Chapter #11A Conspiracy Is Hatched by: Seuzz   "Okay, look, here's the deal," you tell Richards. "Prescott here found this book, right? This professor bought it off him, and then used it to make copies of him and Lucy Vredenburg. He sent a fake out to replace Lucy. The professor went out pretending to be Prescott. He locked them up for the time being, but he was planning to get rid of them. I've got that right, haven't I?" You turn to the golem. It nods.
"But Prescott and Lucy got loose. The professor found out about it and panicked. Started making up more of these masks. He needed new hiding places, and he didn't care who he had to kill to get them. We caught him, though. And now there he is, under that mask." You point to the golem.
"Yeah, and now we have to find Prescott so—" Richards breaks off. "Shit, there's also that fake Lucy out there, right? We have to take care of her too!"
You shake your head. "Prescott and Lucy already did that. The other night, when Lucy got together with Patterson up here? That was the real Lucy who called, and Prescott was with her. But the fake Lucy showed up too, because Steve the fuckwit called her, thinking he was calling her back. So the fake shows up, Prescott takes her out, and Lucy goes back to her old life without anyone noticing. Lucky for her."
Richards looks confused. "How do you know this?"
You ignore him. "But Prescott still needed a hiding place, same as the professor. He hid out at the professor's house for a while, but then he had Lucy bring him someone. They had one spare mask they could use, so they used it to get Prescott a hiding place. Someplace he could hide inside the school, and then get at his double." You shrug. "He didn't pick Gordon Black as the replacement. That was Lucy's idea. But he went along with it."
The expression on Richards' face begins to shift.
"Black is okay, by the way. They just locked him up in a stone shed, with lots of water and food. The idea was to let him out again after everything got sorted out. He'd be confused, but Black is often incoherent. But yesterday, Prescott, in his new body, found the professor out at the old elementary school. Unfortunately, he had a couple of morons with him, and one of those morons put on a mask. After that, Prescott had to play along with them. Now those morons know about the masks, he's stuck with Gordon Black's body, and, to be totally honest, he has no idea what to do next."
Richards peers at you very carefully. Then, very slowly, he says, "So, you're saying that ..."
"Yeah, I'm not really Gordon. I've just been pretending to be him for the past few days."
He stares at you, starts to speak, thinks better of it, hesitates, and then says "Don't fuck with my head, Gordon."
"Okay, I've been telling you this without proving it, because, to be honest, I don't want you punching me into next Tuesday. Promise you won't hit me?"
Richards just stares, then gives a curt little nod. You put your hand to your brow and rip at the mask.
Everything goes out of focus and starts to spin, and you barely feel it as you hit the floor. Only your ass is sore as you look up from inside Gordon's much-too-large clothes, so presumably you just fainted at the shock of shifting. Richards is looking down at you with a ghastly green expression on his face. You scramble up ...
... and then he pops you a hard one.
* * * * *
He is sitting next to you with his head in hands when you next open your eyes. You're hurting bad, but you don't think you've been out long. He must have just knocked you back into the post-shift daze.
When he sees you stir, he looks over at you with a glare. "How long have you been ... you know."
"Since Thursday afternoon. Sorry about Friday morning, in the gym. I had to stay in character."
"Fuck." He chews on the knuckle of his thumb. "You can't just keep being him. We have to let him out."
"I know. But what's he going to do about me? Or Lucy?"
"We tell him the truth? Oh God, what am I saying ..."
"Yeah. There's also Javits. You can keep a secret about all this shit. But what is Javits going to say when he sees Black? And if says something to Black, well, even Black is capable of putting two and two together, if you give him a calculator and a couple of hours."
Richards smiles privately to himself, which you take as a sign he's stopped being mad at you. He suddenly turns and looks at your twin, who has sat down on the other side of him and is listening carefully. "Suppose we put that mask of you on him? What would happen?"
"He would know everything it knows. That's what happened with you, remember?"
"But he said he's your slave. So couldn't you order Black to keep quiet?"
"I don't think it works that way. You weren't my slave when you put the mask on. I think it's the golem underneath that is the slave. It just affects the mask. But—" you add slowly. "You are talking about me taking over for Gordon, right? And finding some way of keeping Black quiet?"
He chews his fingernail furiously and stares at you. "I hate that fucker's guts, you know?" he blurts out. "I only wanted to play basketball, but him and Patterson. Christ! You have no idea." He catches himself. "Well, actually you do."
"So, you'd be alright with us putting Gordon inside some other body? And I continue as him?" He says nothing. "Or, you know," you nudge him. "We've got a mask of you. I could take over for you, and you could take over as team captain."
You've no idea if the latter suggestion made him hesitate, or tipped him over into your plan. But he pulls himself together after a moment's thought. "Let's do it. We'll talk about who gets to be who later. But I don't want to turn Black into ... one of those golem things. Just trap him in some other person's life. Make him understand what it's like. Then maybe let him out again."
It sounds reasonable. "It'll take awhile to polish up a mask to use. We better get started."
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