Tritium Gambit (Max and Miranda Book 1) (26 page)

A “free Internet” sign hung on the outside of the building, as promised, and another sign that read “Tuesday mornings: half-price beer.”

“
People drink beer on Tuesday mornings here?” I asked.

“
No,” John replied. “They drink beer every morning but it’s half-price on Tuesdays.”

“
This is a coffee shop, right?” I asked.

John pointed to the name. “They sell coffee, too. People usually drink that before dawn, though.”

John led the way inside, Miranda followed him, and I took up the rear. The clientele were an eclectic bunch: folks wearing socks and sandals at the same time, others wearing greasy jeans and stained flannel shirts, and still others in orange hooded sweatshirts and Carhartt bib overalls. It was afternoon, and the place had twenty-five people in it. There was an old computer in the corner with a sign on it that read “five minute limit.”

Miranda went straight for the computer as John walked up to the counter. I followed the sheriff because I thought maybe Miranda needed her space—whatever that means.

“
Tom, I need today’s Ely Echo and Duluth News Tribune,” John asked. He looked at me and then added, “I’ll take a few sticks of beef jerky, too.”

Tom handed John two newspapers and four sticks of beef jerky.

“
Thanks, Tom,” John said and paid for the items.

He handed me the beef jerky, then took the papers to a table by the window and started reading. By the time Miranda joined us, I had finished the jerky.

“
Other than the mysterious disappearance of our former innkeeper and a couple missing hikers, I don’t see much,” Miranda said.

“
Look here,” John said and he pushed a newspaper into the middle of the table. “This article says there have been a string of missing cats and dogs in Silver Bay.”

The article was only a few paragraphs long. Apparently, pets were going missing all over that town and folks were being warned not to leave their animals outside unattended. The article said the authorities suspected wolves.

“
That might be him,” Miranda said.

“
He’s being very clever. He’s trying to get strong enough that he’s unstoppable before the humans realize they are being hunted,” John said.

“
Shh!” Miranda looked around. “It looks like we have our next stop,” she said in a whisper.

“
Can you pass the comic section?” I asked.

When Miranda gave me an angry look, I shrugged. “What? It’s going to be a long ride.”

We loaded into John’s car again. I had the comic section, and Miranda had the news sections.

“
Buckle up. We’re going sixty-seven miles down the most treacherous road on the planet,” John said as he hit the gas pedal.

He was right. The road seemed designed to dodge pursuing helicopters. It rose and fell, curved and dipped, the whole while with no shoulders. The sides of the road were flat faces of rock, trees, boulders, and fifty foot drops. If I was going to design an amusement park ride, this would have been my masterpiece.

Even in John’s sporty car, safely traversing the road required that he slow it down a bit, but just a bit. I finished the comics in the first five minutes of our drive, and the rest of the way I simply enjoyed the roller coaster ride. Miranda didn’t look like she was having fun at all. I didn’t try to speak to her though because I still didn’t know what to say.

“
We’re about twenty minutes away,” John said.

“
Great! I could really use a pee,” I said.

He looked at me. “You really don’t have to share everything with us.”

“
Look out!” Miranda said, pointing from the backseat at a giant moose walking across the road. John swerved, and we skidded into the trees, smashing into a boulder the size of a pickup truck. The airbags inflated and cushioned the blow, but the impact was still jarring.

I looked in the side view mirror. “It’s okay. Everything’s fine. You didn’t hit it.”

John sighed. “We’re now about two hours away.” He stepped out of the car.

“
Be careful,” Miranda whispered. “The moose is the most dangerous animal in Minnesota. Don’t startle it.”

“
I’m sure the most dangerous animal in Minnesota is the Wendigo,” John said. “The moose will wander off in a moment.”

I got out of the car and Miranda followed. We grabbed our bags from the trunk. John retrieved a small backpack also. The sky had clouded over in the past few hours and now looked dark and threatening.

“
I loved this car,” he said. He shook his head and looked away, almost tearful, I thought. “Let’s go.”

The moose wandered off the road as we watched, and we could hear him crunching and grunting as he walked down into the thicker underbrush. I tried to see it, but there was too much foliage.

I had just started up the road behind John and Miranda when the moose wailed and I heard a thrashing in the underbrush. Miranda and John froze. We could hear tearing and slurping coming from the forest. Something big shifted among the dense branches.

“
Be very still,” whispered John.

He pulled out his pair of Ultra Mag Two RPGs, and Miranda mirrored his motions, retrieving her Voltaic Fusion Pistol. I took out a pen from my pocket.

“
If it can eat a moose, we’re not going to take it down with weapons like these,” Miranda whispered.

“
You’re right. We need to lure it someplace that we can even the playing field,” John whispered back.

“
Lake Superior,” I whispered.

“
Why Lake Superior?” Miranda asked.

“
Wendigo are afraid of water because they can drown,” I whispered. “And they can’t swim.”

“
That’s all well and good, but we’re fifteen miles from Lake Superior. We can’t outrun him all the way to the lake and then ask him to jump in when he gets there,” Miranda whispered.

“
We can’t kill him, but we can slow him down,” John said. “We can hurt the creature, and then maybe we can get him to chase us there.”

“
That still won’t get him in the water,” Miranda said.

“
We’ll improvise when we get there,” I said.

“
Listen,” John ordered.

There were no more tearing or slurping sounds. I peered into the woods for motion, but I couldn’t see or hear anything unusual in the thick underbrush. A light drizzle began to fall on us.

Chapter 31. Max

Then an enormous bone-white hand knocked all three of us backward across the road. Miranda crumpled against a tree, and I redecorated a granite boulder with my body. John tumbled into his Camaro through the back window.

The Wendigo roared and stomped toward me. I was still dazed by the impact of smashing into a huge rock.

“
Hey ugly,” John said as he crawled out of the car. “I’ve got a message from your dad.” The sheriff pulled the triggers on his Ultra Mags. “Time’s up.”

The RPGs slammed into the Wendigo’s gut and exploded with terrible force. The creature tottered and gripped the crater that had once been its stomach, then toppled over as yellow-green goo oozed from between its clutched fingers and its face contorted in rage and agony.

“
Let’s go!” Miranda gasped, still regaining her breath. “He won’t stay down long.”

I scrambled to my feet on the wet ground and grabbed the pen I had dropped. The three of us ran down the road like our lives depended on it.

Miranda was faster than John and me. She would leap forward with blinding speed but kept waiting for us every few hundred yards.

“
Miranda, get to Silver Bay first to find a way to get the Wendigo into the water,” I suggested.

She nodded. “Don’t get eaten first.”

She bounded away in a blur, leaving John and me to run at our more human pace.

“
When he gets back up, he’ll be angry; and he will follow our scent,” John said. “I’ve only got two more shots left, and so we have to make them count. The rain will help confuse our scent, but it won’t stop him. I’m guessing we have thirty minutes at most before he catches back up to us.”

“
Yeah, you did some serious damage. The way he lost his stomach, he’s going to be hungry and angry,” I said. “I have some stun grenades. They should at least slow him down a little.”

We ran in silence through the rain, pushing ourselves as fast as we could. I had excellent endurance, but I wasn’t any faster than a human in good condition. John looked winded, and I was beginning to wonder if he was going to fall behind. He wasn’t technically an agent, and I had let him get tangled up in this. I knew it was his choice, but I vowed not to let him die.

John looked at his watch. “When the beast comes, he won’t come head on. He’ll hit us from the side. The Wendigo are ambush predators. He’s going to prefer me because I am the one who shot him, so don’t stop running.”

“
I’m not going to leave you,” I said.

“
Miranda is going to be waiting for you, and you’re not going to make it to the lake ahead of the creature if you wait for me.”

We had run only another thirty paces when a crash in the woods to our right signaled the coming attack. John dove to the side of the road and fired each of his weapons at the creature’s chest. The sound was deafening. The gaping, yellow-green wounds on the creature’s chest weren’t as serious as the stomach wound, and the beast swatted John. He flew a ways and hit a tree, crumpling to the ground like a cartoon character.

I yanked out my pen and set a two-second delay with two taps of a finger. “Open wide!” I shouted as I charged headlong toward the creature.

The beast looked surprised for a second, but then it snatched me up. When it opened its mouth, I tossed the pen in. The muffled explosion made the creature’s eyes bulge. He dropped me and gripped his throat.

I ran to John and helped him up. His arm was limp at his side, and he had a gash on his forehead.

A pickup was driving by at that moment and stopped to survey the scene. I yelled to the driver that my friend was hurt and needed medical attention, and then I shoved John into the pickup bed and jumped in after him. “Go!” I yelled at the driver, a local in the uniform of the area, a red plaid shirt, who looked half in shock at the site of the Wendigo but managed to throw gravel from his tires as he pulled away as fast as his truck would go.

The pickup was old and slow, however, and the Wendigo no more turned his attention to us than he was running us down. I pulled out another pen and tossed it at the Wendigo’s eyes. The explosion was deafening, and I covered my ears at the pain as I watched the Wendigo trip and fall, writhing in pain.

I tapped on the rear window of the cab, and the driver reached around and pushed it open a crack. “Drive like your life depends on it!”

John kept glancing at his watch. He told me eight minutes had gone by since we hit the road with our newfound friend with a pickup and the Wendigo would be on us in moments. We passed a sign that said Silver Bay was two miles.

“
We’re not going to make it,” I said. I pointed at the trees shaking to our left. “The Wendigo will be here in a moment. Get to safety, and I’ll be at the lake as soon as I can.”

As the Wendigo loomed up out of the woods at the edge of the road, I jumped from the truck and rolled. I didn’t wait to see if it was following me. I ran into the woods. I tapped my ring.

My mother and father’s holograms appeared on either side of me, running as if to keep pace though it wasn’t necessary. They could have merely floated there but it was part of their programming to maintain the illusion they were real.