“Put it on my tab with the ice swan. That damned thing cost more than my college education.”

“Oh, I will. You just wait until you see your final room bill.”

“Don’t finalize that bill just yet. We might not be done wrecking your stuff…” I raised my voice and addressed the whole room. “Attention, everybody, I’m Owen Pitt. This is Trip Jones.” Earl had warned me that I should keep this on a need-to-know basis. The less these people knew about monsters, the less likely the MCB was to ruin their lives afterward. They only needed to know enough to not get themselves killed. “We’re consultants and we’re here to help you through this situation.”

“Management has specified that we need to give these men our cooperation.” Mitch’s tone left no doubt as to his opinion of that decision. “Full cooperation.”

“Which means we’re pretty much in charge,” I said. Mitch looked at his shoes and grumbled some more. “On the bright side, if something goes horribly wrong we’re the ones that get blamed and sued, and you probably won’t get fired.” That seemed to cheer him up. “But we’re going to need your help.”

“What’s going on?” asked one of the employees. “Something bad?”

“Bad? What gave it away? Okay, seriously. This is going to sound weird, but it’s the truth. What I’m about to tell you must be kept secret. You can’t tell anybody. Not your family, not your friends, nobody, or the government people outside will shoot you. I’m not kidding…” Many incredulous looks were shared by the security room night shift. Here goes nothing. “We think there’s a dangerous supernatural entity loose in your casino.” There was some nervous laughter. It gradually died as my expression didn’t change. “Yeah. Sorry to break it to you. It killed several people in northern Nevada yesterday and murdered one of your guests this morning in room 1613.”

A long, awkward silence filled the room. “That’s nuts,” Mitch finally said.

“You know what? Go ahead and roll with that. We’re crazy, so just humor us until we’re done.” I didn’t want to waste my time debating the skeptics. “We still need you to do your jobs and keep your eyes open, and most importantly, keep a cool head.”

“Cool head?” That had offended Mitch. “We’re professionals. We handle criminals daily. We can spot pickpockets and cheats smoother than the guy in this place’s magic show. There haven’t been any rappers shot in my casino, because we see trouble before it happens. We can handle this. This isn’t nothing but a chance to get some overtime for my boys.”

“Good. Keep that positive attitude.” You’re probably going to need it.

“What’s this supernatural entity look like?” asked one of the techs incredulously.