the other side of the lake—I wasn’t going to bring them up.
“You kids know there’s a curfew in Prescott?”
“No, we just got here. We’ve been on a road trip.” I pointed to the Jag. “From New Mexico.” At least the plates backed up the out-of-state claim. “We heard there’s nice camping in the mountains around here.”
The men exchanged looks. Maybe I shouldn’t have added that, not when the White Spar had been so recently devastated.
“You brought a sword?” the sergeant asked. “And a whip.”
“You guys have guns,” Simon pointed out.
Leave it to him to stay silent until he could say something lippy. I would have elbowed him if I wasn’t still holding my hands up.
“The woods are dangerous,” I said. “There are badgers and rattlesnakes and things.”
One of the younger men was squinting at Temi, and I had a feeling she was about to be recognized. I wasn’t sure whether it’d help us or not.
“Should we take them to the police, Sergeant?” someone asked from one of the Humvees.
“I know that kid.” The younger man pointed, not at Temi but at Simon. “He’s the one with the blog.”
Oh, hell.
Other men started nodding and saying, “Oh, them,” to each other. I tried to decide if that tone of voice suggested we wouldn’t be taken to the police or that they were more likely than ever to drop us in Lieutenant Gutierrez’s lap tonight.
The sergeant and the young man who’d identified Simon ste
pped away and shared a quick conversation of whispers. I caught Temi eyeing her car. At some point, she’d lowered her hands and slipped out her keys. We’d have a much better chance of outrunning soldiers in a Jag than on foot, but someone would get the license number, if they hadn’t already. When she met my eyes, I gave a quick head shake. I wasn’t ready to start a life of fleeing from the law. Chances were it wouldn’t be nearly as glamorous as it was in the movies, and even if I was on the lam in Bolivia, I’d probably still be expected to pay my student loans.
The sergeant returned and waved for his men to stand back. He drew Simon and me aside. Actually, he drew Simon aside, and I tagged along to keep him from sticking his foot in his mouth.
“You see anything out there?” he asked.
I blinked. He wanted intel from us?
“Yup.” Simon started to reach for his phone, but one of the privates with rifles tensed, and he only pointed at his pocket. “If I can get my phone out, I can show you some new pictures.”
The sergeant nodded. “Go ahead.”
“We were over in those rocks.” Simon pulled out the phone, but it didn’t respond when he punched the button. A few drops of water dripped from the corner of the case. “Ugh. Forgot. It fell in too. Damn, I had a couple of blurry ones from when the monster was chasing us into that—” he glanced at me, “—hole.”
Broken phone or not, the sergeant’s eyes were riveted to Simon. “You saw it in the Dells, you said? So far, the people we’ve talked to... nobody’s leads have panned out. But you actually had some pictures up on your site.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen it a couple of times.” Simon stood a little taller. “Today, it was definitely over there, between the rail trail and the lake. It sort of... cornered us for a bit. We hid in the hole until it left, but it might still be out there.”
Or under 50,000 tons of rocks. I wasn’t about to say it though, not if these guys might leave us alone to go investigate.
“Got it,” the sergeant said. “Look, you kids leave this to us. You’re going to get yourselves killed running around out here with—” he frowned at the sword, “—toys. Curfew’s at ten. If we catch you out again, we’ll have to detain you.”
“We understand,” I said as contritely as I could manage and dragged Simon toward the car. He was staring and sputtering at the “toy” comment. Temi took it in stride, merely unlocking the trunk and waving for me to toss our gear, toy included, into it. I was all too happy to set the sword in the back.
My calf had redoubled its throbbing, so I was glad when nobody rushed to claim the shotgun seat. I plopped down, stretching my legs out as far as I could. My foot nudged something, but I didn’t think anything of it.
“Uhm, Temi?” Simon asked. “Wo—would you like m—me to drive? If your leg hurts, I mean.”
“Thank you, but my knee would prefer the greater leg room up here.”
“You could have Del’s seat,” he offered.
“Hey,” I said.
“I’ll drive for now,” Temi said. “But thank you for the offer.” Something about the look she gave me implied she wasn’t sure Simon should be trusted with her car. I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t take the opportunity to break a few speed limits myself, but I thought he’d genuinely wanted to help with her discomfort if he could.
I shifted again as we drove out of the parking lot, trying to find a comfortable spot for my leg. It must have swollen quite a bit, because my sock felt too tight. My foot bumped something again. Figuring it was Temi’s purse, I reached down to move it—and halted as soon as my fingers brushed the leather cover.
“Simon? I think I found your tablet.”
“What?” Simon leaned forward. “How?”
“I don’t know,” I said, though my heart beat faster. Was it possible Alektryon had escaped with it, chanced across the Jag, and returned the tablet when he saw the opportunity? But how would he have known the car belonged to us? Or what a car was for that matter?
Simon reached for the tablet, but I batted his hand away, and flipped the cover open. The drawing app was still up. My breath caught. His words from before were still there, the ones claiming he wouldn’t be anyone’s slave again, but there were a couple of new words in careful script.
“Is it still working?” Simon asked. “Did it get wet? Or, oh, what’s that?” He’d seen the drawing app.
“A new message,” I said.
We were speeding along the highway back into town, but the roads were empty, and Temi took a long look over.
“In Greek?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“What’s it say?” Simon asked.
“Roughly... Be wary. They are the enemies of humanity.”
“Similar to what the Roman said, right?” Temi asked.
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,” Simon said. “I don’t think we’re going to see those guys again.”
“Probably not.” I’d barely made it out of that chamber alive; it was hard to imagine someone else going in deeper and surviving.
I couldn’t say that I’d miss Jakatra and Eleriss exactly, but I missed not solving any of the mysteries surrounding them. Would we ever learn who they were and where they’d come from? Not to mention who had created that monster, why it’d crawled out of the ocean in L.A., and why it’d killed all those people... Eleriss’s warning that there would be more monsters made me uneasy, and I wondered if we should have tossed the sword in the lake when we’d had a chance. Only time would tell.
EPILOGUE
Thanks to the curfew, the town was quiet, and we didn’t see another soul on the way back to the Motel 6. Temi had brought the sword inside, and it lay next to her on one of the beds. It didn’t glow when she wasn’t holding it, but it started up like a touch lamp whenever she brushed the hilt.
“Not too bad,” Simon said from the desk. He had the calculator up on his MacBook and had dug a scale out of the van. Our flakes of gold rested on its surface. “Given the spot price of gold, an estimate of the amount of pure stuff in our ore sample, and a subtraction of our expenses, including new headlights, a new windshield, food and motel bills, medical services—” he nodded toward Temi’s bandaged hand and my bandaged leg, “—and also minus the coin you won’t let me sell until you’ve researched it further, we’ve made over three thousand dollars for our work this last week.”
“Technically we didn’t get paid for the week’s work,” I said. “We got paid for scraping gold out of a crack before a tunnel filled up with water.”
Simon waved my objection away. “One must find a way to fund one’s philanthropy efforts. This was no different. Oh!” He leaned back toward the screen. “I forgot about the money we made from our web traffic. I wish we could have taken a few pictures of the dead monster to throw up there.”
“Three thousand dollars,” Temi said as Simon crunched more numbers.
I could tell from the wry twist of her lips that she found the amount more amusing than inspiring. Simon and I hadn’t made much more than that in the entire previous month, so I could hardly complain. But then I hadn’t won prize money at Wimbledon in a previous life either.
A sickly bleep came from the heater. My phone had been as unresponsive as Simon’s after the flood. I’d taken it out of its supposedly waterproof and drop-proof case to let it dry in hopes that it would come to life again. The bleep, however anemic, was promising.
“Text message from Autumn,” I announced with a sense of guilt. I’d forgotten that Eleriss and Jakatra had been after her before our diversion.
Three messages sent an hour or two apart offered variations of, Are you all right??
Yes, I tapped in, the cursor responding with irritating sluggishness. I’d have to find someone who could do more for the phone than setting it to dry by a heat vent. Are you? Has anyone bugged you?
No, made it to Phoenix safely. Ran the blood.
I paused, afraid to ask. Aside from a gold coin, an item that could have been minted anywhere, and the sword, an it
em a soldier had dismissed as a toy at first glance, we didn’t have any proof that there were strange... people from a strange culture roaming Arizona. Without proof, any article I attempted to submit about our encounter would be laughed into the rejection pile. But the blood... the blood was something tangible.
And? I prompted when a follow-up didn’t come through on its own. A long message popped up as soon as I sent mine. Autumn must have been working on it already.
It doesn’t match anything in the database, and the database is extensive. We have the DNA of weeds from the Galapagos Islands in here. Just about every mammal and reptile, and lots of birds and fish as well. Interestingly your sample is closest to human, albeit with a few inexplicable anomalies.
Aside from the fact that it exists?
Yeah. It’s closer to us than chimpanzees, as close as Neanderthals maybe. We’re perplexed by the fact that it doesn’t have a recognizable blood type.
We? I almost hit the icon to call her—I wasn’t ready to have this turned into some highly publicized find for reporters to paw over. But if she wasn’t alone... text messaging might be more discreet.
Autumn wrote, I’ve had a couple of perplexed scientists and professors in here with some interesting ideas. Outer space came up. Normally I would have LOLed at the guy, but he’s a chemist and pointed out the mercury level in the blood would probably kill a human—he thought it might make sense that its owner had evolved on a different planet with a much higher concentration of mercury. The biologist is still arguing with him, saying it’s too close to human DNA to have evolved anywhere except here. Being the science fiction fan I am, I suggested it was a traveler from the future, from when we’ve finished goobering up our environment, and there are higher concentrations of mercury on the planet.
“Why don’t you two talk to each other?” Temi whispered when she leaned in and saw the amount of text on the screen.