CHAPTER 9: Transformation

 

After a couple of days, the Army left the secret laboratory and abandoned it to nature once more.  Why they left was a secret only known by the higher ups.  One man saw an opportunity to disturb its secrets once more...that man was David Wright.

His previous visit to the site was frustrating.  Whilst Cornelius and Peggy were busy delving into the mystery and turning up clues, David was told...quite blatantly...that he was to provide 'the muscle' for the operation.  He was handy in a fight and physically fit but he was also a history and psychology post-graduate with an IQ of 130 and was keen to do his own part of the investigation and yet Cornelius just treated him as a hired goon whilst Peggy was sarcastic in her usual way about it all.  His protests went unheard so he decided to strike out and do some investigating on his own.  Then he would present his findings to Cornelius and prove his worth as a sleuth in his own right.

Getting into the base was no trouble now...the Army had been sloppy and hadn't noticed the broken lock on a minor side door of the building so it hadn't been locked with a chain or barricaded.  There were so many papers lying on the floor there was still plenty to look for and things the Army...and Cornelius...had missed.

"David" 

He stiffened in surprise as he heard his name spoken.  Someone was standing behind him so he slowly turned to see who was there.

"Cornelius!  What are you doing here?" exclaimed David.

"I might ask you the same question" was Cornelius' reply.

"I was just passing and thought I'd do some more snooping around..."

"You were just passing?  David, there is only one road that goes to here and it's a dead end.  Now what's your real reason for being here?"

David looked Cornelius in the eyes and paused before answering.  "To stop you from hogging all the glory" he said.

"Oh David, how disappointing of you.  We're meant to be scientists, investigative academics, not petty rivals"

"Dammit, Cornelius, you're the one who acts flamboyantly and who keeps what you're doing hidden from the rest of us!  I feel like you're deliberately keeping me two steps behind you!"

"I have a particular manner about me...but you know what I know.  I haven't held back any information from you and I'm very disappointed that you've gone behind my back and jeopardised the investigation!"

"Jeopardised!  How?  The Army have abandoned the base again!"

"Except they've placed a two man observation post on top of the mesa.  They saw you come in."

David was stunned into silence.  He thought he was being thorough in not being detected but apparently that was not the case.  "OK, what happens now?" he said, sheepishly.

"We leave...immediately." Cornelius replied.  "I managed to stun that observation team using a blowgun and a tranquilising agent that I learned from the natives of the upper Orinoco region...the toxin only lasts for two hours so we don't have much time to gather our things and leave..."

 

"I'll head back to Britechester this evening and add this new information to the files" said David, once they were back in Cornelius' Porsche.  "What are you going to do next?" he asked.

"I am going to pay a visit to someone I should have spoken with much earlier"

"Who's that?"

"Mayor Roswell.  If what Peggy says is true, the sickness only comes over the victims sporadically.  Roswell might be in a lucid state right now and even if he isn't, I want to speak to his wife to get more information.  And if I can convince them to give me a blood sample then I can get that analysed."

"Cornelius; you dress like a vampire and you want a blood sample?  They'll probably say no to you."

"I'll have to use my charm on them then..."

As Cornelius drove up to the Roswell home he was struck by how big it was.  At its core was a mansion built in the Western frontier style but there were old Gothic touches here and there and the lawn was immaculate and featured floral bushes that were not native to this region.  Cornelius surmised that before he became Mayor, Roswell must have made a fortune to have achieved all this.

He found Ted Roswell alone, tending to his garden at the front of the house.  Cornelius noticed that he wasn't moving in that jerky, robotic fashion and his body movements were that of a normal person.  The illness hadn't kicked in....yet, thought Cornelius

After he had parked his car, Cornelius approached Mayor Ted Roswell.  "Mr Roswell, I presume.  You won't remember me but my name is Doctor Jon Quayle Cornelius.  I rent the cottage in town opposite the library."

"Yer right, Doctor...I don't remember you.  Have we met?"

"Under very different circumstances, Mr Mayor"

"Was I...'ill' at the time?"

"Very much so.  In fact, I'd like to talk with you some more on the subject.  Are you free to discuss matters?"

"Doctor....Cornelius, is it?  Listen, my local doctor has gone over me, taken blood samples, made me run on a treadmill and even made me shit n' pee into a cup and he can't find nuffin' wrong with me.  Then the army doctors came and did the same thing.  Nuffin.  Are you an expert in illnesses I don't even remember having but everyone tells me I have?"

"As a matter of fact...I am.  Shall we go inside, Mr Mayor?"

Roswell led Cornelius inside whilst still grumbling about the visit of this scientist to his home.  "So...Mister Expert...what's your theory?"

"I think you've been infected by something, Mr Roswell." Cornelius replied, looking around the house.  It was sparser in terms of furnishings than he had expected and he figured that the Roswells were outdoor people, rather than impressing people with the inside.

"The brain seems to the area targeted" he continued.  "If you've observed the behaviour of some of your local residents you'll see that they're not in control of their motions..."

"They've lost their marbles, Doctor!" Roswell snapped back.  "So have you discovered a cure?"

"Not yet...I was wondering if..." but Cornelius' sentence was cut off when they went to a parlour room and Roswell introduced a prim looking fair haired woman of middle age.

"My wife, Doctor Cornelius:  Meredith." Mrs Roswell was seated at a chess table idly moving the pieces around.  She did not look happy to Cornelius.

"More strangers coming to bother us, is it?" she said, tersely.

"My wife doesn't like a lot of disruption to our town, do you dear?"

"We do not" she said.  "Take a seat, Doctor, and tell us what you want from us."

Cornelius sat down opposite her as there were no other seats in this room and she didn't seem to be in the mood to move into the lounge.

"Well it's like this, Mrs Roswell, I would like to...."

But Cornelius didn't finish his sentence.  At that moment Ted Roswell let out a loud scream and grabbed his face.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Darling!" gasped Mrs Roswell.

"Mr Mayor...what's happening?" exclaimed Cornelius.

"I'm changing....I'M CHANGING!" yelled Roswell, falling to his knees.

"Roswell, let me examine you!" said Cornelius, trying to rush to his side but Mrs Roswell had leapt up and stopped him.

"You have to leave!" she exclaimed.

"I need to observe what's happening to your husband if I'm to find a cure!" 

"LEAVE!  I have a lot of firearms within reach so don't force me to eject you off my property with them!"

"Mrs Roswell, you're making a big mistake!  Please, let me do my job!"

"Now....GIT!" She said, pointing a revolver at him.  Cornelius thought a gun made a pretty convincing argument, particularly when the other person was unarmed.  He said nothing but stood up and backed away to the front door, trying to observe Roswell's transformation.

"MoThEr...My EyEs ArE oPeN!" said Roswell, suddenly taking his hands away from his face to reveal the rictus smile and enlarged eyeballs.

Cornelius found himself outside and alone and he had no choice but to head back to his home.  As he parked up and got out of his car he saw another of the disease's victims, the hippy girl, similarly affected as Roswell.  The locals on the streets all ran away from her.

Does their transformation all happen at the same time or does the disease affect them in different ways?  That's what I need to find out and I hope David's recklessness hasn't jeopardised my mission!