"Doublers Or Nothing"
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dochermes"Doublers Or Nothing"
8/30/2001
I.
"Do not suspect I am an inhuman monster," said the inhuman monster.
Lt Joseph Montez realized his mouth was hanging open and he closed it with conscious effort. He was standing next to an abandoned car on 126th Street. While the city tow truck was being hooked up to its bumper, the driver had noticed blood stains on the rear seat and Homicide had been called in. Montez had been on duty at the station, filling out final paperwork on an extortion case that had been closed. By now, it was after five-thirty on a warm Spring day and he sadly realized he wouldn't be home until eight at best.
The forensics squad had taken hundreds of photos and samples from inside and outside the 1989 Ford Taurus. Now the much-offended tow truck operators had snubbed out their cigarettes and were ready to pull away. Montez had been standing by the curb, thinking the situation over. A squad car with a uniformed officer at the wheel was parked nearby.
Then this creature had strolled up and announced itself. From a distance, it seemed like a woman with black hair, a few inches over five feet tall, wearing a bright plaid shirt and black shorts. But the skin was a dead lifeless grey with blue lips and fingernails, the hair was stiff and wiry, the dark eyes went in different directions. The voice had been high and as squeaky as if the thing had been inhaling helium.
It was only now that Montez noticed that the creature's shirt had been put on completely wrong so that three buttons were undone and one side of the collar stuck up inches higher than the other. He also saw that this being had its sneakers on the wrong feet.
Yet, even so there was something vaguely familiar about the creature.
"I am a normal Human woman and not at all suspicious," it said. "Do you need assistance, lieutenant?"
"You know me?" Montez demanded. "Who ARE you?"
"Why, I'm Sable. Lauren Sable Reilly. I am not an undead Doubler. You know me well, Montez."
Taking out his cell phone, he gestured at the grey-skinned being and said in a reassuring voice, "Now, you wait just a second." He thumbed in a number he had come to know well and groaned when he got only a request to leave a message.
"That damn Bane. Of course he's not in his office when I need him," Montez said.
"Why would you need that damn Bane?" asked the creature blandly. "There is more than nothing in a hole."
The lieutenant tried another number and sighed with relief as a familiar voice answered. "Megan? Oh I'm glad you're there. Yeah, this is Montez. Listen, I'm at 126th and Eighth Avenue. There is... someone here I think you need to meet immediately. No. I'd rather not say more."
Flipping the phone shut and stowing it in a jacket pocket, he said, "A couple of people will be here in a minute and they will answer all your questions. And hopefully mine as well."
The creature tilted its head thoughtfully. "Where do you go when you're not somewhere else?"
"Aw, give me a break," Montez grumbled. He motioned for the officer assigned as his driver to come over and explained the situation as best he could.
The cop was still under thirty, a gangly freckled kid with big ears and the enthusiasm of youth. He stared at the creature. "Lieutenant, you must have noticed her lips and fingernails. I don't think the color is make-up. Is that cyanosis?"
"Yeah, maybe," Montez said. Peering more closely at the being, he asked, "Are you having trouble breathing? Do you have chest pains?"
"Should blind people listen to audio books when they're driving?" the creature replied blithely.
"Forget I asked."
Across the street, a cherry red Jeep Cherokee pulled up and stopped quite illegally near a FINE FOR PARKING sign. Emerging from behind the wheel hopped a young woman in an all black outfit including boots, snug pants and a waist-length jacket. Pockets and pouches held a dozen gadgets. Circling around from the passenger side was an Asian man in an identical outfit. He was at five feet five only slightly taller than she was but much broader.
"I don't like the looks of her at all," Sheng Mo-Yuan muttered.
"We need information to reach any conclusion," replied Megan. The Trom Girl marched across the street, barely evading the usual reckless rush hour traffic. Several drivers slowed down to try to figure out what was going on with the police car, the strange-looking grey-sknned person and two people in dark commando outfits.
Montez shook their hands. "Megan. Argent. Glad to see you guys."
"Are you done calling us rookies and newbies and little kids?" scoffed Sheng Mo-Yuan. Argent was his Midnight War codename, based on his clan name back in Chujir.
"Cut me some slack," Montez said. "It took a while to get used to you new guys. Look. What do you make of this person?"
The weird creature had been watching them closely. "Stand by for orders, my Tel Shai knights. I prevent disagree for when anyone really been far as suggested once to even want go."
"What the hell was that all about?" said a startled Argent, stepping back a pace.
The Trom Girl had unclipped her Link from its place on her belt and was taking readings. "This is interesting. Tell me, who do you think you are?"
"Well, I am absolutely not an undead Doubler grown to resemble Sable," said the monster. "Can cross-eyed teachers control their pupils? How far can you run into the woods?"
"You seem to mix coherent thoughts with gibberish," Megan said. She glanced over at her teammate. "Sheng, this is not a living creature. I'm analyzing a solid mass of crystalline fiber animated by gralic force. I have never seen anything similar."
"She denied being a 'Doubler' whatever that is. The way she talks, I guess that means she IS a Doubler?" Sheng scratched the back of his short-cropped black hair without realizing it. "If I'm not starting to speak gibberish myself."
Megan took further readings and frowned with frustration. "This is beyond any supportable conjecture. A dissection would help, or at least a battery of behavioral tests." She looked up and addressed the creature, "Are there more of you?"
The Doubler nodded with complete sobriety. "Yes. Naturally. We are the KDF Second Team. Myself, Trom Girl, Unicorn, Argent and Blind Archer. Do not make the mistake of concluding we are Doublers sent to replace previous KDF members. None of us are that damn Bane."
"If you ask me," Argent offered, "I think we should take her to 38th Street. Sable and Josef are expected back in late tonight."
"I would be delighted if you took custody of this Doubler whatever she is," Montez says. "I want to finish my reports and go home sometime soon."
The Trom Girl considered. "I agree. Whatever this construct is, she knows about the KDF and we are not common knowledge." She pointed to her Jeep. "Miss, will you come with us?"
"Of course. Imaginary friends have real friends, you realize." The Doubler tried to make both its eyes point in the same direction but without success. "There is much to do."
Steering the creature across the busy street, Sheng called back to Montez, "Hey, thanks for calling us about this, lieutenant. We haven't solved a single bizarre mystery yet today."
"As long as you get her outta my hair," Montez muttered to himself.
II.
Since there were already two vehicles parked in the small underground garage at the headquarters building, Megan had been leaving her Jeep at the IMPERIAL GARAGE at 40th Street and Third Avenue. She pulled into her permanent slot at the rear and ushered their guest out.
The niche next to her, where Jeremy Bane kept his car, was empty. Montez had told her he had tried to reach Bane without success. Megan locked the Jeep Cherokee and activated the Trom-design alarm systems. On the driver's visor, four tiny green and blue lights winked steadily.
Sheng had been standing beside the Doubler, keeping a wary eye on her. During the drive, the strange creature had continued to speak in odd rhetorical questions mixed with incomprehensible jumbled sentences. Yet he thought there were frequent clues in the nonsense and he was listening carefully.
"It is only two blocks north and three blocks west," the Trom Girl said. "We will walk to our headquarters." She led them past the fascinated stare from the clerk in his booth by the street door, giving the man a friendly wave as they passed.
The three of them moved up Third Avenue, ignored the startled looks from passers-by. Most New Yorkers were jaded by seeing bizarrely dressed or made-up people going by and the Doubler did not drew that much attention.
Megan and the creature were walking side by side, with Sheng following. The young Chujiran asked, "So what do you and your friends have planned?"
"Certainly we are our usual unremarkable selves going about our duties. We never haven't going want to really twice not much, our mission is to investigate unusual phenomena in the Midnight War and not to begin any master plan with sinister undertones."
"If you ask me, she sounds a lot like Unicorn on one of her scattered days," Sheng grumbled.
Staying alert, one hand near the beam projector clipped to her belt, Megan seemed even more thoughtful and introspective than usual. Under her tousled black hair, the inquisitive face with its pointed nose and huge dark eyes was completely serious. After a second, she asked the Doubler, "If you did have a master plan with sinister undertones, what would it entail?"
"For real?" replied the creature. "Are these questions not even being screened? Has there ever done twice yet what decided to not remember?"
The Trom Girl raised an eyebrow at Sheng, who shrugged. "I'm not getting anywhere making sense of these answers, either," he said.
At the corner of 38th Street and Third Avenue, they waited at the curb for the light to change. The cluster of pedestrians shrank away from them, as if afraid of catching something from the unhealthy-looking Doubler. Even the Trom Girl had to smile at that.
One block over, a blue-topped taxi slowed to let a petite blonde hop out. She was dressed all in white, sneakers and jeans and long-sleeved pullover with a nylon windbreaker. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she shifted the huge retail shopping bag to her other hand and waved toward Megan and Sheng. "Hey you guys!" she sang out.
"Talk of the devil," muttered Argent. "Looks like Ashley has been keeping Bloomingdales in the black again."
The platinum blonde stood waiting for her partners. Even though she was the youngest of the new KDF team, Ashley Whitaker had the most experience in the Midnight War. Her mother, the original Unicorn, had raised Ashley from childhood to be an adventuress with a dozen useful skills and very little prudence.
When they got within reach, the Unicorn chirped, "Hey there. I saw you guys coming this way. Who's your friend?"
"Let's talk on the way." Megan said and kept moving. Falling in between the Trom Girl and the Doubler, Ashley offered to let Sheng carry her heavy bag and he grudgingly agreed. Despite his ongoing complaints about working with the little blonde, he always seemed to do what she asked.
As they marched to Lexington Avenue, Megan filled Ashley in on the situation so far. The Unicorn listened and said, "You know, Jeremy and Cindy tangled with Doppelgangers a thousand years ago. Back in 1979, I think. They were sent from Fanedral to cause trouble but as I recall they were living flesh and blood."
"I have been reviewing all the KDF files that I have read," the Trom Girl said. "I can't recall any constructs similar this one."
Craning her neck forward to get a better look at the Doubler, Ashley asked, "Say, do you mind being called a 'construct?'"
"This kind of how selfish everybody in the store, they see and accept that and her neck, it kind of seems like everyone would be able to grab it?" replied the Doubler. "Sorry, I used to not have to. I'm starting to turn up after simple fair shoulder."
"Okay, I'm going to have to parse that sentence," Unicorn cheerfully responded. "Whose neck was everyone going to grab? Some woman in a store?"
"Oh my God," Sheng moaned. "Don't encourage that stuff, Ashley. Look, there's our headquarters."
At the corner of 38th Street and Lexington stood a ten story stone building. On the massive oak door were simple bronze letters 'KDF' and the number 28. This building had been purchased by Kenneth Dred back in 1937 and had served for the gathering of generations of Tel Shai knights.
When the building came into sight, the Doubler announced, "I am of course a normal Human female and not about to inflict grievous bodily harm on anyone." As the last word left her lips, the grey-skinned creature spun around and struck both Ashley and Sheng with her rock-hard fists. The impacts sounded like gunshots. Even as her two teammates were sent stumbling backward, Megan Salenger was whipping up the beam projector to defend herself.
She was a split-second too late. The Doubler cracked a backfist that caught the Trom Girl on the side of the head and dropped her to her knees. None of the KDF members were knocked out or even seriously hurt, but it took a moment for them to jump back to their feet. In that time, the Doubler leaped up to the front door which swung open from inside to admit her.
Standing inside that doorway, another weird creature was briefly revealed. Also grey-skinned and bizarre-looking, this one was smaller and had long white hair that bristled stiffly. It was wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of a Pegasus on it and shorts that were almost as brief as bikini panties. Then the door slammed shut.
The three KDF members had recovered quickly and raced up to the front of the building. Some passers-by had paused at the unexpected violence but moved on after seeing that no one had been hurt.
"She is stronger than a baseline Human," Megan told her friends. "Her body is roughly as dense as quartz, so her punches are formidable."
"Never mind that right now," Sheng blurted. "Did you see who opened the door for her? A Doubler of Ashley. As if the world needs another Unicorn."
With a scoffing sound, Ashley snatched her Bloomingdale bag back. "I will sue her for copyright infringement."
"Don't you two realize that Doublers are inside our headquarters? How did they gain entrance?" Megan stepped up to find the front door was locked again. She flipped open a wooden panel and tapped in her code numbers and pressed her thumb to a glass panel. Nothing happened.
"I am at a loss," the Trom Girl admitted in dismay. "They have locked us out."
III.
Unicorn gazed up at all the curtained windows but saw no one peeking out. "Whatever these freakoids are, maybe they have some of our memories? We don't know what they're capable of."
"There is another way into the building," Sheng offered.
"Yes. We seldom use it but it is worth a try," Megan said. She changed the cartridge in her beam projector. "The usual neural shock would be ineffective. I am turning the photon ram up high."
"I have an anesthetic dart gun under my windbreaker," said Ashley. "But honestly, what use is that gonna be? And my Horn is locked up in my room."
The Trom Girl headed to the next building over. Next door to the KDF headquarters was a brownstone that had a brass plate listing for three doctors' offices, as well as a chiropractor. One name plate said simply THADDEUS JAMES WRIGHT, MD. It was almost five-thirty, so they knew Wright would be on night duty in the emergency room at Metropolitan General.
The three teammates entered the hallway and saw that the glass panel of Wright's door was dark, but Megan had a key. They entered, locking the door behind them, and went past the receptionist desk to an unmarked side door. This led them down a short passage barely wide enough to navigate. Here was a one-way piece of glass that the Trom Girl peered through before undoing concealed latches. These should have opened a panel into the recreation room of the KDF building next door. But this door was secured as well.
"Boy, Jeremy sure put a lot of thought into this game," Ashley whispered. "All these tricks and gimmicks for emergencies."
"Shhhh," Sheng told her with a finger to his lips.
The Trom Girl let out an exasperated breath. Despite the best efforts of the Trom scientists who had raised her from infancy, she still had normal Human emotions and her repression of them often slipped. She drew back from the panel and said in a low voice, "Sheng, I want you to use enhanced strength to break open this panel. You and I will enter and confront any of these Doublers in sight. Ashley, you run to the controls by the front door and turn off the alarms. We'll react to the situation from there."
"Got it," the little blonde said.
"But leave the shopping bag here!"
"Oh, drat."
Sheng Mo-Yuan moved up to the panel and regarded it for a second. It was steel with a wood veneer, he knew. The Chujiran drew his knee up to his chest and smashed out a side kick that had superhuman strength behind it from channeled gralic force. The locks snapped and the panel crashed inward. Argent dove through in a crouch, fists clenched, ready to fight against an attack from any direction.
Overhead, red lights flashed and a shrill klaxon sounded. Ashley ran across the front hall and opened a sliding panel by the door to reveal a monitor screen and a bank of controls. She punched in the disarm code and the alarms shut down. Ashley shook her head as if to dislodge water from her ear. "We need to turn that thing down."
Seeing no one in the front hall, Megan checked the office and then the medical room but still found no one. Going over to a cylindrical holder on the floor next to the door, Sheng pulled out a cane that looked normal but which actually was wood over steel and had a weighted cap. He tossed a similar weapon to Ashley, who caught it and twirled it like a baton before tucking it under one arm. "Thanks," she said.
By now, the Trom Girl had checked the kitchen and dining room at the rear of the hall, as well as both bathrooms. She rejoined them, still holding up her beam projector for instant use. "The vault," she told her partners before hurrying into the walk-in closet by the front door. A sliding panel led down steep concrete steps past the Trom electrical generator and the water heater. On one side of the walkways was the arsenal, on the other the Vault.
Ashley bent over to examine a readout screen on the arsenal door. "This says it hasn't been opened since inventory on July 6th," she announced.
"Neither has the Vault," Megan said with relief. "If these creatures got possession of some of the weapons and artifacts in there...!"
"I wonder why they didn't loot either room," Sheng said. "The Vault has very dangerous talismans stored away."
Megan abruptly whirled on her heel and sprinted back down the walkway. A second later, both Ashley and Sheng reached the same conclusion she had and they raced after her without asking questions. Back up in the front hall, Sheng shifted his Argent ability to speed. He accelerated up the staircase so rapidly that it seemed as his teammates were standing still.
They took the elevator. Both were capable of running up ten floors and still being able to fight, but the elevator was quicker. They couldn't hope to keep up with Sheng in his speed mode. The elevator had a red button under a plastic shield which Megan punched. The car shot upward faster than official safety regulations would have allowed. When it stopped on the tenth floor, both women felt the door drop away from under them slightly.
They rushed into the hangar which took up that entire floor. Argent was already there. The sectioned steel exit panel in the roof was wide open, letting yellow April sunlight slant in. Where their advanced stealth jetcopter should have been moored was only empty space. The Doublers had stolen their CORBY.
IV.
Again, Megan grasped the situation and reacted faster than her friends. She ran over to one of the workbenches and slid out a drawer. From within, a monitor sprang up which displayed a schematic of the CORBY with rows of letters and figures running up one side of the screen. At the bottom of the monitor was a keyboard into which she logged in.
Coming over to watch her, Ashley said with a touch of pique, "I didn't know you could monitor the CORBYs like that."
"This system has not been used often," the Trom Girl said. "I intended it for situations where the craft were damaged or lost. There. I have a fix on its signal."
"She's heading west," Sheng Mo-Yuan observed. "Staying on a straight course."
"Give me a second. Okay, I have disabled the weapons systems. Now I have turned off the Trom impulse engines that power Mach-plus flight. The CORBY is limited to four hundred miles per hour at crusing height."
Bending closer to the screen, Unicorn pouted. "Sometimes I don't appreciate the way you keep things from us! Can you override the CORBY and bring it back here?"
"Not with these controls," Megan said, still taking readings. "I find three active forms on board, but the cabin sensors report no body heat and no carbon dioxide from exhaled breath."
"These Doublers are not really alive, then," Sheng said. "Not in the usual sense."
"No. I have no definition for them other than constructs of crystalline matter that mimic some of the processess of life. They seem to be self-aware, though."
"I'm not even sure of that," the Chujiran mused. "The way that the Sable-Doubler talked, I couldn't tell whether she was just repeating phrases without understanding them."
"Hey!" Ashley suddenly yelled, making the others jump. "Look. The distance from here has stayed the same. It says the engines are powering down! Look!"
"We can hear you, dear. We're right next to you," Sheng muttered.
"Altitude zero. Cabin air pressure released," the Trom Girl said. "They've landed. From the co-ordinates, I'd place their location outside of Marathon, Pennsylvania."
"Too bad we don't have a spare CORBY to use. But then there's barely room for one here anyway. The other CORBYs are at the New Mexico project and at Hawk Island." Unicorn sighed. "Too far away to be any help."
"We will have to drive to retrieve our craft," Megan said. She closed the monitor and began unplugging it. "I will be watching for any activity as we go."
"I guess it's time to get into our field suits," Ashley said. "Sheng, you coming?"
"Yes," the Chujiran replied. "You know, I keep remembering how the Sable-Doubler seemed to think she WAS Sable. I wonder how delusional they might be."
Heading for the elevator, Unicorn called back over one shoulder, "Who do you know who isn't a little delusional, hah hah!"
V.
They took the New Jersey Turnpike and passed Philadelphia under two hours later. Ashley had insisted on driving the Jeep Cherokee so that Megan could sit in the back seat and watch the monitor screen. Although she didn't say anything, the Trom Girl was as worried about having Unicorn drive her beloved Jeep as she was about the stolen CORBY.
In the front passenger seat, Sheng said, "You know, Ash, speed limits are not friendly suggestions for you to consider."
"I'm making the road ahead of us the road behind us," she answered.
"You sound an awful lot like the Doublers," he mumbled to himself.
Half an hour later, Ashley pulled into a convenient mart. While she took a quick bathroom break, Megan and Sheng filled the tank, checked the oil and tire pressure and wiped all the windows with paper towels. They had picked up this practice from Jeremy Bane when he had been training them and by now it was habit. In case of a chase or being situation, sometimes having the vehicle ready meant life or death.
When Unicorn emerged with a bottle of Club Soda and a bag of peanut butter M&Ms, Megan took her turn in the bathroom. Sheng also decided to get it out of the way while he could. That their black field suits all looked alike might have drawn some attention but the clerk was mesmerized by a baseball game on his phone and hardly noticed. They were back on the road, with the Trom Girl announcing that the CORBY was six miles away.
By now, open fields had begun spacing towns apart. As they neared the signal, Megan told Ashley to slow down and turn at the next right. This was a paved side road with a posted PRIVATE PROPERTY- NO TRESPASSING SIGN nailed to a tree.
"Pull over where you see an appropriate spot," Megan said. "Still no activity from the CORBY."
"Maybe they're going to use it for robbery or a terrorist attack tonight," Ashley said. "With its stealth capabilities and advanced sensors, cops could never catch it at night."
"Perhaps." The Trom Girl turned off the monitor screen and stowed it behind the seat. "Sheng, here is your mace. Ashley, your horn."
As he jumped out of the passenger seat, Argent swung the short-handled weapon experimentally. The mace was an antique he had chosen from the arsenal. It was heavy enough to damage plate armor and he felt its diamond-shaped head would be effective against the unliving Doublers.
Ashley slung the three-foot-long white leather cylinder across her back. It held the priceless Unicorn horn that she had been given by her mother. The horn was ensorcelled to dampen gralic force in enemies. It had proven itself against everything from Human sorcerers to demons from Fanedral.
Getting out of the back, Megan lowered her helmet on but left the visor raised. Her partners did the same. Sheng seldom wore the field suits because he relied on his innate powers but he deferred to Megan's urging.
By now it was almost nine o'clock and the dim summer half-light of a crescent moon was settling in as they started marching through the woods alongside the driveway. When a white brick building came into view, the Trom Girl drew her teammates closer and said, "Sheng, I think you should go ahead and circle around behind the building while Ashley and I approach the front. If you see the CORBY, check its condition."
"Sure thing." The Chujiran drew gralic force into his body to enhance its speed. Quicker than any Olympic athlete, he raced off through the trees toward the building and was gone from sight within minutes.
Megan Salenger had taken out her Link and quite illegally tapped into property tax records. "Interesting. This building was owned by a research branch of John Grim Enterprises until six months ago. A biologist named Park Hyu-Shin purchased it for his own use."
"I love your understatement," Ashley laughed. "This mess is tied up with one of the most dangerous masterminds in the Midnight War and you say it's 'interesting.' I bet you'd say surviving a plane crash was 'unexpected."
Megan shrugged and started walking again. "I was raised by the Trom, Unicorn. That explains the way I am."
The little blonde punched her lightly on the bicep. "Ah, I'm teasing you, hon. I wouldn't change you for the world."
As they neared the house, both began taking advantage of the birch trees and heavy bushes for cover. Voices could be heard. Megan and Ashley slowed even more, dropping to the ground and crawled closer.
The sleek black shape of the CORBY stood on the trimmed lawn near the research building. Next to it were three of the Doublers. In addition to the ones who imitated Sable and Ashley, a Doubler for Josef Jubilec had joined the group. He was wearing green and black camoflauge pants with a white T-shirt. A Y-shaped quiver was on his back and he held a classic longbow that was strung and ready for use. He had the same unhealthy grey skin, stiff hair and distorted facial features as the others.
Arguing with the three Doublers were two men wearing white lab coats over dark business suits. Both were middle-aged and the same general height and build. At a distance, they could best be told apart by the fact that one had longish brick-red hair which reached past his collar. The older man was Asian, slouching as if exhausted.
Too far away to hear the conversation, Megan depressed the right ear pod on her helmet and turned it clockwise. Seeing this, Unicorn did the same and the directional microphone in her helmet sensors amplified noises from where ever she was looking. Suddenly the voices came in clear and sharp.
"Wait, Dr Park," said the Sable-Doubler. "Tomorrow today will be yesterday and yesterday today was tomorrow! Only today is today when it IS today."
"Will you stop with that nonsense!" yelled the older man. "I asked you a simple question. Why didn't you loot the KDF Vault? Everyone knows they have invaluable talismans in there. That was your assigment."
"Naturally we are upstanding heroic Tel Shai knights and not badly flawed monsters who obey you," Sable-Doubler answered. "Having so decided make to use even go need to do look more like."
"Shut up! Just shut up!" yelled the other researcher. "Dr Park, this is intolerable. What went wrong with these specimens? Why are they so deranged?"
"It's the best I can manage so far," Park replied sadly. "Poltronis, I'm good but I am no John Grim. There has been no one anywhere near his class since his death. I managed to procure many notes from Project Regulus but I can't duplicate his results. Without your Alchemical method of growing organic crystal, I would have gotten nowhere."
"It is certainly not my serums which are the problem, doctor. I studied under Melchius for seventy years. Even so, I am just not patient enough to cope with the way these specimens think."
"Say, you realize we are normal Human females and their normal Human male non-sexual friend going about dull mundane tasks," the Unicorn-Doubler chipped in with a squeaky voice that could have belonged to a talking squirrel. "Naturally we are not unnatural monsters existing in the twilight zone between life and death, that would be silly."
Dr Park shook his head. "They almost make sense. But their bizarre appearance and their irrational thought processes make them useless. How can they operate inconspicuously? This is hopeless."
The younger man Poltronis pointed at the CORBY. "We do have that. We haven't even dealt with the fact they did bring us a stealth helicopter that seems highly advanced."
"Yesss... That is true. From what I have heard, the KDF uses Trom technology in their equipment. If we can retro-engineer that helicopter, we would find developments far ahead of what human scientists know."
Ashley started to crawl closer but Megan placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. The Trom Girl raised an index finger to her lips in a shushing gesture to indicate staying still.
"Unfortunately, neither of us are physicists or engineers, Dr Park," said the redhaired man. "My Alchemy and your biochemistry have produced these Doublers, as they call themselves. But we would have to bring in a third party with electronic skills to even take that helicopter apart."
Park folded his arms across his chest and let his head sag. "I am too tired to deal with this anymore tonight, Poltronis. Things will seem clearer in the morning."
"You have a point, doctor." The Alchemist waved both hands at the three grotesque figures that had been listening to the conversation patiently. "You, all of you, go inside and rest in the room we have prepared for you. After we get some sleep, I will rejuvenate your bodies with more Velkandu serums. You can't go too long without the potions."
Unfortunately, this was when the Sable-Doubler responded with "They have far been even go to do look more like," and Dr Park blew up. He yelled at the creatures to get inside, pointing at the house and almost jumping up and down in rage.
Placing one hand to the fletching on an arrow in the quiver on his back, the Josef-Doubler spoke for the first time. His voice did not have the comical high-pitch of the others. "We have to protect mankind from monsters. The creatures of the night are out and about. It is for us to stop them."
Both Dr Park and Poltronis stared at the male Doubler. His sentences were clear and coherent, there was no surreal questions or jumbled syntax. But suddenly they both became nervous. The Josef-Doubler still had his bow in one hand and the feathers of a shaft in the other. The Blind Archers were rightly feared throughout the Midnight War.
"Not tonight," Dr Park said in a gentle tone. "Right now you must rest and heal. Your body needs the serums that Poltronis here has brewed."
Instead of replying, the Josef-Doubler moved his hand away from his quiver. He reached to the black silk kerchief that was knotted around his neck and tugged it up to cover his eyes. To anyone who knew about the Blind Archers, this was a terrifying sight. The sect brought out their mystic perception by closing off normal sight and this enabled them to sense lifeforce. Their reputation for never missing was well deserved.
Still concealed by the birch trees and the brush, Megan rose to her feet and Ashley followed her example. The Trom Girl slowly raised the beam projector with her finger on the trigger button.
The Josef-Doubler was facing the pair of biochemist and Alchemist. In a single continous motion, he whipped an arrow from his quiver and notched it to the string, then swung about and loosed it directly at Megan and Ashley fifty yards away. At that range, the arrow traveled fast as a bullet. It struck Unicorn right in the center of her chest and the warhead detonated.
The explosion flared up white in the gloom with a deafening blast. Neither Megan nor Ashley were conscious when a second blast sounded far away.
VI.
They had been on the Tagra tea diet for just under two years. Only available to knights of Tel Shai, Tagra enhanced the body's healing ability far beyond what modern medicine could explain. They had also been wearing the field suits with inner layer of impact-dispersing Trom armor.
So Megan Salenger and Ashley Whitaker had not been blown into scattered fragments by that direct hit from a resonance grenade. As they came back to groggy awareness, they felt throbbing pain with every breath but they realized gratefully that they were alive to suffer.
Their training told them not to groan or open their eyes immediately but to analyze their situation. Megan decided she was lying face up on a bed with a hard mattress. Her wrists were tied behind her back and her ankles were bound together. Next to her, she felt the warmth of Unicorn's body and she heard the blonde girl's breathing deepen slightly.
Ruining their plan to pretend unconscious a while longer to form a plan, a voice rang out, "Dr Park! Their eyelids fluttered. I think they are waking up."
"Really? I'm impressed. When our Archer specimen hit them with that exploding arrow, I thought they would be killed instantly. How is the young man who was with them?"
"The same. Watch them closely." The Alchemist sounded bemused. "We got their helmets and jackets off and those items were barely scuffed by the blasts. I'm starting to think the gear they use can be worth a fortune to us. Gangsters will pay a fortune for these devices."
Park's voice added, "They also have these communication devices. I don't know how to work them but we can find someone who does."
Megan opened her eyes and said, "Our equipment will shut down if anyone tampers with it. It is of no use to you."
They were in a well-furnished room with twin beds, a desk and dresser and several chairs. From the other bed, Argent grumbled, "Everything hurts. I had no idea what it feels like to get hit by our resonance grenades."
"It's amazing you are alive at all," Poltronis said. "Can I assume that you followed some sort of signal from your helicopter here? This is proceeding so well."
"Okay," Unicorn tried to get up into a sitting position on the bed. It wasn't easy using only her stomach muscles but she managed it. "Ow, my poor boobs are going to be black and blue. So these weirdos are only clones of us? Like the ones created by Karl Eldritch at Project Regulus? That was way before my time, you unnerstand."
"Not exactly," Park responded. "I could not recreate the Project Regulus methods. Some of the Zhune artifacts are not available any more. So I became partners with Poltronis here."
"You combined high tech with Alchemy? No fair," Ashley said. "That's cheating."
"More to the point," interposed Sheng, "How could you make clones of us anyway? Don't you need considerable DNA samples?"
"Heh," the Alchemist snorted. "For weeks, our agents have you when you leave your building. Even so, we could only obtain samples from three of your organization. The Unicorn had an appointment at a hair stylist. The Blind Archer left blood on the floor after a fight with the White Web. And your leader, Sable, discarded a half-finished sandwich at a deli while waiting for a meeting with some lawyer."
"You are beyond creepy!" Ashley yelled. "Following us around and picking up any stray specks we leave behind. You're the worst stalkers ever."
"I find you amusing," Poltronis said. "As long as we have you three as prisoners, I think we will take a pint of blood from each of you and try the process again. Maybe the next group of specimens were come out better."
From the doorway behind him, a high-pitched voice sang out, ""No, no, where you far decided even to use go want. He has even as decided to use less go to look more like."
The Alchemist gave a start and swung around. "What are you doing here? You were ordered to go to bed!"
The Ashley-Doubler disregarded that and stepped into the room. Her blue eyes were not pointing in the same direction and one was noticeably larger than the other, not an attractive trait. "Today has been the longest week ever," she squeaked.
"Dear God, I can't stand your babbling any more. Go to the room with the other specimens and sleep. Get out of here."
"No," said the Doubler. "That would be the reaction of a semi-living creature made of crystal fibres and as you can seem, I am a beautiful young Human woman who could be a model if she wished."
"Man, she's just like you, Ashley," said Sheng. "Never listens, conceited as hell."
"Shut up," Unicorn suggested.
The Alchemist rubbed his own face with both hands, trying to get a hold of his anger and failing. "Listen, you inhuman thing! I order you to go join the others. Go now!"
The Doubler placed both fists on its hips in a very characteristic Unicorn gesture and shook its white-haired head. "Why do you say water is ice-cold when that means it would be ice and not water?"
"Be still! As Draldros is my Lord, I will not endure you a moment longer." Poltronis reached out to seize the Ashley-Doubler by the throat and in that moment, he sealed his fate.
The Doubler dropped into a low stance and whipped an open rigid hand to the side of the Alchemist's neck. The hand was hard and dense as stone. There was a snapping noise and Poltronis fell heavily to the floor with a broken neck before he knew he was dying. The creature swung around to face the suddenly terrified Park.
This seemed to Sheng to be the right moment to act. He focussed gralic energy into strength. The clothesline holding his wrists and ankles popped and he jumped off the bed as if he had not been tied at all. Both the Ashley-Doubler and Dr Park were taken by surprise. Evidently his abilities had not been fully known to them.
Before Park could react, Argent lunged closer and smacked a basic right cross to the biochemist's chin that connected perfectly. Park's head swiveled around painfully on his neck and he staggered drunkenly in a circle. When the man came near the Ashley-Doubler, she blasted a front snap kick to the stomach that bent the man into a helpless heap on the floor next to the dead Alchemist. His body heaved as if he was going to vomit but nothing came up.
Moving quickly, Sheng flipped Megan over on her stomach and tugged apart the cords binding her wrists and ankles. He moved over to the other side of the bed to do the same for Unicorn. It was difficult to measure exactly how strong he became because he seemed to draw on as much gralic force as was needed for a specific task.
The Trom Girl had swung her legs over the side of the bed and gone to face the Doubler. "I think we should thank you, err, miss."
The unliving did not respond. Its mismatched eyes were fixed on Ashley Whitaker. As the little blonde crossed over to stand by her teammate, the Doubler squeaked, "You... look like me."
"Well, I like your sass," Unicorn scoffed. "Don't you realize that I'm the original... No. Wait. You don't realize, do you?"
"Let me talk," Sheng said, interposing himself between the creature and his partners. He held up his open hands, palms up. "Will you help us?"
"Of course, I am not a murderous undead thing without blood but a perfectly normal Human female with feelings." She pointed an index finger that was strangely bent at the joints. "There's the door."
Megan whispered, "Sheng, you understand how these... persons think?"
"I guess," he said. "They're working on their own frame of logic. But I'm still very unsure about our safety."
Unicorn had taken the broken pieces of clothesline that had tied them up and bound Park's wrists to his ankles with knots that would require pliers to open. Then she pulled off his loafers and made a gag from his own socks. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am creeped out big time by this whole zombie duplicate business..."
The Ashley-Doubler was obviously fascinated by the young woman who had been her source. The construct had its head cocked to one side like a dog listened for a distant sound. As Unicorn secured Park and determined that Poltronis was quite dead, she wiped her hands off absently on her pants and met the intense stare from her imperfect duplicate.
"Ugh," Ashley said. "It's like walking past those winos in front of Port Authority all over again."
"Sheng, are you still in strength mode?" Megan asked.
"Absolutely."
"Good. Stand by in case we need protection. Let's get out in the hall." She led her friends out into the subdued lighting of a long corridor. On either side were doors frosted glass panels but any identifying nameplates or words on the windows had been removed. With Megan taking one side of the corridor and Ashley the other, they began opening each door and flicking on the lights.
One empty room after another greeted them. Most had bare tables and counters, shelves with nothing on them but dust. "I guess those Mad Scientists weren't using the whole building," Ashley said.
Staying by the Doubler, Sheng cautiously got her attention without being too close. "You know, I'd really like to have my helmet back. It would be appreciated if you show me where it is."
His words had been carefully chosen. The Doubler stopped staring at Unicorn and started shambling down the hall with a curious gait. One leg was shorter than the other, it seemed. The creature navigated its way down a single flight of stairs with only a few close calls of tumbling, leading them to the basement.
Reaching past the Doubler, Megan Salenger flipped up a switch on the wall. Long fluorescent tubes in the ceiling flickered into life to reveal a single open area with ceramic-topped tables and stainless steel sinks. Gallon jugs of variously colored fluids were connected by a complicated maze of rubber tubing. One metal drum was hooked up to a hot plate and bubbling noises came from within.
Alongside one wall was a row of open shelves holding disposable syringes, blood sample kits, dozens of labelled vials. But the KDF members hardly noticed any of this. Laid out neatly on a table under a reading lamp was their gear. The field suit jackets and helmets, the Link comminicators, the beam projector, the white leather sheath that held the Unicorn horn.
Megan hastened to snatch up her beam projector and satisfy herself that it had not been damaged. "This is a relief," she told her roommates with a most un-Tromlike grin. "These are quite expensive and I would be criticized for losing it."
As thry slipped on the jackets and helmets, Ashley hesitated. She strapped the leather sheath across her back and noticed the Doubler drawing closer.
The grey-skinned construct reached out a misshapen hand. "As the Unicorn, naturally I need my Horn to carry out my daredevil career of crimefighting..."
"You have to find out what they did with yours," Ashley said. "This is only my imitation. Inwardly, she congratulated herself on some quick thinking.
"Yes," said the Ashley-Doubler uncertainly. "I will search for my horn. The masters must have hidden it but then... Well, when it at questioned go? What then the plan very does?"
"I can't help but agree," Unicorn said.
Sheng had been glancing over the notebooks and ledgers kept on top of a cabinet. "I can't read any of this. I know a few languages but this looks like someone was making up the letters as he went along."
"Hmmm.. I don't recognize it, either," Ashley said. She gestured to Megan to join. "Hey, super-genius, what do you make of this?"
The Trom Girl skimmed a few pages of each notebook. "It is a code. Given time, I should be able to break it but I suspect it refers to Alchemical abbreviations which I would not be able to understand either. This would be a tedious undertaking."
"Well, now you've got a project for those lazy Sunday afternoons," Unicorn said. "We better find out where the other err you-know-whos are chilling, don't you think?"
Sheng got closer to the Doubler, whose body language seemed to indicate increasing comfort with his presence. It lowered its hands and leaned forward, grinning up at him with a crooked leer.
"Oh, Sheng, I think she liiiiikes someone," Ashley teased.
"Quiet, you." The Chujiran put on his friendliest smile. "You should see if your friends are okay."
The Doubler considered this and turned around to walk to the other side of the open basement. An unmarked wooden door was locked but she simply pulled the knob out and tugged the door open. Inside, under ultra-violet lamps, the other two Doublers were stretched out on cots. They were still fully dressed, lying on their backs with their arms down at their sides.
The constructs did not breathe in any case, but something about their absolute stillness immediely seemed wrong. The Ashley-Doubler walked up to the Sable one and touched its shoulder. Cracks opened across the exposed grey skin and the collapsed into a thin layer of dry dust. The clothes dropped down flat with no body within them.
"Oh!" the Doubler gasped. It swung toward the creature which imitated Josef Jubilec and tentatively touched a single finger to the lifeless chest. The process repeated itself and a second puff of grey dust spread out on the cot where a monster had lain.
The Ashley-Doubler turned back toward the KDF members with its empty hands moving in a pitiful gesture. Even on that grotesque stiff-skinned face, anguish could be clearly seen.
"They're going to be all right," the creature said in its inappropriately comical voice. "They just need some rest."
Megan put aside her trepidation and stepped closer. "This is important. Did Dr Park give you an injection of his serums every night? Did he give you any strange fluids to drink?"
"Since we are all perfectly normal Humans and not unnatural monsters, we live on boring food like pizza and sushi and peanut butter," said the Doubler. The creature swayed and caught itself against the edge of a cot.
Unicorn rushed forward and barely restrained herself from giving the Doubler support. She had seen this being kill a man with a single blow from a hand hard as rock and its temper was dangerously unpredictable. "Are you all right? What do you need?"
"We have no idea which of these potions Poltronis dosed these Doublers with," Sable said. "I don't think there's time to even experiment."
"No. No." The Ashley-Doubler was visibly weakened. It sat down on the empty cot and slowly stretched out. "I wish I were now what I was when I wanted to be what I am now." She put her head down.
"Wait, hang on!" the real Ashley pleaded. "Stay with us, there has to be something we can do."
The Doubler closed its eyes and placed its arms along its sides. "It wasn't much of a life... but still I'm glad I had even that."
A second later, the unliving crystalline body split apart and fell into dust. Ashley reached out a hand but could not bring herself to touch the smear of dry powder. She turned back to her friends and big round drops were gathering at the corners of her eyes.
In a gesture very unusual for him, Sheng put an arm across her shoulder and squeezed to comfort her. "It's okay, Unicorn. What were we going to do with them? Where could they live? It's for the best."
"I know, I know." Ashley patted his hand and sniffled. "It's just... I realized she was trying to do the right thing. She wasn't so bad."
2/7/2018
8/30/2001
I.
"Do not suspect I am an inhuman monster," said the inhuman monster.
Lt Joseph Montez realized his mouth was hanging open and he closed it with conscious effort. He was standing next to an abandoned car on 126th Street. While the city tow truck was being hooked up to its bumper, the driver had noticed blood stains on the rear seat and Homicide had been called in. Montez had been on duty at the station, filling out final paperwork on an extortion case that had been closed. By now, it was after five-thirty on a warm Spring day and he sadly realized he wouldn't be home until eight at best.
The forensics squad had taken hundreds of photos and samples from inside and outside the 1989 Ford Taurus. Now the much-offended tow truck operators had snubbed out their cigarettes and were ready to pull away. Montez had been standing by the curb, thinking the situation over. A squad car with a uniformed officer at the wheel was parked nearby.
Then this creature had strolled up and announced itself. From a distance, it seemed like a woman with black hair, a few inches over five feet tall, wearing a bright plaid shirt and black shorts. But the skin was a dead lifeless grey with blue lips and fingernails, the hair was stiff and wiry, the dark eyes went in different directions. The voice had been high and as squeaky as if the thing had been inhaling helium.
It was only now that Montez noticed that the creature's shirt had been put on completely wrong so that three buttons were undone and one side of the collar stuck up inches higher than the other. He also saw that this being had its sneakers on the wrong feet.
Yet, even so there was something vaguely familiar about the creature.
"I am a normal Human woman and not at all suspicious," it said. "Do you need assistance, lieutenant?"
"You know me?" Montez demanded. "Who ARE you?"
"Why, I'm Sable. Lauren Sable Reilly. I am not an undead Doubler. You know me well, Montez."
Taking out his cell phone, he gestured at the grey-skinned being and said in a reassuring voice, "Now, you wait just a second." He thumbed in a number he had come to know well and groaned when he got only a request to leave a message.
"That damn Bane. Of course he's not in his office when I need him," Montez said.
"Why would you need that damn Bane?" asked the creature blandly. "There is more than nothing in a hole."
The lieutenant tried another number and sighed with relief as a familiar voice answered. "Megan? Oh I'm glad you're there. Yeah, this is Montez. Listen, I'm at 126th and Eighth Avenue. There is... someone here I think you need to meet immediately. No. I'd rather not say more."
Flipping the phone shut and stowing it in a jacket pocket, he said, "A couple of people will be here in a minute and they will answer all your questions. And hopefully mine as well."
The creature tilted its head thoughtfully. "Where do you go when you're not somewhere else?"
"Aw, give me a break," Montez grumbled. He motioned for the officer assigned as his driver to come over and explained the situation as best he could.
The cop was still under thirty, a gangly freckled kid with big ears and the enthusiasm of youth. He stared at the creature. "Lieutenant, you must have noticed her lips and fingernails. I don't think the color is make-up. Is that cyanosis?"
"Yeah, maybe," Montez said. Peering more closely at the being, he asked, "Are you having trouble breathing? Do you have chest pains?"
"Should blind people listen to audio books when they're driving?" the creature replied blithely.
"Forget I asked."
Across the street, a cherry red Jeep Cherokee pulled up and stopped quite illegally near a FINE FOR PARKING sign. Emerging from behind the wheel hopped a young woman in an all black outfit including boots, snug pants and a waist-length jacket. Pockets and pouches held a dozen gadgets. Circling around from the passenger side was an Asian man in an identical outfit. He was at five feet five only slightly taller than she was but much broader.
"I don't like the looks of her at all," Sheng Mo-Yuan muttered.
"We need information to reach any conclusion," replied Megan. The Trom Girl marched across the street, barely evading the usual reckless rush hour traffic. Several drivers slowed down to try to figure out what was going on with the police car, the strange-looking grey-sknned person and two people in dark commando outfits.
Montez shook their hands. "Megan. Argent. Glad to see you guys."
"Are you done calling us rookies and newbies and little kids?" scoffed Sheng Mo-Yuan. Argent was his Midnight War codename, based on his clan name back in Chujir.
"Cut me some slack," Montez said. "It took a while to get used to you new guys. Look. What do you make of this person?"
The weird creature had been watching them closely. "Stand by for orders, my Tel Shai knights. I prevent disagree for when anyone really been far as suggested once to even want go."
"What the hell was that all about?" said a startled Argent, stepping back a pace.
The Trom Girl had unclipped her Link from its place on her belt and was taking readings. "This is interesting. Tell me, who do you think you are?"
"Well, I am absolutely not an undead Doubler grown to resemble Sable," said the monster. "Can cross-eyed teachers control their pupils? How far can you run into the woods?"
"You seem to mix coherent thoughts with gibberish," Megan said. She glanced over at her teammate. "Sheng, this is not a living creature. I'm analyzing a solid mass of crystalline fiber animated by gralic force. I have never seen anything similar."
"She denied being a 'Doubler' whatever that is. The way she talks, I guess that means she IS a Doubler?" Sheng scratched the back of his short-cropped black hair without realizing it. "If I'm not starting to speak gibberish myself."
Megan took further readings and frowned with frustration. "This is beyond any supportable conjecture. A dissection would help, or at least a battery of behavioral tests." She looked up and addressed the creature, "Are there more of you?"
The Doubler nodded with complete sobriety. "Yes. Naturally. We are the KDF Second Team. Myself, Trom Girl, Unicorn, Argent and Blind Archer. Do not make the mistake of concluding we are Doublers sent to replace previous KDF members. None of us are that damn Bane."
"If you ask me," Argent offered, "I think we should take her to 38th Street. Sable and Josef are expected back in late tonight."
"I would be delighted if you took custody of this Doubler whatever she is," Montez says. "I want to finish my reports and go home sometime soon."
The Trom Girl considered. "I agree. Whatever this construct is, she knows about the KDF and we are not common knowledge." She pointed to her Jeep. "Miss, will you come with us?"
"Of course. Imaginary friends have real friends, you realize." The Doubler tried to make both its eyes point in the same direction but without success. "There is much to do."
Steering the creature across the busy street, Sheng called back to Montez, "Hey, thanks for calling us about this, lieutenant. We haven't solved a single bizarre mystery yet today."
"As long as you get her outta my hair," Montez muttered to himself.
II.
Since there were already two vehicles parked in the small underground garage at the headquarters building, Megan had been leaving her Jeep at the IMPERIAL GARAGE at 40th Street and Third Avenue. She pulled into her permanent slot at the rear and ushered their guest out.
The niche next to her, where Jeremy Bane kept his car, was empty. Montez had told her he had tried to reach Bane without success. Megan locked the Jeep Cherokee and activated the Trom-design alarm systems. On the driver's visor, four tiny green and blue lights winked steadily.
Sheng had been standing beside the Doubler, keeping a wary eye on her. During the drive, the strange creature had continued to speak in odd rhetorical questions mixed with incomprehensible jumbled sentences. Yet he thought there were frequent clues in the nonsense and he was listening carefully.
"It is only two blocks north and three blocks west," the Trom Girl said. "We will walk to our headquarters." She led them past the fascinated stare from the clerk in his booth by the street door, giving the man a friendly wave as they passed.
The three of them moved up Third Avenue, ignored the startled looks from passers-by. Most New Yorkers were jaded by seeing bizarrely dressed or made-up people going by and the Doubler did not drew that much attention.
Megan and the creature were walking side by side, with Sheng following. The young Chujiran asked, "So what do you and your friends have planned?"
"Certainly we are our usual unremarkable selves going about our duties. We never haven't going want to really twice not much, our mission is to investigate unusual phenomena in the Midnight War and not to begin any master plan with sinister undertones."
"If you ask me, she sounds a lot like Unicorn on one of her scattered days," Sheng grumbled.
Staying alert, one hand near the beam projector clipped to her belt, Megan seemed even more thoughtful and introspective than usual. Under her tousled black hair, the inquisitive face with its pointed nose and huge dark eyes was completely serious. After a second, she asked the Doubler, "If you did have a master plan with sinister undertones, what would it entail?"
"For real?" replied the creature. "Are these questions not even being screened? Has there ever done twice yet what decided to not remember?"
The Trom Girl raised an eyebrow at Sheng, who shrugged. "I'm not getting anywhere making sense of these answers, either," he said.
At the corner of 38th Street and Third Avenue, they waited at the curb for the light to change. The cluster of pedestrians shrank away from them, as if afraid of catching something from the unhealthy-looking Doubler. Even the Trom Girl had to smile at that.
One block over, a blue-topped taxi slowed to let a petite blonde hop out. She was dressed all in white, sneakers and jeans and long-sleeved pullover with a nylon windbreaker. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she shifted the huge retail shopping bag to her other hand and waved toward Megan and Sheng. "Hey you guys!" she sang out.
"Talk of the devil," muttered Argent. "Looks like Ashley has been keeping Bloomingdales in the black again."
The platinum blonde stood waiting for her partners. Even though she was the youngest of the new KDF team, Ashley Whitaker had the most experience in the Midnight War. Her mother, the original Unicorn, had raised Ashley from childhood to be an adventuress with a dozen useful skills and very little prudence.
When they got within reach, the Unicorn chirped, "Hey there. I saw you guys coming this way. Who's your friend?"
"Let's talk on the way." Megan said and kept moving. Falling in between the Trom Girl and the Doubler, Ashley offered to let Sheng carry her heavy bag and he grudgingly agreed. Despite his ongoing complaints about working with the little blonde, he always seemed to do what she asked.
As they marched to Lexington Avenue, Megan filled Ashley in on the situation so far. The Unicorn listened and said, "You know, Jeremy and Cindy tangled with Doppelgangers a thousand years ago. Back in 1979, I think. They were sent from Fanedral to cause trouble but as I recall they were living flesh and blood."
"I have been reviewing all the KDF files that I have read," the Trom Girl said. "I can't recall any constructs similar this one."
Craning her neck forward to get a better look at the Doubler, Ashley asked, "Say, do you mind being called a 'construct?'"
"This kind of how selfish everybody in the store, they see and accept that and her neck, it kind of seems like everyone would be able to grab it?" replied the Doubler. "Sorry, I used to not have to. I'm starting to turn up after simple fair shoulder."
"Okay, I'm going to have to parse that sentence," Unicorn cheerfully responded. "Whose neck was everyone going to grab? Some woman in a store?"
"Oh my God," Sheng moaned. "Don't encourage that stuff, Ashley. Look, there's our headquarters."
At the corner of 38th Street and Lexington stood a ten story stone building. On the massive oak door were simple bronze letters 'KDF' and the number 28. This building had been purchased by Kenneth Dred back in 1937 and had served for the gathering of generations of Tel Shai knights.
When the building came into sight, the Doubler announced, "I am of course a normal Human female and not about to inflict grievous bodily harm on anyone." As the last word left her lips, the grey-skinned creature spun around and struck both Ashley and Sheng with her rock-hard fists. The impacts sounded like gunshots. Even as her two teammates were sent stumbling backward, Megan Salenger was whipping up the beam projector to defend herself.
She was a split-second too late. The Doubler cracked a backfist that caught the Trom Girl on the side of the head and dropped her to her knees. None of the KDF members were knocked out or even seriously hurt, but it took a moment for them to jump back to their feet. In that time, the Doubler leaped up to the front door which swung open from inside to admit her.
Standing inside that doorway, another weird creature was briefly revealed. Also grey-skinned and bizarre-looking, this one was smaller and had long white hair that bristled stiffly. It was wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of a Pegasus on it and shorts that were almost as brief as bikini panties. Then the door slammed shut.
The three KDF members had recovered quickly and raced up to the front of the building. Some passers-by had paused at the unexpected violence but moved on after seeing that no one had been hurt.
"She is stronger than a baseline Human," Megan told her friends. "Her body is roughly as dense as quartz, so her punches are formidable."
"Never mind that right now," Sheng blurted. "Did you see who opened the door for her? A Doubler of Ashley. As if the world needs another Unicorn."
With a scoffing sound, Ashley snatched her Bloomingdale bag back. "I will sue her for copyright infringement."
"Don't you two realize that Doublers are inside our headquarters? How did they gain entrance?" Megan stepped up to find the front door was locked again. She flipped open a wooden panel and tapped in her code numbers and pressed her thumb to a glass panel. Nothing happened.
"I am at a loss," the Trom Girl admitted in dismay. "They have locked us out."
III.
Unicorn gazed up at all the curtained windows but saw no one peeking out. "Whatever these freakoids are, maybe they have some of our memories? We don't know what they're capable of."
"There is another way into the building," Sheng offered.
"Yes. We seldom use it but it is worth a try," Megan said. She changed the cartridge in her beam projector. "The usual neural shock would be ineffective. I am turning the photon ram up high."
"I have an anesthetic dart gun under my windbreaker," said Ashley. "But honestly, what use is that gonna be? And my Horn is locked up in my room."
The Trom Girl headed to the next building over. Next door to the KDF headquarters was a brownstone that had a brass plate listing for three doctors' offices, as well as a chiropractor. One name plate said simply THADDEUS JAMES WRIGHT, MD. It was almost five-thirty, so they knew Wright would be on night duty in the emergency room at Metropolitan General.
The three teammates entered the hallway and saw that the glass panel of Wright's door was dark, but Megan had a key. They entered, locking the door behind them, and went past the receptionist desk to an unmarked side door. This led them down a short passage barely wide enough to navigate. Here was a one-way piece of glass that the Trom Girl peered through before undoing concealed latches. These should have opened a panel into the recreation room of the KDF building next door. But this door was secured as well.
"Boy, Jeremy sure put a lot of thought into this game," Ashley whispered. "All these tricks and gimmicks for emergencies."
"Shhhh," Sheng told her with a finger to his lips.
The Trom Girl let out an exasperated breath. Despite the best efforts of the Trom scientists who had raised her from infancy, she still had normal Human emotions and her repression of them often slipped. She drew back from the panel and said in a low voice, "Sheng, I want you to use enhanced strength to break open this panel. You and I will enter and confront any of these Doublers in sight. Ashley, you run to the controls by the front door and turn off the alarms. We'll react to the situation from there."
"Got it," the little blonde said.
"But leave the shopping bag here!"
"Oh, drat."
Sheng Mo-Yuan moved up to the panel and regarded it for a second. It was steel with a wood veneer, he knew. The Chujiran drew his knee up to his chest and smashed out a side kick that had superhuman strength behind it from channeled gralic force. The locks snapped and the panel crashed inward. Argent dove through in a crouch, fists clenched, ready to fight against an attack from any direction.
Overhead, red lights flashed and a shrill klaxon sounded. Ashley ran across the front hall and opened a sliding panel by the door to reveal a monitor screen and a bank of controls. She punched in the disarm code and the alarms shut down. Ashley shook her head as if to dislodge water from her ear. "We need to turn that thing down."
Seeing no one in the front hall, Megan checked the office and then the medical room but still found no one. Going over to a cylindrical holder on the floor next to the door, Sheng pulled out a cane that looked normal but which actually was wood over steel and had a weighted cap. He tossed a similar weapon to Ashley, who caught it and twirled it like a baton before tucking it under one arm. "Thanks," she said.
By now, the Trom Girl had checked the kitchen and dining room at the rear of the hall, as well as both bathrooms. She rejoined them, still holding up her beam projector for instant use. "The vault," she told her partners before hurrying into the walk-in closet by the front door. A sliding panel led down steep concrete steps past the Trom electrical generator and the water heater. On one side of the walkways was the arsenal, on the other the Vault.
Ashley bent over to examine a readout screen on the arsenal door. "This says it hasn't been opened since inventory on July 6th," she announced.
"Neither has the Vault," Megan said with relief. "If these creatures got possession of some of the weapons and artifacts in there...!"
"I wonder why they didn't loot either room," Sheng said. "The Vault has very dangerous talismans stored away."
Megan abruptly whirled on her heel and sprinted back down the walkway. A second later, both Ashley and Sheng reached the same conclusion she had and they raced after her without asking questions. Back up in the front hall, Sheng shifted his Argent ability to speed. He accelerated up the staircase so rapidly that it seemed as his teammates were standing still.
They took the elevator. Both were capable of running up ten floors and still being able to fight, but the elevator was quicker. They couldn't hope to keep up with Sheng in his speed mode. The elevator had a red button under a plastic shield which Megan punched. The car shot upward faster than official safety regulations would have allowed. When it stopped on the tenth floor, both women felt the door drop away from under them slightly.
They rushed into the hangar which took up that entire floor. Argent was already there. The sectioned steel exit panel in the roof was wide open, letting yellow April sunlight slant in. Where their advanced stealth jetcopter should have been moored was only empty space. The Doublers had stolen their CORBY.
IV.
Again, Megan grasped the situation and reacted faster than her friends. She ran over to one of the workbenches and slid out a drawer. From within, a monitor sprang up which displayed a schematic of the CORBY with rows of letters and figures running up one side of the screen. At the bottom of the monitor was a keyboard into which she logged in.
Coming over to watch her, Ashley said with a touch of pique, "I didn't know you could monitor the CORBYs like that."
"This system has not been used often," the Trom Girl said. "I intended it for situations where the craft were damaged or lost. There. I have a fix on its signal."
"She's heading west," Sheng Mo-Yuan observed. "Staying on a straight course."
"Give me a second. Okay, I have disabled the weapons systems. Now I have turned off the Trom impulse engines that power Mach-plus flight. The CORBY is limited to four hundred miles per hour at crusing height."
Bending closer to the screen, Unicorn pouted. "Sometimes I don't appreciate the way you keep things from us! Can you override the CORBY and bring it back here?"
"Not with these controls," Megan said, still taking readings. "I find three active forms on board, but the cabin sensors report no body heat and no carbon dioxide from exhaled breath."
"These Doublers are not really alive, then," Sheng said. "Not in the usual sense."
"No. I have no definition for them other than constructs of crystalline matter that mimic some of the processess of life. They seem to be self-aware, though."
"I'm not even sure of that," the Chujiran mused. "The way that the Sable-Doubler talked, I couldn't tell whether she was just repeating phrases without understanding them."
"Hey!" Ashley suddenly yelled, making the others jump. "Look. The distance from here has stayed the same. It says the engines are powering down! Look!"
"We can hear you, dear. We're right next to you," Sheng muttered.
"Altitude zero. Cabin air pressure released," the Trom Girl said. "They've landed. From the co-ordinates, I'd place their location outside of Marathon, Pennsylvania."
"Too bad we don't have a spare CORBY to use. But then there's barely room for one here anyway. The other CORBYs are at the New Mexico project and at Hawk Island." Unicorn sighed. "Too far away to be any help."
"We will have to drive to retrieve our craft," Megan said. She closed the monitor and began unplugging it. "I will be watching for any activity as we go."
"I guess it's time to get into our field suits," Ashley said. "Sheng, you coming?"
"Yes," the Chujiran replied. "You know, I keep remembering how the Sable-Doubler seemed to think she WAS Sable. I wonder how delusional they might be."
Heading for the elevator, Unicorn called back over one shoulder, "Who do you know who isn't a little delusional, hah hah!"
V.
They took the New Jersey Turnpike and passed Philadelphia under two hours later. Ashley had insisted on driving the Jeep Cherokee so that Megan could sit in the back seat and watch the monitor screen. Although she didn't say anything, the Trom Girl was as worried about having Unicorn drive her beloved Jeep as she was about the stolen CORBY.
In the front passenger seat, Sheng said, "You know, Ash, speed limits are not friendly suggestions for you to consider."
"I'm making the road ahead of us the road behind us," she answered.
"You sound an awful lot like the Doublers," he mumbled to himself.
Half an hour later, Ashley pulled into a convenient mart. While she took a quick bathroom break, Megan and Sheng filled the tank, checked the oil and tire pressure and wiped all the windows with paper towels. They had picked up this practice from Jeremy Bane when he had been training them and by now it was habit. In case of a chase or being situation, sometimes having the vehicle ready meant life or death.
When Unicorn emerged with a bottle of Club Soda and a bag of peanut butter M&Ms, Megan took her turn in the bathroom. Sheng also decided to get it out of the way while he could. That their black field suits all looked alike might have drawn some attention but the clerk was mesmerized by a baseball game on his phone and hardly noticed. They were back on the road, with the Trom Girl announcing that the CORBY was six miles away.
By now, open fields had begun spacing towns apart. As they neared the signal, Megan told Ashley to slow down and turn at the next right. This was a paved side road with a posted PRIVATE PROPERTY- NO TRESPASSING SIGN nailed to a tree.
"Pull over where you see an appropriate spot," Megan said. "Still no activity from the CORBY."
"Maybe they're going to use it for robbery or a terrorist attack tonight," Ashley said. "With its stealth capabilities and advanced sensors, cops could never catch it at night."
"Perhaps." The Trom Girl turned off the monitor screen and stowed it behind the seat. "Sheng, here is your mace. Ashley, your horn."
As he jumped out of the passenger seat, Argent swung the short-handled weapon experimentally. The mace was an antique he had chosen from the arsenal. It was heavy enough to damage plate armor and he felt its diamond-shaped head would be effective against the unliving Doublers.
Ashley slung the three-foot-long white leather cylinder across her back. It held the priceless Unicorn horn that she had been given by her mother. The horn was ensorcelled to dampen gralic force in enemies. It had proven itself against everything from Human sorcerers to demons from Fanedral.
Getting out of the back, Megan lowered her helmet on but left the visor raised. Her partners did the same. Sheng seldom wore the field suits because he relied on his innate powers but he deferred to Megan's urging.
By now it was almost nine o'clock and the dim summer half-light of a crescent moon was settling in as they started marching through the woods alongside the driveway. When a white brick building came into view, the Trom Girl drew her teammates closer and said, "Sheng, I think you should go ahead and circle around behind the building while Ashley and I approach the front. If you see the CORBY, check its condition."
"Sure thing." The Chujiran drew gralic force into his body to enhance its speed. Quicker than any Olympic athlete, he raced off through the trees toward the building and was gone from sight within minutes.
Megan Salenger had taken out her Link and quite illegally tapped into property tax records. "Interesting. This building was owned by a research branch of John Grim Enterprises until six months ago. A biologist named Park Hyu-Shin purchased it for his own use."
"I love your understatement," Ashley laughed. "This mess is tied up with one of the most dangerous masterminds in the Midnight War and you say it's 'interesting.' I bet you'd say surviving a plane crash was 'unexpected."
Megan shrugged and started walking again. "I was raised by the Trom, Unicorn. That explains the way I am."
The little blonde punched her lightly on the bicep. "Ah, I'm teasing you, hon. I wouldn't change you for the world."
As they neared the house, both began taking advantage of the birch trees and heavy bushes for cover. Voices could be heard. Megan and Ashley slowed even more, dropping to the ground and crawled closer.
The sleek black shape of the CORBY stood on the trimmed lawn near the research building. Next to it were three of the Doublers. In addition to the ones who imitated Sable and Ashley, a Doubler for Josef Jubilec had joined the group. He was wearing green and black camoflauge pants with a white T-shirt. A Y-shaped quiver was on his back and he held a classic longbow that was strung and ready for use. He had the same unhealthy grey skin, stiff hair and distorted facial features as the others.
Arguing with the three Doublers were two men wearing white lab coats over dark business suits. Both were middle-aged and the same general height and build. At a distance, they could best be told apart by the fact that one had longish brick-red hair which reached past his collar. The older man was Asian, slouching as if exhausted.
Too far away to hear the conversation, Megan depressed the right ear pod on her helmet and turned it clockwise. Seeing this, Unicorn did the same and the directional microphone in her helmet sensors amplified noises from where ever she was looking. Suddenly the voices came in clear and sharp.
"Wait, Dr Park," said the Sable-Doubler. "Tomorrow today will be yesterday and yesterday today was tomorrow! Only today is today when it IS today."
"Will you stop with that nonsense!" yelled the older man. "I asked you a simple question. Why didn't you loot the KDF Vault? Everyone knows they have invaluable talismans in there. That was your assigment."
"Naturally we are upstanding heroic Tel Shai knights and not badly flawed monsters who obey you," Sable-Doubler answered. "Having so decided make to use even go need to do look more like."
"Shut up! Just shut up!" yelled the other researcher. "Dr Park, this is intolerable. What went wrong with these specimens? Why are they so deranged?"
"It's the best I can manage so far," Park replied sadly. "Poltronis, I'm good but I am no John Grim. There has been no one anywhere near his class since his death. I managed to procure many notes from Project Regulus but I can't duplicate his results. Without your Alchemical method of growing organic crystal, I would have gotten nowhere."
"It is certainly not my serums which are the problem, doctor. I studied under Melchius for seventy years. Even so, I am just not patient enough to cope with the way these specimens think."
"Say, you realize we are normal Human females and their normal Human male non-sexual friend going about dull mundane tasks," the Unicorn-Doubler chipped in with a squeaky voice that could have belonged to a talking squirrel. "Naturally we are not unnatural monsters existing in the twilight zone between life and death, that would be silly."
Dr Park shook his head. "They almost make sense. But their bizarre appearance and their irrational thought processes make them useless. How can they operate inconspicuously? This is hopeless."
The younger man Poltronis pointed at the CORBY. "We do have that. We haven't even dealt with the fact they did bring us a stealth helicopter that seems highly advanced."
"Yesss... That is true. From what I have heard, the KDF uses Trom technology in their equipment. If we can retro-engineer that helicopter, we would find developments far ahead of what human scientists know."
Ashley started to crawl closer but Megan placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. The Trom Girl raised an index finger to her lips in a shushing gesture to indicate staying still.
"Unfortunately, neither of us are physicists or engineers, Dr Park," said the redhaired man. "My Alchemy and your biochemistry have produced these Doublers, as they call themselves. But we would have to bring in a third party with electronic skills to even take that helicopter apart."
Park folded his arms across his chest and let his head sag. "I am too tired to deal with this anymore tonight, Poltronis. Things will seem clearer in the morning."
"You have a point, doctor." The Alchemist waved both hands at the three grotesque figures that had been listening to the conversation patiently. "You, all of you, go inside and rest in the room we have prepared for you. After we get some sleep, I will rejuvenate your bodies with more Velkandu serums. You can't go too long without the potions."
Unfortunately, this was when the Sable-Doubler responded with "They have far been even go to do look more like," and Dr Park blew up. He yelled at the creatures to get inside, pointing at the house and almost jumping up and down in rage.
Placing one hand to the fletching on an arrow in the quiver on his back, the Josef-Doubler spoke for the first time. His voice did not have the comical high-pitch of the others. "We have to protect mankind from monsters. The creatures of the night are out and about. It is for us to stop them."
Both Dr Park and Poltronis stared at the male Doubler. His sentences were clear and coherent, there was no surreal questions or jumbled syntax. But suddenly they both became nervous. The Josef-Doubler still had his bow in one hand and the feathers of a shaft in the other. The Blind Archers were rightly feared throughout the Midnight War.
"Not tonight," Dr Park said in a gentle tone. "Right now you must rest and heal. Your body needs the serums that Poltronis here has brewed."
Instead of replying, the Josef-Doubler moved his hand away from his quiver. He reached to the black silk kerchief that was knotted around his neck and tugged it up to cover his eyes. To anyone who knew about the Blind Archers, this was a terrifying sight. The sect brought out their mystic perception by closing off normal sight and this enabled them to sense lifeforce. Their reputation for never missing was well deserved.
Still concealed by the birch trees and the brush, Megan rose to her feet and Ashley followed her example. The Trom Girl slowly raised the beam projector with her finger on the trigger button.
The Josef-Doubler was facing the pair of biochemist and Alchemist. In a single continous motion, he whipped an arrow from his quiver and notched it to the string, then swung about and loosed it directly at Megan and Ashley fifty yards away. At that range, the arrow traveled fast as a bullet. It struck Unicorn right in the center of her chest and the warhead detonated.
The explosion flared up white in the gloom with a deafening blast. Neither Megan nor Ashley were conscious when a second blast sounded far away.
VI.
They had been on the Tagra tea diet for just under two years. Only available to knights of Tel Shai, Tagra enhanced the body's healing ability far beyond what modern medicine could explain. They had also been wearing the field suits with inner layer of impact-dispersing Trom armor.
So Megan Salenger and Ashley Whitaker had not been blown into scattered fragments by that direct hit from a resonance grenade. As they came back to groggy awareness, they felt throbbing pain with every breath but they realized gratefully that they were alive to suffer.
Their training told them not to groan or open their eyes immediately but to analyze their situation. Megan decided she was lying face up on a bed with a hard mattress. Her wrists were tied behind her back and her ankles were bound together. Next to her, she felt the warmth of Unicorn's body and she heard the blonde girl's breathing deepen slightly.
Ruining their plan to pretend unconscious a while longer to form a plan, a voice rang out, "Dr Park! Their eyelids fluttered. I think they are waking up."
"Really? I'm impressed. When our Archer specimen hit them with that exploding arrow, I thought they would be killed instantly. How is the young man who was with them?"
"The same. Watch them closely." The Alchemist sounded bemused. "We got their helmets and jackets off and those items were barely scuffed by the blasts. I'm starting to think the gear they use can be worth a fortune to us. Gangsters will pay a fortune for these devices."
Park's voice added, "They also have these communication devices. I don't know how to work them but we can find someone who does."
Megan opened her eyes and said, "Our equipment will shut down if anyone tampers with it. It is of no use to you."
They were in a well-furnished room with twin beds, a desk and dresser and several chairs. From the other bed, Argent grumbled, "Everything hurts. I had no idea what it feels like to get hit by our resonance grenades."
"It's amazing you are alive at all," Poltronis said. "Can I assume that you followed some sort of signal from your helicopter here? This is proceeding so well."
"Okay," Unicorn tried to get up into a sitting position on the bed. It wasn't easy using only her stomach muscles but she managed it. "Ow, my poor boobs are going to be black and blue. So these weirdos are only clones of us? Like the ones created by Karl Eldritch at Project Regulus? That was way before my time, you unnerstand."
"Not exactly," Park responded. "I could not recreate the Project Regulus methods. Some of the Zhune artifacts are not available any more. So I became partners with Poltronis here."
"You combined high tech with Alchemy? No fair," Ashley said. "That's cheating."
"More to the point," interposed Sheng, "How could you make clones of us anyway? Don't you need considerable DNA samples?"
"Heh," the Alchemist snorted. "For weeks, our agents have you when you leave your building. Even so, we could only obtain samples from three of your organization. The Unicorn had an appointment at a hair stylist. The Blind Archer left blood on the floor after a fight with the White Web. And your leader, Sable, discarded a half-finished sandwich at a deli while waiting for a meeting with some lawyer."
"You are beyond creepy!" Ashley yelled. "Following us around and picking up any stray specks we leave behind. You're the worst stalkers ever."
"I find you amusing," Poltronis said. "As long as we have you three as prisoners, I think we will take a pint of blood from each of you and try the process again. Maybe the next group of specimens were come out better."
From the doorway behind him, a high-pitched voice sang out, ""No, no, where you far decided even to use go want. He has even as decided to use less go to look more like."
The Alchemist gave a start and swung around. "What are you doing here? You were ordered to go to bed!"
The Ashley-Doubler disregarded that and stepped into the room. Her blue eyes were not pointing in the same direction and one was noticeably larger than the other, not an attractive trait. "Today has been the longest week ever," she squeaked.
"Dear God, I can't stand your babbling any more. Go to the room with the other specimens and sleep. Get out of here."
"No," said the Doubler. "That would be the reaction of a semi-living creature made of crystal fibres and as you can seem, I am a beautiful young Human woman who could be a model if she wished."
"Man, she's just like you, Ashley," said Sheng. "Never listens, conceited as hell."
"Shut up," Unicorn suggested.
The Alchemist rubbed his own face with both hands, trying to get a hold of his anger and failing. "Listen, you inhuman thing! I order you to go join the others. Go now!"
The Doubler placed both fists on its hips in a very characteristic Unicorn gesture and shook its white-haired head. "Why do you say water is ice-cold when that means it would be ice and not water?"
"Be still! As Draldros is my Lord, I will not endure you a moment longer." Poltronis reached out to seize the Ashley-Doubler by the throat and in that moment, he sealed his fate.
The Doubler dropped into a low stance and whipped an open rigid hand to the side of the Alchemist's neck. The hand was hard and dense as stone. There was a snapping noise and Poltronis fell heavily to the floor with a broken neck before he knew he was dying. The creature swung around to face the suddenly terrified Park.
This seemed to Sheng to be the right moment to act. He focussed gralic energy into strength. The clothesline holding his wrists and ankles popped and he jumped off the bed as if he had not been tied at all. Both the Ashley-Doubler and Dr Park were taken by surprise. Evidently his abilities had not been fully known to them.
Before Park could react, Argent lunged closer and smacked a basic right cross to the biochemist's chin that connected perfectly. Park's head swiveled around painfully on his neck and he staggered drunkenly in a circle. When the man came near the Ashley-Doubler, she blasted a front snap kick to the stomach that bent the man into a helpless heap on the floor next to the dead Alchemist. His body heaved as if he was going to vomit but nothing came up.
Moving quickly, Sheng flipped Megan over on her stomach and tugged apart the cords binding her wrists and ankles. He moved over to the other side of the bed to do the same for Unicorn. It was difficult to measure exactly how strong he became because he seemed to draw on as much gralic force as was needed for a specific task.
The Trom Girl had swung her legs over the side of the bed and gone to face the Doubler. "I think we should thank you, err, miss."
The unliving did not respond. Its mismatched eyes were fixed on Ashley Whitaker. As the little blonde crossed over to stand by her teammate, the Doubler squeaked, "You... look like me."
"Well, I like your sass," Unicorn scoffed. "Don't you realize that I'm the original... No. Wait. You don't realize, do you?"
"Let me talk," Sheng said, interposing himself between the creature and his partners. He held up his open hands, palms up. "Will you help us?"
"Of course, I am not a murderous undead thing without blood but a perfectly normal Human female with feelings." She pointed an index finger that was strangely bent at the joints. "There's the door."
Megan whispered, "Sheng, you understand how these... persons think?"
"I guess," he said. "They're working on their own frame of logic. But I'm still very unsure about our safety."
Unicorn had taken the broken pieces of clothesline that had tied them up and bound Park's wrists to his ankles with knots that would require pliers to open. Then she pulled off his loafers and made a gag from his own socks. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am creeped out big time by this whole zombie duplicate business..."
The Ashley-Doubler was obviously fascinated by the young woman who had been her source. The construct had its head cocked to one side like a dog listened for a distant sound. As Unicorn secured Park and determined that Poltronis was quite dead, she wiped her hands off absently on her pants and met the intense stare from her imperfect duplicate.
"Ugh," Ashley said. "It's like walking past those winos in front of Port Authority all over again."
"Sheng, are you still in strength mode?" Megan asked.
"Absolutely."
"Good. Stand by in case we need protection. Let's get out in the hall." She led her friends out into the subdued lighting of a long corridor. On either side were doors frosted glass panels but any identifying nameplates or words on the windows had been removed. With Megan taking one side of the corridor and Ashley the other, they began opening each door and flicking on the lights.
One empty room after another greeted them. Most had bare tables and counters, shelves with nothing on them but dust. "I guess those Mad Scientists weren't using the whole building," Ashley said.
Staying by the Doubler, Sheng cautiously got her attention without being too close. "You know, I'd really like to have my helmet back. It would be appreciated if you show me where it is."
His words had been carefully chosen. The Doubler stopped staring at Unicorn and started shambling down the hall with a curious gait. One leg was shorter than the other, it seemed. The creature navigated its way down a single flight of stairs with only a few close calls of tumbling, leading them to the basement.
Reaching past the Doubler, Megan Salenger flipped up a switch on the wall. Long fluorescent tubes in the ceiling flickered into life to reveal a single open area with ceramic-topped tables and stainless steel sinks. Gallon jugs of variously colored fluids were connected by a complicated maze of rubber tubing. One metal drum was hooked up to a hot plate and bubbling noises came from within.
Alongside one wall was a row of open shelves holding disposable syringes, blood sample kits, dozens of labelled vials. But the KDF members hardly noticed any of this. Laid out neatly on a table under a reading lamp was their gear. The field suit jackets and helmets, the Link comminicators, the beam projector, the white leather sheath that held the Unicorn horn.
Megan hastened to snatch up her beam projector and satisfy herself that it had not been damaged. "This is a relief," she told her roommates with a most un-Tromlike grin. "These are quite expensive and I would be criticized for losing it."
As thry slipped on the jackets and helmets, Ashley hesitated. She strapped the leather sheath across her back and noticed the Doubler drawing closer.
The grey-skinned construct reached out a misshapen hand. "As the Unicorn, naturally I need my Horn to carry out my daredevil career of crimefighting..."
"You have to find out what they did with yours," Ashley said. "This is only my imitation. Inwardly, she congratulated herself on some quick thinking.
"Yes," said the Ashley-Doubler uncertainly. "I will search for my horn. The masters must have hidden it but then... Well, when it at questioned go? What then the plan very does?"
"I can't help but agree," Unicorn said.
Sheng had been glancing over the notebooks and ledgers kept on top of a cabinet. "I can't read any of this. I know a few languages but this looks like someone was making up the letters as he went along."
"Hmmm.. I don't recognize it, either," Ashley said. She gestured to Megan to join. "Hey, super-genius, what do you make of this?"
The Trom Girl skimmed a few pages of each notebook. "It is a code. Given time, I should be able to break it but I suspect it refers to Alchemical abbreviations which I would not be able to understand either. This would be a tedious undertaking."
"Well, now you've got a project for those lazy Sunday afternoons," Unicorn said. "We better find out where the other err you-know-whos are chilling, don't you think?"
Sheng got closer to the Doubler, whose body language seemed to indicate increasing comfort with his presence. It lowered its hands and leaned forward, grinning up at him with a crooked leer.
"Oh, Sheng, I think she liiiiikes someone," Ashley teased.
"Quiet, you." The Chujiran put on his friendliest smile. "You should see if your friends are okay."
The Doubler considered this and turned around to walk to the other side of the open basement. An unmarked wooden door was locked but she simply pulled the knob out and tugged the door open. Inside, under ultra-violet lamps, the other two Doublers were stretched out on cots. They were still fully dressed, lying on their backs with their arms down at their sides.
The constructs did not breathe in any case, but something about their absolute stillness immediely seemed wrong. The Ashley-Doubler walked up to the Sable one and touched its shoulder. Cracks opened across the exposed grey skin and the collapsed into a thin layer of dry dust. The clothes dropped down flat with no body within them.
"Oh!" the Doubler gasped. It swung toward the creature which imitated Josef Jubilec and tentatively touched a single finger to the lifeless chest. The process repeated itself and a second puff of grey dust spread out on the cot where a monster had lain.
The Ashley-Doubler turned back toward the KDF members with its empty hands moving in a pitiful gesture. Even on that grotesque stiff-skinned face, anguish could be clearly seen.
"They're going to be all right," the creature said in its inappropriately comical voice. "They just need some rest."
Megan put aside her trepidation and stepped closer. "This is important. Did Dr Park give you an injection of his serums every night? Did he give you any strange fluids to drink?"
"Since we are all perfectly normal Humans and not unnatural monsters, we live on boring food like pizza and sushi and peanut butter," said the Doubler. The creature swayed and caught itself against the edge of a cot.
Unicorn rushed forward and barely restrained herself from giving the Doubler support. She had seen this being kill a man with a single blow from a hand hard as rock and its temper was dangerously unpredictable. "Are you all right? What do you need?"
"We have no idea which of these potions Poltronis dosed these Doublers with," Sable said. "I don't think there's time to even experiment."
"No. No." The Ashley-Doubler was visibly weakened. It sat down on the empty cot and slowly stretched out. "I wish I were now what I was when I wanted to be what I am now." She put her head down.
"Wait, hang on!" the real Ashley pleaded. "Stay with us, there has to be something we can do."
The Doubler closed its eyes and placed its arms along its sides. "It wasn't much of a life... but still I'm glad I had even that."
A second later, the unliving crystalline body split apart and fell into dust. Ashley reached out a hand but could not bring herself to touch the smear of dry powder. She turned back to her friends and big round drops were gathering at the corners of her eyes.
In a gesture very unusual for him, Sheng put an arm across her shoulder and squeezed to comfort her. "It's okay, Unicorn. What were we going to do with them? Where could they live? It's for the best."
"I know, I know." Ashley patted his hand and sniffled. "It's just... I realized she was trying to do the right thing. She wasn't so bad."
2/7/2018
