On the Run (Wine of the Gods Book 28)

by Pam Uphoff

  The guards split, with four heading for the Lodge. The other two drove the cars back down the driveway, to a spot where thick trees crowded the pavement. They slewed the cars crossways to completely block the drive. The two men got out and took positions on this side to repel attackers. One of them frowned at something to his left, and edged out to get a better look.

  "The gate." Falchion spat.

  "But will they know what it is? Will they use it?" Rior was watching them closely, as the man edged into the woods.

  He came back much faster, firing wildly behind him.

  "What the hell is that!" Eldon stepped out to see better. Cross one of those desert rats that could get up on their hind legs and run with a really big water lizard and you might come close to this thing. Things. The first one was bleeding from a dozen bullet holes and collapsed slowly. The other three were still coming.

  "Dinosaurs." Rior sounded stunned. "Velociraptors."

  "They don't look like hawks to me." Heso wiggled his left hand. "How dangerous are they?"

  "Very. Falchion, no, Jade, you'll have to do it. Get down right in front of our SUV and open a gate back to Comet Fall."

  "Right. Heso, I'll need your assistance."

  The dino-whatevers had everyone's attention, now. The Yuppies were screaming to be cut loose. The things had stopped to examine their fallen pack mate, and the bodyguards were taking up positions inside the cars.

  One of the dinos darted forward and snapped at a guard, hitting the glass windshield. The man reached for the key, and dino jumped away from the sudden noise of the engine. One of the other raptors was looking up hill. Bellamiso and his men gawped. Then the dinos slunk forward, into the parking lot. Bellamiso slid into the SUV and his guards jumped for the other doors. The dinos heads snapped around to stare toward the lodge, and following their gaze, Eldon spotted the returning bodyguards, carrying Fean and Baik. The four men stopped dead, and stared. One dino, looked back at the SUV, then back to the people who were now retreating toward the lodge. The two unencumbered guards had their guns out already, and as the dinos advanced, started firing as they retreated, the other two dropped the girls and drew guns, still retreating.

  Eldon cursed and bolted for the lodge. He tried holding his light warp, but the dinos saw something, or perhaps heard his footsteps as he careened up the icy path. The one in the rear turned and charged him and he slashed out at it, barely slicing a shoulder. It flinched, and he dropped the light warp. He slashed again, and at short range the slice took its head off. He jumped to the side and dodged the reflexively kicking legs and threw a fireball from the limit of his range at the dino that had paused at the limp girls.

  The big lizard leaped and turned to snap at its singed tail. It focused on Eldon's movement and leaped at him. Eldon slipped on the icy path, scrambled to keep his feet. Another slice, as he went down, and the gutted and frantic animal was all over him. He curled up and shielded as a ton of thrashing blood and entrails fell on him.

  Once it stopped twitching he tried to force his way out, levitate a bit and crawl. He released his shield as he spotted Ajha reaching for him.

  "The girls?" he staggered to his feet.

  "Fine. Thanks to you." Ajha cast a glance down the hill. "The police are still down by the road, I . . . if they are also interested in you, this would be a good time to run for it."

  Eldon took a couple of deep breaths. Hob was helping Baik to her feet, Fean was still limp, but her glow was solid.

  Eldon grinned and headed down hill. "You might mention to the cops that a wall across that gate down there would be a really good idea."

  "Indeed. Soon." Ajha stepped across the dinosaur's tail to lift Fean's shoulders and drag her back toward the lodge.

  Eldon cut into the trees and slipped and slid downhill. He could see Jade's gate just starting to attach. Bellemiso and his people were lying around, asleep. The witches doing, no doubt. With luck they'd freeze to death before the spell wore off. The police were just coming into view. He warped light around himself and walked up to Epee, visible only as a faint distortion in the air.

  "Shall we take the other SUVs?"

  "Good idea." She headed for the further one. Eldon gratefully climbed into the nearer and waited, door still open, until the first SUV started. Then he closed the door, turned the key and followed the battered one through the gate. Perhaps the police rushing up the drive yelled at him, maybe even shot. He was too tired to care or even notice. He followed Rior, crashing and thumping through thick brush and scarcely larger trees. They stopped a few car lengths out, and the gate swirled down and disappeared.

  Eldon rolled his window down. Dusty and brushy, a smoky dinner cooking somewhere, and some indefinable sense that said "Home."

  Chapter Twelve

  Wednesday 16 November 2015

  Dice Creek

  The police approached the blockade cautiously, but the cars had been abandoned. There was something bloody and messy uphill in the trees and snow. It wasn't moving, and what he could see wasn't believable. Jim heard shots and shouting from uphill, and shelved the oddity. He slid across the hood of a car and trotted up the drive, alert for movement. He heard car engines and sprinted. The Animals' SUVs were in motion. He raised his gun, but froze as the vehicles drove into a whirling white spot, like water down a sideways drain hole above the snow. The SUVs disappeared. The whirling spot shrunk and disappeared.

  Bellemiso and his guards were sprawled around the parking lot, the Animal Gang was tied to trees.

  "What happened here?" Jim studied the tableau.

  Martha was frowning at Eldon, tied to a tree.

  All of the adult Animals were present. All tied up to trees just beyond the lone car. No sign of the kids. Probably inside the lodge. Jim frowned back down the driveway. No whirlpool, no SUVs.

  Martha was eyeing the three men and four women cautiously, and instead of untying them, poked at Rior. "So, what happened?"

  "Don't just stand there, untie me! I'm not one of them, whatever you want them for."

  "He made that helicopter crash." Falchion jerked her head toward Eldon. "Then they tied us up and drove off. We didn't have anything to do with their escaping."

  "They sound funny." Martha bit her lip and stepped up to Rior. "What is your name?"

  "Chip Berringar. Pleased to meet you, now let me go! We need to get out of here before more dinosaurs attack." Rior wiggled and looked over at his fellows, did a classic double take. "Hey! I thought Marley was over there."

  "I am Marley, who the hell . . . you sound like Chip, but you look like that skinny black haired fellow."

  "And I'd recognize that whiney voice anywhere." Jim muttered. "Dirk, go back to the car and get help up here soonest." He studied the bound people in perplexity. When they'd caught up to Bellemiso it had turned into slapstick comedy, cars sliding on ice. They'd managed to skid past Bellemiso's vehicles and force him to turn around, only to come back to this absurdity.

  "Jim, this is a bit weird." Martha cozied up to him.

  He shook his head abruptly. "Damn it, you'd think I was a kid at a horror show. Very funny, you lot, excellent voice imitation. Now. You are all under arrest on the charge of felony Bank Robbery. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney . . . "

  "God damn it, cut us loose. We're not bank robbers. Get this stupid makeup off our faces, this is not funny, damn it."

  Weird. Jim looked back as more of his people joined them. "Let's get Bellemiso and his people tied up, and off the ground before they freeze. We'll haul them back to the lodge, then bring the Animals."

  Jim heard cars out on the street, and trotted back down the road. It was, thank god, reinforcements. He recognized the Regional Director, no doubt here to gain glory by personally arresting the Animal gang. Recognition was mutual, so the armored and helmeted fellows with the big guns didn't shoot him.

  "Move these cars if you can, we've got everyone under arrest up the hill. I need to check a spot here,
with the troops please."

  The Director frowned at the bloody mess ten feet off the road. "Err?"

  Jim didn't try to explain. He climbed through the half melted and refrozen snow, circled the beast and walked up to the clear space between clumps of pines. Eldon had thrown the whatever this way. "Should have been playing football." He slowed down. There was a sharp line between melting snow and green grass. Ferns and short palm trees. A circle of greenery, centered on a whirlpool of light. Warm moist air poured from the whirlpool, carrying a marshy rotten vegetation smell. Jim circled the whirlpool. Side on it was a bright line, from the back it was invisible. He finished his circle to find the Director and two troops staring slack jawed at the whirlpool.

  "Sir, I think I need to report a Very Strange Phenomenon. Is there any place to report it to?"

  The Director pointed at the whirlpool. "T-that's a triceratops! What if it comes through?"

  Jim didn't see anything but white. "I suppose it'll freeze. I think we should get a very strong barrier up around this . . . phenomenon. If these two men could stay here and shoot anything that comes through . . . I'll move a car up here, so it's halfway blocked. We need to get Bellemiso and the Animals booked in somewhere. Then we can study this at our leisure. Umm, I've got some licenses to put out an APB on, as well." Although I don't think those SUVs went anywhere we can trace.

  The Director pulled his eyes away from the whirlpool and walked back to the messy remains. "This is a velociraptor. Very dangerous. I will . . . try and find out if we've got a . . . department to deal with this."

  ***

  Two hours later the Animals and Bellemiso had been taken away to the county jail for processing, The arabish looking Ione family was being treated for shock and concussion and only the Animal Gang's children and the physicist group were still missing. The FBI's impressive line up of assistance had been suborned to babysitting the whirlpool, while sacks of concrete were being brought in to build a temporary barrier. Bellemiso's waking assessment of his predicament had been swift, and his reaction indecipherable. The Animal's had continued their hysterical protestations of alternate identity. It was nearly as weird as the whirlpool.

  Jim had hitched a ride with a deputy to the nearest car rental agency and rented another one. At the County Offices, he plugged his comp into the Sheriff's hard line and sent abbreviated reports to everyone who deserved one. He left out seeing the Animals drive though another whirlpool that closed behind them. He did mention that the Animals were still pretending to be the yuppie physicists and their wives. They had lawyers, with big name lawyers coming out of the woodwork and flying in to represent them. The four states that had had banks robbed argued about jurisdiction and extradition. Bellemiso had made a single call and not said a word since.

  The National Guard had their track mounted machine gun watching the doorway into the Dinosaur land, which was being blocked with stacks of concrete ready mix under and around the car, and a sheet of plexiglass above it. They were promising a better barrier within days. The circle of anomalous vegetation bothered him nearly as much as the doorway itself.

  Dinosaur experts were enroute.

  Jim wondered if he could resign and escape the circus that was going to surround the rest of the investigation.

  Martha and Char wandered into his borrowed office.

  "There's four cases of full blown hysteria on the women's side of the jail." Martha perched herself on his desk. "Go on, tell him."

  Jim looked at Char. She was blushing madly.

  "See, I thought I must have fallen asleep when I was on duty last night. Because I dreamed this big strange cat turned halfway human and kissed me, and err . . ."

  "Umm, is this the sort of dream you ought to tell your boss?"

  "It wasn't a dream. Or at least the hair from my coat wasn't. The lab just came back and said it was the longest cat hair they'd ever seen, and the tissue I wiped with . . . DNA match with Eldon. I had the doctor draw blood and got a urine sample and all that for drug testing. But, Jim, what if the Animals are the hyper 'magic' engineered freaks everyone claims will happen? What if they really can change shape? What if they really did change the yuppies to look like them, and then walked away scot free with their kids. They loaded up everything, the kids' toys, the play gyms, the books and book shelves, the big screen TV . . . and left the money. Like they were going back to Elvenheim and the money was useless."

  "Umm. First you're mixing up Genetic Engineering Horror scenarios with Fantasies. And second . . . I suppose we could check fingerprints, DNA and so forth, to get a good fix on our prisoners' identities. Right. The physicists must have doctors, and if their work was classified, they've probably been vetted by us, so we'll have all that. Hmm. Why don't you take a few days off, until we get the drug screens back?" Not that there will be anything. I saw the SUVs drive away to Elvenheim.

  Char blew out her breath. "Sorry. I feel like such an idiot. I mean, Eldon! The last man I'd pick in the whole world!"

  "Heh. Not the worst thing that could happen. Harwin's in the hospital with serious frostbite. The helicopter did indeed belong to Bellemiso, as did two fingers on the ground; rotor must have hit him. Three dead bodies, all came up in the UN registry as wanted criminals, now believed to be with Bellemiso. Fingerprints in the copter, I'm still waiting to hear. Speaking of which, let me see if our captives' fingerprints have been run, and I'll request a cross check . . ."

  Martha and Char left him to his work. From the hallway, Martha's voice wafted back. "So how does a deer kiss?"

  "It was a cat, damn it. Fluffy and soft . . . he nipped. Gently."

  It was going to be an even busier month than he'd thought.

  They got rooms at a nice anonymous hotel close enough to walk to the Sheriff's office, but only got to enjoy a half a night's sleep, before a bunch of military analysts arrived at 2 AM.

  He repeated, five times over, verbatim, the conversation between Bellemiso and the physicists. What he saw when Bellemiso set the bomb in the driveway. The blinding white light. The SUVs driving into another white whirlpool and disappearing, taking the whirlpool with them. No matter who was in the lock up, the three prototypes and the full scale model were all gone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Thursday 17 November 2015

  Dice Creek

  It was almost dawn by the time the analysts' car drove up to the lodge. The National Guard lieutenant on duty recognized him, and waved them all in. They parked on the driveway, with all the other cars.

  "Looks like a cop convention." Jim ducked under the crime scene tape and surveyed the parking lot. The helicopter and the four cars it had sort of landed on were still the centerpiece. The wrecked Yuppie car was still in its original position.

  The lights were on in the lodge, and the Cook turned away from a table against the wall to look at them. "Oh, you're back, Mister Kelso. Or is it captain or something?"

  "Inspector, if we're going to be formal. FBI. Looks like you're back in business." The table held a variety of electric appliances, even a small oven.

  "Well, I wouldn't try to run a restaurant with this set up, but I can feed the family and this herd of police. Will you tell me what's going on?"

  "No big secret any more, I suppose. If you've heard about all the bank robberies back East, people wearing animal masks? We think that was Rior and Eldon and all. Then Mr. Bellemiso is a big foreign drug lord, we can't figure what he was doing up here, except maybe meeting the Animal robbers for money laundering."

  "Oh, not Eldon!"

  "I know, our Big Hero. What those four yuppie couples and the Ione family had to do with it all, we don't know, probably nothing, but they sure did run off fast."

  She heaved a sigh. "They found Mrs. Bellemiso, you know? Hiding in the North wing, it's a wonder she didn't get smushed. It looks pretty bad, with the snow melting and if it rains, the weight that's going to be leaning on the walls, well, I suppose it couldn't get any worse.

  "Is your sister around? We
need to look at the rooms they were in first, and then the ones they moved to."

  "Oh, all the doors are open. Now you be careful!"

  He smiled and led the analysts to the rooms. "They look pretty stripped."

  They smirked and started opening their kits. "Why don't you go wait outside, minimize the contamination."

  He walked to the other wing, and eyed all the tedious, detailed lab work and decided to stay out of their way as well. In his favorite seat in the lobby, he opened his comp and checked for a signal. Yes, finally. He had a line up of emails, and started with the first one from the biometrics lab. None of the Animals was in a criminal database. The second one informed him that the seven prisoners all matched the FBI security clearance scan from eight years ago for Chip and Deidre Beringar, Bruce and Vivian Gephardt, Marley and Suzette Wilson, and Brooke Reynolds.

  The Sheriff's people apologized for the lack of arrest photographs, but someone had mixed up the photos with those of people who didn't look at all like the prisoners.

  He checked the others, then suggested to Martha that a CAT scan of their faces might be interesting.

  After a long hard thought, he walked upstairs, to his original room. A wine glass with a dried stain, a bit damp in the middle.

  Two kids, badly injured according to the deputy. He said Eldon had them drink something. Is it more than an incredible aphrodisiac?

  He sealed it into an evidence bag and slipped it into his pocket.

  He wandered back to the Analysts, and showed them the email. "I think your physicists are in jail, and my Animal Gang is at large. I've recommended CAT scans for the seven of them."

  "What for? Do-it-yourself-in-the-parking-lot cosmetic surgery?" The lead guy turned back to dismantling the drain under the sink.

  Outside, more activity drew him. The paleontologists had apparently freaked over the Velociraptors, and then with much covering firepower, walked through the doorway to collect soil, plant and insect samples. They were waving their hands and talking about how the ferny circle's soil matched that on the far side, and had little in common with the local soil. Or vegetation.