Part 34 (1/2)
”Because the real Z's strategy is always to get right in front and let the monsters beat on him until they get tired. The other one's too clean.”
Julie nodded. ”Valid point...but...” She turned back to me. ”How'd you know to say that it was a doppelganger?”
”I found G-Nome stuffed into one of the toilets in the barracks. He saw Dawn cleaning up from murdering whoever was on guard duty in the control room. I read his mind before he died.”
”You what what?” Cooper was really confused now.
I heard approaching footsteps, and turning slowly, so Holly wouldn't get jumpy, tried to see who it was. Trip was leading the way with a ma.s.sive, hulking shape loping along right behind him. It was the troll, Melvin. ”What the h.e.l.l?” the doppelganger and I said in perfect unison. What was that monstrosity doing loose? And armed? He had a sawed-off, 10-gauge Browning BPS in one hand.
”Hey, guys,” Trip said. ”Z...and Z.” He was unperturbed. ”So I guess one of these two is Dawn.” He must have witnessed the shooting during graduation. He stopped and looked between us, trying to guess. ”You know, that is some creepy stuff right there.”
”Oh! Oh! Melvin help,” the troll wheezed eagerly. ”Trolls have good senses. We can smell evil Fey.”
”You can't trust that thing,” the doppelganger said.
”Okay, I've got to agree with the shape-changing monster on that one,” I pointed out. ”I missed the part where he joined our side.”
Trip smiled and jerked a thumb at the troll. ”The undead were breaking into the bas.e.m.e.nt. I was outnumbered and desperate, so I made Melvin a fast job offer. He saved my b.u.t.t. Say what you will, trolls are mighty handy in a fight.”
”Melvin Monster Hunter now!” the troll said proudly. ”Old clan all dead, because stupid. Melvin have nowhere else to go. MHI is my clan tag now.”
Julie pushed her gla.s.ses back on her nose. ”Trip, we're really going to have to have a discussion about this.”
”He's agreed to certain terms of employment,” Trip responded. ”No eating people.”
”Melvin not like eating people anyway. Like snacky cakes better.” He smiled, showing off rows of rotting teeth. MHI did at least have a good dental plan. ”Melvin will make bada.s.s IT department for you. You can pay Melvin in Red Bull and internet connection.”
”No spam or fraud,” Trip continued.
”Aaahhh...” Melvin whined. ”Fine. Whatever.”
Julie just shook her head in resignation. She'd had a very long day. ”All right then, which one is the real Owen?”
The giant troll stood between us, swiveling his head back and forth. Melvin's nostrils flared. He pointed one clawed finger at me. ”That one.”
”Julie!” the fake cried. ”You can't believe that thing! It's a monster.”
”Keep your hands on your head. Coop, take his guns,” Julie said.
”I can't believe you'd fall for this,” it grumbled, as Cooper lifted Abomination's sling. ”This is such a crock of-” The doppelganger moved suddenly, slamming his armored elbow back into Cooper's face, smas.h.i.+ng his gla.s.ses. The Hunter crashed back into the wall. The doppelganger reached across his chest and yanked out my kukri. Julie calmly shot it in both legs. The bullets didn't penetrate the Kevlar weave, but struck like hammer blows. My duplicate dropped to its knees.
”Ha! Melvin just guess! Monster go all dumb! Ha ha!” The troll bellowed, then looked stupidly down at his hand as it separated from his arm. The rubbery appendage hit the floor. ”Hey!”
My double had swung the heavy blade right through Melvin's arm. Julie shot the doppelganger in the hand and it dropped my knife. She shot it in the other hand just to be sure. Two fingers flew down the hall. It was kind of unnerving how little hesitation Julie had to shoot something that looked exactly like me. The creature tumbled to the floor and glared up at her with four injured limbs.
I was closest and grabbed Melvin. His rubbery skin squished under my hands as I caught him. ”Are you okay?”
”Stupid monster. How can Melvin type now with one hand? Poor Poor Melvin!” It sobbed as it sank to its knees. ”How can play video games? Life is ruined. Noooo!” Melvin!” It sobbed as it sank to its knees. ”How can play video games? Life is ruined. Noooo!”
”Somebody get me a tourniquet!” I shouted.
The troll emitted a strained wheezy noise. He was laughing at me. ”I kid. I kid. Melvin grow new arm by tomorrow. Trolls very resilient.”
My duplicate struggled to rise. It still spoke with my voice. ”Fools. You can't stop the Condition. The time of man is done.”
Julie strode over and snap-kicked it in the face, putting it solidly down. ”Drag it inside. Let's see what it knows.”
I used the opportunity while we taped the doppelganger to a chair to strip it of my gear. It felt good to have my armor back on. I used a bandage from my first aid kit and patched my cheek. I needed to have Gretchen look at that, but she had serious injuries to deal with upstairs, and I didn't want to bug her about my cosmetic boo-boo. It would probably leave a terrible scar. I had gotten used to having werewolf scars once before. No big deal. I had more important things weighing on my mind.
Cooper was in over his head and had a broken nose to boot, so he went back to join up with his team. Melvin got put back in the cell while he regenerated a new arm. We didn't really know what to do with him yet anyway, but Trip was a man of his word, which in the best case meant that we couldn't just shoot him, and worst case meant we probably owed him a job.
We stuck the doppelganger in the next room where it couldn't hear us while I caught the others up on Earl's state and what had transpired during the fight for the ward stone. We were using Earl's office, and just on the other side of the vault door, he lay alone and twitching, fighting an improbable battle against some shade of the Old Ones. With the possibility of him losing control and reverting to his werewolf state, we didn't even dare leave anyone inside with him. This shape-s.h.i.+fter could hold the keys to finding Hood, and if I could find him quickly enough, we might still be able to save Earl.
I debriefed them as fast as I could. Julie patted me on the shoulder when I was done. ”Doppelgangers can read minds a bit. That's why they're such effective mimics, so it'll know exactly how far you're willing to go to find the truth. It'll play with us, mess with our minds. This is a job for somebody who knows what they're doing.”
”Earl doesn't have time.” Every second we waited put him one step closer to ending up like Carlos.
”I know,” she said. ”Do what you can. I'll find Sam, Boone, or Cody. All of those guys have had to get information out of actual human beings back when they were military. This won't be a problem for any of them.”
Or my dad, I thought to myself. The will to do awful things was never something that he had lacked. And right now I just prayed that I could live up to what he'd tried to teach me.
Julie hadn't spoken any more about the marks on her stomach, not even to Trip or Holly, though the two of them had surely noticed the ruined state of her vest. ”I've got to get a sit rep and headcount. I'll be back as soon as I can.” Her voice was strong, the fear compartmentalized and shoved away to be dealt with later. With Earl down, and her Grandpa too old, Julie had to run the nuts and bolts of this show. Her people needed her. She left the room without another word.
G.o.d, I was terrified for her. I watched her leave, wanting nothing more than to never let her out of my sight, but Earl was counting on us, and our only lead was this doppelganger. She'd find us some experienced help from the chaos above, but in the meantime, that left Trip, Holly and me to deal with the doppelganger duct-taped to a chair in the next room.
”We should interrogate Torres too,” I said as I unrolled the hose that we used to spray down Earl's cell. I had no idea what I was doing but beating the monster with a hose had definite possibilities. ”Where's he at?”
They looked at each other in confusion. ”We stopped the undead in the bas.e.m.e.nt, but we never saw him,” Trip said. ”I'm a.s.suming that other Fed, Archer, picked him up.”
”The place has got to be swarming with Feds up there by now,” Holly said. ”I hope they've got the jerk in custody and they're about to put the screws to him. You know, I never liked him.”
I hoped they were right. If he'd escaped, then Myers' stupid escapade had been for nothing. I hadn't had time to consider what I was going to do about that yet, but Myers deserved a shallow grave for what he'd brought into our house. ”We better hurry. When the Feds hear we've caught this thing, they're going to haul it off.”
”You guys ever done anything like this before?” Trip asked slowly. We all knew that this had the potential to get real ugly.
”Dude, I was an exotic dancer. How often do you think we had to torture information out of shapechangers?” Holly responded.
”Weekly?” I answered. I held up the hose, immediately felt stupid, so dropped it. ”Don't look at me like that. I was an accountant. We didn't go over water-boarding in school either, okay?”
Trip looked a little queasy. ”Maybe we should wait for Sam or one of those guys.”
”We don't have the luxury.” I could tell that this was really not something that Trip was mentally prepared to do. He was just too kind-hearted to contemplate torture, even against something like this. I, on the other hand, had just shot a few actual human beings, and it didn't seem to bother me at all. In fact, I felt strangely justified. I could handle this. ”Get your game face on. Earl's counting on us. There's a literal demon inside his head, and it's going to rip him apart until we stop it. We can't let him down. You with us, man?”
Trip nodded with more vigor than he felt. ”Yeah, let's do this.”
”Holly?”
She snorted. ”I'm tougher than you are.”
No disagreement there. ”It can read minds, so don't think weak. Think mean mean.” I jerked the door open and we went in to question the creature.