I shook my head. “Nothing. Though I’d bet the range for just blinding our Nome friends is much longer.”
“You are correct, Clinton Slade. We dare not get even as close as you are now to the Magon. Although . . . Perhaps, if we were to all rush it at once, we might still defeat it. There are twelve of us all told, plus the two of you.”
“No, you’re outta your mind, Rokhaset! That thing’s even bigger’n you said; I think I eyeballed it at something close on eighty feet long. It’d kick our asses even if y’all weren’t blind, which you will be.” I studied the thing from our current distance, about a hundred and fifty feet away. “Jodi, do you want to try that run again and see if you can get my weapon too?”
She looked at me. “You’ve got something else in mind, haven’t you?”
“Maybe. More a matter of I need to get a better look at something.” I moved forward until I was about a hundred feet away from the thing.
“Here goes nothing.” Jodi sprinted back in. The grotesque head rose, the humming started up again, and Jodi gave vent to Yiddish curses as her clothing started to heat up. She had to get within twenty feet of the Magon to get my weapon, and at her closest approach the thing stirred uneasily, almost began to move forward, jaws and grinder working.
But I’d noticed something else. I focused my flashlight squarely on the crystalline growth on the Magon’s forehead as Jodi sprinted back. Sure enough, the light looked vaguely defocused until she got far enough out and the humming sound faded, and then the reflection was as sharp as could be.
“I think I’ve found its transmission antenna.”
“The things I do for love! What? Where?”
“That crystal thing on its head. That humming noise coincides with its vibration.” I shook my head. “I suppose I could try to shoot the thing off, but it’s a sucky target in this light and at this distance.”
Jodi stared at it with a look of revelation that startled me.
“Jodi? Sweetheart, what is it?”
“Clint, tell me: doesn’t that thing look almost exactly like a couple of wineglasses from here?”
I looked. “Well, yeah, it does. So?”
“I’d put that hum right up around my high B.”
My mouth dropped open and stayed that way. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’ll bet you twenty bucks it’ll work.”
“You’re nuts! You’d need to get right up to it—twenty, thirty feet at the outside—and it’s looking kinda antsy already.”
“So, like you have a better idea, Mr. Genius?”
I thought about it. “No,” I finally muttered. “But hold on a second. I’d better get stuff ready, in case this crazy idea of yours does work.”
I pulled stuff from the pack, sorted it out, fitted things together, checked the connections. “Okay.” I looked over at the monstrous creature and turned, grabbing Jodi tight. “You be damn careful, y’hear? I ain’t lookin’ to see you eaten by some rockworm.”
The slight quiver in her voice answered my concern. “Hey, don’t worry, it’s no big deal. You should see the rats on a New York subway.”
“I have seen the rats on a New York subway. They aren’t anywhere near as bad as—”
She clucked her tongue disparagingly. “That was just Manhattan, you tourist. I’m talking about Queens. Now stop distracting me.”
She took a deep breath and hummed to herself for a few moments, running scales up and down, loosening her throat and lungs so they could deliver when needed. As she did so, she started stripping off all the extraneous metal. Her backpack hit the floor as she started a run of do-re-mi and her shirt and pants (with metal rivets) joined it a few moments later as she ran back down the scale, followed by the wetsuit.
Being human—okay, male human—I could at least appreciate the view, which was magnificent even if stopping just short of being indecent. Jodi’s sports bra and panties had no metal in them, so she left them on. Still, there was a definite exotic charm in the setting, especially with the waiting monster in the background. Any fantasy illustrator in the world would have been in seventh heaven.