"What kind of booby-trap is that, anyway?" you wonder out loud as you descend the stairway.
"No kidding! A fecto trap. Why not kill the person, why make them into a fecto?" says Damien.
"Maybe it's Mrs. Franklin's idea. Put some of her blood in it," says Sven. "Better to convert someone into a fecto than kill them."
"All I know is that if I had any guilt about killing Mrs. Franklin, that guilt's gone now. This place is all kinds of gross," you say.
You descend into a deluxe basement with multiple rooms; indeed, this basement is larger than the pod above. There is a home theater with bucket seats, a full bar complete with a large espresso machine, a walk-in closet with racks of clothes, purses, and shoes, an exercise room (which, based on his appearance, you presume Dr. Franklin never uses), and through a pair of sliding glass doors is a hot tub.
"A fecking hot tub," you say. "To stay under my energy quota, I have to take two minute showers and sometimes can't toast my bread, and this guy has a hot tub!"
"Even cooler, he's got his own shooting range," says Damien pointing into another room.
Sure enough, there's a long concrete room with targets on belts. The ground is littered with shell casings.
"l bet these are from that Uzi in Franklin's office," Damien leans down and picks up one of the shells.
"Well, judging by those targets, he's got the hardware and the skill.. Not good," you say.
"Unless this is Rachel's work," says Damien.
"The gun was in Franklin's office and—"
Just then Sven runs out of a room and starts dry heaving.
"Uhhh! Not... Cool..," he gasps.
You open the steel door to the room Sven was just in and your stomach drops. This room is bare, just concrete, but the entire floor and walls are covered with all sorts of blood stains-spatters, drips, blotches, and what looks like finger painting. And there are bones, lots of them.
"Are you Okay?" Damien asks from outside.
"Yeah, it's just that I think we found Mrs. Franklin's play room," you say.
Damien goes into the room and swears. You and Sven decide to let Damien investigate that room while you do a more thorough search of the rest of the basement. A minute or so later, Damien finds you and Sven in the study.
"I think you're right, Jen. There's tooth marks on some of the remains in the... let's just call it Rachel's dining room. A lot of it is animal remains, but definitely some humans too. There's even some kind of ventilation system to help with the smell."
"Who is Rachel?" Sven asks.
"Mrs. Franklin, that's her first name. Check it out. There was a love letter from Dr. Franklin stuffed inside an eye socket of one of the skulls," says Damien.
"Eww, that's both completely gross and completely intriguing at the same time," you say.
"Yeah, this could get published in some kind of fecto fetish collection, or something," Damien says as he extends the letter to you.
You decline the blood stained paper.
"Ok, here's a choice excerpt," says Damien, and then he begins to read.
I crave the moment when I feel your teeth and nails against my skin. Oh, ecstasy! Yes, there will be pain, but it is the herald of our love, and I will laugh even as I cry. As you consume my flesh, we will become one. Since the day we met, I have loved you, and I will love you until the day I die! And even on the other side of death, I will love you still.
"Dr. Franklin is quite the romantic," you say. "Well, I think this confirms he is human, or at least he was when he wrote this."
"Sounds like he's actually looking forward to getting turned into an HFVM," says Sven. "What's stopping him? He could just walk into that fecto trap on the stairs and get the job done."
"Maybe he's afraid. Or... Maybe he's waiting to finish a mission," you say, looking around at his study, which is cluttered with monitors and papers. "The only thing better than an HFVM for blending into humanity is an actual human."
"True. It seems like he's doing this for Rachel. He loves her," says Damien.
"Based on the way Rachel talked about him, the feeling isn't mutual. I'm not sure it's even love on Franklin's part. More like complete desperation," you say.
"Well, according to the Survivor's Handbook, Desperation and evil are first cousins," Damien says.
"Oh, look at you quoting scripture," you say.
"Ya.." Sven says in his accent, and then he catches himself. "Yeah, it doesn't really matter why he's betraying his own species, the point is he's doing it. Shall we get on with finding out his master plan?"
The overgrown hacker cracks his knuckles and sits down at the keyboard of the massive desk. He hits a key, and all the monitors come alive. He laughs. "I'm almost disappointed. He doesn't even have a password."
"I guess he figures if you found his wife's romper room, his embarrassing cat video collection would be the least of his secrets" says Damien.
"Wow, he's got some serious surveillance," you say, pointing at a bank of monitors off to the side. There are video feeds of a bunch of locations including the front lawn, the path into the neighborhood, and of a nearby subway platform.
"What's that one?" asks Damien, pointing at a monitor displaying what appears to be a dimly lit crawl space. "Is that an escape tunnel?"
"If it is, we haven't found it yet," you say.
"I found his SurvivorNet email account," announces Sven. "He goes by.. 'Dr_OneNineHundred.. Well, gotta hand it to him that I wouldn't have guessed that."
"Isn't his SurvivorNet account password protected?" you ask.
"Of course, but now that I know his username, I can just use the master password to get inside, Sven says with a grin. "Maybe you didn't know this about the fascist government your parents work for, but there's a master password that changes every day that opens a backdoor into any SurvivorNet account. You just need to know which account to get into." Sven puffs up his chest. "And yours truly has today's master password."
"Less congratulating yourself and more reading," you say.
"I'm just forwarding all of his stuff to our accounts. Then we can read it later when we're not so pressed for time," he says.
"Okay, Sven, since you're taking care of the important work, I'll just take another look around. Jen, what are you going to do?" Damien asks.
"You guys do your thing. I'll be the lookout and watch the surveillance monitors," you say.
"Smart." says Damien.
As you dart your eyes from one monitor to the other, you make a realization. "Hey guys," you say. "It just occurred to me that we must have been taped on the front lawn as we approached the pod."
"Feck, you're right," Sven exclaims. "Nice catch, Jen. I need to erase them. Give me a sec to find where the video's backed up to."
Sven furiously taps on the keyboard with one hand as he taps and slides with his other hand on the monitor.
Damien reenters the room and smiles at you. "Wow, Jen, the doctor would have had no problem figuring out who dusted his wife with that footage. Nice job."
You smile back and return your attention to the monitors.
"Oh! You better get your work done fast, Sven. Looks like Franklin skipped out of the teachers' meeting!" you say, pointing up at one of the monitors. Dr. Franklin, with a large book bag slung over his shoulder, is strolling over the front yard toward the porch.
Your heart races. "He's coming in the front door, so there goes our exit!"
"What about a back door?" asks Sven as he furiously works at the computer, presumably deleting video. "Was there one upstairs?"
"I can't remember one... How can't I remember? We searched up there!" says Damien.
"Not all pods have them. In a zombie apocalypse the pros and cons of a back door are pretty even," says Sven.
"Feck! We left the hatch to the basement open!" says Damien.
Just then, you hear a heart-wrenching wail from above. Mr. Franklin has obviously found his wife!
Without a word, you creep up the stairs and slowly close the hatch. It doesn't make a sound. There are still the sobs and shouts above, followed by the thunder of hard-soled shoes.
'He's looking for who did it,' you think.
You hurry back down the steps to the others. "That was brave and good thinking, Jen. That should buy us some time," says Damien.
"Certainly he will search down here eventually. Maybe there's a secret way out of here?" you ask.
"Possibly...Or we could set up an ambush," says Damien.
"See the monitor that's giving a video feed of a tunnel? Well, maybe that's our escape tunnel. And wouldn't it make sense for there to be a way out of his secret, evil lair?" you say.
"Yeah, it's worth looking for. You and Sven look around, and l'll set up an ambush for the Doctor," says Damien as he pulls out his gun.
"There's three of us against one of him. What are we afraid of?" asks Sven as the two of you begin searching the walls.
"Did you see all the weapons he had stashed around and the machine gun casings in the shooting range? Plus, he's an intelligent and now very angry man. Lastly, this is his pod. Better to not fight someone on their own turf," you say.
"Impressive reasoning skills, Valentine," smiles Sven. "Still, there's three of us."
What you left out was how Dr. Franklin is a government agent, and you know the sort of military training government employees get, especially ones whose job involves working directly with VMs. Although pudgy and kinda old, he is likely a deadly man.
After a minute of searching, you decide that finding a secret door isn't going to be easy, if it even exists at all.
'There must be a smarter way to go about this,' you think. In desperation, you pull out the button device you found in Mrs. Franklin's top. Inspecting it closely, you notice that, in addition to the relatively large button you used to unlock the hatch to the basement, there is a much smaller button on the other side of the device.
You are about to ask Sven what he thinks the little button does, when you hear a thump immediately above.
'He's coming!' you think.
You click the little button. Shortly after, you hear a noise from somewhere nearby. You run into the shooting range room and see a hatch has opened on the floor.
You plunge your head down through the hatch and see what appears to be the dimly lit escape tunnel that you saw in the video display.
Quickly, you go back to get Damien and Sven. Just as you get to the bottom of the stairway, you hear "I know you're down there, rats! Come out now or die!" come from a shaky, but loud voice above.
'He probably sees the remains from the trap we set off,' you realize.
"This way," you whisper to Damien, who nods and follows you. Sven falls in line after him.
Before you reach the shooting range, there are clicks from different areas of the basement, followed by a powerful hissing sound.
Nozzles have dropped down from the ceiling and are spraying a smoky mist.
"Tear gas!" yells Damien.
You point to the open hatch and you all run to it.
Sven is about to jump down into the tunnel. "Wait!" you yell. "Where are your nylons?"
"What?!" says Sven.
"There are cameras in the tunnel. Pull the nylons over your heads," you command.
Sven pulls out the nylons he found in the bedroom above, and you all pull one of them over your heads.
Thankfull there are no tear gas sprayers in this room, but your eyes are still starting to burn.
Sven, then Damien, follow each other into the tunnel. Just as you're shutting the hatch, you see, through the open door of the shooting range, a figure come down the stairs with what appears to be a gas mask on.
You shut the hatch and crawl through the turnnel as fast as you can, hoping Dr. Franklin, or whoever that was, didn't see where you went.
The three of you emerge from the ground beneath a tree screened by bushes. You shut the hatch and hurry away, still keeping the nylons over your head.
You all decide to go home and review Dr. Franklin's emails that Sven had forwarded.
"Don't tell anyone what we saw," says Sven. "These HFVMs seem to be everywhere, and no one can know that we know... you know?"
"Yeah, but evil thrives in the dark. We should get some real investigators in that pod. Dr. Franklin's a murderer or at least an accessory to murder," says Damien.
"Yeah, I'm with you, but no one should know who the source is," says Sven. "I'll get a tip to the right people. Everyone should just sit tight for tonight."
***
For once you're grateful for the security checkpoints you have to go through to get into your pod. At the final check, you smile at the camera, give the password, and enter through the front door.
"How was drama club, honey?" your mom asks as you walk in.
"Dramatic," you say with a smirk.
You'te tempted to tell your mom about your real after school activities, but you'd like to have a look at the emails first.
Know before you act is a saying your mom has been feeding you since you were little. Well, another hour or so shouldn't hurt anything.
Unfortunately, it turns out that many of the emails Sven sent you are gibberish. You contact Sven on a SurvivorNet instant message, and he tells you that these mails were encrypted. He thinks he can break the code, but it will take a while. Maybe a day or more.
Your mom calls you for dinner. You decide to tell your parents about your night. Sure, you didn't have any business at Dr. Franklin's pod, and you certainly broke some sector laws around burglary, invasion of privacy, and even not reporting the dead body (re-dead body), but Dr. Franklin was married to an HFVM who tried to eat Sven, and that's worth mentioning to the general of the Zeta Sector military police! You plan to drop this story in after your dad is about a third of the way through his bio-6 mashed potatoes. Once committed to his favorite dish, maybe he won't stop to yell at you.
However, your dad doesn't even sit down. "Big fire over by Princely Ave. I have to eat fast and get back there."
"Honey, you're not a firefighter," your mom reminds him.
"Nope, but they're borrowing some of my guys to help contain it. You know how bent people get when there's smoke in the swanky neighborhoods."
"Anyone hurt?" your mom asks.
"I don't know," says your father between big bites of mashed potatoes. "There's a woman missing... Hopefully she'll turn up."
"Where on Princely Ave? Is it by the statue of the boy playing with boats?" you ask.
"Uh, yeah, a whole row of pods only a few yards from there. I didn't know you were so up on your landmarks," says your dad.
"It's.. Just a nice area." you say.
'Dr. Franklin burning the evidence?' you wonder. 'Nothing to investigate now,' you think. You decide to follow Sven's advice and keep your mouth shut for the time being.
The next day you meet Chase for the train to school as usual. He looks pale and he complains about his stomach feeling a little queasy, but that he can't stand staying home from school anymore.
You whisper to Chase the details from last night in the back of the train car.
"Man... I wish I was with you. Now you'll have this story to tell your grandchildren. Feck, even Sven got to go," he says miserably.
"Maybe you should just be happy we're all alive," you say with a tinge of reproach.
"Yeah, of course, sorry. It's just l can't help but feel a little jealous. It's like Sven is the new and cool thing," Chase throws up his hands. "It's like Oh, my name eez Sven, and I am very smart and good looking, and tall, and charming. I mean, since when does God give with both hands like that? I bet he even has a big—"
"You know what?" you interrupt him. "This is not a healthy train of discussion. And Sven isn't all that he appears to be. For example, he's not even Swedish."
"He's not?" says Chase with the beginnings of a smile.
"Yeah, more on that later. Bottom line is that he's cool, I think... But I would have liked you there last night watching my back."
Chase smiles and turns a little red.
When you arrive at school, you head straight to study hall, making your best impression of an innocent, bored student who didn't just kill the biology teacher's fecto wife last night.
You usually sit with a few royalty acquaintances of yours in this class; however, you really want to check your mail to see if Sven has any updates on his decryption endeavor, and so you feign that you have urgent homework to get done, and you find a quiet table to open your laptop.
Sure enough, there's an urgent mail from Sven.
From: Hammer_Of_Thor
Jen, decryption complete. There's a lot of creepy stuff in his inbox, but you have to read this message in particular.
PS. You're in danger.
—Sven
Attached is an email.
Just then, a trembling hand rests on your shoulder, nearly startling you out of your chair.
Kristin is standing over you with a serious expression.
"Jen, I have to talk to you," she says.
"Sorry, Kristin, I'm kinda busy at the moment," you say. "Maybe catch you after class?"
"Look, Valentine, considering how mean you've been to me lately, the least you can do is give me a minute of your precious time," she hisses.
'Mean to her? Is this not the same young woman who launched a smear campaign to oust you from your Kid A position?
"I'll grab a pass and we can talk somewhere more private," she says.
"Look, I am sorry, but I have an emergency of my own. Just tell me here, please," you say.
Kristin huffs, but then sits down next to you and leans in close.
"Sarah Balder is missing, and l'm really worried about her, and I was hoping you... Since you're Kid A, you might. Have heard something?" Kristin whispers.
'Kristin, the biggest gossip in school, doesn't know? Wow Val really did do a good job cleaning up,' you think.
"I..." you start.
'What do I say?' you wonder. That Sarah was an HFVM that bit boys behind the bleachers and you and your friends destroyed her?
"I wanted to talk to you alone because.." she lowers her voice even more "Don't tell anyone this, but Sarah had been acting weird, like, hanging out with random guys and stuff."
"I'm sorry, Kristin, but l don't know. You're a good friend to be concerned about her. I just wish I could be of more help," you say.
'It's true, I don't know what Val did with the body,' you think, although you know it's not much of a defense for your little lie.
Tears welled up in Kristin's eyes as she nods and then walks off without a further word.
You feel bad for her, but telling her the truth would lead to even more questions, some of which you don't even know the answer to. Now is not the time for that conversation; now is the time for reading the unencrypted email Sven forwarded.
The beginning of the email thread is dated from two weeks ago. The exchange is between Dr. Franklin, who you now know as Dr_OneNineHundred, and someone that goes by Liberty_from_Death.
Liberty_from_Death (14 days ago): Converting the Valentines is key to our plans. With both the military police and the scientific wing under our control, all the sectors will be ours.
Dr_OneNineHundred (14 days ago): How do we convert them?
Liberty_from_Death (13 days ago): Through infection, of course.
Dr_OneNineHundred (13 days ago): They are well guarded at home and probably even better guarded at work.
Liberty from_Death (13 days ago): Yes, which is why we must infect their daughter and let her infect them.
Dr_OneNineHundred (13 days ago): Yes, she is in my class. Infecting her should not be a problem.
Liberty_from_Death (13 days ago): You are not to infect her directly. First infect someone she trusts, a school friend, and have that person infect her.
Dr_OneNineHundred (13 days ago): lt would be simpler to infect Jen directly. I have plenty of virus. Slip it into her drink, inject her with a needle, plenty of means.
Liberty_ from_Death (13 days ago): And then what? She does not trust you. Turn her and she will rip your throat out with her newfound hunger. Although you would make her one of us, she would not be loyal. From my dealings with her she is loyal to her friends. Turn a friend, one that you can control, and then let that friend turn Jen.
Dr_OneNineHundred (12 days ago): Very well, it will be done. And then you will allow me to convert?
Liberty_from_Death (12 days ago): Yes.
Dr_OneNineHundred (3 days ago): I have a new member. Someone to infect Jen, someone close to her.
Liberty from_Death (3 days ago): Good. Get it done ASAP
Dr_OneNineHundred (2 days ago): My contact has tried, but has not had a good opportunity yet.
Liberty_from_Death (2 days ago): Fine. Btw, I heard there have been infections in Zeta High. I authorized in fections, but I didn't authorize hearing about them! You need to keep your converted under control!
Dr_OneNineHundred (2 days ago): We've got it under control, now; however, Jen is snooping around, so her friend will need to move more aggressively.
Liberty from_Death (1 day ago): Very well, you are authorized move more aggressively. You must infect Jen NOW!
You read and reread the thread.
'Oh my God, Mr. Franklin has turned one of my friends into an HFVM?' you think. According to the thread, this was done three days ago, which was a day before you returned to school from your post-trauma therapy. Not had a good opportunity yet... That was from the thread dated two days ago. So this "friend" has been trying to find an opportunity to infect me? And the last part of the thread, the part that says to "move more aggressively" was dated yesterday!
Sven is right. You are in immediate danger.