“Twice?” Maynard echoed with dismay.
“Yes, that’s what these tracks indicate.” Nigel pointed to the large footprints in the dirt. “We’re looking for an animal that is over forty feet in length. It’s most likely a very strong swimmer and able to leave the water at any low point in the river and walk inland for—well—until it decides to turn around.”
Chloe kept coming, laser-targeted on Maynard. She walked past Tim Covington without even glancing at him.
“And the electricity burns?” Maynard checked on Chloe’s progress. He kept his face expressionless but clearly he didn’t like the woman any more than Jane did.
“I would have to say that this creature must be electrogenic, or capable of generating an electric field. Fish that are electrogenic have an electric organ, which is made up of modified nerve or muscle tissue. These flat, disklike cells number in the thousands and they’re stacked, each one of them producing 0.15 volts. So in essence, they’re like little batteries, carrying a charge from the exchange of positive sodium and potassium ions within the animal’s body. The cells individually generate a very small amount but this is multiplied by thousands of cells. A six-foot electric eel can generate six hundred volts; this is comparable to the third rail of a mass transit system.”
“So the Sandcastle monster could be seven times more powerful?”
“Yes, it could be. It’s obviously generating not only more voltage but also more amps, which makes it quite deadly. By the entry burns on these bodies, the electricity appears to be arcing through the air to its victims, much like a bolt of lightning.”
Chloe might have arrived on a hoverbike wearing a helmet, but not a hair of her blond bob was out of place. Jane had no idea how she managed it; the only reason Jane kept her long hair in a ponytail was otherwise it looked like a rat’s nest by the end of the day.
Chloe surprised Jane by waiting until Nigel paused before she started to talk. “What are you idiots doing here?”
“Taping a show.” Jane tried for the intelligence level that Chloe assigned them. Don’t mind us, we’re not running around wiping out enemy camps.
“This is not a backyard or garden.” Chloe waved toward the hole that Hal had blasted into the back of the one building during their last visit. “And someone already beat you to blowing this place up.”
“Giant man-eating fish is what we do.” Jane ignored the bit about blowing things up. Behind Chloe, Covington was zipping up the first body bag. Two more to go. “We’re filming this segment to air during the news. We need to warn viewers to keep on the lookout for the creature.”
“You’re going to stir up mass hysteria when you don’t even know what caused this?” Chloe sneered. “All you have is a set of tracks…”
“And some well-chewed bodies,” Hal muttered in Jane’s shadow. She suspected that the woman frightened Hal by her sheer ruthlessness.
“Only an idiot would believe you could know what type of animal it is from its tracks.”
“My grandfather was a tracker, Ms. Polanski,” Maynard stated quietly. “He could tell everything about an animal—how big it was, how healthy it was, how long ago it had passed through the area and at what speed—just by its tracks.”
Behind Chloe, Covington zipped up the second bag.
“The police and EIA are spread thin still looking for Tinker domi.” Jane shifted to the side to keep the coroner’s activity out of Chloe’s peripheral vision. “Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden has agreed to track down and kill this creature, but we need help. One of your viewers gave us the original tip on this beast. He saw the creature in the river by the I-79 Bridge. Not only do we have to warn people about this thing, but we need all eyes looking for it.”
“And the credit will all go to WQED?” Chloe asked with scorn.
“Ms. Polanski, I require your cooperation in this.” Maynard stated it simply but it was fraught with implications. He was the god of Pittsburgh. Anyone that didn’t play by his rules found themselves exiled back to Earth. “I want this thing dead.”
Chloe gave him a cold, annoyed stare but then looked away with a slight huff of frustration. Thankfully she glanced not toward the last oni dead by bullet but at the hole that Hal had blown through the wall. “Fine. I want an exclusive interview.”
Jane relaxed slightly as Covington zipped up the last body bag for the headshot victims. All the evidence of their involvement was now covered up. Only the half-eaten bodies remained.
Maynard glanced at his watch. “You have five minutes.”
Chloe tapped her eyepiece. “This is Chloe Polanski with Director Maynard at Sandcastle Water Park.” She glanced down at one of the bodies. All that were on display were the monster-dismembered ones. “This appears to be an oni encampment hidden here at Sandcastle. How many warriors did you find here?”
Yes, how many?
Maynard blocked them both. “We haven’t matched up all the body pieces yet to come to an exact number yet. We will be issuing an official report later.”
“Were they all oni?” Chloe asked. When Maynard frowned slightly at the question, she went into more detail. “Were there any humans or elves…or tengu?”
Jane’s heart flipped in her chest. They had fled the scene so quickly that they had no chance to scrub away any sign of Joey and Boo.
“There was no sign that Tinker domi was held here.” Maynard leapt to a different but more obvious end of the questioning. “Tengu” was only linked to “Tinker’s kidnapper” for Maynard and not to “helpless children.”
Chloe wasn’t easily deferred. “So no signs of a prisoner possibly killed along with the oni? Is it possible that anyone being held captive—like Tinker—was eaten by this thing?”
“Tinker domi,” Maynard corrected her firmly. “The elves will not tolerate anyone being so informal with her title.”
Chloe flicked away the comment with her perfectly manicured fingers. “Yes or no?”
“There is no sign that Tinker domi was held here,” Maynard repeated coldly.
Chloe pressed her lips together into a tight, unhappy line but otherwise didn’t let her frustration show. She was being amazingly restrained but this was Maynard, not some poor grieving family who had lost their baby.
The oni in body bags were being loaded into the coroner’s van. Jane controlled a deep sigh of relief.
“Did you take anyone prisoner?” Chloe asked. “Oni or otherwise?”
“No.” Maynard wouldn’t lie about it. Probably. He had a reputation to uphold with the elves. That he would not tell a lie was part of his legend.
“So all you will discuss is this mythical beast?” Chloe asked.
“This is an unexplored continent on Elfhome. Not even the elves know what lives in the rivers.” He glanced at his watch again. “Any other question before you let your viewers know about this new creature?”
Chloe glanced around and eyed the body bags. Jane held her breath.
“I think we should dig around and see if we can turn up some tissue samples to run DNA scans off of,” Nigel said into the silence. “See what this blighter is made of. Surely there’s a lab somewhere in town that can do a rush job for us.”
“Maybe,” Hal said. “Or the elves could magic us something. Bibby-bobby-boo.”
Jane punched Hal in the gut for saying her sister’s name.
Chloe whipped around to stare at them. “What?”
“Nothing,” Hal whimpered.
Nigel continued as if Hal hadn’t slipped. “We can’t assume that this is a solitary creature. Depending on the species of crocodile, they lay anywhere from seven to nearly a hundred eggs. Electric eels can have up to three thousand young hatch from one clutch of eggs. Really it’s a matter of physiology. It would be helpful if we could get some DNA and see which species this monster is most closely related to. Scans would let us know what we’re dealing with.”