Phantoms

a sticky mess of Hostess Twinkles and Fudge Fantasies and coconut cupcakes. Seems they’d knocked over a rack of lunchbox cakes right in the middle of the fight. About a hundred packages of snack stuff spilled onto the floor, and Tal and this other guy stepped all over them while they were grappling. Most of the packages broke open. There was icing and crumbled cookies and smashed Twinkles all over one aisle. Staggered footprints were pressed right into the garbage, so that you could follow the progress of the battle just by looking at the sticky trail.”
    The sheriff finished his story and looked at Jenny expectantly.
    “Oh! Yes, he told you it’d been an easy arrest—just a cakewalk.”
    “Yeah. A cakewalk.” The sheriff laughed.
    Jenny glanced at Tal Whitman, who was across the room, eating a sandwich, talking to Officer Brogan and to Lisa.
    “So you see,” the sheriff said, “when Tal tells me you’re the scourge of the Demon Chrome, I know he’s not exaggerating. Exaggeration just isn’t his style.”
    Jenny shook her head, impressed. “When I told Tal about my little encounter with this man he calls Gene Terr, he acted as if he thought it was one of the bravest things anyone had ever done. Compared to that ‘cakewalk’ of his, my story must’ve seemed like a dispute on a kindergarten playground.”
    “No, no,” Hammond said. “Tal wasn’t just humoring you. He really does think you did a damned brave thing. So do I. Jeeter’s a snake, Dr. Paige. Poisonous variety.”
    “You can call me Jenny if you like.”
    “Well, Jenny-if-you-like, you can call me Bryce.”
    He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. His smile was defined as much by those luminous eyes as it was by the curve of his mouth.
    As they ate, they talked about inconsequential things, as if this were an ordinary evening. He possessed an impressive ability to put people at ease regardless of the circumstances. He brought with him an aura of tranquillity. She was grateful for the calm interlude.
    When they finished eating, however, he guided the conversation back to the crisis at hand. “You know Snowfield better than I do. We’ve got to find a suitable headquarters for this operation. This place is too small. Soon, I’ll have ten more men here. And Copperfield’s team in the morning.”
    “How many is he bringing?”
    “At least a dozen people. Maybe as many as twenty. I need an HQ from which every aspect of the operation can be coordinated. We might be here for days, so there’ll have to be a room where off-duty people can sleep, and we’ll need a cafeteria arrangement to feed everyone.”
    “One of the inns might be just the place,” Jenny said.
    “Maybe. But I don’t want people sleeping two by two in a lot of different rooms. They’d be too vulnerable. We’ve got to set up a single dormitory.”
    “Then the Hilltop Inn is your best bet. It’s about a block from here, on the other side of the street.”
    “Oh, yeah, of course. Biggest hotel in town, isn’t it?”
    “Yeah. The Hilltop has a large lobby because it doubles as the hotel bar.”
    “I’ve had a drink there once or twice. If we change the lobby furniture, it could be set up as a work area to accommodate everyone.”
    “There’s also a large restaurant divided into two rooms. One part could be a cafeteria, and we could carry mattresses down from the rooms and use the other half of the restaurant as a dorm.”
    Bryce said, “Let’s have a look at it.”
    He put his empty paper plate on the desk and got to his feet.
    Jenny glanced at the front windows. She thought of the strange creature that had flown into the glass, and in her mind she heard the soft yet frenzied thumpthumpthumpthump .
    She said, “You mean… have a look at it now?”
    “Why not?”
    “Wouldn’t it be wise to wait for the reinforcements?” she asked.
    “They probably won’t arrive for a while yet. There’s no point in just sitting around, twiddling our thumbs. We’ll all feel better if we’re doing something constructive; it’ll take our minds off… the worst things we’ve seen.”
    Jenny couldn’t free herself from the memory of those black insect eyes, so malevolent, so hungry. She stared at the windows, at the night beyond. The town no longer seemed familiar. It was utterly alien now, a hostile place in which she was an unwelcome stranger.
    “We’re not one bit safer in here than we would be out there,” Bryce said gently.
    Jenny nodded, remembering the