"You all right?" he asked Abigail.
She nodded. "I think so. You?"
"Brain's a mite rattled, but that's nothing new for me."
She jerked up in her seat as if someone had shocked her. "You hear that?"
He strained, then shook his head. The only sound in his ears was a bad inner buzzing and the wasps outside. "Hear what?"
"I can't make out the words, but it sounds like someone whispering."
He tried again, and again he heard nothing. "I only hear you."
"You really don't hear that?"
"Sorry. My medium powers are on the fritz, and I can't channel spirits or bells right now. I'll get them worked on later. For-"
"Shh," she said, touching his arm with her hand. "The wasps are talking to someone. I hear them so clearly."
Okay, time to get someone to a psych ward.
"It says to kill the buffalo."
His scowl deepened. "There's no buffalo in Vegas. At least not that I know of."
"That's what they're saying, though."
Maybe what she heard was that weird tendency people had to make ambient noise and other obnoxious things tolerable by incorporating them into understandable sounds and syllables. He didn't know for sure.
At least not until he felt something else strike the car and land on the hood. It struck the windshield repeatedly.
The wasps pulled back enough for them to see a giant mountain lion. It was trying to break through the windshield to get them.
"Oh, this ain't good," Jess muttered under his breath. He put the car into reverse and backed up at a scary pace. Cutting the wheel, he sent the mountain lion flying. Then he put it in drive and floored it.
Abigail held her breath as panic seized every part of her. She didn't see any way out of this. "You think Choo Co La Tah can save us again?"
"Eventually, he can stop it. I just don't know how long we have to hold out. Not to mention, the mountain lion is new. Man, what I wouldn't give for some catnip right now."
Cars were still running off the road as their drivers were swarmed.
As Jess passed a gas station, an idea hit him. It was lunacy, but ...
It was all he had. He headed for another gas station down the street.
Abigail cringed as they pulled into the station and she saw the bodies on the ground of people who'd been caught outside by the wasps and who were now dead from their stings. There were others trapped in cars who screamed for help while the wasps continued to swarm, looking for new victims.
"Is there anything we can do for them?"
"Yeah. Stop Coyote."
That was much easier said than done.
Jess took them to the carwash and pulled inside. She started to ask him what he was doing when all of a sudden, the doors closed, sealing them in. The mountain lion slammed into the door, but couldn't reach them through the tough plastic.
Waving his hand, Jess appeared to make the water come on.
The wasps around their car went crazy as they were sprayed.