I probably should have taken some backup. Going anywhere alone was stupid. Everyone else was occupied working on something, and I was distracted by the idea of finally being able to talk to Julie about what Earl had told me earlier. It was a sloppy call, but I justified it to myself that it would only take a minute. I got to the elevators, tagged the button, and only had to wait a second for the last one on the left to ding and slide open.

I swiped the card Mitch had given me that allowed access to restricted areas, then pushed the button for the roof. Deep in thought, I leaned against the back of the elevator car and thought about what I was going to say to Julie. There were surely better ways to find out you were pregnant than during a siege from an incorporeal nightmare creature. How would she react? Happy at first, then terrified, then what? The doors slid closed.

The elevator began going down.

I reached out and pushed the roof button again. It wouldn’t stay lit.

It was dropping so quickly that my stomach floated up into my lungs. This elevator wasn’t fucking around. There was a digital display above the door, and it counted down L3, L2, L1, B3, B2, B1 in under four seconds, then it was blank and I was still going down. There was an emergency stop button. It didn’t do anything. I hit the fire alarm. Nothing happened. “Crap.” There was an emergency phone. I yanked the panel open and pulled the phone out, hoping to contact Mitch, but it was dead. The elevator was still descending.

There was a stab of fear. Had I just reentered the nightmare world?

There had to be a way to stop this thing. There had to be a trap door in the elevator car’s roof, but as soon as I unslung Abomination, a voice came through a speaker in the wall. “Please remain calm, Mr. Pitt. Your excitable nature has already caused you to accrue significant charges since you began your stay here. Damaging one of my elevator cars would be exceedingly expensive.” The voice was deep and commanding. “Please put your firearm away.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the owner of this establishment as well as several other hotel-casino facilities in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. I am the primary sponsor and organizer of the First Annual International Conference of Monster Hunting Professionals. Most importantly, I am your host.”

I lowered my shotgun. “You’re the one they call Management?”