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Twenty-eight

The Sheriff

To Burton, it sounded like there could be thirty or forty people wailing in the cave, let alone whatever was et rid of witnesses as he’d thought If all the people he’d passed on the road earlier were in the cave, the SWAT snipers were going to have their work cut out for the was for sure, he couldn’t let Crowe and this woman, whoever she was, leave the ranch alive

His cell phone rang and he pushed the answer button "What?" He set his gun down and covered his ear to shut out the noise from the cave

"Nailsworth here," the Spider said "They’re on the way Give it forty minutes And there’s no other entrance to that cave"

Burton was not happy, having to lie in this crevice for another forty minutes, but once the SWAT team arrived, it would be over "Nailsworth, shot in the dark here, but have you ever heard of so themselves Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Wasteland?"

"The Outland," the Spider corrected "Warrior Babe of the Outland Of course, only the finest series of nuked-out future e star Molly Michon was the actress’s name Why?"

"Never mind One of the suspects thinks she’s a comedian"

"If you want some of the cassettes, I can let you have soot almost the whole collection"

"Nailsworth, you’re a pathetic piece of shit" Burton disconnected The wailing was still co he couldn’t , sticking out between Steve’s teeth Molly grabbed her broadsword, ran up the Sea Beast’s foreleg, and leapt onto his broad neck She brought the broadsword down hard between his eyes and the io numb "Spit hi to throw her off, but she gripped hihs and hacked away at his head Chunks of his scales flew off and the blade sparked "Spit hi the panicked chant with blows from the sword She’d seen this before She knew that if she heard a crunch, Theo was finished

The Sea Beast opened his jaws to deliver the coup de grace and Molly could hear a gurgling scream come from Theo She leapt to her feet on Steve’s forehead, put the tip of the broadsword in the corner of his eye, and prepared to leap on the hilt to drive it into his eye socket "Spit hi to see his attacker, thennoise and hacked the constable out on the cave floor He whipped his head and Molly went fly ing, hitting her back hard on the cave wall ten feet away and sliding down

The pilgrims’ wails turned to sobs as Steve slunk to the back of the cave

Theo, on spit, pushed himself up on his hands and knees and looked to Molly "You okay?" he gasped

She nodded "I think so You?"

Theo nodded and looked down to s were still there "Yeah" He crawled over to her and sat back against the cave wall beside her, still heaving to get his breath back "Nice friends you have Why’d he stop?"

"I think his feelings are hurt"

"Sorry"

"He’ll get over it He’s a big boy"

Despite hi he and Molly were leaning against each other, giggling uncontrollably

"Steve, huh?" Theo said

"He looks like a Steve, don’t you think?" Molly said

Theo wiped the dragon spit froht his chin in her hand and pushed him away "Bad idea"

Another roar rose frory and uess so," Theo said

"What in the hell is going on in there, Crowe?" Burton called from outside "You don’t have a lot of time to dick around here There’s a SWAT team on the way What do you want?"

"I don’t even knohat the hell you’re talking about," Theo shouted

"What do you want to walk away fro How ht have the answer She said, "I thought weto let o either If there’s a SWAT teao talk to Steve" Molly stood and walked between the sobbing pilgrims to the back of the cave Theo watched her fade into the dark where the Sea Beast was pulsing with direen and blue Theo rubbed his eyes to try to clear his vision

"Well, Crowe? What’ll it be?"

"Make ure out so that would keep him alive more than two seconds after he stepped out of the cave

"I’ll give you a hundred thousand It’s a fair offer, Crowe You can’t prove anything anyway, not if Leander is dead Take the money and walk away"

"I’m dead," Theo said to himself The size of the bluff offer itself betrayed Burton’s seriousness There was no way he was letting Theo get away alive "We’ll talk it over!" Theo shouted His head was throbbing fro he’d taken and the vision in his left eye was blurry His cell phone chirped fro and he scrah the clothes and pill bottles to find it His vision went black with the move-ment and he had to steady himself until it cleared He found the phone nestled in a pair of panty hose and hit the answer button

Steve

He knew an eneression and fear co from his warmblood lover He could feel the fear even now as she approached hi to find anotherthe feeder people for hi, that felt good, he thought she wanted to ain, but when she put it in his eye, he knew she would have killed him He felt it She had turned her loyalties to another He considered biting off her head to show her how badly he felt

He tucked his head under his foreleg as she approached She rubbed his gill tree and he sent a bolt of scarlet over his back to tell her to stop

"I’m sorry, Steve I don’t have many friends I couldn’t let you eat Theo"

He could sense benevolence in her tone, but he didn’t trust her now Maybe he would just bite off an arenta and blue

"You have to go, Steve There’s a SWAT teauy outside without a probleuy outside if you want In fact, I’d really appreciate it if you’d eat that guy outside"

She stepped back frooing to kill you"

He pulsed a dull olive drab to her and tucked his head farther under his foreleg She wanted hio away, but he didn’t want her to want hio away He knew she could never be what he wanted, and he understood never now, but he didn’t want the warmblood to have her either Colors ran like sorrow over his scales

"I’ to save your life"

She pushed through the pilgri, and one worabbed her arm "I can sacrifice," the woman said "I can"

Molly pulled her arm away from the woman "Fuck off, lady," Molly said, "Martyrdo"

Theo

It was only when he answered the cell phone that Theo realized one of Burton’s blows had caught him on the ear "Ouch! Goddamn it Ouch!" Theo limped around in a circle, despite the fact that his limbs weren’t injured at all

"Theo?" Gabe said, his voice tinny in the receiver

"Yeah, it’s ed the phone to his other ear, but still held it a few inches away, now that it had bitten him once

"Where are you? Who answered your phone?"

"That was Molly Michon We’re in that cave up on the ranch where the mushroom farm used to be Burton has us pinned in here and he’s called in a SWAT team"

"Have you seen it?"

"Yeah, I’ve seen it, Gabe I think you were right about the brain che There’s a bunch of people here all tranced out, saying they were called to give sacrifice They all have prescriptions written by Val"

"Wow," Gabe said "Wow What’s it look like?"

"It’s large, Gabe"

"Could you be oing to kill us I need witnesses up here so he can’t claim that we fired on his men Call the TV station and the paper Get a news helicopter up here"

Theo felt Molly grab his shoulder He turned to see her shaking her head "Just a second, Gabe" He covered the mouthpiece with his hand

"No reporters, Theo"

"Why not?"

"Because if they find out about Steve, they’ll put hiripped his shoulder until it hurt and tears welled up in her eyes "Please"

Theo nodded "Gabe," he said into the phone, "Forget the reporters No news people No cah I need witnesses here that don’t work for Burton"

"You said there were a bunch of people there?"

"They’re all out of it, I don’t think they’re worth a damn Besides, they’re naked"

There was a pause Gabe said, "Why are they naked?"

Theo looked to Molly, "Why are they naked?"

"To deter the into the cave," Theo said into the phone

"Well, that didn’t work very well, did it?" Gabe said "Why didn’t she scare them off with the creature?"

"That’s what I’ve been telling you, Gabe They’re here to be with the creature"

"Fascinating And Molly has control over hi down his jeans "Not exactly Gabe, please, bring Val and get your ass up here You can clai Val can say she’s a trained hostage ne-gotiator These people are her patients; that should help her credibility Bring as ain and shook her head "Just the people who already know"

Theo cursed under his breath "Scratch that, Gabe Just you and Val Don’t tell anyone else"

"Mavis and Howard and Catfish know already"

"Just theet up here"

"Theo, this isn’t going to help youkilled, but Burton is still going to arrest you guys You know it And once he gets you in his jail, well, you know"

"One thing at a tiot to preserve that creature This is the greatest"

"Gabe," Theo interrupted "I’, please"

"You’ve got to get that creature out of there, Theo They ht not shoot you if there are witnesses, but they won’t let the creature go"

"He won’t ?"

"I don’t know, Gabe Just come, okay" Theo disconnected and sat down To Molly he said, "Gabe’s right Wein witnesses Maybe we should rush Burton before SWAT gets here"

Molly picked up the AK-47 from the floor, released the clip and tilted it so Theo could see it was eotiator?" Val Riordan said "I diddisorders The closest I’ve ever coed actress out of purging fourteen quarts of Ben & Jerry’s Monkey Chunks after she lost her part on ’Baywatch’"

"That counts," said Gabe He’d related everything that Theo had told him and was ready to run to the rescue, but Val was reluctant

"I believe the flavor is Chunky Monkey," HP said

"Whatever," said Val "I don’t see why Theo needs us if he’s got a whole cave full ofto be patient, but he could feel a clock ticking in the back of his brain, each tick taking away his chance to save his friend and lay eyes on a living specimen from the Cretaceous period "I told you, Theo says they’re out of it"

"Perfectly logical," said HP

"How so?" asked Val, obviously irritated at the stuffy restaurateur’s tone

"The tradition ofsacrifice is as old as man It may be more than just a tradition The Babylonians sacrificed to the serpent, Tiaods Perhaps this creature was the serpent to which they sacrificed"

"That’s ridiculous," Val said "This thing eats people"

HP chuckled, "People have been loving vengeful gods for thousands of years Who’s to say it isn’t the vengeance that inspires that love? Perhaps, as Dr Fenton has pointed out, there is so habits of this creature and the brain chemistry of its prey Perhaps it inspires love as well as sexual sti needn’t be reciprocal, you know He could be as oblivious to his worshippers as any other god He takes the sacrifices as his due, with no responsibility on his part"

"That’s a stea snot if I ever heard it," Catfish spouted "I been near this thing and it ain’t never done nothin but scare the daylights out of ht, Mr Fish?" HP said "Isn’t it true that your fear of this creature has inspired a lifelong career in music? Perhaps you owe thanks to this beast"

"I owe ya’ll a ride to the booby hatch, thass what I owe"