The Demon Conspiracy (5 page)

The head ranger, who
normally worked the day shift, was a serious looking, dark eyed
woman named Melinda Laarz. Laarz was in her forties, with a
friendly personality and a definite take-charge attitude,
especially during emergencies. Laarz was a full time, year round
ranger—a lifer, and that was okay with Ned. Somebody had to do it.
One reason he stuck with being a park ranger was because he
wasn’t
in charge. Being
a supervisor would make it seem too much like a
real
job. The only real job he
wanted was to be an accountant.

“What’s up, Melinda?”

“Hey, Ned,” she said, marking on the work
calendar. “Are you awake?”

He yawned and nodded. “How about you? You
just pulled a double.”

“I’ll live. I hope Eric’s
hot
date is worth it. He’s the one pulling
a double tomorrow.”

Ned laughed. “Eric’s never had any trouble
finding girls, so this one must be extra special. She’s that
Russian girl who goes caving around here. Is there coffee?”

“That pot’s fresh. Russian girl? You mean
Anya? She’s a pretty one, all right. I didn’t realize they knew
each other.”

“He met her at the summer camp.”

Laarz dismissed the topic with a shrug.
“Keep an eye on the spotlights, okay? They went off twice last
night and I don’t know why. If they go off again pop the breaker
switch pronto. Are you going to stay awake?”

“I got a test tomorrow. I’ll be awake.”

“Good enough. I need a beer and some shrimp
fried rice. See ya later.”

“G’night, Melinda.” When Laarz left, Ned got
out his books and poured a cup of coffee. Then he got to work
studying.

Nearly three hours later Ned got up and made
a big, joint-popping stretch. He felt pretty good about the test
and decided to watch TV for a while.

Five hours to go,
he thought, searching for the TV remote.
Not so bad
.

About then Ripper started
barking like crazy. Ned flinched. The dog never barked like that
unless someone, or
something
was close by. Ned swallowed hard and took up his
flashlight.

Please don’t be a
skunk
, he thought as he went out the
door.

All the spotlights around the station were
off, including the ones in front of the cave. Ned gripped the
long-handled flashlight securely, like a short club. If somebody
was messing around with the breaker box he might have to bash some
heads in. He touched the cell phone in his pants pocket to make
sure it was there. Sometimes even rangers needed to call 911.

Ned moved through the shrubs on the south
side of the station until he came to the breaker box under the
window. He removed the heavy padlock and opened the panel. Nothing
looked out of the ordinary. He flipped several switches off and
back on again. Everything outside stayed dark.

“Dammit.”

All the while Ripper continued to bark. Ned
shined the flashlight on the dog. Ripper’s full attention was on
Pandora’s Cave, about thirty yards away. Ned aimed the beam of
light at the cave entrance and finally saw what the dog saw. He was
so startled he jumped to his feet.

A man stood alone near the cave entrance,
staring back at him. He was tall, at least six feet and wore a
dark, three-piece business suit with highly polished black leather
shoes. His fingers were interlaced in front of him in an
undertaker’s pose.

“Can I help you, sir?” Ned glanced over his
shoulder at the parking lot. His Jeep was the only vehicle there.
How’d this clown even get here?

Ned noticed some kind of metallic looking
object on the ground beside the man. It was shaped like a chrome
fire hydrant and stood about hip high. What the hell was that
supposed to be? He shined the light in the man’s face and
approached him warily.

Ned stopped about ten feet away from the
stranger, but kept the light trained in the guy’s eyes. From that
distance, Ned could see him clearly. “Sir?”

The guy looked so out of
place it was ridiculous. He was dark and distinguished with a
neatly trimmed beard and a touch of gray at his temples. He was
probably about forty years old and looked like a model in
Gentleman’s Quarterly
.
He smiled back at Ned, as if amused. But he never spoke. Then he
slowly dropped one hand to his side, allowing his fingertips to
touch the device beside him.

Ned saw the movement and hesitated. He
reached for his sidearm. He frowned. Rangers didn’t carry guns, one
of the dumber rules of the job. His personal handgun and hunting
rifle were in the Jeep.

“Sir? Do you understand me?” Ned tried to
appear less nervous than he really was, but this guy was spooking
him out. Ripper was going nuts. “What’s that thing beside you?”

The man smiled at him again and shook his
head. Then, without a sound, both he and the device
disappeared.

Ned staggered back, stunned. Ripper barked
even louder.

“Damn!” He shined the flashlight in every
direction. Unless a UFO had taken the guy, there was only one place
he could have gone. Into the cave. But how?

Ned swallowed hard and marched toward the
entrance. Abruptly, he thought better of it and ran to the dog’s
pen instead. He opened the gate and turned Ripper loose. The
fierce-looking dog took off straight toward the cave. Ned followed
at a cautious jog, watching their backs.

As they reached the
entrance, a host of colorful glowing eyes appeared within the
cave’s pitch darkness. Ripper skidded to a halt. He settled into a
low, ominous growl. Ned froze beside the dog. The eyes in the cave
glared at them hatefully, glowing like dim flashlights. Some were
red, some blue, some even bright yellow, but clearly none were
human. A snickering sound erupted from the darkness.
Someone—or
something
—was laughing at him.

Ned’s legs shook. His heart pounded. Against
his better judgment, he aimed his flashlight at some of the eyes.
Something moved. A flash of blue! No, green! No, yellow! Whoever—or
whatever—they were, they turned and ran. Ripper yelped. The huge
dog took off toward the office. Ned shuddered. One of those things
in the cave must have been at least ten feet tall. A cold, stiff
breeze blew across his neck. He inched away from the cave.

Were they wild animals? Or were they
something else, something…unnatural?

Abruptly, the floodlights popped back on.
Ned jumped in surprise, half blinded. He saw Ripper standing on two
legs, pawing at the door to the station.

Thanks a lot,
Ripper
. The thought was sarcastic but Ned
totally understood why the dog had run. He listened carefully. The
area was utterly silent. Ned swallowed hard. He’d never experienced
anything like that before. He had a frightening thought.

Dogs were supposed to be sensitive to the
presence of ghosts, and Ripper had certainly seemed overly
sensitive to whatever was in that cave. A lonely chill raced
through Ned’s entire body. With a shiver, he glanced back at the
dark entrance.

Pandora’s Cave had never been haunted
before. So why now? He decided it didn’t matter. He ran back to the
ranger station and let both himself and the dog inside. Then he
locked all the doors and windows. Ned wasn’t going to have any
problem staying awake now. Hell, he might never sleep again!

4

THE EARTHQUAKE

KELLY

I was half asleep and it
was still dark when we drove into Crystal Creek Park in Anton
Edwards’ eight-seat SUV. In my opinion, getting out of bed in the
middle of the night is not a good time to do
anything
. I guess Anton thought
differently. He
liked
to go caving early and since he was the only one who knew
what he was doing, the rest of us went on his schedule.

Anton Edwards was head of the English
department at Chantilly High School and worked with Chris. He was a
ruggedly handsome black man with graying hair and intense, dark
eyes. He had on a loose fitting long-sleeved tan shirt, worn blue
jeans and jogging shoes. I could tell he was an athlete because of
his strong looking hands and it really surprised me to find out he
was forty-two. He sure didn’t look that old. In my mind anybody
over forty was over the hill, though Anton might be an
exception.

Another man I’d never met
before, Dr. Mark Parrish, had also come with us. He was Jon’s
chemistry teacher and was even older than Anton Edwards, like in
his fifties. He was ancient! Parrish wore thick, horn-rimmed
glasses and had a gray mustache that looked like a stiff scrub
brush. He was
so
big, just over 6’4’’, and though he wasn’t exactly fat, he
took up a lot of space just the same. The three men were obviously
good friends because they spent most of the trip cracking jokes at
each other.

Jon nudged me when we parked. “You awake?
Let’s go.”

I gathered my old
pink
Barbie
backpack and trudged along with the others to a one-story,
log building with a sign out front that read,
Ranger Station
. I really wanted to
see the cave but being there so early was not the best way to spend
Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon would have been just
fine.

“I can’t believe you
brought your old
Barbie
pack,” said Travis. “It’s fallin’
apart.”

“Well I’m sure not taking
my
new
one into a
cave,” I said defensively. “You’re going to mess up your new
backpack.”

Travis shrugged as Chris knocked on the door
to the ranger station. A dog barked from inside. Chris jumped back,
a look of terror on his face. A lady ranger came out to greet us
with a big smile and a steaming cup of coffee. A huge,
black-and-tan dog came out, too, and started sniffing everybody.
The dog looked scary, but it seemed friendly enough.

“Welcome to Crystal Creek Park,” said the
woman. “I’m Melinda Laarz, Head Ranger here. And this is Ripper the
wonder dog. He belongs to one of the rangers, but we keep him
around for company. You won’t bite, will you, Ripper?” She patted
the dog and sipped her coffee. Ripper wagged his bushy tail in a
friendly way.

Chris was uneasy around the dog, but Jon
knelt beside it and rubbed it behind the ears. Right away the tail
wagged harder. When Travis and I petted him, Ripper didn’t complain
at all, he just licked our hands and got dog slime all over us.
Yuck! Good thing I liked dogs.

“I’m pleased to meet you,” continued Laarz.
“If anyone needs help waking up I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee
inside, so help yourself. Anton tells me he’s taking you on a tour
of Pandora’s Cave?”

“Yeah!” said Travis excitedly. Jon and Chris
nodded.

“
You’re going to love it
in there.”

“Are there any blind cave crickets or bats?”
I asked. “We learned about them at school.”

“No bats in this cave. Not yet, anyway. But
you’re right about the cave crickets. And there are blindfish, too,
in the lake.” She called to Anton, who was busy getting equipment
out of his car. “There’s no rain in the forecast till next week, so
don’t worry about flashfloods. I’ll look for you guys no later than
one or two. Are you taking them to the Cathedral room?”

“Absolutely,” said Anton. “It’s the best
thing in the cave.”

“He’s not kidding,” said
Laarz. “It’s
fabulous
!”

I briefly scanned the lady ranger’s mind.
Laarz had a genuine love for the park and seemed excited for us. I
also got thoughts about the woman from Travis. He liked her right
off, which was usually a good sign.

Jon moved closer to Laarz and lowered his
voice so only those nearby could hear what he said. “Mr. Edwards is
my English teacher at school. Just between you and me, does he
really know anything about caves?”

Laarz nodded vigorously, whispering back to
him. “Oh, yes! Anton’s been exploring caves since before you were
born. He knows all the caves around here, and especially this one.
He works for the Park Service in the summers as a cave guide.
Believe me, he’s an expert.”

Jon nodded his approval as Anton called
everyone over to the SUV and began handing out the gear. He gave
out waterproof flashlights, extra batteries, hardhats with
headlamps mounted on the front, kneepads, candles, matches and any
other necessary equipment. He also gave a coil of nylon rope to
Parrish, who stuffed it into his pack.

“How much rope is it?” asked Parrish.

“About seventy-five feet,” said Anton. “I
doubt we’ll need it, but I never go into a cave without rope. Now
let me show you guys how the headlamps work.” For the next few
minutes Anton explained what all the equipment was for and how to
use it. When he was done, he warned us about the upcoming
journey.

“Whenever you go into a
cave, or anywhere else in the park for that matter, you always pack
out everything you bring in. I mean
everything
. You take out all your
trash, all your equipment, even your fingerprints if you can find
them. Also, it’s going to be wet when we get near the Cathedral
room, so get used to the idea.”

“How wet?” I asked. I was mostly awake, but
I wasn’t in the mood for an early morning swim.

“We have to crawl through a shallow
stream.”