Eleriss stepped forward and smiled at us. “Greetings,” he said in the same tone of voice I’d used. “It is unfortunate that you did not leave to go to your Alaska. Further, by following us, you’ve exposed yourself to great dangers.”
I flicked a hand. “Danger is our middle name.”
I didn’t feel the casualness I feigned, but putting up a brave facade seemed important. I wasn’t sure why. It was clear from Eleriss’s curious head tilt that he wasn’t familiar with the expression. He was probably trying to figure out how we’d all come to have the same middle names.
“How did you find us in the forest?” Eleriss asked. He didn’t seem angry or irritated, merely curious. Mr. Stony and Silent by the door was another matter. Jakatra appeared irked by the entire situation.
“You first. How’d you find us here?” I gestured toward the hotel room.
“You have our blood,” Eleriss said, as if that explained everything.
Jakatra hissed something to him in his own tongue. A troubled expression flashed across Eleriss’s face, but he shrugged and dismissed the comment.
“This is your blood?” Autumn asked, losing her I’m-just-here-for-the-entertainment mien. She flicked her thumb toward the microscope. “From your veins?”
Eleriss stared down at his wrists thoughtfully. Jakatra stalked past him to the television stand, his face hard and cold. I’d always considered Autumn a tough girl, but she shrank back at his approach. He removed the slide from the microscope, pocketed it, and stared at her, as if to ask if she meant to battle him for it.
Eleriss spread his arms in a gesture that he might have intended to be placating, but he got it wrong, with his palms toward the carpet and his fingers curled. “It is blood that belongs to us,” he said, “and we can find it when it goes missing.”
“What?” Simon mouthed.
“I think they’re bad liars,” I said sotto voce, then raised my voice for Eleriss. “You said you wanted to hire us?”
He nodded firmly and looked relieved to have the blood topic dropped. “You said you are good at research and locating things. We have witnessed that you located us more than once.”
“Yes,” I said carefully. No need to mention the tracking device. As far as I knew, it was still on one of their motorcycles. I’d swat Simon later for not checking in every five minutes to see if those guys were leaving their hotel to cross town and stroll up the stairs to our room.
“We are,” Simon said brightly. “What do you want to hire us to find? And in what currency will you be paying us? I only ask because we’ve learned that your motorcycles aren’t legally yours. Do you have money?”
I winced. I hadn’t been a business owner for long, but I had a feeling it wasn’t a good practice to accuse one’s potential clients of being thieves, even if it happened to be true in this case.
“We wish for you to locate a cavern near this population center,” Eleriss said. “It is deep beneath the ground and may not have been breeched for several hundred years.”
“Near this population center?” Autumn asked. “As in Prescott? You expect them to do an electrical resistance survey of fifty square miles? That’d take a lifetime.”
“Simon has developed some software that taps into the satellite system for remote sensing applications,” I told her. “It might not find an old midden beside a buried building, but it’s good for finding caves and mines. No need to wander around sticking probes in the ground.”
Autumn fiddled with the hoop earring dangling from one of her lobes. “Tapping into the satellite system? Is that... legal? For private citizens?”
“Of course,” Simon said with one of his innocent Coyote smiles.
“This means you may be able to assist us?” Eleriss asked.
“Yes,” Simon said at the same time as I uttered a, “Maybe.”
Simon drove on, adding, “I like a challenge. We do need to discuss payment however, and you’ll need to share any information you might have on depth and location. Do you anticipate an entrance in the hills somewhere? Or is it closed off?”
“We have ascertained that there is not an accessible opening,” Eleriss said. “One will have to be made.”
I thought of the tunnel they’d melted into the solid rock of that cavate. “How far can you excavate to reach an underground chamber?” I wondered if there was any way they’d show me whatever tool they’d used to create that passage. Whatever it was, it must be compact enough that they were able to carry it on their motorcycles. Such a device would be a hit in the world of archaeology, not to mention all the practical applications for miners and engineers.