Matt Archer: Monster Hunter

by Kendra C. Highley

  “Check in with someone? At four in the morning?” Mamie asked.

  “You’ll need to be quiet, sis,” I said, dialing Colonel Black.

  She huffed and sat on my bed with her legs tightly crossed. Since Mom’s room was downstairs and Brent wouldn’t wake up for a nuclear blast, calling from my room would be safest, especially since I was about to let Mamie in on everything.

  “Colonel Black here.” He sounded surprisingly alert for the time.

  “Yes, sir. It’s Archer.”

  A sigh of relief on his end. “How’d it go? Did you get one?”

  “Yes, sir. I’m sending you the coordinates from the GPS now. This one was female, sir. The scientists might find the body interesting.”

  “Coordinates? Body?” Mamie whispered, her voice incredulous. “Matt!”

  I put my finger to my lips. She stood and paced with a really freaked out look on her face.

  “Well done, well done,” the colonel said. “You and Cruessan okay?”

  “I got a little banged up, but nothing serious, sir.” I couldn’t let him know that my knees were still shaking from my brush with death. “See, told you having Will as my partner would work.”

  “So far,” he said, sounding torn. “We’ll test this out for another month. As long as you continue to be careful, got it?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “Okay, then. The team will be up in two days to pick up the body. Want to ride along?” he asked.

  “Unless you have trouble finding her, I’d just as soon not go, if that’s okay,” I said. The less I saw of the She-Bear, the better. “I’ll send you an encrypted email with the full report tomorrow. I need some rest, sir.”

  The colonel’s voice softened. “That’s fine, son. I understand. Good work tonight.”

  I hit the end button on my phone. “Now we try to reach Mike.”

  “Matt, what have you gotten yourself into?” Mamie asked. “You’re only fourteen.”

  I glared at her. “Fifteen in a month, and there’s more to me than you know.”

  “Mike better have a good explanation, or I’m going straight to Mom.” She started pacing again, while chewing on her fingernails.

  I went to the computer and pulled up Twitter. I signed in with my code name, “camo424.” Mike’s was “desertflower424.” We were supposed to be a married couple, which was really idiotic, but he told me one of the Military Intelligence people he knew had come up with it, saying it wouldn’t draw attention to us.

  Funny that this was the best way to get him. But with innocent messages like “the cat puked” or “I bought new sunglasses,” Mike would know what was going on. He’d also get the messages right away, because his phone texted him when I posted something. I typed in, “Missing my sweetheart. Wish we could chat.”

  “What in the world are you doing?” Mamie asked, looking over my shoulder. “Missing my sweetheart?”

  “Just give it time. I’ll explain everything soon.”

  We both stared at the screen, and I refreshed it every thirty seconds. After only five minutes, Mamie got anxious again. “Maybe he’s sleeping,” she said, “or on patrol or something.”

  I shook my head. “He just got there, and he’s working at HQ for the next few weeks, planning operations. Plus, it’s the middle of the day in Afghanistan.”

  The screen flashed, and DesertFlower424 wrote, “I’ll phone soon, honey.”

  My PC had a camera. Before Mike left the country, one of Colonel Black’s computer gurus had sent me a software application so I could send and receive encrypted video. I ran the video program and went through the three-step password process. A blue square about half the size of my twenty-inch monitor popped up in the middle of the screen.

  “We’re in. Now we wait for Mike to sign on,” I said.

  Mamie stood over my left shoulder. “How long –”

  “What’s up, Chief? Everything all right?” Mike adjusted the camera on his end and the picture zoomed in and out.

  “Major, do you mind? You’re making us seasick.”

  “Us? Cruessan there?” He leaned close to the screen and all we saw was the top of his head. But we didn’t miss the groan. “Matt, you have some explaining to do.”

  Mamie had the stubborn look on her face again. “No, Uncle Mike, you have some explaining to do. Why is my little brother sneaking out of the house in the dead of night and then calling someone to tell them were the ‘bodies’ are?”

  “Matt…” Mike sounded exasperated with me. “Didn’t we talk about covering your trail a little better?”

  “Don’t you dare blame him! He was being careful. I just knew something was up, and I’ve been watching him close,” Mamie barked, with her face in the camera. “So, let’s hear the excuse.”

  “Mamie, if you’ll calm down a second, I’ll explain everything,” Mike said. “It’s a matter of national security.”

  “Oh, please. Matt’s fourteen…”

  “Almost fifteen,” I muttered.

  Mamie talked over me. “What could he possibly be involved in that’s a matter of national security? I need to know why I shouldn’t march downstairs right now and tell Mom.”

  She had her teeth in this one. But there was one way to get through to her—and we both knew what it was. Mike leaned back in his seat, saying, “Matt?”

  Of course he’d leave the dirty work to me. “Because people will get killed.” I squeezed Mamie’s arm. “And in a really horrible way. They’d suffer before the end.”

  Mamie’s own personal kryptonite—she couldn’t stand to see a run-over animal, or a hurt baby bird, or a little kid with a broken arm. Her eyes got round. “Suffer?”

  I nodded. We were so mean. “Yes. So before you rat me out to Mom, listen to Mike first, then decide if you’re with us or not.”

  Mamie sank to her knees next to my chair, her eyes filling with tears. “Matt…what is all this? Why…?”

  “It’s a long story,” Mike said, his voice gentle. “Daisy May…Matt’s right. Give me a few minutes and I’ll explain.”

  It took Mike half an hour to tell Mamie everything because she interrupted with a gazillion questions. To my surprise, she didn’t freak. Instead she did a typical Mamie. She started planning.

  “If the knives are bringing these creatures, how are we going to get rid of them so Matt doesn’t have to hunt anymore? It sounds like a never-ending problem” Mamie said. “Maybe I should start researching occult religions.”

  Mike laughed. “Daisy May, I appreciate the gung-ho attitude, but we have Military Intelligence and the NSA working on it.”

  “There has to be something I can do to help,” Mamie said, giving Mike the crossed-armed stare, the same one I’d gotten in the laundry room. “The sooner we figure this out, the better. I don’t like the idea of Matt and Will roaming the countryside killing off walking nightmares, armed only with a magic knife.”

  “Mamie, give it a rest—enough with the mother-hen stuff,” I growled. “I’m barely sixteen months younger than you, and I’m a whole lot tougher. I know what I’m doing.” She was giving me a headache and I really wanted to go to bed.

  She turned on me. “Oh, yeah? Then why did you get mauled by a bobcat?”

  Mike gave me a sharp look. “You got hurt?”

  Crap. “Just a scratch, Major. Don’t worry about me. Please.”

  “Matt…” he said.

  “Don’t. Worry. About. Me.” My voice was as firm as I could make it.

  Mamie looked horrified. She opened her mouth to argue, but I stepped on her toes. She took the hint and shut up.

  Mike sat quiet, watching us through his monitor. Finally, he said, “Be more careful. I’ll check in soon. I’m sending a ‘family email’ home tomorrow…but give Dani and Brent an extra hug for me.”

  “Will do, sir,” I said.

  We heard a loud knock on Mike’s end. He half stood, and we got an unnecessary zoom of the name patch on the pocket of his BDUs. A woma
n said something to him and he chuckled, then said, “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  I’d heard that tone of voice before. There was a babe in the vicinity. Here we were trying to keep America safe from monsters and he was taking time out to flirt. I sighed loudly to get his attention.

  Mike sat back down, looking mischievous. But his smile turned into a worried frown. “Gotta go, kids. Mamie–you wanted a job? Well, I have one for you. You’re my inside man now; clear the path for Matt. Make sure Dani doesn’t catch him. Can you do that?”

  Mamie swallowed hard. I could tell how difficult this was for her. She was the most honest person I knew.

  “Yeah, Uncle Mike,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

  He blew her a kiss. “Matt, I haven’t had the chance to talk about your knife with the other wielders. Is it still acting strange?”

  “Yeah. It, um, talks to me…gives me directions a little bit.”

  His jaw dropped. “Talks? How?”

  “Buzzes and stuff. Lets me know when it’s ready to fight. That kind of thing.”

  Now Mamie was staring at me, too. I fidgeted some as the room filled with a bloated silence.

  “I’ll see if I can get in touch with one of them,” Mike said. “We’ll figure it out. Maybe the other knives are doing the same thing.” He sighed. “I have to run. Love you, guys. Hang in there.”

  The screen went blank.

  “The knife can talk?” Mamie asked. After all the news, she took the monsters in stride, but a talking knife freaked her out. Sometimes I wondered what made my sister tick.

  “Yep.” I stood and looked Mamie in the eye, astonished I could. In fact, I was taller than she was. When had that happened? Too tired to think much about it, I said, “Welcome to the team, sis. Now let me go to bed.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  For the next few weeks, I hunted on a regular basis while Mamie did research on every combination of things she could think of related to monsters, ancient religions, Peruvian knives and the occult. She dragged me into her room to discuss it one Saturday afternoon. Everything in Mamie-ville was crazy neat. Her bed, covered with a bright patchwork quilt, was made to perfection with hospital corners. She even had the books in her floor-to-ceiling bookcase arranged alphabetically by author. Sick, really.

  “The Incans and pre-Incan tribes in Peru have been making special knives for ages,” she said. “Metal alloy even. But there’s no mention of any of them having supernatural properties.”

  I shrugged. “I guess that’s not too surprising, right?”

  She typed on her laptop. “I’ll keep looking. There has to be a common thread between the knives and evil spirits here somewhere.”

  Once she got her teeth into something, she just didn’t let go. I had to admire that, even if it was a little funny that she was trying to outsmart the United States Army.

  “Thanks for being in on this with me,” I said. “It’s nice to have backup inside the house.”

  She blushed a little. “I promised Mom I’d help watch out for you, and I will. It’s just…a little tougher now. But I’m up for it.”

  “I know you are.” I left her to her research and wandered downstairs for a snack.

  “Dude, you waiting for a flood or something?” Brent asked. He had beaten me to snack time and was halfway through a peanut butter sandwich.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I pulled the milk jug out of the fridge and joined him at the table. “Quit hogging the bread.”

  Brent rolled his eyes and shoved the bread and peanut butter my way. “Your jeans, stupid. They’re a good inch too short. I can see sock between the pant leg and your sneakers.” He got up to take a closer look at my clothes before I could sit to make a sandwich. “And your shirt sleeves barely reach your wrists.”

  He yelled in the direction of the living room, “Mom, you need to buy Matt some clothes.”

  “Nice try, Brent. I already told you I wasn’t going to buy that leather jacket for you.” Mom walked into the kitchen, shaking her head, and came face-to-face with me. I was as tall as she was. Her eyes widened. “My goodness, Matt. I knew you were growing, but...”

  She grabbed a green Sharpie from the pen holder, then marched to the door leading to the mudroom hallway. “Kick off your shoes. Let’s see how much you’ve grown.”

  I bent down to untie my laces, noticing my big toes were pushing the front of my sneakers. I’d only had these shoes a few months. Wondering what else we’d find, I followed Mom to the doorway.

  Mom always measured us against the doorjamb on our birthdays and marked down our heights. Brent’s marks were blue, Mamie’s were hot pink, mine were green. My birthday was still three weeks away, but close enough.

  She stood me against the marked up wood. “Feet flat, stand up tall.”

  The pen slid across the crown of my head as she drew a line. She had me step away. We all stared at the green marks in shock. The difference between my measurement last year and this year was a little more than five inches. The funny thing? I’d been to the doctor at the end of September and they’d checked my height. I’d only grown a half-inch since my last birthday. All this new growth had come since October—after I found the knife.

  I’d grown five inches in just three months?

  Mom gave me a once-over. “Good gracious, sweetheart. No wonder I’ve had to buy so much peanut butter.” She got her purse from the window seat by the dinner table and handed Brent a credit card. “Why don’t you take Matt shopping. Don’t spend too much, or you’ll have to take some of it back.”

  I barely heard Brent gripe about having to drive me. Five inches. I’d never had a big growth spurt like this. Mike would say I was due to sprout. But maybe it was something else.

  Maybe I was evolving, just like the monsters.

  Despite his complaining, Brent took me to the mall that afternoon. We passed my regular stores and headed for where he shopped.

  “Dude, you’re five-nine now. I think we’re done with kiddie clothes.” He looked me up and down. “You gotta stop dressing like a dork. How do you expect to get a girlfriend wearing nothing but sweatshirts and track pants?”

  I shoved him for calling me a dork. Brent seemed impressed that I was actually able to move him, but he still shoved me back. “Hey, you weighed yourself recently?” he asked. “You’ve put on some muscle.”

  “What, embarrassed that the ‘dork’ can knock you around?” I said. He kept staring until I squirmed. “I haven’t weighed myself in a while. At the doctor’s last fall, I weighed about one-oh-seven.”

  At that, Brent threw back his head and laughed. “One-oh-seven? That’s what girls weigh. C’mon.”

  He dragged me over to one of those mall scales, the kind you feed quarters into, and made me climb on. We watched the numbers tick-tick-tick upward.

  “A buck-forty-five. Not sure how it happened, but you’ve put on almost forty pounds since then.” Brent reached out and grabbed my bicep. “Whatever Cruessan is having you do to train is working. Maybe we’ll make you into a jock yet. Let’s get you some clothes that fit, and see how you look then.”

  Shopping with Brent was weird. He tossed out half the t-shirts I’d picked, loading me down with polos and sweaters instead. He also made me try on everything while he flirted with the salesgirl. By the time he was done with me, I almost didn’t recognize myself in the dressing room mirror, wearing new jeans and a button-down shirt. I looked a lot older. And I liked it.

  “Thanks, man. This is the first time shopping hasn’t sucked,” I said, hoisting the shopping bags into the trunk of his Toyota after we left the mall.

  Brent laughed. “That’s ‘cause you go with Mom and she buys you ‘practical’ clothes. Screw that. Oh, and don’t ever let Mamie help you pick out an outfit.” He poked a finger at his chest. “She tried to convince me that I would look good in a sweater with a dog on it!”

  “That’d get you beaten up,” I said, with an emphatic nod. “No animal sweaters.”

  �
�No animal sweaters.” Brent punched me in the shoulder and we drove home.

  On Monday, I went to school in my new clothes. Will nodded in approval at the sight of me in a maroon crewneck sweater and jeans that fit.

  “How come you didn’t realize how much you’d grown?” he asked. “I’ve been watching you stretch since Thanksgiving.”

  I shrugged. “Too much on my mind, you know? It’s not like I didn’t know I was growing. I just didn’t pay attention to my clothes.”

  We headed to homeroom. It got a little quiet when I came in; most of the girls in the class were staring at me and not trying to hide it. Even Ella did a double-take.

  I stood by Mrs. Burns’ desk, ten pairs of eyes trained on me. The girls were giggling, too—in a good way. Like they were embarrassed about staring but couldn’t help themselves. I couldn’t decide whether to roll up my sleeves and flex my biceps for all of them, or run for cover.

  Will gave me a little shove toward my seat, whispering, “Nice entrance.”

  “I think I’m going back to sweatshirts and track pants starting tomorrow.” My skin prickled as the girls turned in their seats to watch me walk to my desk.

  “Oh, no, you aren’t. You’re milking this for all it’s worth.” Will grinned and left me to the wolves.

  “Hey, Matt,” a cheerleader named Sami said. She’d sat to my right all year, but hadn’t spoken to me before.

  “Uh, hi, Sami,” I set my books down on my desk, completely tongue-tied.

  She gave me a slow, flirty smile. “I thought I saw you and your brother at the mall Saturday. My older sister has the biggest crush on him. She’s on the drill team, so she goes to all the football games. You know, maybe the four of us could—”

  The bell rang before Sami could finish that thought and Mrs. Burns came in, barking, “Seats people, let’s go. Enough chit chat. You too, Mr. Archer.”

  Embarrassed, I shrugged at Sami and sat down as fast as I could. Ella glared at her math book, her mouth set in a thin line. She didn’t turn around to say hi.

  Feeling bold, I tapped her on the shoulder. “Good weekend?”

  Her ears turned pink. “It was decent.” She glanced at me. Her cheeks were as pink as her ears. “I like your sweater.”

  Class started, but I hardly heard a word Mrs. Burns said.

  Ella liked my sweater.