Chapter 21

Darkness descended instantly, and I had only an instant to register the sensation of falling before it was over. Despite the warning, I wasn't prepared for it, and I went face-down into musty-smelling gravel.

I lay prone for a moment, trying to process what I dearly and fervently hoped was a miraculous escape. Part of my brain of deathly afraid that this whole exercise was going to be a virtual reality tour from hell dreamed up by Dr. Demented, and I was going to look up to see him laughing at my thinking I had escaped.

But I figured I had to move sometime, so after a moment I cautiously raised my head.

With my eyes having had time to adjust to the night, I could see I was on a gravel roof, with air conditioning vents and hoods scattered around an otherwise featureless surface. I felt a bit of stinging pain in my chin, where I had picked up some nice gravel indentations, but otherwise I seemed to be OK — no fur, no tits, no donkey ears, nothing that would suggest Victor had done anything funny to me. I even grabbed my crotch to make sure the family jewels felt normal, and everything there seemed just like always.

"Of course," I said sourly out loud, "If he did I might not know it. Maybe he reduced me to this out-of-shape body from my former glory as a welterweight prize fighter and sought-after porn star. How would I know?"

I wouldn't, but hearing my own voice cheered me a bit, if for no other reason than it worked too and sounded just like I remembered it.

I found a door behind me, and had an instant of panic when it wouldn't open and I pictured myself forced to scale down the building's side. But then I pulled instead of pushed, and the door opened.

Moments later I was standing in front of the room from which I had ever-so-incautiously let myself be kidnapped. And amazingly, I still had the room key, in my pocket and undisturbed through violent kidnap and reality-bending instant transportation.

When I opened the door, there was a look of shock from four pairs of eyes in four turned heads. I tried to look calm and debonair, but I must not have been successful, because an instant later I had an armful of sobbing Lauren and was surrounded by everyone else, asking questions and thanking various deities that I was back.

When things calmed down for a moment, and I had gotten my wish of a fortifying drink, I sat down and was able to relate what had happened to me, in dramatic enough fashion that I got shudders from the women and even a stoic repulsion emanating from Brock.

"This guy," I said expansively, "this guy saved my bacon. Jesus Christ, Brock. I can't believe you were able to set up that failsafe so soon after we talked about it. If that hadn't been working..." I paused to shudder. "I'm pretty sure I'd be right along with Chip the security guard about now, mindlessly helping my boss."

Brock looked troubled. "I almost can't believe it either," he said. "I did set up the routine, but I didn't have time to test it or anything. We found out you were missing and had to look for you, and then I figured he might try to use the machine on you so I started setting it up, but..." he gestured at the open laptop on the room's writing desk. "I just saved the first version. I didn't check it for errors or anything. I can't believe it worked."

"Why not?" I said. "You're a genius, m'boy!"

"I guess," he said slowly. "I just never had anything work like that, right out of the box. There's always debugging that has to be done."

Lauren looked scared as she processed that declaration, and then leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "Do you like my lips?"