Rescuing the Future: Hairy's Cryptid Cafe, #6

By Jo Carey

Everly Mason has gone from Georgia Peach to cryptid hunter. Now she finds herself in the jungles of Argentina at a Nazi lab and that's not the strangest thing that happens. 125 pages/ 47,600 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jo Carey
• Release date: Jul 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386477389

Jo Carey

Jo Carey grew up in the Midwest but her curiosity and gypsy-spirit has kept her on the move. She's lived in eight US states and spent three years living in Ireland. She has always loved creature movies, so creatures and bugs often show up in her books. Jo, a former information security compliance guru, writes fast-paced, character-driven stories in a variety of genres from medical thrillers to space operas and cozy mysteries. Her novels are filled with humor, romance, and sometimes creatures or aliens, or maybe even all of the above. She often builds her stories around a strong female lead character surrounded by plenty of hunky male heroes. Jo's been under fire on a golf course and climbed out the roof of an elevator in the Netherlands. Life hasn't been boring. Now residing in Texas, setting often plays a huge role in her stories. Jo was intrigued by the League of Planetary Systems, a world her husband, Frank, created for his science fiction books, and she now writes mysteries and other types of tales sets in that world. Jo was bitten by a cat, a fire ant, and a snake, before succumbing to the bite of the writing bug.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Chance, don't you see it?

See what, Babe, he said over my ear bud. Where are you?

Over the ridge, just follow the glitter. He chuckled like I'd made a joke. We're going to need help. This thing is big and fast.

On my way, he said.

A couple minutes later, I felt an arm slip around my waist and pull me back against a rock-hard chest. I felt his breath tickle my ear. I'm here, Babe. Where is it?

I pointed to the northeast. It's in those trees. We should just track it until the others get here.

That'll be a while, he said. They were on the trail of one of the other cryptids and don't want to break off until it's down. We can take care of this one if we work together.

Speaking in hushed tones, we came up with a plan. Chance was going to circle around behind the creature, while I approached from the front. When he gave the signal, we'd both approach and take it down with the tranq rifles. When our guns were loaded with our largest tranq rounds, Chance bent down to give me a passionate kiss.

That's when I noticed the glitter on his shoulder. I pushed him away. What the fudge, Chance, I screamed, smacking his glittering shoulder with my hand. Did you think I wouldn't notice this?

Quiet down, Babe. What are you so upset about? he asked.

You've been up close and personal with that thing, and you didn't take it out.

Everly, wake up. You're not making any sense, he said as he grabbed my wrist before I could smack his shoulder again.

Chance, I...

Everly, wake up, he said. You're having a dream or a nightmare or a vision or something.

I opened my eyes and stared into Chance's face. He was shirtless. He wouldn't go on a hunt without a shirt. I looked him over further. He definitely wouldn't be hunting cryptids naked. I was wearing my sleep shorts and a t-shirt. Fudge. It was a dream.

Chase sat up with his back against the headboard of our bed and pulled me into his lap. That must have been some dream. You almost dislocated my shoulder smacking me. What was that all about?

I bent my head closer to his shoulder.

What are you looking for?

Traces of glitter.

Still not making sense, Babe.

I guess I'm nervous about the cryptid hunt, I said. Unicorns aren't really cryptids, are they?

Chance laughed so hard he started coughing. Once he recovered, he kissed the top of my head. That was a little out there, even for you.

After we were dressed and had put the last items in our packs that were sitting by the bedroom door, we headed downstairs. Cassie and Jared should be here any minute, Chance said. He pulled me in for another kiss. I can't believe this is happening. I never thought I'd get a chance to be part of this kind of hunt. Hell, until a few months ago, I never could have imagined there would ever be a hunt like this one.

If it’s such a big deal, shouldn't we have a solid plan?

That would be great, but you know we can only ever plan the basic logistics of a hunt. Even on our normal hunts, we never know how the animals will react. That's even more true in this case. This should be quite an adventure.

Gracie Layne, my little sister and an expert at analyzing data, helped the BITES people comb through computer files to put together a list of cryptids that could have escaped from the lab. She's in her last semester of her masters degree in data analytics. I don't really understand it, but she's good at figuring things out from the data in a computer. After I freed her from her kidnappers, she was taken to the BITES lab hidden in the national forest not far from here. BITES is the Biological Investigation and Threat Eradication Service, a small part of the Department of Homeland Security. Over the past several months, we'd gone from being hunted by them to working with them. Some BITES lab people had been working for a terrorist and doing experiments on the cryptids that were sent to the lab for study. Now, we were going on a massive hunt in the woods around the lab to capture any cryptids that escaped and were still alive. Thanks to Gracie Layne's work we had a list of cryptids that might have escaped into the surrounding forests.

My Uncle Harry, the man who left me Hairy's Cryptid Cafe, was a cryptid hunter. Chance's dad, Dutch Munroe, was Harry's hunting partner. The journals Harry left us said that he and Dutch had seen some cryptids in the woods that shouldn't have been in this area. Things like a dingonek which is from West Africa and a cherufe from Chile.

While we waited for the other hunters that were leaving from Chance's A-frame to arrive, he pulled out the list again. I have clients that would have paid big bucks to take part in this hunt.

Yeah, but the government wants to keep it quiet. Just us and the BITES people. I guess we should feel honored they included us. We heard cars driving up the gravel driveway, so I followed Chance out the front door. Two black SUVs, one pulling a trailer with two ATVs, pulled in and people started unloading.

Jared and Cassie made their way over to where we stood on the front porch. Are you guys ready for this, Jared asked.

As much as anyone could be, Chance said. This should be quite an adventure.

Cassie and Jared work for BITES and the four of us became friends over the past few months. Cassie was a competitive rifle shooter that BITES recruited away from the BLM. Her skill improved to the point where she’s considered a world class sniper. She didn't need to get up close and personal with a cryptid to take it out. She and Jared lived on his family's ranch in south Texas. The four of us had a lot in common.

CHAPTER TWO

We were taking four ATV's for this hunt which might last two weeks. Everyone pitched in to load gear onto the two trailers we'd be pulling to our main campsite. Our base camp would serve as the jumping off point for shorter trips deeper into the forest.

With Gracie Layne's help, Chance, our friend Tom, and I had poured over Harry's journals and documented the areas where the out-of-place cryptids had been seen. Some of those sightings were years ago, but it was the only starting point we had.

Rene and Loren Dubois, cryptid hunters from Quebec, were joining the team leaving from Chance's. The two brothers were friends of Harry and Dutch. They helped Chance and I when some of the roque BITES agents from the lab kidnapped Chance. Since they already knew about the lab and were experienced cryptid hunters, BITES agreed to include them. We had a lot of area to cover on this hunt, and we needed the extra hands.

With the ATVs loaded, the six of us went inside to appreciate indoor plumbing one last time and fill thermoses with coffee and hot water to get us through the first few hours. I overheard Rene and Loren thanking Chance for including them in this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. We all had studied the list of our possible targets and researched the cryptids on the list we weren't familiar with. I still hadn't heard how they thought some of the cryptids from other countries ended up at the BITES lab. Maybe someday, I'll get the answers to those questions. For now, we were anxious to get into the woods.

Before we headed out, Jared's radio sounded. He walked off a few feet to talk. The other team is pulling out now, he said. A second team of cryptid hunters was leaving from the lab. The other members of Jared's BITES team—Auggie, Henry, Matt, and John, were part of that team. John has been taking over some hunts for Chance so we can spend more time together. BITES is closing down their cryptid ops after this hunt, and John will be working for Chance fulltime.

The plan was that the two groups would hunt separately for the first week and then meet up to share information and formulate a plan for the rest of the hunt. A lot depended on what evidence we found as well as any cryptid sightings by the group.

Dark had fallen long before we pulled into the open meadow that was to be our base camp. An hour later our camp was organized with three tents, plus one for storage. The trailers had been disconnected from the ATVs, and we were all seated around a campfire eating fried chicken from Hairy's and discussing the animals we hoped to find.

Are we looking for specific cryptids on the list or just looking for signs of any of them, I asked.

We'll start out looking for evidence of any cryptids. Some of these creatures are so rare the only information we have on them is what came from the BITES lab, Jared said.

There definitely are some of these animals that I could classify as more of a threat to humans than others, Cassie said. I want to do everything we can to find those, but Jared's right. We need to see what we can find.

Just remember, Chance said, Any of those that escaped from the lab could have been altered. We can't be sure that even those were used to dealing with like bigfoot will react as we expect.

Good point, Cassie agreed.

Everyone retired to their tents early, anxious to start the actual hunt.

I snuggled up with my head on Chance's shoulder. I know how excited you are about this, but what if we don't find anything? I asked, tracing my finger over the tattoo on his pec.

He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips for a kiss. Then we'll have had an incredible adventure together.

CHAPTER THREE

Everyone was up early, and our camp site was bustling with activity when I crawled from the tent. Chance was there a minute later handing me a cup of Earl Grey tea just the way I like it—lots of milk, in this case powdered, and lots of sugar.

Thanks. What can I do to help?

Grab breakfast. We'll head out as soon as everyone's ready. I already ate, so I'll pack up the tent.

Each group of two hunters was heading out in a different direction. If anyone found any cryptid evidence, they'd call it in, and the group would converge on that location. We all had maps with our sections marked off. It was impossible to cover every part of the forest, but we had a plan we hoped would work.

Chance and I headed out of camp hand-in-hand. Are you ready for this? he asked.

Probably not, I said, but I'll do my best. I always felt like a cryptid newbie around these people who'd been hunting cryptids for years, but Chance always reminded me that I'd had more interactions with cryptids in the past few months than most of the others had in all their years of cryptid hunting.

I had learned enough to know that even if every cryptid on the list was in these woods, it would take a lot of luck to find any of them. Most of the cryptid evidence I'd seen in the woods had been related to bigfoot. Bigfoot was the one cryptid we weren't looking for this time. We knew there were bigfoot in the area. Some of them had escaped from the lab, but they had been integrated into the local population expressly to hide them from the terrorists who had been funding the illegal experimentation that went on at the lab.

After stopping to eat the rest of our fried chicken for lunch, we continued on through the woods. Chance held out his arm to stop me. We had just walked down to a wide area near a stream. The ground was muddy and covered with prints. Staying to the dryer ground, we walked along examining the prints. After making a second pass, Chance pulled me back into the trees and put his cheek to mine so he could speak into my ear. Definitely bigfoot, but we can ignore those today. There's a group that could be chupacabra and some others that might be waheela.

Do you want to call it in?

Let's follow the chupa prints for a while and see if we find any more evidence.

Just be careful, I reminded him. Cassie told me that she was attacked by a pack of chupacabra during a BITES op. She didn't go into detail, but I heeded her warning about the creatures.

I couldn't tell how many animals there were in the group we were following, but there were lots of prints, and we were able to follow them for quite a distance. Chance stopped and pointed to some droppings mixed in with the chupa prints.

Looks like the pack might be hunting deer.

Dusk was falling, when we heard the first barks. It could have been dogs or coyotes or chupacabra. I turned to Chance, and he must have read the question in my eyes. He reached for my hand and pulled me along through the trees as he followed the sound. I wasn't sure what he was doing. The plan had been to call the others if we spotted any evidence of cryptids. Chance seemed determined to pursue these animals without the others. We climbed a slight rise and saw three chupacabra surrounding a deer. They'd already taken down the doe and were growling at each other over the carcass.

Chance pulled his rifle up and gave me a look that said he wondered why I wasn't doing the same. I hoped he properly read the What the fudge are y'all thinking? question in my return glare.

He didn't. He handed me my rifle and motioned for me to shoot the animal on the right. He'd take the one on the