by Shadoe Masters
A little over an hour later, Tyler's cell phone chirped, alerting the men to Kylie's arrival.
"Are you sure she's at the right hotel?" Burt asked, as they made their way to the front of the hotel to meet her. "It should have taken her at least another hour." He thought about the process involved in getting Kylie to go anywhere. "And since it's Kylie, it should have taken two."
"She said she could see it, Burt," Tyler said. "She should already be here."
They passed through the revolving doors in time to see Kylie's green Range Rover pull into the valet parking driveway in front of the hotel. A valet hurried to open her door and Burt heard her tell him, "No, no, leave it right here," as she slid out of the truck and danced around the man as he attempted to protest.
Burt and Tyler both came to a halt, mouths open and eyes wide.
Kylie smiled up at the valet, assuring his compliance, then turned her smile to them. She wore knee-high black boots, a hip hugging miniskirt, and a sheer, midriff-baring top that revealed a lacy purple bra underneath. It was almost possible to hear the blaring guitar theme music that would accompany her as she made her way directly across the crowded driveway toward them.
Burt still gaped at her, appalled, when she reached them, while a pleased grin spread across Tyler's face.
"What's with the getup?" Tyler asked.
"Burt said to hurry," she replied, as if that explained everything.
Burt and Tyler exchanged a look, then stared back at her, puzzled.
She rolled her eyes. "I might have gotten stopped by the cops." Synapses were firing, she could see, but the man weren't quite with her yet. "Do you think any self-respecting heterosexual cop is going to give a ticket to this?" She indicated herself, her outfit, and the general air of "hot babe" that surrounded her.
"Did it work?" Tyler finally asked.
She cocked her head at him. "How do you think I got here so fast? I had an escort 10 miles past Bixby."
Burt just shook his head. With this woman, there was no telling... "Did you bring the gear?"
"Of course," she said, smiling up at him. "Two goggles, one tricorder." She pointed back toward her truck. "Also rifles, three knives, my Kimber and some of your extra ammo. I know you don't like to run short."
He nodded his approval. "Well you'd better strap on your gear. We're going monster hunting."
Between Burt's truck and Kylie's Rover, the three of them were finally suited up and on the job. Tyler caught sight of them in one of the mirrors lining the elevator banks. Burt wore his usual camouflage, combat boots and holster, plus the stun rifle slung across his back, and carried one of the dart guns Twitchell had supplied him with, as well as the custom handheld scanner Kylie brought. Kylie still wore the getup she arrived in but added her holster with both gun and knife, a set of goggles she'd brought from Burt's, and carried the trank pistol. He looked almost normal with just the goggles and trank pistol. He compared the three of them with the other denizens in the hotel and shook his head. Strange as they looked, they hardly elicited a second glance. "At least we'll fit right in." he muttered.
Burt quickly filled Kylie in on the details. "We're after three creatures. Two - THs - about a meter in height, orange-furred. They walk on all fours, mostly, and have a long thick tail. These are, apparently, benign." His expression showed the likelihood of that actually being the case. "The other - the GH - the leader of the group, is larger. Black-furred, almost two meters high."
"Two trolls and an ogre. Got it," Kylie said. She was already scanning the crowds for likely targets.
"The big one isn't so nice," Tyler added. "With big teeth. They said he's friendly as long as he gets what he wants but can turn surly if you get in his way."
"Which is exactly what we plan to do," Burt pointed out.
"So... we're not going to be friends," Kylie commented.
"Not friends at all," Burt said. "They all seem to like quiet, enclosed areas, so we're going to start with some of the hotel's maintenance corridors." They arrived at a nondescript door hidden from general view by a small alcove with a curtain. Burt used the access card he'd acquired from the hotel manager to open the door and they entered an entirely different world from the main hotel.
They went down a set of metal stairs enclosed by bare cement walls. The piping and electrical conduits were exposed here, the stairs lit only at the landings. They passed three on their way down, until Burt went through another unmarked door. While the lobby had been bright and airy and full of noise, this corridor was dark, closed in, and deadly quiet. Their boot heels clanged noisily on the cement underfoot as they crept from one puddle of light to the next.
"All three creatures' body heat signature is lower than humans," Burt continued, his voice unconsciously hushed. "I'll use the scanner to get in the general vicinity of the creatures, but you two will need to use the goggles to verify which strange creature to shoot at, once we're up top."
"'Strange creatures'?" Kylie whispered to Tyler.
"Costumes," he explained.
"Ah..."
The scanner Burt held chirped once and all three came to a halt to examine the small readout. "Target acquired," Burt said with some satisfaction. "Should be..." He paused as his sharp eyes pierced the darkness ahead. "Right around the next cross-corridor." He slipped the scanner into a pocket on his tactical vest and prepared the dart gun.
Burt leading the way, the three hurried quietly toward the corner. They slowed, then came to a stop at Burt's signal, and Burt cautiously peered around the wall.
Just as he'd predicted, the creature was there. "A TH," he whispered as he ducked back around. "One of the smaller ones." It had found a package of peanuts and was busily - and messily - ingesting the lot.
Kylie sidled up in front of Burt, and before he could stop her, peered around. Then froze.
"Kylie, would you--" Burt began.
"It's looking at me," Kylie whispered, barely moving her lips.
Burt nodded approvingly. "Don't move. It might require motion to see you."
Her eyes rolled in his direction, but she remained still otherwise.
Pushing Tyler out of the way, Burt eased out from between Kylie and the wall - why did she always have to get so close? - and readied his dart gun. He'd just shoot it while it wasn't expecting an attack.
Suddenly the creature screamed.
"It saw me!" Kylie said as she ducked out of the way.
Which suited Burt just fine. He leaped out to the corridor, in the path of the charging animal, quickly took aim, and fired. He shot another dart into it before it stumbled, then fell, coming to a rest at Burt's feet.
Burt spared the creature a satisfied glance, then looked to his companions. Kylie was behind Tyler, a white-fingered death grip on his arm. The younger man didn't seem to mind. He scowled. "Next time," he said to her, "stay behind me."
Kylie nodded quickly. "I'll remember that."
He turned back to the creature as Tyler shook off Kylie's grasp and knelt to examine it. "Good shooting, Burt."
Burt only nodded.
Kylie stood next to Burt. "He's actually kinda cute..." She looked up at Burt's disgusted snort. "Except for the screaming and attacking part..."
"We'll need to get this to the truck Twitchell brought."
Tyler took out his cell phone, but frowned at it. "I'm not getting a signal down here."
Burt took out his radio. "Twitchell!" He got back chatter and static, but no BLM agent. He put the radio back in his pocket in with a grimace of disgust. He turned to Kylie. "You'll have to go get him. Have him meet us at the loading dock."
"Why me?" she complained. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I was put on this earth to fetch and carry for you, Burt Gummer!"
Burt's eyebrow rose at the insubordination and he opened his mouth, but Tyler beat him to the punch.
"You want to help carry this thing?" he said. "It a lot heavier than it looks. No problem, though. You carry it to the loading dock on the other side of the building, and I'll go have a drink at the bar."
Kylie rolled her eyes. "Oh, all right." She only shook a finger at Burt's smug expression.
The two men chuckled as she departed, both enjoying the view of her retreating figure. When she'd disappeared into the darkness, they hefted the creature up, Burt at the head, Tyler at the feet.
"Ugh!" Tyler grunted with the effort. "Maybe I should have let her stay."
"No problem," Burt said, straining under the creature's burden. "I saw a hotel cart around the corner. We only have to carry it that far."
Tyler fell against the wall, laughing, and dropped the TH.
As soon as they'd loaded the creature in the cage at the back of the truck Twitchell provided, Burt had them back on the hunt. They returned to the nether regions of the hotel, patrolling dark corridor after dark corridor. Their latest hallway was even darker than the rest. Every fifth light or so was lit, no more. The corridor itself was a maze of crates and boxes, stored here, then forgotten, if the layer of dust on most of them was any indication.
"What kind of phobia does this place have about lights?" Tyler wondered.
"Power consumption can be a hotel's greatest expense," Kylie told him. "I'm surprised they've got any lights on here at all. I wouldn't allow it if I were running things." But every time Burt paused, she huddled close to him for reassurance.
"Still..." Tyler began.
A chittering growl came from the darkness. The three froze.
"That can't be good," Kylie whispered.
"Shhh," Burt hissed. "I think it came from that--"
Before he could finish his sentence, the growl turned into a roar and something large and dark leaped over the crates stacked less than ten yards away.
All three fired, but it kept coming.
"Run!" Burt yelled, and the three were in action. Behind them, the creature leapt from crate to crate in pursuit. Burt yanked at the doors that lined the hallway at random intervals. The third one gave and he flung it open, reaching one hand out to pull Kylie to a stop. Tyler, then Kylie, and finally Burt crowded in, but it was just a maintenance closet, hardly room enough for the three of them.
The creature nearly wrenched the door out of Burt's hands as it reached their position and tried to grab hold of them. Burt kept a firm two-handed grasp on the knob, though, and pulled it as near to closed as he could. "Move back!" he shouted. He heard some shifting behind him and then something pulled on his vest from behind. He pulled the door along with him and it snicked shut. Burt felt for a lock but there was none. "We'll just have to hope he doesn't understand doorknobs," he muttered.
The creature beat and kicked at the door, screaming angrily in a chittering voice. But gradually, the howling and blows to the door lost force and slowed. Finally, the beast moved away, and Burt could hear him taking his anger out on the crates in the corridor.
"Thank you, Goddess," Kylie whispered from near the floor.
Burt tried to twist and see where she was, but there was hardly room to breathe. As the thudding of his heart slowed, he took stock of his surroundings. He could feel Tyler behind his back, obviously up on something, while Kylie was crouched near the floor, one arm wrapped around his knee for balance. He could feel the rest of her leaning against him and his heart started thudding in his ears again.
"Is there a light?" he asked, running a hand along the wall near the door.
He heard the sound of a light cord being pulled, but nothing happened. The sound came three more times in quick succession before he heard Tyler behind him. "No."
Burt sighed. "We'll have to wait until we're sure he's gone," he whispered into the darkness.
"Fine by me," Tyler said.
"Yeah, I'm comfortable," Kylie muttered from the floor, her voice as sarcastic as Tyler's.
Again Burt tried to twist around. "What are you on?" he asked Tyler.
"A sink, I expect," the younger man replied.
"You better hope it holds," Kylie whispered. She'd obviously crouched below the sink.
Burt listened. "It's definitely moving away," he said. "Shouldn't be long." Then he closed his eyes and shook his head after listening a few more minutes. "It's coming back."
The thing left and returned twice more, slamming into doors as it went. The three listened intently and waited until Burt deemed it safe.
Burt, pressed against the door, was gritting his teeth. Over the last ten minutes, Kylie's fingers had slowly started stroking his leg, just above his knee. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "What are you doing?" he demanded.
"What?" Tyler said.
"Not you," Burt replied, annoyed. "You."
"Me?" Kylie asked. "I'm not doing anything."
Burt sighed. "Get your hand off my leg," he reluctantly ground out.
Tyler chuckled.
"If I do, I'm going to fall over," Kylie complained.
"Well stop..." he heaved a sigh. "Stop doing that."
She giggled, but at least she'd stopped rubbing. "What is that material, Burt? It's soft."
Her fingers slipped up and down again and Burt held himself tightly to keep from shuddering. "I don't know," he ground out. "Now stop it".
He heard Tyler's snicker from the darkness.
Burt opened the door. If that thing came back again, he'd shoot it with the Eagle.
Later, they lost the trail of the big creature when he entered the guest area of the hotel. Tyler, however, spotted one of the THs disappearing through the crowd, and they were hot on the trail.
It slipped into one of the big conference rooms, this one filled with tables and stands of merchandise - and hundreds of people, most in some kind of costume.
Kylie slipped her goggles off to look around.
"Keep your eyes sharp," Burt cautioned them. "We've got too many civilians to take chances."
Kylie slipped the goggles back on, scanned the room, then pushed them up to her forehead. Her eyes darted around the room again as the three of them slowly advanced through the aisles, then slid the goggles in front of her eyes again. She reached up to push them back again but Burt's hand shot out and stopped her.
"They're not doing any good if you don't leave them on," he growled.
"Hard to see with them on, Burt," she complained. "I keep running into things."
"If you take them off, you're going to run into the monster, and even you don't want that," he explained, in his too reasonable voice.
Kylie stuck her tongue out at him, but left them on.
The passed a rack of fantasy-themed costumes as they reached a cross-corridor in the aisles. Kylie glanced toward Burt then slid the goggles up to her forehead again, sidestepping toward the rack to examine a chain mail halter on display. She smiled, wondering how she could manage to just happen to be wearing this sometime around Burt. She giggled. He was such a prude. The look on his face would be priceless...
She glanced once over her shoulder, but the two men were on their way down the aisle and didn't notice her. She flipped quickly through the rest of the costumes, took note of the booth number displayed at the back, then started to turn away.
She heard the chittering and started to raise her gun, but it was already too late.
The other orange creature burst through the rack of costumes and was on her before she really knew what was happening. She staggered back with a loud cry. Her gun went flying one direction, the goggles another, as she tried to hold the thing off her. Her legs gave and she went down with another scream, still trying to hold off the monster. It was going for her throat! She struggled, but it was strong for its size, and once her arm bent, it was all over. Its face nuzzled her shoulder and neck and she felt a warm, slick tongue slide across her skin.
"EEEEW!" she cried, pushing against it with all her might. She was disgusted and the slime trail it left across her neck and down her chest. And it smelled bad too.
It threw it's head back then, and uttered that chittering howl, still holding the struggling Kylie pinned below it. Then the creature's movements slowed, and with one last slurp across her lips, it slumped limply on top of her, knocking the breath out of her lungs.
As she struggled for air, suddenly the creature flew off her and she saw Burt kneeling next to her, demanding to know if she was all right.
She opened her mouth to answer, but still couldn't get enough air.
Burt dropped his gun and grasped her shoulders, nearly in a panic. "Are you all right?" he demanded. "Where are you hurt?" He ran insistent hands down her arms and legs, holding her away from him to look for damage.
Kylie looked up at his frightened face from her position in his arms. Finally, her lungs started working, and she gasped in a breath of air. "Fine, Burt! I'm fine!" she assured him. "Slimy... but fine. It just tried to... lick me to death."
Burt's relief was obvious, but he still didn't let her go. If anything had happened to her...
Tyler's voice broke in from behind Burt. "You two want to be alone?"
Burt twisted to scowl at him, and dropped Kylie like yesterday's news. He stood swiftly. "Checking her for injuries," he muttered. He took a deep breath, all business again, while Tyler leaned down to help Kylie to her feet. "We'll need to get this into one of the cages Twitchell brought," he said. He glanced at Kylie. "Need to gather up her gear, too. And clear out some of these people."
Tyler and Kylie shared a glance. Tyler shook his head. Kylie just smiled and shrugged.
As Burt and Tyler carried the creature out between them, Kylie carrying the extra gear, the crowd in the dealer's room cheered.