Chapter 23

“Hello Zoe, welcome to my crypt.”

“Said the spider to the fly,” Zo laughed.

“Ooo. I like you,” said the crypt. Naturally, the voice was Boris Karloff to perfection.

Zo was spat out in due time. “Thank you Sam.”

“Any time, Zoe,” said Boris.

A chuckle or two and Sam was reporting to Hero Greeter Elizabeth.

“Nothing to report ... just the normal earth infectious diseases,” Sam said. “Elizabeth, you’re going to need a fix. JW? Come on down!”

“Hello, Sam,” I said as I laid down.

I was done as quickly as Zoe.

“You evidently know the drill,” said Elizabeth.

She laid out four files on her desk.

Four synopses as thorough as an alien planet can make them and still be readable in a few minutes. All four candidates were as perfect as a gene manipulating society can design them.

They, the four of them, all suffered the same flaw ... they were sterile.

Two scientists, one historian and a martial arts practitioner.

One scientist was researching earth reproductive practices.

The other was working with Cassandran males with the intent to reduce the number of heroes needed to restore the population.

The martial arts woman was deceptive but a real killer in a spectacular package.

The historian was a Ph.D.

All four were a testosterone driven male’s ideal woman. I was extremely fortunate to have Zoe along. She made the final choice.

“We’ll take door number one,” she said. “Ellen.”

She was the sole redhead in a sea of blondes.

“Lab work!” she declared. “Goody!”

“Off you go,” said Elizabeth. “Three weeks to decide.”

“Decide what?” I asked.

“To go or not to go,” Elizabeth said. “Nobody goes first time. Go home. Be sure. If you come back in 21 days, you’re on the way to Chaos.

“Come on, Ellen. Healing chamber. You picked up an infectious disease ... probably from me. I’m next.”

“Wait ... we’re ready now,” Zo said.

“Policy ... three weeks.”

“But ... but ... but, I wanna go NOW.”

“Go home Zo,” Ellen said. “The anticipation will do you a world of good.”

Perched on the very lip of her recliner, Cyn was looking at her watch... “Five ... four ... three ... two ... DING. Fifteen minutes ... on the dot. Well ... do tell.”

“Nothing to tell ... except we’re in perfect health,” Zo said.

“Surely there has to be something,” Cyn said.

“Nope ... we were sent home,” I said.

“Sent home?”

“Yup ... like we were bad in school and nobody could come get us.”

“We have to be SURE we want to go.”

“My word, JW. You’ve been working for this for three years ... Why?”

“Policy.” I said, “Nobody goes the first visit.”

“We did get the healing chamber ... and JW got a Caregiver ... that’s it. Three fucking weeks!”

“You got your Caregiver ... I thought you said nothing happened?!” Cyn said. “Give! What’s she like?”

So ... Cyn had to know the story.

“A redhead? Over blondes?”

“Yup.”