Holes in the Ground Read Free

I’m straight.”
    “Do you like coffee, Jerry?”
    “Are tribbles born pregnant?”
    Sun looked at Andy. He gave her a nod, then shrugged.
    Sun figured out the K-cup coffee machine while Andy sat with the boy in silence. His best guess was that the lad was late teens to early twenties. He was wearing jeans and Nikes and his faded Star Trek T-shirt did indeed have a signature on it, done in black marker. A button pinned to his chest read: “ PROBE ME HARDER ”. The boy’s greasy shoulder-length brown hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks.
    Sun handed the boy a steaming mug.
    Andy asked, “So, Jerry, where did you get the drugs? Friends?”
    He shook his head. “I’m here alone.”
    Sun looked sad. “Alone? You came all the way from England on your own?”
    “Nobody else would come. I only have one good friend and he… well, things are messed up between us right now. It’s a total arse ache.”
    “What a sweet expression.”
    “I got the gear from Batman.”
    “You got your drugs from Batman?” Andy asked. “Does Commissioner Gordon know?”
    “Some guy dressed as Batman. Cosplay, dude. The Bats was hanging with some Gundum manga otaku—real anoraks—and we stoked up the Graffix. But the gear was minging, man. I’m tripping my bollocks off.”
    “I’m fluent in two dozen languages and have no idea what you just said.”
    Jerry made a face. “Cosplay. Otaku. It’s the CCC this week.”
    “CCC?” Andy and Sun said simultaneously.
    “The Comic and Conspiracy Convention. Media geeks get together with all the conspiracy theory nuts. A lot of people are dressed up like comics and movies and shit. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
    “We’re here on our honeymoon,” Sun said.
    “Oh. That’s cool. You guys into anime?”
    “No,” Andy answered.
    “How about conspiracy theories? John Lennon being shot by the IRA in cahoots with the MI5? Project Cumulus in Gibraltar, British government trying to control the weather? It’s a real mindscrew when you see guys in tinfoil hats talking to guys dressed like X-Men.”
    “I bet.” Andy looked at his wife, giving her an imploring
can we get him out of here now
expression.
    “And the aliens crashing at Roswell, New Mexico? All the secret shit going on at Area 51? You know those were all a cover-up, right? America is even worse than Britain for covering shit up. You guys are the kings of burying secrets. Area 51 is the least of it.”
    Andy felt his jaw clench. Sun’s demeanor changed from cordial to dangerous.
    “What do you mean, Jerry?” Sun asked, her tone low and even.
    “People think the US is hiding aliens. That’s bollocks. They’re hiding the devil. Had him in a secret underground lab.” He sipped from his mug. “This coffee is good. What flavor is it?”
    “Coffee flavor.” Andy leaned in close to Jerry, measuring his words. “What do you know about this secret underground lab?”
    “Just what I read on the Internet. Compound was called Samhain. Bunch of people died. It was tied to that nuclear explosion, the one they called a power plant accident. Any idiot knows nuclear reactors don’t explode, they melt down. Get this—they say they called the devil Bub . Like Beelzebub.”
    Sun was on him before Andy could stop her, the ceramic knife at the boy’s neck.
    “Who are you and who sent you? Tell us, now!”
    Then there was another knock at the door.

Chapter Two
    Sun turned in the direction of the knock. She looked panicked, and Andy knew he shared the expression.
    Their past together was… complicated. They had lived through something they could never share with others. Something involving the very things Jerry was talking about.
    Something terrifying.
    Andy moved quickly to the door and peeked out through the peep hole.
    Two men in black suits and sunglasses.
    The
Men in Black
from the movies, geeks dressing up as Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones?
    Or the
real
men in black, from the Secret Service?
    “Are you going to