One of the perks of this new Elite Squad unit was that the Police Chief did not have the confidence in it to run it seven days a week, giving us our weekends off. It was a Saturday and I had some paperwork to finish up at the office. I wasn’t surprised to see Janet there as well. “What are you working on today?” I asked her as I sat down at my desk. “Some off the books investigating?”
“What would you know about it?” Janet charged.
“Probably as much as everyone else around here,” I replied. “We all know you have been searching through cold cases about overdoses from the time we all started in this unit.” Janet goes silent returning to her research. “Maybe there is something I can help you with after I finish up my reports.”
“I doubt it,” she replies. I knew she was wrong because of the dream I had the night before, I knew we would be working a case together very soon.
We may have had cutting edge equipment but it still wasn’t fast enough to keep up with me. Somehow, I finished up my reports in record time. “Have you figured out what those overdoses have in common yet?” I asked walking over to take a look at what she was working on.
“I already know that,” Janet told me, almost defensive.
“What is it?” I asked, glancing over her paperwork. “Other than the fact that none of these people had a history of drug use.”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Janet said snarkily.
“Try me, I just fought a guy who could control machinery,” I challenged.
“The thing they all have in common is a parasite that feeds on the chemicals created in the brain by heroin,” was Janet’s big secret.
“A parasite?” I questioned. “What kind of parasite can do that?” She didn’t respond to my question but I had an idea of what her answer might be. “The kind of parasite that isn’t common on Earth, maybe?” Janet looked at me oddly, as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to respond or not to what I had said. The premonition dreams I had been having of late weren’t as clear as the ones I had in the past. It seemed that the dreams were kind of a hit or miss of late. I knew I would be teaming with Janet on a case outside of what this team was working on and she would insist that we keep it between us but I didn’t know what it was about completely.
“What do you know about things not commonly seen on Earth,” Janet asked suspiciously.
“I know that there are a lot of things going on out there that the common man has no idea about, Zeni-humans for instance,” she seemed to like my answer.
“There is much more unseen on Earth than Zeni-humans,” Janet responded at last opening up a little to me. “There are things not born of this Earth walking among humanity without giving the slightest clue that they exist.”
“An alien parasite?” I said, it sounded fantastic even to me. “You are hunting an alien parasite?” Again Janet fell silent turning away from me back to her research. I guess my voice sounded like I was in disbelief of her theory. I tried to sound more compassionate when I spoke again. “How dangerous is it?”
“Why would I discuss this any further with you, it is clear to me that you do not believe me,” Janet complained.
I’m sorry if it sounded that way, I really didn’t mean it to,” I apologized. Looking over her shoulder I did notice a link between the victims that was pretty thin. “Did you notice that they all played a musical instrument?”
“What, how do you know that?” Janet asked, revealing that she hadn’t made the connection.
“Look at the high school yearbook photos,” I said, reaching out to point at the copies of the photos on her desk. “All of them have “band” listed as activities.” As my arm moved my shirt sleeve slid up revealing the golden gauntlet on my wrist. I quickly pulled my arm back to adjust my sleeve. “It only makes sense that they must all cross paths at some kind of a musical venue.” It was so obvious to me I don’t know how she could have missed it, both the clue and my unusual accessory. I was wearing my gauntlets because of a flash I saw in the dream. I knew that Janet carried some kind of unusual weapon and she would use it to kill our target. My unusual weapon seemed like the solution to that problem.
“I hadn’t realized that is what “band” meant,” Janet said to my surprise not paying any attention to what she must have seen on my wrist. “But it makes it clear to me now, the first overdose was a man working in a music store on South Street.” I could tell that Janet didn’t want to share what she told me next but she did anyway. “The parasite can live in a host for months until the host can no longer process the drugs it needs to feed.” “When the host’s body burns out the parasite moves onto the next killing the host in the process.”
“Then why are the victims growing in number exponentially?” I asked, pointing out that the next two cases she had found were only days apart. Followed by four cases after that.
“When it leaves a host it replicates,” she told me somberly.
“Janet, are you telling me that this thing is multiplied with each death?” I exclaimed.
“I am,” she said calmly. “It takes about three months for it to kill the host and split.” “The next migration will be in about a month making twelve of them loose in this city.”
“Don’t you mean sixteen?” I asked correcting her math.
“No, I killed two of them at the last migration,” She answered.
“When you say killed, what does that mean for the host?” I hesitantly asked, not wanting to shut her down again.
“It was too late for the host, the parasite had already left the body and split,” Janet explained.
I knew she wouldn’t answer my question but I had to ask anyway, “How did you learn about these parasites?” I was right.
“I need to go to that Music Store again to interview the family of David Turner with a different line of inquiry,” Janet said packing up her things.
“I’ll come with you as a back up,” I offered expecting her to refuse me but she didn’t as I followed her out of the office.
She drove as we rode most of the way down to South Street in silence. “So did you interview all of the people involved with these deaths?” I asked.
“Yes, but I asked the wrong questions apparently,” Janet replied. “I was looking for the people that would have been near David when the parasite escaped. “It would seem I should have been looking for friends of David and not customers from the store.”
The store was busy with shoppers this time on a Saturday afternoon. Once we found a parking space, we walked to the Turner Music Store. It was heartbreaking to learn that it was a family owned business. It had been almost a year since David’s death and us coming here now was going to dredge up all the old hurt.
I hung back as Janet approached the sales counter, “Detective Redmayne, PPD,” she said showing her badge. I didn’t think that was a good idea because this was not an official case, it could come back to bite us both. She began her questioning of the woman behind the counter that turned out to be David’s mother. I browsed around the store as she did. I found something of interest on the wall as I listened from a distance to Janet’s line of questioning. It seemed to me that she was still missing the mark. I could tell that David’s mother was becoming upset by Janet’s relentlessness.
I approached the counter trying to remain empathetic, “Did David have any other hobbies, besides music?” I asked politely.
“Why yes, he was a rock collector,” Mrs. Turner told us. “He always loved the movie “What’s up Doc?” and the theory about musical rocks,” she smiled at last, “We always joked about it.”
“Did he ever bring these rocks to the store?” I asked.
“Actually we fought one under the counter just the other day,” Mrs. Turner told us. “It was broken in half.” The older woman opened a drawer behind her to retrieve the split rock.
I took the two pieces from her, it was charred on the outside and the center was hollow. I turned to Janet to suggest, “Do you think this is where it came from?”
Janet took the chunk of ore and examined it. “It has definitely been through a lot of heat,” Janet affirmed.
“Do you mind if we take these?” I asked Mrs. Turner.
“How does a rock have anything to do with my son’s death?” Mrs. Turner asked, confused by our conversation. I looked to Janet and I could see in her eyes that neither one of us thought it would be wise to tell her why we were here or the real thing that turned her son to drug use.
“Nothing at all ma’am,” I said. “We are investigating another case that leads us to believe your son might have had a connection to it.” “But now it would seem that he did not.”
“Fine, take the rocks,” she said in an angry tone.
“We are so sorry for taking up your time, Thank You.” It was sad not being able to tell the grieving mother the truth but it was for her protection as much as ours.
“That was a waste of time,” Janet said as we got back into the car. “I already knew the parasite came from a meteorite.”
“But did you know that all of your victims were on the same list?” I asked her pulling a signup sheet I snatched from the store out of my jacket.
“What is that?” she asked, putting the key in the ignition.
“It is a signup sheet for drum lessons taught by David Turner,” I told her. “The first six names match the first six victims.” “I’ll bet the next eight will as well.” “We need to get back to the precinct and find these people before it is too late.”
The first six people on the list were the host that Janet had already discovered so we began working to find the next six. The list had only names and phone numbers that were easily matched to addresses by us.
It was afternoon so we stopped for lunch on the way to the first suspects address. “How much do you know about this parasite?” I asked as we sat at a table in a fast food restaurant to eat.
“Enough,” was her one word answer.
“If we are going to work on this case together, we need to be on the same page,” I told her. “For instance can this hollow rock contain the parasites again?”
“If we can get the parasites back into it and seal it somehow again,” Janet told me.
“Are these things sentient?” I asked wondering about the fact that the victims were still coming from a list.
“More of an instinct than actual thought process,” she explained.
By some strange coincidence I spotted our suspect walking down the street outside the fast food place where we were eating. Janet and I quickly moved to pursue him. His name was Al Murano and he seemed to be in a hurry, even though he had no idea we were following him. Murano headed straight back to the apartment we were going to after our shortened lunch break.
“We can’t give him any warning,” Janet told me as we climbed the stairs to the five story walk up.
“That is not procedure,” I warned her, having been on the bad side of that situation in the past.
“If all goes well, that will not matter,” she told me as she patted her pocket before drawing her gun. I didn’t much like drawing my gun before I knew the situation but I did it anyway to blend in with her actions. I knew there was more to this woman than meets the eye but couldn’t risk showing my own hand. Before I knew what was happening Janet was kicking in the door of Murano’s apartment.
We had hit the jackpot all three of the parasite infested victims were there snorting heroin off the coffee table. It was like some bad drug movie. “Philadelphia PD, don’t move!” I shouted entering the room against Janet’s instruction.
“You idiot!” she scolded. Her momentary distraction by me was all it took for the three drugged music lovers to take action. They moved faster than expected. The one closest to Janet knocked her gun from her hand.
I quickly holstered my gun to go hand to hand, these men were victims not assailants. The one I identified as George Walker came at me. His drug fueled state made him much faster and stronger than he should have been. He swung his fists and I blocked them several times. As we scuffled I realized where we were. I was from my dream, I turned to see that Janet was holding her own against one of the men. Then Janet pulled the strange weapon from her pocket and fired it at the third just as she had in my dream. It fired a bright blue beam, but unlike in my dream I had my gauntlet to block it. I lunged to the side to block the beam with my gauntlet. The action was enough to let Walker escape out of the apartment and down the hall.
“You idiot!” she shouted at me again. “Why did you do that?”
“I won’t let you kill any of these victims,” told her.
“But you will let them get away?” Janet accused. “This gun drives the parasite from the host, it doesn’t hurt anyone!”
Somehow I knew she was telling the truth and I felt like a fool as I ran out of the apartment after Walker. He hadn’t gotten far, only to the fire stairs. I managed to cut him off by jumping over the rail to beat him to the bottom five floors down. I cornered Walker and pushed him back against the wall. He looked to my gauntlet that was now fully exposed after Janet blasted off my sleeve. He was out of breath and near exhaustion, as he reached out to grab the gold band on my wrist. I felt my arm vibrate slightly not realizing he was tapping into the energy from Janet’s weapon. With all the drugs this guy had done and the activity of the chase I wasn’t surprised when he began to gag and choke.
Suddenly everything went black, I staggered back from my suspect to take a deep breath. Then instantly everything was back to normal. It all happened so fast, I had no idea that the creep had just vomited the parasite onto my face and I had inhaled it. When I could see again, Walker was sliding down the wall convulsion.
“Did you get him?” Janet called down the stairwell.
“Yeah,” I replied, “But he is having some kind of attack.” “I think we need to call an ambulance!”
“Already called it in for the other two,” She called down to me. There wasn’t anything I could do for the guy except to carry him out into the lobby. I laid him on the tile floor and tried to keep his airway open until help arrived.
Riding back to the stations Janet commented, “Walker’s reaction is typical of when a parasite leaves a host early, but he and the others should be fine.” Janet had explained to me that the parasites could not survive without a host for long. We had spent the last hour searching around for someone who would have become the next host but found no one.
As we rode in the car I began to feel strange, almost giddy. I reached over and touched Janet’s thigh. “See we do make a good team!” I smiled at her broadly. I left my hand on her leg until she looked over at me coldly. I pulled my hand back almost afraid I was about to lose it.
When we got back to the station we agreed on a cover story to explain what we had done today. Our report would explain how we were having lunch when we spotted the drug deal going down. We followed the buyer back to his home where we discovered the others. This was the best way to explain what had happened and why the men we brought in were full of heroin. Our story agreed on and written up I was still feeling wound up so I hit the gym.
I ran on the treadmill for over an hour until it nearly overheated. Then I worked on the punching bag for another hour. By the end of two and a half hours in the gym I was dripping with sweat, something out of character for me.
I hit the shower feeling rather amorous. Running my soapy hands over my chest I felt a tingle of excitement. I continued to soap my hard muscled flesh. I continued to massage myself doing things I knew would embassies me if anyone had walked in, but I didn’t care. My head was spinning as I squatted down in the shower breathing heavily.
It wasn’t until the shower water turned cold that I woke up on the tile floor. I felt weak and groggy as I pulled myself up along the wall to shut off the water. For some unexplainable reason I didn’t feel at all concerned about what happened in the shower as I dried off and got dressed to go home. By the time I was leaving the locker room my strength had returned and I felt better than ever.
In the squad room I found Janet still there going through files. I walked up behind her taking full notice of her thin tight body. I put my hand on her waist to turn her around. She was shocked when I kissed her on the mouth saying, “See ya Monday,” I really didn’t give her time to react as I gave her a wink and a smile before leaving.
I was feeling giddy again as I started to walk home. I almost wanted to run at top speed down the street, but I restrained myself. It was then that I wondered for a second if there was something wrong with me but I quickly put the thought out of my head. I’ve never been sick a day in my life. My intent was to walk the thirty blocks home, but for some reason I kept going. I had no idea where I was going or why I was going there. After about ten miles I was hot and sweaty, something completely out of the norm for me. But I didn’t seem to care as I continued on my walk that soon became a trek. Once outside the city I did begin to run, not to any excess, just enough to get the endorphins pumping. I had to be fifty miles from the city when I stopped in a Burger King in Quakertown to get some food. Two Whoppers, two fries and an extra large Coke fed my hunger. I must have appeared and smelled like a mess as other customers looked at me in my soaking wet shirt and pants. I can’t imagine that anyone would have guessed it was sweat that saturated me and not a dip in a pool. I finished the food and began my trek back home, actually going there this time.
It was dark by the time I made it back to Fishtown. Paddy sat in his chair watching some TV as I came in. “Where have you been all day?” he asked.
“Helping Janet follow up on some leads,” I replied walking around in front of him.
“Wow, man you are rank!” he exclaimed. “Did you fall in a sewer of something?”
“I was just for a run is all, guess I’ll shower and hit the sack,” I told him.
“Burn those clothes while you are at it too,” Paddy cracked holding his nose. Paddy was right about my clothes. When I took them off I could smell that my sweat had taken on a greater stench than usual, somewhere between shit and rotten fish. I put my clothes in a trash bag and tie it shut. Getting in the shower the warm water awoke something inside me again. Running my hands over my body as I washed got me so turned on again. I didn’t pass out this time but I was completely exhausted, panting trying to catch my breath.
I got out of the shower and dried off as my strength returned quicker this time. I pulled on a pair of running shorts and grabbed my bag of clothes. Paddy was still watching TV when I walked through the living room to take my trash out. Dressed only in the shorts I walked down the hall to the trash shoot. Honestly I had never gone out in public, if you consider the hall of my apartment building public, wearing so little before in my life. My inhibitions were coming down fast. The old guy who lived alone at the other end of the hall came out to look at me. I turned to smile at him.
“Are you some kind of bodybuilder or something?” he asked, leering at me. I laughed as I flexed my bicep at him and he whistled. “You sure are one hunk of a man,” he complimented.
“Thanks,” I said, not at all embarrassed at this old man checking me out. Just then my danger sense started to throb. Throb was the right word, it wasn’t a tinge or tingle like usual but a pain.
I grabbed for the back of my neck as I turned to the window at the end of the hall behind me. I caught sight of a glimmer of light outside the window. I walked down the hall away from my fan. As I got closer I spied something hovering outside the window. Our building was only three floors tall so the windows open. Well should open, the latch was rusty and took some force to open it. Whatever it was outside moved back when I opened the window. A normal person probably wouldn’t have been able to see it. My danger sense made it clear that it was still there. “I can still see you,” I called out feeling silly. When it moved to swoop down under a tree it revealed itself more clearly to me. It was shaped like a small pyramid and completely reflective, the moonlight catching all sides of it.
It must have believed itself out of sight and reach as I climbed up onto the tall window frame. There was no way I was thinking clearly as I leapt from the window at the object. My jump had propelled me right at it as it floated in the branches. “Gotya!” I said as my fingers touched the smooth surface of the device. I fell to the ground onto my bare feet in a mud puddle. Whatever propulsion this little pyramid had was strong. It began to whip and swerve trying to escape my grasp. I held on tight for several jerks until the mud on my feet took its toll causing me to lose my balance. I fell and the slick surfaced thing slipped from my fingers. The small object shot off into the night like some kind of UFO. I didn’t know what to make of any of it but I at least knew I couldn’t chase after it dressed like this.
I headed back up to my apartment through the building, after trying to get all the mud I could off of my feet and calves in the grass. “What the hell is going on with you tonight?” Paddy asked as I came back into the living room.
“It’s just been one of those days,” I responded. “I’m hitting the sack!” I cleaned up my feet and legs in the tub and then turned in for the night. I laid down in my bed letting out a long sigh. I could feel the heat of my body under the blanket, so I threw it off. When I closed my eyes it was like an endless review of every Playboy photo Gary had ever shown me as a kid. What was going on with me today. I hadn’t felt this horney since I was fifteen. I tried to clear my head of the images. My mind was blank. I laid there in the darkness when something else attracted my attention. It was the smell of my own body odor. My senses seemed to be set on high. There was only the light from my alarm clock and a small glimmer outside my closed shade in the room, as my resistance slipped away. In my mind she was there with me a sex brunette. She touched and held me, making me slip off into a fantasy of ecstasy.
I awoke the next day to a surprise. Janet Redmayne sat on the edge of my bed. “Looks like you had a good time last night,” She said coldly looking at the stains on my sheets. The hair on my head and chest hair was a mess from last night’s activities.
“How did you get in here?” I asked in a panic making sure my junk was covered.
“Berger left me in,” She replied. “What are these things?” She at last asked taking my hand to lift my arm. With all that had happened I had forgotten to remove my gauntlets to put them away.
“Just a little something I picked up,” I said, trying to be nondescript.
“You are an intriguing man, Steven Roberts,” she said standing up from my bedside. Janet turned to look at me sprawled on my bed. “You aren’t a normal human are you?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I lied, feeling that strange vigor again.
“I’m not human either, it only makes sense that I would be attracted to you,” Janet said to my surprise and excitement.
“What are you suggesting, Officer Redmayne?” I asked with an eyebrow raised. I couldn’t resist the thoughts running through my mind. Those thoughts were only fueled as Janet began to unbutton her blouse and remove it. I watched it fall to the floor as she stepped back to my bed wearing only the smallest of black bras. I peeled back the sheet revealing my full aroused state, inviting her into my bed. She seemed impressed by me as she climbed into my bed.
She took charge kissing me as she embraced me nude body. Her hands were warm on my chest and then I felt something much different. It was like 220 volts through my body. It was not enough to hurt me and Janet didn’t appear to feel the transfer as she ended the kiss. Climbing out of the bed she stood over me as I lay there in bed, my head spinning.
Then suddenly I felt a churning in my gut. I crawled forward onto all fours, nude on the bed. My body convulsed and I began vomiting. My eyes watered looking down to the sheet where a dark orange puddle of jelly quivered. I felt a hand on my shoulder as Janet pushed me back out of the way. She fired her weapon again. This time at the puddle on my bed. The jelly squirmed and evaporated before my eyes.
Coming to my senses I covered myself with the sheet as Paddy charged into the room, “What the hell is going on here?” He took one look at the scene and his attitude changed. “Sorry, I didn’t realize,” he said, backing out of the room.
“No, it’s not what you think,” I said.
“Not at all,” Janet agreed, picking up her shirt from the floor and slipping it on. Paddy left us alone anyway.
My embarrassment was overwhelming as I looked at the woman standing in my room. I had to ask, “How did you know?” “I didn’t even know!”
“I know what it is like to have secrets,” Janet answered. “You have a big one, don’t you?”
“Perhaps,” I said. “Seems you know everything about me,” I told her as I got up nude from the bed, it wasn’t like she hadn’t already seen me at my full glory. I turned my back to her to pull on sweatpants.
“I was suspicious from the time we left the scene,” she told me. “At first I thought you deflected the beam from my blaster with your bracelet, but the more I thought about it, it was more like absorbed.”
“They are called Gauntlets,” I said, denying the term bracelet. “You are right, I remember now.” Walker grabbed my gauntlet, he somehow released the energy from your blaster.” “That is what must have blocked my vision for an instant.” “That was when the parasite got me.”
“It was when you gave me that kiss that I really began to wonder what was going on.” “That is why I sent a drone after you.”
“A drone?” I queried, pulling on a t-shirt.
“You must have figured out by now that I have access to some special technology,” Janet revealed. “The drone followed you on your fifty mile run last night.” “You are obviously different from the run of the mill human.” “I theorized that the parasite’s usual M.O. wouldn’t work on you.” “It needed to find something else to feed on in your body.” “The hours in the gym and then your run were the first hints that led me to believe adrenaline and endorphins were feeding it.” “From the look of this place it found something else to get the chemicals it needed pumping.”
“I would rather not talk about that,” I said pulling the sheets off my bed. “A drone?” I questioned. “Was that your drone last night?”
“Yes, you nearly destroyed it with that three story leap,” Janet scolded. “I hadn’t been watching the live feed, I only saw what you had been doing when it was returned to me this morning.” “That leap was far beyond human or what the parasite could have made you do!” “That was all you were, wasn’t it?”
I crumpled my sheets up into a stiff ball of fabric. “The parasite was obviously affecting my judgment,” I told her. “I would have never risked exposing myself like that otherwise.” “Oh my GOD!” I exclaimed, sitting down on my striped bed.
“What is it?” Janet asked. “What is wrong?”
Did my embarrassment from the last twenty-four hours have no end? “I flirted with the old gay guy at the end of the hall,” I said my head falling into my hands.
“Sorry to tell you that isn’t your biggest problem, there are still more parasites out there,” she informed me.
“How?” I exclaimed.
“I miscalculated the number of host transfers,” she explained. “When I went back to the music lesson sheet, I found more victims.”
Janet had tracked down the other potential parasite victims, a Helen Baxter. She was a name from the list of students and a nurse. She died on the job at Thomas Jefferson Hospital. The only people present were a Dr. Strobel and a cancer patient. Privacy laws prevented us from learning the patient’s name so we would begin with the doctor. After I had a quick shower we were in her car again. “Those things you said in my room where just to get close enough to use your blaster, right?” I asked curiously.
“Yes, I got the idea that I would have to make full contact with you to make it work,” Janet answered. I wasn’t sure how I felt about her answer. I don’t know if it was the lingering effect of the parasite or my own feelings that were getting in the way.
Apparently the drone that Janet sent after me had gotten some readings off of me that she hadn’t seen before last night. She had hoped that these new readings were something she could use to track the other parasites. She didn’t go into too much explanation, but she had more than just one drone and she sent them to search for a match to those readings.
We arrived at Jefferson Hospital and requested a meeting with Dr. Strobel at the front desk. “I’m sorry but Dr. Strobel is on a limited schedule today, he is making his rounds.” “You will need to phone ahead to get an appointment with him during the week,” the receptionist told us.
Janet did as I expected she would by flashing her badge, “This is police business, he will make time for us!”
“Fifth floor, Kimmel Cancer Center wing, you might be able to catch him there,” the receptionist begrudgingly replied.
After we got into the elevator I asked, “Is it wise to be using your badge so much in this off the books case?” “We still don’t know if our cover from yesterday is going to fly.”
“I have come here to find these parasites, whatever it takes to do so doesn’t matter,” Janet told me firmly. “If you want to leave you are welcome to do so.”
I considered leaving Officer Redmayne to her mission for a minute. Then as I watched the numbers change as we moved up floors I remembered a dream I had last night. I guessed that the presence of the parasite somehow blocked my memory of the dream and it took sometime after its absence to remember it. I was only getting small glimpses of it but I knew I couldn’t leave Janet’s side no matter how unprofessional she acted. I would remain quiet for now, not questioning her actions.
Arriving at the Cancer ward, Dr. Strobel wasn’t too hard to find. He was the only doctor on the floor on a Sunday. The hard part was getting him to answer our questions. “Philly PD,” Janet said, her badge drawn again, making me want to hang back as I did at the Music shop yesterday. “I’m Officer Redmayne and this is Officer Roberts.” Guess I was all in now. “A few weeks back you had a Nurse Baxter die while on rounds?” she asked bluntly.
“Officer, I don’t know what this is about but I can not discuss Nurse Baxter’s death due to insurance reasons,” Dr. Strobel replied to Janet. “You will need to contact the Hospital attorneys.” His demeanor made it clear to us that the Hospital was trying to cover up Nurse Baxter’s likely drug problem.
“We are not here about the drugs,” Janet said bluntly. “We want to know about the events of her death.” “What did you do and who was the patient in the room?”
I don’t know if the look on Dr. Strobel was fear or anger as he repeated himself, “I told you to contact the Hospital attorneys about that!” Then he turned and walked away from us down the corridor. It was then that I learned that Janet Redmayne was not a woman to be denied. She pulled out her blaster from her jacket pocket and pointed it at Strobel’s back.
“What are you doing!” I exclaimed, grabbing her arm to point the weapon to the floor.
“I told you, it won’t hurt him, just release the parasite!” Janet insisted.
“Out in the open like this?” I charged. “And at this distance the parasite could go anywhere before we got to it!” Janet glared at me as she put the weapon back in her jacket pocket. She hated that I was right, she was being careless. “Let me give it a try,” I suggested. We waited outside a patient room for Dr. Strobel to finish his rounds. I watched him closely with his patients, he showed no signs of drug addiction that pledged the other hosts. I had to wonder if maybe he was a Zeni-human like me that had to feed the parasite in another way.
When we were finally able to talk with Dr. Strobel alone in his office, he appeared completely sober and clear headed. “You are wasting your time here Officers,” he told us.
“We just need to know if anything unusual happened when Nurse Baxter collapsed, or after that,” I told him. “We have reason to believe that your health or that of the patient in the room could be at risk.” I could tell that the doctor was conflicted over talking to us, but I also knew there was something he didn’t tell anyone. “Maybe there is something that you thought was strange and were afraid to mention to anyone?” Dr. Strobel’s eyes lit up for a moment as if I hit a nerve. I spotted Janet reaching for her blaster again, causing me to grab her arm.
“I thought she vomited,” the doctor said softly.
“What was that?” Janet asked eagerly.
“Before she collapsed, I thought Helen vomited on the bed,” he repeated. “I immediately turned to help her on the floor, but when I stood back up the bed sheets were clean.”
“Did she vomit on the patient?” I asked remembering how quickly the parasite entered my body, giving me no idea of what was happening to me. He nodded silently. I could tell that he was worried he had said too much. “Who was the patient, was he terminal?” I asked hoping to get an answer before the doctor clammed up completely again.
“Yes he was,” Strobel said.
“So he has died?” Janet interjected.
“Actually, the amazing thing was that he made a full recovery.” “He was on some experimental treatments that appeared to kick in after that.” Strobel revealed forgetting his gag order for a moment. “The patient was only days from death but a week later he walked out of here cancer free.” I looked to Janet and we both knew that the patient was a host much different than any we had found before. “What did you say your name was?” Dr Strobel asked me.
“Officer Roberts,” I told him reluctantly.
“He had the same name as you,” Strobel told us. “Roberts, Jayson Roberts.” That was what we were looking for.
“Thank you, doctor you have been very helpful,” I said getting up from the chair in front of his desk. I felt the tinge seconds too late as Janet fired her blaster at the doctor as I turned my back. “What the hell are you doing?” I shouted.
“Just making sure,” she said as I looked to see the unconscious doctor seated behind his desk. “He’ll be fine, just knocked unconscious.” “No, parasite and he won’t remember the past half an hour.” Janet told me, walking in front of me from the office.
Soon we went back to the car and were on the road, following up our next lead. I was worried that Janet was rubbing off on me. With Dr. Strobel unconscious I managed to find Jayson Roberts home address in the files on his desk. We were headed to Trenton, New Jersey, which I was sure was a mistake. Not only were we leaving our jurisdiction but also our state. We pulled over at a rest stop on the turnpike. “What is this stop for?” I asked.
“I told you I needed to view the information the drones collect,” Janet said getting out of the car. We waited there for a few minutes until I spotted the glimmer in the sunlight. The silent drone approached with no visible sign of propulsion. I watched as it came to Janet like some well trained pet. She manipulated the shiny pyramid changing its shape. It went from a pyramid in shape to a flat rectangle. “Look here,” she said, gesturing to me.
“What did it find?” I asked looking over her shoulder at the drone that had become a flat video screen. In this close proximity I couldn’t help but notice her fragrance. Shaking off this strange desire I was having, still not sure from where it was coming.
The screen played back at an increased rate. I hadn’t been exposed to such a thing before so I couldn’t have known that my brain could have followed such a video. Janet on the other hand had no problem following the events that we viewed. “When you said you weren’t human was that true?” I asked. Again she held back not answering my question.
“We need to get there!” she said assuming I comprehended the video.
“Before we go, that blaster of yours, could you use it to charge my gauntlets?” I suggested rolling up my sleeve so as to not ruin another shirt. “It came in handy last time, well kind of.”
“What do you want me to do, shoot at you?” Janet asked, surprised at me for the first time. She glared at me for a minute before taking out her blaster weapon. She didn’t say another word as she aimed at me and fired. I caught the blast on my right gauntlet with ease.
“Again,” I told her as she fired a second blast I caught with my other gauntlet. “Two more times.” She did as I instructed and I had twice the charge in my gauntlets.
Janet didn’t question me as we got back in the car. Her unwillingness to answer my questions made me begin to know how Paddy felt that first year we were partners. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Janet Redmayne, it was clear to me that she thought I was more than a “normal human” whatever that meant.
As Janet drove to the location identified by the drone, I used our real police equipment to find some more information on our suspects “Jayson Roberts?” “I have to admit I’m a little intrigued by his name,” I said. I didn’t think he was related to me but anything could be possible. I used the clunky laptop to search for any record of the man. Turns out he had both a juvenile and adult record. About six years ago he fell off the grid. Then a year ago he turned up again with the cancer. He had been paying cash for his treatment, not a cheap bill.
As we exited off the Jersey turnpike I began to feel ill. My stomach aches slightly, something I had never felt before in my life. My only guess was that I wasn’t fully recovered from the parasite’s invasion of my body. The feeling was more intriguing than disturbing to me. What it felt was not unlike the sensation of my danger sense.
The trail given to us by the drone ended outside the wall of an abandoned mental facility, Brighton Asylum in Passaic, New Jersey. It had been closed for over thirty years but the gates still stood locked in front of us. We got out of the car to inspect the lock on the chain. It was old and rusted, untouched for probably most of that time.
“If someone is inside, they have used another entrance,” I commented.
“All the more reason we should use this one,” Janet said walking to the back of the car. “I’ve got a bolt cutter here.”
Janet was right going in this way would be our best bet. But using a bolt cutter without “probable cause” could get us in some serious heat. I turned back to the gate and twisted the lock, breaking it easily. “Hey, never mind, the lock is rusted through,” I called to her.
“Good job, Roberts,” Janet said, closing the trunk of the car and returning to the gate. She reached out pulling the gate open, she was eager to get inside as she drew her gun.
“Do you really think you need to have that drawn?” I asked as I followed behind her. She just glared at me again as we continued up the driveway. Beyond the wall was a barbed wire topped fence that we easily breached. As we walked on there was a border of trees. Most of the trees could have easily grown up in the past thirty years that the asylum stood empty.
As we walked my stomach was still doing flip-flops. I wasn’t sure how up I was for this encounter. I would need an edge and a gun was not the answer for me. I rolled up my sleeves knowing that my gauntlets were better than any gun.
As the sun set the property was eerie and overgrown. I couldn’t imagine why our suspect would come here. His past is mostly a mystery to us. We have no idea how he made the money to pay for his cancer treatment. Now with the parasite inside him there was no way of knowing what he was doing to feed it. All seemed quiet as we approached the main building.
Then it happened, my knees buckled and I fell to all fours in the grass. I began to vomit again for the second time in my life. At first it was the half digested McDonald’s food I had eaten, then it was blood, followed by the orange jelly again. My body was instantly covered in sweat. My clothing was soaked, even my balls were stuck to my thighs.
Janet was angered by my illness, even as she kneeled down next to me. I opened my eyes just as we watched the orange jelly take shape and slither off across the grass toward the main building into the darkness. “What the hell was that?” Janet asked.
“I think it was the baby parasite,” I gasped, wiping my mouth on my rolled up sleeves. “He called it to him, I remember that now.” With the parasite now completely gone from my body I remembered my premonition. Most importantly I remembered what we did wrong and what had to be changed. “There are snipers in the trees, we have to bring them down or be captured!” I told Janet, still coughing.
She stood up reacting in a fashion I didn’t expect. The strange devices she had hidden kept coming as she pulled what looked like a grenade from her pocket and threw it into the air over us. It let out a screeching wail as it exploded. The blast shook the leaves from the trees, as well as the snipers. Heavily armed men hit the ground all around us. “Can you run?” Janet said, “We need to run!” She yanked on my arm to pull me up from the grass. At first it was a struggle to run but my strength quickly returned. I wasn’t running at superspeed but I was keeping up with Janet, who was clearly not human to me at this point. As we got closer to the main building, there were fewer men on the ground. Then we reached a point where armed men stood aiming automatic weapons at us.
What was happening was completely outrageous. How could a recent cancer survivor have such an army? As the guns started to fire so did Janet. Instinctively I took a shielding position in front of her. I was back at full strength as I absorbed the momentum of the bullets, sending them to the ground. I am sure the mercenaries thought I was deflecting the bullets like Wonder Woman, but I was only killing the movement and absorbing it. Having two types of power absorbed into the gauntlets was new to me. I had no idea what it would mean to the release.
It was the first time in two days when I felt like Janet and I were partners, a team. I shielded her as she took down the men one by one. I watched closely as she shot the men, there was no blood. “What are you shooting them with?” I asked as the hitmen fell to the ground.
“A little something I whipped to look like real bullets but not as lethal,” Janet replied as she continued to shoot at the small army. “Rubber bullets with a bite.” Our teamwork was great but I couldn’t keep up this human shield thing forever. The weapons they used were totally illegal allowing me to relax, knowing we had a reason to arrest them. I was surprised to think that I must have still been under the weather as I was tired by the bullets and gauntlet routine. These guys needed to go down faster. I sprang forward at the nearest assassin. Slamming his gun aside with my left gauntlet, I landed a right cross to his visor covered face breaking the plexiglass. As he slumped forward I sprang up onto his back using him like a gymnastic horse to launch myself feet first into the next gunman. Landing back on the grass I scooped up his rifle to throw it like a boomerang at a third gunman. These guys were well trained but they weren’t even close to being in my league. I glanced around at Janet and she too had taken to hand to hand combat with the men. My distraction was enough for one of the guys to get me in a nelson hold. If he was looking to tear my shirt he succeeded. Other than that, his effort was pointless because his strength was far from enough to hold me. I easily freed myself, sending him flying over my head into two other guys.
As the guards fell, so did all of the defensives it seemed. We entered the facility with no more resistance. “You good?” I asked Janet as we walked.
“Yeah, you?” she replied.
“Tore up another shirt,” I complained. “I need an expense account to pay for these things.”
Inside the power was on, even after thirty years of being abandoned, that seemed unlikely! One good thing was that my danger sense was back in full force. It was bordering on pain. As we walked into the abandoned building. We passed many darkened rooms. I had a flash from my dream. It was aggravating how this premonition was slowly coming back to me. As we walked into the unknown I viewed the orange jelly snake crawl across the floor toward the bare feet of a man. “Be on guard with that blaster,” I told Janet.
“Why?” she asked.
I had no time to answer as I opened the door to a large room. It was the smell that hit us first. Inside the room were many cots with young girls handcuffed to the bed frames. “What is this?” Janet said as if she had never heard of human trafficking before this moment.
“These girls are being held to be sold,” I told Janet. “We need to free them!” In the past couple of days I had seen Janet Redmayne handle many traumatic situations but this one seemed to paralyze her. Janet’s momentary shock gave me the opportunity to act without caution. I moved to break the chains that bound the girls one after another until they were all freed of their shackles. It was like she was dumbfounded. “We have to get them out of here to safety!” I shouted at her breaking her trance.
“How could anyone treat these girls like that?” Janet asked.
“Not all humans are good humans,” I answered, hoping to get an informative reply. “I just can’t figure out how we managed to get in here without any further resistance.” I was feeling as if we were not alone, being set up. “Why don’t you get these girls out and I’ll keep looking for our host.”
“These parasites are my job to track not yours, that is why I was sent here!” Janet insisted.
“Sent here?” I quizzed. “What do you mean by that?” She got a look on her face realizing her slip up, but didn’t answer me. “I have everything I need right here.” I said holding up my gauntlets.
“I will be back as soon as these girls are outside the gate,” Janet insisted. She was different somehow. It was as if she was seeing a side of humanity that she hadn’t before today. I watched from the door as she walked the ten frightened young girls down the driveway getting the prisoners outside the gate. I looked to the many men still laying on the grounds. Some of them were gone. Must have retreated after waking up. A paid army is never as dependable as a cause driven one.
I knew I wasn’t alone but I never expected who I would find when I turned around. My danger sense warned me he was there. From what I knew of Jayson Roberts he was two weeks out of a cancer ward after a year long fight. The man who was standing behind me did not fit that description at all. He looked completely healthy, not weak or sickly. Even better than he did in the Driver’s license photo we had on file. I was taken back by what good shape he was in, stunned for a minute.
“I know who you are,” he said, raising his hand to me. I had no idea what to expect from this man. He appeared unarmed, wearing only a T-shirt and jeans. From the look of it, the shirt was a couple of sizes too small making me think the clothes weren’t even his.
“Philadelphia PD,” I told him, making sure he knew who I was, giving him no question. “You are a sick man, I only want to help you.”
“Please Steve, let’s not waste time with the past,” Jayson told me.
“How is it you know who I am?” I asked in shock at his calling me by name. I felt he left me little choice but to pull my gun at that point. “Are you running this human trafficking operation?”
“I told you I know who you are,” Jayson said again. Still holding his hand out at me, it began to glow orange. I wanted to fire but I couldn’t due to some reason lost to me. The glow on his hand took solid form and shot at me. I moved to dodge the orange burst but he wasn’t aiming at me. I turned to see that Janet was returning to the building and the orange, whatever it was, sealed the windows and doors.
I spun around firing at him. It was the first time I shot at another living person. It didn’t matter, his hand was already glowing again and another burst fired. This time the burst was meant for me. The bullet from my gun never reached Jayson, it was consumed by the orange material that moved toward me. There was no way I could avoid the mass as it struck me. I instantly found myself wrapped in a sheath of orange that pinned my arms and gun to my chest. Only my head remained untouched by the freakish material. “What the Fuck!” I shouted in shock. I had never seen anything like this in my life. I couldn’t move a muscle, I was completely trapped.
“Now cousin, perhaps we can talk without any more interruptions,” Jayson said to me stepping closer. My face must have betrayed my surprise as he continued. “Yes, our fathers were cousins,” he said looking me in the eyes. “It would seem we both inherited our father’s blue eyes.” He paced around me as if to inspect the rest of me through the hardening clear orange jelly that encased me.
“How would you know such a thing?” I asked.
“Oh Steve, my boy,” he said, stepping around me slapping me across the face. “I know everything about you, all of your secrets,” he said, making quote signs with his fingers. “Thanks to that little parasite you threw up outside.” “Your body nearly killed it.” “If it hadn’t escaped when it did.
“These parasites are deadly,” I told him, almost pleading. “You have to let me help you!”
“Hhhaaaaaa,” he laughed out loud at me for several minutes. He looked over at the door where Janet fought to break through the translucent orange barrier. “Is that what she told you?” “She is a liar like most of her race.” “The Bernrs, yes the Bernrs that is what they are called, were sent to Earth to find the strong, like us.” he said with arrogance. I didn’t know if I should believe him or if he had completely lost his mind. “Yes I know there is life beyond Earth.” “More life than you or I could imagine.” “I don’t know the details but there is a war somewhere out there,” he told me looking up to the ceiling. “The Bernrs were created as slaves to do the bidding of their masters.” “Some managed to escape that slavery.”
As he spoke, telling his story I became confused. My danger sense had vanished even though I was still held prisoner within the orange cocoon. I needed him to tell me more, so I could figure out what was going on or at least know if I was still in danger. It was clear to me that the time that the parasite spent in my body it had learned about me. “What happened to the parasite offspring?” I asked. “How do you know what it learned?”
“Hhhaaaaaa,” he laughed again. “Are you trying to bait me cousin?” I didn’t respond to him, he clearly seemed unstable and I believe he was eager to brag. “Your mother raised you to think you were better than everyone else,” he said, staring me down. Now it was him trying to provoke me. “You may not have known it but your body was always stronger than those around you.” “For me it was my mind.” “To be frank, I had a horrible childhood, but all the while I knew I was smarter than all of them.”
“Them?” I felt compelled to question.
“Hhhaaaaaa,” his continuing laughter was beginning to make it even clearer to me that he was not right in his mind. “Everyone else around me, of course.” “I became rich off of the stupid.” “I tricked them, sold them like cattle.” “But like my father before me my body betrayed me,” He said pausing to pull off his tight T-shirt. He ran his hands over the muscle of his chest and abdomen. “The Bernrs have made my body an equal with my mind at last.” “Look at me!” he shouted, posing for me. “I’m a fitness model!”
As he spoke his monologue something had changed with the shell that encased me. It was getting harder, more brittle. If I kept him talking I would soon be able to break free and Janet would be able to break in. “The parasite is affecting your mind.” “It is forcing you to act out of character, you must let us free you of it,” I urged.
“Hhhaaaaaa,” he laughed yet again, making me want to punch him out. “You really are an idiot!” “I had no idea how I survived from cancer until you showed up here.” “That half developed Bernr you carried with you revealed everything to me.” “That ignorant nurse spewed both of the Bernrs on to me.” “I was on the verge of death from the cancer and the drugs they had given me.” “But I was what you would call an untriggered Zeni-human, something we got from our fathers’ genes.” “Never should two Bernrs enter one body.” “The cancer, the drugs, and the Zeni-gene changed that for me.” “I was reborn!”
I could feel the orange prison around me contracting. I had to keep him talking. “If you were reborn why would you return to your old ways?” I asked.
“My illness burned through my money, Hhhaaaaaa.” “Burned, Bernr?” he giggled. “I thought rebuilding my wealth was all I had.” “But the third Bernr changed that as my new body digested and consumed it.” “Those three Bernr are no more now, there is only me!” “The first ate the cancer, the second ate the drugs and my Zeni-human gene was awaken to eat both of them.” “But the one you brought me completed my evolution.” “Gave me this awakening, this power!”
“You are letting this insanity control you,” I said as my danger sense began to return letting me know I would soon be free and in danger again. I felt like Batman from the sixties TV series, letting a villain monologue so I could plan my escape.
“Is this power I have insanity?” he shouted at me. “Then I would say that you believing you are the son of an amazon is true insanity!” It was then that Janet broke the sheath that sealed the door frame. She carried an ax that I had no idea where she got it from. She mistakenly threw it at Jayson. He reached out his hand, the orange glow dispelled the ax across the room to hit against the wall.
“Hhhaaaaaa,” he laughed thoroughly, convincing me he was insane. Janet quickly pulled her blaster from her jacket pocket. She fired two direct hits into Jayson’s chest. Jayson stumbled back grabbing at his chest. We expected him to go down but he just stood there staring at us holding his chest. Then a sly grin came across his lips. He dropped his hands to reveal his unmarred chest. “Hhhaaaaaa, good shot Alien!” he chuckled at Janet. “Shame you can’t hurt me with your toy.” He raised his glowing hand again, blasting Janet back out the door.
He was distracted as I exhaled completely allowing the cocoon to contract tighter around my body and then I took a deep breath. The brittle orange material shattered as I stretched out my arms. I had no time to waste. I lunged at my long lost cousin. I hit him two fisted in the chest, sending him back into a glass wall. I really didn’t expect him to get up from that but he was stronger than I anticipated. He stepped back over the broken glass ledge in the floor. With a flick of his arm a large orange baseball bat formed in his hand.
“Let’s dance,cos,” he said, coming at me with the bat. I put up my arm to block the bat with my gauntlet. I had hoped that the orange material would have been absorbed but it was not energy as I wished. Jayson swung again as I dodged landing a punch to his gut. I needed a weapon.
I hadn’t realized Janet had returned until she called to me, “Roberts!” she shouted, drawing my attention. She had retrieved the ax, “Here!” she shouted as she tossed me the ax.
I caught the weapon, it was a fire ax, its handle made of aluminum and fiberglass. It would last much longer than Jayson’s bat that became more brittle with every strike. We dueled ax to bat until I split his homemade weapon in half. Jayson was sweating now and more angry than insane. “I’m not done yet!” he said, jerking both arms to create a sharp pike in each hand. Jayson came at me again trying to take off my head or at least the head of the ax. I had more stamina than he did and skill. With only the one ax against two sharp pikes he managed to give me a slice on the arm after several minutes.
I did manage to land a few punches on him several times. I quickly had him on the ropes, by the time his pikes crumbled. I swung the ax a final time breaking both lances and slicing down his chest shallowly. Even as the blood flowed, he still continued trying to fight back but I wouldn’t let him use his hands to conjure up anything else. I dropped the ax to go at him hand to hand. I had never beat a man to this point before, it was both exhilarating and sad. I stood over him, his face and chest bleeding. As I watched his wounds began to heal. I need to do something to delay his recovery.
I clanked my gauntlets together three times releasing all of the energy stored in them down onto Jayson. The blasts from Janet’s gun were forced down into Jayson’s wounds by the momentum of the bullets. The wounds glowed purple and stopped healing.
“What did you do to him?” Janet asked, approaching me as I stood over the man on the floor.
“I think I managed to stop him from using his powers for a while,” I replied. I bent down to touch him to make sure there was no charge being given off. The purple energy that filled the wounds was warm to the touch but gave off no charge. “The way he described his rebirth I had hoped that getting the energy from your weapon under his skin might cause some kind of reaction to him.”
“That same energy at a different level is used to contain the parasites,” Janet explained, finally giving me an answer I could use.
“So what he said about you is true?” I asked her not expecting an answer.
“Some of it,” Janet replied as she bent down to examine our captive. “I’ve never seen it react like this before.” “His human vitals seem fine but whatever was changed in his body is now being held in stasis.” Janet was intent on remaining a mystery to me. I wish I could say the same about myself.
We called the local authorities and gave them a report on what had happened. As they took the girls and Jayson into custody I don’t think they completely believed our story. It was clear to us that these cops were not equipped to handle a Zeni-human case. I convinced Janet that tomorrow morning we could get Commander Olpere to intervene and retrieve Jayson before he could be revived. I realized another thing as the locals took our new foe away. This job was going to make it impossible for me to keep my secret. It was like I couldn’t be Steve Roberts anymore if I wanted not to be connected to my powers to do good. It was becoming clear to me that my powers had to become someone else’s to do the most good without everyone around me knowing about it.
That night when I lay in bed thinking about all that had happened in the past two days the one thing that stood out in my mind was the fantasy of the girl in my bed. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it at the time but it was Diana who was making love to me. I hadn’t thought about her in years. I guess that deep down the parasite found something I had almost forgotten. For the first time I thought, those memories of that summer at camp with Diana were all good ones. Exhausted I drifted off to sleep smiling and wondered if she felt the same.