Bitch: Puncture (book 2)

The RFID chip was easily removed from Apoc. It was on the back of his neck just under the skin about two inches up from the plug where the other transmitter had been. I had watched this procedure very carefully. I realized that I remembered what had happened in Tryon’s lab and I wasn’t about to have both of us out at the same time.

Dr. Broon wondered aloud at what sort of connections were on the other end. “This is some sort of optical plug but I can only guess at what sort of information is transferred in and out through a cable like this.”

The hard part was that Natalie’s Stingray machine found a number of other frequencies being emitted by Apoc. I made Arlene aware that Apoc was augmented with some sort of very high end electronics.

Natalie took it all in stride and didn’t seem thrown at all that Arlene was talking directly with me. On the other hand Dr. Broon didn’t seem to notice the oddity of Arlene’s actions as he had decided to stay in the drivers seat of the minibus, even through Apoc was still dozing from the anesthetic dosed to safely remove the RFID chip. Dr. Broon couldn’t take his eyes off of Apoc.

Dr. Broon stayed frozen in place reeking of fear sweat but intently watching the entire process. His curiosity and desire to help over riding his fear long enough for him to stay engaged in guiding Natalie through the procedure.

Later, Arlene wrapped a sleepy Apoc in foil again and we walked him over to the vet van. They had a portable x-ray in the back of the lead lined van.

Finally, we were all back in the front of the minibus. For some reason Natalie really wanted to pet Apoc. I felt a little tug of jealousy. A part of me wanted to bite that hand, a hand which had been helping to free Apoc. But, she hadn’t stopped stroking him since he’d been sedated for the RFID removal procedure. And he was fully recovered from the anesthetic, but I could tell he was pretending to be more drugged than he was probably so she wouldn’t stop petting him. What kind of wild wolf wants to be pet? He was acting just like a dog. Sometimes he was just so annoying, he just bugged me so much I just wanted to slug him in his smug muzzle. Tricking this poor girl into petting him for the last twenty minutes.

“I can’t be sure if the frequencies that he’s giving off are track-able.” Said Natalie finally. “I mean it looks like they are such low level fields they’d have to be right next to him to be able to detect them. When he’s more than 15 feet away nothing shows up. I’m betting that the RFID was how they were tracking him. Such a beautiful boy, so strong and lethal. He really is a big teddy bear.” She dug her fingers deep into his ruff, I swear I was going to bite her. How else would she learn her place?

Dr. Broon who was obviously not fooled by Apoc’s little performance he stayed up front, and from time to time snorted in disbelief and confusion muttering continuously to himself. He sat with flashlight in hand, pouring over the X-Rays. Somehow it seemed that what he really wanted to see was just off the edge of every X-Ray.

I felt a pang of familiarity. I’d seen this before. Deja vu hit me like a hammer. I didn’t want anybody else to die and I was again full of adrenaline. I glanced out of the minibus into the night ready to leap through the window if necessary.

Our quiet was shattered with the cheap strum of a harp notes and thin reedy voices singing “He-Man and the Master’s of the Universe”. Natalie grabbed for her phone. “Hey baby, was just thinking about you.” She looked pointedly at all of us and then half turned giving up on the pretense of a private conversation. “Yeah I’m still out here... well. I think you should try to come out when you can. It’s gonna blow your mind... Yeah can’t talk about it right now but... yeah he’s a jerk... She did what?!? Oh now that’s funny. Way to go Arlene. Yeah... ok... yeah call me when you’re done.”

When she had hung up she glanced back up to see us all staring at her. “What?!? He likes cartoons and so do I, and he’s my He-Man... so get over it already.”

“I was actually wondering what happened in town with the Sheriff after we bugged out,” quipped Arlene.

“Oh, well the Sheriff was super mad. Jessie said he was hollerin’ about wantin’ to bring you up on charges of destruction of police property. He put the drunk in jail but since he really didn’t do anything except come eat the food you left for him on top of the car, so they had to let him go already when he sobered up. They found a potato in the tailpipe of the police cruiser, but the most you’d get for that would be a misdemeanor and once they’d reasoned with him that you couldn’t have done it because he was watching you the whole time... so it couldn’t have been you. Still Jessie says he’s spitting mad. He does want to charge you for the superglue in the door... that was genius BTdub, wish I could have seen it. And some drunk guy got assaulted, I guess he was a friend of the Sheriff’s. But there is a lot of talk in town... lots of drama and crazy stories. You just gave a bunch of small town retired people living on disability with nothing to do enough fat to chew for the whole winter. They’re gonna spin tall tales until their lives seem more interesting which will pretty much be till they’re dead. You wouldn’t think a potato and a minor assault wouldn’t be overflowing grist for the mill, but you’d be wrong.” Natalie finished and looked at Arlene. “So let's talk about the elephant in the room.”

“What?” said Arlene.

“Is this the dog from the Alex James show? The video that’s circulating on the internet? The one from the video that they keep trying to take down and it just keeps popping back up overseas and in other ways. They took down his site, made it invisible on the web search engines, and made it a crime to watch it, which is stupid because it makes everyone want to watch it. And besides, everyone that wants to see it has already seen it.”

I nodded.

“Cool!” Natalie was thrilled. “Pleasure to meet you.” She finally took her hand off Apoc and held her hand out to shake mine. I put my paw in hers.

“Alex James? Who is Alex James may I ask?” Dr. Broon was listening but still trying puzzle out the X-rays.

“Alex James is this government conspiracy guy who has a web show and he talks about all the ways that the government is infringing on peoples rights. Well he had her on and did an interview with her. She escaped from a lab where they were doing illegal testing. She used to be a woman.” Natalie crossed her arms and beamed at Dr. Broon.

“Not possible.” Dr. Broon denied it, mostly to himself and dropped the X-rays into his lap with a rustle like distant thunder.

“Possible or not, I’m afraid it’s true Dr. Broon.” Arlene said. “She’s a living breathing impossibility. And the reason that I was asking so many questions about Dr. Hess and Chris and the woman that was here that night is because that’s her. She was kidnapped by Dr. Shen, the vet that was covering for Dr. Hess. And we have returned here to the scene of the original crime to bring Dr. Shen to justice.

“Not possible. I knew Dr. Hess, he was on the advisory board at the college where I did my studies. There is no way that he would be involved with involuntary genetic therapy that sounds like human violations and moral and ethical conflicts as well, not to mention all the laws and just the boundaries of human decency. He would never condone or allow kidnappings. I don’t know Dr. Li Shen personally, but he is a highly respected published geneticist. And that doesn’t even make sense why Dr. Hess would leave his veterinary practice to a geneticist? What would he know about being a vet?” Dr. Broon was just having a rough time with all of this. “What you are talking about is impossible. You can’t mix species. The body would reject the new genetic material, it would attack it and kill it off, probably even kill off the host in the process. No. That’s just basic biology, everyone knows that.”

“Well, why don’t you ask her?” Arlene said.

“How would I talk to a dog?” Dr. Broon was incredulous.

“It’s the fastest way.”

“What should I ask it? I mean what do you ask?” Dr. Broon stared at me. “What are you?”

I wrote, ‘new’.

“New? New what? New species. I see. Ok. So you believe that you are woman who was put into the body of a dog? No? Woman modified to be a dog? How is that even possible?”