Genomorph

Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

“We have a positive ID on the Genomorph’s location,” Reginald Mercer told the Man.

They were deep within the Nevada site, having moved all essential personnel from the main office in Washington. Preparations to activate the sleeper agents were well underway, with only a few left to be programmed. If the effort with the President was successful it would make things easier, but it really did not matter. His entire Secret Service detail was already programmed, as were those of the Vice President and the Chief of Staff, along with most of the other members of the cabinet. The protective details were programmed to act should anyone attempt to reach their principles before the plan was enacted.

The main pieces which still had to be taken were the Joint Chiefs and the Genomorph. Having her on the loose was just too dangerous, but it would not stop the plan from going forward.

“Where?” The Man asked Mercer.

“Los Angeles,” Mercer replied nervously. “Venice Beach to be precise.”

“So her misdirection was itself misdirection,” The Man smiled. “She is everything we hoped she would be.”

“Except controllable,” Mercer commented, anxious to steer the conversation towards others’ failures.

“And you’re certain of this?”

“Yes, sir,” Mercer said. “We have a positive visual ID by Agent Reynolds. She is staying with two young women, a Melissa Barlowe and Karen Meadows. Both are graduate students at UCLA.”

“Begin assembling a full tactical unit,” The Man ordered. “I’ll handle any fall out from the locals. I want her taken at all costs.”

“Understood, sir,” Mercer said. “The team commander is working on assault plans for the house and for the campus.”

“Take the time and do it right,” The Man said. “We don’t want anything to alert her until we are ready to move.”

“I’ve pulled all surveillance off her for now,” Mercer said. “Everything will be ready to move by the weekend and we plan on taking her Monday. We’re going to hit both locations at once. If she slips away at the house, we’ll still have her friends.”

“Excellent,” The Man said. “I have also received information on the location of Susan Covington. She is at the estate of Amanda Breton in Virginia. I suspect that Ryan Sanders is there as well.”

“Do you want us to plan an operation to retrieve them?” Mercer asked.

“No, there’s no need,” The Man said. “If we capture the Genomorph in LA, then Dr. Covington will be activated along with the rest of the sleepers. If not, we can activate her locally. Then she can help us bring the girl in.”

*****

“Well, here goes nothing,” Brandi said, pressing her hand to the top of the silver cube. The two hour nap she had taken had done wonders, though she was still a bit aggravated over the loss of her favorite pajamas. She had changed into a pair of jeans and a halter top after she had awakened.

As her hand made contact with the hand shaped area on top of the cube there was a buzzing sound. Brandi pulled her hand back and the top of the cube seemed to melt away from the center.

The cube was filled with what appeared to be thick, black tar. The three girls looked at each other, and then back at the goo.

“Ok, like, I don’t have a clue here,” Brandi said.

“Alien milkshake mix?” Karen offered. “Maybe some kind of Genomorph super food?”

“I am not eating anything that looks like that,” Brandi said, her nose scrunching up in distaste. “Besides it said it was some kind of armor.”

“Nothing clicked when you touched the box?” Melissa asked.

“Nope, not a thing,” Brandi said. “If it is armor I’m gonna, like, need a brush to put it on.”

Cautiously Brandi stuck the index finger of her right hand into the thick mass. When she pulled it back, the goo came with it, and then she plunged her hand deep into it.

“Brandi!” Melissa exclaimed.

“I didn’t do it,” Brandi said, her eyes looking unfocused. “It pulled my hand in.”

“Well pull it out!” Karen shouted.

“No it’s all right,” Brandi assured them. “I understand now. I just hope I’m not about to ruin another set of clothes. Get as much of these off me as you can.”

The viscous black material began slowly creeping up Brandi’s arm as Melissa and Karen helped her out of her jeans and panties. There was nothing they could do about the halter top she wore but she had put on a strapless bra which was easy enough to free her from.

The goo was moving faster now, and at her shoulders it began spreading across and down her body. The sensation was very erotic as it formed itself about her breasts, beneath her halter. It was even more so when it reached her crotch and she let out a little moan.

“Are you ok?” Melissa asked.

“Oh yeah,” Brandi grinned. “That was really odd though.”

Within minutes the cube was empty and Brandi was covered from her neck down in what now looked like a glistening black cat suit. The material seemed to adjust itself somewhat, forming the outline of calf high boots and long gloves. Then the area about her torso thickened and formed a denser bodice. Once the alterations were complete, the material faded to a dull, matte black. Brandi was then able to remove her halter top without damage.

The suit had the feel of soft leather, and was very flexible. The bodice, boots and gloves were thick and heavy while the parts covering her arms and legs were much thinner. The boots also had wide, three inch heels.

“The aliens were into high heels?” Melissa asked, dubious.

Brandi looked down at the boots and giggled, “I think I did that. What can I say? I look really sexy in heels.”

“That outfit is going to make it real hard to move around without attracting attention,” Karen said. “Can you take it off?”

“Sure,” Brandi said, and as she spoke a seam appeared down the front as the suit opened up. “I can do better than that though.”

The seam disappeared, the garment resealing itself. Then the suit itself vanished, seeming to absorb into her skin. After a few seconds, it reformed about her body.

“That is a handy trick,” Karen remarked. “It’s kind of creepy too.”

“I could have really used this earlier,” Brandi said, her eyes looking a bit unfocused. Her mind was being flooded with data regarding the armor. “It’s fire resistant.”

“It’s, um, very sexy too,” Melissa said.

Brandi looked at her with an expression of shocked dismay which quickly became a provocative smile.

“Why Melissa, I had no idea,” she purred. Melissa’s face turned bright red.

“Well other than being fire proof and turning your girlfriend on, what does it do?” Karen asked.

“Fire resistant,” Brandi corrected. “It’s light armor, I can’t really translate the figures in the specs, but it appears it would stop a handgun round. About like Spectra body armor.”

Melissa and Karen gave her blank looks and Brandi explained, “Spectra is a synthetic fiber, about forty percent stronger than the Kevlar used in traditional body armor.”

Brandi’s mind was still awash in information about the armor. She knew that while it could stop a small projectile that was no more than a secondary benefit. The Forerunners had not been concerned with protecting Genomorphs from firearms; their enemies had far more lethal weapons, energy weapons based on laser and plasma beam technology. These weapons had been capable of virtually destroying a Genomorph with just a few good hits. The armor was an ablative material that reduced the damage from such weapons.

But even that was secondary to its primary purpose, that of aiding a Genomorph in infiltrating an enemy stronghold. Brandi knew that with practice, she would be able to change the form of the armor, just as she could alter her own form, into any type of clothing she needed. The matte black body suit was its basic combat configuration, but the color, texture and even the opacity could be altered to virtually anything.

“Oh that reminds me, shopping!” Brandi cried out, startling and confusing both Melissa and Karen.

“What reminds you of shopping?” Melissa asked. “You’ve been sitting there in a daze for five minutes.”

“We have to take Karen shopping,” Brandi said, ignoring the question. “She needs some really classy outfits for DC.”

Karen’s eyes narrowed and she glared at Brandi as she said, “You have the audacity to stand there in what amounts to a fetish outfit and imply that my wardrobe needs an update?”

Brandi looked down at cat suit and giggled. The seam had reappeared while she was absorbing data on the armor and now the suit had a plunging V neck that extended to her navel and exposed a good deal of cleavage.

“I guess it kinda responds to my programmed fashion sense, what can I say? But I do have some experience dealing with the crowd in Dark City. You have a lovely sense of professional style, Karen. You just need some upgrades in the label department.”

“Most of your stuff is all suited to California too, sweetie,” Melissa pointed out. “It’s going to be a lot chillier in Washington.”

“You’re right, I hadn’t thought about that,” Karen admitted, shuddering at the thought.

“The average temperature this time of year is in the mid fifties and it’s only going to get colder,” Brandi told her. “Where are you staying?”

“The State Plaza Hotel,” Karen said. “Dr. Evans suggested it.”

“That’s a good spot, it’s less than a mile from the State Department,” Brandi agreed.

“Have you ever been to the State Department?” Karen asked.

Brandi shook her head, “I did meet the Secretary of State once, back during Desert Storm. I had to give an after action report at the White House.”

“You gave a report to the President?” Melissa said. “What was it about?”

Brandi grinned, “I’ll tell you about it someday. Let’s just say for now that finding an alien machine that eventually transformed me into a woman may have been the weirdest thing that ever happened on a mission, but it wasn’t the only weird thing.”

*****

The three girls returned to the house from an afternoon of shopping and had just enough time to get ready for the rest of the band to arrive. They had picked up several nice suits for Karen, which Brandi had insisted on paying for. They had also stopped by the lingerie shop Karen worked at and Nikki gave her a bag of designer lingerie as a going away present.

“Where’s Brandi?” Amber asked as the girls settled down on the deck to watch the sunset and hear what Karen had to tell them.

“She’ll be joining us shortly,” Melissa said, barely suppressing a laugh. She wasn’t entirely sure Brandi’s way of revealing her secret to the band was the best way, but it would certainly be interesting.

After a bit of small talk, Karen told them her news. They were all happy and sad both, but they understood what an incredible opportunity this was for their friend.

“I guess we’ll need to cancel the weekend performances,” Cyndi said. “We better call the club right away so they’ll have as much time as possible to schedule a replacement.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Karen said. “Brandi will take my place.”

“Look Brandi is a fantastic singer I know,” Cyndi said. “But the club will not be happy about a change in the roster this late. They’ll probably cancel us anyway.”

“They won’t even know. You see, she sang in my place last night.”

The three girls looked at her incredulously, while Melissa struggled to hold in the giggles. Karen went on to tell them Brandi’s story, and exactly how she had performed in Karen’s place the night before.

“So you’re saying that Brandi used to be a guy?” Renee said.

“A forty year old Navy SEAL,” Karen nodded.

“Ok the joke has gone far enough,” Cyndi said at last. “I really don’t know what made you think this was funny, but it isn’t.”

“Yeah I knew you wouldn’t just believe me,” Karen said, picking up a pack of Marlboro 100s from the table and lighting one. She took a long drag and said, “That’s why we set up this little show.”

“Since when do you smoke, Karen?” Amber asked in confusion.

“I don’t,” Karen, the real Karen, said from behind them. They all turned to see her standing in the doorway to the living room, a huge grin on her face.

“And I’m not Karen,” Brandi giggled. As they turned back to her, she transformed before their eyes. They had made sure to dress her in clothes that would stretch enough to accommodate the differences in their figures.

“That is so cool!” Amber exclaimed. Cyndi and Renee both looked shocked, yet curiously fascinated.

“See I told you,” Brandi told Melissa.

Brandi was suddenly inundated with questions from Renee and Amber, and she did her best to answer them all. It was a great relief to no longer have to hide from her friends. Cyndi however was silent and Brandi did not need her enhanced senses to tell her she was disturbed.

It was Melissa who brought them all back to reality when she said, “You all must understand that Brandi has just entrusted you with her life. You can’t say anything about this to anyone.”

Amber and Renee both nodded, but Cyndi stared long and hard at Brandi before speaking.

“You’ve also put us in danger, isn’t that true?” she said at last.

“Cyndi, I’m sure Brandi .…” Renee began.

“No she’s right,” Brandi said. “If they find me, they would not hesitate to use you all to get to me.”

“And you have been around us for weeks,” Cyndi said. “It wouldn’t have mattered to them whether we knew what was going on or not, would it?”

Brandi shook her head, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes.

“Cyndi, back off,” Melissa said. “Brandi had to get to know you first. She can’t go around just telling people what happened and you can’t expect her to just cut herself off from humanity. Karen and I only found out because Brandi healed my face. She had to tell us the whole story then.”

“Yes, and we’ve known each other for almost five years,” Cyndi said. “You should have trusted us. You both should have let us decide if we wanted to be a part of this.”

“It wasn’t for us to tell,” Karen said.

“Babe, Karen’s right,” Renee said. “They couldn’t tell us if Brandi wasn’t ready. You know she doesn’t want to put us in danger; she never asked for this.”

“How will that make me feel any better if something happened to you?” Cyndi asked.

Brandi’s head was spinning. More than anything else she still found her emotions the hardest thing to deal with. Cyndi’s reaction had thrown her and she found it impossible to think clearly.

“I’ll go away!” she blurted, tears flowing. “I’ll go away and you won’t have to worry … I’ll .…”

“Like hell you will!” Melissa shot back. “Cyndi, if you can’t handle this, fine. We’ll cancel the remaining performances and you don’t have to have anything more to do with us. You’ll be safe enough; if they had found Brandi they would have made a move already. But you will not drive the woman I love away.

“What was she supposed to do, Cyndi? Let those people control her? Or should she go hide in a cave until they get tired of looking for her? She wants a life; she wants to be around people. Is that so wrong?”

Cyndi let out a heavy sigh and her expression softened.

“Why not go public?” Cyndi suggested. “You can certainly prove your story. Walk right into one of the network affiliates and do your fast change on national television. They wouldn’t be able to touch you then.”

“Maybe not,” Brandi said, her tears under control for the moment. “Or maybe they would. Maybe enough people out there would see me and react like you’re reacting and want me locked up. Whatever happened, my life would be hell from that point on. I’d never have a moment’s peace.

“Then there’s the technology itself. There is so much we can learn from it given time and study. But if the world knew it existed it would seriously hamper any effort to do real research. Everyone would want a piece of it and nothing would ever be accomplished.”

“There must be something that can be done,” Cyndi said, her anger redirecting towards the people who were after Brandi. “What happened to you is wrong. They have to answer for it.”

“I have friends working on that right now,” Brandi said. “The question right now is what do you want to do, Cyndi? I understand your feelings. I wish I had told you all sooner. I wish that being my friends didn’t put you all at risk. But I can’t change what happened.”

“We’ll do the shows this weekend,” Cyndi said. “After that, I need some time to think. Maybe we should just step back for a bit and give it time.”

Brandi nodded; it was not the answer she had hoped for, but at least Cyndi was not ending their friendship outright.

Cyndi and Renee said goodnight a short time later and promised they would be at the airport in the morning to see Karen off. After they had left, Amber came over and sat down next to Brandi, putting her arm around her shoulder and squeezing her.

“I’ll always be your friend, Brandi,” she said. “Give Cyndi a little time. She has a tendency to over analyze things way too much, but she has a good heart.”

“Thanks, Amber,” Brandi said.

“Hey we blondes have to stick together,” Amber giggled. “I do have another question for you, if it’s not too personal.”

“You can ask me anything,”

“Can you tell me…well, what is it like?” Amber asked. “I mean you were a man and now you’re a girl, and a girl with a hyper active sex drive at that.”

“Think about who you are,” Brandi said, her voice growing quiet. “All the things about yourself, good and bad. The things you like and the things you hate. Everything that makes you … you, at least in your own eyes.

“Now take it all away. You go to sleep and you wake up someone else … someone you don’t understand at all. You’ve had your whole life to learn who you are, and now you have to start all over again. You think things and feel things that you don’t understand. You see the way people look at you and know they see you as someone completely different from who you feel you are. That’s what it’s like.

“Most of the time I’m all right, but when I get, well, moody, it’s because I’m struggling. I was female for four months before I wore anything feminine other than underwear. Every time I give in and let myself accept who I am more, I feel a tremendous sense of relief and at the same time an equal sense of loss. Melissa and Karen tell me I’m doing well, that no one would ever suspect that I used to be a man. But deep down inside I still don’t feel like a girl. I still don’t understand the person I have become.”

“Brandi, let me tell you a secret,” Amber said. Her voice was very serious; not the ditzy blonde that acted so much like Brandi was programmed to, but did so because she chose to act that way. “Sometimes I don’t understand who I am. I think a lot of what you’re dealing with has nothing to do with gender; it has to do with being thrust backwards in time. As Brandon you had forty years of growing and maturing behind you. If you had been changed into a teenaged boy, you’d still be having problems adjusting because things are very different from when Brandon was younger. The world has changed a lot in twenty years.”

“That’s true,” Brandi said.

“Don’t get me wrong, you were thrown a wicked curve,” Amber said. “Two of them really; you were changed into a girl, and a girl with fantastic abilities. If it makes you feel any better, I never suspected for a moment the truth. I knew there was something different about you, but I never had a clue that you were once a guy. Really I thought you were doing the same thing I do; acting like a dumb blonde.”

“Why do you do it, Amber?”

“Well, part of it is because I’m a pretty girl who wants to be an engineer,” Amber said. “It’s a very male dominated field, and I know that people are going to look at me and judge me on my looks. If I act the way they expect me to act, it disarms them; they think they know me, and so when I show them who I really am, that I’m intelligent and talented it catches them off guard.”

“That sounds a lot like what my programming is intended to do,” Brandi said.

Amber giggled, “Mostly I do it ‘cause it’s fun.”

“Thanks Amber,” Brandi said, giving her friend a hug.

“Like I said we blondes have to stick together,” Amber told her.

Karen disappeared into the house and returned a few minutes later with a bottle of wine and some glasses. The four girls talked until very late, and three bottles later when Amber had fallen asleep Brandi carried her up to the bedroom she had used when she first came to stay with Melissa and Karen and put her to bed.

“Are you ok, love?” Melissa asked, when Brandi came into the master bedroom.

Brandi nodded, “I’m fine. Tonight was a bit more emotional than I anticipated but I don’t blame Cyndi for feeling the way she does.”

“Amber’s right, she’ll come around,” Melissa said. “Cyndi is very protective of her friends, and especially Renee. You’re her friend too, and she’ll protect your secret.”

Brandi smiled, “I was just wondering what I ever did to deserve such great friends.”

“Just being yourself, love.” Melissa smiled as she took her by the hand and led her to their bed.