Free Monster Hunter Legion-eARC by Larry Correia Page B

hadn’t shut that down quick, it could’ve turned a lot worse. Ours were all connected, though. Machado was being used by the Old Ones, then Hood was working for the same Old One, and his daughter was somehow involved in Copper Lake.”
    “But that was after we killed their god, Earl! That’s hard for a religion to bounce back from.”
    “Christianity seemed to do all right,” he said.
    “That’s because it didn’t stick…So, three events related tangentially to the minions of a specific Old One, but he, it…whatever, is toast. So do we think something like him is pulling these strings? These new events, they’re like ours, little things that could spiral out of control in no time.”
    “A few,” I answered. “But there are so many where we don’t know what happened. People missing, or some type of creature shows up and then disappears, and most of them with an underground connection.”
    “Like they’ve been sleeping for a long time and they’re all starting to wake up. But why, and where are they going? So we’ve got a rash of two types of events, things waking up, and other things poking us with a stick. Testing us.” Earl muttered, staring at the map. “These aren’t outbreaks…This is a mobilization.”
    “Of what?”
    “I don’t know, but this is what Myers was seeing. And now I think I know why that son of a bitch was suffering from insomnia. Hell, makes you wonder what else he knew about and couldn’t tell us.”
    “You should call Dwayne,” Julie suggested.
    “Got his number?” It was a testament to how troubling the situation seemed that Earl wasn’t joking.
    “So have we decided all these things are connected?” I asked, already knowing the answer, but hoping to be wrong. “We making this official?”
    “I just don’t know how…We’ll need to talk to everyone, get as many Hunters on the lookout as possible,” Earl ordered. “Shouldn’t be a problem, though. From what I saw, word’s already gotten out. Most of us are a suspicious bunch by nature. After the bunch with Z started swapping stories, all the sharp Hunters know something’s up. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are ten maps just like this one in this hotel by now.”
    “Thank goodness for this conference or we might not have put things together…” Julie trailed off.
    “What?” Then I realized what she’d thought of. “The conference.”
    “Thought of that already,” Earl said. “The timing seems a little suspicious to be holding the first annual one of these things. Almost like they wanted all these different bunches of Hunters to put their heads together.”
    “One hell of a coincidence. Did the MCB want us to figure this out on our own?” Then I shook my head and answered my own question. “That doesn’t make any sense. They didn’t put this on, but if they were trying to keep these trends secret, why allow the conference to take place at all? Why not just send us all an email and say, ‘Attention, Hunters, be on the lookout for an invasion of mole people.’”
    “Maybe it isn’t the MCB pulling the strings…” Earl said.
    “Who then?” Julie asked. “Ick-mip has private organizers, but there’s no way they’d be allowed to do this without government approval.”
    “Nobody. Never mind.” Earl looked around. Then picked up the notepad from the nightstand table and scribbled a brief note. Not now. Room might be bugged.
    Julie and I glanced at the walls nervously.
    Earl nodded, deadly serious.
    What the hell had we gotten ourselves into?

    The mood at ICMHP had changed drastically over the last few hours. Earlier it had been a sort of festive environment. Now half the crowd was somber, as they realized that they weren’t alone and things were messed up all over the rest of the world too, and the other half was really excited, because they’d come to the same conclusion and were now figuring out how they could make money off the situation by blowing things up. Hunters are proactive