Alien Research

CHAPTER 38

MY MIND LIKED TO WORK FAST in situations like these.

First off, it casually pointed out that there was no way Gladys was this convinced that no one she’d known all her life were her family, at least not over a few hour period. Meaning Ronaldo had probably been working on her for a while. Or else she’d been having problems ACE had nicely been covering up or helping her with.

Both options said the same thing—she wasn’t going to stop.

As I put the staff up into a defensive position, my mind then shared that both Option #1 and Option #2 had issues. My mind had a challenge believing that Gladys had turned. No one from White, to Jeff, to Walter, would buy this, long-term mind control or not. And if ACE had been working with her, he’d have told someone, Gower for certain.

Ergo, perhaps, and hopefully, this wasn’t the real Gladys. Tito had an OVS, and it might be a really good time to use it. Because Option #3 said we had a lovely new android in our midst, and, awful as that was, I was kind of praying Option #3 turned out to be the case.

But in order to verify which Option was our Big Winner of the Hour, I had to take her down. But not down permanently, in case Options #1 or #2 were what was going on.

Gladys closed the gap and Thought Time was over. I was really being tested on my long-term muscle and skills memory. Hadn’t fought with a Beta Twelve battle staff since just before my wedding, but thankfully the skills liked to show up when I needed them most.

The Skills would have preferred to have my left hand free and open, but Baseball Mitt said that it was, so far, the only thing really helping me, and the rest of the Peanut Gallery could chill. Had to agree. And I knew how to use a staff one-handed.

As it turned out, Baseball Mitt had called it right. Blocked Gladys with the staff and slapped the hypodermic out of her hand with one awesomely altered Crane move. Crane felt that it deserved second billing in the fight and was hanging about, waiting to offer help as needed.

Crane suggested a front ball kick to whatever part of her body I connected with. Did the move, got her right in the sternum. Go Team Sanity!

As Gladys fell back, I took a moment to listen. Didn’t hear the sounds of fighting any more. Hoped that meant that more than White were still standing up. Of course, if they were, a little help would have been nice.

Then again, I wouldn’t want to get near the active end of a battle staff, so perhaps the others were just showing wisdom.

Or else they were leaving room for Rhee. Who came up behind Gladys and slammed the length of her battle staff against the back of Gladys’ head.

A normal person, human or even A-C, would be down now. Gladys wasn’t down. She shook her head, reached back without looking, grabbed the staff, and wrenched it out of Rhee’s hands.

Baseball Mitt, Crane, The Skills, and I all agreed. “She’s not Gladys, I think she’s an android!” Hoped this would get someone verifying with the OVS.

A blur ran past and around us. “Kitty’s right,” Christopher called. “Per the OVS, whoever Kitty’s fighting is not fully organic.”

“Android, ninety-nine percent confirmation,” Tito said. Heard some worried muttering. “No one ever gets a hundred percent, Kitty, android or organic. Clothing, fillings, and so forth.”

“Awesome.”

Gladys went into a staff-fighting stance then launched herself at me.

I could fight with a staff one-handed, but it wasn’t easy. She used her staff to knock mine out of my hand. It went flying. Decided I’d had enough and I went for my Glock.

Blocked her staff with the mitt. We were very close to each other. I’d been practicing and was able to flip off the safety with one hand. Did so, slammed my Glock into the side of her head, and fired.

She was definitely an android, and I knew this not simply due to the fact that we’d been fighting all this time and she hadn’t tried to get the gun out of my pants, but because she didn’t die or stop trying to kill me.

No worries. Mom had worked with me on rapid-firing techniques and, like Christopher, she didn’t really ever say, “Good enough, we can stop training now.” Shot several more rounds into her head, which staggered her back a bit. Then did a line of fire from her head straight down.

Clip emptied, Android Gladys was still up, but clearly malfunctioning. At least I took her jerking around like she was having a major seizure to be a malfunction, since I doubted anyone had created an android that would try to do the shimmy as either an offensive or defensive technique.

Rahmi and Rhee got back into the act. Rhee grabbed her staff and retrieved it from Android Gladys while Rahmi grabbed Android Gladys’ head. Never let it be said that the Amazons weren’t hella strong. She ripped Android Gladys’ head off her body.

Finally the body dropped. “We need to get that head to a lab for study,” Tito said.

Considered everything that was going on. “Oh, crap. Rhee, take the other end of the body.” I grabbed the feet. “Rahmi, keep the head. Come with me, as fast as possible!”

Adriana had the door open, meaning she’d made the same leap I had. We were closer to the bottom levels than the top. And the top had our people milling about waiting to kill us. But I doubted Algar wanted this in his pipe system.

However, the fifteenth floor also housed major incarceration. And if we lost one cell, it was better than losing people or isolation.

Headed down at the fastest hyperspeed I could manage. Found the first open cell, we tossed the body and head in, and I slammed the door.

We were just in time. Because the android parts exploded as the door closed.

It was a hell of a big explosion, and it blew the door out. Which blew the three of us back.

I wasn’t a fan of slamming into a wall. It hurt like hell. Unlike the guys, it didn’t knock me, or the princesses, out. But the wind was definitely knocked out of me. From what I could tell, it was the same for Rahmi and Rhee. And I’d only heard one explosion and frankly expected two.

On the plus side, my earbuds were still in and my iPod was still playing. So I had that going for me.

Thankfully, someone had followed us. Three someones. Serene picked me up, Claudia took Rahmi, and Lorraine grabbed Rhee.

As they ran us to the stairwell the second explosion went off. Couldn’t be sure but it sounded bigger than the first. It definitely rocked the girls, but all three kept their feet and didn’t drop their cargo. As part of said cargo, I was particularly grateful.

Hoped I hadn’t destroyed this entire level, particularly because the Lair was on this level. But better the level than all of us.

“Go girl power,” I said as Claudia slammed the stairwell door shut and Serene put me down.

“That’s the best android yet,” Lorraine said without preamble. “Because it was around all of us and no one thought that Gladys was acting odd or anything.”

“Until, you know, she went crazy,” Claudia said. “But Al Dejahl was in the building and we just figured she was mind controlled again.”

“It’s nice to know that our luck just stays consistent, isn’t it? I see the League of Evil Geniuses has regrouped and re-formed and is back, bigger and better than ever.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Claudia said. “You up to going back upstairs?”

“Sure. Princesses?”

They confirmed they were back in fighting form, so the six of us zipped up. Perhaps not as quickly as we’d zipped down, but still, we were zippy and not dragging, or blown up, so I felt I could toss another one to the win column.

Arrived to see Tito wanding everyone and having Adriana wand him as well. Gave us the “over here” motion, so we six went and got wanded, too.

“Thankfully, everyone on this floor is who we think they are,” Tito said.

“That’s a lot of people.”

“I started checking as soon as we identified Gladys as an android.”

“Good thinking.” Looked around. One person was conspicuously missing. Looked around again. Make that two. “Where are Jeff and James?”