“Oh.” Simon brightened. “Well, so long as these caverns aren’t within walking distance, we may be able to follow them after all.”
“Am I the only one here who doesn’t know what’s going on?” Autumn asked. “And who’s now missing a slide?”
“More or less,” I said. “But I have another baggie of blood and dirt in the van if you want to make up another slide. Or take it for that DNA analysis.”
“Unless they already found it,” Simon said. “They do like to make themselves at home in our van.”
“It’s in the fridge.”
Simon’s eyebrow quirked up. “Thus insulating it from extrasensory blood-tracking abilities?”
“Well. It’s buried behind cans of Mountain Dew and sticky jars of strawberry jam. That ought to insulate it from... something.”
“Health conscious thieves?” Temi murmured.
“I don’t know.” I waved away the all-too-legitimate objections and told Autumn, “I can go check if you want it.”
“The closest DNA sequencer that I know of is at U of A,” she said.
“Know anybody there that will let you use it?”
“Maybe, but you’re not sending me off on another errand without feeding me first, are you?”
“I think we can afford to buy you those fries now. Maybe even a glass of wine.” I smiled and nodded toward the coin, though I planned to run extensive image searches before handing it over to a dealer. “We’ll explain a few things over dinner too,” I added. Given that Autumn had access to a lab, she’d be good to have on the team.
“Lots of patrol cars cruising the street,” Temi said from the window.
“I hope that monster stays in the woods tonight and doesn’t harass us or anyone else,” I said. “We have a lot of research to do.”
“Sounds... stimulating,” Temi said.
“Hey, you wanted to join us,” I said. “It can’t be all spelunking and monster battles.”
“Oh, I know that,” she said. “I’m just not certain how I can be of assistance in the research arena.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll handle the research, and you sling the fire extinguishers.”
“So I’m your heavy?”
“You’re tall enough for it.” I grinned. “We can set you up with a RealmSaga character in case you get bored.”
“Yes,” Simon said with an enthusiastic snap of his fingers. “What are your thoughts on playing healers?”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER 19
The doors at the downtown library were locked. I checked the time on my phone. The building should have opened a few minutes ago.
“Why do I have a feeling the library is on Monster Holiday?” I asked.
“Because we haven’t seen a soul since we left the hotel?” Simon asked.
“I wonder if something else vile happened last night.” I took out my phone to check the news from the local papers. After the previous day’s over-stimulating events, I’d slept like a fossil buried in sediment twenty feet deep. If strange predators wearing plastic armor had terrorized the city, I hadn’t heard it.
Simon removed his computer bag and plopped down with his back to the front door. He pulled out his MacBook and propped it on his thighs. He was only wearing jeans, a long-sleeve T-shirt, and of course his white socks and sandals. The morning sun had little warmth, and I could think of more appealing places to do research, but maybe he believed someone would be by with the keys eventually. He’d wanted to find big paper maps of the area that he could spread out on a table. While everything was online these days, there were times when real maps were nicer to deal with. But if we weren’t going to be able to get in...
I glanced at the street. Temi had driven off in her Jag to get us some breakfast from an organic grocery store she’d recommended and to drop Autumn off at a veterinary office that handled livestock as well as pets. I felt bad sending her on errands, but she hadn’t been confident in her ability to help us research. I thought she was selling herself short—just because she hadn’t finished school didn’t mean she wasn’t bright—but if she was more comfortable helping in other ways, that was fine. If nothing else, I knew we’d get something superior to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our morning meal.
“Nobody turned off their router for the night,” Simon said. “We’ve got good wifi here.”
I finished scanning the Daily Courier’s latest entries. “Did you check your tracker this morning? If our new friends are still at the Vendome, they might have had a difficult night.”