In Stone Vol. 1-6: The First Six Travis Eldritch Problems (A Travis Eldritch Problem)

by Jennifer Vandenberg

  Instead I decided today had been enough of a disaster and we would start fresh tomorrow. We parted ways and I headed back to the office to check for messages and shut everything down for the night.

  As I opened the door to our office, my mind was on missing crawlers and wondering if we should have the office fumigated, so I was caught off guard to see our missing person sitting behind Jet’s desk. He had a squirt gun pointed at me as I came in. I shut the door and stood still. I didn’t think the gun held water.

  “Please come in Mr. Eldritch. I mean you no harm.”

  “Says the man with two dead friends and a gun pointed at me.”

  He set the gun down and stood up. “I had to make sure you were alone. I am in great danger.”

  I risked moving and sat down at my desk. He sat back down also and I swiveled to look at him. With his slightly disheveled suit and shaggy salt and pepper hair, he looked too young to be anyone’s grandfather. “Yeah, I got that feeling. Is Ms. Nun even your granddaughter?”

  “She is, but she is not trying to find me out of love or worry. She works for an organization that wishes to make a very potent weapon.”

  He saw me looking at the squirt gun. “Their weapon would make this seem as harmless as water. Imagine a venom mixture that could be injected using a blow dart and would kill instantly with intense pain. Since it could be fired from a distance no one would be safe.”

  “Would this weapon have crawler and slither venom in it?”

  He nodded. “Yes and when Othen and Gravas wouldn’t provide what this organization needed they were killed.”

  I took out the letter Jet had found. “Is this organization like a scientific collaboration?”

  “It is.”

  “And is this scientific collaboration a Battleboy project?”

  He nodded. “It is. That is why I am hiding from my granddaughter.”

  “And why does she need you?”

  “The weapon would use three venoms. I study venomous skinflyers.”

  I was surprised. “Skinflyers. I thought they were helpful animals. You always hear about them eating bloodsucking crawlers and stuff.”

  “That is one type of skinflyer. I study types found only on Panthon. These skinflyers consume whiskersqueaks and other small animals by injecting them with venom and then eating them once they have decayed.”

  That sounded horrible to me but I figured Anda would find it fascinating. “So this organization has two of the three venoms they need.”

  “Yes, and if they find me then they will have access to all three.”

  “So shouldn’t you be hiding somewhere?”

  He nodded. “I’ll be safe on Panthon. Venomous animals cannot be kept on the moons they are found on.”

  That seemed weird. “Why not?”

  “There are government agencies that regulate venomous animals very carefully. Many these animals are difficult to collect or are very rare. The wardens make sure that not just anyone can keep one. One way they do that is to allow collections only off-moon. There are huge fines for keeping these animals in captivity on their native moon.”

  Ah, the ignorance of bureaucracy. I would assume that the fine would not stop most people who really wanted a poisonous animal as a pet. “But surely a criminal organization like the Battleboys wouldn’t care about fines.”

  He nodded again. “Probably not. But it is not easy to extract venom safely. You have to have studied these animals for years. That is easier to do if you have a collection. There are very few people who can even get permits to collect these venomous animals. So there are very few people who the Battleboys can recruit.”

  “And now there are two less. You need to be very careful,” I said. “Will Jem have to give up his plan if he can’t access your venom source?”

  “No, they may be slowed down, but I am sure the Battleboys will come up with something. Anyone who tries to break into my lab will get a nasty dose of venom, but if they send many people someone will get in.”

  “So it is not just enough for you to leave. The organization needs to be broken up,” I said.

  “At least the head scientist needs to be stopped. Without his expertise they would have to end the project.”

  “Does your granddaughter know this scientist?”

  “She works for him. That is why I carry a squirt gun filled with Greying skinflyer venom. It causes your blood to become so thin that it seeps out your pores.”

  Yuck. I stood up. “Well I wish you luck. We will not be looking for you anymore, but it sounds like we need to hunt down Ms. Nun.”

  “Be careful. Her Problem can make her hard to find.”

  “What is her Problem?”

  “Variable shrinking.”

  I stared at him as I sat back down. “Really?”

  “Why not? They can do anything they want. I study skinflyers because my skin cannot be punctured.”

  “That seems like a great Problem to have.”

  “Sure. Except that I cannot get any vaccines or ever have blood drawn.”

  I nodded. “Every Problem has its dark side.”

  He shrugged, headed for the door, and waved with his gun. “Thank you for keeping my whereabouts a secret. I wish you luck in finding my granddaughter.”

  With that he left and I wished him luck with getting off-moon. I figured I’d have an easier time getting home than he would. How wrong can I be? I managed to get out of my chair and ended up standing stone still. I internally closed my eyes and cursed Them. Yep. Every Problem has its dark side.

  ●●●

  “Travis. Don’t move!”

  I woke up and would have moved except I was still a statue. The room was lit up by the Suntern light coming through the windows so I assumed it was morning. Anda was standing in front of me wearing one of her dull wrap dresses with the desk between us. Three coffees sat on my desk along with a piece of paper that had not been there last night. She was staring at my left shoulder, but of course I could not see what she was seeing and I didn’t feel anything since I was basically a rock.

  “Travis, I don’t know how much you can feel as a statue, but you have a crawler on your shoulder, and I am willing bet it is venomous. How long have you been like this? Did you see who put this on you?”

  I wanted to tell her that I had been asleep so I didn’t know anything, but hey, I can’t talk as a statue. Outside I was as still as, well a statue, but inside I was quaking. I have no control over when I become a statue or when I stop being a statue. What will happen if I turn while this crawler is still on me? I am usually very weak after becoming flesh again. Could I knock him off in time?

  “Let me think a second. I’ll figure out a way to get him off you.”

  No. I knew Anda didn’t fear the crawlers, but was she crazy? She could get bit. I squirmed and screamed in my mind, but of course Anda could not see or hear anything except a cold stone face. She was looking around for something but I didn’t know what. Her eyes landed on the coffees and she nodded. Picking one up, she took it over to the dying plant in the corner and poured it out. That was probably more liquid than that plant had gotten in a month, I thought wryly. Returning, she picked up the paper on the desk and glanced at it. Her hand flew to her mouth and she moaned.

  “Travis. Ms. Nun has Jet. The note says that if we don’t tell her where her grandfather is that he would encounter a lot more crawlers than you are now.” Her eyes teared up. “Poor Jet. He’s so afraid of crawlers already. He must be terrified.”

  It was worse than that, I thought. He went from being a four-foot imp to a twelve-foot giant tomorrow. How could he avoid the crawlers if he was that large? Crawler or not, I needed to change back. But I couldn’t. I’ve never had any control over this Problem. I cursed Them using every word I could think of. Anda may not have been able to hear me but I hoped They could.

  “Whatever you do, don’t move,” Anda came around the desk with the empty cup and the paper. Was she joking? How was I going to move? If I could move,
I would have stopped her from doing what I knew she was going to do. All I could picture was her getting bit as I stood there stone still. I was glad I couldn’t see left or right. I didn’t want to watch her die.

  “Gotcha.” She came back into my vision with the cup help upright in her hand and the paper on top of it. I internally sighed with relief.

  “Now let’s get this guy in a better home.”

  She folded the top of paper cup over and put a metal clip on it. She then drank out of another of the cups. “Good thing I got iced coffee today. I can drink it much faster. Oh good, you’re back.”

  I lay on the floor looking up at the ceiling and decided I was glad I was back. I was also glad I had hired Anda. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  She leaned over the desk to look at me. “I just used the same method I use at home to get crawlers out of my apartment.”

  “Anda, the last time I checked you were female. You are supposed to be afraid of crawlers.”

  She laughed and walked over to me. “You forget. I am from Auronan. We love anything that is ugly. Plus we don’t have any venomous crawlers on my moon. So most of us enjoy studying and admiring crawlers of all shapes and sizes.” She kicked my shin. “And lots of females can handle crawlers. We don’t all go crying to a man.”

  “You should meet my landlady,” I said. Sitting up I tested my head. Deciding that it wasn’t going to fall off I stood up all the way. “I hope the note gave a clue to where they were keeping Jet.”

  She nodded. “Dr. Othen’s lab.”

  “Great, Jet’s worst nightmare. We had better hurry. He turns into a giant tomorrow.”

  Anda’s eyes went wide. “He’d tip most of the jars off their shelves.”

  I nodded. “And they would break when they hit the floor.”

  Anda swallowed the last of her coffee. She took the cup and slid it around the cup containing the crawler. She folded it around the inside one and put the paper cage in her purse. “Never know when a little venom might come in handy.”

  “You are one scary lady.”

  She winked. “Don’t you forget it.”

  ●●●

  It took very little time to arrive at the lab, but it seemed like forever to me. We paused at the outside door and Anda turned to me. “So what is the plan?”

  “I have no idea. I can’t give them what they want. Ms. Nun’s grandfather left for Panthon this morning, so he can’t let them into his lab.” I had told Anda about my conversation the night before. Her response had not surprised me—she wanted to see the skinflyers.

  “Well, we know that, but they don’t, so we’ll have to stall until we can rescue Jet.”

  “Sure, and not get bit by a hundred venomous crawlers at the same time.”

  Anda removed the paper cup contraption from her bag. “A hundred and one.”

  I shook my head. “You really are scary.” She smiled and unfolded the outside cup so it just looked like she had bought a coffee on the way. Crawler coffee. Somehow I didn’t think it would be very popular.

  The door to the lab was open. Four people stood inside by the entrance, but the only one I knew was Ms. Nun. When they saw us, they stepped apart so I could see Jet. He was tied up and leaning against the desk at the far end of the room. The top of the desk was covered in glass jars, each containing one deadly eight-legged crawler. Jet seemed smaller than normal, his eyes shut tight and his mouth puckered up like he had just had ten yellow sour drops. Even his wild red hair seemed shrunken. I wondered if a person could die of fright. I hoped I wouldn’t find out today.

  “You okay, Jet?”

  His voice was tiny, but at least he answered. “Been better, Travis. There is a bomb on the desk.”

  Bombs and crawlers, just where I wanted to be. I stepped into the room and Anda followed me. I turned to her and whispered. “No glamour. We want to keep everyone as calm as possible.”

  She nodded. “I know how dangerous my looks are. I’ll keep them under wraps.”

  “So who is in charge here?” I pointed at Ms. Nun. “I know it’s not you. You’re just the traitor who betrayed her grandfather and murdered his friends.”

  “I am not a traitor. I was hired because of who my grandfather is. His collection is going to make me a very rich woman. And I would not have killed Dr. Othen and Dr. Gravas if they had cooperated. Or if they had designed simpler security systems. But they decided to refuse our requests so I had no choice but to kill them to access the labs. I hope we will not have to do the same to my grandfather. Now where is he?”

  “Not happening, babe.” I turned to the other three men. It was easy to see who was in charge—it was the guy who wasn’t a Battleboy. “I assume you are the brains behind all this craziness.”

  The man who was dwarfed by the thugs stepped forward. He somehow managed to make nerdiness look good. “I am Dr. Unger. I developed the venom gun. But as you can see I am part of a collaboration that believes in protecting its members.” He pointed at the two Battleboys. I wondered how they felt about crawlers. “So I hardly have anything to fear from you. You however have much to fear from me. So why don’t we save you a lot of pain and agony. Where is Dr. Nun?”

  “Panthon.”

  “You may think this is a game, but I promise you. If you don’t give me what I want then I will kill your friend. Mr. Tun has given me permission to remove any obstacle standing between me and my goal.” He waved a hand toward Jet and I looked at what he was pointing at. “According to the timer above him you have five minutes.”

  I assumed he was bluffing. He was not going to release the crawlers while he was still in the lab. Plus since no one had gone near Jet since we arrived, how did they set the timer? They wouldn’t have set it until we arrived. I decided that Dr. Unger must have a remote in his pocket. I wondered for a second if I could get it away from him, but I really didn’t want to wrestle anyone in this room.

  “Mr. Eldritch? Time is short. Where is he?”

  “He is on Panthon. Left this morning. So you see, you are not going to get the last of the venom that you need and the head boss isn’t going to take over this town with your new toy. Now, why don’t you just turn off the timer and we’ll all get out of here before we become crawler corpses.”

  “Mr. Tun assured me that I would succeed. If you will not help me than perhaps your partner will be more willing to save Mr. Moored’s life.” He turned from me to Anda and I inched closer to Ms. Nun. She seemed a bigger threat than her whiny boss. I wondered if his Problem was petulance.

  “And what is your name, my dear?” Dr. Unger asked. Anda said nothing and I glanced over to see if she had noticed that he was asking her questions. To my horror, she was sipping from the crawler cage. Was she mad? She looked at me and winked. I shook my head and waited to see what happened. I knew there was little I could do with all these jars around us.

  Dr. Unger frowned. “You seem a bright girl. Do you want to save your friend? Just tell me where Dr. Nun is and everyone will be released.”

  Anda lowered the cup “Dr. Nun is on Panthon. Can you wait to kill us until after I finish my iced coffee? It is my favorite Suntern drink.”

  “No.” Dr. Unger grabbed for Anda’s cup and she tossed the contents at him. I was prepared to jump out of the way of the freed crawler but her aim was good and it slid right down the V collar of Dr. Unger’s designer shirt. The two Battleboys made a grab for Anda, but she dropped the cup and ran for the door. They couldn’t run after her because Dr. Unger was blocking their way smacking his chest and screaming. Along with the smacking and the screaming, he was dancing and jumping, causing jars to wiggle along the shelves. It wouldn’t be long before it started raining jars of crawlers. Time to go.

  I turned back to Ms. Nun to stop her from escaping and didn’t see her where she had just been. I looked down and saw she was now about two feet tall and trying to scoot past me for the door. Her dress was slightly oversized, but she had gathered the shirring so she could still run. I grabbed her by t
he waist like she was an oversized longball and ran down the length of the lab to where Jet was tied. I very carefully stood her on the desk among all the jars.

  “I wouldn’t move if I were you.” I grabbed Jet and threw him over my shoulder. As I turned to hustle back to the door I saw Jet grab the bomb off the table. According to the timer on the wall we had forty-five seconds left. I sped up.

  Dr. Unger’s thrashing had knocked some of the jars off the wall and I jumped side to side trying to avoid both the crawlers and the broken glass. The jars that were falling onto us worried me more than the ones underfoot. I didn’t want Jet or myself becoming a crawler’s next meal. If we got out of this alive I was going to start carrying an umbrella.

  To get to the door I had to pass the Battleboys and Dr. Unger first. The doctor should have picked a better group of henchmen to protect him, as the only things the Battleboys were worried about were themselves. It looked like some of the jars had broken against them since they were doing the same smacking dance as Dr. Unger. I had no desire to get any closer to the shelves of precariously placed jars than necessary so I decided to barrel down the middle of the room to the door despite the three human obstacles in my way. Pushing the Battleboys to each side I circled around the shrieking Dr. Unger. As we reached the door to the hall, I told Jet to toss the bomb. With one last glance back I watched one of the Battleboys grab the device before it hit the floor. “Good luck boys. Your boss has the remote. Try not to get bit.”

  Anda had the door open as I escaped with Jet. She shut it with a bang and we ran outside, not stopping until we were across the street, standing under an awning. The bomb hadn’t seemed that large, but I really didn’t want to be rained on by venomous eight-legged crawlers.

  We hadn’t even gotten our breath back when a muffled boom came from the building across from us. Nothing blew out the roof or walls, but we decided not to go back in to check the damage. I set Jet down and undid his ropes. Simultaneously we all jiggled and shook out our clothing. When no crawlers fell out Anda hugged Jet and he shook my hand. Nothing was said, because nothing needed to be said. We were partners.