Beneath the Mall of Madness (A Jaspar Windisle Mystery Book 1)

by A. D. Folmer

  “Close,” I said. I started working my way down. It was easier going than last time since I had the luxury of choosing my path. Abner and Obadiah had both come down here many times, but there was no good way to do it.

  At the bottom of the hill, it was quiet. There was a cloud hanging over the town, and wisps of fog poured down the hill like a waterfall. The forest didn’t have much undergrowth, and I couldn’t see anything that screamed stay away to me. Still, I felt uncomfortable standing even this close. Out of curiosity, I tested my pendant. It began to swing north to south, parallel to the tree line.

  “What does that mean?” Cecilia asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I told her. Sparks seemed to like the extreme motion and was rocking the pendant, deliberately increasing the swing. “I’d guess there are dead things on either side of us, but I’d have to go over there to check.”

  “We can do that later,” Mordecai said. “First, show us where this tunnel is.”

  “Right.” I went to the middle of the clearing and pushed past the butterfly bushes that were growing there. At this time of the year, they were a nasty wet mess. They grew right up to the face of the hill, completely hiding a metal plate the width of a barn door. While Mordecai and I looked for the hex wrench, Steve and Cecilia examined the plate.

  “I don’t think it matters how we set the key in,” she said. “If you want you can try to line up the symbols, but they look like they’re just there for decoration to me.”

  I envied them their job. Searching thick, wet brush is no fun, especially when you aren’t sure where to look. There were signs that I wasn’t the first to do so.

  “I found a cell phone!” Mordecai shouted from somewhere to the left of me.

  “I’ve found some pens and loose change!” I called back.

  “I reckon we’ll have to come back here later with more men,” Earl said.

  “I don’t mean to be rude,” Mordecai said, “but if you’d done a more thorough search when you killed that cultist we could’ve found all this a week ago.”

  “We were doing a thorough search,” Earl said, “when that cultist interrupted us.”

  “I think I found it,” I said loudly.

  “You think?”

  “It’s a big metal stick,” I said. “How many can there be down here?” I couldn’t tell for sure because it was covered in blackberry vines. They were the small thin kind that look fuzzy and harmless until you grab them, and they draw blood. I poked at the hex wrench gingerly, trying to find a good spot to grip. Once I did, I found that the underside was a hiding place for baby slugs.

  It was gross, but I’m a grown, professional man, so I picked it up and hauled it to the others. I wiped my hands on the grass and tried not to think about how long it would be before I could wash my hands. I’m not a big fan of slime.

  Cecilia was not burdened with a need to preserve her dignity.

  “Oh ick!” she said. “Steve, you can open the door.”

  “Gee thanks,” he said. “This thing isn’t as heavy as I expected.” He attached the magic hubcap, stuck it in the door, and twisted.

  “Could I have a little help here?” he asked. “I can’t get much leverage.” Mordecai and I helped and after jiggling it back and forth it began to move. After the first turn, it was no trouble at all. After a few rotations, there was a clank and the plate wobbled. We wheeled it to the side and were faced with a dark tunnel. Cold air hit our faces, and mist poured out. I shivered.

  “There should be a light switch,” I said. Mordecai found it. There were some pops and snaps when the lights came on, but the tunnel lit up. The light was accompanied by the buzz of fluorescence. It reminded me of the whine of the cheese wasps. I pushed the thought out of my mind.

  “I guess you’ll have to lead,” Steve said, “since you kind of know the way.”

  “There is no way,” I told him. “It’s a single tunnel leading for miles out of town.”

  “Well, you might spot something Obadiah and Abner missed.”

  “Anyone might, but I doubt a professional tunnel maker missed anything.”

  “So what’s next?” Cecilia asked. “Other than a long walk.”

  “Can we close the door behind us?” Zebulon asked. “I don’t like the idea of someone finding this place and turning the lights out while we’re down here.”

  “There are light switches at quarter mile intervals,” I told him. “If you want to close the door we need to take the key inside with us.”

  ***

  There’s no feeling quite like being locked inside a man-made hole in the ground. I’ve had more than my share of the experience, and I don’t like it. I hadn’t really considered the implications until the door slid shut. When it did, I felt dizzy. Steve patted me on the shoulder.

  “We can get out again,” he reminded me. “Even if we can’t, people will come looking for us within the week. Plus you’re getting paid.”

  I took some slow, deep breaths. I put my hand in my pocket to touch the amber pendant. Instead, I felt something cool and squishy. I shrieked and yanked my hand away.

  ***

  In moments of great stress, it can be difficult to see things clearly, particularly if you weren’t expecting them. For a moment I thought an alien monstrosity was attached to my hand. It took a very long few seconds to realize that while it was an alien monstrosity, it was also Gregory, the baby alien squid.

  “Aaargh,” I said.

  “What are you doing here?” Zebulon asked. He was lowering the gun he’d pointed at my hand. Gregory, naturally, had nothing to say for himself. He turned a rainbow of colors and remained wrapped around my hand. With my other hand, I checked to make sure my pendant was all right. Fiona did say he ate rock after all.

  “Is anyone getting reception down here?” Cecilia asked. “We should let Fiona know where Gregory’s gone, but I’ve got no bars.”

  “Me either,” Steve said.

  “There’s too much rock in the way,” Earl said. “I had to climb back to the top of the hill to radio for help last time.”

  “If we go back now someone else will find this place,” Mordecai said. “There’s a beaten path leading to it now. We’ll just have to make this quick, so she doesn’t have long to worry.”

  I didn’t care how much Fiona worried; I didn’t want to babysit an alien squid. He must have snuck into my pocket while I was gathering snacks.

  “Stay quiet, alright?” I told him as I put him in a different pocket.

  The floor of the tunnel was flat and smooth, and the tunnel itself was dry despite the mist.

  “We must be below the other tunnels,” Cecilia said after we had walked about a mile. “Otherwise we would have intersected with one by now.” I thought she was wrong about that. The tunnel made as straight a line as possible towards the construction site. Between the way the freeway turned and the layout of the town, it was a surprisingly short distance.

  “It’s amazing the town is still standing with this much excavation,” Steve commented. “Do you think there’s magic involved?”

  “I prefer to think it’s good engineering,” Mordecai said. “The other tunnels look more finished than this.”

  Every once in a while there were paint marks on the walls. There were also a few abandoned tools.

  “Why on earth would someone carry a shovel two miles then leave it?” Zebulon asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “They would have been hard to come by when this tunnel was built. Maybe Abner left it here.”

  “Is anyone feeling odd?” Mordecai asked. “It could be absentmindedness is a side effect of whatever it is we’re looking for.”

  “I’m not happy about being here, but otherwise I’m normal,” I told him.

  “Right as rain over here,” Cecilia said.

  “Under the circumstances, fine.”

  “Never better,” said Steve.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Earl said, “but I’m not feeling the urge to drop my
gun if that’s what you mean. How about you?”

  “I think I’m all right,” Mordecai said. “We should keep an eye on each other. If you see anyone acting distracted or behaving oddly, say something.”

  The most immediate effect of this advice was for everyone to start acting oddly. Cecilia started carefully staring at everyone else. Steve moved in an exaggeratedly casual way, stopping just short of whistling nonchalantly. Zebulon started walking more slowly and inspecting the walls. I went over to Mordecai.

  “Apart from being mayor, what are your reasons for coming along?” I asked him.

  “Cici is too absentminded to wander around in caves alone, and the last time Zebulon came down here he stayed past his nap time and Jeremiah and I had to take turns carrying him back,” he said. “We need a responsible adult here to represent our town’s interests. Since I am the mayor, and I’m reasonably fit, it falls to me.”

  “Reasonably fit?”

  “Do you think Pastor MacReady could make it down the hill?” he asked. “I might be the only member of the town council who can walk six miles in one go, let alone be any use at the end of it.”

  “Do you have a problem with young people leaving town?” Every business I’d been in had customers, and there had been plenty of children in the congregation on Sunday. Given the weather and the crazed murderers roaming the street it seemed like a healthy small town to me. Then again, I was mostly seeing members of the same two or three families.

  “Not at all,” he said. “If you like small town life we’ve got plenty of job opportunities. We’ve also got several festivals that you won’t find anywhere else. The reenactment is one example. We just have a hard time getting young people involved in leadership roles.”

  “Of course you do,” Zebulon chimed in. “Council meetings are boring. Half the council is ancient, and asleep by the end of the meeting. At the same time, the meetings are so early that anyone who has school or a day job can’t make it.”

  “The meeting I went to was lively,” I said.

  “That was an emergency meeting,” he countered. “Everyone goes to those.”

  “Zoning ordinances may be boring but if more people came to the meetings we wouldn’t have bat shaped street signs.” Mordecai lectured his cousin. Zebulon sighed.

  “Maybe when I’m old enough to fall asleep before dinnertime I’ll get involved,” he said. “Until then I’ve got better things to do.”

  I’m not in great shape, but neither were Steve and Cecilia, so we took frequent breaks. The floor of the tunnel remained smooth. We found a few more tools and more markings on the walls. Sparks fluttered around my head every time we came to a marking on the wall. He didn’t have a fit like at the construction site, he just seemed interested. I took pictures of some of the signs just in case. We stopped for lunch before we reached the end.

  “How far do you suppose this was intended to go?” Earl asked.

  “I’d say about as far as the construction site,” Mordecai said. “Under the mountain and out of town. Only a total lunatic would try to tunnel all the way to Seattle or Tacoma from here.”

  “Our town’s not exactly short of those,” his cousin reminded him. “The Frys do like to dig.”

  The thought of tunneling for hundreds of miles underground made my skin crawl. I fed Gregory a raisin to distract myself. Once I got used to the idea of a land squid he was fun to have around. As we hiked, he crawled all over my jacket, changing colors as he went. His antics might have been one of the reasons Sparks was doing so much flying.

  We had a little warning that the tunnel was going to end. The last light switch was working, but the bulb burned out as soon as Mordecai switched it on. We didn’t need it because the tunnel was starting to glow.

  We kept walking until we encountered the only bend in the entire tunnel. The floor was less even here. Sparks darted ahead, and the pendant rattled in my pocket. When Sparks came back, I heard the familiar screams of animals.

  “I think we’ve arrived at the construction site,” I said.

  “Great,” Zebulon replied. “Who wants to go first?”

  “I’ll go,” Steve said without hesitating.

  “No, I will,” Cecilia said. “I’ve got experience with witchcraft.”

  “How is that going to help here?” Steve asked.

  “Being a wizard hasn’t helped you figure this out. Maybe I’ll see something you and Fiona haven’t.”

  “I’m less concerned with ancient lore and more with chupacabras,” Mordecai said. “I’ll go check it out. If I start screaming, everyone run back to the entrance.” Before we could protest or suggest that someone who was armed go first, he was around the corner.

  “How long do you think we should wait before we go after him?” Zebulon asked.

  “I’ll give him ten minutes,” Earl said. “That’s enough time for him to get somewhere and form an opinion.”

  “What should we do if he doesn’t come back in ten minutes?” I asked. “Going around the corner one by one until we’re all dead doesn’t seem like a good idea, and if we all go back now we won’t have anything to report.”

  “We can all go together,” Cecilia said. “Then one or two of us might escape with useful information.”

  Fortunately, Mordecai came back before we got too worked up.

  “It’s a portal,” he said, “a big one. Huge, even. You should all definitely come see this.” We followed him around the corner.

  ***

  The tunnel opened up into what seemed to be a natural cave. There were even stalagmites. I hadn’t known there were limestone caves in the Cascades, but I’m no expert on geology. Since I was standing in one now, they must exist. Or we’d entered another dimension while we were walking. For the sake of my sanity, I was going to go with the first explanation, even though words like eldritch and cyclopean sprang to mind as we shone our flashlights around the cavern. I saw dark handprints and broken stalagmites, and more mining equipment scattered across the uneven floor. The rock formations made it hard to judge, but I think the cave was about the size of a baseball diamond. I didn’t see the portal itself until I looked up. Unlike Fiona’s it was glowing. I suppose that meant it was open. It was a disk the size of the cavern, formed of what I assumed were mystical runes of some kind floating in the air above us. As I watched, it glowed even more brightly for an instant. In the glow, I saw beyond the portal to the roof of the cave. There was movement up there.

  “Holy shit!” I said. “Did anyone else see that?”

  “Yeah,” Zebulon said. “There’s no way we’re shooting all of those.” The ceiling was carpeted with chupacabras.

  “Can they burrow through stone?” Cecilia asked.

  “No, it looks like there’s a crack in the ceiling,” Mordecai said. “See?” He shone his flashlight in the direction he wanted her to look. There was something there on the ceiling, although it was hard for me to tell what through the squirming masses of radish monsters.

  The light seemed to bother them. They shifted away from it. Just as I was thinking that if they saw us we were screwed, one of them saw us. It dropped from the ceiling. Zebulon and Earl both pointed their guns at it and fired. The chupacabra and the bullets both hit the portal and ricocheted. As we ducked, more of the creatures dropped from the ceiling and bounced against the portal. It seemed that they couldn’t get through it.

  “I hope there aren’t any gaps between the portal and the wall,” Steve said.

  “It doesn’t look like there are,” Mordecai said. “For all the natural formations, this cave is an almost perfect circle. We should stay away from the walls just in case.”

  “So now that we’ve found the source of trouble, what happens?” Earl asked.

  “Some of these symbols look familiar,” Steve said. “Do you recognize them, Cecilia?”

  “You’re right,” she said. “They’re like the symbols on the key.”

  “It’s different from the one in Fiona’s house,” I said. “This one
has a lot more writing.”

  “I think that’s because it’s a fixed destination portal,” Steve said. “Not that I’m a portal expert, but I do know that the more restrictions there are, the more writing there has to be.”

  “You’re ahead of the rest of us,” Mordecai said. Gregory was perched on my shoulder now, staring up at the portal. As I joined him in staring upwards, trying to ignore the screaming that Sparks was still sharing with me, Gregory moved to the top of my head.

  “Why would Abner have thought this place was valuable?” Steve asked.

  “Can you imagine how much money he could have made bringing tourists down here?” Mordecai said. “This must be what he was thinking about all those years he was promoting tourism.” That didn’t sound right to me, but I hadn’t known the man in life. “The only question is, did he have a plan to get past the barrier or was he going to dig a new tunnel at the mall site?”

  “It’s a long walk for a tour,” Steve said. “Most caves with artificial entrances only make you walk a few hundred feet at most. I can tell you, getting permits for any of it would be a nightmare.”

  “That’s very interesting,” Zebulon said. “If that was his plan it’s never going to happen now, so what do we do with this place?”

  “The only thing I can think of is to try to close the portal,” Cecilia said. “I don’t know how to do that though.”

  “My vote is to not touch it,” Steve said. “You can see for yourself they’re trapped on that side. Changing anything risks letting them get through to this side and then they can easily follow the tunnel back to town.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” Cecilia asked. Steve stared upwards.

  “We could fill in the crack from the other side. I’m assuming the surveyors I hired the first time were crooked because that ceiling can’t be very far below the surface.”

  “That could work,” Mordecai said. He had a digital camera with him, and he began taking pictures of the portal. “Then we can get some dynamite and concrete and seal this side properly.” We explored the chamber and spent some more time looking up, but there really wasn’t much else to do. We headed back to the tunnel. It narrowed just before the cave, so there was only room for one of us to go through at a time. I was the second to last to go through. As Cecilia went ahead of me, a fern-like appendage slid down between the portal and the wall. I shoved Cecilia forward, and it missed. She tried to get up again, and instead of going ahead, she turned to me.