| |
Jake sat at his small kitchen table when Shandi dropped the book down in front of him. From the cover, Skylar Brooks’ remarkably punchable face stared back at him. He read the title. Opened it. Studied the inky black signature.
Had Shandi gotten him a gift? He did like cryptozoology, so it wouldn’t be terribly out of line for her to think that he might like this. He warmed inside at the thought of her carefully choosing it from a giant shelf of volumes. He pictured her lovingly picking up each book and reading the back, trying to find something that would endear her to him.
“So, this jerk showed up at the paper today,” Shandi said sharply, gesturing to the book in front of Jake.
Okay. So not a gift. Good to know.
Having received no correspondence from Skylar Brooks, he was shocked the man had shown up in Rose Valley. “Really? That’s crazy. I guess he got my email.”
Shandi helped herself to a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat across from him. She took a swig, then gave Jake a disappointed look. “Oh... my... God. Did you invite this guy to Rose Valley, Jake?”
She didn’t look angry, exactly. More like exasperated. He took it from her earlier description of him that the man lacked certain social charms. At that moment, Jake regretted that he had mentioned the email, and he certainly didn’t want to admit culpability in the potential invitation of Skyler Brooks to Rose Valley.
“Um. I... No, of course not.” Jake tried to sound confident, but failed miserably. “I mean. I didn’t invite him, no. I did email him. At the beginning of all this. After the sheep, here. I thought he might be able to help.”
“Well. I don’t know if he’ll be able to help, but he certainly thinks he can,” Shandi said, taking another swallow of water.
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah. He’s got these three... assistants, I guess. They claim to be family, but they act like work horses. Like literally. Trained horses. They’re scared to death of him. This is not a good man.”
“So, what did you do?”
Shandi turned her lips up in a huge devious smile. Her eyes glimmered as she laughed. “I sent him to find Cam.”
Jake burst out laughing. It took him a few beats to find his voice. “Oh boy. I hope Cam doesn’t shoot him.”
“I dunno. I kinda hope he does.”
Jake hadn’t met Skylar Brooks yet, and he trusted Shandi that Skylar’s personality might not have been on point, but he couldn’t help wondering whether he might still be useful. Skylar’s experience and knowledge stretched far beyond what they knew. If he could bring the beast down, surely it would be worth tolerating him.
Jake wanted to bring it up. Suggest that they should work with Skylar. But he also valued where he was with Shandi. It felt right. The subtle shift in their relationship felt genuine and real. And new. He didn’t want to jeopardize it in that moment. She wouldn’t stay at his place forever. Probably just another night or two.
“Anyway. The hive mind—" Shandi started.
“Wait. What? What’s the ‘hive mind’?”
Shandi chuckled. “Oh right. So, his assistants. There’s two boys. One girl. Um... Miriam’s the girl and the boys are Tanner and... I can’t remember. It’s a weird name. The name of the prospector guy in Rudolph.”
“Yukon Cornelius?” Jake said, without even having to think about it.
“Yeah. That’s it. Cornelius. Not the Yukon part. Your recall with movie facts is scary.” There was a teasing glint in her eye.
“What can I say? The skills of a misspent youth.”
He rattled off another movie reference, but Shandi didn’t get that one.
“Yes,” she said. “You were quite the rebel.”
“I was! I watched R-rated movies when I was like 10.”
Shandi laughed. Jake loved when she laughed, enjoying the free and honest mirth of it. To be able to elicit that sort of reaction from her made him feel important.
“Hide your daughters, ladies! Jake Rollins watched R-rated movies when he was 10!” She looked around the room.
Jake brought her back down. “Anyway. You were saying. About the hive mind?”
“Oh right,” Shandi said, still smiling. “I think of them as the hive mind. This is the first time I’ve said it out loud. I guess it sounds silly. But they don’t talk to each other. Only Miriam talks. The boys didn’t talk the entire time they were there. But they communicate somehow. It’s creepy.
“Skylar left them behind,” she continued. “when he left to go ask Cam on a man-date. They went through the archives. All of them. Impressively fast. So, I’ve got a lot of information about the other sightings of the beast over the years.”
Jake perked up. He’d almost forgotten that he’d asked Shandi to look through the other archives. So much other, more important stuff had happened since then.
Shandi pulled a piece of copy paper from her back pocket and unfolded it. Beautifully penned words covered the page. Definitely not Shandi’s handwriting, which tended towards more of a scrawl. Jake couldn’t quite read it from his vantage point.
Shandi looked directly into Jake’s eyes. “Ready?”
Jake nodded. She had his full attention. “After 1942, there are reports again in 1951. Not as widespread. Just a few unexplained mutilations. No sightings.
“Then another break,” she went on. “Until 1967. Again, nothing like the mass mutilations of ’42. Just a few mutilations. There was one sighting reported. Similar description to what we’re seeing now. And one unexplained death that year. It could have been unrelated, but the hive mind thought it was worth noting. The guy had been decapitated and they never figured out how.
“After that, nothing. If we’re to believe the hive mind—and I do, because they’re weird, creepy robots—then this thing showed up maybe three times in the history of Rose Valley.”
“What about before 1942?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. They went through that, too. Nothing before 1942.”
Jake’s mind tried to put the pieces together, searching for a pattern that he couldn’t find. Nine years. Then sixteen. Then fifty. One creature could have done the first three, but not the current one. The beast would be far too old. And if a family of beasts existed out there, then why the big gap?
Shandi looked up, an intensity in her eyes. “Ready for the good part?”
Jake nodded. “Definitely.”
“Every single report in the paper related to this stuff—including the decapitation—had a quote from someone at Arrowhead Research. Could be a coincidence. Maybe they were just the go-to quote engine for The Reporter back then.
“But it wasn’t just that they were quoted in every one of them. It’s what they said and who said it. It was always Dr. Cordova, and he consistently, over the course of sixteen years, insisted that each and every incident was isolated and atypical and would soon come to an end.”
“How would they know that? That it would come to an end. And a better question, I guess, is—did it?” Jake asked.
“Generally, yeah. Even when there were multiple reports, they were always within a very short time period. Within a week or two.”
Jake rubbed his temples. He needed to stand. He couldn’t think sitting down. He stood up and started pacing. Shandi turned in her chair to face him but didn’t rise.
“What are you telling me, here? That Arrowhead Research is involved somehow?” He asked, not stopping to look at her.
“I don’t know if I’m saying that for certain. I’m saying it’s a possibility. It’s a commonality, at least, and that has to mean something.”
Jake continued to pace. Shandi stopped talking. Perhaps because she wanted to let him think. Perhaps because she busied herself with her own thinking. Jake didn’t pay much attention. He just paced and thought.
If Arrowhead Research tied into all of this, how did that relate to the here and now? They hadn’t gotten involved with any of the recent incidents. Everything that had happened recently seemed far more serious than anything reported in the past. There had never been a mass sighting. The beast was going after more than just livestock. It had maimed a guy. It could have killed Shandi and Macy. If Arrowhead shared responsibility for the existence of the beast, wouldn’t they have come forward by now? Or were they so involved that they couldn’t afford to admit culpability?
Jake felt Shandi’s hand on his. She gripped it. He stopped. She stood up and grabbed his other hand, forcing him to face her.
“Stop for a minute,” she said, looking up into his eyes. She didn’t let go of his hands.
“When’s the next time you’re due for an appointment at Arrowhead?”
“Wednesday. Why?”
She squeezed his hands. Pleaded with her eyes. She spoke softer. “Think about this before you react. I know you’re going to want to say no.”
Jake considered the possibilities of the questions she might ask. Surely, she wouldn’t suggest that he steal information from Arrowhead. That would never work. The outbuilding stood nowhere near any data of interest.
Or maybe she meant to persuade him to talk Deirdre out of some information. That was more feasible, but the thought didn’t sit well. With Shandi standing in front of him, his hands in hers, the very thought of Deirdre turned his stomach.
“Take me with you.”
No. Definitely not. He could think of nothing more awkward and terrifying than putting Deirdre and Shandi together. The fact that he had to see Deirdre again at all made him nervous enough. She had a way of confusing him. Of making him think things he didn’t want to think. He couldn’t go through that with Shandi there.
Shandi seemed to sense Jake’s reaction. She shifted her hands, interlocked her fingers with his, instantly creating more intimacy. He swallowed hard.
“I’ll drop you off at the clinic,” she said. “Then I’ll go to the main campus. I’ll sweet talk the receptionist. Or find a clerk. Someone in there has access to information that might help us, and I’ll find it. I need you to get me through the front gate.”
Jake relaxed a little. Her plan didn’t involve Deirdre and Shandi sharing the same space, and that seemed strangely important. If that could be guaranteed, Jake felt far less wary of Shandi’s plan.
Jake became hyper-aware of how close Shandi now stood. He could feel the heat from her body. Her warm, soft hands softly entwined with his. He fought back certain thoughts, forcing himself to focus on the beast.
“Do you think that will work? Security does seem pretty loose around there, but surely they lock up the good stuff.”
“Why, sir,” Shandi said as she batted her eyelids. “I think you may have forgotten who you were talking to. Sure, I may report on Wes Morris’ completion percentage by day, but by night I’m an investigative journalist. I will use my mad journalist skills to blow this story wide open.”
Her confidence intoxicated him. Shandi Mason could get anything she wanted when she set her mind to it.
He nodded. “Okay. Sure. My appointment is at one. I can pick you up at The Reporter after I get done with—dammit!”
Shandi’s face changed to confusion. “What?”
“Nothing. I just... With you and Macy here this morning, I forgot to go down to Mikey’s. Bernard’s going to be pissed.”
She didn’t let go of his hands when she laughed. “He’ll get over it. He’s a big boy.”
“Yeah. It’ll be fine. It’s not the first time. It just seems to matter so much to him,” Jake said. “Anyway. Yeah. I’ll pick you up at 12:30 on Wednesday. At the Reporter. Then we’ll head over to Arrowhead.”
The conversation went silent. Their eyes lingered on one another briefly. Then she looked down. Jake looked down. Her grip loosened, as if the interlace of their hands surprised her. He didn’t want to, but Jake let their hands fall away from each other.
They stood across from each other now. Not touching. Their eyes met again. Jake’s heart raced. He didn’t want to presume too much. She had let go of his hands. Perhaps she had taken them involuntarily. Her way of getting his attention. But there was something more. Something they both needed from each other. Was it just safety? A mutual place to escape from the fear and confusion surrounding Rose Valley?
The door swung open with a thud and a backpack hit the floor. Macy started talking before she even closed the door. “School is nuts right now. All anyone wants to talk about is the beast.”
Jake and Shandi turned away from each other. Jake tried desperately not to look guilty, but he couldn’t control the instinctual reaction. Shandi stepped past Jake and towards Macy, her arm touching up against him as she went. His skin tingled. Had she brushed up against him on purpose?
Macy shut the door and looked up at them. Her eyes went back and forth between them. Jake walked to the kitchen sink and started wetting down a rag, intending to wipe down the counters. They didn’t really need it, but the act gave him a purpose. He could feel Macy’s gaze on him. The room filled with painful, awkward silence.
Until Macy broke it. “Ew. Gross.”
