by Jon Skovron
“I would have been.” She turned to look up at my dad. “If it weren’t for you.”
He nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “I broke your foot and two ribs, and gave you a concussion in the process, so it was not my most successful saving.”
She turned back to me. “They were about to open fire. I was standing in the lobby like an idiot, too scared to move. He threw himself on top of me and took the bullets.”
“Jesus, Dad, are you okay?” I asked.
He waved his hand. “Of course, of course. I am fine.”
Bakru turned back to me. “You still haven’t answered my question. Where’s Liel?”
“She joined Moreau.”
“Shit,” said Bakru.
“She was so upset about losing you and her mom. You know how she just gets angry and nothing else matters.”
“I know,” she said. “God, I know. I just . . . hoped she’d evolved past that.”
“But now that you’re alive,” I said, “I bet she’ll come right back to us.”
“Unless she’s in over her head already,” said La Perricholi quietly.
“She is.” Holmes came striding in from the doorway at the other end of the room. She looked even more disheveled than the last time I’d seen her. But her blue eyes looked sharper than ever before and never stopped moving. She offered her hand to La Perricholi. “Agent Holmes. You must be the famous Perricholi.”
Holmes turned to me. “And you look a bit different from the last time we met. I assume this is your natural appearance?”
“Yeah. I was using faerie glamour to blend in with humans before.”
“Neat trick. I wonder, if I were to take some, would it allow me to blend in with monsters?”
“Uh, I have no idea. . . .”
“We’ll have to try it sometime, then.” She turned to Claire and offered her hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met, Ms. Hyde.”
“We did, sort of,” said Claire, shaking her hand. “When you accosted Sophie.”
“You are still aware when you aren’t the current form? So Sophie can hear me right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Fascinating,” said Holmes. Then she turned to my dad. “It looks like Moreau is using the trowe as a sort of covert sabotage team. I’ve gotten several reports that someone who looks like Bakru, but with diamond eyes, has been leading a small band of her . . . people? Should I call them that?”
“That would be accurate,” my dad said.
She nodded. “She and her people have disabled a huge number of power stations. Right now, there are massive sections between Phoenix and Denver that have gone dark.”
“That’s a large area,” observed La Perricholi.
“It is,” said Holmes. “Which has me worried that Moreau has a much bigger plan in the works than holding Phoenix hostage. If you think there’s a possibility this Liel would be willing to defect, I can facilitate a peaceful acceptance. But I can’t promise a full pardon. It’s going to depend on how much intel she can give us. She is guilty of treason, after all.”
“Is it treason if someone has been barred from citizenship?” my father asked. His tone was casual, but there was an edge to it.
“We’ve talked about this,” said Holmes. “The question of monster citizenship is way out of my jurisdiction. About all I can say is that if we come out of this alive and I can prove that monsters played a pivotal role in our victory, it will help your case.”
“Technically speaking, I’m a British citizen,” said Claire.
“Really?” Holmes frowned, staring off into a corner. “I’ll bet Moreau is, too. That could present a complication.”
“I don’t think he’d claim British citizenship,” I said. “The only country he’s interested in is his own.”
“Yes . . .” said Holmes, still frowning, as if working something out in her head. Then suddenly, “Okay, everyone follow me. We can discuss this further on the way.”
“On the way to where?” asked La Perricholi.
“New Mexico. Apparently, a giant fortress just suddenly appeared out in the middle of nowhere. The military seems to think it might be monster-related. Can’t imagine why.”
THE THING THEY never show you in those adventure movies with people traveling all over the world is the percentage of time they spend actually traveling. I wondered how many hours I’d spent on a plane, bus, train, or boat in the last couple of weeks. Looking back, it seemed likely Moreau had done that to us on purpose, leading us back and forth like a yo-yo so we could never really gather our full strength.
This was a much shorter trip than the last one, though. And we were riding in a helicopter, which I’d never been in before. So I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. But it turns out that helicopters are loud and really uncomfortable.
“Only the large military models like this one,” La Perricholi said defensively when I mentioned it to her.
And it was big. Nearly a hundred feet long with a large enough cargo area to drive a car into. Holmes said we needed something big that could carry a heavy load.
“You and your dad alone would probably tax the load limit of a small helicopter,” she said. “I’d like to take Moreau alive if possible. And any other monsters we come across. So I got the biggest helicopter I could find. Just in case.”
There wasn’t a passenger section, just the front cockpit for the pilot and crew. The rest was an empty cargo hold with little metal seats that dropped down from the sides on hinges. So we sat in two parallel lines facing one another.
“In case of what?” asked Bakru. Holmes had wanted her to stay back at the base, since she was wounded. But she insisted on coming, in case we ran into Liel. I had to agree that Liel probably wouldn’t believe that she was alive unless she saw her in person.
“That’s a good question,” said Holmes. “All I know is that a huge building just appeared out of nowhere a few hours ago.” She turned her sharp blues eyes on me. “Maybe you can shed some light on this miraculous building in New Mexico.”
“I think it’s The Commune.” I turned to Claire and La Perricholi. “Right before the Dragon Lady bit his head off, Stephen said, ‘You made it. Mission accomplished.’ What if he wasn’t just trying to lure us down there? What if he was also trying to get the Dragon Lady away from The Commune?”
“So that Moreau could move in,” said La Perricholi.
“But why?” asked Claire.
“Good base of operations?” I suggested.
“Perhaps,” said La Perricholi. “Or else there’s something there he wants.”
“Or someone,” said Claire. “There are a lot of very scary monsters in there.”
“What is The Commune, exactly?” asked Bakru. “I’ve heard people mention it every once in a while back at The Show.”
“It’s a community of monsters who are too big to hide among humans,” I said.
“Too big or too dangerous,” said Claire. “As Boy and Sophie found out the hard way.”
“There’s a whole wing of The Commune where they keep monsters who are just too wild to be allowed out among humans,” I said.
“So you think Moreau wants to recruit these monsters?” asked Holmes.
“We’re talking nonverbal, completely feral,” I said. “Not even the Dragon Lady could really control them.”
“Then why are they kept at all?” asked Holmes. “It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
“They may be dangerous,” said my father. “But each of them is the last of their kind. Would you kill the last great white shark?”
“Okay, I see your point,” she said.
“It was the Dragon Lady’s responsibility to look after them, to both protect them and protect others from them.”
“Where did it come from, this Commune?” asked Holmes. “How could it just . . . appear?”
“It’s always been there,” my father said. “Kemp made it invisible long ago so that humans wouldn’t discover it.”
“Who’s Kemp?”
“The Invisible Man,” said Claire.
“Of course he is.” Holmes sighed and shook her head. “So he made this building invisible, and then Moreau came along and made it visible again?”
“Probably,” I said. “That’s how Stephen and Robert freed Moreau in the first place. His whole island had been invisible.”
“So what about the other monsters?” asked Holmes. “The non-crazy ones. Are they friendlies or do you think they’ve joined Moreau?”
“There’s the banshee, the chupacabra, the centaur, and the gryphon,” said La Perricholi.
“Jesus,” said Holmes.
“I really can’t see Javier joining Moreau,” I said.
“True,” admitted La Perricholi. “But what about the others?”
“Maybe the centaur and the gryphon,” I said. “I don’t think they have much love for humans. La Llorona . . . well, she’s more or less insane, so I don’t think she would really even know what’s going on. Just make sure you’re at least twenty feet away from her when she wails.”
“Why, what would happen if I wasn’t?” asked Holmes.
“Oh, your brain would probably hemorrhage,” said Claire. “And then you’d die.”
“Good to know,” said Holmes. “Anyone else?”
“Well, there’s the giant Sphinx,” I said.
“The what?”
“Sure. He’s . . . I guess . . .” I turned to Claire. “About fifty feet tall?”
“Yeah, I’d say about fifteen meters,” she said. “Well, maybe closer to twenty.”
“And you’re only mentioning this now?” asked Holmes.
“You don’t have to worry about him,” I said. “He’s been in a catatonic state for over a decade. The Dragon Lady explained it to us once. The Sphinx is super wise and never forgets anything. But I guess millennia of accumulated knowledge was just too much to deal with and he sort of shut down. I mean, he’s conscious. But his head is so full that he can’t really process any new information.”
“And you’re sure about that?” asked Holmes.
“We saw him in person,” said Claire. “Completely out of it.”
WE LANDED IN the same field that Claire and I had once crossed on foot. It had been night then, and The Commune had been invisible. We’d walked right up to the entrance without realizing it and come face-to-face with La Llorona, who’d nearly killed both of us with a single scream.
Now The Commune was visible. I already knew it was big, but without actually seeing it, I’d never realized just how big. It was a baseball-stadium-sized structure just sitting out there in the middle of the New Mexico plains. The exterior was shaped in a gently sloping curve of smooth rock, like a wave of sandstone rising up out of the ground. The entrance was about the size of an airplane hangar, and the roof was dotted with opaque skylights, including a massive one right in the center.
A military cordon surrounded the building with Humvees, mounted guns, and even a couple of tanks. We stood just behind the line and stared at the building that towered over us.
“I have to admit, it looks like they’ve got Moreau trapped,” said Claire.
“That actually makes me more nervous,” I said. “He’s been too good up till now to accidentally fall into a situation like this. I think he’s up to something in there.”
“I agree,” said La Perricholi. “And the longer we wait, the worse it will be.”
“Have you heard from Ruthven?” my father asked me.
“Vi says he’s on his way with a bunch of monsters, including Mom.”
La Perricholi turned to Holmes. “When do you plan to send soldiers in?”
“I’m not in charge of this operation,” she said. “That would be General Montgomery.”
“Let’s go speak with him,” said La Perricholi.
Holmes led us along the military line until we came to a large tent set behind a tank. Inside was a table covered with aerial photographs of The Commune. Poring over them was an older human male with dark skin, short white hair, and a square jaw. He looked up at us, took us all in, and sighed.
“Holmes, what in Christ’s name are you doing filling my tent with freaks and foreigners?”
“We came at the request of your commanding officer,” said Holmes. “And I think the word you meant was ‘allies.’”
“Oh yeah, sure, forgot,” said Montgomery.
“General, when do you plan to have your men enter the building?” asked La Perricholi.
“I’m not sending my men in there when we have no idea what we’re up against,” he said. “We’ll wait it out for a while until they’re nice and hungry.”
“You do realize that this compound is completely self-sustaining, right?” I said.
He glanced at me, but then quickly looked away. “What do you mean by that?”
“This facility is designed to survive entirely off the grid. Internal electrics, renewable food source, underground well. They could stay in there a long time. Definitely past Moreau’s hostage deadline.”
A soldier stuck his head into the tent. “Sir! It looks like the doors are opening.”
Montgomery smirked at me. “Maybe this Moreau isn’t as smart as you think.” Then he turned back to the soldier. “Have all units ready to fire on my command.” He pulled on his helmet and nodded to Holmes. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a monster insurrection to quell.”
We followed Montgomery out of the tent just in time to see the massive doors slowly swing open. Soldiers all along the line trained their rifles on the dark opening. For a long, tense moment, nothing happened. Then a small creature slowly crept out from the darkness. It had a scaly reptilian body and wings like a dragon, but it walked on two thin rooster legs and it had a rooster head that pecked at the dusty ground in front of it. It stopped for a moment, and continued to peck at the ground.
“Cockatrice!” yelled La Perricholi. “Look away!”
I turned my head to one side just as the cockatrice began to lift up its head. To my right I saw a soldier who didn’t look away in time. His eyes widened and his body began to shake as steam escaped from his mouth and nose. He shrieked and clawed at his own body as he was cooked from the inside. I could hear others shrieking as well.
Then I saw Holmes run over to one of the Humvees, her face carefully angled away from the cockatrice. She ripped the side-view mirror off the Humvee. Then she pulled out her sidearm and used the mirror to carefully aim over her shoulder. She fired and the screaming stopped.
“Okay!” she shouted. “All clear.”
Some of the soldiers seemed to be recovering; others lay on the ground, little more than shriveled husks in uniforms.
Then a rumbling sound came from the entrance.
“Get ready!” shouted Holmes as the surviving soldiers struggled to bring their weapons back around.
A herd of monsters came pouring out of The Commune: a giant spider, bats as big as dogs, a three-headed dog as big as an elephant, a cyclops, a manticore, a seven-headed hydra, and things I couldn’t even really describe. Soldiers opened fire, but the creatures were already on them, biting, slashing, tearing their way through human and metal alike. In minutes they were past the blockade and scattering across the countryside.
“After them!” shouted Montgomery. “I want every last one of those things dead before it hits a populated area!”
The soldiers began to mobilize, pulling away from The Commune.
“Wait!” said Holmes. “Moreau is the real threat and he could be in there! We need to move in!”
“This is my operation, Holmes!” said Montgomery. “Don’t contradict my orders.” Then he climbed into one of the Humvees that was chasing down th
e hydra.
I turned and looked back at the now-empty entrance to The Commune. At first I thought I was seeing things, but then I realized there was one more creature coming out, but slowly, like it was in pain. It was a little larger than human-sized, and looked somewhere between a lizard and a kangaroo.
“Another one!” shouted Holmes, and took aim.
“Wait!” I yelled, running out into the open. “Hold your fire, this one’s a friendly!”
I caught the chupacabra just as he began to fall to the ground
“Javier, are you okay?” I asked.
He turned his panther head. One eye was swollen shut and he was covered in dirt and dried blood. He muttered something weakly in Spanish.
“Perricholi! I need a translation!”
La Perricholi ran over and knelt down next to me and listened for a moment. “He’s not making much sense.” She shook him gently and said something to him in Spanish. “Moreau’s in there. . . . He’s about to let something loose that’s even worse than what we just saw. . . .” She turned back to me. “That’s about all I can get from him.”
“So basically that whole horde of monsters was just a decoy?” I asked.
“Sound like it,” she said grimly.
We turned back to look at the military cordon. Other than the tattered remains of Montgomery’s tent and a few Humvees that had been destroyed during the stampede, it was empty. Off in the distance I could see clouds of dust rising as the soldiers pursued the feral monsters that had been let loose.
“It’s just us,” I said.
“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” said La Perricholi. “Come on, let’s get the others. It’s time to face Moreau.”
21
Shock Therapy
WE CARRIED JAVIER back to our helicopter and left him with Bakru. Then we entered The Commune.
The hallways were all scratched up, like a lot of things with claws had come through, but otherwise it was the same as when Sophie and I had been here before: a wide, empty hallway with tall, vaulted ceilings.
“I suddenly feel very small,” said Holmes, a rifle held at the ready.