Chapter 4

“Dammit, Irene, did we kill a different Sho-Sho Mamu?”

“I don’t know for sure, Ed, but I want you and the others to look at the two pictures and tell me if you see what I see.”

“Okay, Irene, but I do hope that you are wrong! HEY! ANGIE, HANK, COME IN HERE, PLEASE! IRENE HAS SOME IMPORTANT NEWS THAT NEEDS YOUR INPUT AND OPINION!”

Everybody gathered so that they could see both the TV screen and Irene’s oversize laptop screen. She pulled up the pictures that she had been looking at and said, “These two pictures show the best view of what I am talking about. I am convinced that the Sho-Sho Mamu from the surveillance tape and the one from the ambush video are different. I want you three to examine the evidence and see if you agree with me.”

The three others gazed at the two pictures for a while, and Angie was the first to comment. “I think that Irene is right. The two beasts don’t look identical to me. What do you guys think?”

Hank was the next to say anything. “I’m not absolutely sure, but I am inclined to agree with Irene and Angie. It looks to me like the Sho-Sho Mamu in the surveillance tape is a little heftier than the one we shot. It’s not something that I could swear to, but my gut tells me that I am right. What do you think, Ed?”

“Truthfully, as soon as Irene posted the two pictures, I agreed with her. The first Sho-Sho Mamu does look more husky than the one we shot, and look at its left cheek. I swear that I can see a tuft of white hair that isn’t there on the other one. Irene, what does this mean, other than the obvious?”

“Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that more than one Sho-Sho Mamu had used the portal to our dimension. If that’s the case, the only way to put a permanent halt to them coming to our dimension is to seal the portal. The problem is that I don’t know how to do that, and I wonder if anyone does. Maybe, a Sioux shaman who is steeped in the ancient arts might know how to do it, but I can’t think of anyone else. I’ll try tapping my contacts to see if there are any other ideas, but that’s the only one I have right now.”

Ed commented, “Well, there is one more explanation. There could be only one Sho-Sho Mamu, and we are seeing the before and after effects of it being shot with steel buckshot. Hopefully, that is the case, because we could be in a shit-pot full of trouble if there really is more than one of them running around South Dakota!

“Okay, Irene, I am hiring you as of right now as a consultant on this case. We’ll work out your compensation later. Hank, do you want to work on this problem full time, or do you want to return to the SDHP? Angie, do you want to join us? You could get enough information to write at least one book if you do. What do you guys say?”

The three immediately agreed, and Ed headed for a telephone to call a lawyer. He wanted to form a corporation devoted to hunting occult beings, and he wanted four contracts between the four friends and the new corporation. The tentative name for the corporation was obvious: Sho-Sho Mamu, Inc. Each of the four friends would have to talk to the lawyer on an individual basis to work out what each one wanted in the employment contract.

There were only eight days left in the month, so Hank figured that he could continue to work for the SDHP for that long to make a clean break with the state. Angie had pretty much the same idea for her newspaper job, so that was settled. Irene and Ed were not regular employees of any company, so they did not have any sort of problem. Come the first of next month, everybody could join the new corporation with a clean slate.

The next morning, Irene caught a plane back to New York City to look up some of her colleagues to see if they had anything to offer. Ed had told her to hire whomever she needed, so she was traveling with essentially a blank check. That was a good indicator of how much money Ed had access to.

Meanwhile, Ed contacted the South Dakota governor’s office to tell them what they had on the Sho-Sho Mamu problem and how they planned to deal with it. He also wanted the state to hire his new corporation to solve the problem. That latter idea might be a little far fetched, but he hoped for the best after the politicians had seen the video he had put together of their attack on the Sho-Sho Mamu. That was a scary production, and Ed hoped that it would provoke action from the politicians who knew how frightened their constituents were.

Ed tried to make the point that a person might protect himself if he had a shotgun handy loaded with the proper ammunition, but a potential victim had no chance at all without it. Of course, there were a few doubters among the politicians who were sure that the police or the National Guard could handle the problem, but they backed off when Ed expressed the fear that the attacks could never be permanently stopped until the portal was sealed, and that was the main focus of his new corporation.

Ed did win a contract for a feasibility study centered on closing the portal, but he had more of a problem getting a fence put around the portal site and guards permanently posted there to keep away tourists and souvenir hunters. Ed pointed out that it might not be possible to seal the portal if too much was stolen from the site by souvenir seekers. That scared a number of politicians, and he got that fence and guard approved with a minimum of additional effort.

Irene drew a total blank when she tried to gain information from the people she knew in New York City. When pressed for solid information, most of them folded and showed that they were charlatans just out for a quick buck among the ignorant. Irene left the city in total disgust and headed back to South Dakota. She had a very dismal report for Ed and the others when she met with them.

The only other line of attack that anybody could suggest was for her to contact as many Sioux shaman as she could find. Just maybe, Irene could get lucky and run into a shaman who could offer some helpful advice. She might even find somebody who could really do her some good.

Angie contributed by writing some articles explaining the Sho-Sho Mamu problem and what they were doing to try to solve it. She laid it on pretty thick about needing the shaman input. Currently, except for Mason Running Bear and Gray Wolf, only Whites had been killed, but those two proved that Sho-Sho Mamu had no compunction about killing Sioux, and there was no way to be sure how long it would take before Sioux fell victim.

Not long after Angie’s articles appeared, they started to get telephone calls offering advice and help. However, most of the advice and help came with a price tag and turned out to be worth absolutely nothing. It appeared that there were just as many con men among the Sioux population as among any other group. Strangely, the best advice they received came from a Navajo shaman who offered several suggestions based on Navajo mythology. Unfortunately, this advice required a live demon to participate in the sealing ceremony. That one they were going to have to think about!

Meanwhile, Hank suggested that they try to capture a demon for study. He proposed that there was no need for a live demon during the early stages of the investigation, and that made everybody feel a lot better about his idea. Hank had been working on a device to capture a demon, and he asked Ed for the funds to have a prototype built.

The device consisted of a steel shaft with expanding fins or barbs hidden in the shaft. The idea was that, once the shaft had penetrated the body of the demon, the fins or barbs would open and resist being pulled out of the demon’s body. This was something like one style of harpoon that had been very effective in hunting whales.

The device was gruesome, but it seemed to answer many of the questions that needed answers. The shaft would be anchored by a steel cable that would limit the demon’s travel. If it was used properly, it could keep the demon from escaping. After some discussion, Hank ordered three of the harpoons and suitable launching devices. The plan was to fire three of these harpoons into a demon with the anchors 120° around the circumference of a circle. If the demon could be hit with all three harpoons, it would be locked into position and could not escape nor cause harm.