Chapter #19A Clean Sweep by: Seuzz   Dey's loafers--they would have to be new--bite your ankles as you step into the hallway, shutting the door behind you. "Oi," you shout to one of the security men down the hallway. "I want this room sealed off. Alpha admittance only. Where's the subject?"
"Still sweeping for him, sir."
"Fuck. What's wrong with the cameras?" The guard gestures helplessly. "Just put a seal on this room. No one goes in until it comes off." With the real Julian Dey knocked out for twenty-four hours, and the room restricted (in practice) only to yourself, you should be safe until you can get away.
You stride down corridors and around corners, passing the occasional guard searching for the escaped prisoner. You push on to the central security room, where banks of monitors show the entire underground lab.
There are three technicians on monitor duty. Philippa Watson--the stenographer in green--is here also. Her expression is sharp and pale as she turns at your entrance. "The fuck is going on," you bark. "Why can't we find him?" You lean forward to glare over the monitors.
"He shot out two of the cameras, sir," Philippa says. "Why didn't you see him?"
"I didn't see anything," you retort. "Don't we have any footage?"
Philippa and one of the engineers exchange an uneasy glance. She pokes him in the shoulder, and he runs his fingers over the control board. An image comes up on one of the monitors at his station: the interrogation room.
Figures move quickly in reverse as the technician spins a tracking wheel. He freezes the image freezes on a naked Taylor Koudelka strapped to a table. You jam a cigarette into the corner of your mouth and light it as you stare intently at the footage. As you watch, Taylor suddenly shrinks to the size of a small child and leaps from the table, but is full grown again as he hits the floor. He ducks under the table; mere seconds pass before Julian Dey and two black-clad guards burst into the room. They look around wildly, but take no notice of the tall, naked figure who springs out directly in front of them. He leaps over to one, drawing at the man's hips. An instant later, both men go down; Julian spins around, and Taylor decks him with a hard blow. Taylor opens the door, aims the gun outside, then closes it and aims up at the camera. The screen goes to static.
"The fuck!" you yell, and bend forward to spin the footage yourself. You move it back and forth slowly, gaping at Taylor's actions. "There was no one in there!" You stop the scene just as Koudelka's fist connects with Dey's jaw. "I felt that," you mutter, and rub your tender jaw. "But--"
"He shot out the camera in the corridor outside," Philippa says. "We assume he made it down the hallway, but he's not showing up in any of the footage."
"Or maybe we're not recognizing him," you say. You spin the footage back to the moment he changed into a child. "If he turn into-- Jesus, is that a little girl? He could be a mouse or a spider or something else."
"If I had some idea of what we're dealing with, Mr. Dey," Philippa says.
You turn on her with a frown before she can continue. "Who else has seen this?" Again, Philippa and the engineer exchange a nervous glance. "You're not cleared for this, Philippa." You poke the engineer in the back. "And you're definitely not. Room 114. Now."
Philippa's face tightens, and the engineer stands up with a weary resignation. They each pull back the lapels to their jackets, exposing the mini-tablet that gives them clearance to various parts of the facility. Into each tablet you punch Dey's own security code and the directive that will clear 114 to carry out the flensing procedure, erasing their memories of the last thirty minutes. "You'll lose half an hour. One-fourteen will send you home afterward. First, though--" You stop the engineer. "Send a file of that footage to my account, and erase it from the banks." He complies, and then he and the interrogator exit. Once you get into Dey's files--which you need to do anyway--you will be able to erase the last evidence of how you escaped Fane's London research facility.
* * * * *
Despite the crisis and the narrowness of your escape, you're pleased at having scored your present perch. Julian Dey is the director of Project Diana, the Fane operation that runs its shapeshifter. Yes, as you'd worried, Fane has an agent rather like yourself.
Not that she's anywhere as powerful as you, which is a blessing. But you know--and you've now had the experience to see from the other side--that a shapehshifting spy doesn't have to be terribly powerful to cause lots of problems for an organization's enemies.
And right now Paige Knotts is sitting in a secure location waiting for a phone call you hope hasn't come. And she's looking like Taylor Koudelka. Yes, they gave their shapeshifter a copy of Taylor.
You step back into the corridor, slip on an earpiece, and tap Paige's number into the mini-tablet you're wearing. The line rings twice before a baritone voice answers: "I'm here."
"Got a hit yet?"
"No."
"Well, shut that guy's phone off. We've got a situation here, and any calls you get on it are likely to be a trap. I'm pulling you back."
"What for? I went through all the trouble--"
"Don't argue, sweetie. I'll explain later. Return to-- No, strike that. Go to my apartment. You got my key on you?"
"Yeah, but if there's a problem I can just get them to let me in." There's a definite smirk in her voice.
"Funny girl. Go back to my place and wait for me to show up or call. Pass phrase is 'Meryl.' You hear from anyone--and I mean anyone who doesn't use it--and you run for the safe house. You know, the place you and me like to--"
"I know, Julian. This isn't role-playing for another kinky date, is it?"
"I wish it was. Somebody set off a ton of firecrackers back here, and I need you someplace secure. You're gonna do what I tell you, right?"
"I always do," the "guy" on the other end sighs.
"Good girl. Oh, and I want you looking like yourself once you're in my place. Last thing I want is--"
"Don't you think I'm sexy this way?"
"I don't need the aggravation of wondering if the OIC agent in my place is my agent or theirs."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you later. Just get moving." You click off.
You've been walking while talking and are nearing the "Xerox room" where Conniff will be. It's actually a suite of rooms: a large, bare one in the middle, opening out into four others, one of which holds her behind bars. The "Xerox machine" itself is in one of the side rooms, and you have a touch of déjà vu as you glance in on it. It's much more streamlined and powerful looking, but the design is the same as the one that you and Joe found and confiscated: a light pen (in this case) is used to trace the features of the victim; on the other end, a stylus carves the copied imago into the professional impersonator.
You've only time to gaze at it, wondering if there's a way to quickly disable it, before Dr. Lillis peeks out from the next room over.
You shiver a little at his appearance. He's one of the most spectacularly ugly men you've ever seen: a little, gnome-like being with a wild mane of dark gray hair and a bulbous nose. From beneath the latter spreads what might be the biggest and most magnificent moustache on Earth. It's so wide the tips spread past his cheeks, and so long that it obscures his mouth; he looks like one of those cartoon characters whose mouth is invisible, and who "talks" only by waggling a moustache. Liquid brown eyes peer out from the narrow space between his bangs and that massive handlebar. They twinkle pleasantly in a way that is all the creepier for seeming so kindly; but as one of Fane's top occult scientists, he is responsible for some of their most horrifying experiments. That twinkle, you know, is the mischief of one who takes pure and innocent pleasure in doing unspeakable things, simply because they are so intellectually interesting.
But now those eyes look worried. "Vhere's my new test subject, Dhey?" he asks in that mixed "Continental" accent of his.
"Flown. We underestimated him. He's not just a spy, he's a fucking assassin or something." Dr. Lillis's eyes widen. "He blew away two of our guys and clocked me hard--" You point to your jaw. "And that's while he was naked. I need you safe, so I want you to go here." You scribble down Dey's apartment address on a business card and hand it to the doctor. "Paige will meet you there. The pass phrase is 'Meryl'. Wait for me or one of my guys to collect you. Again, listen for 'Meryl', and don't go with 'em otherwise."
"If dhe man is dhat dangerous--"
"Then move fast. Don't stop for anything."
"Mavin," he says, and takes a step toward his contraption.
"Leave her," you say, and grab his shoulder. His solicitude for the machine--he's even given it that pet name--would be touching if it weren't for what the thing can do. "The guy we're worried about probably won't know what it is. That's why we need to get her out of here too." You jerk your head toward the cell that holds Conniff.
Lillis nods reluctantly, and shuffles quickly out the door.
That leaves you with your erstwhile partner. You could just bundle her off to be dropped someplace. Or you could escort her out yourself, which would be safer for her. | Members who added to this interactive
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