by Shadoe Masters
"The truck should be just beyond the cliffs over that rise," Burt said. "We're almost--" He went suddenly alert.
"What?" Kylie asked.
"I think..." Burt listened intently. "Can you hear it?"
Kylie listened carefully. "A little," she replied with a nod. "The ringing's fading. Mostly."
Burt took a step toward the sound, then stopped. "We need to get you home."
Kylie shook her head. "Why don't we just finish what we started?" she said. "We're already here, and my ears are better." Burt looked like he'd argue, and Kylie held up a hand. "It's not like my ears hurt, you know. We can do this. We could use those hand signals you've been teaching me!" He looked like he was wavering. "Come on, Burt. We're already so close..."
It worked. Instantly, Burt's instincts led them on the hunt.
They searched for another hour, following a harsh, baritone gibbering that seemed to go on and on.
"Where's it get that noise, Burt?" Kylie asked. "Lizards have never seemed to be very vocal to me."
Burt shook his head. "I have no idea. I've never heard anything like it." His eyes narrowed and he pointed ahead. "There it is. If it goes into those rocks..."
As they watched, the lizard slipped up a steep, rocky hill and between two boulders.
"Come on!" Burt urged. "It'll be trapped in that box canyon - the walls are too steep to climb. If we catch it before it realizes and tries to slip back out..."
Kylie ran after Burt and the two of them scrambled beneath some scrub brush ringing the mouth of the canyon, and waited.
The lizard darted around the rocks, searching for a way up, a way out, all the while it's screams echoed off the towering walls.
"I think I've got a shot," Burt said, taking careful aim. He pulled the bolt back, ready to fire...
Kylie's eyes sharpened. There was something about the noise it was making. If she could just...
The creature stopped, crouched on a rock and Burt lined up the thing in the crosshairs. He started to pull the trigger...
Kylie gasped.
She pushed the rifle's barrel up and out of the way. The shot went wild, into the rocks. The lizard darted to the other side of the canyon, taking cover in a rocky wash, its screams echoing louder than before.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Burt shouted, trying for another shot.
"Burt--"
"I had it! It was ri--"
Kylie shook her head and put an arm around Burt's shoulders, grabbing his face to put her hand over his mouth. She listened intently to the creature's screams, her face a mask of concentration.
Burt struggled, and she held him tighter, holding him almost in a headlock. At last he gave up and settled for glaring at her from his disadvantaged position.
She listened another moment, then, finally, she shouted something across the canyon. Burt couldn't make out what it was. He knew it wasn't English; not Spanish, either.
The lizard creature stopped screaming.
Burt's eyes swiveled toward the canyon and the sudden silence.
Kylie yelled something else and waited.
The screaming started again, but different this time. Not quite screaming.
"Did you hear that, Burt?" Kylie said, excited. "Burt, did--" She glanced toward him, met by his angry glare. She still held a hand over his mouth, his face pressed into her breast.
She released him abruptly with a weak, apologetic smile. "Sorry."
"What is it?" Burt said. "Why did it stop screaming?"
"It's not screaming," Kylie explained, excited again. "It's French."
He was tall, they found, taller than Burt by nearly a foot, and covered, head to toe, with greenish-brown scales, giving him the lizard look that had mislead them. His limbs ended in lobster-like claws that only superficially resembled human hands and feet. He had matted red hair that grew sparsely on his head, arms, chest and other, more intimate parts - those revealed because he wore only a leather-like breechcloth with a crudely-made knife.
"His name is Gustave Rousseau," Kylie explained, once they'd managed to coax him down from the rocks. Burt hadn't liked having to leave both rifles and their holsters behind, but Kylie reasoned that it was only fair after they'd pursued him most of the day and finally shot at him.
Burt conceded that he'd be wary too. He still didn't like it.
Kylie said a few more words to him, interspersed with "Burt" and "Kylie."
"But what... How..." Burt began, trying to settle on a question to ask first. "What's he doing here? Why is he..?"
"All scaly and weird-looking?" Kylie supplied. "Let me ask." She spoke to him a moment in rapid French, gestures covering both him and the valley.
Gustave crouched, his words distorted by the harsh, anguished cries that had allowed them to track him so easily through the day.
Kylie crouched next to him, slipping an arm around his shoulders and spoke to him in a soft, soothing voice.
Burt waited, impatiently, though this exchange, trying not to look too threatening, or impatient, while the man shot him fearful glances. Finally, at a motion from Kylie, he squatted next to them. Gustave seemed to calm down somewhat after that, though he still broke into anguished wailing periodically.
Finally, Kylie patted the man's arm with a sympathetic smile and turned to Burt. "He's from France," she translated. "He came here with his parents and got separated. He doesn't speak any English, he doesn't know where his parents are, and he's lost." Kylie put an urgent hand on Burt's arm. "He's scared, Burt. He's only fourteen."
Burt nodded his understanding. "But why is he... like that?"
Kylie glanced at Gustave, giving him a reassuring smile. "He's..." She paused to choose her words carefully. "He's in a circus," she said and looked away.
Burt gave her a puzzled frown.
Kylie met his eyes. "He's a sideshow freak," she elaborated.
Burt stared. "But... But there aren't any more of those--"
Kylie patted his arm, as disturbed as he was. "They're still popular in Europe. Parts of Europe, mostly rural." Her eyes hardened at Burt's continued outrage. "It's worse. That's how they got here. Some... developer, I guess, saw them at a show in Slovenia and brought them here for..." She shook her head. "Something. Gustave's not sure what, but he thinks his parents were tricked into it. I don't think it's entirely... right, whatever it is."
Burt scowled fiercely. "Probably in Las Vegas, it's close by."
Gustave said something excitedly when Burt mentioned Las Vegas.
Burt looked a question at Kylie.
She nodded. "He recognizes Las Vegas."
"How did they get separated?"
Kylie shook her head. "He gets a little agitated when we get to that. I think they were running away. The parents took him on a bus - he doesn't know where they were headed. They had him all covered up, but he says the driver got a look at him and freaked out. He crashed the bus, and when they police came, they took his parents away. He thinks it's all his fault."
Burt whistled in sympathy. "Why did they take them away?"
"He doesn't know. But Burt," Kylie lowered her voice, "they told him to run."
Burt frowned, puzzled.
"When Gustave's parents saw the police, they told him to run away and hide, and not let anyone catch him."
"Alone? Without knowing the language? Why?"
She shook her head again. "He says they were plenty scared, so he didn't ask questions."
"Some citizens have reason to fear the government..."
Kylie's lips twitched into a brief smile. "I'm sure there is some kind of conspiracy there, in this case. They don't sound like bad people, Burt. Why would the police take them away?"
"I do not know," Burt said. He gave her an intent stare, his mind already on possibilities. "I think we'd better find out."
Kylie nodded in agreement. Then a thought occurred to her. "Burt, I've got a friend on the LAPD. He's got connections all over the country. I'm sure he could find out something."
"Good idea," he said, standing. "We can contact Sam, too. If that bus crashed anywhere around here, he'll know about it." He shot Gustave an intent stare, prompting the boy to shy away.
Kylie put a hand out to reassure Gustave. "Burt..." she said in a deliberately calm voice, "can you not scare the lizard guy?"
Burt schooled his expression to a more neutral look. "We'll need to do something with him while we investigate."
Kylie looked up at him. "Can he stay at your place tonight? I don't think he's up to meeting a lot of new people just yet."
Burt's eyebrow rose. "I agree. I just... My place isn't set up for guests," he warned.
"Neither is this," Kylie replied, indicating the surrounding rocks. "But this is where he's been staying for the last couple weeks."
Burt's other eyebrow joined the first. "Two weeks?" He looked at Gustave with dawning approval.
"Let's get back before it gets too dark to find our way to the truck."
Burt went to collect the guns while Kylie explained their plans to Gustave.
Burt stopped the truck in the darkness across from Nancy's to let Kylie out.
"I've explained to Gustave that I'm going to be up to your place in a little while and that you're going to take care of him until then," Kylie told him. "You be nice to him till I get there, okay?"
Burt shot her a disgusted stare. "Just what do you think I'm going to do to him?" he demanded.
"I think you're going to look at him like you're looking at me now," Kylie replied, trying to keep her voice calm and even. She gave Gustave, still in the back of the truck, a reassuring smile. "Just... don't look so fierce all the time."
Burt frowned.
"Like that. Put a smile on your face once in a while," she explained, "or you'll scare the hell out of him."
Burt glared at her skeptically.
"Just remember, Burt, he can't understand your words, so your face is all he has to go by." She paused and grinned. "He doesn't know what a loveable teddy bear you are under that gruff exterior."
Burt's chin went up so he could look down his nose at her. "I think I can handle him."
"He doesn't need to be 'handled,' Burt. He's a very frightened teenager who's already been through too much. He needs kindness right now."
Burt looked away but nodded his head, already frustrated. "I'm not good with people," he admitted.
"So I noticed," Kylie said dryly. "But he's not 'people.' He's a kid. Just remember that."
Burt nodded.
"Let me make those calls," Kylie said, slipping from the truck. She said a few more reassuring words to Gustave with a wink, and the boy even gave her a slight smile back. "I'll bring dinner when I come, too," she finished before hurrying across the street to Nancy's.
Burt glanced toward Gustave and tried to think of something "friendly" to say while the boy stared at him uncertainly. He finally settled for a weak smile and just drove.