Home Base (Harbingers Book 14) Page 5

  “Brenda.”

  “And it’s ‘Tank.’”

  “Whatever. You will go where I tell you, and when you encounter a ghast, you will each deploy the weapons I saw you use this morning.”

  They looked at each other.

  “What weapons?” Tank asked.

  I snickered. “Really? Vunderkind here,” I said, looking at Daniel, “wielded a metaphysical sword of fire just a few hours ago. We’ll need it again, kid. Swing it at the creatures like you did in the kitchen, okay? Belinda attacks with ink needles and sketchbooks, and occasionally her ‘righteous anger’ even has a small effect on things. I’ll need you to be broadcasting that anger against all things creepy pretty much the whole time you’re out,” I told her. “It’s like your shields.”

  “What about me?” Tank asked. “What’s my secret weapon?”

  “You will stand ready to bash in the heads of anything that tries to attack Sweet Cheeks or the kid.”

  “Hey!” Andi said.

  “Yeah,” Brenda echoed. “What about me?”

  I shrugged but gave her a roguish smile. “Moose,” I said to Tank, “you’ve got some small but fritzy talent to heal. Hopefully you won’t need it, because I expect none of you to be hurt and I definitely don’t want any civilians hurt. In fact, they can’t even know what you’re doing. Unlike the Ghostbusters, you have to be discreet when you’re clearing a hotel.”

  I didn’t mention that I was holding in reserve a request for him to use whatever power it was he’d exerted that had blasted that pack of death eels off his back. I glanced at the bandage on his neck then looked away.

  I looked at Andi, who smiled at me shyly but tried to look defiant. “What about me?”

  “You? You’re hopeless. I’m not even sure why you’re on this team.”

  She put on mock outrage and slapped my shoulder. “That’s not true. I contribute.”

  “Maybe you can find a pattern in their argyle socks or something. Maybe all ghasts wear stripes with plaids, and you’ll see it just in time to save us!”

  She folded her arms and turned away.

  “No,” I said gently, “you’re there for intelligence and common sense and a level head. Not to mention the ability to bash things with driftwood. You’ll be fine, Sweet…heart.”

  Tank affected a yawn. “So when are we going to do this? First thing after breakfast?”

  “No, Colossus, now.”

  Chapter Seven

  Simply Ghastly

  The thing about ghasts was that they were unpredictable. I hadn’t known if Jose the Waiter was going to attack us in my suite or what. And since they often acted without forethought, it meant I couldn’t read their intentions.

  I sat on my couch, cross-legged, with my phone face up on a pillow in my lap. But my spirit was in a foggy sphere just outside the executive boardroom on the first floor of the DFW Grant Hyatt.

  My four intrepid adventurers stood huddled at the door, one behind the other in the order I’d outlined, as if about to storm a dragon’s den. Daniel had his fiery spirit sword and Brenda was spewing righteous anger. We even had a tank going first. And Sweet Cheeks was there to beautify and add romantic tension and otherwise round out my little Dungeons & Dragons questing party.

  And me…I was dungeon master. What else?

  I bent a thought toward the hotel security staff and saw that they were indeed alerted that we were going to be doing some…interesting…things. They were under strict orders not to interfere unless something caught fire or there was blood. Basically, they were crowd control, but I hoped they wouldn’t be needed even for that.

  “Yes,” I said aloud into the phone, “there is one ghast in there. He’s posing as hotel staff. Male. A front desk-looking guy with a blue suit and peach tie. But he’s not alone, so your first job is to get him away from the others so you can take him down.” I moved my view so I was seeing half on their side of the door and half on the other. “Okay, go.”

  Tank put his hand on the knob lever.

  “Hang on,” Brenda said.

  All our phones were linked in a conference call, and we had cleaned the gift shop out of ear buds, so at least we could communicate without everything being heard by others. It would do until the pro comms arrived.

  “What?” I said, trying not to let irritation take me out of my trance.

  “How exactly is we supposed to ‘take him down’? I ain’t got no butterfly net, and unless Cowboy’s got a nu-cul-ar thingamajig on his back, we got bubkes.”

  “We went over this, Belinda. You spray your holier-than-thou anger at it, Moose holds it down, Fred Jr. slices and dices it with his sparkle sword, and Andi stands there looking pretty.”

  “Ugh,” Sweet Cheeks said. “How can you be this annoying?”

  “It’s a gift. But you’re right, darlin’. Next time, you stay here and sit in my lap, plying me with grapes and margaritas. No sense risking you.”

  “Ugh!”

  I smiled to myself. “Okay, they’re done in there. Moose, step back now!”

  He pulled his hand back just as the door swung open, and three of the five staffers walked out. The front-ghast-clerk was still inside, along with a petite Asian dustmaid I might just have to pay some attention to in the near future.

  “Okay, go now.”

  Tank opened the door and they went in, crouched and ready to strike.

  “Guys,” I said, “this isn’t a cage fight. Fly casual.”

  A huge brown wood table dominated the room. It was basically a table-room. Six black, wide executive chairs sat smartly on one side of the table, facing across the shiny surface to six chairs on the other side. Each place setting had a signing pad like a placemat, a short pad of white paper, a pen, and an upside-down water glass.

  Both staffers were on the far end of the room next to a widescreen monitor on the wall. They turned to my adventurers.

  The ghast-clerk clasped his hands in a fig leaf pose and smiled. “Can I help you folks?” He even had a Texas accent. Nice touch.

  “Tell the dustmaid that someone was calling for her,” I said.

  Brenda said it, and I listened to the maid’s thoughts. But of course they were in Mandarin. So I took a chance.

  “Tell her her boss wants to see her right away. Make it sound urgent.”

  Brenda did, and the maid said, “Shyeh-shyeh” and scurried from the boardroom.

  I wondered if the ghast could see Daniel’s flaming sword or if its vision was limited to the natural. I thought perhaps he would play the desk clerk a little longer, but I was wrong.

  With a warping shimmer in the remote viewing plane, the young man vanished and in his place was a skinny old woman ghast with a Roaring Twenties haircut and bangles that slid down a radius and ulna barely covered by skin. I didn’t know if they’d be able to see the change or—

  Smartmouth swore like a Belinda rat, and I had my answer. It was the one she’d drawn, after all.

  “Stay back!” Andi sounded more than a little afraid.

  They stayed more or less in their line, all hiding behind their tank. For his part, the troll crouched and held his hands apart like lion claws. He advanced on the ghast as if to grapple with it. I couldn’t fault his courage, that was for sure. All he had to do was grab it so Daniel could—

  The she-ghast doubled in size and flew at Tank with a flurry of slender limbs, claws, and teeth. All he could do was lean back to keep her head in view, and it was on him, shredding his arms and bloodying his nose and already pawing over him to get at someone else.

  Tank’s blood sprayed over the table and notepads, and the thing screamed like a goat demon. All four of them fell on their rumps in shock and fear. Daniel’s sword went out. “Get away! Get away!” someone shouted.

  I didn’t know they could get big like that. That hadn’t happened in Chile. What exactly were we dealing w—

  The ghast sprang over Tank, grabbed Daniel above the right knee, and fled the room, bursting the door to shards an
d carrying the kid upside-down and flailing.

  German profanity.

  Chapter Eight

  Pear-Shaped

  So much for discretion.

  Brenda ran through the conference wing of the Grand Hyatt screaming Daniel’s name. Andi came next, shaking and mumbling, “Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh.”

  Tank thundered after and quickly passed them both. His wounds seemed to have enraged him, and blood flowed over his arms and mouth and chin. He tore across the carpet, leaving about as much damage than the fleeing ghast. Hotel staff shrank against the walls or fell to the floor when the monster and its pursuers passed.

  The ghast had to run crouched to keep its head under the ceiling tiles. I’d never seen one grow like that. This could be a problem. Daniel wasn’t shrieking or crying, but he wasn’t exactly calm and his sword had snuffed out. The creature ran past tasteful abstract paintings on the wall and stylish banded carpet, slavering and screaming like a sheep hit by a truck. My team came close behind.

  I roved ahead to keep up, trying to send a powerful-enough suggestion to security to get involved now. I wasn’t sure it would work, and I saw Andi stumble, so I had an idea. “Andi, go to security and tell them there’s been an incident and that it’s ongoing. Tank needs medical help and we need them to keep people away from the conference wing. Can you do that for me?”

  “Of course I can,” she said into her phone, getting up and running toward the main lobby. “I’m not a child.”

  “Wait, are you mad?”

  “Just help Daniel!”

  I zoomed down the hall as the ghast came to the end of the long conference wing lobby and burst through two sets of double doors that led into the hotel’s 400-seat presentation hall. Gray chairs sat in neat phalanxes in front of massive blue video screens flanked by blue curtains.

  The creature waded into the high-ceilinged room, pushing chairs aside as if walking through water up to its knees. It slowed a bit and transferred Daniel to its other hand.

  That was enough for Tank to catch up. He launched himself at the beast’s middle, knocking it forward onto gray chairs and spraying his blood on the fabric. The creature lost its grip on Daniel, who hit his head on the back of a chair and lay still.

  Great. Without Daniel’s metaphysical sword, I didn’t know how we were going to destroy the creature.

  The ghast twisted its torso and reached those over-long arms at Tank, but he held tight to its middle. It hammered him relentlessly, but he held tight. Daniel moaned and stirred.

  Brenda arrived and ran directly for Daniel. The ghast rolled in its struggle with Tank, tossing chairs aside. But Brenda got to Daniel and tried to pick him up. She wasn’t big and he wasn’t small, and the angle was bad—plus, physical combat nearby—so she settled for grabbing him under his arms and dragging him back toward the busted doors. He lolled his head around.

  I felt so helpless. This was pure chaos and I had no clue how to make a difference. I hated that feeling. I had half a mind to cry out to the Almighty, like some oafish peasant.

  I’m okay. It was a thought from Daniel.

  Seriously? Awesome! Can you get the sword going again?

  In the misty hologram of my RV vision, I saw Daniel’s spirit sword flare to life.

  The ghast must’ve seen it too, because it—she?—flailed at Tank to get away. But Cowboy held on, his arms raked by cuts and his face covered in bright blood.

  “Daniel, no!” Brenda reached for the kid, but he darted away toward the scrum on the carpet.

  The Roaring Twenties slender-hag became frenzied at the approach of the sword. Daniel went into the aisle between the disrupted set of chairs and the pristine phalanx next to them and neared the ghast’s head.

  Just hack at anything, I thought at him. It should slice through all parts of her. It’s like a light saber.

  He raised the sword over his head and lunged forward. The ghast put up an arm, and he cut it clean off.

  The creature shrieked so loud I saw Brenda collapse to the floor with her hands over her ears.

  At that moment, on the other side of the huge room, the Hispanic waiter came crashing through the double doors.

  With a roar and a ripple of reality, he discarded the illusion of humanity and grew into Slenderman—spindly limbs, an immaculate black tuxedo, and only the barest hint of features on an otherwise blank orb of a face. It was a nightmare creature, and I knew that ghasts in this form had been indirectly responsible for several teenage suicides.

  This one seemed more interested in homicide. In its larger size, it consumed the distance to Daniel with astonishing speed.

  Now, kid! I thought. Kill that one now!

  It crossed my mind that I shouldn’t be asking a little kid to be a monster-slayer, but at the moment, he was what we had.

  Daniel drew back his flaming blade and jabbed it forward into the she-ghast’s neck. It struggled and moaned, but Daniel kept at it. He hacked and stabbed and thrust. His hits landed true, but the thing was big and strong, and it was taking too long to die. Slenderman was almost on them.

  “Stay back, you devil freak!” Brenda stepped into the space between Daniel and the other ghast. She had her right hand forward like a superhero crossing guard, and I could feel her shooting a beam of protective, Mama Bear, stay away from my baby anger at the creature.

  It flinched and pulled up short, as if struck by a stun gun.

  Brenda advanced on it. “Get back, and go back to whatever hellhole you crawled out of. Leave this hotel and never come near any of us again!”

  The thing backpedaled and shuddered, twitching as if being tased. But now and again it snarled and surged forward, only to be halted again, and I didn’t know how long her trick would work.

  I heard a commotion out of the range of my vision, and it wasn’t only the sound of Daniel finally lopping the head off of the Charleston Ghast, either.

  “I did it!” he shouted.

  That broke Brenda’s concentration, and she turned to look.

  Whatever had restrained Slenderman snapped, and it rushed at her, its blank features stretched and its hands spread into claws.

  “Brenda,” I shouted at her, knowing I was too late, “watch o—”

  Thunder boomed in the cavernous hall, and the ghast was thrown off its path. Its left arm popped Brenda on the side of the head as it cartwheeled over. She fell and it fell, and a squad of security guards advanced, pistols raised.

  A fifth figure—Sweet Cheeks!—ran to Brenda and pulled her aside, while the guards closed on Slenderman. It got to its knees but the thunder clapped again, and it fell back under a barrage of bullets.

  There was a break in the tension. Medical personnel came to Tank and Brenda and Andi hugged. I could tell they all thought the danger had passed, but I knew differently. Daniel, I thought, cut that one’s head off too, just to be sure.

  Okay.

  Then even I started to relax. That was when I heard the sound of commotion again, and I realized it wasn’t coming from the bilocating vision. It was much closer. I climbed out of the RV trance and opened my eyes.

  The third ghast stood over me. Right there in my suite. It was an oversize version of a teenaged Mowgli, shirtless and horribly thin, with long bedraggled hair over its face and those white, white eyes.

  “Uh, guys,” I said into the phone still on my lap. “I think I’m going to need some help.”

  Chapter Nine

  Together at Last

  I flipped over the back of the couch, sending my phone and the pillow flying, and held my hands out toward the ghast.

  “Nice jungle boy. Nice Mowgli.”

  The ghast looked sullen and slightly slouched, as any gangly teen boy should. But with the eyes all white, I couldn’t tell if it was looking at me or not. It breathed heavily, as if it had taken the stairs, but it didn’t fly into a rage just yet. It merely towered over me, breathing.

  I risked a glance down the short passageway to the door. It was closed and not smashed, s
o I figured “Boy” had been posing as hotel staff and had just let himself in before going native on me.

  Could I bolt to the door and run?

  I looked back at Mowgli, and he hadn’t moved. The constrained violence was disquieting, like the Alpha Male mutant in I Am Legend. I took two steps toward the door, and the ghast sprang forward to cut me off. It stood in the passageway and pawed at me listlessly.

  I backed away. “Okay, okay. I like it here anyway.”

  What was the thing doing? Was it depressed that its friends had been decapitated? Was it in need of a battery charge?

  Was it waiting?

  Outside of my remote viewing trance and without my phone, I had no connection to the others. It was possible the phone was still on, though, wherever it had flown to, so I combined a strong mental warning with a spoken one. “Guys, if you can hear me, watch out. I think this thing is waiting for you to get here.”

  I backed to the desk and scanned it for something I could use as a weapon. Narrow computer speakers? No. Netbook? No. Not even a letter opener. The dining table had been cleaned, but there were knives in the sink. Better than nothing.

  I hadn’t more than decided it than the thing leapt at me. It crossed the room in a lunge and reached for my neck. I blocked the sickeningly narrow limbs and tried to run behind the dining table.

  It slammed a forearm into my right shoulder and knocked me hard against the window overlooking a ten-story drop to the airport tarmac. The glass held, but the blow had knocked me hard. I stumbled toward the table, but the thing made a wet flaying noise and shoved me in the back.

  I fell forward behind the nearest dining chair and rumpled the throw rug. The creature bent over me like a human praying mantis, batting me with those hideously long arms.

  I scooted away and grabbed a chair leg. I tried to use the chair as a weapon, but the ghast knocked it and the whole table away savagely and fluttered its lips at me, gagging me with stink breath.