“Nonetheless, I refuse to share any classified data with you.”

Mosh stopped to study the scientist for the first time. He was a tiny, shriveled man. His skin was thin and blotchy, with purple veins right below the surface. He had a blanket over his shrunken legs, but was wearing a white shirt, neat red tie, Mr. Rogers sweater, and a gray tweed sport coat. “Please?”

“What’re you supposed to be anyway?” The doctor squinted to glare back at Mosh. “Some sort of gypsy?”

By Mosh’s standards he was dressed rather conservatively. “I’m a guitarist.”

“Devil music, I bet.” The doctor snorted. “In my day the only men that had tattoos on their necks were queers and convicts. I’m not telling you anything. Disrespectful youth have no understanding of what it means to keep an oath.”

Not having a good answer for that and expecting a bunch of angry Hunters to kick down the door any minute, Mosh went back to stacking heavy boxes of paper onto his freshly moved shelf. “Don’t expend too much energy,” Holly warned. “When they find us, if they can’t get through the door easily, they’ll blow a hole in the wall. Okay, Dr. Blish—”

“Don’t say my name!” the old man shrieked. “Are you trying to get us all killed? If he realizes I’m here, he’ll destroy us all. He hates me, and for good reason. I warned Stricken not to bring me this close, but he said that he wanted my visual confirmation. The manipulative swine. He had me dragged from the rest home and brought here despite my protests. I think Stricken merely wanted to see if my presence would provoke him into revealing himself. I am the worm on the end of the hook.”

Truthfully, the idea that they might draw the monster’s attention freaked Mosh out. A bunch of scary, six-armed, snaggle-toothed monster costumes stared back at him. Holly looked around cautiously, but didn’t seem convinced. “Fine. No names then. But I really need to know how to kill this thing.”

The old scientist’s cranium seemed way too big as he shook his head in the negative. It reminded Mosh of a pinkish-purple lollipop sticking out of a sweater. “Foolish girl, it is incapable of dying. We killed his body once, but he simply willed himself back into existence. If we could simply kill it then we wouldn’t have needed to bury the host. By every calculation it should still be lying dormant. If you could totally destroy its host, it will simply find a new one and the nightmare will continue.”

“Whatever. I only want to get my friends back. They’re trapped inside the Last Dragon.”

“Then you have my condolences, because they’re already dead. I will not help you. I am sworn to secrecy, and I am a man of principles.”

Holly swore under her breath as she paced back and forth. It was obvious she was thinking hard. Her expression changed subtly before she gave Mosh a malicious look. “Is that how it’s going to be, then?”