"The neighbors upstairs got money, a lot of money, so they could move out fast. And our wife, the landlady, got money, too. It's all with written notice and a new contract and that."
Ibby frowned. "And tonight, the new tenants want to move in. Two men." Hannes pointed upwards, "Jens above said they were as funny as copies of people. And those would have been real cabinets. Big men."
Ibby was alert now. "Mrs. Sommer-Baumert shouldn't say anything to anyone. And she says the whole thing's weird. Creepy."
Ibby's gaze lost its focus, she lowered her head a little, looked into the void, seemed to think.
Hannes sat down, sighed. "It seems strange to me, too. Is surveillance starting now?"
Ibby got up and went into the bedroom, locked the door, locked the door. Hannes wondered. She'd never done that before. The whole afternoon Hannes Ibby didn't hear or see any more. But when it dawned, the door of the bedroom opened and Ibby shot into the bathroom, rummaged there for a while, came into the kitchen, rummaged there in the cleaning cupboard. She let water into a bucket, added detergent and grabbed the mop from the cupboard. Hannes could see from his place in the hallway and watch Ibby cleaning the hallway, hectic but thorough. She then put the cleaning bucket into the bathroom, came back into the kitchen without paying attention to Hannes, grabbed a clean cloth from the cleaning cupboard and the glass cleaner in a spray bottle. Since Hannes never came to clean the windows, the bottle was still full. Hannes could see Ibby meticulously cleaning the door and door frame. Since she was still dressed, she opened the apartment door and cleaned with glass cleaner and cloth also the outside of the door and the frame. She closed the door, put everything away and disappeared into the bedroom again. The layman is amazed, Hannes thought, and the alien specialist is surprised. However, it was clear to him why she had done this: to blur all traces so far, to remove them. He had a bad feeling about it. He felt his intestines contract slightly. Something strange, a danger was approaching. He had never seen Ibby so tense, even when they went to the brewery cellar to meet the policewoman. He paused and noticed that a nervousness also held him captive.
But until well past eight o'clock in the evening nothing happened. Hannes sat in front of the TV and suddenly heard a van or small truck stop in front of the house, then a car. Fidgeting in the stairwell, upstairs, downstairs, for a good two hours. He heard how furniture was put up, rather dropped, then the noise, as if these pieces of furniture were moved on the floor. Hannes went to the door peephole. When he looked through, he saw that the light had gone out in the stairwell, but men with headlamps were still walking up and down. Why didn't they turn on the lights, Hannes wondered. The running back and forth then stopped, those Hannes had seen were probably the stragglers. When the last carrier had passed Hannes door, silence returned. Quietly the bedroom door opened and Ibby came into the hallway. She was naked again but seemed tense. Hannes could clearly see her muscles on her body, whose movements under the skin were now clearly visible. She pushed Hannes aside and looked through the spyhole. Suddenly heavy footsteps were heard in the stairwell. As if the man, the men, were wearing heavy boots or work shoes. Ibby didn't move a millimeter away from the peephole, but Hannes meant to turn off the lights. Hannes dashed into the kitchen, then into the living room and back into the hallway and extinguished all the lights. Under the gap of the bedroom door, a thin light penetrated and bathed the hallway in a ghostly light.
Hannes could clearly see Ibby looking through the spy with strain. The steps had almost reached the floor. Hannes wanted to extinguish the light in the bedroom, but Ibby ordered him with a decisive gesture to go back. Hannes backed away to the closed kitchen door. The footsteps went past the door, further up. Ibby walked quietly away from the apartment door, stopped for a moment, considered well, then she scurried into the bathroom, Hannes heard water rushing, then Ibby came back and laid a rolled-up towel down in front of the apartment door. Then the footsteps sounded again, but faster, as if the people were running down the stairs. Ibby looked through the door peephole again. The footsteps stopped outside Hannes' apartment. There was a loud noise to be heard as if a large dog was sniffing loudly, picking up the weather, smelling a trail. Hannes looked spellbound at Ibby. She had changed. The muscle strands under her skin were clearly visible moving. She had extended her claws on her hands and her feet. Ghostly were the dark spots on her back. They had enlarged. They had lifted themselves further out of the skin. Ibby made a cracking noise with her jaw.
Suddenly the loud sniffing stopped, and the footsteps sounded again, moving downwards. Hannes sneaked up on Ibby, who kept looking through the spy. As he approached, he felt air flowing towards him in Ibby's breathing rhythm. He came even closer and saw that the stains on Ibby's back had turned into small craters.
He saw Ibby breathing through those craters.
They were breathing holes.
He looked at Ibby's back and wasn't sure if he could believe his eyes. When he got even closer to Ibby, she stopped him with one hand. Her arm was turned back, but at an angle that wasn't actually possible. Hannes stopped and Ibby pushed him back a little. Then again, the cracking sound of the jaw; Ibby had turned his head so that he could not see her face. Then she turned around and slowly walked back into the bedroom. Hannes stopped for a moment, then he dashed into the bathroom, searched the toolbox that stood at the heater for the roll of duct tape, tore off a piece and taped it to the spy in the hallway.
He went into the bedroom. The curtains were closed. She stood in front of the window; her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Can I turn on the light?" he asked quietly. Ibby nodded. Hannes went to the bedside table and turned on the lamp. Ibby was standing by the window. He went to her and was shocked to find that she was trembling, that she was afraid. She still breathed through her breathing holes on her back, had opened her mouth slightly, took a deep breath, again and again, was sweaty. Hannes grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around, took her in his arm. She returned the embrace, but it took a long time until she had calmed down and the breathing holes in her back closed again.
Transcriptions
Sunday, 10:15 am
Telephone connection Rachmiel
"Good morning! My name is Rachmiel. I saw on your website that for the period from 12.5 to 12.10 you still have a category two room available."
"Good morning! Did you get the information from our website?"
"Yes, I didn't want to book via the booking portal, I wanted to make a direct inquiry."
"Yes, let me look, for what period again?"
"From the fifth to the tenth..."
"How many people do you travel with?"
"Two people, myself and my partner."
"Uh-huh. Hold on. What was your name again?"
"Rachmiel, Hannes Rachmiel."
"Ah, wait a minute, Mr. Rachmiel, I see the information on our website is outdated. I don't know why it wasn't updated, either. I'm sorry, Mr. Rachmiel, we're fully booked all December."
"Oh. All right! There's nothing you can do."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rachmiel!"
"What does that look like at a later date?"
"I'm being honest, I can't say anything about that right now. I don't have the booking plans."
"Okay. Have a nice day."
Sunday, 10:32 am
Telephone connection Rachmiel
"Hello! This is Helge and Helga's phone line! We are not available at the moment! Either we're on our way or we don't want to talk to you. After the beep, you can leave a message. See you!"
Sunday, 11:07 am
Telephone connection Rachmiel
"Rachmiel.
"This is the pension 'Bergblick', Müller speaking. Is this Mr. Hannes Rachmiel?"
"That's right!"
"Mr. Rachmiel, you just booked a room for two on a booking portal for the period from 5 December to 10 December, uh, the balcony room, right?"
"Yep. With breakfast."
"Mr. Rachmiel, I'm sorry, but we had water dama
ge in the room yesterday, and the information on the website has not been updated yet. We're sorry, but we can't give you the room."
"Do you have anything else available?"
"No, I'm afraid we're fully booked."
"Okay, thanks!"
"Have a nice day!"
Sunday, 12:12pm
Telephone connection 0221/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hey!"
"Hi."
"Secured?"
"Of course!"
"Okay, so tell me."
"So, we've frozen the account. He can't touch the money. Tried it once. Then he went to the counter, where they told him that his account got restricted. Didn't make a fuss and left again."
"Okay, I know that."
"We made sure that he was fired. We asked for the notice to state that he should refrain from further inquiries. He did. In other words, he doesn't seem to care."
"That's the impression I get. But his landlady, wait, a Mrs. Ruth Sommer-Baumert, he told her he had saved some money. I suppose so. Did you check the money he used to pay for the last few days?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's real. Real money."
"Okay, maybe he really does have a stocking under his pillow. Whatever. What else is there?"
"I guess he's going away for a few days. However, we have canceled all bookings so far. Since all calls from the connection go through our EDP system, we activated our call center and canceled it."
"What if it goes through TOR?"
"He's never done it before. He can't. He doesn't know either. If we do, we'll know."
"Cell phone?"
"Goes over us, too."
"Did the two dudes move in?"
"They are. What about surveillance on the apartment? Bugging device and stuff?"
"We may not. The two will take care of it."
"Strange guys. I wouldn't rent them an apartment."
"Just ignore them; if they did their job or whatever, they’ll be gone immediately.
"Then what about Sommer-Baumert?"
"Nothing for now. She promised high and mighty she wouldn't tell. I don't know if she understood that Australia is a dangerous place with poisonous animals and heavy traffic and stuff, but I think so."
"What do we do when she talks?"
"I can't say yet. Maybe Australia will be deadly then, who knows? Get Rachmiel's Renault towed or scrapped or something. I want to keep these two here."
"Will do. Do you want me to arrange for him to get mail from the IRS?"
"No, not really. The main thing is that they can't leave."
"He still has a friend who lives near Kaiserstuhl. That's where they could go, by train or rental car. There are some possibilities."
"What's that?"
"Oh, they haven't seen each other in ten years. Then started calling again two years ago. He's a hunter, a marksman. He can handle black powder and explosives."
"Liquidate."
"Okay."
"Anything else?"
"We could turn off the power and the water..."
"No! No way!"
"Why not?"
"Imagine if she could solve the energy problem. Who the hell knows what technology she has with her? A little pocket reactor or something..."
"Sorry, man, you're crazy. She didn't have that with her."
"How do you know?"
"Man, that backpack was light, there wasn't much in it."
"You know what was in there?"
"No, that's classified. I don't know either."
"We're not taking any chances for now. Our orders are to keep them here. If we turn off the energy or the water, it becomes an incalculable risk again. Let it go for now. Continue observing, dispose the car or move in, cancel any bookings, and solve the problem in the south. And that, my dear friend, today."
"All right, I'll pass it on. Should I call you when it's done?"
"No, go ahead and make it spectacular. Then I can read it in the paper and Rachmiel will know."
"Does Mike know?"
"No, I'll call him later sometime."
"Okay, bye."
Sunday, 17:13 pm
Telephone connection unknown, encrypted cell phone
"Hi, Mike!"
"Hi. What's new?"
"That's actually my question. But good. Account locked, car scrapped, so we kept him here."
"I see. Why?"
"Our friend wanted to go on vacation for a few days. But it's all booked up."
"You're an asshole. Why don't you let him take her away for a few days?"
"Mike, on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow. We'll see. End of discussion."
"Yes, I know. I'm curious. Well, Rachmiel will have trouble communicating with that thing if it doesn't talk. Does it understand anything at all?"
"It does. I was also so free to inform Rachmiel."
"What? Are you nuts? Are you the madman's kissed child? Why?"
"It can explain why it always acted like it didn't understand anything. He made a fool of himself. He should be pretty mad."
"You're fucking nuts! YOU..."
"Mike, I know what I'm doing. I have clear instructions, too."
"Oh, yeah? I think you're having your own movie. What are your instructions?"
"Oh, Mike, we've been over this before. That's classified."
"Oh, come on, stop it. Classified. What bullshit. Tell me, why did you inform Rachmiel?"
"I want to drive a wedge between the two. Let them argue. I have the impression they get along too well anyway. Rachmiel pretends to be a normal person. They treat each other like they've been married for ten years."
"You're a weirdo! It's an alien. We don't know what it thinks, we don't know if and what it feels, we also don't know what it can do, we certainly don't know what it's up to, we only know that it should have been dead by now."
"Mike, we just need to keep these two here in Cologne until Tuesday, when new instructions arrive. They can argue, can't they?"
"You're hiding something from me."
"Mike, we're all in the same boat. And we have a common problem.
"Can it speak? Or how does it communicate? Telepathy?"
"Good question. So, we're ruling out telepathy. At least that's what my contacts say. But it seems to have a fine instinct. Maybe it can read minds..."
"Oh, so communicative? That's elementary information, it should be top secret!"
"You haven't asked me about this yet, have you?"
"Wacko!"
"Oh Mike, look, we'll wait Tuesday for what the representative says, and then we'll decide what margin we have, okay?"
"Don't blame me, but I think you're have your own plans. I think you want your..."
"Goodbye, Mike!"
"Wait! Are you afraid?"
"Scared? Nah, I’m not afraid. More like worry. But it's fun too, isn't it?"
"To hunt?"
"No, Mike, hunt it down. Goodbye, Mike!"
The Krampus
Hannes carefully placed the phone on its station, as if it could explode if it was moved too fast. He stared at the phone, couldn't believe what he had just heard. Ibby gave a quiet questioning whistle. Hannes turned around. "Helge and Helga are dead."
Ibby crooked his head. Hannes sighed and sat down again on the sofa. "Yesterday I tried to find a place to stay for a few days so that we could have a change of scenery. Do you know what a change of scenery is?"
Ibby shook his head. "We're going away for a few days, to another town, another neighborhood. That's what I'm talking about. You can call it a vacation."
Ibby nodded, she probably knew that word. "But all rooms, whether hotel or guesthouse, are fully booked or broken or anything else. All my bookings have been canceled."
Ibby put his hand on his arm. Hannes shrugged his shoulders. "So I thought I could ask Helge. We haven't seen each other in ten years. But we started talking on the phone again. He lives in Baden-Württemberg, in a beautiful area. I thought we could visit him."
He kept quiet. Ibby wait
ed. "When I just called, a police officer picked up. He just told me that Helge and his wife were killed in an explosion yesterday. Improper handling of explosives. The whole house blew up."
He looked at Ibby. "Ibby, what's going on? Is everyone going to die now? Wasn't Sabine enough?"
Ibby squeezed his arm lightly. Hannes shook her off. "Ibby, what's going on? I mean, it's bad enough that you killed Sabine. It's bad I don't have a job, my account's frozen. It's bad that we..."
He stopped.
Yes, it was really bad that Ibby, as nice as she might be, as much as he liked her, was just an alien.
He went on. "Ibby, you don't belong here. I really like you and it is exciting and exciting to be here with a being like you. But don't blame me, I think it's gonna be really bad."
Ibby looked at him and nodded. "Look, two weird guys moved in the house the day before yesterday, and I realized you were scared. You were scared, weren't you?"
Ibby slapped her hands in front of her face, then she nodded. She raised her hands to her chest, then she pretended to squeeze something together. Yes, very scared.
"What else is gonna happen, Ibby? What about these two? Are they trying to kill us?"
Ibby pointed to Hannes, shook her head, then she pointed to herself.
"They're after you, aren't they?"
She nodded.
"Are they humans? Here from Earth?"
She shook her head. Hannes stroked his chin. Another problem. Two aliens are chasing another alien. He, an earthling, in the middle and in between.
"Ibby, why haven't they killed us all already? At the Christmas market. The guy with the gun: why didn't he kill you or us? Or why didn't the police come for Sabine? Who's gonna take care of it? Who's covering it up?"
Ibby shrugged his shoulders, looked at him.
"Ibby, tell me, why are you still alive? Why are we still alive? Who restricted my account and why? Who made me unemployed now?"
E.B.E. 21- the Hunt Page 20