Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 00:59:09 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (1/7) To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu Hello all.We are the writting team of Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson and this is our first attempt at "regular" FK-Fiction writing. This story will be our Third writing experience after what we did in war 8 and the NightCrawler Monologue we recently published. We are members of the secret agent fkwar team, The General's Secret Service, and our story here is a GSS style story although it is not war. The G.S.S. Website: http://members.tripod.com/~xena1/firewall.html and the G.S.S. war files can be found there. Note: All G.S.S stories written by us are not consistent with any others, each are independant. -----Also, if anyone is thinking of using information about the G.S.S. from this or other G.S.S. fiction stories to try to infiltrate us in the next war, I have to warn you, that information is not going to be the same. Infact, you should consider all descriptions of our headquarters and security systems to be inacurate. Copyrights: Forever Knight does not belong to us (ofcourse) and neither do its characters. They are the copyrighted property of Sony/TriStar Inc. The General's Secret Service, its logo, equipment and its characters -except for LaCroix were created by and belong to the G.S.S. Disclaimer: This story is rated PG for violence. No "real" G.S.S. agents or animals were hurt in the making of it. This and all stories written by us has permission to be archived at any FK fiction website. List of G.S.S. Characters involved: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph Phantom- Bob ---------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (1/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter The waning moon shone down through the cloudy canopy of nighttime sky, spreading only a shallow illumination upon the earth, unable to touch a dark figure who crouched in the shadow of a large old willow tree. He glanced about the area for a moment, then he whispered into the mouthpiece of his wireless comlink. "Status report, Ace?" he asked anxiously. "Almost done," The female voice on the other end replied, "The wiring is pretty tricky." He waited for her to confirm that the security fence voltage was off. "Ok. it's down, Striker," Ace's whisper buzzed in his reciever a few seconds later. "I'm moving to location Charlie." At her word, he rose from his crouch, the blackness of his clothing and ski-mask helping to keep him cloaked in shadow as he moved into the open. The dark figure unfolded a thick wool blanket out of the black backpack he had unslung from his shoulders. Holding the blanket in one hand, he slipped the pack over the other shoulder and sprinted swiftly forward, scaling the twelve foot fence to the top of its chainlinked surface. Throwing the blanket over the razor wire enabled him to step over quickly. He straddled the fence without laceration and dropped to the ground on the other side. Striker slipped his other arm through its strap on the pack and made his way toward the closely grouped buildings within the fenced compound. Aproaching the first building, his hazel eyes narrowed behind the eye holes of the mask that hid his identity as he caught a faint noise. Striker glanced quickly about and faded back behind a sculpted bush just before a sentry emerged through the door of one of the tall grey structures. Striker scanned the area carefully and determined that the grounds were empty except for the one sentry who was leaning against the buildings wall smoking a cigarette.. He withdrew a silenced automatic pistol and aimed. His finger tightened on the trigger and there was a soft chuffing sound before the sentry dropped to the ground and lay still..Striker made his way to the wall of the largest structure. Pressing his gloved hands against the wall, he began his slow climb up its surface toward a second floor window. "Strange. Since when was it possible to walk up a wall?" Striker thought to himself as continued his ascent up the wall.. Arriving at the window, the thought evaporated, as he concentrated on making use of a glass cutter he retrieved from the inside of his fleece lined jacket. The elevation of his shoulders in retrieving the cutter created a slight glimmer from a patch on his left shoulder momentarily highlighted in the moonlight that was reflected on the surface of the windowpane. The letters G.S.S. were stenciled in blue across the face of a coat-of-arms consisting of four converging swords and a number 8. It was the crest of the General's Secret Service. Agent Striker attached his cutting device and traced a six-inch-radius hole in the glass, removing a circular section and setting it carefuly on the window ledge. He then stuck his hand in to swiftly and expertly open the window's latch. Entering and silently dropping to the carpeted floor of what seemed to be a richly furnished guest bedroom, Striker proceeded purposfuly toward the door at the opposite side of the room and paused, eye's widening. "Where is the handle?" he pondered, studying the smooth unadorned surface of the unusual door. Running his hands over it gave him no clue as to any means of pulling it open, pushing didn't work, and the seems were too well fitted to grasp even with his fingernails... Yet at some point in his investigations Striker, as yet unknown to himself how, got the door open. Peeking through the opening and confirming that it was deserted he proceeded down the hall coming to another door. This one happily complete with handle. Opening it slightly he listened for signs of an occupant, finally peering in and finding the room empty. He stepped forward only to feel the sudden cold press of a pistol muzzle against the back of his neck. Striker froze. "May I assist you in your search?" A cultured voice with a British accent casually inquired him. Raising his hands slightly, moving slowly forward and turning around; Striker watched as 3 men walked in to stand behind the man with the gun. One of them entered with a gun pointed at Ace who was shoved in ahead of them to stumble over to Striker's side. "Damn! We walked into this like amateurs," Striker muttered, puzzled, confused and upset. "Sorry bro." Ace said, pushing her long mahogany colored hair out of her eyes as she looked at him regretfully. "So, she's with you.." the now visible leader gestured toward Ace using his pistol. He was casually attired in a burgundy sweater and black pants. His blond hair, partially buzzed and left long on top, of a length conforming with that of the latest "alternative" style. Striker guessed him to be in his early thirties. The hired musclemen arrayed behind him were attired in black outfits similar to the two agents, who were now in a lot of trouble. "Nah, we just have the same tailor," Striker responded cavalierly. "Is that so...?" the man replied, sighing as he removed a small case from his inner coat pocket, "I'm afraid you'll have to come up with a better answer than that." He opened the case and displayed two hypodermic needles and a small glass bottle filled with a yellow fluid all neatly strapped in with black elastic. The Englishman raised his eyes questioningly back toward Striker and his companion. Ace's steel grey eyes slid to the right to catch Striker's hazel ones, and he nodded slightly. The two then thrust their arms up into the air abruptly, startling the men as the agents both dropped backward to the floor quickly turning to catch themselves on the palms of their hands and sweep kicking the legs out from under their captors. "Aargh! Shoot them!" the leader yelled, trying to extract himself from the tangle of flailing bodys. The two agents sprang to their feet, an H&K MP5 submachinegun in Striker's hand and a Mini Uzi in Ace's. They cut down the four struggling villians before they could get their own weapons up and ready. In the midst of the barking of automatic weapons fire and the clinking of empty shell casings against the hardwood floor, Striker signaled to Ace that the noise would be sure to bring reinforcements. They needed to abort the mission. "Lets get the hell out of here!!!!" she responded, as she charged back out into the hall. they took a left turn, passing-up several rooms and finally opening a door on the right further down the hall, which led to another hall where they spotted some men running toward them. "The other way!" Striker yelled at Ace, "Move now!" They ran a few yards back the way they had come, and entered through a service door, making their way up a flight of stairs. Striker looked back, and was about to speak when he noticed Ace was gone, "Where'd she go?" Striker thought, as he stopped, looked around, and was even more puzzled. Hearing footsteps coming up the stairway after him, Striker charged up another flight of stairs, emerging onto the roof. Running to the edge of the roof, Striker struggled out of his pack and took out a one hundred foot coil of nylon rope securing the end to a post. He tossed the rest of it out over the ledge of the building, then he grabbed onto the end and swung over the side of the building. Sliding down the rope as quickly as possible in a juryrigged rappeling maneuver Striker slipped downward too quickly and hit the ground hard, somehow managing to land on his feet. "Why didn't that hurt?" he mused, as he checked himself, surprised that nothing was broken. As he turned to head back toward the fence, Striker was startled by the sight of a figure that he hadn't heard approaching him. It stood in front of him blocking the way. G.S.S. Agent Phantom! "Bob!" Striker barked at him, startled but joyful at his appearance. "Thank goodness you got here in one piece! This mission is scrapped. I hope Ace got out alright..." he added glancing back up at the roof. He then turned back toward Phantom who was being unusually silent. Phantom smiled warmly as he pulled out a .44 Long Slide with laser sighting from his jacket, and pointed at Striker. "Bob, what are you doing?" Striker demanded, eyes going wide as the red dot centered on his forehead. "Well Joseph, you win some, you lose some." Phantom quipped as he pulled the trigger. There was a flash of light, Striker shut his eyes tight... ....................................................... His eyes shot open staring into blackness. "Am I dead?" Joseph asked himself as he glanced about in the gloom; his eyes finally rested upon the glowing face of the electric clock on the desk. It was 4:00 am. Realizing it was only a dream and where he really was, Joseph silently admonished himself "I've gotta stop taking that Ashwaghanda-herb for the vivid dreams." Getting up and donning his favorite Forever Knight print pajama pants "Janette edition" -tm, that he grabbed out of a drawer in the nearby chest o'drawers, Joseph exited his room. Stopping just outside the door, he glanced back in at the sleeping form of the woman in his bed. "Could use some "relaxation" right about now," Joseph murmured thoughtfully, but when he saw how peacefully she was sleeping, Joseph didn't have the heart to wake her. He decided to go to the kitchen and get something soothing to drink. Ambling groggily down the hall to the open kitchen entryway, Joseph met and almost collided with Kim as she was on her way out of the kitchen.. "Hey!" she complained, narrowly avoiding spilling her hot coffee down Joseph's chest and front of his pajama pants. "oops, sorry." Joseph responded, as he jerked backward while Kim steadied the contents of her mug, "Kim, You got to hear this dream I had." "Later, Joe. I just came to get some more coffee," she yawned. "I've got to test some of the security systems, then I'm going to catch some nappy time of my own. Want to join me?" she said, winking at Joe and raising her cup. "Work or nappy time?" Joseph grinned. His remark got him a raised eyebrow expression, "Sure. I'll help. I don't think I can sleep now anyway, and Lisa is sleeping soundly," Joseph added following Kim toward the G.S.S. control room. ----to be continued Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:00:16 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (2/7) To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (2/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter The computer screen lit up in responce to Kim sitting down at the console: "Hello Kimberly," The computer intoned verbaly as the words flashed across its screen. "Hello computer," Kim replied setting her coffee cup down on the console. "I need security file access level Green." she said, then began typing in the access codes at the computer's request. ENTER ACCESS CODE/* XXXXX-XXXX *APPROVED.... WELCOME AGENT B-12 SECURITY SYSTEMS ONLINE.... ALPHA SYSTEM CURRENTLY ACTIVE...... NO BREACHES DETECTED.... XXXXX_ READY TO RUN SYSTEM TEST ......................................................... "I've been meaning to talk to you about something." Kim said to Joseph. "About what?" Joseph asked curiously as he pulled up an extra chair next to the console. "Security." she replied. "Oh, don't start going on about that again," Joseph argued petulently, "Lisa is a nice girl, Kim. What do you think she is, a spy?" "It doesn't matter, Joe. You know the rules. Absolutely no outsiders." Kim replied, as she keyed in the first test sequence. "What if the General showed up?" "Since when does he do that?" Joseph hotly replied, as he tore off a new data page from the printer, "He never comes down here. LaCroix has no interest in the G.S.S. unless there's a war on, you know that." "Yeah, but he has ways of finding out what we're up to..." she said, glancing up toward the ceiling in the direction of the C.E.R.K. studios directly above them. "If he merely walked through the door, he'd know she was here, Joe. You know how he is about the Rules. What he might do... And what do you really know about her anyway? Besides the obvious, I mean.." Kim said, teasing Joseph darkly, as she took another sip of her coffee. "Paranoia strikes again," Joseph muttered smirking back at her. "All part of the job, my friend. It's all part of the job," Kim replied as she saved the results of her diagnostic test. She got up from her chair in front of the huge screen of the G.S.S. Headquarters' main computer, stretching her arms up over her head and arching her back. "Mmmph, One of the traps out front is registering a jam in its primary lateral extender. Going to have to fix it the old fashioned way." she said, yawning a bit. "Come on, and don't forget the tool kit." Kim went to a large red locker, opened it and grabbed two hardhats, complete with flashlight and a black jumpsuit which matched the purple one that she was wearing. Donning one hard hat and switching on the light, she tossed the other hardhat and the jumpsuit at Joe. "Here you go, so you wont get cold." she explained as she tossed the items to Joseph.. He rose from his chair and caught them, and stepped easily into the jumpsuit. "Thanks, Kim." Joe said, grinning as he finished fastening up his new outfit, then he picked up the heavy toolbox & hard hat, and turned to follow her as she disappeared through the door and headed toward the front entry room. "Are you almost done updating this stuff?" he called out after Kim who had already exited through the motion sensitive automatic door just as it was closing. It re-opened on Joseph's approach and shut silently after him. "Yeah. Just this last thing, and then, we're through 'till June or whenever." she replied, grinning deviously. "What? Oh, yeah. The War." Joseph groaned, "I still haven't recovered from the last one. What is it going to be, War 9?" "Yeah, nine." she replied as she turned a corner and strode a little farther down the length of the dungeon-like hallway, and stopped in front of an unimportant looking rocky outcropping. "Here it is. Nasty trick number eight." She pointed something that resembled a remote control at it, and a piece of the rock slid upward exposing a strange mechanical configuration. "Hand me the vorpalspanner, would you?" she said over her shoulder to Joseph who already had the toolbox open and was examining the contents of it while she peered into the rocky breach. "Is that the blue one with the serrated edges, or the yellow one with the extra sockets?" Joe asked her as he looked at the strange array of unique tools that were inside the toolbox. "It's the green one, Joe. It's sharp on one end and looks like a stretched figure eight." she replied, "Be careful when you pick it up." "Yeah I know." he muttered as the sound of rustling and clanking could be heard as Joe went through the toolbox. "Ouch!" Joseph pulled his hand from the toolbox with a good sized slice in his thumb, bleeding steadily. "Told ya," Kim mocked, as she turned to look at Joe, "Hey! Don't bleed on the tools, Joe. They'll rust." "Sorry." Joseph mumbled sourly, as he stuck the thumb in his mouth. Kim grinned, rocking back on her heels, "Don't let L.C. see you doing that that." she teased him. Joseph grinned back at her remark. "Don't let him hear you calling him L.C." he said, teasing her in return. Kim groaned in remembrance. "Just hand me the tool and try not to cut your hand off this time, wiseguy." she said. They continued to chatter while Kim fiddled with the trap machine and Joseph handed her the odd tools as they were described to him while he observed her work. And he occasionally picked out the right one. meanwhile back in the HQ....... Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:02:46 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (3/7) To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph Phantom- Bob -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (3/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter "Lisa" stretched luxuriantly, reclining on fluffy black pilows amidst the G.S.S. print silk sheets and soft jet colored blankets of Josephs bed. Her dark brown hair streaming out over the covers complementing the tawny golden tone of her skin against its black background. She reached out toward the nightstand and grabbed Joseph's watch from where he had left it. 4:45 a.m. displayed across its surface in glowing characters at the push of a button. "Time to get to work.." she thought to herself as she yawned and rose, letting the rest of the covers fall from her soft skin as she slid out of bed. She walked over to the small jet colored cushioned chair where she had left her dress draped along with her other clothing items, across its back. Lisa slipped back into her underwear but went to the free standing wardrobe instead of donning the white silk dress she had arrived in and chuckled over the good luck she was having. Agent Striker, her mark, whom she now knew as Joseph, was about the same size as she was and she rejoiced in the ability to slip into a pair of his G.S.S. uniform pants which fit nicely over her slender rounded hips. She topped the ensemble off with one of his black tee-shirts, grabbed her purse, and left the room to seek out that which was the reason for her mission. She had always liked to work a mission while wearing pants. Slinky dresses just got in the way. ---------------------------------------- "Ok, now ... carefully press in on the jig while I reset the fly wheel on this thing." Kim said to Joe as the two top agents worked dilligently outside G.S.S. headquarters, carefully resetting their trap. "Are we done yet?" Joseph asked Kim for the fourth time in as many minutes, his thoughts begining to drift back to his warm bed and the girl that he assumed was sleeping soundly in it. "Yes, yes, just keep the pressure on that thing or we're both dog food!" Kim replied irritably as she tightened another bolt. Inside, Lisa approached the bookshelf that spanned the wall of the G.S.S. rec-room. She let her fingers trail along the backs of the hardbound novels as she walked past. Lisa found the one she was looking for and withdrew it from it's place. She turned it about and shoved it back into the bookshelf spine first. With a faint click, a three foot section of the bookcase slowly slid back, moved to the left, and into the wall. She casually entered the concealed laboratory, the lights automatically coming on as she stepped into the room. "Impressive" she observed, as she strolled past tables covered in lab equipment and gear upgrade projects. Coming to a large cabinet set up against the back wall with a label stuck across the top which read "Robert L. Sellers Jr.", she set her purse down and sighed, "Okay, girl, this is the gravy.." Hunching down to observe the locking mechanism -a numbered keypad, Lisa glanced to the right where a framed picture of a bearded man and a happy looking woman stood on a small end table. "Robert and his wife" she recalled, thinking back to the begining of her mission....... ----------------------------------------------- Wednesday, Janurary 26, 1998 She refocused the binoculars as the tall bearded man emerged through the front door of the upper middleclass suburban townhouse. From her vantage point behind a peaking stretch of roof on the adjacent domacile, she judged that he was heading off to work as he had routinely done the previous week. Robert L. Sellers Jr.; A.K.A. "Phantom", Agent and Acting Chief of Surveillance of the General's Secret Service.... whatever that is. Lisa was a good tech thief and had stumbled on their little group during a rather strange week in Toronto last June. Apparently, they had some cutting edge technology, not to mention some unique weapons and gear that she might be able to find a couple of buyers for. She had been unable to breach the defenses of their well hidden and very well protected headquarters to get at the techie goodies therein. Her only other option was to follow one of them home when they finally left and see if he had kept anything valuable for personal use that she could "borrow". Robert maneuvered around to the driverside of the red Suburban and beeping the lock open with his keychain remote, slid into the seat, arranging the seatbelt carefully across his suitcoat and tie. Lisa pushed up the cuff of her desert brown canvas jacket and checked her watch as he backed out of the driveway. "Seven o'clock exactly," she mumbled routinely. "Wife at work until three. Target returns home at Seven-thirty." Lisa ducked back behind the peak of the roof and holstered the binoculars; tossing them to land on her overstuffed pack that was lying in the frosty dew-drenched grass of the empty backyard below. Her own descent was an ungraceful short leap to the ground. Thankful that the property's owners were still on vacation which meant she didn't have to sneak, the short, willowy stranger scooped up her gear and crunched across the yard, her black leather boots gathering both frost and dew. She slung her pack and the case strap over her shoulder and scaled the six foot wooden fence with practiced ease, tossing long dark locks from her brown eyes with a quick jerk of her head and heading straight for the power feed of the target's dwelling. Lisa quickly cut the power to the house and headed for the door. The back door lock opened easily and she let herself in, quickly closing the door behind her. Inside, she oriented herself and went to check out the garage. Finding nothing she headed back down the hall, opening cabinets as she went. Still empty handed, she turned toward the master bedroom. She located it quickly and slung her pack bouncing onto the king size bed's pastel quilted comforter and set the binocular case on the night stand while doing a critical survey of the room. Minutes passed. Sighing, she finally reached down and lifted the bedskirt, pulling the little black laptop out from under the foot of the bed. "The old 'hide in plain sight' routine." Lisa quipped out loud, frowning at its clasp. The woman quickly got the case open and, sitting the lap top computer on the bed, fished a small grey box from her pack, attaching it via an extention cord to the SCSI port. She entered a short command and then pushed a button on the box. Its' single yellow light flickered as it began to run its decoding program on the laptop's hard drive. With a final satisfied grin, she straightened up and headed toward the kitchen............................................................... Returning to the present, Lisa smiled and reached up, bringing her purse down from its perch on the cabinet/safe. She had found something better than the plans to some fancy new weapons and equipment in that computer... something one of her buyers had offered a quarter of a million dollars for. Lisa withdrew an innocent looking lipstick from her purse, and twisted the lipstick all the way up, removing the waxy red stump to reveal a small tool inside the sheath, near the opening. Lisa twisted it up farther until two rubber covered metal prongs cleared its rim. Grabbing a sharp metal comb out of a pocket inside the purse, she inserted it into a crevice in the security panel and flicked open the frame of the keypad. Separating the wires she wanted, she used the tool which resembled a squat set of pliers, to pull each wire from its setting and twist their ends together. The cabinet door clicked open and Lisa reached inside to collect her prize, but at the same time the overhead lights went out, and were replaced a moment later by a blinking red strobe. A feminine, computer-generated voice spoke up, "WARNING. SECURITY BREACH DETECTED IN "G" QUADRANT... LABORATORY.. ANY AGENTS PRESENT PLEASE INVESTIGATE AND GIVE THE VERBAL RESET CODE NOW............................" Lisa lurched to her feet, "Oh shit!" she muttered angrily. The computerized voice spoke again.... "INCORRECT.... PLEASE GIVE RESET CODE OR SECURITY SYSTEMS LEVEL "BETA" WILL BE ACTIVATED.... YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO RESPOND.... THANK YOU." "Rumplestilkin!" Lisa yelled out, running for the entryway. "INCORRECT" "Sonuva*&@!!*&^^$", she cursed, realizing that she was not going to make it. "INCORRECT..... SECURITY LEVEL BETA..... ACTIVE" Laser beams suddenly criss-crossed the lab, creating a web of sharp-edged light which caught the thief before she could even scream. ----to be continued Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:03:31 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (4/7) To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved or mentioned: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph Lasher- Angie -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (4/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter Outside, Kim was replacing the last .03 screw, Joseph crouching next to her holding the rock facade trap cover up and ready to snap it back into place. Kim gave two more clockwise turns to the screwdriver and rocked back on her heels. "Done!" she proclaimed. "Finally!" Joseph said, snapping the cover back on to trap #8 and standing up to stretch. "Let's go back in and get a fresh cup of Java... Scratch that. Let's just go back to bed....." "INTRUDER ALERT!" the effiminate voice of the computer chimed suddenly into the passageway, "INTERIOR BREACH DETECTED...... G.S.S. STAFF ABSENT....... IMPLEMENTING PREPROGRAMMED DEFENSE COUNTERMEASURE BETA....." "NO!" Kim and Joseph screamed at once. The cover to Nasty Trick #8 quivered slightly and sprang open, banging up against the toolbox, the weight of the box keeping the trap from opening all the way. Fire shot out of the breach with no other place to go but down the wall, and within the trap. The mechanism quickly shorted out as its wires melted, and the fire died away. "Crap!" Kim spat, "Your little girlfriend got to snoopin" around and probably got herself dead, not to mention us!" she yelled at Joe who was still recovering from the shock of having the trap go off right in front of him. "You don't know that!" he yelled back, "It could have been somebody else... forget that! We have to get out of here..." he turned around and a blue colored wall of "light" shot up in front of him. "Damn!" he cursed. "What the....?" Kim said in awe. "It's a new security measure the General had installed a few weeks ago" Joseph groaned, "A laser wall forcefield. He thought it would be more fun to keep intruders IN." "Ha ha" Kim murmured unhappily. ".... well, do you know where its power feed is located, maybe I can shut the damn thing off." "On the other side of it." Joseph replied unhappily. ----- After the two agents had finished with a round of colorful praise of the General and calmed down a bit, they began formulating a plan to breach the HQ. "Ok, here's the security system layout as I originally set it up." Kim said, scratching out a diagram on the floor with a screwdriver taken from the smoldering tool chest, "Hopefully, the General didn't make any other secret upgrades that he neglected to tell us about." she added ruefuly. Joseph nodded. "It should be relatively easy to dodge most of the traps, but what about the heat tracking automatic gun in the entryway? How fast can we get the door open?" "Mmmh, the gun would get us going in the door. That's a straight line of fire...." Kim said thoughtfully. "Also Headquarters interior is full of knockout gas." "What about the "illegal print" trap on the door's palm print I.D. pad?" Joseph asked smirking, "I seem to remember you and Angie having an evil chuckle over instaling that one." "Oh yeah! The StarTrek Surprise! Nasty Trick number one!" Kim giggled evily "Yeesss, that's a good one.... but intruders end up back out in the dungeon.." she added. "Anyway, the door will recognise our prints, so we still get shot! The trap only works with the "wrong" prints." "Hmmmm.. No problem, Kim. Follow my lead." Joseph turned and began his charge back down the corridor toward the G.S.S. HQ. "Wha-? Wait for me!" Kim yelled, hoping what ever crazy scheme he had cooked up would work, as she double timed after him. Joseph dived through a strobing webwork of red and blue laser beams, then dodged to his right, avoiding contact with a sticky substance that was slowly coating across a section of the floor, with Kim hot on his trail as darts fired across the passageway from the opposite wall. "Go, Go, Go!" Kim shouted from behind him "Hey, that one should have gone off faster than that!... Whoa!" she ducked and dodged to avoid a couple of darts that zinged past her and impacted on the opposite wall. "Ok now slide!" she yelled. Joseph took a running leap and skated across a suddenly slick area, Kim mimicked his move and made it across seconds before the rectangular section of floor did a sudden flipflop. Joe turned the corner and skidded to a halt with Kim almost running into the back of him. "What is it?" she asked, stumbling to a halt, and out of breath. "Spiders.." Joseph pointed forward at the floor ahead, "Really Big Spiders..." "Oh, yeah. Those are mine," Kim smiled, "Try not to step on them, they're sorta like pets.. anyway, the others will attack if you kill one, so be careful." Joseph shot her a sideways glance and began tiptoeing down the passageway, stepping around the rat sized black and red striped arachnids who were leisurely scuttling about and walking up and down the walls. Bypassing the spiders, they broke into another sprint, foiling several other traps, and arriving at the last turn of the passageway where they paused again. Joseph peeped around the corner. "Ok, the gun seems to be primed." Joseph observed. "Is the little red light on?" Kim asked. "Yeah." said Joseph. "Yep, its ready. Which way is it facing?" Kim asked, retrieving the screwdriver from her belt and testing its weight. "The door." Joseph answered. "But its turning back this way. Okay, how do we get by the gun?" "Let me over." Kim said moving to Joseph's side to look around the corner. Seeing the infrared camera mounted machine gun, situated high on the opposite wall and halfway down the corridor, slowly beginning to turn back toward them, she flipped the screwdriver in her palm, then deftly flicked it at the wall mounted weapon. It stuck under the turning mechanism and wedged there with the force of the weapon's movement, so the gun was stuck temporarily pointed at the opposite wall. "Ok, we have half a minute, then it starts turning back the other way. As soon as it senses us, it will go active and follow our movements at a much faster rate than you saw it moving before." she said, jogging forward, then pressing her back against the wall to slide under the bulk of the gun undetected. "Whatever plan you have... it had better work.." she added, stopping in the headquarters doorway and waiting for him to reach her position by the same method. "It's simple.." Joseph began, copying her moves and slipping up around a bust of LaCroix that stood on a pillar in front of the entryway, but cut off his speech as he heard the plink of the screwdriver behind him rebounding from the floor. Joseph dived forward shoving Kim into the door as the wall mounted gun turned. Reaching out to the palmprint identifier pad, Joseph streaked his hand across the glowing surface, causing a bad print. A blue light flashed down from the ceiling and the Headquarters computer started to say, "ACCESS DENIED" but was drowned out by the automatic gunfire..... The bullets struck the door as Kim and Joseph winked out of existance from the hallway in front of G.S.S. Headquarters , reappearing a moment later in a small, dank and gloomy stone room. "Kim?" Joseph whispered. "I'm stuck to the wall." "Me too." she replied. ----to be continued Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:04:12 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (5/7) To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved or mentioned: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (5/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter Kim and Joseph found themselves in one of the many dungeon cells in the basement of C.E.R.K. radio station, shackled to the wall. "Ummm... What happened?" Joseph asked, shaking his head clear. "Maybe you slapped the scanner a little too hard." Kim said, peering about the 15 by 20 cell in the faint murky light cast by an electric lantern that hung in the passageway outside the room. They looked to be in a cell, walled with tightly fitted blocks of stone with a single entryway blocked by a thick oaken door, similar to many of the cells throughout the dungeon-like sub-basement of C.E.R.K. "Well, it beats being dead." Joseph commented, satisfied just being alive and in one piece for the moment. Still observing the cell from her place against the wall, Kim noticed a small scraping noise comming from Joseph's side. "Psst, Joe.... Do you hear that?" Kim whispered, suddenly attentive. "Yeah, look over there." Joseph motioned with his chin toward the foot of the wall 5 feet to his left. Squinting through the gloom, Kim could just barely make out that the wall was inching forward minutely but steadily, and she could only tell that because of the scraping of the little stone being pushed along the floor in front of it. "Uh, Joseph...... talk about beating death, I think we have another obstacle to overcome." she gulped. "I noticed." he replied, chain links ringing against the wall as he twisted his wrists fruitlessly in their metal cuffs. "It seems that the General must have been in a bad mood when he designed this cell. That other wall just sprung spikes!" Kim said, pointing at the wall to her right. Kim grabbed her left wrist with her right hand, pushing the manacle back as far as it would go. "I've got something that might aleviate the situation," she said. "It had better be good." Joe quiped, "We need to get out of here fast before we are impaled AND squashed." He observed, watching as she worked her fingers under the metal band, getting a hold of a thin rod like instrument and pulling it from her sleeve. She then brought it into the lock on one of the shackles fumbling impatiently, picking the locks as quickly as possible. "Thank goodness for all that lockpicking training LC made us do," Kim said, rubbing her freed wrists. "Uh, Kim, in case you forgot there is still a wall closing in on us." Joseph remarked, holding his own shackled wrists out and looking at them and her meaningfully. --------------------------------------------- A short minute and a half later.. "........Yes, if I remember correctly, there is a hatch directly above us." Joseph concluded, glancing thoughtfully about the shrinking room. "Kim, give me a boost please." She put her hands together in a stirrup and Joseph stepped into it and grabbed her shoulders, pushing himself up closer to the ceiling. "Hurry up." the tall woman grunted staggering a bit. Grabbing hold of a ring dangling from a small hole in the ceiling formerly obscured by some other chains, Joseph pulled open a trap door and a ladder dropped down, allowing for himself and Kim to climb up from the cell through the gaping square hole in the ceiling. "Kim, get up quickly!" Joseph called down to her, observing the accellerated progress of the two walls. Kim leaped up the last few rungs and a wall passed by below her seconds after she pulled her feet up. The walls closed, smashing the wooden ladder and open trapdoor and crushing them when they finally met in the center of the room. "Made it!" Kim smiled, stating the obvious. Kim and Joseph found themselves in a small circular room with iron rungs climbing up the side of the wall. Making their way up, the two agents came to another trapdoor with a new scanner set into the wall next to it. Joseph placed his palm over it carefully, remembering what he had done before that got them transported to the cell in the first place. "AGENT 86... CODE NAME: STRIKER---ACCESS GRANTED", the computer intoned. There was a click and the trapdoor slid open allowing them to climb up into a cave. Looking around they noticed two paths lit by wall lamps, taking the path to the left, they walked 100 feet and stopped by one of the lamps. Kim pulled it down and a section of the wall slid aside revealing a room. It was circular and panelled in grey veined marble with a black tile floor. The flawless symmetry of the room was broken only by a single alcove housing a pure white marble pedestal topped by a head-and-shoulders bust of LaCroix. Joseph approached it, placing his two fingers over LC's eyes simultaneously, and felt a buzz as his finger prints were scanned once again. "Hey, Moe." Kim joked in a nasal voice. "You are SO lucky that LC wasn't here when you and Angie designed this room." Joseph laughed. "Good thing he hasn't found it yet." he added. "Yes, he might have tried to improve upon it, too." Kim replied, scowling. "More than that, I'm afraid." Joseph said. The LaCroix bust's mouth dropped open revealing a numbered set of buttons arranged in a square. "You have a strange sense of humor, my dear." Joseph remarked punching in the desired code. Pressing the appropriate activation button, Joseph then stepped to the side as the pedastal slid out from the alcove and a wall panel behind it retracted up into the ceiling revealing an open passageway. Entering, they followed a short flight of stairs downward to a pool of water into which the steps descended. Taking off their jumpsuits and putting them into a bag that hung conveniently from a nearby hook, so they wouldn't get wet, the two agents then dived in taking the sealed plastic sack with them. "Aaaaaaaaah!!! Cold!" Kim screamed as she broke the surface shivering. Joseph laughed. "Note to self." Kim remarked aloud. "Either I carry a security systems deactivation remote next time or build a simpler back way in." "Shoulda, coulda, woulda .." Joseph replied, "Let's hurry up and find out what happened. I'm worried about Lisa." He took a deep breath and dived into the pool. Swimming to the bottom, they found a murky passage. It wound to the left and then the right with a couple of holes cut in the ceiling where they could surface for air occasionally. Kim was swimming along fine until three little flat bodied green fish with red underbellies swam by in front of her. She kicked to a halt, bubbles exploding from her mouth as she motioned wildly at Joseph. Joseph turned, his attention attracted by Kim's wild gestures and followed the line of her pointing finger. From back down the way the two had come, swam a now larger school of the strange little fish. Joseph's eyes widened as he recognised their shape and coloring....Piranha! The two agents immediatly sped up, their lungs begining to strain from the need to replenish their oxygen but they couldn't stop and surface now. Reaching the end of the tunnel with a trapdoor in the ceiling, Joseph pulled a harpoon gun off of a rack on the wall and proceeded to shoot at the piranhas as Kim swam up to the door and worked on loosening a hidden switch that was set in the metal under the trapdoor frame. Joseph pulled the trigger one last time and speared one of the closest of the fish just as Kim got the trap door open, he dropped the gun and followed her upward through the now open tunnel and broke the surface at its end beside her, both of them gasping for air. "That was close," Joseph gasped. "Guess the General found the secret entrance room after all." Kim chattered, even colder than before. "He could have added the fish to another section that they escaped from." Joseph remarked. "He would have said something if he found your entrance, believe me." Pulling themselves up out of the water before the other fish could finish canibalizing the dead one and get to them, Joseph and Kim fell in a heap on the floor still panting from exhaustion and lay like that for several minutes until they could catch their breath. Then they pulled on their dry jumpsuits and boots from the bag, buttoned up and made their way to a riveted metal door at the far corner of the room, with a standard palm scanner next to it. Kim placed her hand against the scanner and smiled at Joseph when she heard, "AGENT B-12... CODE NAME: ACE---ACCESS GRANTED." "At least some things still work normally around here." Kim said with satisfaction as the door slid aside, revealing a bedroom. Stepping in, hearing the door close behind them, they turned around and stared at themselves in a gaudy gold framed full length mirror. "GOD! We look like shit!" Joseph said and laughed, setting Kim to laughing, too. ----To be continued Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:05:36 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (6/7) To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved or mentioned: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (6/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter The two G.S.S. agents stood arguing in the middle of LaCroix's bedroom, (that is to say the one situated in G.S.S. headquarters) after having stepped into the room through the full length mirror/door. "Come on, Joseph, it's the only way..." Kim said, raising the bottle, and observing its' contents, "We can't get to the control room without some sort of air filtering mask. Our headquarters air conditioning system is keeping the air in the main areas flooded with knockout gas until the security systems are reset. I added that feature myself." "Well...You should be real proud." he griped sarcasticaly adding, "Are you sure that LaCroix doesn't keep a mask in here somewhere?" and glancing about the room. "He doesn't need to breathe that often. No reason to keep a gas mask." Kim answered. "No way am I using THAT," Joseph announced pointing decisively at the bottled blood, "LC's Special Red", that Kim was waving malevolently in front of him. "..to coat a cloth with so I can breathe without passing out from the gas fumes outside. At least let me look for something else." "Ok, suit yourself." Kim gave Joe a lopsided grin and sat on the corner of LaCroix's bed to wait, "but we have spent a half hour getting back here and we are definitely going to have to move...." she pointed with the bottle at the sealed door leading out into the hallway, "...soon....." --------------------------------------------------- Several minutes later................. "Done yet?" Kim asked coyly. "No." Joseph grumped from the other side of the room, still rummaging around. "Hee hee hee!" Kim laughed mock-wickedly. "I guess you'll have to settle for-" "AH-HAA!" Joseph crowed triumphantly, holding aloft two new cleaning sponges and a can of Coke. "Wow." Kim muttered, "I wonder what he uses that for..." "Spot remover, I'd guess." Joseph replied, "Blood stains, maybe. I don't want to think about it, bah.. Disgusting!" He waved his arm dramaticaly, tossing a sponge to Kim. "I see nothing." Kim replied, catching the sponge and abandoning the bottle of LaCroix's special stock, also pushing away her curiosity as to the General's current extracurricular activities. Joseph popped open the Coke-tm and saturated his sponge, then Kim's. "Ok, ready to go?" Joseph asked, grasping the door knob and turning it slightly. "Wait!" Kim exclaimed, "I almost forgot. We have to lock the door back when we leave the room. LaCroix is paranoid about his room since that time he found wrinkles in his bedspread and some of his underwear missing." Joseph looked at her oddly. "What?! It wasn't me! I'm not THAT infatuated!!" Kim responded, a little put off. "If we screw up or have an emergency, we can retreat to one of the bathrooms. They're gas-free rooms also, but LaCroix wants this door kept locked." "Alright," Joseph sighed, "Lets get this over with!" With that, they pressed the protective sponges to their faces and threw open the door, stepping out into the gas hazy hallway- making sure to set the automatic lock before they shut the door behind them. The sleep gas compound swirled about them, stirred by their passing as Joseph and Kim made their way through the G.S.S. Underground Headquarters' main hallway. Coming to the control room at its end, Kim headed directly to the mainframe computer, typed in her access code, then typed in the security system shutdown codes. In response to her commands, the fans immediately came on as the air conditioning system began to clear the gas from the main rooms. "AIR QUALITY....NORMAL" The computer finaly announced and Kim & Joseph lowered their makeshift air filters with a sigh of relief. "My face is sticky." Kim frowned. "Deal with it later." Joseph replied, turning back toward the hall, "Its time to find out what happened here." Kim hesitated as he exited the room, "Computer. What happened?" she asked, her back still to the glowing screen. "SECURITY BREACH IN "G" QUADRANT... LABORATORY.." the computer replied dispassionately. "Oh, crap." Kim muttered and started running after Joe. "Joseph!!" She called after him, "Start with the Rec room!!" ----to be continued Return-Path: Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 01:20:00 -0500 Reply-To: jc5816@tiac.net Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Joseph Subject: GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (7/7) To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu See part 1 for disclaimers and notes List of G.S.S. Characters involved or mentioned: The General- LaCroix Ace- Kim Striker- Joseph Phantom- Bob -------------------------------------- GSS: Chapter I - The Gauntlet (7/7) By: Joseph Cohen and Kimberly Anderson Beta-Readers: Staphanie Fryar and Kathryn Dexter The two agents sprinted through the now cleared hallway, making a right at a "T" junction and turning left into the G.S.S. Recreation Room. A large blue carpeted room which houses two pooltables, a pinball machine, a 72 inch screen TV with both Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64, and a wall length bookshelf filled with hard bound books. One of the sections of book shelf was conspicuously slid out of the way leaving a door shaped breach. "Whoever it is....was, should still be in the Lab." Kim remarked warily. "Let's find out." Joseph said, and slowly advanced on the Lab entrance, followed closely by Kim. They entered to find the lab relatively untouched. Moving a couple of aisles to the left, Kim gave a sharp gasp and motioned for Joseph to approach. Joseph rounded the corner of the lab table and stopped abruptly, wincing at the sight of the dead body of his lady friend crumpled on the tile floor. "I'm sorry, Joseph." Kim said quietly, attempting to comfort him. "I'm sorry, too." he retorted shortly, scowling fiercely at the ceiling. "I should have listened to you, but I brought her in anyway. This is MY FAULT." Joseph whirled about to exit the room, not wanting to look at the body anymore. Kim turned away unhappily and reached out to reset an overturned beaker but froze as she heard Joseph's sharp intake of breath at the door. Then she heard something that put ice in her veins........ "Good evening Joseph..... Trouble?" LaCroix inquired in a slightly menacing and somewhat annoyed voice from outside the Laboratory. Lucien LaCroix: sometimes referred to as "The General" among the vampire community and those few humans who knew of him, strode complacently into the room. He wore black, as usual, this time a black leather jacket, an extremely dark royal blue turtleneck shirt and black pants. His large ice blue eyes immediately catching sight of, and glaring in annoyance at, the two human members of his inherited undercover war team as he rounded the corner showed that he was not pleased. "I assumed that this sort of activity would be relegated to a certain time of year." LaCroix remarked, dividing his irritation between the two agents. "When I agreed to continue your charter, created by my somewhat more active double, It was implied to me that THIS INSTALLATION would remain inactive unless and until I call it to order!" "That is correct," Joseph grated. "But we seem to have had an, um, uninvited guest.." He gestured toward the floor in Kimberly's direction. Kim glanced down and stepped back. LaCroix approached and peered around the side of the cabineted lab table, raising his arched eyebrows in suprise at the sight of the dead thief clad in familiar black. "Well.... I must say that were you part of "the community", I would be quite pleased," Lacroix elaborated sarcastically. "However, this is NOT something I expect of YOU TWO." "Then bring us across." Joseph quipped, drawing a sharp negatory look from a shocked Kim, and another raised eyebrow from the vampire. "Is that a request or a challenge-" Lacroix began, but was cut off by Kim suddenly deciding to return to the current problem. "It wasn't exactly we who killed her." Kim blurted out, attempting to change the course of the conversation and give as little information of Joseph's involvement as possible. "She somehow.... set off the alarm." "Who is SHE?" LaCroix asked, returning to the main subject, not skipping a beat. "Got me.." Kim replied truthfully, not believing under the circumstances that Lisa could have been her real name. "And where were you during this "break-in"?" Lacroix continued looking Kim in the eyes and holding her gaze imperiously. "Security Maintenance." Kim replied, "Both of us. I'm sure you heard the response of the outside systems to our presence after the alarm was tripped." "Like a small earthquake." LaCroix remarked. "Why didn't you use the voice command deactivation codes?" he asked them, frowning. "Voice command was never installed in the exterior passageway." Joseph replied. "We intend to fix that little oversight as soon as possible." he added. "I see..." LaCroix answered thoughtfully, finally noting the state of the two bedraggled GSS agents, and the conviction in Joseph's voice. "You two seem to have had quite an adventure this evening." He grinned, it was always a chilling effect. Kim and Joseph glanced at each other wearily. "That's right." Joseph replied. "Nice traps, by the way." Kim added dryly. "Just wanted to mention that we noticed them." LaCroix favored her with another unearthly grin. "Thank you." Smirking, he mock-bowed slightly, but continued, "....though they obviously were not quite efficient enough, since you are both standing here practically unscathed. I'll have to remember to add something more original." He then dissmissed them mentally as they traded troubled glances with each other. LaCroix squatted to examine the thief's body, not seeming to notice the familiar nature of the clothing it wore. Joseph edged closer to warily observe his inspection. "It seems my laser network performed quite a bit more efficiently than I had expected." LaCroix remarked offhandedly, glancing over at Joseph for a second. "Cauterized the wounds as it made them. Pity she has lain dead for so long..." LaCroix stroked her tangled hair absently. Then he looked up, glancing about, frowning, and caught sight of something farther back in the room, "Ah, the subject of her visit." he murmered, mostly to himself, and rose to his feet gliding in his special unnerving way to the back of the room. Bob Sellers' private lab safe stood slightly ajar topped incriminatingly by the thief's small black purse. LaCroix opened the safe door the rest of the way easily with the tip of one finger and peered in at its contents curiously. His ire at the din, caused previously by the security systems, seemingly forgotten in the face of this new mystery. Joseph and Kim approached from behind, also peering in at the items that Bob always kept locked away. The top half of the safe's interior was populated by stacked sheaves of paper, a couple of clipboards and two boxes of microscope slides. The bottom half was what looked like some sort of deep freezer, It was also ajar and a little defrosted water was leaking out onto the laboratory's linoleum floor. LaCroix reached into the freezer and delicately removed a small petri dish. Holding it up, he examined the label pasted across its side. "0079: Alternate LaCroix---Skin DNA sample---No.#4". His eyes widened, then took on their coldest look yet. The petri dish shattered in his grip while the other hand which had rested on the roof of the safe grasped and bent the metal slightly. Behind him, Kim and Joseph watched in shocked silence. Whatever LaCroix had found, he didn't like, and they hoped they weren't a part of it. They glanced at each other once again, assessing the situation and deciding not to break the silence first. Not with LaCroix in that sort of mood. "How..." LaCroix breathed, then turned about to set the full force of his glare upon the two G.S.S. agents behind him. "Been playing mad scientist behind my back, have we?" A faint smile crept across his face, turning his usual cold demeanor positively murderous. "How naughty of you." LaCroix continued, taking a step toward them. "What are you talking about?" Kim asked, stiffening reflexively at his threatening movements. "That stuff whatever it is is not ours LaCroix. We are not privy to Bob's personal hobbies." Joseph added, scowling fearlessly at being wrongly accused regardless of the danger. Halted by Joseph's fearlessness and Kim's apparent cluelessness, LaCroix gazed at them a moment, as if weighing their words. Deciding that they were unconnected to the infraction, he turned back to the contence of the safe. "Kimberly," he said after a few minutes, almost causing her to jump, there was a tightness in his voice of deep anger held in check. "Bring over a Bunsen burner, please." After destroying the safe's contence down to the last microscope slide, LaCroix emerged from the now smoky Lab into the rec room to which the two G.S.S. agents had retired early on to give him a chance to cool off. Kim was reclining in a white bean bag chair over by the tv and Joseph was slumped oposite her in a black rocking recliner. LaCroix watched them for a moment, noting their heart rates and state of mental and physical exhaustion, even as he puzzled over the shocking find in Bob's safe and the fact that the unknown thief knew about it when HE had not. Kim raised her head lethargicaly and brushing her hair back from her face, peered curiously back at him. "It appears I will be staying the day here." LaCroix announced pre-emptively. "Tomorrow I will be off to have a chat with dear Robert." "LaCroix, I know Bob. He's not the type to do something out of malice." Joseph spoke from his side of the room. "Is he...?" LaCroix asked, more of a statement that it didn't mean a damn thing than a question. "Whatever Bob is. LaCroix, he isn't a traitor." Kim added. "He's the type of guy who generally wears his attitude on the outside." "I consider your powers of observation to be of the sharpest caliber, my dear," LaCroix replied, a tiny bit touched. "but you did not suspect that Robert was studying vampire tissue and DNA; One of My War8 alternates tissue and DNA, which is just the same as if it were my own." his voice rasped a bit at the idea of the violation, while Kim and Joseph's eyes widened at this sudden revelation. LaCroix clenched his fists controling his anger. "And a human or humans have apparently found out about it." He turned slightly as if to leave, then glanced back at them. "Don't worry about the thief. I'll have her body taken care of. You should both also turn in. I may need your special talents early this year after all." LaCroix walked to the door and paused again as if remembering something, "Oh, and Joseph?..." Joseph looked up, and LaCroix smiled coldly, "You might want to put a lock on your wardrobe.......... to discourage theft." Then, the vampire was gone as swiftly as he had appeared. "Whoa!" Kim said, eyeballing Joseph. "He's got your number, young man." Joseph blushed slightly, "I'm more worried about Bob's. Looks like his is up, Kim." "Damn it!.... Well, let's shower and hit the sack." Kim said, pushing herself resolutely out of the beanbag chair. "Not like we can even try to phone him and find out what's going on; Not with Mister "hears all and sees all" cuttin' Z's down the hall from us." she added. "Bob's on his own, this time." Joseph agreed sighing as he rose stiffly and headed for the exit and a much needed bath. ---------------------------------------------- Will LC be the death of Bob? Will the two GSS Agents solve this perilous puzzel...see the startling conclusion in chapter two: GSS Chapter II - Come Get Some! ----end chapter I