“The bunker will do us just fine,” Milo said once they were all gathered in the living room. “It’s basically a fallout shelter left over from the sixties, obviously never used. It’s safe, secure, and far enough out of the way that no one will stumble across it. It’s opened by a keypad, though, so we’ll need the code.”

“And where do we find that?” Ronnie asked.

“About five or six years ago there was this town-wide scandal,” said Virgil. “Couple of high-school kids were using the bunker to party and drink and do whatever it is young people do nowadays. They were found out, grounded, and the mayor said the code would be changed – but I don’t think he ever got around to it. You just have to find one of those kids, get them to tell you the code they used.”

“Any idea who they were?” Linda asked.

“Don’t remember their actual names,” Virgil said, “but I remember a nickname. Ridiculous thing, it was.”

“The Party-Monster?” Kelly guessed.

Virgil looked surprised. “You know him?”

“We’ve met.”

“I know him,” said Austin. “Well, not know him, but I know where he lives. I can show you if you want. There’s a house at the end of Barn Owl Road with a purple truck in the drive. It belongs to his dad.”

“So that’s your job,” Milo said to Ronnie. “Talk to this Party-Monster individual. We’re going to need the bunker tonight.”

“Still going ahead with your plan, are we?” Javier asked.

Milo looked at him. “You sound like you don’t approve.”

“Just playing Devil’s advocate,” Javier said. “You’ve gone to all this trouble to get Austin here back safely and stop the sacrifice … and now you want to sacrifice someone, anyway?”

“We want to sacrifice Jesper,” said Amber, a little irritably. She immediately felt bad, but the pain from her shoulder was sending spikes into her mind. “He started all this. He’s responsible for all the evil done in this town.”

“I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it,” said Javier, “I’m just questioning the wisdom. You’ve managed to get a check in the win column – shouldn’t you just count your blessings and hightail it while you can?”

“Finding Austin does nothing to save Amber from the Hounds,” said Kelly. “She helped us, now we’re helping her.”

“By turning this town evil,” said Javier. “That’s what’ll happen, yes? When you do sacrifice Mayor Jesper, all that craziness you said will happen will actually happen, right?”

Amber looked away. “Right.”

“And, while the town goes crazy, we’re all sitting in the bunker? That doesn’t sound very heroic.”