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Trixie Belden and the Anthrocon Mystery
Chapter 4
By Kinsfire
Trixie Belden and the Anthrocon Mystery
Chapter 4 - Learning the way around
"Ohmigoodness!" Diana said, face flushing as she looked at one of the books of artwork.
"Well, it was labeled ‘Adults Only’, darlin’," said the smiling man behind the desk.
"I know, but...well, seeing the sign, and seeing the pictures are two different things." The blush was a deep red, and had spread underneath her T-shirt. "I think I’ll play it safe and just look at the other books," she giggled nervously.
"He really shouldn’t have let you look at that book," Dennis grumbled after they’d walked away. "You’re not eighteen yet. You only look like you’re in your twenties."
"Why’d you follow me, rather than Trixie? She’s the mystery solver in the group, and I know that you want her safe."
"If I hung around her, she’d think I was hovering over her; she’d get angry, and then find a way to escape me, possibly to both our detriments. If I give her her head, though, she’ll ask questions, and probably turn something up. I just hope she doesn’t scare away the people who tried to kill Mad and me. Sorry, Madeleine. Until she okays the use of that nickname again, I don’t use it."
"Isn’t that being a little ridiculous?" Diana frowned at him. "I mean, she’s already getting her memory back. It’s just a matter of time before she remembers why she’s so scared of you."
"Memory is a tricky thing," he answered. "She might remember everything, but not get all the emotions back. That was quite the blow to the head, remember. Also, remember who the first person she remembered was? She might end up back with him again. If that’s the case, then she really doesn’t need me using my pet name for her, when it might dredge up memories of feelings she no longer has. Far-fetched, I know, but it is possible." He frowned. As she walked toward the next table, he murmured, "This is getting too dangerous. When this is over, I’m going to have to move."
Out in the hallway, Trixie marvelled at some of the costumes that came by her. One poinged by her in a ferret costume, looking vaguely cartoonish, and someone shouted out "Hey there, Mejeep!" The ferret waved back, and continued poinging down the hall. A girl came by in a spandex body suit that had been painted to look like a cheetah’s fur, and she had carried the makeup onto her face, and even had put spots in her golden blonde hair.
"Enjoying your first convention?" a voice asked next to her.
"Eek!" was her response as she wheeled to face a slightly balding man, wearing a badge that read FawkesFyre. "Oh, Dennis is hoping to meet you during this convention!" she said. "Sorry about that, but you surprised me."
"I’m sorry for scaring you," the man replied. "You had the look I know I had the first time I came to this convention. It can be a bit much, no matter how much you prepare for it." He smiled. "First, an introduction. As the badge says, my fursona name is FawkesFyre. My real name is Keith McComb, and I’m just as likely to answer to that as I am to FawkesFyre. From your exclamation, it sounds like you know the Beach Boy." She looked puzzled. "Think about it for a second - what’s Dennis’ surname?"
She thought for a second, and then laughed. "I never thought of that before!"
"Oddly enough, not many do. Anything I can help you with, though? Maybe give you a little primer on how to handle Anthrocon?"
"Try not to stare seems to be order number one," Trixie laughingly responded. "I think I can make my way through things, but I appreciate the offer." She paused, and then added, as an afterthought, "I’ve heard some stories. Do these things ever get dangerous?"
"Dangerous how? To your wallet? Heck yeah, if you’re really interested in something. Physically? Not that I’m aware of. The stories I hear tend to be more along the lines of two people having a running feud, and bringing it here to snark at each other. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything stronger than that. What kind of stories have you heard?"
"Someone was threatening violence to someone else, was what I overheard."
"I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Probably someone just got really angry at someone and said, ‘I oughta break your neck!’ or something like that." Keith smiled. "By the way, I never got your name. Either fursona or real, whichever you’re comfortable with. Sorry, but it makes it easier to explain to the wife why I’m talking to pretty girls." He laughed .
"Sorry," she laughed in return. "I’m Trixie Belden. I’m actually here because a friend is in the hospital down here."
"So you’re here to blow off steam?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.
She looked him in the eye, made a quick decision, and prayed that it was the right choice. "She was driving down with Dennis, and someone knocked them off the road. I think it’s tied to the con in some way." Her eyes slid past Keith as she spoke, for just an instant, and were drawn to a man who looked even more out of place than she felt. He was in a dark suit and tie, white shirt, and dark glasses. The outfit screamed out a purpose other than enjoying a convention. He saw her looking at him, and quickly moved away. "Excuse me, I need to check something out." She sped off in the direction that the man disappeared.
"Who was that, love?" a particularly curvaceous woman asked as she came up alongside Keith. Several of the males (and a few females) had been watching her tiger-striped form walk, and looked vaguely disappointed as she kissed him lovingly.
After a reluctant break in the kiss, he answered her. "A newbie, who seems to be involved in something she considers a mystery. This is going to be an interesting con, I think."
She spun around the corner and came across an elevator, and a set of stairs heading up. Pausing for only a second, she headed up the stairs as fast as the traffic would allow. As she spun around a corner, she came across a very puzzled looking Dennis. "Did you see someone come past here, Dennis? A man in a suit?"
"If it were a pinstripe suit, I’d think he was Mafia, with his shoulder width," Dennis responded. "Since it looked to be a solid suit, I’m guessing the Feds are here for some reason."
"Any ideas why?" she asked.
"Plenty, but they’re all ranging from unlikely to downright weird. Remember who you’re talking to here," he chuckled.
That chuckle didn’t sound like there was much humor behind it, she mused. "Toss ‘em at me," she replied with an answering chuckle, also partially devoid of humor.
He raised an eyebrow and answered. "Okay, in no particular order, and with no particular rhyme or reason. They’ve heard some disturbing rumors, and are here to check them out. Someone called them here for some reason. Aliens have landed, and they’ve agreed to meet them here, since they look like some earth species, anthropomorphized. They’ve decided that furry fans are the next big terrorist threat. And not last, and certainly something more than least, the guy could be here on a membership, but wants everyone to think he’s a Fed, to stir up trouble."
"Why would he want to stir up trouble?"
"Some people do. Real life trolls, so to speak, to use computer jargon."
"Trolls are those guys who intentionally start fights online, right?" At Dennis’ nod, she smiled. "See, I’m learning. Did you see where that guy went?"
"He headed straight for the elevator bank. And it’s early enough that I doubt that he had much of a wait for an elevator. Wait ‘til tomorrow, and then try to get an elevator. Go ahead, though. Maybe you’ll be lucky and find him, but do be careful, okay?"
Trixie shot forward to the elevator banks, near the front desk, but there was no sign of the man. She thought for a moment, and then played a longshot. Walking to the front desk, she asked, "Did you just see a man, about six feet tall, in a suit, come by here?"
"Was the one you’re looking for about as wide as he was tall? Line-backer material?" the hostess asked in return. At Trixie’s nod, she said, "He got in the elevator."
"Can you tell me what room he’s in?"
"Regulations prevent us from doing that, miss. I’m sorry."
"That’s okay," Trixie replied. "I’m sure I’ll see him around. He’s certainly hard to miss!"
"That is true," the hostess laughed in reply. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Trixie walked away from the desk and headed for the couches in the lobby, actually managing to ignore the two young men in fox suits she walked past. Okay, we have a man who certainly appears to be doing something he doesn’t want to be noticed. If we work under Dennis’ idea that he’s a troll, then we can basically ignore him. If he’s Mafia or underworld, then somebody is in serious trouble. If he’s Federal, then whoever he’s looking for is in a whole world of trouble for some reason. I think that Dennis’ first two ideas may go hand in hand. He’s a Federal agent of some sort who was called here to hopefully prevent some trouble, or catch the people who start it, once it’s begun. She frowned. I hate not knowing what’s going on.
She stood up and headed back downstairs, almost bumping into someone. She finally focused, and laughed. The person she’d nearly collided with was in a fox costume, with an obviously fake "FBI badge" that read ‘Fox Mulder’. "Sorry about that, ‘Fox’."
"Not a problem," he replied, laughing. "Like I’m going to complain about running into pretty girls?" He started to walk away, then turned and said, "Enjoy the convention, miss."
"Thanks, I’ll try." She continued the trek downstairs, and ran into one of the people she’d been introduced to. "Mr. Mayerle, I think?" she asked.
"That is correct, Miss Belden. May I help you?"
"I...I am utterly lost here at this convention, and I’m dealing with another problem at the same time."
"Your friend in the hospital? Dennis mentioned that you’re her best friend."
She nodded. "Yeah. Originally, it was just supposed to be Dennis and Honey, and then this happened. Why would someone shove them off the road?"
"Well, it is a clear effort to remove someone or something from circulation."
"Some thing?" she asked. "Like his costume?" Her next question came from pure frustration. "What the heck is so important about a costume?!?"
He smiled. "I’m an engineer, so I know something about the process of designing and creating something. When you consider how elaborate a costume can get, you realize that they involve quite an investment. Moreover, they can, and often do, incorporate quite a variety of materials."
"I guess so. I guess Dennis is something of an engineer, as well; he’s hinted at the design of this costume he built, saying that it was going to cause some heads to turn when he showed it off."
"That alone could be cause for consternation amongst some parties, possibly. Some people go to great lengths to win a costume contest."
"Enough to drive him off the road?"
"Possibly. Are you certain that the incident that hospitalized your friend is connected somehow to this convention?"
"Not certain, but from clues that Dennis has dropped, the two seemed linked. I mean, he left the hospital to be here, as if it was a requirement. Why would he leave her hospital room?"
"Well, I’m not saying that this is his reason, but this is the largest convention of this genre; I’ve known people who took fairly drastic measures to attend similar cons in other genres, such as the World Science Fiction Convention."
"He’s never struck me that way, before, though. How about you?"
"I’ve only ever known him online, but he’s always struck me as interesting, and someone that I look forward to getting to know in person. As for the likelihood of the reason I gave before being the reason he’s here, you would be a better judge of that."
"Is there anyone here at the convention that you might think could be involved with this problem?"
"No one known to me."
She thought for a second, then smiled. "Thank you. One last question, though. Can you think of why the FBI, or some such agency, would be here at this convention?"
If she was hoping for a surprised reaction she was sorely disappointed. What he told her was, "I would presume that they’re looking for someone or something of importance. I’d hesitate to speculate further."
"What sort of things are there around the convention for a seventeen year old to enjoy?" she asked with a smile.
"Well, your age will prevent you from going into a certain section of the art show, but there’s apparently always some excellent work in the general public’s section. I’ve been told that Uncle Kage’s Story Hour is not to be missed when it happens, which will be early tomorrow afternoon. Other than those, it really depends on your interests. There are some panels that I have an interest in going to, and you might want to look at your schedule to see if any might interest you." He smiled and finished with, "I really must get up to my room, Miss Belden, so I will bid you farewell for the moment, if I may." When she nodded at him, he returned it and continued his process toward the stairs.
Now there’s a man who answers things without answering them, she thought. Those were some odd answers to a couple of those questions. Why would he be watching his words around me? And why wasn’t he surprised by the question about the FBI? It’s almost as if he knew they were supposed to be here. Why would he know that? Is he involved with this scenario somehow?
She shook her head. I can’t go suspecting everyone. That’s gotten me into trouble before. She chuckled to herself. When have I ever let that stop me? She walked back down the hallway, where Mike Regan, Shirh Khan, FawkesFyre, and Galadrion were talking animatedly to a tall, pale redheaded man. FawkesFyre was giving him a hearty handshake.
"Tygon, I wish we could see each other more often than at these conventions, when you and Maxx manage to make them. It’s good to see you when we do see you, let me tell you that much, at least."
Tygon responded with a noticeable German accent, "It’s good you see you too, FawkesFyre." He noticed Trixie standing near them, and the Old Gray Raccoon turned.
"Ah, Miss Belden! Welcome back. Since Kynsfyr isn’t here to make introductions, let me introduce you to Tygon, another of the Planetfurry alumni."
"Please to meet you, Tygon," she said, extending her hand. It was shaken firmly, but not too strongly.
"So you’re a friend of Kynsfyr?" he asked.
She thought for a moment and smiled knowingly. "You could say that," she chuckled. "I admit that I’m not used to hearing him referred to that way. He’s just Dennis to me and my friends."
"I can understand that." He smiled. "Any ideas what he’s going to be unveiling at the costume contest? He promised us that it would be unusual."
"I don’t know much about his costume, other than the fact that he’s been working on it for a long time." She shrugged. "Sorry."
"That’s all right. I was just hoping for some inside info," he laughed. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Last I saw him, he was upstairs. Could be anywhere, though. I get the impression it can be difficult to find people around this convention."
"Only when you’re looking for them," FawkesFyre quipped, and was rewarded with some chuckling.
"Well, I ought to find him at some point, since I’m sharing a room with him."
"Ah, so you are the one some are calling the ‘mythical girlfriend’?"
She looked quickly at the rest, hoping they wouldn’t correct her as she said, "Well, one of them. He was with the other one a little while ago."
"Two? And you two ladies don’t have any problems sharing him?"
"Why would we? We’ve been friends since before we met him. We’re still friends." She was actually having some trouble keeping a straight face as she spoke, just from the facial contortions that FawkeFyre was undergoing as he heard this. At first his eyes had bugged slightly, then he had turned slightly calculating, and now he had his head down, his face in his right hand, and it was obvious, to her at least, that he was feigning a momentary head pain to keep from chuckling. That’s right; I told him enough for him to put two and two together. At least they’re all keeping the truth to themselves. A fat lot of good it’ll do if we decide to do this, and tell everyone what we’re doing. I just hope Diana’s doing the same.
Kynsfyr made an appearance right about then, coming down the hallway at a surprisingly fast walk. He had a look of consternation on his face, until he saw Tygon. He walked up to the group, stood erect, and saluted. "Captain Panthera, good to see you again, sir," he said with a grin.
Returning the grin and the salute, Tygon replied, "At ease, soldier. How are you doing, my friend?"
Motioning to his leg, he said, "I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse, too."
"Hmph," Trixie said. "You come over here and ignore your so-called ‘mythical girlfriend’, and shoot right over to him. Not even a quick kiss on the cheek." Her eyes twinkled as he looked at her, and she could see that he’d gotten the point.
"You’re right." He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
This gave her a moment to whisper in his ear, "Gotta start it somewhere, Dennis."
"I take it you’ve been introduced to Tygon, our most notable German member?"
"Only German member, I think," Tygon responded, still smiling.
"True, but mine sounds better," Dennis laughed. "Trixie, if you don’t mind, I need to head up to the room for a minute or sixty, to get off this leg for a bit." He turned, and then turned back to the group. "Any of you want to come up, you can. I rented a suite."
The group headed to the main lobby’s elevator bank, which was only just beginning to develop a crowd. "Tomorrow, there’ll be lines like crazy for these elevators," Khan said. With all four elevators working perfectly, it was only a matter of minutes before they were on Dennis’ floor. As they round the corner from the elevator bank, they saw a someone running through the door to the outside stairwell, and a person lying on the ground, half out of a room. Whoever was lying on the floor seemed to be coughing, and as they got closer, they realized that it was Diana Lynch, at Dennis’ room. There was a strong smell of ammonia as they neared.
As most of the crowd checked on Diana’s condition, Dennis exploded into the room. He headed immediately to the closet, and slammed it open. He relaxed somewhat, but quickly became worried again, and began searching madly in the closet for something.
"What are you looking for?" Trixie asked from next to his shoulder. He jumped, but before he could even think to answer, she hissed in his ear, "In case you’re interested, Diana is fine." Before she could look inside, he closed the closet again.
He turned to look at her with relief in his eyes, but something else was there. Or maybe it’s not there, she thought. Something is wrong, and I don’t like it. He ignores his friend, lying on the floor, to run over and check something in his closet. He knows why someone was in his room.
He walked over to Diana and offered his hand. "I’m sorry I didn’t immediately check on you, but with everyone else there, I would have been a fifth wheel on a bicycle, and I knew you’d be in good hands." She took it and he helped her to her feet.
She leaned forward and kissed him warmly, right next to his lips, then whispered in his ear, "We’ve got to start this charade somewhere. Tell Trixie, okay?" She let go of him to see him smiling broadly. She coughed a couple times and said, "I’d picked up the key from the front desk, and was in the process of opening it when someone burst out and sprayed whatever that was in my face. I started coughing immediately, so I really can’t tell you much about him."
"You’re sure it was a him?" Trixie asked.
"Yes. He apparently hit the door over there wrong, and I heard him grunt through all my coughing. It’s either a man, or a woman with a serious respiratory problem, given the deepness of the voice."
"Let’s get in touch with Brian, and have him look at you," Trixie said. "It sounds like you’re okay, though." She pulled her old friend into a hug.
As the hug finished, she noticed a couple things: first, a couple of the people were studiously ignoring her and Diana, and second, Dennis was talking on his cell phone. "Yeah, she’s walking around, and seems fine, but we figured it would be good for you to give her a once-over. It smells like she got hit in the face with some ammonia compound. She must have been exhaling when it happened, or else she’d be coughing up a storm still. Okay, see you in a couple." He hung up the phone and looked at Trixie. "Brian. He’s downstairs right now," he answered before she could even ask.
Galadrion asked the question that was probably on everyone’s mind. "Do you have any idea why someone would want to break into your room, Dennis?"
"I know exactly why," he frowned.id="Layer 1">
Beatrix "Trixie" Belden, Mart Belden, Brian Belden, Dan Mangan, Diana Lynch, Mr. and Mrs. Lynch, Matthew and Madeleine E. Wheeler, Mr. and Mrs. Belden, and Madeleine G. Wheeler copyright Random House
David "Galadrion" Adrian, Shirh Khan (Kaye), Clint "Concolor" McInnes, Evan "Cateagle" Mayerle, Mike "Old Gray Raccoon" Regan, Dorothy "Catspaw" McComb, Keith "FawkesFyre" McComb, MeJeep are used with permission, and are copyright and trademark their parents.
Any others not so mentioned are copyright 2003-2004 Keith E. McComb
Any resemblence to other people, living or dead, or situations is purely coincidental, and no harm is intended.