Chapter 4

[seymoure]

Chapter 4
“Evil Wears Cheap Perfume”

       The five scientists rushed into the lab, in time to see Doc and the lanky Black Man they called M.T.B. working feverishly over some artifacts.
       Matland Terhune Bergoin worked in the lab as well as any of them, but his real bailiwick was History & Anthropology. Mat could also make any object you picked up and tossed to him into a deadly weapon.
       He had once stopped a fleeing robber by slashing his Achilles tendon with a playing card.
       Right now he and Doc were studying the remains of the penthouses’ intruder. It was something like trying to analyze wet tissue that had been covered in glue and then blown up.
       “Mat!” erupted Thursday (the two had been close since they had fought with rebels in the Eurovian civil war. The conflict threatened to tear three continents apart. It was also the first time they had met Doc.)
       “Shhh!” came the response that froze the physician in his tracks. They all saw Bergoin raising a sheet of something at the ends of a pair of forceps. He was moving the matter from the floor to a container. When he finished the move he dropped the tool, slipped on the lid, and then turned to the new comers to the room.
       “You old Quack!” The smiling black man laughed and picked up the rather larger Doctor into the air. He showed a strength that belied his thin frame.
       “Put me down you Excavator you!” came the jubilant rejoinder from the elevated redhead.
       “Here,” came an order that could not be ignored. Doc never had time to argue with those who should know better. The group moved to him, as he stood behind his microscope.
       “There is human tissue, but there is also vegetable, and some mineral.” He said.
       “Can I see?” Mary Jane said. The Doctor moved out of her way and gestured that he would give up his place. In a couple of moments all the group had verified the statement. Not that any expected to do anything else.
       “Dangest thing I’ve ever seen, Doc” said Mr. Mike. The crew nodded in general affirmation.
       What they had seen was something beyond thought. The added tissue content was not an addendum. It hadn’t been surgically added to the creature. This was a thing that was, from its most base source, formed of animal, vegetable and mineral parts.
       “This thing was,” Baxter began.
       “Created.” Doc finished. “And not the only one, if I get my guess.”
       Mary Jane fiddled with the handle of her sword, nervously.
       A red light lit on the wall overhead.
       “Limo is here.” Said Mat.
       “That will get us to the airport. The Zinger is already fueled and ready.” Mr. Mike informed everyone.
       “Where we flying?” Asked J.J. (as almost everyone referred to James Jesse)
       “Maybe,” spoke Doc in low tones, “Into Hell.”
       Doc Faustus and the Secret Science Six rushed to the elevator that would take them to the beginning of a new and terrifying journey.
©2005 C. Wayne Owens