Page 69 of Head Room

When I finished, Mike said, “You called us for this?”

“Why should I suffer alone?But I’m not done.Poppinger seemed to think Frank Jardos using Denver Airport could have contributed to his disappearance and/or demise.”

Diana echoed my initial reaction to this theory with aHuh?

Mike said, “Is this about the gargoyle?”

“The gargoyle’s just making fun of it,” Jennifer said.

“Fun of what?”I demanded.

“IYKYK.”

Diana jumped on Jennifer’s response.“I know that one — if you know, you know — but how is that connected to the Denver Airport and a gargoyle?”

“I know what it means, too,” I said.“It’s related to all those theories like that the earth is flat, or the sun is hollow, or the moon is a projection—”

“I never got that one,” Mike said.“If it’s a projection, how come it shows up in paintings from long before projections ever existed, not to mention references and legends in all sorts of ancient civilizations?”

“That’s the only one you don’t get?”I asked.

Diana chuckled.

“All right, all right, Iespeciallydon’t get that one.Never understood the stuff about the Denver airport, either.”

“What stuff?That’s what I want to know.I’ll humbly acknowledge this hole in my regional lore if you please tell me what Hiram Poppinger was talking about.”

“That might be a task beyond any of us.”Diana ruined her solemn delivery with another chuckle.

“How much time do you have?”Mike asked.“It started with construction of the airport, which had setbacks and delays.Becausethatnever happens, right?But some people said it was to make sure people worked over different periods so no one knew everything about what was being built.

“There are theories about the runways forming a swastika — but only if you ignore about half of them.And the story that the coordinates for its location were in a broadcast inClose Encounters of the Third Kind, except those coordinates are someplace else in Colorado.Plus, the one about inscriptions on the floor of the terminals being in a cabal’s secret language, when they’re in Navajo.”

“All this just scratches the surface,” Jennifer said as an aside.

“The runways are important,” Mike continued, “because there are supposed to be really long secret ones under the regular ones that can be uncovered for huge planes to land when the need arises to rush the Satanic elites—”

“I had a feeling they’d show up in this,” I groaned.

“—to their underground bunkers.That need will arise when the elites spark the apocalypse.Jennifer, what did I forget?”

“Not just bunkers.”She didn’t miss a beat.“Those elites will go down into a six-story underground city with all the comforts of home.Unless the area underground is, instead, used to imprison those who tried to rebel against the rule—”

“Gotta have a Plan B,” Mike said.

“—of the Satanic elites.Plus, there’s the part about saying they built a ninety-mile drivable tunnel to NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain.”

“Thatwouldbe impressive,” I said.

“Then there’s the art, from the blue horse out front to murals.It’s weird.Totally weird.”A short but emphatic art review by Jennifer.

“Is that where this gargoyle Mike mentioned comes in?”

“Oh, there’s not just one.There are two permanent ones in the baggage area with sculptures of suitcases as their bases.They’re supposed to bring good luck for getting your luggage.But—”

“They’re called Notre Denver, after the ones at Notre Dame in Paris,” he inserted, showing a disturbing level of knowledge about gargoyles.

“—the talking gargoyle Mike brings up all the time was supposed to be temporary.It was pretty popular,” Jennifer ended.“Most people want it back.”