Chapter 7

The Vice-Chancellor followed after the stampede at a more leisurely pace. His running days were over, and anyway although he understood the Davies girl’s panic he knew the clear-up team wouldn’t hurt her friend, that this ‘Effie’ was presumably.

Or girlfriend apparently ... hmmm. Girls certainly weren’t what they used to be, with these smartphones and attitude. Barely looking fifteen and bursting into his meeting, defying him, stirring everyone up and boasting about being promiscuous with laboratory subjects. Threatening to bring a media shitstorm down on him...

Now what was he going to find? It was going to cost, he could feel it. People didn’t realise what a struggle it was to keep a University going these days. In fact this whole situation was a direct result of needing money: the funding from that secretive Population Trust organisation that had foisted Claudia and Richard Davies on him with their nebulous activities. A geneticist and an anthropologist was an odd combination to share funding – he should have known something fishy would be going on.

His phone rang: it was the boss of the clear-up company, half apologetic and half complaining that it had not been possible to dispose of the supposedly docile lab subjects. In fact his team had been attacked by a blonde hellcat who had punched, kicked and bitten them, and then whipped the subjects up into an attack frenzy. The men had been lucky to get out with only minor injuries. And the equipment case had had to be abandoned and that was a safety risk, of course: that was why he’d had to call straight away, even so late.

The vice-chancellor expressed his sympathy and promised to take care of the equipment case. He apologised for the exceptional circumstances and said they would be paid, indeed, naturally.

He turned the corner, wondering what he would find. It was an empty corridor. He walked on, then his sycophantic assistant appeared, to guide him into a room full of people.

The staff from the meeting were there, standing spread out between beds. Beds!

Over by the window were five notably alluring girls, quite tall and athletic. They looked like twins, or quintuplets rather; all in a group, together with the Davies pair, their disruptive daughter and a sweet little blonde girl - a young girl looking barely in her teens, albeit with tits, and the only blonde in the room.

‘Some hellcat,’ he thought.

There was an intimacy about them: standing all together, so close, casually rubbing arms and shoulders. That Davies daughter was in front, looking steadily at him. She was still waving her blasted phone at him. Now he saw the sweet little blonde was pointing her phone at him as well! Perhaps sweet did not fully describe her either...

“We’ve got the email!” the brunette fired at him like a salvo. “With a picture! All ready to go! Your death squad failed! So you have to give it up!”

It was surprising the Davies let their daughter speak for them. Though perhaps that approach to parenting accounted for the bold way she behaved.

He looked the brunette quintuplets over again. Possibly it had been an oversight not to see them before deciding about their disposal: certainly they looked human; alluringly human, even. In fact he had to make an effort to look away from them. But in any case there was no going back to Plan A, that was clear...

Well, he supposed he could prise some more money out of that secretive population trust, in exchange for not getting everybody locked up in prison as they richly deserved!

“Since you have interfered,” he pointed severely at the young troublemakers, ignoring the parents - if that was how they wanted to play it, “you will have to take responsibility! I will allocate some funding, then it is for you to take care of these ... subjects, however you like - SOMEWHERE ELSE! So obtain a remote old farm, something like that, for a department. I will arrange enough money, and your parents can work from there. COMPLETE secrecy must be maintained!

“And it’s for you to make sure those aliens disappear too! You can take them and their weird equipment with you, teach them how to behave, whatever you like. I want this institute back, in proper order, doing things that are legal and above board!”

He hoped briefly that they understood the situation he’d been in, and turned to leave. He caught the blonde’s eye as he did so, and was not quite able to stop himself returning her widening smile; that Sophie Davies’ impertinent smile too ... then they were turning their grinning faces to each other.