trying to think of a way. Marley trotted over to him and whined and licked his hand. Dr. Rao looked at him. “No Marley, I can’t ask you to do that. It’s too much teleporting.”
“Woof! Woof!” Marley jumped up and placed his paws on Dr. Rao’s shoulders. He gazed intently into his eyes and licked his face. He trotted over to Dr. Yagamuchi and placed himself below her hand.
“It will be cutting it close Karen,” Dr. Rao said while gazing lovingly at Marley, “but he is willing to try. You will have to go with him first so he will know where to return to and then send him back for the babies individually. Now go, quickly!”
With a loud blink!, Marley teleported Karen away. Dr. Rao quickly got to work. Every few seconds Marley would teleport back into the lab to retrieve another baby. Dr. Rao tried not to notice, but each time Marley returned, more and more bald patches began to appear around his body as the effects of the massive teleportation effort began to take its toll. By the time he returned for the last baby, he was practically hairless, tongue lolling out, and limping badly. He gazed sadly at Dr. Rao as he shakily placed his paw on the chest of the last baby. Dr. Rao crouched down and patted Marley on his head.
“Good boy, Marley. Good boy,” he said as tears ran down his face over the condition of his favorite dog. Marley woofed slightly and teleported away.
That was several minutes ago. Looking around his lab, watching the fire in the trashcan devour the last of his notes, gazing at his computer screens as the uploaded virus deleted years of research, he felt a pang of sadness. He could not believe how deceived he was. He knew that he could not erase the years of turning a blind eye to the applications the Company made of his work with animals, but he began to hope that his current actions to deny the Company the benefits of his research to apply to humans, and the removal of the babies before the ghastly experiments could harm them would begin to make up for his error in judgment by working for the Company.
“Warning! Warning! Self-destruct sequence initiated. Total facility annihilation in 2 minutes and counting. All personnel: please evacuate!”
Dr. Rao wiped his face and took a deep breath. He heard a blink! behind him and began to turn around in amazement saying, “Marley? How did you make it back? Is everythi-“
“Hello, Dr. Rao,” Claire cut him off.
She stood behind him, hands on her hips, a sinister smile on her lips. On either side of her were the largest Rottweiler’s Rao had ever seen. Sitting on their haunches, their heads easily came up to the height of her chest. They had blinked! her right into his lab. Their sudden appearance caused him to scramble back in fright, and the sudden movement caused the two dogs to issue growls so deep that the glass in the lab doors began to vibrate. Dr. Rao froze in fright.
“Dr. Rao, what have you done? Why the sudden sabotage?”
“You stand there and ask my why? I’ve been to the lower levels! I’ve seen how the Company has abused my research! I’ve seen the people, the hideously deformed people! And the children-“
“Spare me your drama, Dr. Because of you, I haven’t the time nor the patience to extract the information from you the fun way. I will ask you only once – where are they?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Claire beckoned slightly with her head. The dog to her left blinked! away and instantly appeared beside Dr. Rao. It gripped his left hand in his massive jaws and blinked! back to the side of Claire. It happened so fast it took Dr. Rao a moment to realize he had moved at all. He looked down and realized his hand was…just gone, blood pumping out onto the lab floor. Then the pain hit him. He crumpled to the floor, gripping his wrist in a vain attempt to stem the flow of blood. He looked to the Rottweiler that blinked! his hand away and he swore it smiled at him as it made a big show of tossing his severed hand in the air and swallowing it in one gulp.
“One last time, doctor,” Claire snarled. “Where are they?”
“You and the Company will no longer benefit from my research,” said Dr. Rao through gritted teeth. “I destroyed it all.”
Claire began to laugh as she walked toward him. Her dogs paced her. “You stupid ass. What exactly do you think you destroyed?” She gestured around the ruined lab. “You think because you wiped your computers and burned your files that your research is gone? Every bit of data you complied, every experiment you videotaped, every note you wrote, we have copies of it all.”
“What? How?”
“You really think the Company would give you unlimited funding and not keep tabs on every little thing you did? Damn, how can you be one of the most ingenious men I’ve ever met and also one of the dumbest at the same time?” Claire squatted before Dr. Rao and looked him square in the eye. She motioned to the other Rottweiler and he circled behind Dr. Rao. Gently for a dog of his massive size, he seized the back of Dr. Rao’s throat between its jaws. “Where are the specimens?”
“Specimens? You mean the babies? I’ll never tell you. You will never conduct my experiments on those babies.”
Claire slowly stood up and placed her hands on the broad back of both Rottweiler’s. She chuckled. “A fool to the end. Those specimens you think you saved? We performed your procedure on them two weeks ago. You saved nothing!”
The dogs blinked! and teleported Claire away. Dr. Rao’s throat went with them. His decapitated head tumbled to the floor as his body jerked and twitched, blood pumping from his throat. His head rolled to a stop against the desk, the look of horrified realization frozen forever on his face. The loudspeakers crackled over the sound of the alarms.
“Warning! Warning! Self-destruct sequence initiated. Total facility annihilation in 5 seconds and counting. 4 seconds…3seconds…2 seconds…”
Bayswater Orphanage, Bayswater County
Marley blinked! into the orphanage nursery with the final baby. He slumped to the ground in exhaustion as Dr. Yagamuchi bent and picked the baby up. She tucked him into the bassinet beside the 7th one. The rescue went off perfectly. Marley was able to blink! them far enough away from the facility, she hoped, that the babies would be safe. It was the middle of the night and no one yet was alerted to their presence. Karen hoped that the sudden appearance of not one, but eight new babies, would be so embarrassing to the administration of the orphanage that it wouldn’t be reported. Well, I’ve done all I can to ensure the babies are safe, Karen thought.
“Woof.” Marley shuffled slowly to his feet.
Karen barely recognized him. He had virtually no hair left and blood was seeping from the corner of his eyes. He limped over to Karen and nudged her leg.
“What is it Marley?” she asked.
He looked up at her, pleadingly. She knew immediately that he intended to return to his master, his friend. She wasn’t sure he could make it; in fact she was positive he couldn’t. But what was she supposed to do? Marley performed amazingly, and her boss, her friend, the man she loved was back there in danger. She had to try. If Marley was willing to try, she had to as well. She patted Marley’s head, took a deep breath.
“Okay boy, let’s go.” Hopefully we’ll make it, she thought as they blinked! away.
They didn’t. They never reappeared.
Anywhere.
