Chapter 8
"I'm bored..." Rufus said sadly to himself. "Come to Uncle Rufus, Mr. Monster!"
But more uneventful minutes passed in silence. Sighing, Rufus sat down on a windowsill and rested for a few moments. He shut his eyes and exhaled deeply. When Fred had said "Mystery Solving" he had imagined himself having a bit more fun than this. He wondered what Velma would say if he just walked out. He could go and get some beef jerky or something...
"Haffin' break?" a bitterly cold voice said in his ear. Rufus jumped a pile, and reached for his gun. Then he remembered his gun wasn't there. Blaskov smiled.
"Woah...where did you come from, dude?" Rufus drawled.
"I 'haff' just received complaint from very respected guest ." The Russian manager replied.
"Oh?" Rufus tried to suppress his grin.
"It 'vould surprise you to know? You assault a guest. Do not deny it!"
"He provoked me, Big B!" Rufus protested.
"Is 'vat correct?" Blaskov replied menacingly. "Guess 'vhat? 'Vis man 'vas here to consider investment in my hotel. You haff' ruined 'vat."
"Hey, my homie, come on now! He was a piece of work, man! You don't want someone like that in business with you!" exclaimed Rufus. Blaskov started at him and chuckled humorlessly.
"People do not cross me in 've way you haff' done, sir." he said slowly. "Because if 'vey do...'vhey get 'vhat is coming to 'vem."
Rufus, although somewhat shocked by Blaskov's sudden appearance and behavior, stood his ground. "And people, such as yourself, do not threaten me in the way you just did. I kicked that little guy into touch and I'll do the same to you. I can turn nasty, Mr. B. Don't make me."
A soft growl punctured the argument. Blaskov's gaze slid behind Rufus, and Rufus saw his eyes widen in fear. Rufus nodded his head and smiled. "Monster?"
The Russian nodded. "Monster..." he gulped.
"Okay. Can you run?"
"I do hour exercise each day. Yes, I can run."
"Good...good" Rufus said. "Shall we do it?"
"Most certainly."
"Flee!" Rufus bellowed. Him and Blaskov charged away, down the corridor. The pounding of feet against the floor behind them told them that they were being chased.
/
"Hmm..." Velma said. "This really is boring, hey Scoob?"
Scooby had fallen asleep. Velma chucked and shook her head disbelievingly.
The basement door burst open. "Spring to action, good fellows" Rufus bellowed. Velma at once leapt up and tipped the tank of grease all over the floor just as Rufus passed.
What she hadn't counted on was Blaskov being there. Before she realized what she'd done, he had run straight into the trap. He slipped instantly and was sent headlong into a stack of breakfast cereal boxes.
The Awthorn Monkey itself had been a short distance behind Blaskov. It entered the basement just in time to watch Blaskov's fall. It backed away, laughing. A girlish laugh. Velma smiled. That just confirmed what she already knew. The hideous creature sneered at Velma, with it's face, so hideously stretched, perched on top of the twisted neck. But the trap had failed...
Blaskov feebly stirred and sat up. "Ohh...Если вы хотите, чтобы работа была выполнена, сделай это сам" he muttered to himself. With that, he reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out...Velma only had time to see a flash of grey before the deafening gunshot. He had shot the Awthorn Monkey in the leg. The monster whimpered and turned to leave the basement, but it was limping, on it's ruined leg. There was no chance it was getting away now.
"You had a gun this whole time?" Velma said incredulously as she helped Blaskov up and they all hurried to follow the injured villain.
"Ov' course. 'Vis monster was violent. You think I 'vould go around unprotected?"
They all tumbled out of the basement door. To find...the Awthorn Monkey, collapsed and clutching it's leg on the floor."
"So, who is this knucklehead, then V D?" Rufus asked.
"Hey! Nice one, guys!" came a voice. Fred and Daphne had appeared, having just been rescued from the elevator.
Fred walked over to the hurt creature and tugged at the head...
"What?" he yelled. It was the receptionist! The one he'd given Rufus's gun too when they arrived!
"Just as I thought!" Velma said. "It all made sense! The note Rufus managed to find...reminding her to book a room for someone...I knew it was a receptionist straight away once I saw that. Only a receptionist would have a note like that. As for the rope, this head, it's a complex piece to wear. This woman is too small too be able to control it convincingly. When Scooby showed me that I knew that it must be someone small, most likely a woman in the monster. That rope in the garden was a spare, I suppose? And of course, it was her herself who gave me my final clue. She shot Rufus's gun and he found the shell. And how had she got Rufus's gun? Because, Fred gave it to her!"
"Nadine?" Blaskov muttered, addressing the woman on the floor "Why?"
The woman snarled. "You. Rich. Bigshot. You know how much I get paid, you lot? Any idea? I slog my guts out working here, and this idiot who runs the place is nothing but dismissive! He pays me virtually nothing! He never appreciates my work! I'd had enough! I set about ruining his hotel because he's a sexist, he doesn't care, he treats the staff like scum...well nobody else was brave enough to stand up to him, so I did it."
"Rik and Rik?" Scooby asked. Everyone stared blankly at him, but Nadine grudgingly answered.
"Nik and Vik? My dogs. I made them keep a lookout when I heard you lot were coming."
"You're fired." Blaskov said weakly. Nadine burst out laughing. "Guess what? I ain't going to jail! Now get on the floor, the lot of you!" with that, she leapt up off the floor, tore through her costume, into her jacket pocket and pulled out Rufus's revolver. And it was loaded. As one, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Scooby and Blaskov crashed to the floor. "Give me your damn gun, Blaskov." she warned. Blackov swore in Russian and tossed it aside.
Rufus, however, did not go to the floor. Smilingly in a dazed sort of way, he walked up to Nadine and stood face to face with her. "Give me the gun, sweetie." he said, smiling at her.
Fred was aghast. "Rufus, back down, dude! Get down here!" Nadine, for her part, looked equally shocked at Rufus's behavior.
"I will drop you unless you get down there!" she screamed, pointing the gun at Rufus's heart.
"Oh, you're going to kill me, now you'll spend even longer in prison. Okay, go ahead." Rufus said calmly.
"Rufus!" Daphne and Velma screamed in unison
Nadine scoffed. "Huh. You're going to die for the sake of this?" Rufus chuckled and edged closer towards her. Nadine panicked and jumped back, keeping the gun steady.
"Back up, I don't want to do this, but I w-"
That was all she got in. Quick as lightning, Rufus was on top of her. The five on the floor watched in awe and horror as he prised the gun gently from her grip, unloaded the chamber and hauled her to her feet, keeping her securely in an arm lock as he did so.
"Boom chicka!" he yelled proudly. Fred was as pale as a ghost himself. "That was beyond dangerous, Rufus. What are you playing at?"
"Solving the mystery, dude. Man, you'd have let this chick get away if it weren't for me."
/
Five minutes later, they were in the lobby. Nadine was tied up in the basement, waiting for the police. Fred was talking to Rufus.
"Rufus, man, you're work for us is done. You know that, right?" he informed Rufus. He was worried that Rufus might not take it well, but it was easier than expected.
"Like, you're making a major mistake, man. I saved ass today."
Fred shook his head. "There's a difference between protecting us and being reckless. There's a difference between searching for clues and assaulting people. And let's face it, if you had never brought the gun, she'd never have gotten hold of it, and we would have captured her."
"That's some deep logic, homie."
"Look, you'll be paid for this, sure you will, but you can't come again, I'm sorry." he held out an awkward hand which Rufus briefly considered, but took.
Daphne and Velma were slouched against the reception desk with Scooby, silently listening to Fred's conversation. Just then, Blaskov appeared, and walked over to Fred with a stack of notes.
"Booty!" Rufus exclaimed. Blaskov glared at him.
"Yes...here is pay. Ho'vever...you 'haff caused great disruption tonight. Deductions must be made. You scare two 'ov my guests a'vay. You needed me to spend money to rescue you from lift. He 'vos causing racket and distraction." he nodded in Rufus's direction. "Also..." he shot his hand into Rufus's pocket and pulled out a huge clump of squashed and limp flowers. "Stealing, damage to garden...shall 've settle on ten thousand?"
Fred didn't like that at all, and he couldn't quite work out how all of what had gone wrong warranted deducting five thousand dollars. He turned to Velma and Daphne. Velma just shrugged and Daphne, although looking sulky muttered that she didn't mind. Rufus cracked a wide grin. "you're call, Freddy J." he exclaimed, throwing his arms out to the side, knocking over a beautiful vase of flowers that were perched on the reception desk behind him. Fred grimaced as it rolled from the desk and smashed on the floor.
Blaskov shrugged. "Nine thousand, five hundred it is then. Oh, and I suppose 've fact you brought 'vis man in 've first place knocks off another two dollars. But, he did catch Nadine...so I put 'van of those dollars back on. Deal?"
Just then, there was a great deal of loud noise coming from outside. Horrific noises of barking, growling, snarling, grunting and roaring. Three huge, muddy shapes came charging into the lobby by crashing through the glass doors, seemingly determined to kill each other. The guests and staff who were in the lobby screamed and jumped out of the way. Scooby saw one woman throw herself straight into a computer screen, which sparked and died instantly. But as the shapes drew closer, Scooby saw who it was. It was Burch, Nik and Vik. All three dogs were standing and moving around on their hind legs, they also had their claws out on both their muddy foreleg and hind paws.
"Ro!" screamed Scooby, running into the fight. He quickly reared up onto his back legs and pinned down Nik on a now partly ripped and mud covered sofa, whilst Burch grabbed Vik around the throat with one of his front paws and pushed Vik up against a huge torn picture that hung on the wall. The fighting mud covered dogs glared, scratched, clawed and bit at each other, causing mayhem and throwing as well as dripping mud all over the nice clean lobby as they fought on their hind legs in a wild and savage like way.
There was a deafening bang which made everyone jump out of their skin. Rufus had fired a bullet at the roof to stop the fight. Indeed, the dogs, stunned by the noise, stopped instantly.
"Tell them to go down the basement with the woman, Scooby." Rufus instructed, brandishing his gun. Scooby did just this, and Fred locked the door firmly behind them.
The lobby had been wrecked. In that short space of time, the four large, muddy dogs had caused broken computers, smears and stains all over the walls and floor, torn carpets and a rather unpleasant smell of manure. Blaskov stood where he was, his eyes popping in fury.
There was a creak from above. And then all hell broke loose.
Rufus had shot his pistol into the air to break up the fight. What he didn't realize was that the bullet had actually hit the very base of a huge, golden chandelier light, breaking the huge structure away from the ceiling. The actual wire hadn't been damaged, so the light was still on. But the gigantic light was now hanging by a wire, dangling from the ceiling. And then the wire snapped. The huge, expensive, heavy light came crashing right down into the lobby. Everyone got clear in time, but Blaskov received a burning piece of light bulb glass straight to the cheek. He screamed and swore using the foulest English he knew. Fragments of glass went everywhere. The twisted wires that shaped the chandelier were thrown across the room. By the time everyone came out from their cover, the whole lobby was a mess of shattered glass, mud, broken machinery and ripped wallpaper.
"Hmm..." Rufus said thoughtfully, observing the carnage. "That was a misfortune of sorts."
Blaskov straightened up, clutching the minor bleed to his right cheek. "I call you here. Quiet. Efficient. Clean.. 'Vat is what you told me."
Fred glanced helplessly at his friends. "Mr. Blaskov..."
"I 'vant you out. Now. No money. 'Vat money can be used to repair my hotel. Go."
"Please, sir..."
"Now! Get out 'ov here!" Blaskov was beside himself with rage. He screamed in Fred's face, who jumped a mile and turned to leave at once.
"Out! You!" he barked at Scooby, who ran back. "Out! You! Now!"
So that was how it ended. Sore, tired, unpaid and dirty, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Scooby and Burch sat glumly in the Mystery Machine as Fred drove them home. Rufus wasn't with them. He'd tried to get in with Scooby, but the Dane saw to it that he didn't. They didn't know where Rufus was now, and to be honest none of them cared.
"Let's go see Shaggy." Fred said.
"Yeah." Daphne piped up. "I've missed him.
"Let's do it." Velma agreed.
"Ryeah!"
Note: Yeah, so that's the end. Not too happy with this story to be honest, it seemed a much better idea at the time I started writing it. But them's the breaks and I hope you lot got some enjoyment out of reading it. If ye liked it hit the Fave Button. If you have any criticism or praise, leave a review. Cheerz.