Chapter 12 #3
I have a theory that I have done advanced damage to my DNA. I suspect that when the next full moon comes, I might be able to shift into my wolf form due to instabilities in my phenotype. When I look at my cells, I see a war going on, one that is being won by my human side by only a thin margin.
Veronica does not know what she has caged, and I have no intention of making that clear to her. The full moon is less than a week away, and when it comes, all hell is going to break loose.
In the meantime, I putter about pretending to give her what she wants so she leaves me alone. Most of her energy is focused on catching Lydia, which is how I know Lydia is fine. The mutterings I hear make it apparent that things are not progressing easily on that front.
“Does she have background we’re not aware of?”
“Hm?” I have a pipette held carefully above a vial, which gives me every reason to respond in a distracted manner to this interrogation.
“Lydia. Does she have some sort of other background besides as a tech writer?”
“I don’t know. She might do Pilates from time to time?”
Veronica scoffs. “She’s evading the men.”
“She has good reason to. Necessity has always been the mother of invention. Did you think she was going to turn herself in? You’re not the police. For all she knows you want to hurt her, and you have no real authority.”
“I thought she’d sacrifice herself for you, the same way she did when she sat in that car for weeks, waiting for you like a lost puppy.”
“That was different. She was doing that of her own free will. What you’re suggesting is her sacrificing herself to be vulnerable to you, and gaining nothing for me. That’s never going to happen.”
Veronica is displeased.
“Hard, isn’t it,” I say.
“What’s hard?”
“Crossing all the lines, pushing all ethical concerns and boundaries out of the way in hopes of getting what you want, only to discover that there’s nothing really to be gained at all, that those boundaries and ethics were there because they’re effective as well as moral.”
“Just do your work,” she says, stalking out of the room. There are two large guards outside the door, I note. I am sure there are more down the hall. I am under heavy guard. But I’m sure it’s worth it for the perceived gain.
* * *
It takes Veronica approximately three days to work out why holding your workers captive is a bad idea.
By this time, I am starting to miss Lydia so much it hurts.
I am also starting to very much feel the pull of the moon.
It feels as though every cell in my body is being spoken to in a language my conscious mind does not understand.
I am part of a conversation I am not allowed to partake in, and soon it will overwhelm me, and then…
“The formula you’ve been producing doesn’t work!” Her eyes flash at me furiously.
“You mean the formula you’ve been producing doesn’t work,” I say. “I’ve not been making anything lately.”
“I want the secret ingredients,” she says.
“This isn’t a recipe for fried chicken,” I reply with disdain.
“There aren’t secret ingredients. You can’t sprinkle a little thyme in and call it a day.
There are processes. Delicate distillations.
There’s art to it. And your robots and your robot-like techs won’t be able to reproduce it. This formulation is mine.”
The word ‘mine’ comes out in a feral kind of growl that sounds far more animal than human. Veronica withdraws a step out of instinctual fear.
“If you ever want anything from me to work again, you will let me go.”
“No,” she says. “If you ever want to see daylight again, you will do as I tell you. And if you want to see your girlfriend again, you’ll give me a formula that works.”
“Lydia remains free,” I say. “If she didn’t, then you would already have told me. You don’t have any leverage. You have me in a box, and I am not going to help you under these circumstances. Stop acting like a little dictator and come to your senses. You were a decent manager, once.”
“I am still an excellent manager!”
“I said decent,” I drawl, enjoying the feeling of being well and truly under her skin. The frustration and anger really couldn’t be happening to a nicer person.
“If you don’t give me the formula, I will have her killed.”
That threat is delivered in such a cold fashion as to make me believe it. This woman has always been ruthless and driven. I liked it about her. She stayed out of my way. She ensured I had what I needed. She was an ally at one point, or at least felt like one.
But with that threat, she just became my enemy.
“If anything happens to her,” I say. “And I do mean even a fucking paper cut, I will burn this place to the goddamn ground. There will be nothing left. No formula, no patents, no prizes, no fucking revenue. If you harm a hair on her head, it is over.”
“You’re so emotional,” Veronica smirks at me, very much enjoying the turned tables, so it seems.
“I am. Emotional, irrational, and over this place. I’m going.”
“You are not going anywhere until I have the fully documented formula.”
“I am, though.”
She sighs. “I have tried so hard to be civilized about this. Remember that. I gave you many days, and an almost endless number of chances to be helpful here. You’ve chosen to do things the hard way. Men!”
At her call, three big guards come into the room. Their hands are empty, as are their holsters. I don’t like that. That means they’ve come in here to hit something. I can guess what that something is.
“When you’re tired of the beatings, let me know and I will ensure morale improves,” Veronica says.
I put down my pipette carefully, turn, and smile.
“Who would like to go first?”
* * *
Lydia
I have a plan.
The first part of the plan, I’ve already executed. I’ve gotten into Simon’s house. They didn’t trash it the way they trashed mine, because they already had him, I guess. I decided to do the same this time as I did last time, sneaking in at the absolute dead of night to be sure I’m not watched.
His place looks clean and tidy. Most of his research stuff is gone, as is to be expected, but much like me, Simon has a habit of hiding things away for safekeeping.
The back of the fridge contains several bottles of what I guess look like takeout sauce.
I know that they are not takeout sauce. They are the most potent samples of his formulas.
One of them is a primer, then you have the activator that has to be mixed with something, and of course the third one is the returner, but that one has a question mark on it.
I don’t really want to drink any of this, but at this point I am one of the last people I know to try. Veronica and Simon were fine, so it stands to reason I will be too.
I need to turn myself into something capable of holding things, something agile and stealthy. That way I can sneak into the facility and free Simon from Veronica’s evil clutches. Or I could turn her into a cat again. That would be incredibly funny.
I am standing in Simon’s kitchen with a grin on my face as I contemplate the options. What I’m holding has to represent the best chance of vengeance for sure.
It’s not as simple as just using this stuff, though. If I go near that building in recognizable form, they’ll just snatch me up. I need to sneak in as an animal. Cats are probably out, though I bet Veronica would hate that so much it is almost worth doing.
I need some kind of animal tissue to use as an activating agent. So it’s a trip to the zoo for me. I’m looking for something that can be stealthy, but also agile, and won’t look out of place in a research context.
“Ma’am, please stop trying to lure the monkeys over,” one of the attendants says as I attempt to get some of the spider monkeys to pay attention to me. They’re apparently full-on nuts, which is annoying. All I need is a little monkey fur and I’ll be swinging from whatever ceilings I like.
I turn to the zookeeper, who is probably very nice when not dealing with members of the public.
“Can we pet any of the animals? Maybe a lion?”
“No, ma’am. We cannot pet the lions. These are wild animals who deserve to be respected.”
“Of course. I respect the animals deeply,” I say. “Sorry. I just thought perhaps there were one or two exhibits.”
“There’s the children’s petting zoo. You can pet the rabbits.”
Rabbits.
Hm. I hadn’t considered a rabbit.
“Are there just rabbits?”
“There’s goats and chickens too.”
Hm. I don’t know that anybody ever broke into a secure facility as a chicken or a goat. I may have to rethink this plan entirely.
* * *
Simon
Three unconscious men are lying on the floor of my lab, a couple of them leaking slowly in unpleasant ways.
“You’re going to have to use more than three,” I tell Veronica when she returns. I give her some credit for bravery for coming in person and not sending another set of guards to do her dirty work for her.
“I have a gun,” she says.
“Good for you.”
“I am prepared to have you chained and then beaten,” she says. “But it would be easier if you just gave me what I wanted.”
“It would be easier if you let me go, and put your money into something else. You could drum up shareholder enthusiasm for so many things. I know you don’t care about this tech in particular.”
“We’re pitching to the military and the government, but I can’t show them something that doesn’t work.”
I knew it. I knew she wasn’t trying to sell gerbils who were also hamsters to children. This has always been about secret government contracts. I thought I might be able to convince her to keep this proprietary, but Veronica is always going to follow the money.
“I’ll torture you if I have to.”
“You can if you like, but there’s no evidence that it works. Then again, there’s no evidence anything you are currently trying to sell works, is there? That’s very embarrassing for you.”
“We could be billionaires, you idiot!”
“I’m already a billionaire, remember? I have money.
A lot of it. And that is why I don’t care about the money, and I do care about the research, and it is also why I have a controlling share on the board, and why I own the fucking building that you’re trying to hold me hostage in, and frankly, I’m probably paying the salaries of the men I just knocked out. ”
It’s Veronica’s turn to smile. “All of that is true,” she says.
“But that changes nothing. You might have money and power, but you don’t have your phone, and you have no idea how anything is run in this company because I have done all of it for as long as you or anyone else can remember, so when I show up to the board meetings as your surrogate, nobody is going to question it. ”
She’s right.
“You can stay down here and sulk,” she says. “But I have all the time in the world to break you, and the only person in the world you have ever let care about you is absolutely powerless to help you now. Unless you count sitting in a car like a puppy to be a power.”
She smirks and nudges the guards awake with the toe of her pink high-heel shoe. They rouse themselves and follow her out groaning and limping, but for the most part unscathed.
As the door closes behind them, and the LED lights flicker in ways LEDs aren’t really supposed to, I feel a hollow sensation opening up inside me.
She’s right. I’ve been focused on my work all my life. I’ve never bothered to take an interest in things that people told me I needed to care about. I’ve been laser focused on this one project. And now there’s nobody to miss me, nobody to save me, nobody to even notice I’m gone.