‘Report suspicious abnormalities if you spot them, and the community will thank you!’ another poster read.
They were all variations of the same degrading, dehumanizing theme.
“It was funded by the de facto ruling pseudo-party, a multi-national pharmaceutical company called GenAdvance,” Jer said. “You know…you guys.”
In the GenAdvance Academy common area, teenage Jer passed by a newsfeed broadcast on an even larger plasma screen. The footage showed massive monster rallies and protests. The pretty organizer wasn’t there this time. Despite his boyhood crush being absent, Jer still stopped to watch the feed.
“All the while, however, the monsters continued to organize. But the second major attempt at change turned violent on both sides.”
On the screen, horrific scenes appeared. GenAdvance soldiers and monsters met in hand-to-hand combat. It was brute strength against high-tech weaponry. One-on-one, the monsters won the battles, but as a whole, they were outmaneuvered.
Monsters fell in droves as rifles strafed their masses. Their claws, fangs, and oversized paws could do no damage when held back by a wall of bullets. Every last one of them was helpless to defend themselves. All they could do was run.
“After the first riot was quashed, GenAdvance told me that I was to become a soldier. But I wanted to be like my father. I wanted to study monsters. To know how they lived, how they were born, and why they killed. I wanted to understand. I needed to understand why they killed. I wanted nothing to do with harming others, human or monster.”
Jer was in his dorm room. He held up several pieces of paper, each emblazoned with the crest of a top university. All but one began, ‘We regret to inform you…’
“The only place that would take me was a small college that focused on psychiatry. Not a single genetic research school was interested. Rumors spread fast about my father attempting to help monsters after his discovery, and I was persona non grata.”
An eighteen-year-old Jer was surrounded by other students who paid attention to the professor as she spoke about the differences between monster and human psychology. Her primary thesis was that monsters were exactly what they appeared to be, and followed the laws of nature. She rambled on about how alpha wolves were a real thing, even though the researcher who coined the term argued that they weren’t. She ranted to the students about how it had been proven time and again that non-sentient beings, such as monsters, deserved to be treated as what they were—as wild beasts.
“That’s how I became a psychiatrist for monsters,” Jer’s recorded voice said. “I disagreed with almost everything my professor said. The only point we did agree on was that monsters think differently. Because of that, she not only allowed my graduate thesis but awarded me with honors. The other graduates nicknamed me ‘Monster, M.D.’ because, as they put it, I was an obsessed sympathizer. Until Jasper, no one seemed to grasp the irony of how much I’d suffered because of a monster attack. The truth is…I relate to them. I might even prefer monsters to humans, despite what happened. If you ask me, GenAdvance ought to be helping them. But if they won’t, I will. Hence, this application. Any other questions?”
The images faded as Pike removed the headset, revealing Ritter standing nearby with arms akimbo and his feet shoulder-width apart.
There was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal the city’s hulking Pharma Police Chief, Jake Jakoff. His leathery face was stitched up in an ever-present smirk. As he entered the room, the man scratched at his wispy, patchy hair. It was damp with sweat, and curled up to the point that it looked like spikes on an iguana.
Pike came to attention. “Chief Jakoff, sir, this is Hieronymus Bennington, delivered as ordered, sir!”
“Brought me all the way down here to watch home movies?” Jer asked the chief.
“Nope. I brought you down here to discuss why you killed Arnold Jasper,” Jakoff sniffed.
“Why would I do that?” Jer asked. “He was my best friend.”
“You said it yourself,” Jakoff replied. “You prefer monsters. From what my sources tell me, your preferences extend to sexual desires. You and I both know that monster and human copulation is illegal and dangerous. You could be killing thousands just so you can get your rocks off.”
Jer snorted. “Blow me.”
“No, thank you,” Jakoff said. “I wouldn’t go near a dirty teraphiliac.”
“It was a…never mind.”
“Come clean, Hieronymus. Confess to the murder, and you won’t have to feel guilty when one of your disgusting friends goes down for your crimes.”
“I didn’t do it,” Jer said. “Told you. He was my best friend. Scratch that. He was my only true friend. And it’s Jer, not Hieronymus.”
Jer’s eyes scanned the back wall of the office. Newspaper clippings and photographs of Jakoff with various important people within the GenAdvance hierarchy were framed and prominently displayed. There was even a photograph of Jakoff posing with golf clubs next to the tall and lanky figure known as Dick Perle, GenAdvance CEO and general menace to decency and society.
Sweat beaded on Jakoff’s forehead as he took a seat in his oversized ergonomic chair. Jer noticed it had control panels on the armrests.
Jer couldn’t help but wonder if the control panels gave him access to cameras all over North Brother Island. He wondered how invasive the surveillance really was now that GenAdvance had full control. “Guess what I’m wondering,” Jakoff asked, interrupting Jer’s train of thought.
“How it is that one man can sweat so much, yet move so little?”
Jakoff blotted his moist forehead with a disposable tissue. “No, no, good doctor. I understand why you think you have to follow in your father’s footsteps, as misguided as helping monsters is, but I’m wondering how a nice young man like you could take part in such a nasty crime. Like you said, Jasper was your best friend.” He tossed the tissue toward a can by the desk. He missed.
“You and I both know I had nothing to do with this. You’re grasping. I would guess that someone even higher up the food chain than you is pressuring you to make an example of the psychiatrist who’s been attempting to help monsters.”
Jakoff tossed a plastic bag onto the desk right in front of Jer.
Inside the bag was a bloody business card that read, ‘Doctor Hieronymus ‘Jer’ Bennington, Monster M.D.’
“That was on Jasper’s body when he was slaughtered,” Jakoff stated. “Guess the therapy didn’t work.”
“He wasn’t a patient, Jack-off,” Jer said through bared teeth.
“That’s Jakoff, Bennington, pronounced ‘juh-KOVE.’ And it’s Chief Jakoff to you. We’re very concerned about this matter,” Jakoff said in a stern voice. “Despite having poor judgment in choosing friends, he was a valued employee. This is serious business.”
“Since when did GenAdvance care about him?” Jer asked. “You’re not exactly known for treating your employees well, although I hear they’re covering hair transplants these days.”
Jakoff reflexively touched his scalp. “GenAdvance had cared since Jasper became one of our top research and development geneticists. Then he decided to take up flying without an airplane. Know anything about that?”
Jer stared at Jakoff with his mouth agape. “I’ve got nothing for you,” Jer replied. “Believe me, I’d like to know who killed him too. If I get my hands on the fucker, you’ll have real cause to haul me in here.”
“Oh, really?” Jakoff asked.
“I remember when you tried recruiting me to be a grade-A, professional douchebag like yourself,” Jer said. “The thing that stands out the most is that you claimed to never ask a question that you didn’t already know the answer to.”
Jakoff pressed a button on an armrest, and two bodyguards entered the office.
“The company has digitally recaptured audio, text, and visual communications between you and the deceased,” Jakoff murmured with a sly smile. “Including all your personal interactions on social media, as is the law, sinc
e you’ve chosen to help the monsters.”
“If you wanted to friend me, you could’ve just messaged or emailed,” Jer quipped. “I screen friend requests, but you’re such an important person, I could never say no.”
Jakoff’s smile widened, but there was no levity in his face. “I’m beginning to lose my patience, doctor.”
“And I’m beginning to wonder, yet again, why you brought me here.”
“I find it useful to put the fear of God into the unredeemed,” Jakoff answered. “In case something jogs your memory later... You should know that I have enough surveillance footage to charge you for illicit relations with monster girls. Damiana the demoness, Mira the fury, and Evangeline the feline beastnik. That makes you a bio-terrorist, threatening the safety of others with your…deviant ways.” He pursed his lips in distaste. “Thought Evangeline was a secret, didn’t you?”
Jer cocked his head back and beamed with pride at their names. They weren’t just any monster girls. They were the sexiest, most highly desired, strongest ones on the island. He’d thought his relationship with Evangeline was a secret from everyone but Damiana and Mira, the leader of the furies. Mira was also the third member of Jer’s monster girl harem. Only she’d been out of sight for over a week, easy for her to pull of considering she could go back and forth between her miniature size and use some kind of purple pixie dust to become the same size as Jer, but he was beginning to worry. The two of them had an understanding, beyond the rules around his harem: As the fury leader and spy master extraordinaire, there would be times when she needed to stay out of sight. This was one of those times, but Jer wished it weren’t. He needed to know if she was safe.
One of the bodyguards handed Jakoff a small circular device, interrupting his worries. He placed it on top of the desk next to the plastic bag with Jer’s business card. The circular device beeped and powered up.
A semi-transparent projection of the side of the GenAdvance laboratory appeared. A few seconds later, Jasper, crashed through a window and dropped to the asphalt far below. His body flattened against the ground.
It was horrific to watch, but Jer didn’t look away. He needed to see this.
After a brief silence, a shadow loomed over the lifeless body, but the source remained just out of the camera’s line of sight.
“What do you think?” Jakoff asked.
“You guys are gonna have a hell of a lawsuit on your hands. Once that’s settled, you need to think about getting a new chief of security.”
Jakoff retrieved the circular object and exchanged a long look with Jer. “Was there a solicitous nature to your relationship with Jasper?”
“There wasn’t,” Jer replied and paused in memory. “He was a player’s player. I couldn’t even keep count of how many women wanted to be in his bed.”
“I didn’t mean sexually. Take this seriously, or I’ll lock you up for obstruction on top of deviance,” the chief warned.
“I’m not obstructing anything,” Jer said. “But if I did, I would do everything possible to get in the way, just to piss you guys off.”
Jakoff tapped a finger on the circular device. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to decide whether you’re on the right team, Bennington.”
“Not everything is black and white, Jakoff.”
Jakoff manufactured another forced smile. “It is when it comes to monsters.”
Jer looked at the others in the room and sighed. “Are you guys done doing your best to frame me, or what?”
“You mean ‘charged,’” Jakoff said.
“No, I don’t,” Jer replied. “Am I implicated in Jasper’s death?”
“Should you be?”
“No, but I wouldn’t put it past the likes of you to frame me.”
Jakoff chortled as he rose and removed Jer’s restraints.
He rose and Jakoff grabbed his arm. “Just remember that the company controls everything.”
“Including you,” Jer replied. He jerked his arm away.
Jakoff’s omnipresent smirk vanished. “Get out.”
“Gladly,” Jer said, tipping an invisible hat.
Another officer accompanied Jer to the romper room and let him in. He spotted Dakota, her back against a corner. Her face was pale and her eyes were twitching in fear as she stole glances at the ferocious-looking monsters all around her. Several of them were hares with fangs that stretched down to their chests.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he said.
Dakota looked up. “What’s the good?”
“They’re releasing me.”
“The bad?”
“You have to spend the night in this room.”
Dakota’s eyes seemed to widen to twice their normal size.
Jer paused, then grinned. “Just kidding.”
She rose and walked with him to the door.
“By the way, I know some of these folks and most of ‘em are herbivores.” Jer smiled reassuringly at his intern.
“They don’t look it,” Dakota replied. “They look like the rabbits from Watership Down.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“How come you didn’t tell me that earlier?”
“I like to make things interesting.”
“I’m beginning to hate you, Doctor Bennington.”
“I get that a lot. And I’ve already said it’s Jer.”
They left the building through the main entrance and found themselves on a cab-strewn street.
“You’re going to need a sense of humor if you plan on diving deeper into monster society,” Jer said.
“What I really need is hazard pay,” Dakota answered.
“Remind me later to double your salary.”
“But I’m working for free,” she replied.
“Then consider it tripled!”
A hydra-cab pulled over and they entered it.
“So how did it go?” she asked, strapping in.
“They’re just trying to scare us.”
“You’re not a suspect?”
“I very much am, but they’re at a dead end and stirring up as much suspicion as possible until something wiggles loose,” Jer continued. “The best thing for us to do is continue our work and ignore this drama.”
At that same moment inside the precinct, Jakoff watched Jer and Dakota drive off in the cab. He then pivoted back to Pike and Ritter.
“Think he’s lying?” Pike asked.
“I’ve known him for over ten years,” Jakoff said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the bastard is lying.”
Jakoff sat at a table and arched his back. Ritter cracked his knuckles.
“I remember the days when we wouldn’t have hesitated,” Ritter said. “WE’D JUST GO IN AND START BUSTIN’ HEADS!”
“Ritter, you’ve got an excellent attitude for a man in your line of work,” Jakoff replied. “I really mean that.”
Ritter beamed.
“But the Board’s nervous,” Jakoff continued. “We’ve got a hundred thousand monsters just itching to revolt if they catch the faintest whiff of what Jasper was after.”
“So what do we do?” Pike asked.
“Watch him very closely,” Jakoff said. “I fear it may be time to take measures that would ordinarily be considered an act of war. What the Board doesn’t realize, though, is that we’re already in a war.”
“What war, sir?” Ritter asked.
Jakoff’s face fell. “The one that may decide the fate of our species.”
Inside the cab, Dakota looked over at Jer. He sat brooding, deep in contemplation. He was upset about the day’s events, and particularly troubled by the death of his closest friend. He was going to miss his impish quality and thirst for knowledge. Most of all, he was going to miss a kindred spirit. Jasper had truly cared for monsters and did all he could to make things just a little bit better for them.
“What are you thinking?” Dakota asked.
Jer took a deep breath as if he was about to reveal some great truth.
�
�Did you know that I can read minds?” he asked.
Dakota shook her head.
“It’s true,” Jer continued. “For instance, right now you’re wondering how it is that you were lucky enough to intern for me.”
“My exact thought was ‘what the hell is going on?’ But you’re close enough.”
Jer grinned and looked out the window. His eyes hopped from the coils of razor wire, heavily-weaponized barriers, and small army of Pharma soldiers stationed between GenAdvance and the river, keeping the two islands entirely separate.
“Do you think Transhumana Monstrare is truly congenital, or something that’s acquired? A virus, as they’ve said?” he asked. “I want your honest opinion.”
“Well, in class—”
Jer waved his hand, cutting her off. “I don’t care about class. I’m asking you as a soon-to-be professional. Honest opinion only, please.”
“I think monsters are born to be what they are,” she answered.
Jer nodded.
“And what happens if someone solves the fissure in the code for Transhumana Monstrare?”
“If the code’s broken, the fissure could be treated or—”
“Cured,” Jer said, finishing her thought.
Dakota nodded.
“Which means no more monsters,” she said, getting his drift.
“And what would that mean for GenAdvance?” Jer asked.
Recognition gripped Sara’s face. “No more business?”
“Because it’s much more profitable to treat and contain than to cure,” Jer said.
“So?”
“So put yourself in GenAdvance’s shoes,” Jer continued. “What would you do to stop somebody from cracking that code?”
“I guess, if it meant losing control and profit, almost anything.”
Jer nodded and turned back to the window.
Silence filled the cab for a long moment.
“Why do they call you Jer?” she asked.
“Because a man named Hieronymus has two choices in life. He can become a Flemish painter—or a shrink.” Jer held his hands out. “See any paint beneath these nails?”
Monster M.D.: A Monster Girl Harem Mystery Thriller (Monster M.D. ) Page 5
