Monster - A. Lee Martinez [101]
Lotus had lived for ages, but she hadn’t really lived at all. A life span of billions of years, existing for no other reason than to keep existing. That wasn’t living, and Judy should know. That had been Judy’s life for as long as she could remember. Because until today, that was the best she could hope for.
But now it was time for things to change.
Judy threw the stone in the air. It hurtled upward and onward. Now that Lotus was gone, the stone was free to return to its original unformed state. It disappeared in a flash.
She felt human again. And maybe really alive for the first time.
“Is it over?” asked Monster as he slipped into his pants.
“No,” she replied. “It’s only just beginning.”
25
The next four weeks were busy for CCRS. A surplus of cryptobiologicals had been released during Judy’s ascendancy, and they didn’t just disappear after it was over. Monster scored four times the bags of even his busiest weeks, and he wasn’t the only one. Every freelance agent was working fourteen hours a day in an effort to keep things under control. Monster was no exception, and though he was initially grateful for the extra income, he was beginning to wear down.
It was probably how the kobold got the jump on him. At least, that was what he told himself afterward.
The hairy crypto leaped out of the doghouse and snapped at him. Monster fell in the grass, still wet from the sprinklers. The kobold chuckled at Monster before scrambling over the fence and disappearing.
“I got it!” said Chester.
Monster stood. “Let it go. It’s been a long night, and I’m tired.”
Chester shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
The homeowners stuck their heads out of the house. “Did you get it?” asked the wife. “The thing.”
Monster tugged at his wet pants clinging to his ass and thighs. “It ran off.”
“It wasn’t a dog, was it?”
“No, but it won’t be back.”
“But what was it?” she asked.
“Just a kobold, ma’am,” said Chester, “but there’s nothing to worry about.”
The couple looked at Chester and smiled awkwardly. The response was becoming more common. Neither full incognizant haze nor light incog passing acceptance nor cognizant awareness. But something else.
People were starting to notice magic.
It wasn’t as if all the incogs just opened their eyes and acknowledged it. But Monster caught more of them looking at the cryptos in their midst with a vague acknowledgment that this was unusual, that the sea serpent in their bathtub was more than just a “big snake” and that the vampiric, disembodied heads floating in their attics weren’t just a “bat problem.”
Things were changing.
Magic was getting easier to remember. Even for cogs. It’d been at least a week since he’d had to consult his dictionary. The runes just came to him when he needed them. The cognizant community was abuzz with the discovery that they too had been laboring under their own haze—not as powerful or obvious as the haze on incogs, but still there and still dulling their senses. A fog unperceived by anyone and everyone until it mysteriously lifted. Advanced theoretical thaumaturgists were still speculating about what caused the so-called New Enlightenment.
No one had bothered to ask Monster.
Chester and Monster climbed into his new van. It was new in the sense that he’d just bought it. Otherwise, it was the same white model he’d lost to the kojin attack. There were actually a few more dents, but the air-conditioning worked, so as far as he was concerned it was a step up.
The radio crackled to life. “Monster, I’ve got a call for you.”
He stifled a yawn as he lifted the mouthpiece. “Count me out, Charlene.”
“It’s just a pickup,” replied Charlene. “The caller said the crypto is already contained.”
“So send someone else.”
“They asked for you specifically.”
Monster suspected. He didn’t suspect anything specific, but he hesitated.
“If you don’t want it, I could always let Hardy have it,” said Charlene.
Monster snarled. “Screw that. I’ll take it.