Creepers

10

Balenger braced himself, focusing his light on a rusted metal door.

Rick pressed down on a lever that formed the door's handle. Nothing happened.

He tried again, straining, but got the same result. "Locked. Maybe rusted in place."

"Professor?" Vinnie asked.

"This is always the moment I dislike," the elderly man said. "Until now, we've merely been trespassing. When we look for ways to infiltrate a building, I love it when we find a board that's fallen from a hole in a wall: a place to squeeze through. Nothing's been altered. Nothing's been destroyed. But now we're about to do something more serious. Breaking and entering. Assuming we can in fact enter. I'd very much like to see what's inside, but I can't encourage any of you to break the law. It has to be your choice."

"Count me in," Vinnie said.

"You're sure?"

"My life isn't that exciting. I'll never forgive myself if I miss this chance."

"Cora? Rick?"

"In."

Conklin looked at Balenger, keeping his light away from Balenger's eyes. "Perhaps you shouldn't continue. You have no obligation to us."

"Yeah." Balenger made himself shrug. "But the hell of it is, when I was a kid, I always found a way to get into places where I wasn't supposed to go. You've got me wondering what's on the other side of that door."

Rick took a crowbar from his knapsack and drove it into a rusted area between the door and the jamb. The impact rumbled along the tunnel. Bracing himself, he pulled on the crowbar. The door scraped open an inch. He tugged the crowbar harder and forced the door open enough for even the professor to squeeze through.

Balenger entered cautiously, his light scanning a massive utility room. After the smothering space of the tunnel, the open area was welcome. It felt good to be able to lift his head, to straighten his back and neck. Switches, levers, dials, and gauges occupied the shadowy wall to the right. Pipes filled the murky ceiling and the remaining walls. Huge metal cylinders stood in the center. Balenger assumed they were water heaters. The chill area smelled of metal and old concrete.

"Carlisle kept updating the infrastructure," the professor explained. "This is from the 1960s."

Aiming his headlamp, Rick scanned the levers and other devices. "Impressive. He certainly was organized. Everything's so clearly labeled, an idiot would know what to do. The hot water system is isolated for the different floors. So is the air-conditioning. Here are switches for the swimming pool: heater, pump, purge."

Balenger searched behind the boilers.

"A door's over here." Vinnie crossed the room. "Probably leads into the main part of the hotel."

"Hey, guys!" Cora yelled.

They turned, their lights swiveling.

"Maybe this is one of those Venus-Mars things, but that's really going to bother me." Cora aimed her light toward the open door and the tunnel they'd left. "If that five-legged cat gets in here, or those rats with two tails…"

Vinnie chuckled. He and Rick shoved the door closed. Specks of rust dropped from creaky hinges.

"Now let's see what's beyond the other door," the professor said.

They crossed the utility room. After Rick tugged the next door open, they stood spellbound, their lights revealing something that rippled.

"Amazing," Balenger said after a moment, cold humidity drifting over him.

Vinnie flashed another photograph.

"For heaven's sake, they didn't empty it." Cora stepped closer.

The reflection of their lights shimmered across their faces.

"But after all these years, wouldn't the water have evaporated?" Rick asked.

Something plopped on Balenger's hard hat. Worried about bats, he jerked his light toward the ceiling, but all he saw were beads of moisture. Another drop splashed on him.

"As long as the doors seal the area, there's no place for the evaporation to go," the professor said. "The water's trapped in here. Feel how humid the air is."

"Dank is more like it," Balenger said.

Cora shivered. "Cold."

What they stared at was the hotel's swimming pool. To their astonishment, it still contained water, green from algae growing in it.

And it rippled.

Vinnie's camera flashed.

"Something's in the water," Cora said.

"Probably an animal that heard us coming and jumped in to hide," Conklin said.

"But what kind?"

The algae kept rippling.

"A muskrat perhaps."

"What's the difference between a rat and a muskrat?"

"A muskrat is bigger."

"Just what I needed to hear."

Rick found a slimy pole on the floor. It had a net at the end: a pool skimmer. "I could poke around in the water and see what I catch."

"You mean what drags you in," Cora said.

Vinnie laughed.

"No, I'm serious," Cora said. "This door was closed. So is the one on the other side of the pool." Her light streaked across the scum and indicated the other door. "So how did that thing-whatever it is-get in here?"

Lights flashed in all directions, searching for another entrance.

"Rats can work their way into almost any place," the professor said. "They're determined and tough enough to chew through concrete blocks."

"And what in God's name is this stuff?" Balenger pointed toward what resembled a white carpet on a wall.

"Mold," Cora said.

The scummy water rippled again.

"Rick, let me know when you find the creature from the green lagoon."

"You're leaving?"

"I've run into enough rats for one night. I'm a historian, not a biologist. If I stay here longer, I'll grow moss."

While Cora rounded the pool, Vinnie took another picture. With an unnerving clatter-"Ooops. Sorry."- Rick dropped the pole. Everyone followed. Trying to stay balanced on the slippery tiles, they joined Cora at a set of swinging doors.

Rick pressed against a rusted metal plate on one of them. With the now familiar squeak and scrape, the door yielded.