“Especially the womens,” the goblin clarified.
“With any luck the three of you will be virtually ignored. Nobody will likely pay any attention to Fabio’s entourage. If you all follow my orders everything should proceed without a hitch. Now, while you three are playing your roles precisely as I’ve detailed, Vega and I will distance ourselves, keeping both a close eye on your progress as well as on the crowds.”
“Good. This will be so much more pleasant an experience without him breathing down our necks the entire time,” Serene leaned over and muttered to Alex.
“It is highly probable that at least a few enemy agents will be patrolling the station, just in case Necrosia makes an appearance. If a CN operative is spotted we will keep strict tabs on their movements and do everything in our power to keep them away from your location. Don’t worry,” Hammett said in a softer voice, noticing the anxiety building in Alex. “Assuming Snotwaddle’s concoction works as intended, I have no worries that you’ll all be inconspicuous to the point of invisibility and we will have little to no trouble. I simply want to ensure that we are prepared for all possible scenarios, no matter how remote. Any questions?”
“Are you going to reveal how the almighty professor’s foolproof doohickeys function, or do you intend merely to wave them about your head all morning?” Serene asked.
Hammett looked over his shoulder toward Vega, and following an understanding nod the Spaniard briefly exited the room and then returned with three small bundles, tightly wrapped. Vega handed a bundle to each of the three fugitives, and upon receiving his Alex noted that his name had been written in handsome strokes on an attached card.
“Do not open them yet, please,” Hammett barked at Moody, who had already begun tearing the brown paper off her bundle. The hunchback rolled her eyes and sneered at the inspector. “Inside you will each find a set of clothes suited to your individual … disguises. After I explain Snotwaddle’s device you can change in another room and make all final preparations.” Hammett placed two of the mysterious cylinders on a nearby table, and began unscrewing the top half of the third one. With the covering removed, everyone could now see two short, sharp needles protruding from the device, shaped much like a pair of fangs.
“Oh crap,” Alex groaned. “This is going to suck.”
“As the professor explained it,” Hammett continued, ignoring Alex, “the serum must be injected directly into the bloodstream for it to work properly. You need to find a prominent vein before beginning the procedure and choose your puncture point carefully. Then all you need do is allow the serum to take effect.”
“Very well,” Serene said, surprisingly nonchalant. “Which one of these beauties is mine?” Hammett handed her one of the cylinders resting on the table. “I’m off to the lavatory. Destiny calls.”
The Cyclops handed Moody her cylinder, and the hunchback hobbled off to Fabio’s room on the second floor. Alex took his in hand last of all, breathed deeply, and began cautiously unscrewing the top as Hammett had displayed. “Oh jeez.” He didn’t think it possible, but this looked even worse than one of Moody’s panacea snakes back in Eville. “Oh boy. Freaking … freaking injection … right.” Fabio walked up and sniffed the cylinder suspiciously. Alex sat down, pulled up his left sleeve, and began pumping his fist, as if he were about to have blood drawn. “Okay. Right. Just gotta … gotta stick it right here. Freaking needles. Freaking …” Another deep breath. A large vein on the crook of his arm now stood out, and he tapped it several times with his finger. “Okay. Okay. Here we go.” He pumped his fist some more. “Here … we … go. Wait. I’m not ready.”
“Would you like me to help?” Hammett asked. The inspector’s voice was genuine, with no hint of sarcasm.
Alex looked up at the Cyclops, his heart racing. “Ummm … ” He looked back down at his vein, and then to the two fang-like needles on the device. “Oh boy … well … ummm.”
“Fabio help Alice-boy.” The goblin reached out to take the cylinder out of Alex’s hands. “Very handies with pricklies—”
“No!” Alex jerked back and away from Fabio. “Get your freaking hands … I mean … no thank you. I got this. Oh jeez. To hell with all these freaking inventors and their freaking potions and machines and …” He looked up at the Cyclops. “Do you know what you’re doing? I mean … have you done something like this before?”
Hammett knelt down next to the young man and gently took the cylinder out of his hand. “As a matter of fact I have.”
“Oh … good. That’s good. Crap. Yeah, you can … uh … you can do your … hell, just do it and get this over with.”
“Try to relax, Alex. Professor Snotwaddle has my full confidence. Look the other way and it’ll be over in a second.”
“Yeah … yeah … okay.” Alex turned his head and soon felt Hammett’s strong fingers rubbing the vein in his arm. “You know,” Alex jerked his arm away. “I’m not … I’m not exactly convinced that Snotwaddle is—I mean, yeah I’m sure he’s good at what he does … but … shoot, how do I know I won’t melt or burst into flames or explode or something. Into my bloodstream? I’m no medical expert, but doesn’t that sound really bad to you guys?”
“Give me your hand, Alex,” Hammett said, in a stronger, less patient tone of voice.
“You see … I think—”
“Alex, you will give me your arm this instant.”
“Seriously … is this even legal? I mean … do you have the right to make me take this—this—whatever? I do have some rights … right?”
“Fabio sing song for Alice-boy.” The goblin began belting out an upbeat melody.
“Alex. Now.” Hammett’s eye grew wide and intense.
“Fabio, that’s really not helping,” Alex growled. The goblin began to sing louder. “Seriously. This stuff hasn’t even been tested. We don’t know what the hell it does. You don’t know! If you’re so confident why don’t you inject this crap into your freaking bloodstream and see what happens? Really, let’s talk about this. Can’t we talk about—”
At that moment Vega stepped behind Alex, placing one hand firmly on the young man’s chest to hold him in his seat, and clinching the other on his nervously shaking wrist. Hammett jabbed the fangs directly into Alex’s vein before the young man even had time to realize what had just happened. A tingly feeling bubbled in his arm, spilling out of his fingers, across his chest and down his legs. Alex felt weightless, dizzy, transported far away from his physical location. Then he felt nothing, as though his body did not exist at all. For a while the room spun around, like an innocent, schoolyard merry-go-round, twirling on a long forgotten summer afternoon, blotches of bright colors clouding his vision in whimsical swirls. Gradually this bizarre sensation faded away, and once more he could feel his body resting in the chair, whole, undamaged and much to his shock and appreciation, without pain.
“Now was that so horrible?” Hammett asked with a smile. “Sons of harpies.”
Alex gazed down at his hands and arms. They were still the same size, still possessed his scratches and scars, but now his skin had become greatly tanned. He wiggled his fingers and bent his elbows cautiously. His movement felt strange somehow, slightly unnatural, but precisely what was wrong he couldn’t put his finger on. “No … I uh … I guess it wasn’t. Actually, aside from the prick in my arm … well, it was pretty nice, really.”
“See, I told you there was nothing to worry about.”
From the level above a bloodcurdling scream raged, piercing and angry, sending a chill down the spine of all who heard it.
“Oh my god!” Alex jumped out of his seat. “Something’s happened to Moody!”
Chapter 17- It’s Only Temporary
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Moody!” Alex dashed up to the second floor of Fabio’s trailer, his voice loud and overcome with panic. “Moody! Are you … oh … wow …” He had burst into Fabio’s room with a crash, only to come to a screeching halt, and now stood silent with a bewildered look on his face.
“That bloated sack of harpy crap! Look! Look what he’s done to me, the bastard!” Moody stood before a tall mirror, hands tugging at her ears. Except they weren’t her ears anymore, but rather the long lobes of a goblin. The hunchback had remained roughly the same size, and yet aside from a tuft of auburn hair on the top of the wide goblin head and the distinct sound of her voice, she was now entirely unrecognizable. “He’s turned me into a freaking goblin. A goblin! I’m going to kill that freaking harpy humper! A goblin!”
“I-I see that …” Alex couldn’t find the words. Half of him wanted to burst out laughing, while the other half sympathized with his dear friend’s obvious dismay and grief over her current situation. He could easily put himself in her shoes, especially if Serene were somehow involved.
“Well, I think we can safely say that the good professor’s serum works exceptionally well.” Hammett stood leaning against the door frame, his eye studying Moody’s new appearance meticulously.
“I’m not going out like this. You hear me? This is unacceptable! Reverse this … this change right now!”
“The professor did not provide any means for reversing the process—” Hammett began.
“You listen to me, pal,” Moody stomped over to the Cyclops and thrust her finger at his face. “I’ll be damned if you think I’m going—”
“Calm down!” Hammett grabbed Moody’s goblin hand, which prompted her to kick him in the shin with her floppy goblin foot.
“Don’t you tell me to calm down, you—”
“Listen to me, damn it! The professor’s serum should only last four or five hours. That’s it.”
“Should? Should? That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one who’s been turned into a freaking—”
“Ah! The beauties overwhelm!” Fabio waddled into the room, his eyes awash with wonderment, hands clutched at his heart. “Fabio’s hunchy-flower!”
“Oh, hell no.” Moody backed away. “No, no, no, no.”
“Fabio’s heart filling of lustings. The hunchy-flower … her beauties beyond song. Words. No true wordings to speak of her beauties. Her sexy surpass all the womens.” Overcome with emotion, he exclaimed something in his own goblin tongue. “Hunchy-flower, Fabio … moved to tears.” The entranced goblin bent down on his stubby knees and began alternately kissing and licking Moody’s hand passionately.
With her free hand, Moody grasped Fabio’s long tongue roughly. “You listen up, you little pervert. In about two seconds I’m going to rip this sucker out of your mouth and stuff it—”
“Everyone, please!” Hammett stepped in and separated the two lovebirds. “We need to remain professional, and to respect one another’s personal boundaries,” he added with a stern look at Fabio.
“Fabio controls not himself. Puppet of passion, Fabio is!” The goblin ran his fingers through his long golden hair and then reached out to caress Moody’s goblin cheek. “Fabio must have his hunchy-flower! The godlings demand it!”
While Hammett endeavored to calm the two down, which included a great deal of noise and shoving, Alex finally noticed his own reflection in the mirror. He stepped up close to it and began examining himself, pulling on his cheeks and nose curiously. The change that had come over him was truly uncanny. The general form of his body remained the same as it had ever been, his height, weight, bone structure, but his features had all been altered somewhat. His nose had grown slightly, as did his chin, while his lips were less full. His skin had taken on a much darker tone, as did his hair, and his typically brown eyes were now a hazel color. Gazing into his reflection felt like meeting a long lost brother he never knew he had. The individual before him was obviously not Alex Hobbs, but retained so many characteristics and features that he had to be related. All in all, he felt completely satisfied with his impressive disguise, especially compared to Moody’s.
After a time Hammett was finally able to drag Fabio out of the room so that Moody might change into her new clothes, although the Casanova resisted strongly, claiming that “inspector-man not be stopping Fabio’s fated passionings.” Alex followed the Cyclops and goblin downstairs, and seeing that Serene had yet to return from the bathroom, quickly changed into his new clothes as well. His new ensemble looked only slightly more dignified than Serene’s concept of a good disguise, featuring a great deal of leather fringe and metallic studs. His outfit did, for what it was worth, resemble a similar style to what Fabio wore, so Alex assumed that his duds had been selected with at least some forethought.
Eventually Moody descended, her goblin face more than capable of emoting her utter disgust and outrage. Doubtless, her outfit did nothing to improve her demeanor, as it was composed of baggy, brightly colored garments that glittered almost magically as she moved. Upon laying eyes on his Venus, Fabio sat up, arms outstretched. A feral snarl accompanied by a positively lethal look ensured that the love-stricken fellow immediately sat back down.
At long last Serene appeared, walking toward them with a strut reserved for a supermodel runway. The inventor had been transformed into a startlingly attractive man. Raven-haired, long legged, physically fit in every way, eyes smoldering with confidence and intelligence., the inventor stopped in the center of her audience and spun around so that all could get a good look at her from every angle. “Am I not positively ravishing?” Unfortunately, the words came out in Serene’s natural voice.
“I suppose,” Alex said. “But your woman’s voice rather ruins the whole thing.”
“All the more reason for you to keep your damned mouth shut,” Hammett emphasized. “It seems Snotwaddle’s creation has no effect on any of your voices. Regardless, the physical illusion is more than enough to accomplish our needs. Very good.”
“I sometimes wondered what I’d look like as a man,” Serene went on, “what with my uncompromisingly gorgeous Necrosia genes. I am most impressed.”
“All right, people,” Hammett butted in. “Listen up. As of now the clock is ticking. In a few hours you shall all return to your normal selves. It is imperative that we get you three past security and into Fabio’s private compartment on the train before then.” As Hammett spoke Vega began taking pictures of each of the new faces with a small device. “If we can accomplish this small miracle, by tomorrow morning you’ll be safely secured at UEL headquarters.”
“Feel free to capture as many images as you wish, my good man,” Serene said to the mute, posing seductively. Vega smiled and after one more snapshot exited the room.
“Wait a minute,” Alex asked Hammett. “If we’re not going to be at the UEL until tomorrow, what are we supposed to do when this serum wears off? Do you have another dose?”
“No. Snotwaddle only provided one injection for each of you. He only had enough time to make the single batch. We have but one shot at making this plan work. There is no room for screw-ups. And as for your first question, I expect you all to do precisely nothing once aboard our transportation. All of you shall remain inside Fabio’s stateroom until we reach our destination. No exceptions.” Hammett turned to Serene and pointed at her specifically.
“And what if the train is delayed?” Moody asked. “What if we’re stuck in Andresholl Station for hours on end?”
Hammett sighed. “Let’s just tackle one problem at a time, shall we? There are no indications of travel delays, and if each of you plays your part correctly everything should run smoothly. If we do run into complications … we’ll deal with them when the time comes.”
“How do you plan on getting us off the train?” Alex piped up. “We’ll all be back to normal by then.”
“Once we’ve arrived at our final destination it should no longer be necessary to continue with your disguises. I will contact my people and we will acquire safe passage from the station to the headquarters building. The local security there is without peer. And then … well, our journey will come to an end.”
“Thank god for that,” Serene huffed.
“For once I wholeheartedly agree with you, Necrosia. Now then, any fin
al relevant questions?” Alex sucked on his lower lip nervously, Serene turned her head from side to side as she gazed admiringly at her reflection and Moody kept an unwavering evil eye on her suitor. Hammett carefully looked over the three fugitives once more and then took a deep breath. “Very well. It’s time to go.”
Chapter 18- Andresholl Station
Vega returned after a brief absence and began handing out documents to the fugitives. Each had been provided boarding tickets as well as the same sort of passport-like document that the now deceased forger, Scarab, had made for them back in New Brasov. Alex couldn’t read the words contained in his, but quickly noticed that Vega had attached an image of Alex’s new face and that the entire booklet looked convincing.
“As you pass through security,” the Cyclops continued, “hand over your documents when requested, smile and don’t say a word unless you are asked a question directly by someone of authority. Once we exit this vehicle, Vega and I shall go our separate ways. Don’t worry; we’ll have our eyes on you constantly, even if you can’t see us. The two of us shall meet up with you again once everyone is safely on board. Are you ready?” he asked his partner. “Then let’s do this.” The two inspectors opened a door, stepped out of the vehicle and vanished without another word, while Serene and Moody followed shortly thereafter.
Alex took one last look at his documents, as though he might have already misplaced one of them, and stuffed the papers in his pocket. “Here we go again,” he muttered to himself and joined the others.
They appeared to be in some manner of parking garage, a large, open space with a tall ceiling dozens of feet high with numbers painted on the floor in regular intervals. Presumably, however, this area was reserved only for a select few, as the vehicles parked here were either fancy trailers similar to Fabio’s or sporty vehicles which screamed “horrifically expensive,” such as those on display in Snotwaddle’s garage. As Alex studied his surroundings more, he came to realize that this entire area had not been built, but rather carved out. All of the surfaces were stone, but through incredible craftsmanship made perfectly smooth. Even the numbers on the floor turned out to be not paint, but polished white stone, perfectly inlaid. The cavern walls glittered as he moved, small veins of dazzling precious stones imbedded from floor to ceiling.
The Eville Protection Plan Page 9
