Fringe: Not What Teacher Said to Do (1/2)
Apr. 6th, 2011 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotus0kidRating: PG-13 ish. You know, Fringe stuff.
Word Count: 2,843
Disclaimer: Recognize anything? Then it ain't mine.
A/N: For my winning bidder![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
foxtoast on the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
helpbrazil2011 auction. SORRY IT'S SO RIDICULOUSLY LATE. Uh, it's long?
Summary: "Brown Betty"-verse. Olivia and the gang get a strange new case just in time for an old friend to come into town. Next chapter will be posted tomorrow.
Spoilers: For "Brown Betty."
“Yeesh,” Private Detective Olivia Dunham remarked as she peered into the empty bath tub. Well, it was almost empty. There were some hairs left. And a few long streaks of blood. And part of an ear.
“No kidding,” Peter Bishop replied from behind Olivia, leaning in from the doorway.
“Whadda ya’ got?” she asked as she turned her attention to the tub’s drain.
“Not much. Wife says Ernest Bloy, age forty-eight, decided to wash away a hard day’s work with a soak yesterday evening. About a half-hour in, she hears this screaming sound-”
“Her husband?”
“No. Something not human, she says. Weird screaming, and a lot of ruckus, and then- silence. She opens the door and this is what she finds.”
“Not much.”
“Yeah. She had the cops come through, but, in her words, ‘they couldn’t find a dog at the pound,’ so she called us.”
Olivia squinted down at the drain. Seemed like there was something poking out of it. She got a pinched hold on it with her fingertips, and pulled. A long, gray creature slid out of the pipe along with a strange, sharp smell like rotten mint. Olivia had the tail end of the thing- its head, a little over a foot away, consisted of nothing more than a pair of small beady eyes and a mouth of needle-like teeth. Its skinny body bulged slightly in the middle. It was dead. Olivia stared down at the beast. “Hunh.”
Peter peered over her shoulder, “Yikes.” He leaned back out into the Bloys’ apartment, “Walter, get in here!”
Olivia braced herself. As part of his penance for stealing the dreams of children, Peter Bishop had declared that Walter Bishop (no relation) was to help Olivia in her investigations. Olivia felt it was fitting and liked having the unrelated Bishops around for a variety of reasons... But it didn’t really make this part easier.
“What- what is it?” Walter asked as his wheelchair whirred closer.
“You tell us,” Peter said, stepping aside so Walter could see the strange creature which Olivia held up.
His face creased in revulsion, “My word. How horrific.”
“You’re telling us,” Olivia said, “Do you think this thing could’ve done away with Ernest Bloy?”
“No, I- I don’t think so. Though that maw seems quite vicious, I don’t suspect it could do more than take a chunk or two out of a grown man.”
Peter lifted his eyebrows, “Okay, still not an experience you’d like to have in the tub.”
“Or anywhere, I should think,” Walter said. He rolled a little closer, eyes on the creature and hand gesturing toward it absently as he spoke, “Perhaps- perhaps, not one, but many of these... animals... are our culprit.”
“You think there are more?” Olivia said, laying the creature down on the porcelain.
“A feeding frenzy of some type does sound consistent with what Mrs. Bloy shared with us, yes. Several, maybe over three dozen depending on their speed could conceivably consume a man quite quickly, though I would need to examine a live specimen to be sure.”
“This just gets better and better,” Olivia quipped. She looked at the creature, “You think this one got left behind?”
“I think, maybe, it over-ate.” Walter poked a finger at the bulging middle. “Couldn’t slip down the pipe with the rest.” His finger drew up the body to just behind the head where three slits were faintly visible, “Ah, yes, an aquatic creature, clearly. My preliminary hypothesis is thus: a swarm of these came up through the plumbing, devoured Mr. Bloy, and slithered back down before the water drained from the tub. Our little glutton here unfortunately could not wriggle to safety in time and... asphyxiated.”
“Swell,” Olivia griped, “How’m I supposed to track down a pack of slimy eel things with an appetite for human flesh? Maybe I could follow my nose...”
“We’ll figure it out,” Peter said, shooting her a smile, which she couldn’t help but return.
Olivia stood and stepped out of the bathroom, saying, “Well, no time like the present. Walter, let’s bring our new friend back to your laboratory.”
Grimacing, Walter peeled the creature off the bottom of the tub and wrapped it in a handkerchief before following Peter and Olivia out.
As the trio pulled away from the apartment building in Olivia’s car, several other cars, all shiny black, pulled up and men in smart military uniforms piled out and into the building. One man paused on the sidewalk and watched Olivia’s car turn the corner. Another stepped up to him, saying, “Colonel Francis, did you see something?”
The man blinked, and turned to his subordinate, “No, no, Lee. Send the men up. Let’s see what we can find.”
“Yes, sir.”
***
“This is grotesque,” Walter grumbled, mostly to the teddy bear sitting to the right of the steel tray upon which the partially dissected eel creature lay, “And the smell is dreadfully distracting.” From her seat behind her computer, Esther shot a sympathetic glance at the inventor and a creeped out glance at the eel.
“Keep working, Walter,” Peter said mildly, not looking up from his newspaper. He shifted the lollipop in his mouth to the other side, “I like the new flavor, by the way.”
Walter looked up with a happy grin, “You do?”
“Sure, I think strawberry-coffee will sweep the nation.”
Walter returned to the eel, mood greatly improved.
The door to the lab opened and Olivia strode in, “Got any news for me, boys?”
“Nothing particularly substantial, no,” Walter said, “This creature seems to be little more than a mobile digestive tract. Its brain is miniscule, all senses extremely limited, no overt evidence of any reproductive organs,” he looked up at her, “Overall, a deeply flawed design.”
“Fascinating. Any idea how we could track down its buddies?”
“Not a one.”
“Dunham,” Esther piped up, “Can I talk to you?”
Olivia made her way to Esther’s desk, “What’s the matter? My schedule overbooked again?”
“You’re schedule’s always overbooked, these days at least- I know better than to complain about that. It’s just...” her eyes darted over to Walter and she lowered her voice, “I don’t like the looks of that thing you brought in.”
Olivia grinned, “Who would? That’s a face not even a mother could love.”
“Peter says there’s more. That they ate someone. Dunham, I don’t think this is safe.”
“Hey, it’s work. Mrs. Bloy paid her money, she’s gonna get results. Weren’t you just saying you wouldn’t complain about having customers?”
“If it was the usual bunch of philanderers and crooks, Dunham, but they never threatened to gobble you up until there was nothing left!”
Olivia’s grin only grew, “You watch too many spooky programs. Try to relax. I know- how about you dig around for more info on Ernest Bloy? See what you come up with.”
Esther rolled her eyes at the busy work, but agreed, fingers clicking away on the keyboard.
Olivia meandered closer to the Bishops, leaning against the lab table near Peter, “What are you getting Miss Figglesworth all worked up for, huh?”
He smiled, “I don’t know yet. And neither do you. That’s the fun of it though, right?”
Olivia shrugged, “I guess so, sure.” She wanted to ask how it compared to the con trade and corporate espionage, but didn’t. She knew she’d have to, soon, but couldn’t quite bring herself to give up this lovely game between them. Not yet.
“Dunham,” Esther said, frowning at the computer screen, “Did you know Bloy worked for-?”
Just then the door to the lab opened, and a tall trim military man walked in. Ecstatic joy instantly filled Olivia and Esther’s faces as they both cried, “Charlie!” and dashed over to him.
“Hey, my favorite girls,” the man said with a warm smile, opening his arms to receive their enthusiastic hugs.
“Where’ve you been? Did you go to Europe-?”
“- been so long-”
“We were worried-”
“- heard bad things-”
“- thought maybe you didn’t-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Charlie said, hands now held up in surrender, “Please, one at a time. Maybe write some down for later, huh?”
“Sorry,” Esther giggled as she and Olivia led him to a chair, “You just read all kinds of things in the papers, sometimes you don’t know what to believe.”
Charlie chuckled, “Ain’t it the truth...”
“At least you’re in one piece,” Olivia said, “That’s all we need to know.”
“Yeah, yeah...” Charlie paused, and his eyes lifted to the Bishops. “And you are?”
“About to ask you the same question.” Peter had crossed his arms, his face stern. Walter’s expression was somewhere between hopeful, confused, and nervous.
“Charlie, this is Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop-”
“Ah, no relation,” Walter interjected.
“They’ve been helping me out some lately. That’s why I set up shop here. Walter’s an inventor.”
“Scientist, dear, that’s really all... all I can claim so far.”
“That’s not true, Walter,” Esther said with confidence, “Strawberry-coffee, you know that.”
“I- I suppose.”
“Yeah, so,” Olivia continued, “Guys, this is Charlie Francis, an old friend of me and Esther. He shipped off- jeez, was it two years ago?”
“Thereabouts,” Charlie replied.
“So how long you in town?” Olivia asked.
“Depends,” he replied with an easy smile, “I’ll go when they call me.” He stood, looking around the lab with interest, “In the meantime, why don’t you tell me about this new outfit you girls have landed in? And how ‘bout you start with that ugly smelly sucker in the pan over there?” He hooked a thumb at the partially dissected eel creature.
Olivia laughed, “I’d say you know as much as we do. Just picked up the case this morning- we think this guy and a whole bunch of his buddies made a meal outta some poor schlub over on the east side.”
Charlie’s eyebrows lifted, “Yikes.”
“That’s just what Peter said,” Olivia shared a glance with Peter, who was quick to smile.
“So, what, you going on safari, Liv?” Charlie asked.
“Looks like,” Olivia said with a shrug, “Someone’s gotta do it.”
Charlie smiled, “That’s my girl.” He turned back to the creature, “Not much in the way of eyes on this thing, huh? I bet it prefers the dark. Somewhere dark and wet.”
“Yes- yes, that sounds consistent,” Walter said, perking up in his chair, “The victim was attacked in the bath tub- we hypothesized that the creature or creatures came up through the plumbing.”
Olivia picked up the thread, “Which means if they’re anywhere, they must be in the sewer.”
“Peachy,” Peter groused, “Let’s all tromp down into the sewers and go after these man-eating beasts.”
Olivia just grinned, tapping a foot against Peter’s, “Don’t worry, doll face, I’ll protect you.”
“Who’ll protect you?”
“I will,” Charlie said, bringing Olivia and Peter’s gazes sharply to him, “That is, if Liv doesn’t mind me tagging along.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow, “You wanna spend your official unofficial leave down a dark, wet hole looking for slimy, smelly monsters?”
“Sure, sounds like fun.”
Olivia held up her hands in surrender, “Okay, you win, army boy, but first we’re all havin’ a stiff drink. Come on, Walter’s buying.”
As they made their way out of the lab, Peter lagged behind, eyes trained on Charlie.
***
The private detective business had taken Olivia a lot of places, but the sewers were new. And wet. And dank. And dark. And overall not a place she was thrilled to be, but the private detective business had also taught her perseverance, even when picking her way across a narrow ledge to avoid stepping in the stream of raw waste water. “Keep your eyes peeled, boys,” she told Peter and Charlie, “We don’t want these things gettin’ the drop on us.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Charlie said, like Olivia was his commanding officer. It made her smile, though there was something off about her old friend she just couldn’t place.
“We should be close to the Bloys’ building,” Peter said, inspecting a map with his flashlight pinned between cheek and shoulder. He also held a cell phone with Walter on the other end of the line.
Olivia didn’t know a Type K three-eighths copper tube from her elbow when it came to plumbing, but she could have told Peter they were close as the smell changed. Rotten mint- strange and stinging in her nose.
“This might be a dumb question, given our location,” Charlie said, “But what reeks?”
Olivia followed the smell to the wall, “Not sure, but it’s got something to do with our squirmy friends.”
Walter’s tinny voice came down the line, “Perhaps the smell is coming from a substance, something that attracts or excites the creatures.”
“Or makes ‘em really, really hungry,” Peter suggested.
“Or all three, to send them all the way up to the Bloys’ bath tub,” said Charlie.
Olivia pondered this, “Well, if that’s the case, there’s got to be a person behind all this.”
“You think?” Charlie asked.
“Well, the nasty-smelling stuff didn’t get there on its own, did it? Somebody had to put it there, and they had to know it would make the creatures come.”
“Do you think Bloy was murdered?” Peter said, stepping closer to Olivia, “Death by mutant eel monster?”
Olivia looked at him a moment, then took the phone from his hand, “Walter, tell Esther to see what she can dig up on the other folks living in Bloy’s building.” She paused, “And ask her what she found out about dearly departed Ernest.”
A few moments of silence passed, then Esther’s voice came on the line, “I was waiting for you to finally ask that.”
“Oh yeah? Well if what you’ve been waiting to tell me means we didn’t have to crawl down here consider yourself re-fired.”
“You didn’t fire me, I quit. Anyway,” she continued over Olivia’s retort, “Ernest Bloy was on the custodial staff at Lassen Chemical Company.”
“... So?”
“Lassen is a longtime partner of Massive Dynamic.”
Dread dropped into Olivia’s stomach. Massive Dynamic, of course, she thought with a grimace. When she glanced at Charlie, she saw her expression mirrored. “Charlie, you know Massive Dynamic?”
He blinked, and his face went blank. “I... yeah. I mean, it’s a big corporation. It’s got its share of government contracts.”
Olivia frowned as her gut soured with suspicion, “Is there something going on here? Something you’re not telling us?”
“Olivia!” Peter suddenly shouted as he grabbed the detective’s arm and pulled her closer. His wide-eyed gaze was directed down the tunnel and Olivia followed it to see the water churning with the movement of dozens of the creatures. An awful eerie shriek echoed down the pipe ahead of them.
“Run!” Olivia cried, and the three of them sprinted back the way they’d come.
They made it to the manhole they’d climbed down and Charlie started up the slick rungs of the ladder first. Olivia followed when he got near the top and she heard Peter behind her. Then she heard him cry out in pain.
“Peter!” Without thinking she dropped off the ladder, landing with a splash in the ankle-deep and creature-rich water. Her best protection from their snapping jaws was the coarse fabric of her trench coat that acted as a protective barrier for her feet. Peter hadn’t been so lucky, a creature biting into his ankle as he stepped onto the ladder. “Hang on,” Olivia said, “I’m gonna get this thing off you.”
“Don’t let it take a chunk out of me, Dunham,” Peter said, still managing half a grin through the pain.
Olivia stepped onto the ledge and leaned around the ladder and Peter’s legs to get a look at the attacking beast. It was latched on tight, looking more like a poisonous snake than an eel. A dim memory of a wildlife special playing back in her mind, Olivia reached out and squeezed the creature with her thumb and first finger at a spot just behind the jaw and just before the flaring gills. The creature’s grip reluctantly weakened, teeth sliding out of Peter’s flesh. He started up the ladder as soon as he was free- meanwhile Olivia whipped a handkerchief out of her pocket and wrapped the wriggling monster up in it before she climbed the ladder.
Peter sat on the asphalt pulling off his shoe and sock while Charlie crouched close by.
“Are you okay, Peter?” Olivia asked, “Still got your ankle?”
He lifted his pants cuff to reveal twin crescents of angry red puncture wounds, but all the flesh still attached. “Well that’s a plus,” he said.
“Two pluses,” Olivia corrected him, holding up the wriggling handkerchief proudly, “Got a live specimen for Walter. But I don’t know how long it can be out of water so we should hurry back to the lab. Can you walk?”
“Come on, I’ll help you,” Charlie said. Peter scowled, but slung an arm over the other man’s shoulders and let him pull him to his feet. He hissed and swore in pain, but they all made it to Olivia’s car.
Chapter Two
Word Count: 2,843
Disclaimer: Recognize anything? Then it ain't mine.
A/N: For my winning bidder
foxtoast on the helpbrazil2011 auction. SORRY IT'S SO RIDICULOUSLY LATE. Uh, it's long?Summary: "Brown Betty"-verse. Olivia and the gang get a strange new case just in time for an old friend to come into town. Next chapter will be posted tomorrow.
Spoilers: For "Brown Betty."
“Yeesh,” Private Detective Olivia Dunham remarked as she peered into the empty bath tub. Well, it was almost empty. There were some hairs left. And a few long streaks of blood. And part of an ear.
“No kidding,” Peter Bishop replied from behind Olivia, leaning in from the doorway.
“Whadda ya’ got?” she asked as she turned her attention to the tub’s drain.
“Not much. Wife says Ernest Bloy, age forty-eight, decided to wash away a hard day’s work with a soak yesterday evening. About a half-hour in, she hears this screaming sound-”
“Her husband?”
“No. Something not human, she says. Weird screaming, and a lot of ruckus, and then- silence. She opens the door and this is what she finds.”
“Not much.”
“Yeah. She had the cops come through, but, in her words, ‘they couldn’t find a dog at the pound,’ so she called us.”
Olivia squinted down at the drain. Seemed like there was something poking out of it. She got a pinched hold on it with her fingertips, and pulled. A long, gray creature slid out of the pipe along with a strange, sharp smell like rotten mint. Olivia had the tail end of the thing- its head, a little over a foot away, consisted of nothing more than a pair of small beady eyes and a mouth of needle-like teeth. Its skinny body bulged slightly in the middle. It was dead. Olivia stared down at the beast. “Hunh.”
Peter peered over her shoulder, “Yikes.” He leaned back out into the Bloys’ apartment, “Walter, get in here!”
Olivia braced herself. As part of his penance for stealing the dreams of children, Peter Bishop had declared that Walter Bishop (no relation) was to help Olivia in her investigations. Olivia felt it was fitting and liked having the unrelated Bishops around for a variety of reasons... But it didn’t really make this part easier.
“What- what is it?” Walter asked as his wheelchair whirred closer.
“You tell us,” Peter said, stepping aside so Walter could see the strange creature which Olivia held up.
His face creased in revulsion, “My word. How horrific.”
“You’re telling us,” Olivia said, “Do you think this thing could’ve done away with Ernest Bloy?”
“No, I- I don’t think so. Though that maw seems quite vicious, I don’t suspect it could do more than take a chunk or two out of a grown man.”
Peter lifted his eyebrows, “Okay, still not an experience you’d like to have in the tub.”
“Or anywhere, I should think,” Walter said. He rolled a little closer, eyes on the creature and hand gesturing toward it absently as he spoke, “Perhaps- perhaps, not one, but many of these... animals... are our culprit.”
“You think there are more?” Olivia said, laying the creature down on the porcelain.
“A feeding frenzy of some type does sound consistent with what Mrs. Bloy shared with us, yes. Several, maybe over three dozen depending on their speed could conceivably consume a man quite quickly, though I would need to examine a live specimen to be sure.”
“This just gets better and better,” Olivia quipped. She looked at the creature, “You think this one got left behind?”
“I think, maybe, it over-ate.” Walter poked a finger at the bulging middle. “Couldn’t slip down the pipe with the rest.” His finger drew up the body to just behind the head where three slits were faintly visible, “Ah, yes, an aquatic creature, clearly. My preliminary hypothesis is thus: a swarm of these came up through the plumbing, devoured Mr. Bloy, and slithered back down before the water drained from the tub. Our little glutton here unfortunately could not wriggle to safety in time and... asphyxiated.”
“Swell,” Olivia griped, “How’m I supposed to track down a pack of slimy eel things with an appetite for human flesh? Maybe I could follow my nose...”
“We’ll figure it out,” Peter said, shooting her a smile, which she couldn’t help but return.
Olivia stood and stepped out of the bathroom, saying, “Well, no time like the present. Walter, let’s bring our new friend back to your laboratory.”
Grimacing, Walter peeled the creature off the bottom of the tub and wrapped it in a handkerchief before following Peter and Olivia out.
As the trio pulled away from the apartment building in Olivia’s car, several other cars, all shiny black, pulled up and men in smart military uniforms piled out and into the building. One man paused on the sidewalk and watched Olivia’s car turn the corner. Another stepped up to him, saying, “Colonel Francis, did you see something?”
The man blinked, and turned to his subordinate, “No, no, Lee. Send the men up. Let’s see what we can find.”
“Yes, sir.”
***
“This is grotesque,” Walter grumbled, mostly to the teddy bear sitting to the right of the steel tray upon which the partially dissected eel creature lay, “And the smell is dreadfully distracting.” From her seat behind her computer, Esther shot a sympathetic glance at the inventor and a creeped out glance at the eel.
“Keep working, Walter,” Peter said mildly, not looking up from his newspaper. He shifted the lollipop in his mouth to the other side, “I like the new flavor, by the way.”
Walter looked up with a happy grin, “You do?”
“Sure, I think strawberry-coffee will sweep the nation.”
Walter returned to the eel, mood greatly improved.
The door to the lab opened and Olivia strode in, “Got any news for me, boys?”
“Nothing particularly substantial, no,” Walter said, “This creature seems to be little more than a mobile digestive tract. Its brain is miniscule, all senses extremely limited, no overt evidence of any reproductive organs,” he looked up at her, “Overall, a deeply flawed design.”
“Fascinating. Any idea how we could track down its buddies?”
“Not a one.”
“Dunham,” Esther piped up, “Can I talk to you?”
Olivia made her way to Esther’s desk, “What’s the matter? My schedule overbooked again?”
“You’re schedule’s always overbooked, these days at least- I know better than to complain about that. It’s just...” her eyes darted over to Walter and she lowered her voice, “I don’t like the looks of that thing you brought in.”
Olivia grinned, “Who would? That’s a face not even a mother could love.”
“Peter says there’s more. That they ate someone. Dunham, I don’t think this is safe.”
“Hey, it’s work. Mrs. Bloy paid her money, she’s gonna get results. Weren’t you just saying you wouldn’t complain about having customers?”
“If it was the usual bunch of philanderers and crooks, Dunham, but they never threatened to gobble you up until there was nothing left!”
Olivia’s grin only grew, “You watch too many spooky programs. Try to relax. I know- how about you dig around for more info on Ernest Bloy? See what you come up with.”
Esther rolled her eyes at the busy work, but agreed, fingers clicking away on the keyboard.
Olivia meandered closer to the Bishops, leaning against the lab table near Peter, “What are you getting Miss Figglesworth all worked up for, huh?”
He smiled, “I don’t know yet. And neither do you. That’s the fun of it though, right?”
Olivia shrugged, “I guess so, sure.” She wanted to ask how it compared to the con trade and corporate espionage, but didn’t. She knew she’d have to, soon, but couldn’t quite bring herself to give up this lovely game between them. Not yet.
“Dunham,” Esther said, frowning at the computer screen, “Did you know Bloy worked for-?”
Just then the door to the lab opened, and a tall trim military man walked in. Ecstatic joy instantly filled Olivia and Esther’s faces as they both cried, “Charlie!” and dashed over to him.
“Hey, my favorite girls,” the man said with a warm smile, opening his arms to receive their enthusiastic hugs.
“Where’ve you been? Did you go to Europe-?”
“- been so long-”
“We were worried-”
“- heard bad things-”
“- thought maybe you didn’t-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Charlie said, hands now held up in surrender, “Please, one at a time. Maybe write some down for later, huh?”
“Sorry,” Esther giggled as she and Olivia led him to a chair, “You just read all kinds of things in the papers, sometimes you don’t know what to believe.”
Charlie chuckled, “Ain’t it the truth...”
“At least you’re in one piece,” Olivia said, “That’s all we need to know.”
“Yeah, yeah...” Charlie paused, and his eyes lifted to the Bishops. “And you are?”
“About to ask you the same question.” Peter had crossed his arms, his face stern. Walter’s expression was somewhere between hopeful, confused, and nervous.
“Charlie, this is Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop-”
“Ah, no relation,” Walter interjected.
“They’ve been helping me out some lately. That’s why I set up shop here. Walter’s an inventor.”
“Scientist, dear, that’s really all... all I can claim so far.”
“That’s not true, Walter,” Esther said with confidence, “Strawberry-coffee, you know that.”
“I- I suppose.”
“Yeah, so,” Olivia continued, “Guys, this is Charlie Francis, an old friend of me and Esther. He shipped off- jeez, was it two years ago?”
“Thereabouts,” Charlie replied.
“So how long you in town?” Olivia asked.
“Depends,” he replied with an easy smile, “I’ll go when they call me.” He stood, looking around the lab with interest, “In the meantime, why don’t you tell me about this new outfit you girls have landed in? And how ‘bout you start with that ugly smelly sucker in the pan over there?” He hooked a thumb at the partially dissected eel creature.
Olivia laughed, “I’d say you know as much as we do. Just picked up the case this morning- we think this guy and a whole bunch of his buddies made a meal outta some poor schlub over on the east side.”
Charlie’s eyebrows lifted, “Yikes.”
“That’s just what Peter said,” Olivia shared a glance with Peter, who was quick to smile.
“So, what, you going on safari, Liv?” Charlie asked.
“Looks like,” Olivia said with a shrug, “Someone’s gotta do it.”
Charlie smiled, “That’s my girl.” He turned back to the creature, “Not much in the way of eyes on this thing, huh? I bet it prefers the dark. Somewhere dark and wet.”
“Yes- yes, that sounds consistent,” Walter said, perking up in his chair, “The victim was attacked in the bath tub- we hypothesized that the creature or creatures came up through the plumbing.”
Olivia picked up the thread, “Which means if they’re anywhere, they must be in the sewer.”
“Peachy,” Peter groused, “Let’s all tromp down into the sewers and go after these man-eating beasts.”
Olivia just grinned, tapping a foot against Peter’s, “Don’t worry, doll face, I’ll protect you.”
“Who’ll protect you?”
“I will,” Charlie said, bringing Olivia and Peter’s gazes sharply to him, “That is, if Liv doesn’t mind me tagging along.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow, “You wanna spend your official unofficial leave down a dark, wet hole looking for slimy, smelly monsters?”
“Sure, sounds like fun.”
Olivia held up her hands in surrender, “Okay, you win, army boy, but first we’re all havin’ a stiff drink. Come on, Walter’s buying.”
As they made their way out of the lab, Peter lagged behind, eyes trained on Charlie.
***
The private detective business had taken Olivia a lot of places, but the sewers were new. And wet. And dank. And dark. And overall not a place she was thrilled to be, but the private detective business had also taught her perseverance, even when picking her way across a narrow ledge to avoid stepping in the stream of raw waste water. “Keep your eyes peeled, boys,” she told Peter and Charlie, “We don’t want these things gettin’ the drop on us.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Charlie said, like Olivia was his commanding officer. It made her smile, though there was something off about her old friend she just couldn’t place.
“We should be close to the Bloys’ building,” Peter said, inspecting a map with his flashlight pinned between cheek and shoulder. He also held a cell phone with Walter on the other end of the line.
Olivia didn’t know a Type K three-eighths copper tube from her elbow when it came to plumbing, but she could have told Peter they were close as the smell changed. Rotten mint- strange and stinging in her nose.
“This might be a dumb question, given our location,” Charlie said, “But what reeks?”
Olivia followed the smell to the wall, “Not sure, but it’s got something to do with our squirmy friends.”
Walter’s tinny voice came down the line, “Perhaps the smell is coming from a substance, something that attracts or excites the creatures.”
“Or makes ‘em really, really hungry,” Peter suggested.
“Or all three, to send them all the way up to the Bloys’ bath tub,” said Charlie.
Olivia pondered this, “Well, if that’s the case, there’s got to be a person behind all this.”
“You think?” Charlie asked.
“Well, the nasty-smelling stuff didn’t get there on its own, did it? Somebody had to put it there, and they had to know it would make the creatures come.”
“Do you think Bloy was murdered?” Peter said, stepping closer to Olivia, “Death by mutant eel monster?”
Olivia looked at him a moment, then took the phone from his hand, “Walter, tell Esther to see what she can dig up on the other folks living in Bloy’s building.” She paused, “And ask her what she found out about dearly departed Ernest.”
A few moments of silence passed, then Esther’s voice came on the line, “I was waiting for you to finally ask that.”
“Oh yeah? Well if what you’ve been waiting to tell me means we didn’t have to crawl down here consider yourself re-fired.”
“You didn’t fire me, I quit. Anyway,” she continued over Olivia’s retort, “Ernest Bloy was on the custodial staff at Lassen Chemical Company.”
“... So?”
“Lassen is a longtime partner of Massive Dynamic.”
Dread dropped into Olivia’s stomach. Massive Dynamic, of course, she thought with a grimace. When she glanced at Charlie, she saw her expression mirrored. “Charlie, you know Massive Dynamic?”
He blinked, and his face went blank. “I... yeah. I mean, it’s a big corporation. It’s got its share of government contracts.”
Olivia frowned as her gut soured with suspicion, “Is there something going on here? Something you’re not telling us?”
“Olivia!” Peter suddenly shouted as he grabbed the detective’s arm and pulled her closer. His wide-eyed gaze was directed down the tunnel and Olivia followed it to see the water churning with the movement of dozens of the creatures. An awful eerie shriek echoed down the pipe ahead of them.
“Run!” Olivia cried, and the three of them sprinted back the way they’d come.
They made it to the manhole they’d climbed down and Charlie started up the slick rungs of the ladder first. Olivia followed when he got near the top and she heard Peter behind her. Then she heard him cry out in pain.
“Peter!” Without thinking she dropped off the ladder, landing with a splash in the ankle-deep and creature-rich water. Her best protection from their snapping jaws was the coarse fabric of her trench coat that acted as a protective barrier for her feet. Peter hadn’t been so lucky, a creature biting into his ankle as he stepped onto the ladder. “Hang on,” Olivia said, “I’m gonna get this thing off you.”
“Don’t let it take a chunk out of me, Dunham,” Peter said, still managing half a grin through the pain.
Olivia stepped onto the ledge and leaned around the ladder and Peter’s legs to get a look at the attacking beast. It was latched on tight, looking more like a poisonous snake than an eel. A dim memory of a wildlife special playing back in her mind, Olivia reached out and squeezed the creature with her thumb and first finger at a spot just behind the jaw and just before the flaring gills. The creature’s grip reluctantly weakened, teeth sliding out of Peter’s flesh. He started up the ladder as soon as he was free- meanwhile Olivia whipped a handkerchief out of her pocket and wrapped the wriggling monster up in it before she climbed the ladder.
Peter sat on the asphalt pulling off his shoe and sock while Charlie crouched close by.
“Are you okay, Peter?” Olivia asked, “Still got your ankle?”
He lifted his pants cuff to reveal twin crescents of angry red puncture wounds, but all the flesh still attached. “Well that’s a plus,” he said.
“Two pluses,” Olivia corrected him, holding up the wriggling handkerchief proudly, “Got a live specimen for Walter. But I don’t know how long it can be out of water so we should hurry back to the lab. Can you walk?”
“Come on, I’ll help you,” Charlie said. Peter scowled, but slung an arm over the other man’s shoulders and let him pull him to his feet. He hissed and swore in pain, but they all made it to Olivia’s car.
Chapter Two
