Episode 12: Mr. Body Beautiful
Part 5
Outside K’s body, inevitable death lingered at the other end of a shock.
“Let’s get the petri dish ready to catch them. It looks like they’ll come out of K’s mouth.” Red watched the yellow Beetle hurtle up K’s trachea, pretending not to hear Nick’s high-pitched screaming from the car’s interior feed. “Pearl, what do you want Leo to do with them once they’re out?”
“Take them to my lab. Set up the decontamination shower for the car, then Nick and Styx, then the trunk and Jay in the exosuit, then Jay out of the exosuit.” Pearl couldn’t hide the grin on her face at Leo’s look of disgust. “After you unshrink them and do the initial wash on the car, they should be able to handle the rest themselves, and you can go to Vegas to catch up with FANS.”
Leo nodded firmly, though his face was still an unsightly shade of green.
“Hear that, Jay?” Pearl continued. “Two showers. And a shower for the trunk. After that, tell Styx to go wash and detail my car since he probably can’t hear me saying it.”
“Got it. Got it. Does your car have any buttons that will keep me from having to listen to Nick screaming?”
“Cover your ears.” Pearl shrugged. “Leave the containment receptacles in my lab. I want to study them when I get back.”
“What? I can’t hear you! I’m covering my ears, and it’s really effective!” Jay laughed, but Nick’s endless screams drowned it out.
“What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?” Lancy paced dramatically again as Archie pumped K’s chest.
“Why don’t you go get K a glass of water for when he wakes up?” Red suggested — more to remove the panicking Lancy than to provide K any additional comfort after waking.
“Oh, good thinking, Red! I’ll get him a bubbly water to help soothe his throat after having Pearl’s car all over it!” Lancy skipped out of the infirmary, his pinafore shimmying along with him.
Red breathed a sigh of relief at one distraction gone. At that same moment, a yellow speck flew from K’s mouth and hovered in the air above his face.
“Did I die? Everything in Heaven looks so big…” Nick mumbled.
As she laughed, Red held out the petri dish beneath the tiny helicopter. “Just land here, then Leo will take you to Pearl’s lab and unshrink you. Great work.”
“We’re alive!” The tiny Bugicopter landed on the petri dish with a tiny tap. On the video screen beside them, Nick visibly kissed Pearl’s steering wheel.
“Definitely needs a detail,” Pearl grumbled.
Leo gently took the petri dish from Red and exited the room. Another sigh of relief now that the second distraction was gone.
“Can we still watch?” Brian spoke up calmly beside Pearl. During this mission, he was a man of few words monitoring from states away.
“As long as you’re quiet,” Red answered calmly as she quickly grabbed the defibrillator pads and placed them on K’s chest. After charging the machine on her crash cart, she ensured Archie had removed his hands from K’s body. “Clear!” She pressed a button on the defibrillator, and a shock jolted K’s heart.
Archie restarted his chest compressions as Red monitored K. Seconds after the shock, the readings on the heart monitor normalized as it beeped in a recognizable rhythm. A good sign. K’s chest began rising and falling against Archie’s hands. An even better sign. When K’s hand twitched, Archie stopped pumping.
Red took K’s hand and turned it over, pressing two fingers to the radial artery in his wrist. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt a strong pulse fluttering against her fingertips. “I told you I’d see you when you woke up, K.”
“Glad you’re okay, Cous’,” Brian’s voice hitched from the video feed behind her.
***
Nick paced Pearl’s lab, waiting for Jay’s excruciatingly long second decontamination shower.
“Just leave without me, dude,” Jay called over the water.
“No! We all have to be there for K!” Nick shouted back, secretly horrified that Jay would suggest otherwise.
“I can’t believe all this scut work I have to do as a shadow agent!” Styx grumbled. “Sitting in the back seat doing nothing for a whole mission! Washing giant boogers off a car just because Pearl says so! At my old job–”
“You know, Styx…” Nick started, feeling a little bad when the rookie looked up from his scrubbing hopefully. “…I think she’d want you to address her properly. Professor Pearl, you know?” That was a complete lie, but her face would be hilarious when he did.
Returning to scrubbing, Styx continued grumbling to himself about his old job and responsibilities.
Nick felt a little guilty for playing pranks at his trainee’s expense, so he clapped his hand on his shoulder as he picked up a sponge of his own and started scrubbing beside him. “K will notice all the hard work you’re doing. You’ll definitely get missions of your own soon.” When Styx smiled, Nick quickly changed the subject to something much less sentimental. “I wish Leo-nerdwad had washed the car when we were in it. How cool would it have been to ride in a giant bubble?” He grinned gleefully.
“Carter, I thought you hated flying?” Jay laughed as he exited the decontamination shower while towel drying his hair, back in his ridiculous shirt with the inner tubes and blowfish… or red and white blood cells, whatever.
“Oh yeah…” Nick frowned.
“And what about falling out of one if it popped?”
Nick felt his heart clench. Did he have ventric-you-whatever? Probably not, because he could still wonder if he did. If nothing else, he’d probably die of a heart attack before he ever hit the ground in that scenario.
“Forget I asked.” Jay laughed. “Let’s check on K.”
“Oh yeah!” Nick dropped the sponge and ran from Pearl’s lab.
“Aren’t you going to wash your hands?” Styx shouted after him.
“What? Why?” Nick shouted back as he tore down the hall. The long hallways and staircases blurred as he hoped K had woken up and would yell at him for running around HQ. Guilt quickly replaced that hope when Nick remembered that he’d momentarily forgotten K while he thought about riding in a giant bubble. Then worry replaced that guilt — what if he didn’t make it to K in time? As these thoughts raced through Nick’s head, he careened around a corner, nearly knocking Lancy over.
“You made it back safely! I’m so relieved!” Lancy bounced up and down on his heels as he caught his balance, triumphantly holding the still-full glass of sparkling water.
“No time, Lancy!” Nick shouted as he slid into the infirmary Risky Business-style. As was typical, he slammed into the foot of K’s bed.
When Nick caught himself, he scanned the quiet infirmary. No beeping machinery, no medical tools, no video feeds with Pearl’s face, not even Red. Had K… died? Nick swallowed the lump in his throat and crept to K’s bedside. Had he done something inside K that killed him? Was it the flippers? Or speeding through his heart? Nick sank to his knees as he cupped K’s hand. It was still warm. He must have just died.
This can’t be happening, Nick thought to himself. I can’t… lose K… There had to be something he could do. Maybe annoying K back to life would work like Jay suggested. Not that Nick found himself annoying, but K definitely did. Knowing what he had to do, he took a deep breath and began to sing.
“Darkness falls.
I thought I heard you call,
or was it just a dream?
I’m a little scared,
knowing you’re out there
so far away from me.
It’s been so long
since you’ve been gone.
Every day I miss you more.
Now I wanna know.
Why did you have to go?
What were you looking for?
And I hope you find your way,
but I can’t wait to say…”
As Nick sang, only one thought ran through his mind. If K wakes up, I’ll work hard at being a better, less annoying agent.
***
“You’re home now, not alone now.
These arms are here to hold you.
Don’t need to be afraid.
So come in ‘cause I’ve been
waiting for the moment
to open up this door,
and I know that it’s not much.
Welcome to my heart…”
Normally, K would find Nick’s incessant singing annoying. However, he had to admit, the effort Nick went through to contribute to his recovery was touching – even after Nick had woken him from his nap by throwing himself against the infirmary bed. Though Nick wasn’t always conventional, everything he did was from the heart he wore on his sleeve. K chuckled at the ironic sentiment of the idiom.
“K!” Nick shouted. In an instant, he wrapped him in a hug.
“008, I am your–”
“I’m really glad you’re okay.” Nick spoke slowly, trying to hide the shaking in his voice.
Instead of finishing his gut reaction to remind Nick that they were in the workplace, K simply smiled and patted Nick’s back as he returned the hug. “Thank you.”
“K! I knew you’d make it out on the other side!” Jay’s voice rang through the infirmary.
“Oh good, you’re both back to normal size!” Red called.
Nick sheepishly released K from the hug, allowing K to sit up and see the faces of his employees — and friends, though he would never admit that to them. “Thank you,” he repeated again.
“Hey, thank you.” Jay grinned. “Now I don’t have to be a bargaining hostage for Dr. Rough. Vitruvian should be on his way there, and Pearl has Styx washing her car.”
K did his best to hide the smile on his face. Of course Pearl would demand her car be washed.
“How are you feeling?” Jay continued.
“Tired, but otherwise fine. I’m starting to think the bomb in my heart was just a weird dream.” K uncharacteristically squished his face, trying to move his nose. “Except something in my nose is bothering me.”
“Something in your nose?” Nick squeaked, hurriedly looking at the floor.
Red handed K a tissue, which he took moments before sneezing into it. “That’s better,” he mumbled as he snuck a peek at the contents. Mostly clear, plus a small, blue speck. K furrowed his brow as he stared at it and muttered. “Blue? Why is there a blue speck in my tissue?”
Nick tensed like a cat arching its back as he turned red from the tips of his ears to his nose.
Jay laughed hysterically, then he patted K’s shoulder. “It definitely wasn’t a dream, K.” He continued laughing loudly. “Also, we’re gonna need some new flippers for our diving suits.”
For a few moments, Red’s infirmary was dead silent as Nick slowly slunk backward toward the door. Then K started laughing loudly. One by one, Jay, Red, and finally Nick joined in.
“I just knew this mission into K’s heart wouldn’t beat us.” Nick grinned.
“CAR-TER!” They all shouted but continued laughing.
Even with Nick’s stupid puns, the laughter relieved any lingering tension from their latest mission. After all, only Nick would get sent into someone’s body to defuse a bomb and leave his flippers behind.
***
Dr. Rough paced the floor of his private chamber, wearing a path into the plush, purple rug at the foot of his bed. Dr. Twitches was perched on his shoulder. He stroked the ferret’s sleek back maniacally as he waited for word from his human minions.
Suddenly, he heard the crackle of static coming from one of the many monitors on his wall and lifted his head hopefully as the screen came to life. “Timmons… Fatone!” he exclaimed, happy to see the Rough Riders he had sent to Las Vegas to apprehend one of Himitsu Takana’s top agents. “Tell me you have good news. Is McLean in your custody?”
The two minions looked at each other. “Sorry, Dr. Rough. No sign of him yet,” said Joey. “But there’s still plenty of time for him to show. Seven hours, in fact.”
“Curses!” fumed Dr. Rough, wishing he hadn’t allowed Jay such a wide window of time in which to turn himself in.
Jeff must have been thinking the same thing. “Why did you give him ten hours, anyway?” he asked, frowning. “That seems like a long time.”
“Well, I thought it would take him at least two-and-a-half hours to drive to Vegas from the Himitsu Takana headquarters — more like three if the traffic is bad or he has to stop for gas,” Dr. Rough reasoned.
“Okay, but then why not make it, like, four hours?”
He bristled, feeling Dr. Twitches’ claws dig into his tense shoulder. “I wanted it to be a nice, round number — not four.”
“Fine… five, then.”
“Five is not a round number!” Dr. Rough screeched, causing the frightened ferret to squeak and scurry down his back. “Round numbers end in zero! Ten… Ten is a round number!” He was breathing hard by now, his heart hammering inside his heaving chest. He could hear his pulse pounding behind his eardrums as his blood boiled. How dare one of his underlings question his decisions?
Jeff seemed to sense he was skating on thin ice. “Right… my mistake.”
Dr. Rough’s eyes narrowed as he glared into the camera mounted over the wall of monitors. “Do not make another one, or it will be your last,” he warned the minion, struggling to keep his voice calm. “Continue your surveillance of the casino and notify me at once if anything changes. I’m going to check in with our mole and find out what’s going on.”
Jeff and Joey nodded. “We will, master,” they agreed. Seconds later, the screen went dark again.
Dr. Rough took a deep breath, then turned to look for his favorite companion. “Twitches!” he called, ducking down to check beneath the bed. “You can come back now! Daddy didn’t mean to get so mad!”
There was no sign of the ferret in his bedroom, so he poked his head into the bathroom. Thoughts of Dr. Twitches disappeared momentarily from his mind as he remembered the sight of Donnie trembling in his white briefs… Rachel’s blood-soaked body lying in the bathtub… and the abomination she had given birth to before she died.
Dr. Rough shuddered. His faithful minions had cleaned the bathroom, disposed of the corpse, and preserved the fetus for further study, but beneath the scent of bleach, he could still detect the faintly metallic smell of blood. It was enough to turn his stomach. Gagging, he dropped to his knees in front of the toilet and hovered there, on the verge of vomiting, until he gathered himself together again. Then he got to his feet and staggered back into the bedroom.
Sliding open the secret panel on his black wrist cuff, which doubled as a communicator, Dr. Rough sent a short text message to his undercover agent: “Contact me ASAP.” Then he resumed his pacing.
He was surprised to hear his communicator beep before his ferret returned. He tapped it to answer the call. A moment later, his mole’s face filled the screen embedded inside the cuff. “Can you talk?”
“Wouldn’t have called you if I couldn’t,” the minion replied shortly.
“Of course.” Dr. Rough pressed another button to cast the video to one of his blank monitors. “So,” he said, turning to face the camera, “I’m told Agent Jay has yet to arrive at the casino. Do you have an update on what’s been happening at the headquarters?”
The other man nodded. “I do, but not one you’re gonna wanna hear.”
Dr. Rough frowned, feeling his heartbeat accelerate again. “Tell me.”
The minion took a deep breath. “They managed to remove the bomb from K’s body — without killing him.”
“What?!” raged Dr. Rough. “He’s alive? How could that be? It was set to automatically detonate if the temperature dropped below ninety-five degrees!”
“They defused it first.”
“But how? That bomb was practically microscopic! There’s no way they could have defused it!”
“They made themselves microscopic to do it. Turns out Pearl has a shrink ray,” said the minion with a sigh.
Dr. Rough’s jaw dropped. “A shrink ray?!” he screeched. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?!”
“I didn’t know, master. I had never seen or heard of it until today when Pearl told Carter how to use it.”
“Carter… of course.” Dr. Rough seethed as he turned away from the camera, his eye twitching at the mere mention of the man who constantly meddled with his plans.
“Yeah, but it was actually Jay who defused the bomb.”
He balled his hands into fists as he pictured the face of his former friend, the one who had betrayed him by joining the secret agency that had rejected him. Somehow, Himitsu Takana had foiled every evil plot he had conceived of so far.
No… not every plot.
He took a calming breath and cleared his throat before turning back to face his mole. “No matter,” he said. “I have a new mission for you.”
The minion bowed his head. “What is it, master?”
“I need you to steal something for me.”
The man looked up, knitting his brow as he frowned. “Really? Breaking into K’s bedroom and injecting him with that bomb was one thing, but petty theft?”
Dr. Rough raised his own brow. “You believe you are above ‘petty theft’?”
“Well, no… I mean, yeah… maybe?”
“I assure you, this is not just petty theft. Should you succeed, this will change everything.” Again, he pictured the alien baby currently floating in a tank of formaldehyde in his laboratory. Then, speaking in hushed tones, he began to explain his latest plot.
By the time he finished, his undercover agent was smiling. “You’re right, Dr. Rough. It will change everything.”
***
Pearl hated packing. Or her version of it. What did it matter if the clothes she already wore were folded or not? She’d have to wash them anyway. Maybe she could find a way to invent microchips that would create self-folding clothing — something to look into when she was back in her lab. While the break had been nice, she was eager to get back. HimTak was the only family she’d ever had. She was anxious to see K, even though his face was on the screen of her still open laptop in Brian’s guest room. He was smiling, thank goodness. It had only been a day since Nick and Jay’s fantastic voyage.
“Well done overseeing the mission, Pearl. As far as anyone can tell, no lasting damage was done. Vitruvian has returned from Las Vegas, and there was no sign of FANS or Dr. Rough. I suspect they realized their plot had failed.”
“And my car?”
K chuckled. “It’s being detailed as you asked. Are you finished in DC?”
Nick’s head popped up from the left before she could answer. “Yeah, Pearly, are you coming back home?”
“We’re not done, but…”
K’s thick brows rose. “You’ve been cleared to stay as long as needed. I’m recovering, and Red has kept an eye on me for any issues, not that any have occurred.”
Pearl reached up and tightened her ponytail. “I know, but now that I know that the system is partially cracked…” The annoyance was evident in her face as her eyes narrowed. “I want to update it immediately. Make sure that’ll never happen again. Find out how it happened.” Her real meaning was clear.
K nodded. “Alright. We’ll see you soon then.”
“Also, Nick?”
Her friend grinned. “Yeah?”
“I better have a new couch by the time I get back!” She smirked before she reached over and shut the laptop, cutting off Nick’s playful reply. Sighing, she opened her purse and pulled out a small box, then walked out the door and down the hall. Brian had the kind of cozy home she wished she’d grown up in. While she didn’t have Nick’s dysfunctional and dramatic upbringing, hers had been far from typical. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she headed downstairs, where she could hear Opal giggling with Brian on the couch. They turned at the sound of her footsteps.
She felt herself blushing. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Brian just grinned from where he sat, cuddling his girlfriend. “Don’t worry about it. Something wrong?”
“No.” Pearl walked over to Opal and handed her the small jewelry box. “I wanted to make sure I gave you this before I left.”
Opal looked at her new friend with surprise. “You didn’t have to.”
“It’s a tradition with me. Open it up!”
Doing as she was told, Opal let out a small gasp when she saw what was inside: a delicate gold necklace with a large and beautiful oval-shaped opal set within a halo of diamonds. “Pearl…”
She laughed. “Before you go on, the jewels aren’t real. If you push the diamond directly at the bottom, it turns the “opal” screen on. Two-way communicator to our private HimTak line. Yours is voice-operated to call whoever you need there.” Pearl smirked. “This way, we don’t have to keep sending encoded emails.”
Opal laughed along with her. “Wow. Thank you.” She stood to hug the blonde. “I can’t believe you went through that trouble.”
Another blush formed on Pearl’s face, though she tried to shrug it off. “I like taking care of people I like. Anyway, I’m sorry I have to leave early, but with the latest issues…”
“You have to go back,” Brian chimed in. “We get it.”
“Exactly. But you guys can call if you need me. Though, I think you have it pretty much cracked, Opal; you shouldn’t need me.”
Another hug. “Thank you again.” Opal’s green eyes were soft and warm. “For everything.”
Pearl was going to miss working with Opal. While HimTak partnered with other scientists when necessary, it was an otherwise lonely department. It had been nice connecting with the cryptographer. They’d formed a kinship that she didn’t often find, even with those with IQs as high — or higher — than hers. “Anytime! We geeks have to stick together, right?”
Opal’s grin matched Pearl’s. “Right.”
***
Night had fallen at the FANS headquarters, yet Dr. Rough continued to prowl inside his private chamber, closely monitoring his minions’ comings and goings through his network of surveillance cameras.
He could see a gaggle of them playing a rousing game of Twister in the rumpus room, their arms and legs tangled up like tree roots. “Right hand, red!” called Abs, who held the spinner.
That reminded Dr. Rough of his red-eyed right-hand man, whom he had sent on a top-secret mission with his newly-refurbished prosthetic hand. Hopefully, it wouldn’t try to strangle him this time. He wondered how Drums was doing but resisted the impulse to contact him. He didn’t want to jeopardize the mission. Drums would update him when the deed was done.
His eyes roamed across the wall of screens, occasionally stopping to spy on different rooms within the compound.
Donnie lay curled in a tight ball on the bed of his dormitory, his body trembling as he cried himself to sleep. Dr. Rough had assured him that Rachel’s death would not be in vain; he was going to learn as much as he could about the alien baby that had led to her demise. Hopefully, the information he gleaned would help him in his quest for world domination.
MJ the penguin splashed in an ice bath as he waited for his handler to return from the desert. Dr. Rough had summoned Joey and Jeff home; there was no reason for them to remain in Nevada now that the bomb had been removed from K’s body. Himitsu Takana wouldn’t give up Jay, but they would surely send agents to try to apprehend the FANS henchmen who had been waiting for him. After the double arrest of Danny and Jon in December, Dr. Rough wasn’t about to risk losing more of his minions.
Sexi sat at the vanity in her suite, meticulously removing her makeup. Her voluptuous body was wrapped in a scarlet satin robe. The slinky material gapped open in front, exposing her cleavage. Dr. Rough gazed at the curve of her breasts, his heart rate accelerating as his hand moved automatically toward his crotch.
At that precise moment, his communicator beeped, causing his heart to skip a beat. As his breath caught in his throat, Dr. Rough raised his wrist and slid back the panel in his cuff to see who the incoming call was from. He was still waiting to hear back from his mole at Himitsu Takana.
He tapped the screen, and his protégé’s face appeared, the red eye blazing from the depths of the dark hoodie that hid his curly hair. “Drums,” said Dr. Rough, his heart resuming its pounding. “Do you have news for me?”
Drums nodded. “Mission accomplished, yo.”
Dr. Rough’s face split into a sinister grin.
***
Pearl ran her hand along the shining metal of her tabletop, the wide surveillance screens depicting agents on missions, her plush black chair. Home. Though she’d loved the time with Opal, being away from home drained her in a way she couldn’t quite explain. For a moment, she sank into her desk chair and monitored the cameras. Leaning back in the chair, she smiled, appreciating the familiar and the comfortable.
Her joy was short-lived when a sinking feeling crept into her stomach. Someone had put a microscopic bomb in K’s heart. Someone who got past her surveillance. Someone who found a hole in the security she provided for her home. Someone who wouldn’t like what she would do to them. It would make his other eye twitch, she thought to herself as she grinned.
Launching into work mode, Pearl pulled her keyboard toward her, but it scraped on a piece of paper. Pearl frowned and pulled the bright yellow sticky note from her desk. It had two words scrawled on it: My bad.
Pearl laughed and spun around in her chair. The first thing that caught her eye was her shiny yellow VW Beetle, free of any remnants of its fantastic voyage. With a scrutinizing eye, she examined the interior and exterior. Clearly she had chosen the right trainee agent for the job of detailing it; she honestly hadn’t expected him to follow through.
When she rounded the corner toward the driver’s side, she shrieked in delight. There sat a brand new bright blue loveseat. Pearl stroked the plush fabric, then flopped onto it. Under all the joking, Nick was really sweet sometimes. Or at least as long as she threatened him. Shaking her head, Pearl laughed, momentarily forgetting Dr. Rough. And in that moment, she remembered Opal.
“Ugh!” Pearl groaned and tightened her ponytail. “Everything with K distracted me from what was really exciting about the encryption.” Pearl grinned. More than the comforts of her lab, her clean car, and the new couch, one thing always excited her: new technology.
She approached her lab table, noting the shrink ray and the lead-lined containment receptacles Jay had left on the edge. A mind wiping device lay beside them. Though the bomb had looked simple enough, studying it could reveal if FANS had created it small or had shrinking technology of their own. And knowing that could provide information on the types of people who worked for them and what they were capable of.
But that could wait. She had figured out the cone of silence, but her encryption work with Opal could finally solve what the other alien device did. Decode exactly how it used brain waves. Pearl reached the end of the table and leaned down to the small safe beneath it. After the machine gun bra incident, extra precautions had become necessary. And it was an affront to technology to leave it out where Nick could break it before she could solve it. After typing in her code, she flung open the safe.
Empty! She recoiled. Who could have possibly figured out the code to the safe?
“Shit!” Pearl stormed back to her desk and yanked her chair from it. She slammed her fingers against the keys of her keyboard until a familiar face popped up on the screen.
“Welcome back! You like it?” Nick grinned back at her.
“Where is it?!”
“What do you mean ‘where is it’? Next to your car.” Nick frowned. “I thought it was the same couch. Is something wrong with it? The size? Should I have shrunk it so you could unshrink it?”
“008!” Pearl’s hands shook as she stared at the screen. Why was he focusing on the couch? Was he trying to distract her?
Nick flinched back from the screen. “Are you okay?”
“Were you messing around in my lab again?!”
“You said you wanted a new couch when you got back. I got you a couch. I mind-wiped the delivery guys. I haven’t been in your lab since.” Nick swallowed. “What’s going on?”
“You’re lying!”
“I swear. The only thing in there is those radioactive bomb pieces. Why would I touch those?”
“You don’t know the code to my safe?”
“What safe?” Nick’s eyebrows pinched in concern. “Pearly, are you okay?”
“I have to go!”
“P–”
She slammed the keys again, ending the feed to Nick. Her computer beeped as he tried to reconnect with her, but she ignored the page. With lightning-fast fingers, she switched all the surveillance cameras to one large feed of her lab.
Fast-forwarding through it, she kept a careful eye on her main work table. Leo entered the lab with a small petri dish, then set it on the floor. He pointed the shrink ray at it until the bright yellow Bug reappeared in her lab. When he started setting up the decontamination shower, Pearl fast-forwarded quicker. She watched Styx wash her car with lightning speed and then watched him exit her lab.
It remained empty but visible. Pearl groaned again as the lingering beep from Nick continued to page her. “Nothing’s here!”
That was when movement entered the lab.
“Ah-hah!” Pearl shouted. But her relief was short-lived because the movement was a bright blue loveseat followed by Nick mind-wiping some delivery men. Afterward, the lab remained empty.
Pearl switched off Nick’s persistent page and leaned her head in her hands. If Nick was telling the truth, what could have possibly happened?
A glint of light on the screen caught her eye, and her head bolted upright. The screen was black! Pearl gasped and hurriedly rewound the feed.
At 19:27:43, her perfectly visible lab was empty. At 19:27:44, the feed went black. At 19:47:22, her empty lab reappeared on screen.
With a shaking hand, Pearl tapped her fingers on the keys of her keyboard. Compared to her earlier aggravated strikes, these ones were practically silent.
“Pearl.” K smiled briefly on the call feed. “Welcome back to headquarters. Are you ready to debrief about the bomb?”
“No… no time, K…” Pearl’s voice shook like her fingers.
“Pearl, I’m really fine. We can return to discussing the mission.”
“Twenty minutes.”
“You need twenty minutes? Okay?” K frowned.
“For twenty minutes, the feed in my lab is completely black but still running. No sound, no video, nothing.”
K remained silent.
Pearl knew he perfectly understood her meaning but couldn’t let it go unsaid after starting. “There’s been a breach. We need to shut down HimTak immediately.”
***