Tesserax finished reading the note and blinked his yellow eyes as if he might be able to make the writing disappear. "Well, obviously," he said at last, "some supernatural creature came into your bedroom while you were in the hall watching Gonius die. Perhaps it phased through the wall, or pryed open a window…. Clearly, however the note was planted, the maseni supernatural community does not want you to work on this case."
Jessie said, "Gonius was a diversion, then?"
"Probably."
"We'll question him."
"My friend, he would only lie. There appears to be enough at stake to justify lying and even more. Besides, supernaturals who were once gods make the worst subjects for interrogations. They've got a natural superiority complex that makes them insufferably rude."
"But what are we going to do about this?" Helena asked. "Look, Tessie, we have been nearly illegally bitten by vampires and werewolves, momentarily terrorized by a Shambler, paralyzed by a sorcerer — and now we have to worry about being crushed to death by this mountain monster of yours. I will not—"
"Be calm, please," Tesserax said. "I have told you that the monster destroyed supernaturals as well as flesh-and-blooders. The people who wrote this not do not control it; indeed, they may be its next victims. They are bluffing, trying to frighten you off."
"I just don't know," Helena said.
"Believe me, my friend," Tesserax said, patting her bare shoulder with six limpid tentacles. "What I say is true. Besides, maseni supernaturals would never break the law; especially, they would never kill anyone. Except for this new beast, of course. But on our world, supernaturals have lived in harmony with flesh-and-blooders for so many centuries that we have no unapproved interracial violence."
"Well…."
"You know I'm right," the maseni said. "Now, let's all get some sleep and forget this ugly incident."
"It won't be easy," Jessie said. He took the note back and read it through again. "I've never before been threatened by a giant, barrel-footed monster."
"When I spoke to my brood brother, Galiotor Fils, the day we left Earth," the alien said, "he informed me that you had taken on his case for more than money. Indeed, he felt that money was the least of your interests in finding how I had died. He said that you were bored, weary of your day-to-day investigative routine, and that you were desperate for something challenging, something exciting."
"Your brood brother talks too much," Brutus said. "I should have given him an ass full of teeth, like I threatened."
"We've had plenty of excitement already," Helena said.
"Ah, I know you won't back out on me," Tesserax said. "None of you is a coward. And, besides, you don't get paid one thin tenth of a credit if you don't follow through on this."
"Maybe I'll give you an ass full of teeth," the hell hound said, lowering his head and opening his mouth.
Tesserax brushed nervously at his lipless mouth and looked at the rows of white teeth that Brutus displayed for his benefit. He said, "Surely, my friend, you jest!"
Brutus snarled.
Jessie said, "There are things more important than money, Tesserax."
"Yes," Helena said. "For instance: sex, contentment, peace of mind, freedom from insomnia, having two arms and legs, life in general, fame, fun, bubble baths and pillow fights."
Tesserax said, "If I were you, I'd also keep in mind the reaction of my fellow maseni if you should back out now."
"And what would that be?" Jessie asked.
"Well, I should guess, for a starter, they'd charge you with grave robbing and put out an omni-world bulletin for your arrests."
"Why a bulletin if you've already got us."
"I don't think we'd admit we already have you, my friend." Tesserax smiled, because he saw that, now, he had them over the proverbial barrel, no matter how shallow that proverb might be and how rotten the barrel.
"You couldn't hold us against our will," Jessie said. But he knew that was just so much bravado.
"That's just so much bravado," Tesserax said.
"Try us," Brutus growled.
The alien said, "Your people are only beginning to build a space travel system, at maseni direction. You'd have to leave here in a maseni ship. Do you seriously believe you could get tickets?"
Jessie threw the note on the dresser. "You win."
Tesserax beamed at each of them in turn. "Fine, fine. Well, shall we get some sleep so we're at least a bit fresh for the morning?" He turned and walked to the drawing room, then looked back and said, "Remember, if Hogar brings you anything for breakfast, don't eat it."
Chapter Twenty
The maseni hermit's name was Kinibobur Biks, and he was quite ordinary in appearance: seven feet tall like other maseni, with those startling amber eyes, bulbous forehead, waxy skin, flap of a nose, lipless mouth, tentacles for fingers…. He was, however, decidedly extraordinary so far as his choice of clothes was concerned. He wore a red and yellow, quilted woman's robe (which barely reached his first set of knees) and a pair of out-sized, fuzzy pink slippers, all imported from Earth.
"It gets damned cold, living in a cave," he told them, when he saw that they were staring at his slippers.
"I can imagine," Brutus said.
Biks said, "These keep my foot tentacles toasty warm." When they continued to stare, he got a bit defensive and, in a raised voice, he said, "And I think they're spiffy as all get out. Very stylish. Real class."
The way in which the hermit Kinibobur Biks had furnished his retreat, this cave, was also extraordinary. He had two rooms, separated by a wide archway, both very comfortably proportioned once you got through the foyer on your hands and knees. The first chamber contained a shape-changing sofa and chair, end tables, a battery-powered television, a self-contained power-pak stereo and pole lamp combination built in the shape of an Earth cow.
"A strange animal indeed," Kinibobur Biks explained. "We maseni have never seen any creatures like them. The cow silhouette has become all the rage in furniture, cookie cutters, ice cube trays — dozens of things."
Shortly, he realized that they were not staring at the stereo in admiration, but in disbelief, and he said, "Let me show you the rest of the place." It was an obvious maneuver to distract their attention from the furniture cow, but they followed him into the second room anyway.
This den contained a self-powered kitchen, including refrigerator, fusion disposal, oven, grill and pressure cooker. There were also several chairs and a table. The walls here were hung with full color, three-dimensional photographs of nude maseni females lying coyly on fur carpets and lush grass mats.
"A hermit gets hungry, like anyone else," Kinibobur Biks explained when he saw them staring at the elaborate self-powered kitchen. And when they congregated before the 3-D nudes, he said, rather plaintively, "And a hermit gets lonely, too, sometimes."
In the main room again, when they were all seated, Jessie said, "Mr. Kinibobur, why have you chosen to live in a cave, high in the mountains, as a hermit?"
The maseni crossed his thin, wax legs and popped a fuzzy slipper off his heel, swinging it from his foot tentacles as he spoke. "Modern maseni society is corrupt, depraved, cut through with greed and self-interest. The modern-day maseni thinks only of material objects, acquisitions, status symbols, creature comforts. He has forgotten his rugged individualism. He relies on gadgetry to serve him and has let his natural talents atrophy."
"But you've got plenty of gadgetry here," Jessie pointed out "You've got a modern apartment tucked away in a cave."
Kinibobur Biks sighed. "You're the first person to see through that excuse, sir, and I congratulate you for your powers of observation. In reality, I live here because I have fallen madly in love with an earth sprite who inhabits the center of the mountain."