Evangeline chuckled. “Everybody knows you’re only out for yourself, alderman,” she said.
“Oh good,” Max said. “The last thing I need is someone expecting me to help out. Not happening unless absolutely necessary.”
“Only you would see that as a good thing,” Jer said.
Max shrugged and rolled his eyes. “We can’t all be do-gooders, Jer,” he sniffed.
Jer scoffed and nudged Max out of the way so he could stride next to Evangeline in privacy. “How’re you hanging in there?” he asked.
“Can’t turn it off, can you?” she asked.
“What? Worrying about you?”
“No,” she replied. “The need to help. To be a psychiatrist. To listen to the problems of others.”
Jer let out a deep breath. “What good am I to anyone if I’m not helping?”
“You could be easier on yourself, for starters,” Evangeline said. “Take your own advice and let go of some of the stress in your shoulders.”
Jer scoffed. “Sure, let it all go. Done.”
Evangeline sneered at him. “I’m serious. You need a breather.”
“I’m not saying I disagree, but it can wait.”
“Can it?” she asked.
“Probably not,” Jer admitted. “But what choice do I really have? We’re facing dire circumstances, and other monsters are depending on us whether they know it or not.”
“So basically like every day in the life of a monster,” Evangeline snapped.
“Yeah, guess so,” Jer said.
“And yet you ask us to move forward from the trauma we’ve suffered.”
“I get your point. I do, but there will be time later for me, and I promise I’ll work on getting myself steady, but others need us right now, and I can’t afford to take a timeout, no matter how much I may need it.”
“Fair enough,” Evangeline conceded. “But if you break your promise, you won’t be well enough to help others.”
Jer nodded as a shaft of light hit them from the far end of the maintenance tunnel. One of the monsters escorting Jer and the others pulled several panels off the wall and set them to the side. Behind the panels, a high-ceiling and wide-open underground space came into view.
The four of them moved forward with trepidation. As they crouched down and slid through the opening, Jer saw that a massive amusement park set of slides had been moved and reassembled down here.
There were six slides in all. Two of them were blue, two were red, one was green, and one was yellow. Moss and grime covered them. At the bottom of the slides was a cauldron of boiling liquid that bubbled and sent steam into the air.
Along the cavernous walls, skeletons dangled from ropes. Ancient symbols were carved into surface of the walls. It was a crypt and catacomb wrapped into one and meant to frighten guests rather than pay tribute to the deceased.
Ambrose emerged with six heavily armed monster-guards on an overlook walkway above the slides. He looked down, his eyes betraying that he was leery of the newcomers.
“Good to see you made it out of Sheol during the chaos,” Jer said.
Ambrose grimaced and tightened up. “No thanks to you, idiots. You brought them into our midst.”
“Not on purpose,” Jer countered. “Totally an accident of sorts.”
“Hence, you’re all idiots,” Ambrose said.
Evangeline stepped forward and nudged Jer back. “Why don’t you let me do the talking,” she said.
“Good idea,” Jer said.
“We’re here to help,” Evangeline offered. “There’s still a chance we can stop further bloodshed.”
Ambrose chortled. “Doubt it. We’ve been on this path of destruction for centuries. Nothing’s going to change without a little chaos and mayhem.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t come out of it better than before,” Evangeline said. “We have a plan.”
“Your last plan ended up in Sheol suffering a great deal,” Ambrose said. “I lost good monsters no thanks to you.”
“Better plan this time.”
“Just so happens, I have one too,” Ambrose said and gestured for the monster-guards down below to grab hold of Jer and the others.
“This isn’t necessary,” Evangeline said, trying to break free. “We just want to offer our help and request yours.”
“Sounds like a negotiation,” Ambrose said. “From where I’m standing, though, you’re in no position of strength.”
The monster-guards tied chains around Jer, Evangeline, Damiana, and Max. They then pushed them onto the slides and let them slip down several feet before pulling the chains taut.
“If it’s a negotiation you want, then it’s a negotiation you’ll get,” Ambrose said with a snicker. “Your lives for what I desire. Let the dealings begin.”
The monster-guards loosened their grips on the chains a bit, causing Jer and the others to slip down a few feet, closer to the deathly cauldron.
“It would appear you have some major anger management issues that need to be worked through,” Jer said. “I can help with that. You don’t have to be controlled by the anger. You can be the boss of it.”
“If that’s all you have to offer, the negotiation is over,” Ambrose replied.
“Just hear us out,” Damiana said. “You might like what we have to say.”
“Doubt it,” Ambrose snapped and gestured for the monster-guards to let the chains loose again.
Jer and the others slipped farther down this time, only ten feet from the burning liquid below.
“I need to make new friends,” Max said as he attempted to scramble back up the slide to no avail.
“You don’t have any friends,” Evangeline said.
“Exactly,” Max replied.
“We do have something you want,” Jer said.
“I’m listening,” Ambrose said.
“I’m in possession of half of Jasper’s formula,” Jer said. “We need your help to acquire the other half.”
“Where is the other half?” Ambrose asked.
“Inside Matthias’s head,” Damiana answered.
“GenAdvance has him. What good does that do me?” Ambrose asked.
“Combine the two halves of the formula together, and monsters can be on par with GenAdvance,” Jer answered.
“And you want me to do what exactly?” Ambrose asked.
“To help us steal Matthias back,” Evangeline said.
“I’d just like to point out that I’m not really part of this group of misfits,” Max said. “I don’t really want to be part of this negotiation.”
“Shut up!” Jer snapped at Max.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ambrose said. “Killing you is an added bonus, alderman.”
“Fucking hell,” Max said. “Can’t catch a break.”
“Maybe because you can’t seem to stay loyal for more than ten seconds,” Damiana said.
Jer tried to climb back up the slide, but the moss was too slippery to make any headway. “We are so fucked,” he said.
“How do I know I can even trust you?” Ambrose asked. “How do I know you can even pull it off?”
Ambrose was considering the proposal and temporary alliance, which gave Jer hope. “First off,” Jer began, “I can give you my half of the formula now, as soon as you pull us back up and don’t kill us. Second, You get to do what you want with the formula once you have both halves. We won’t try to stop you.”
“As if you even could,” Ambrose sniffed.
“Not the point,” Jer said. “We don’t have the genetic research knowledge you do. Only you can do anything with the formula anyway. We don’t just need your monsters to heist Matthias. We need you to devise a way to deconstruct the formula once combined and put it to good use, in a way that benefits monsters but doesn’t lead to more war as Matthias intended.”
Ambrose rubbed his oversized chin. He was thinking. “A heist, you say,” Ambrose replied. “Interesting. Could work.”
“And it would be hella fun,” Damiana added.
Amb
rose chuckled. “True. Would probably get to take out a few humans in the process.”
“Not necessary, I hope,” Jer said, noting internally that Ambrose was leaning toward embracing his monster-half.
Ambrose gestured for the monster-guards to loosen the chains a bit.
Jer and the others slipped down closer to the cauldron. They were mere inches away now. The heat rose up, and Jer could feel it on his face. “Kill away,” Jer said, changing track. “Do what you must.”
A long, agonizing, and tense moment filled the crypt. Finally, Ambrose relented. “Pull them up,” he ordered.
Ambrose leaped over the walkway railing and planted his clawed feet hard into the ground, stirring up plumes of dust. He then marched over to Jer and pulled him up by the chain. “Despite you helping me with some…personal issues earlier, I will end you if you fuck with me, human,” Ambrose warned.
“G-got it,” Jer choked out.
“Good. Very good. Now let’s get your half of the formula out of your disgusting and hornless head and into the lab.”
“There’s a lab down here?” Jer asked. “Aren’t these kind of unsanitary conditions?”
“What would you prefer,” Ambrose began, “a secret lab deep in Antarctica with the latest hi-tech gear that GenAdvance can buy?”
“Not a bad idea,” Jer quipped with a smirk.
Ambrose laughed. “Come on,” he ordered. “Time to take apart that big brain of yours to get what we need.”
“Considering how large you’ve let your claws and horns grow,” Jer said, “you mind using different phrasing? Thanks.”
Ambrose waved his hands and led the four of them out of the crypt and into his makeshift lab.
22
Planning the Heist
Inside the makeshift underground lab, Jer looked around and took note of various vials, crushed up pill dust, and vials containing neglected samples of ooze-like substances.
Ambrose marched around, shoulders arched and head high, proud to be showing off his underground makeshift lab. “I can offer twenty monsters to help with the attack, but we’ll need to keep the rest back here,” Ambrose offered.
“I disagree,” Jer said. “We need everyone on this. It’s all or nothing.”
“This isn’t a negotiation,” Ambrose replied.
Evangeline nudged Jer. “Take what he’s offering,” she whispered. “It’s better than him changing his mind.”
Jer frowned and stepped over to a metal lab table that was not at all sterile or ideal for running scenarios or experiments. He wiped the surface, then blew dust off his hand. “Nice setup you’ve got here,” he scoffed.
“You’re welcome to find help elsewhere,” Ambrose said.
“We’re grateful,” Evangeline offered, trying to keep the peace. “Let’s get started.”
Damiana and Max shuffled in close to the table alongside Jer, Evangeline, and Ambrose.
Ambrose cleared loose papers off and knocked some empty petri dishes to the floor. They clattered, but he didn’t bother with them.
“I am sorry about the dust,” he said. “Not for you, but because it’s a nuisance to my work. I really thought I could figure out Jasper’s formula on my own, but that was foolish.”
“It’s not your fault you have to work underground,” Jer said, trying to bridge the gap in their personalities and differences.
“If the lab were hermetically sealed, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Ambrose said. “But no way a monster can afford that. Not exactly like monsters can afford to pay for what I do with its real value.”
Jer shot a confused look to Damiana.
“Drugs,” she clarified. “He manufactures off brand drugs for monsters who can’t afford what GenAdvance sells. Mostly medicinal but some recreational to make ends meet.”
Jer looked back to Ambrose with renewed appreciation. He was a kindred spirit after all, trying to help in whatever way he could. He was more than an organized crime monster-boss. He was philanthropic.
“We appreciate the help,” Jer said, “and I hope we’re able to help you too.”
Ambrose nodded and placed a circular and sleek copper device onto the table. “It’s a retrofitted GenAdvance holographic projector. The ones they use for Holo ads. This one was pitching me ads for a closer shave. I got annoyed and trashed it. I like my overgrown facial and body hair. But then, I got the idea that I could reconfigure the device to project physical locations and run scenarios. It turned out to be useless for testing versions of Jasper’s formulas, but it could help with the heist.”
Ambrose flipped a switch on the side, and the device whirred to life. A holographic projection of theoretical formulae, all off by quite a bit from what Jer had seen, appeared in the center. He flipped another switch and swiped at the projection. A second later, the image shifted and morphed into the layout for the GenAdvance Pharma police headquarters where Matthias was being held on South Brother Island.
“All yours,” Ambrose said.
“Full frontal assault,” Damiana suggested first.
“Won’t work,” Max said. “If the automated guns don’t take us out, the Pharma cops will. We won’t even lay eyes on Matthias, let alone rescue him.”
Damiana guffawed. “Worth a shot.”
“No, it isn’t,” Max said. “It’s not a shot. It’s a suicide mission. Won’t work.”
“What if we get as many monsters as possible to storm the front, and we slip in the back?” Damiana asked.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Max on this one,” Jer said. “Also, not willing to risk monster lives to pull this off.”
“They’d be willing to sacrifice themselves,” Damiana said.
“I’m sure that’s true, but my life is about helping monsters, not hurting them,” Jer replied.
“So, you’re saying don’t even run the scenario?” Damiana asked.
“It won’t work,” Evangeline said. “Next plan.”
“We could sneak attack,” Ambrose said. “Go in with night vision, slip in through the roof or the underground or both. And extract him.”
“Let’s run it,” Jer said.
Ambrose punched a few buttons on the side of the Holo device and swiped at the projection. Stick figures with fangs, demonic ears, and tails slipped through the darkness in the projection and managed to get to Matthias’s cell in the back of the building. When they began their extraction and evac, however, the stick figures and the small dot that represented Matthias were gunned down.
“Shit,” Ambrose said. “Thought that might work.”
“I knew it wouldn’t,” Damiana said, not missing the chance to throw in a jab for her plan being shot down so quickly.
“Everybody stay calm,” Jer said. “Let’s keep trying out scenarios.”
“What about a drone attack?” Evangeline asked. “We could combine Damiana’s plan of a diversion frontal assault, and use drones to extract Matthias.”
Jer shrugged. “Worth a shot.”
“Oh, now it’s worth a shot,” Damiana said. “Great. Just great.”
Everybody chuckled.
Ambrose hit the buttons on the device and swiped at the projection.
The frontal assault of stick figure representations of monsters began. They rushed the front of the GenAdvance Pharma police station. At the same time, drones filtered in through the air circulation shafts from the rooftop.
The drones successfully broke Matthias out of his cell, but when they reached the extraction point in the basement, Pike’s failsafe monster kill-squad gunned them down.
“Fuck,” Jer said. “They’ve thought of everything we could use against them.”
“Now you calm down,” Evangeline said.
Jer placed his hands on his hips and looked to Evangeline and Damiana with an idea in his eyes. “I don’t want to mention it unless you two are comfortable with Max and Ambrose knowing, but what’s been happening with you two could be the key.”
Damiana shot a glance at Max, then tu
rned back to Jer. “It’s fine. Not like it’s going to make a difference if we all get wiped out anyway.”
“I hate giving up my secret, but if it can help us now, I’m open minded,” Evangeline said.
Jer turned to Ambrose. “Evangeline and Damiana can transform, and their monster features go away temporarily. Jasper was experimenting with them, and one of the side effects is monster features retracting, essentially making them look human. We could use their disguise to get in through the front door, make false IDs for them, and sneak Matthias out. He is in a human-looking host right now, so it could work.”
“Use all three at once,” Damiana suggested.
“Good idea,” Jer agreed.
Ambrose punched a buttons on the device and swiped at the projection.
Stick figure representations of Evangeline and Damiana entered the front entrance as informants without conflict. Once they were inside, the stick figure representations of monsters launching a frontal assault began.
When Evangeline and Damiana’s stick figures reached Matthias’s cell, they successfully broke him out and got him to drones for extraction while they fought off Pike’s monster kill-squad. The battle quickly turned into a draw, with both sides dying. The drones got Matthias into an underground emergency exit, but when they hit the streets, they were met by droves of Pharma cops surrounding them. It was another failure.
“Fucking martial law,” Evangeline spat.
“The problem,” Jer said, “is Matthias dies in every scenario. We really only need what’s in his head, but he’s not going to give it up unless we break him out too.”
“We just need to think on it,” Max suggested. “We’ll figure it out.”
The others ignored him.
It’s a dead end, and Jer knew it. Where they were now in their plan, there was no chance of them rescuing Matthias and getting the other half of the formula. He wandered off on his own, forlorn and defeated, leaving the others in the lab to keep running scenarios he was certain wouldn’t work anyway. In a tunnel all alone, he kicked a rock and watched it bounce off the cavernous walls.
At the end of a side tunnel, he slinked against the wall and slid to the ground. Hanging his head between his knees, he stared at a set of four pebbles. An unexpected clang drew his attention. He looked around but saw nothing and no one.
Monster M.D.: A Monster Girl Harem Mystery Thriller (Monster M.D. ) Page 19
