Chapter 18

On Tuesday I called Di, and dropped in to see her at work. It was during lunch, and after playing with Mr. Jangles for a few minutes, I sat next to her and together we started to eat our lunch.

I told her I was driving down to Florida for the weekend, and she grinned and raised her eyebrow at me. “Again? Not enough time with Lucy this weekend?”

“Oh, I’m going to be staying at her house, in her family compound. Since I am not in the open with her yet, we both decided it is only right that I be introduced to her family first before going fully public.”

She reached across and gave me a big hug, and even Jangles came over and rested his head in my lap. “You know, the chatter the last few days has been about that. You two really dropped a bombshell on the community with that little announcement, but most are really happy for you. So where is this going, exactly?”

“Honestly, Di, we are hoping for the best. We both love each other, but there is a lot to overcome between now and whatever happens in the future.”

She smiled and nodded, and as we had finished she gave me a hug and said they both would come over to my place after work. Thankfully my last class that day was over at 5:30, and I was in the back grilling up two steaks when Di pulled into the back.

“Perfect timing, does Fang want his cooked, or au natural?” Di giggled, then got on her knees and looked into his eyes. “Just cook it for about a minute on each side. He will eat it raw, but has gotten to appreciate the advantages of fire.”

I nodded, and after putting them all on the plates (I just tossed Fang’s back on the plate I had used to bring the raw meat out on) we were back inside. “Di, do you really talk to him? I mean, Fang, do you and her really talk?”

“Nice catch, Clint.” She smiled at me, and looked over at her partner. And I swear, he nodded. “Clint, we, errr, talk and do not talk. It’s not telepathy, it’s more like we somehow share our emotions and feelings. Like very deep empathy. He understands almost all that is said around him. Oh, not the exact words, that is mostly confusing to him I think. But, he seems to understand the intentions of the person talking. And it’s really not unlike a dog. What you say matters little, it’s how you say it. You can say ‘Bad doggie’ when they are bad, and they know they are being scolded by what they had done and by your tone or your behavior. They same way, you can say ‘Bad doggie’ in a playful way, and they know they are not in trouble, it is play. With Fang, it’s kind of the same. But more so.”

At this time he took another bite of his steak, and sat there watching us. “I know he has almost human level intelligence, because I have sent him commands on the radio and he followed them. Even some rather complex ones. Is his intelligence like that of a person?”

“Well, both yes, and no. We have some suspicions, but not sure of how we can ever know unless we find an animal telepath. As you know, the apes like chimps and orangutans are the smartest animals. And just sticking to mammals, the next is believed to be the dolphin. Then elephants, and dogs and pigs are believed to be right behind them. There has been research into this for decades, and a few times Fang and I have done studies with them. He is right behind a person, we believe. But here is the thing, he has two levels of intelligence.”

I raised my eyebrows, and she nodded. “As Jangles, he is mostly a really intelligent dog. That is to be expected, only the most intelligent are trained to be guide animals. And that is another discussion, is that so because we pick the best? Some researchers think that part of that extra intelligence might be part of their training, and becoming smarter because they use their minds more than they would ordinarily. That we actually bred in their added intelligence.”

That, actually kind of made sense. “So, it is like take two twins, send one to a regular school, and another to an advanced placement school. One will be ‘smarter’, because they learned how to use their brain better.”

“Uh-huh, pretty much. We believe that Fang is smarter than Jangles, and like Dianne and Dire they are a bit different. But just as Dianne and Jangles, Dire and Fang have a special bond. Both reacted to me even more than another person, even before the Change. It is suspected we formed a kind of symbiosis. And some of his intelligence comes from me. Like a smaller computer attached to a bigger one. He filters some of his thoughts through me unconsciously, which helps him understand more of what is said. But this is only a theory, remember. We can sense each other’s emotions, even long distances away. He knows when I’m happy, or mad, or excited. And I can sense some of that from him as well. But for Jangles, it is nowhere near as strong as when he is Fang. We suspect that Mr. Jangles’ thoughts are just that complex.”

I looked down at him, but he just had that wolf grin. “Di, is he laughing?”

“Yea, he is amused I think. He finds humans silly. Our working inside all day on computers, our obsession with sex, our jibber-jabbering at each other, a lot of our behaviors.”

“Obsession with sex?”

“Oh yes, trust me there. You see, biologically we humans are one of the few species that will have sex at almost any time. The bonobo and a few other primates are like that, but not dogs. If there is no female in heat near him, he does not seem to care. But if there is, he can find it distracting. Us, we show off our availability for breeding at all times, and will do it if the female is ovulating or not. Things like my breasts, which are always prominent.”

“Like Howler,” I softly said. Di looked at me, and I nodded. “Yes, feel free to look it up. This is between us, but knowing what you do you can find out easily enough. But one of the things Howler told Lucy and I was that she had her son a few months before the Change. She had been nursing, and after the change Howler had breasts. And when she stopped nursing they vanished right away. Like in any other animal, they just, shrank.”

“Yes, exactly. So, she wears falsies?”

I laughed and nodded. “Yes, she does. She said she tries to show the illusion at all times she is female, and that is why she wears them all the time. But even Lucy pointed out that she would not really need them, her hips, her body dimensions and how she moves almost screams she is female. And I had to agree with her, once she pointed that out I could see it easily also.”

By this time we had finished eating, and moved to the TV area and I poured us each some drinks. I filled Di in on my trip, and she said she would contact Bohica and ask him to cover Dockside as she took the rest of my area.

“So tell me, why are you unsure about what might happen with Lucy in the future?”

I sighed, and took a drink. “Di, look at me. Let’s just say I am proportional everywhere, and leave it at that. OK?”

She grinned and nodded. “But why should that be a problem?”

I coughed, and she just grinned. “Clint, I have read all of your medical files. At least, the ones classified for me to read. No, I do not know everything as some I have no ‘right to know’. But yes, I know your dimensions, down there.”

“And you then know, that actual sex is not possible for me.”

She giggled, and shook her head. “Clint, that is not true. Nothing says sex has to include intercourse.”

“Oh, I know that. But, I am pretty sure we both want to.”

“Of course, that is only natural. OK, this is between us, only a few people know this. Just be glad you are not a Greater Chameleon like me.”

I looked at her, and she nodded. “You may have suspected this, but we all seem to be a bit of a multiple personality. For me, I like different foods. For example, some as Dire that I do not like as Dianne. And yes, Doug has made love to me in both forms. But it goes more than that.”

She seemed lost in thought for a moment, then continued. “As Dianne, other than a few experiments that never really went beyond kissing, I am straight. As Dire, I am unquestionably monogamous now, but I am actually bisexual. And as such, I can tell you that making love with your partner does not require a penis to enter the vagina. Just being close and intimate with your partner is enough. Also, the vagina is stretchy.”

I looked at her sharply, and she grinned and nodded. “Trust me, I know because I have one. And like all girls, I experimented when I was younger. Fingers, pencils, candles, toys, and more. Me, I like things that are approximately the size and shape of a penis. And as Dire, I can take larger objects into me there without a problem. Even the fist of a small woman a few times, that was intense. But remember, nature also designed me to eject a baby from that same opening. It stretches, then resumes its prior size. And yes, there are girls that can enjoyably use things like baseball bats and even two fists at the same time.”

I looked at her sharply, and she took another sip and nodded. “Now this is me as a researcher talking. But I think if the two of you ultimately decided to try, she could take even you inside of her. Lots of lubrication, lots of foreplay, and most assuredly not your entire length, based on what I did read in your files. In fact, I would suggest that if you two ever did get married, you wait for that until after your first kid.”

“Well, assuming we could even have a kid. Why is that?”

“Well, that would have nothing to do with how you are now. Clint, we have enough research by now to know that we are all still genetically the people we were before the Change. There are a lot of others like you, and have had kids. Both as the mother and the father. But after a birth, the vagina and other parts on us do change a bit. The hips widen a bit, the pelvic opening also opens a bit more. The vagina is also wider afterwards, and a bit deeper. The uterus will be larger, as well as the breasts. Those are just some of the permanent changes our bodies go through.”

Well, I had kind of suspected, but that actually made sense. And she had a smile as she said that, and I grinned back. “Sounds like you have been doing a lot more than just basic research into this, Di.”

“Well, it is only fair that if you want some time on your own, you take it now because you may be filling in for me in another six months or so. Yes, I am almost two months along now. Doug and I are still talking with the doctors, but once it starts to become obvious, Dire will be retiring for a bit. A pregnant Dianne going into work will raise no questions, but a pregnant Dire Wolf with a baby belly at the same time will be hard to explain.”

I hugged her, glad that my best friend was finally getting one of her dreams. And she assured me that indeed, with some work Lucy and I might actually be able to make love someday as a regular couple.

Well, almost. As she had said I could never get “fully” into her, my length prevented that from ever happening. “Oh, and as an extreme measure, she could also go under the knife.”

“What?” I asked, somewhat shocked.

“Well, let’s just say that in the last few years, there have been surgeries developed to help in this manner. I know of at least one female that became the size of a child of around 10 that had this done. She was already married, and had a kid before the Change. But afterwards, intercourse for her and her husband was always extremely painful. She had a low level healing factor, which they think prevented her vagina from adapting, and it always resumed its natural state after a day or so.”

I cringed, and looked at her closely. “No names, but I looked into her case as part of my research as for how it could affect me. Thankfully, I was already fully grown and sexually active before that Night. Our bodies on the Night seem to be a template for how we were naturally before that night if we are a Chameleon, and that is our resting state. Why do you think as Dianne I always wear my hair the same way? I can’t even grow it out, or cut it. If I do, at my next change it goes right back to how it was that Night.”

“OK, I can kind of get that. But, she already had a kid, how does that change this?”

“Oh, that girl is like you, simply a Chameleon that can’t resume her original form. Her new body is that of a pre-pubescent girl. Physiologically she is post-pubescent, she still ovulates.”

“But, god, I don’t even like to talk about this. But girls that age have had sex, even much younger.”

“Yes, indeed. And always resulted in tearing and bleeding as the body had not matured enough. And doctors can determine past rape or sexual abuse by the scaring. But think, Clint. She is like us in that she heals with no scars. That means the tearing heals itself to how it was before she had sex, every single time.”

Oh god, oh dear god. “Oh, I get it now. How did they resolve that?”

“Well, this is a bit graphic. Lay her out, open her up. Then make incisions inside her vagina, insert some surgical plastic to keep the walls separated. It took several surgeries, and thanks to her healing factor it was not that bad she said. But the plastic inserted into her forced her body to make new scar tissue inside of her instead of returning to how it was before, and enlarged her dimensions.”

I cringed. “And you know, if you really wanted to, you could probably go through the reverse. You know that, right?” I looked at her closely, and she just nodded. “Go under the knife, have some of your size reduced, and have your penis bound tightly like they used to do with the feet of girls in China. It has never been done, no man with your condition has ever volunteered for it. But there was a paper about it last year that speculated it might be possible. And yes, there is at least one guy considering it. He has what they are calling ‘John Holmes Syndrome’. Honest to god, Clint. No other mutation they know of, but he is now almost a foot and a half in length. And the diameter of a beer can. He is considering being their first. But that is an extreme case.”

“Yeah, I will have to put in a lot of thought before I went that far, trust me! And my healing factor, how would that factor in?”

“That is the million dollar question. You and I both have among the highest in the region.”

“Not Bohica?”

“Honestly, there we simply have no way of knowing. We all suspect it, but as he appears to be invulnerable we do not know if he heals or not. Dude, remember last year when we all fought Sonic?”

I nodded, he was another that could produce sonic screams. Bohica was working as a scout that mission, and was on the roof of a ten floor office building. Sonic saw him up there at a corner, and knocked him off with a blast. Even I felt my throat constrict when I saw him knocked almost four feet away and plummet to the ground with a sickening thud. Then get right up and charge the bastard.

“So he can’t be hurt?”

“Not by any way we’ve been able to determine. Let’s just say that I read about how they did his blood workup. Either go in under the eyelid to where the skin is almost non-existent, or go in anally to reach the same condition in deep organs. And it is only because of that they suspect he also has a high healing factor. Only got a little blood each time before he clotted and they could get no more blood. He outright refuses to let them do it ever again according to the documentation I could read.”

“Hell, can’t say I blame him! Just hearing that makes me want to cringe almost as much as your describing the enlargement and reduction surgeries. I’m hard to puncture, but thankfully nowhere near that bad. And I do bleed some before it stops. They took the blood from his large intestine?

“Small intestine.”

I know I flinched that time. “Holy hell, and he is almost as big as I am. No, I can’t say I blame him. Hopefully he was unconscious when they did that.”

“Nope, fully awake. Anesthesia has no effect on him at all.”

“Ugh, that is what, four feet inside his body? Six? Jesus, Dianne. I give him a lot of respect for that, I can’t even imagine going through that. And I can’t blame him for never wanting to go through it again.”

“I know. Not the same parts of course, but for me it would probably be like if I wanted to donate eggs. And instead of a small incision in the abdomen, they went in through the vagina, cervix, then up the the fallopian tube directly through the ovary to get them. But my hat is off to him, he did try. He is actually still somewhat unique, as he is one of the few that is almost completely impenetrable.”

“What about Sarge?”

“Oh, you know Sarge is a Greater Chameleon like me. And his hide can be penetrated. For him, the change is only to his external skin. They took blood from inside his mouth when he changed. Bohica, he can literally chew up a mouth full of glass, and it would likely pass through his system with only minor discomfort. And yes, that was a proposal one idiot suggested. That he do that, and they then capture his bloody stool.”

“Holy fucking shit! What did he say to that?”

“Thankfully, they never asked him. You know I love Bohica, and he can be so gentle. But I think if they had dared to ask, even he might have lost his cool at that suggestion.”

“And I would agree. That is almost sadistic to even consider. And I still don’t entirely trust him, but I do like the guy.”

Di asked me what else I have turned up, and I shook my head. “Di, it’s strange. I have been using every way to search I can for the last year now. And it’s still nothing. I have searched every database I can find, not a single hit. It’s like he never existed prior to the Night of Madness.”

“How far back are you going?”

“Well, I have searched most recently with that search feature in Google Images. I upload a picture of him, and tried to find a match. I also use a program that Harry’s girlfriend developed. It uses facial recognition, but it is troublesome. I keep getting false positives.”

“False positives?”

“Yeah. Sometimes, it pings an image that might be him, but it can’t be. One was from a Civil War soldier. Another is of a basketball player that is still alive and has played games when Bohica was in the field, so I know it is not him.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled. “OK, collect the false positives also, that is worth going over. Are many of them old ones like that Civil War one?”

“Yes, I get a lot of those, but most are easily discounted. I think mostly the older ones are just the low resolution of the images, things like many generation copies of images made on glass plates. It is throwing off the search.”

“OK, consider this. We do have cases of people who appear to have grown younger. We both know that Bohica appears to be around 25, but he might be older. Maybe on the night as part of his change, he physically grew younger?”

I nodded, and told her that was possible. Then she asked me if I ever searched myself. “Oh yes, that was interesting. Early on as a test I did try myself. And I knew it was working, as it actually pulled up an old High School yearbook picture of me. Yes, I am a hairy beast now, but interestingly enough my facial features are still those of me so the software can recognize it The eyes are larger and farther apart, but the ratio is still the same.”

“OK, keep working on it in that way, then. Assume he might be a static Chameleon like you. He changed on the Night of Madness, either younger or older even. Wait, what if he was say 14 on that night? He might have been a low level gang member, and after he became Bohica he made a new life for himself?”

“Hmm, that might fit the data also. We still do not know where he lives, other than somewhere in Darktown. He does not drive, does he not have a license? Why? Maybe he never learned how. That actually kind of makes sense also. OK, I will try and get all the yearbook data I can find, and run him through that.”

Our meeting was cut short, as I got a call to respond to the docks. We exchanged a big hug, and I headed on over. But I already knew, the Silent Slasher. It was a 23 year old Latina, Catalina Diego. College student and part time prostitute. Wearing what was becoming all too familiar, a light yellow blouse and loose dark brown slacks. I called Di as I drove home and gave her all the details that I had. But the attack was the same as all the others. Blouse cut open, no bra but there were bite marks on her breasts. And the slacks were also cut open, and it was obvious by looking that she had been raped. And her neck cut so deep it seemed like her head was cut half off.

When I got home I grabbed a bottle of vodka and after pouring a large glass full started an Alice Cooper CD on the stereo. Who the fuck was this maniac? Almost every Paladin and cop was searching for him, but as of yet still had absolutely nothing. Over half of the vics were prostitutes, but not all of them by any means. The youngest was only 15 fucking years old for goodness sakes! She was an early one, and one of the first that was confirmed to have never been a prostitute. That was quickly discounted, as she had been on her way home from piano lessons. And was actually planning on being a nun.

No aspirant nun who is still in Junior High takes up prostitution for extra cash. Especially as the Medical Examiner determined she had still been a virgin before her attack. We now knew he tended to select for clothing, as all wore white or light colored blouses and dark slacks. And as there had been no reports of the women being dragged off the street, Control suspected he was somehow luring them into alleys. Probably simply because they were easier to lure in than most women would be. But with almost two dozen now, how the hell was he still getting women into alleys alone? I know if I was a woman I would not follow a strange man anywhere.

I sat there in a funk, and with half a buzz I went to my computer and sent off a message to Di. “Partner? Maybe he is not a lone wolf, but waits as a female or somebody brings them into the alley for him to butcher.”

I then went to bed, and had a restless night sleep. The next morning, Di called me and said they had considered it, and will keep looking into it. “This was actually brought up to us by the FBI already. One of their people said it may be like Fred and Rose West.” She then gave me a brief rundown of them. They were a couple from England, who had murdered at least nine women from 1970 to 1987. They would both pick them up, then murder them together. And Rose was a prostitute, and both also prostituted their own daughters. Even worse, that was multi-generational. Rose’s father is believed to have not only molested her, but used her prostitution service. And one of her eight children may be her sister as well as her daughter. She even killed her stepdaughter, and the daughter that may have been her sister and daughter both.

“Holy Christ, how have I never heard of this case before?” I sent back.

“Well, it was in England for one. For another, the trial took place when the entire country was obsessing over the OJ Simpson trial. It was little reported because we had our own major crime drama at the same time. But there are some similarities, and that is being considered.”

And on Tuesday, I got up early and headed to Florida. I got there on Wednesday afternoon, and thanks to the GPS unit was quickly able to find the family compound. As I turned off of the county road into the drive, it was just as she had described it. Two ten foot towers made of cemented field stone flanked the driveway, supporting a wooden arch that made it almost look like a Torii Gate. And on the face of the arch was written “McMillan Estates”. And as I reached the area where it widened and could see the two-story farmhouse ahead of me, I saw several trailers. They were each about fifty meters apart, and Lucy was walking down the steps of a double-wide and waving at me. I waved back and as I got close she used her hands to indicate I should approach the stairs in the middle, then pull in facing the front of her unit. I did so, and as I crept forward I saw that there was already a hose, 220 volt power box, and a sewage line installed.