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Valkyrion
3/7/2011
“Um, excuse me?”
Jason and Dede looked up at Hernandez.
“What about Yellowstone? Some of us aren’t geologists.”
Dede held up her hands, “I’m too tired to explain it to him. Besides, you’re a better teacher than I am.”
“You say that now.” He couldn’t help feeling a little nostalgic fondness for her. “Anyway, Yellowstone is sitting on a huge magma chamber. That chamber is under pressure. When that thing blows it will be like Mount Saint Helens times a thousand.”
“Oh.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Dede broke in, “there hasn’t been any increased activity in the region and all the fault lines have stopped short of the park.”
“I know. That’s what worries me. Something else is going to happen.”
“What worries me,” Hernandez said, “is that thing that tried to kill us a couple of hours ago. What was that?”
“I have no idea.” Jason sighed, “I wish Iris was here.”
“Who?” Dede and Hernandez spoke together.
“Never mind.” He did wish Iris was here, but wasn’t about to explain her to his ex-girlfriend and a federal agent who wanted to arrest her.
“Iris?” Marten’s voice was tinny on the speaker, “What does your girlfriend have to do with this?”
Jason sighed; he’d forgotten Marten was listening in. “It’s not important.”
Hernandez looked over at him sharply, “I think it is. Why would you want your girlfriend here?”
He frowned at the agent, suddenly glad she was in another dimension. At least he couldn’t arrest her there.
“That woman on the tape, do you know her?”
“No. Can we get back to the problem at hand?”
“Jason, be reasonable. We can’t convince four states to evacuate just because you have a hunch. Unless there’s some serious increase in activity they won’t even listen.”
He stabbed at the map with one finger, tracing the fault lines, “What do you call this?”
Dede shrugged, “An aberration, nothing more. It doesn’t matter what you and I believe will happen. You spend too much time in the field. I’ve dealt with the government. Unless Yellowstone is actually erupting at this minuet, they aren’t going to order an evacuation.”
There was a sound behind them. Everyone turned, Hernandez automatically reached for his gun, and Jason surprised himself by grabbing his hammer. He relaxed when it was nothing more than a small herd of horses wandering up the street. There were five of them. Four were a reddish colored mares and the fifth was dark chestnut stallion.
“How pretty!” Dede laughed, “I guess little girls never get over their love of horses. They must have escaped from somewhere around here.”
Jason turned back to the map; there must be some way of convincing the right people that there was a danger. His back ached and burned and his shoulder made grinding noises when he tried to move it. He did wish Iris was here. She was the one with experience fighting monsters. She had the equipment for it. All he had was a hammer and not enough information.
There was a shriek behind him. Jason turned, yanking the weapon from his belt. Dede ran towards him.
“What is it?”
“It breathed fire!”
“What?!”
She pointed towards the chestnut horse, “It breathed fire at me.” There was a patch of scorched concrete.
Jason sighed; he didn’t want to deal with this. He just wanted to go to sleep and wait for his back to stop hurting.
“What are those things?” Dede was behind the picnic table, putting as much space as possible between her and the horses.
Jason looked over at Hernandez; the agent has his gun out. “Well?”
“They’re not doing anything now. Maybe they’ll go away.”
The chestnut horse reared up on its back legs and whinnied, showing two-inch long incisors. A plume of flame shot out of its mouth.
“Guess not.”
Hernandez opened fire, putting two shots into the animal’s chest. It dropped. He glanced over at Jason and grinned, “Guess bullets work on these things.”
“Thank God. Just shoot the damned things, will you?” He hurt too much to do anything heroic.
Instead of running, as ordinary horses would, the remainder of the herd clustered around their fallen stallion, baring their teeth and lighting up the street with fire. Hernandez emptied one clip and shoved the other in.
“Come and help me finish them off.”
The horses were in a heap in the middle of the street. Jason wondered why they hadn’t run. Maybe they hadn’t equated the sound of the gun with the fallen stallion. He didn’t really care. This was the second time tonight he’d had to deal with something like this. Whatever was happening was getting worse.
A swift blow to the head was enough to stop the kicking animals. He knelt and examined the teeth of one of them. They weren’t grazers. Their teeth were shaped more like a cat’s. He stood up painfully and went back to the table. Dede watched him with wide eyes.
“What the hell was that?”
“Fire-breathing carnivorous horses, apparently.” Hernandez sat down next to him and began reloading his gun. “I’m too old for this.”
“You and me both.”
“How can you be so calm about this?! What the hell is going on?!”
Jason realized the phone was still open. “Marten, you still there?”
“Yes. What’s happening? Is everyone alright?”
“We’re fine but I’m going to have to call you back. Try to stay someplace safe.” He closed the phone and stuck it in his pocket.
“Will somebody please tell me what just happened?” Dede’s annoyance was starting to override her fear.
Jason glanced around; lights were on in the hotel and he could hear doors opening and voices. The gunshots had woken up Dede’s team. “You need to get your team out of here. It’s not safe.” He wasn’t sure where it would be safe, but didn’t want to be burdened with a bunch of grad students.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
Jason rubbed his forehead. He would have to make this quick. He didn’t want to explain the situation to half a dozen frightened grad students. “Okay, fine.” He looked at Hernandez, “You want the truth? For the past month there have been inter-dimensional rifts opening up. My girlfriend, Iris, was chosen by the Norse gods to protect the earth from anything that might come through.” He glared at Hernandez, “And if you try to arrest her I will kill you right here and now.” Nobody said anything and Jason went on, “Apparently one of the rifts opened and allowed Loki to escape his prison. He’s now trying to destroy the world or something. Iris has gone back to Asgard to try and stop him.” Something in his chest tightened and for a moment all Jason could think of was the smell of Iris’ hair, the clean long lines of her body, and the unconscious grace with which she moved. He’d never find anyone like her again.
“So what about tonight?” Hernandez broke into his thoughts.
“How should I know? I haven’t been able to talk to her for days.” If she was even still alive. Jason touched the hammer at his belt and tried to control the sudden panic. She was alive. She had to be. Iris was too stubborn to die.
“You don’t actually believe this, do you?”
Hernandez looked at Dede and shrugged, “You got a better explanation?”
“Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter. You’re taking your team and getting out of here. Now.” Jason turned to Hernandez, “Do you know anyone who might be able to get us an evacuation order?”
“No. That’s a separate department.”
“I might know someone.”
Jason suppressed a groan. It figured Dede would know the right people, “Who?”
“James Cordell. My boss.”
“Great. Call him up and then get the hell out of here.”
“I’m going with you. He won’t listen to a word you say without me.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to think we’re nuts regardless.” Jason was starting to think he really was crazy. Or maybe he’d hit his head harder than he’d thought the night he and Iris got mugged and this was all a coma-dream. If it was a dream, he had to give his subconscious points for creativity. Grad students in various stages of undress were starting to appear, “At least get your team out of here.”
“Of course. They’re just children. Give me an hour and we can go.”
* * *
“So what’s the plan?”
They were driving across the dark expanse of nothingness towards Bozeman.
Jason glanced back towards Dede, “Plan?” He had hoped to get some sleep on the way.
“James is the director of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center. We can’t just walk in there and ask him to order an evacuation of four states.”
“Use your feminine wiles on him. That’s why we brought you along.” He wiggled in the seat, trying to find a position that didn’t hurt his back. In the driver’s seat, Hernandez suppressed a snort of laughter. Jason glanced at him; it was the first time he’d heard the agent laugh.
“Very funny.”
“There have already been some small-scale evacuations.” Hernandez said without turning his attention from the road, “We just need him to order the next step.”
“I’m not even sure if he can do it. It will probably take several levels of law enforcement and State approval. We could be talking days or even weeks here.”
“We don’t have that kind of time. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen fast.”
“Knowing what’s happening would a help.” The irritation in Dede’s voice mirrored his own.
“If anyone tells me, you’ll be the first to know. Now, can I please get some sleep? And keep watch for anything weird.”
“Weird like fault lines opening up? Weird like fire-breathing horses? What kind of weird are we talking about here?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.” He wasn’t sure if that was true, the horses looked ordinary at first, but was done talking to Dede about it.
He managed to doze, finally, lulled by the rhythmic motion of the car. It stopped with a bump and he opened his eyes, “Where are we?”
“My place. It’s three AM. I’ll call James and give you two a chance to clean up.”
“Will he even talk to you this early?”
“He will.” She smiled and Jason wondered what their real relationship was.
The apartment was a large two-bedroom, decorated in bland shades of taupe and beige. Instead of knick-knacks there were chucks of rock and fossils lining the shelves.
“Make yourselves at home. Bathroom’s through there,” she gestured, “Beer’s in the fridge. I’ll call James.” She vanished into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
Jason looked at Hernandez, “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
“Thanks.”
Ignoring the sound of the shower running and the muted voice from behind Dede’s door, Jason wandered around the living room. She’d come up in the world since he’d last seen her. When she was his student she’d lived in a one-room efficiency. There were framed photos among the rock samples. Most were of people he didn’t recognize, but one caught his attention. It was a snapshot of a group of people standing together. His own face, years younger, looked back. Dede was standing next to him. Jason remembered that picture. They were holding hands behind their backs.
He turned away. The pain was more nostalgia than anything else. He wasn’t about to fall madly in love with Dede again just because they happened to be thrown together. He was impressed with how she was taking things. Whatever else she was, she’d always been practical. If he could show her something real, something she could put her hands on, she had no problems dealing with it, however unpleasant it might be. That might serve them well now. The voice behind the door rose and fell and Jason wondered how the conversation was going. It didn’t matter; Dede would get her way in the end. The bathroom door opened and Hernandez emerged amid a billow of steam. He was wearing the same clothes and his hair was slicked back, “All yours. How’s the back doing?”
“Hurts.”
“The hot water might help. Hell of a night.”
“Yeah.” That was an understatement. Jason was oddly numb. The sense of urgency ebbed with his energy and indifferent unreality began to take its place.
The hot water helped relax his sore muscles, the only reminder that any of the insanity had actually happened. Finished, he stood in front of the full-length mirror and turned, examining the bruising. He was purple and green over most of his left shoulder. He looked at the gray in his hair and sighed. Who was he kidding? He was too old for this shit. He slowly put on his clothes, trying not to move in a way that irritated the injuries, and reached for the hammer. He was too old for this, but he was the one with the magical smashing hammer. Besides, what would Iris think of him if he just gave up?
Jason emerged to see Dede and Hernandez waiting for him.
“James will meet us at the office. Let’s get going.”
“What did you tell him?” Jason pulled on his jacket, trying not to wince. How had Iris survived a whole month of this?
“That you are a distinguished colleague and you have some new info about the fault lines.” She grinned at him, and for an instant Jason remembered why he’d fallen in love with her. “Convincing him of anything is up to you.”
“Thank you.”
She shrugged, “I’m curious how you plan on keeping Yellowstone from blowing up.”
“I don’t think I can.” Coldness settled in the pit of his stomach as Jason acknowledged that for the first time, “I just want to get as many people out of the way as possible.”
Hernandez let Dede drive this time, taking the front passenger seat, “I want to know how you convinced your boss to listen to us at four AM.”
“She’s persuasive like that.” Jason stretched out on the back seat and listened to his vertebrae pop and realign. His back felt better immediately, but he wished he’d asked Dede for some aspirin.
She ignored him, “Having two experienced geologists and a federal agent helped. Besides, he knows I don’t get worked up over nothing.”
It was only a ten minute drive through deserted streets to the center. Dede let them in with a key card and led them upstairs. “He’s probably not here yet. It will give you time to get your story straight.”
They waited in Dede’s tiny office. It was overrun with books and rocks. There were only two chairs, so Hernandez stood, leaning against the door frame. Jason unrolled the map and marked the three fault lines with black marker. They were definitely pointing to Yellowstone. Whatever Loki was doing was going to be big.
Footsteps rushed up the tiled hallway; everyone turned to see a man appear in the door. He was shorter than Jason expected, with gray hair cropped close and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. He was holding a roll of paper.
“James, thank you so much for seeing us.”
“I don’t have time for the niceties! Come to my office; there’s more room. I have to show you something.”
“What’s happened?”
James unlocked a door down the hall and led them in. It was a larger office than Dede’s, with windows on two walls and just as many books. He swept papers off the desk and unrolled the papers. It was a map, similar to the one Jason carried.
“What’s happened?” James looked up at him and blinked. “I’m Jason Lloyd. Dr. Fisher told you about me?”
“Oh, right. Nice to meet you, etc. Look at this.” He pointed to the map and all four of them leaned in to look at it. There were three lines marked in black ink, “These are the three faults that opened up.” He grabbed a pen and drew another line, “This is the one that opened up ten minutes ago.”
“What?”
“That’s why I was so late getting here. The local police called me just after you did.”
Jason traced the four lines, “Anybody notice anything?”
There was silence for a moment, before Dede spoke, “X marks the spot?”
“Right.” Loki had drawn a bull’s eye around Yellowstone.
“I can’t argue with your reasoning.” She turned to Dr. Cordell, “What will it take to get the area around Yellowstone evacuated?”
“An act of God, probably. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Yellowstone is going to blow.”
“Probably within the next forty-eight hours, judging by the pattern of fault openings.” Jason wasn’t sure if that was right, but the sooner everyone got motivated to get out of the way, the better.
“Wait, wait. There hasn’t been any increased activity in the park. If that thing was going to pop, we would have seen an increase in earthquakes or something.”
“Are you sure? There were no indications that these faults were going to open.”
“James, please, just get on the phone and make it happen. You know the right people to call. We’re talking about millions of people, here.”
He looked from her to the map then back to her and silently reached for the phone, “I’ll see what I can do.”
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