by Susan Lain
Eliot's mind cleared, and he snapped his fingers. "That's where I remember you from. You were among the scientists who evaluated environmental contamination after Loreblast."
If Eliot remembered correctly, Howe had been one of the scientists who'd made it awfully clear that the world had irrevocably changed. The doctor had a long, lustrous career in debunking the fake scientific claims about the safety of the fossil fuel industry.
"Yes." Howe closed his mouth. This seemed like a topic he didn't feel like elaborating on. Eliot understood.
"Thank you for your service to the environment, the country, and us." Eliot bowed his head slightly, shook hands with the doctor again, and then rushed after Alek who was still none the wiser that his companion wasn't right on his heels.
*~*~*
"What conclusions, if any, did you draw from the interview?" Alek asked as they drove off again. As usual, a tiny scrunch formed between his eyebrows.
Eliot pondered whether Alek was even able to unwind? He seemed so tense and put-together all the time. Surely he had to relax from his work-related stress sometimes. Alek was lean and fit, with wide shoulders but narrow hips. Perhaps Alek used swimming to unwind? Eliot could picture him in water.
The mental image gave Eliot an untimely boner in the passenger seat of Alek's car, so he quickly refocused on their work, sliding down in the seat and slumping. "Apart from the exact location where the problem occurred and Howe's professional focus, he didn't give us any new information. Why? Did you learn something I missed?"
Alek didn't reply. The frown marring his forehead merely deepened. That had to be a no, right?
Eliot hated being in the dark. His temper threatened to flare. "Are we going back to CEPA?" he tried again.
"No. We're meeting with Roger Park."
Eliot bit the inside of his cheek, unsure of what to make of this. He recognized that name as well. Roger Park was the second person to complain about his car's gas gremlin. "Is this really necessary? I feel like we're wasting time better spent elsewhere."
"Oh? Such as?" Alek's caustic tone made Eliot clench his fists. No sign of his boner anymore.
Unfortunately, Eliot didn't have a worthwhile response ready. He just didn't see the value of reinterviewing people who likely had nothing new to add. Nonetheless, he went along since, as Alek had pointed out, what the hell else would Eliot be doing otherwise?
So, twenty-five minutes later, Alek swerved the car under the concrete canopy sheltering the entrance to the Capital Hilton hotel. Tiny lit junipers grew on both sides of the main doors with wooden frames and large windows, and square overheads cast a blue glow above the driveway.
Like in the University Library, Eliot and Alek didn't make it inside.
A man in an impeccable business suit stepped out of a cherry-red sports car. His black hair was swept back, glistening with ample doses of gel, and his expensive aftershave could be smelled half a mile away. Clearly he wasn't born into class, Eliot concluded. The man had also had work done on his face, sculpted to a visage that screamed unnatural.
"Mr. Park?" Alek closed the gap between them and flashed his badge. "I called you earlier about the issue you had with your gas gremlin."
"Ah, yes. MERF and…CETA, was it?" Roger Park's elegant, plucked eyebrow rose a bit to show utter disdain. Eliot cringed inwardly but didn't speak. He was seconds away from smacking the guy on his perfectly straight nose. "I'm really busy right now but—" He glanced at his watch. "I can give you five minutes."
Alek flipped open his notebook. "Can you describe the events leading up to problem, when and where it happened, the outcome?"
Park blew out an impatient breath as he straightened his cufflinks, clearly just as unhappy as Doctor Howe to recount information he'd already been through. "I was driving from this hotel to the Marriott in Wardman Park for a business meeting."
"With that car?" Eliot interjected, pointing at the luxury vehicle in the driveway.
Park scoffed. "No. That one's new. The problem car? I got rid of it. No point in repairing it if it's such trash." He cast a loving glance at his new ride. "Do you like it? It's a Porsche. Top of the line. Both the oil hellion and the gas gremlin purr like kittens. Cost me a pretty penny. Then again, I make more money in a month than you two combined in a year, I dare say."
Eliot began to rethink his policy on not hitting people. Park had a habit of lilting his voice in a way that turned each sentence into a snide remark.
Alek, on the other hand, seemed easily able to keep his cool. "Where and when did you notice the problem?"
Park threw his head to let out a long suffering sigh. "Where? Oh, I can't remember." Then he snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes. I was at Dupont Circle. It's always such a bitch to navigate that tiny whirlpool of fucking atrocious traffic. Just as I found a spot and snuck in, that's when the gas gremlin started to rumble and bellow like a bull in heat. I'm telling you, the noise was deafening. Naturally, I had to pull over on Connecticut Avenue."
"And then?" Alek asked, his eyes narrowed like those of a predator in full view of his prey. Eliot found himself shivering at the hardened look, even though it wasn't aimed at him—and not all of his tremors were cold.
Park began fiddling with his phone, his voice already distracted. "I called a tow truck. Then a cab. I left the car in the care of the trucker and told him to junk the damn thing. Went to the Marriott for drinks, met a beautiful woman and spent the night in her bed, tied to the bedpost, I think."
Eliot seriously considered vomiting.
Alek, however, nodded, closed his notebook, and said, "Thank you for your help, Mr. Park." Then, like before, he swiveled around and headed back the way they'd come.
Eliot hung back. "Just out of curiosity, Mr. Park, what do you do for a living?"
Park was still engrossed in his phone but absentmindedly he replied, "I'm a corporate attorney, mainly working with big oil and gas companies. Big money. Or at least it was. Now they're mostly gone, dismantled, bankrupt, or buried under millions of criminal and civilian law suits." He ambled away, his attention so on his gadget that he almost walked into the door.
Eliot murmured his goodbyes to Park's back and followed Alek.
They didn't speak until they were inside the car. Alek didn't turn on the ignition. He stared out through the windshield where droplets began to land. A drizzle blurred the view in a matter of minutes. Thankfully it wasn't pouring so hard that the rainomalies came out to play. Driving would be dangerous under those conditions.
"What did you make of that?" Alek asked after a long silence.
Eliot thought he'd spotted a couple of new things this time. "Both incidents occurred late at night and at traffic circles."
Alek offered a brief lopsided grin, there and gone again. "Yes. Neither of those facts were in the case files."
"Dates and places were logged," Eliot disagreed but then understood what Alek meant. "Except it's hard to tell from a mere time of day alone if the sun's gone down. It must have been dark."
"Exactly." Alek started the car and faced Eliot with a burning gaze. "We're finally getting somewhere. Once we get back to the office, we should check if there's been any off occurrences in traffic circles of late. It's a small lead but it's all we've got."
As Alek steered the car back into late afternoon traffic, Eliot remembered a curious notion from earlier. The cases seemed confined to D.C. and not spread to the rest of the country, let alone worldwide. Eliot mulled over what could be so special about this town that mythkin acted up here exclusively.
Whatever it was, he doubted it would be an easy riddle to solve.
He cast a surreptitious glance at Alek. For once, Eliot was glad he had a partner. Such as he was.
Chapter Five
Alek had already grown to dislike the cubicle of an office room he and Eliot had for their investigation. The air was musty, cobwebs clung to the shady corners of the ceiling, and their one light source above flickered without a predictable pattern. The only bright sp
ot was the baffling case of misbehaving gas gremlins that fired up Alek's imagination.
"Has there ever been any indication that the mythkin are susceptible to changes in seasons or time of day or the weather?" Eliot asked from his seat opposite Alek, across the table.
Alek listened to Eliot's baffled voice. It was unclear if he was speaking rhetorically. He did have a dulcet voice, Alek mused. Slightly nasal, a tad melodic, full of fiery attitude. There was a lot about Eliot that peeved Alek, but his voice wasn't among them.
Neither was that lithe, short-statured body that beckoned Alek to bend him over and go to town. Alek's hands itched to bare that perky bottom and spank the living daylights out of Eliot till his buttcheeks glowed red with Alek's palm prints and he couldn't talk back.
"Nothing MERF has observed over the past year suggests that mythkin are sensitive to any of the above," Alek replied, coughing to clear his throat and his wicked thoughts. Maybe more than just the case was firing up Alek's imagination. "Why would time or weather affect them in any way considering mythkin are not entirely of this world?"
Eliot looked up from a case file, his gaze glassy, a frown scrunching his nose cutely. "If we theorize that mythkin are like animals, even animals are aware of certain types of environmental and temporal changes."
"Yes, but that applies to animals native to our phase. The mythkin are not that."
"Not entirely, as you yourself stated," Eliot corrected Alek with an annoying know-it-all tone. "Perhaps the effect is latent or gradual. Or maybe it's related to this town somehow. Nothing has been reported in any other town across the nation. I just rechecked."
Alek leaned back in his chair. "Traffic circles are hardly natural formations." He sighed as he crossed his arms behind his neck. "The mythkin seem more attracted to technology than ecology. But that could simply be the result of technology utilizing their special nature and they're drawn to it."
For a while Eliot didn't speak. He stared at the wall and chewed on the inside of his cheek. Alek waited him out. Finally Eliot muttered, "I've been going over the complaints. You're right. All of them took place in traffic circles after dark—to people with vocations connected to gas and oil."
That was new. Alek straightened up and met Eliot's gaze. "Are you sure?"
"Doctor Howe researches environmental effects of oil spills, coal mining and gas drilling. He especially worked on the aftermath of Loreblast. Mr. Park defends big oil and gas companies in and out of court as a defense lawyer. The rest of the cases are similar. So we have people on both sides: victims and villains, scientists and businessmen, politicians and civilians."
Alek breathed in and out a few times to get his head into gear. "That would explain why in Howe's case, for example, the vehicle experiencing problems didn't even belong to him, but to the university. The gas gremlin raised hell only once Howe was behind the wheel. And he was the first to be afflicted, after all."
Eliot pursed his lips, seemingly doubtful. "Could be a coincidence."
Grudgingly, Alek had to admit Eliot had a point. "Yes, that's possible."
Because, in the end, if Alek finished the chain of conclusions to the bitter end, if the gas gremlin in the car only malfunctioned during Howe's drive, that suggested the gremlin knew who was driving. Nothing in mythkin behavior thus far showed that they were aware of humans or cared about their existence one way or the other. Mythkin were indifferent to humanity.
But if they weren't…and if they were able to actually recognize individual people…then they were either sentient or intelligent—or both. And that idea frightened Alek because it placed responsibility for the treatment of mythkin squarely in human hands.
Whose hands would that be?
And did those coveted qualities of sentience make humans and mythkin…equal?
He became aware that Eliot was studying him, head cocked and expression pensive. "You know, ever since you told me about your cryptozoology degree, I've been trying to figure out how it helps you with the mythkin when they aren't native to our dimension."
Though he didn't show it, Alek was pleased Eliot had asked, especially after his initial derisive reaction to the revelation. Alek was forced to admit that Eliot displayed amiable consideration of others, something Alek never bothered with.
"It used to be a pseudoscience. After Loreblast, attitudes changed when it became apparent that, of all the sciences out there, only cryptozoology dealt with cryptids like the mythkin."
Eliot frowned. "What are cryptids?"
Alek moved into teaching mode. "Cryptids are basically mystical animals of unknown origins. They could be anomalies of animals sighted in odd places, survivals of extinct species, or mythical animals with zoological bases, such as dragons that were inspired by real dinosaur fossils. Or they could be supernatural or paranormal creatures with animal-like characteristics."
Eliot smiled as understanding dawned on him. "Ah. That's where the mythkin come in."
"Yes. MERF views the mythkin as that last classification and as trans-phase creatures."
Eliot nodded. "And that's been useful in your research into the mythkin?"
"The field has provided MERF scientists an approach and a methodology, so the answer is yes." Alek turned his gaze inward, remembering how hard it had been initially to gain traction for his ideas. "Cryptozoology attempts to prove the existence of cryptids so, to a certain extent, we have achieved our goal. Of course, because of the dual-phase nature of mythkin, some people argue that our application of pseudoscientific methods only serves to obfuscate things. But I try not to let that get to me."
Eliot gave him a sympathetic look. "That's a wise way of looking at things. Don't let the haters bring you down."
Alek kept his stony facade since he didn't know Eliot well enough yet to ascertain the true motives behind his words. Alek nodded slightly. He appreciated Eliot's sentiment. "Nonetheless, since cryptozoology isn't widely accepted in the scientific community or generally familiar to the public at large, MERF was forced to find a new and different label for the creatures instead of cryptid. Hence…mythkin. Trans-phase entities is a classification used exclusively within MERF by the scientists, field agents, and researchers."
Eliot leaned over the table, a fascinated gleam in eyes so light-green that they appeared almost translucent. The color enthralled Alek. His cock sure was entranced, throbbing with a slow, sensual heat that made him yearn for privacy.
Alek clenched his fists in the hope of squashing his urges. It'd been over a year since the last time he'd had sex with a submissive. He didn't know or care if Eliot was a sub, only if he was gay, ready and willing. Or if any man in the vicinity was those things. Yes, that was it. It wasn't Eliot, per se. Alek was just horny.
But his brain refused to buy that line of crap when Alek was staring into the green depths of Eliot's eyes. After that sight, what other man would do?
With an awed tone, Eliot asked, "How many different mythkin has MERF documented by now?"
Alek didn't need to review the data he knew by heart. "The first division is dirty and clean energy mythkin, as everyone knows. Renewable versus non-renewable energy mythkin. We have retained that differentiation, despite the fact that mythkin don't actually demonstrate any difference between clean and dirty energy. Anyway, the second division is based on disposition, as some are extremely dangerous and violent, such as oil hellions, while others are peaceful and non-aggressive, like photon faeries."
"I heard a rumor that photon faeries can produce blinding light," Eliot interjected.
Alek blushed at the undesirable topic. "Well, uh, not exactly. There's a flash of light and heat when photon faeries and solar sprites…uh, you know…mate. I mean, synergize."
Eliot's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "What? Really?"
Alek shifted, discomfort agitating him. "There's been observations of these two classes of mythkin involved in, um…coupling activities. It only lasts for a second or so. But I suppose, yes, there's a shockingly bright, burning ligh
t then."
Eliot laughed. "You said MERF has no clue how the mythkin reproduce. Yet now you're telling me they have sex?"
"They blend together into a seamless unit and become as one, indistinguishable from one another. Hence the term synergy." Alek rolled his eyes, back in control. "Same as with humans, sex doesn't always have to result in offspring."
"So…the mythkin use teeny-tiny condoms, do they?" Eliot smirked, flicking his tongue at Alek who fidgeted in his seat, awkward again. Eliot was too attractive for his own good. A spanking started to sound good again.
"T-there's no evidence to s-suggest—" Alek stammered, coughing to clear his throat. His skin felt feverish, and he rubbed his throbbing forehead.
"That was a joke," Eliot cut in, raising a knowing eyebrow. Before Alek could react in any way, Eliot arched his back, strained his neck, raised his arms above his head, and yawned. "It's late. Can we continue this tomorrow?"
When Alek worked on his own, he often either forgot or blatantly ignored the passage of time. Frowning in confusion, he looked at the clock on the wall—and was surprised to see how late it really was. He'd kept Eliot at work the whole day. Eliot's off-day. Shame and guilt flooded Alek but not a hint of them showed on his hard-boiled face.
"Yes, of course. My apologies for keeping you here so late." Alek stood, smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles on his clothes, and prepared to vacate the premises. Had the choice been his, he would have continued to work. Alek required little sleep.
Eliot chuckled, shrugging. "No problem. This was…an interesting day. I don't often get to leave the office and go out on the field." He stood as well and put on his jacket. As he adjusted his collar, he asked, "What's on the agenda for tomorrow? More interviews?"
Alek paused to weigh their options. Would further inquiries in person reveal more details? So far, the statements seemed rather uniform. Little new information would likely surface. However, sitting in a small cubicle or a tiny car with Eliot—tempting Eliot—for a long period of time would exacerbate Alek's already tenuous self-control.