Page 8

CHAPTER 8

Victor explained that he hadn’t been to Miami since the eighties, when the city had been known as the cocaine capital of the US. Zee added that those “free and easy” times were long gone. He had friends who lived in Miami today, he explained, who claimed the city still thrived on drugs and sex, but now it happened underground.

I couldn’t tell if he meant the drug and sex clubs were all below street level, or if it was done in secret. Either way, Miami sounded risky. It would have been easier if we could lure Skrinde out to the Everglades, but according to Hooper, Skrinde senior had only visited the beach house once, years ago when he’d first bought it, after which he’d decided to buy up all the land around it. Unfortunately for Hooper and his friends and family, Skrinde didn’t much like frogs as neighbors.

As we couldn’t think of a way to lure the mob boss to us without it being obvious it was a trap, we decided we’d have to go to him.

“Miami, here we come,” Zee said from the back seat of the borrowed pickup’s cab. “Fancy cars, beach bods, all the drugs... Maybe this won’t turn out to be our worst stop yet.”

Victor drove, while I rode in the front passenger seat and kept an eye out for trouble.

Hooper’s friend had loaned us the truck so we could get to the nearest town and see if a gas station or rest stop had a phone. We did still have to call all this in to Leomaris, before events with my brother and his twisted truths about the Heroes of the City got any worse. Each crisis needed to get in line so we could handle them one at a time.

“Adam, do you think you may be using this latest detour into Miami and our endeavor to save Hooper and his friends as a delaying tactic?” Victor asked casually.

“Delaying what?”

“Dealing with your brother?”

“Uhm, no? We can’t leave Hooper to clean up the mess we made at the beach house.”

“Alright, my dear. As you say.”

He clearly didn’t believe me. And maybe he was right. Maybe I was grasping at anything to keep me from going back to the SOS Hotel. Could we tour the USA forever? No, of course not. I knew that. I just wasn’t in a hurry to put Victor and Zee in danger. Telling Leomaris everything that had happened so far would buy us a few more weeks on the road. I hoped. Either that, or Leomaris would arrest us. But I had faith that the SSD agent knew to ignore baseless gossip... Mostly baseless. I mean, people had died, but it hadn’t been intentional.

Victor pulled the truck into a gas station. The headlamps swept over a few tired buildings and came to rest on some gas pumps. The neon OPEN sign in the window of the diner next door flickered on, though I couldn’t imagine they got much passing trade in the middle of the night.

I opened the cab’s door and hopped out. “I’ll go see if they have a phone.”

“Would you like me to accompany you?”

“No, it’s fine, there’s nobody about. I got this.” I sauntered across the lot and headed into the diner. A bell above the door dinged and a few large ceiling fans barely circulated hot sticky air.

A bored server behind the counter nodded a sleepy hello.

“Oh yeah, uhm... do you have a phone I can borrow?” I asked, heading over. He looked at me as though only weirdos didn’t have mobile phones. “An alligator uhm... ate mine.”

He grunted, reached under the counter, and tossed me a greasy phone. “Gotta buy something, though.”

“Oh, sure uhm...” I read his name badge. “Jake. Can I get a coffee?”

“Whatever, man.” He rolled his eyes, grabbed the pot, poured me a cup, and shoved it across the counter.

I thanked him for the coffee and the phone, and chose one of the empty booths to sit at.

I’d seen Leomaris’s phone number on Victor’s phone so often that I remembered it, and dialed. What time was it in San Francisco? Wait, what time was it here? I glanced around for a clock, and spotted a TV on the wall. The volume was down, but I didn’t need to hear it to see myself, standing outside the SOS Hotel doing an interview with a reporter I’d never seen before and never met.

Wait... How was that me up there?

I ended the call and stared at the TV.

“Hey, that you?” Jake called over.

“I guess? Can you turn the volume up?”

“Sure, man. You famous or something?” he asked, more interested now he might have someone important in the diner. He grabbed a remote and unmuted the TV.

“Well, there’s been some misunderstandings over the past few weeks, but I can assure everyone we have events under control. There’s no need to panic.”

I was panicking. He wasn’t me.

What was going on?

“So these reports of a dragon terrorizing a town in the North West aren’t about you?” the reporter asked.

“No, I’ve been here this whole time.” Not-Adam smiled and shrugged, looking friendly and approachable on my hotel’s front porch.

“What the heck?” I muttered.

“Then the SSD have it all wrong, and you weren’t in Minnesota?” the reporter pressed.

“Oh that?” Not-Adam laughed. “Oh well, uhm... I did go away for a few days, I guess.”

I blinked at the TV. At me. On TV.

“And the dragon seen on social media that turned a hotel to rubble? That wasn’t you?”

“Hey, bro, you that dragon?” Jake called, eyeing me suspiciously.

“What? No. Yeah, I guess. I mean, not him. That’s not...” I stared at the TV, my thoughts racing.

“What?” Not-Adam on the TV chuckled. “Ruin a hotel? Me? Pfft. That’s crazy.”

What was happening here? How could I be sitting in a diner in Florida, but also be at the SOS Hotel? This had to have been recorded recently—yesterday maybe. Someone was pretending to be me. Not just a lookalike, but someone who could change their appearance to look exactly like me...

A shapeshifter.

Someone who could look like a werewolf, or a Gen X No Tel Motel owner who liked plastic plants and killing people.

Jenny, the loup-garou, had not died when she fell—okay, I maybe dropped her—off the cliff.

I had to tell Victor and Zee right now.

Jake shoved a wrinkled, finger-marked piece of paper under my nose. “Hey, can you sign the menu?”

“Huh?” I looked up at his curious face.

“This menu, man. Can you sign it? I’ve never seen a dragon before. You’re pretty small.”

“Small? I’m not a dragon right now.”

“Whatever.” He flapped the menu. “Just a scrawl will do.”

He was blocking my exit from the booth. “Sure. Fine.” I grabbed the pen he offered and scrawled across the menu. The diner’s phone on the tabletop rang.

Jake scooped it up, and the menu. “Awesome.” He headed back behind the counter, raising the phone to his ear.

I had to get out of here. Had to talk to Victor and Zee. If Jenny was pretending to be me, she could do all kinds of damage to the hotel—to my friends, my life.

“Dine for a Dime—what? Oh...” Jake chatted into the phone.

I scooted out of the booth and headed for the door.

“This is like the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me,” Jake was saying. But my thoughts were so focused on Jenny I only half heard him. “I didn’t call you... the dragon guy... Yeah, I’ll put ’im on. Hey! Dragon man. It’s the SSD for you.”

I hesitated, my back to him. The door was right there.

If the loup-garou was at the SOS Hotel, pretending to be me, that meant she could have met Leomaris, could have spread more lies. What if Leomaris was no longer a friend? No, no, they were clever... But we had also disappeared with no warning... and left a few bodies behind...

This was awful.

I had to speak to Victor. He’d know what to do. “I’ll uh... I’ll call Leomaris back.”

“Wait, what?”

I dashed for the door, and heard Jake say into the phone, “He just ran off.”

Okay, that was bad too. “I’m not running. I just...” Stopping, I whirled on my heel. “You know what, it’s fine. I’ll take the call.”

“Oh.” Jack frowned at the phone, then me. “The agent just hung up.”

I whirled and headed for the door. Again. Talk to Victor.

The loup-garou was in my home, being me. What if they’d hurt Madame Matase? Would they fool Tom Collins? Would Tom Collins even care if I wasn’t me?

Victor... I had to get to Victor... I grabbed the diner’s door handle and looked up just as the roar from a parade of shiny pickups pulled me up short. The line of trucks stopped at the pumps, cutting off my route to Victor and Zee. The people inside these trucks were different to the men who had attacked Hooper. These guys were shorter, for one. Better dressed. Riding in expensive, identical trucks.

The troll mafia.

Ducking my head, I turned on my heel again .

“You want me to call the agent guy back?” Jake asked.

“Uhm, no, thanks.” I dropped back into my booth. “I forgot my coffee, is all.” Keeping my head down, I sipped from the mug.

The diner’s bell dinged as the gang of trolls filed in, rowdy and in good spirits.

Jake didn’t look pleased as he headed over to take their orders.

I counted nine new customers. Some of them had handguns tucked into the back of their pants. Were they looking for us? I could probably slip by them unnoticed, but Zee was too conspicuous. Victor was pretty distinctive too. The three of us together would be unmistakable.

But if I could slip out the back now, without anyone noticing...

There had to be a back door...

“You alone tonight, Jake?” one of the trolls asked the server.

“Oh, you know, not really. Cal’s in later.”

Jake’s mumble sounded like a lie.

“Sure you are. Kim’s too tight to pay two for a night shift when hardly anyone comes in here.”

Jake laughed along, probably just trying to get through this. Nobody had noticed me. Yet.

I spotted a sign for the restroom, and figured they’d at least have a window back there, something I could squeeze out of. Or I could make my own exit in a wall, if it came to that.

I scooted out of the booth, and with my hands in my pockets and my head down, I headed for the restroom door. Nothing to see here. Just a boring, average guy.

“Oh hey, you guys know we’ve got a celebrity here?!” Jake announced, eager to switch the trolls’ attention off him.

“Is that so?”

I could feel their gazes settle on me. Oh dear.

“Yeah, this here’s the dragon from San Francisco,” Jake announced.

Hands still in my pockets, I turned and attempted to look a bit confused, and not all that interesting. A whole lot of curious faces peered at me from across the diner. “I’m uh... just gonna use the restroom.”

“We’re looking for a dragon, as it happens,” the chatty troll said. “Can’t be that many around.”

“A dragon, a vampire, and a demon,” one of the others added.

“You wouldn’t happen to be traveling with anyone like that?” Chatty asked.

“Oh uh, me? Nope.”

“You see anyone else here? Know any other dragons?” Chatty pushed away from the counter and sauntered toward me. “Mr. Skrinde wants a word... about his dead son.” His smiled thinned, making his face serious. “You know anything about that?”

“Oh, that’s sad, but uhm... it’s not me, no... I’m just going to the restroom?—”

The TV piped up again with that interview. This time the beginning part, which I’d missed earlier.

“Everyone’s interested in the most popular man around town right now, and that’s Adam Vex. Here with us today on SFNA’s morning news. Adam... Can I call you Adam?... How do you feel about these accusations of murder ? —”

“Wow,” I chuckled. “That guy sure looks a lot like me. But I’m here and he’s there, so he can’t be me. Anyway. Really gotta pee... so... I’ll be right back.” I dashed for the back door.

“Stop that dragon!”

I charged through the door, shot down a corridor, and plowed into the restroom. No windows. No way out. My alarmed face looked back at me from the mirrors above the basins.

“Okay, I guess we’re doing this the dragon way.” I balled my fingers into a fist and hoped the wall was thin.