THE NIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE ASSASSINS

By Andamogirl

WWW

ACT TWO

Later, in the cell

Sitting on the edge of the only bunk of the tiny room, Jim had been watching his passed out partner for a long moment – in a daze, seeing again what happened to Artie over and over in his head, when she-Artemus moaned and finally opened his eyes. "Hi!" he said, with a sympathetic smile.

She-Artemus immediately placed his hand in the middle of his chest and gasped – encountering breasts beneath his fingers and lifted it in a flash as if he had burnt himself. "It wasn't a very bad dream."

Shaking his head Jim said, "No, I'm afraid it wasn't. Loveless used a gender-change machine and changed you into a woman, Artie. It must be very disturbing and very awkward. How do you feel?"

She-Artie glared at Jim. "How do I feel? I have a female body but I'm not a woman. How do you think I feel?" he said bitterly with a female voice that sounded weird to his ears. He ran trembling fingers on her face, noticing a few changes: the lines of his face were a little rounder, his lips were fuller and the bones of his face were more delicate. He softened and took a deep, even breath, hoping to calm down. "I'm sorry; I didn't want to be disagreeable with you. I'm still shocked and pretty shaken, and that's an understatement." He ran a hand through his hair. "Tell me, how do I look, Jim?"

Jim smiled. "Well… You look like your twin sister, if you had one – with short hair." He helped his partner to sit on the bunk and took his hand. Artie's new hands were smaller, with long and delicate fingers; he noticed but still callused in all the same places from holding a gun. "We're going to find a way to force Loveless to change you back, Artie. You're not going to stay that way."

She-Artie nodded. "I hope so. I want my body back, Jim. When I play a woman for a mission, it's a role, just a role, it doesn't last, and I'm still me after that, a man, but this…" He looked down. He had hips now, curves where there hadn't been any before. The hair on his arms and legs was soft and pale, hardly visible. "But this, this is real, I'm a woman now, a real one… and I'm really scared… "He started sweating and trembling. "I'm not me anymore…. I'm sorry, Jim, but I'm going to be very emotional? I'm going to panic… Oh boy!" Then new tears appeared, rolling down his pale cheeks.

Pulling She-Artie in his arms, Jim said, "You're still you, Artie, you're still Artemus Gordon - just in a female body, and you're going to be fine buddy."

Suddenly She-Artemus moved backward. "Fine? Fine?" he repeated his voice now a pleasant alto. "I am a man trapped in woman's body! I'm not going to be fine, Jim – not by a long shot."

Grabbing the other man-woman by his-her shoulders Jim said, "Yes you are. Pull yourself together Artemus! I need your help to get out of here. I can't do this alone. Once out, we'll find a way to force Loveless to use his machine to transform you into a man. Okay?" He squeezed his surrogate brother's delicate shoulders. "Okay?" he repeated.

His lower lip trembling with intense emotion, She-Artie nodded. "Yes-yes-Okay." He stood and clutched at Jim's shoulder as his knees threatened to buckle under him. "Okay… We have to get out of here… and I know how." He headed toward the door feeling his breasts moving in time with his movements – finding it very disturbing - and pressed his arm on his chest to immobilize them. "This is the most disturbing thing I ever experienced…" he added.

Moving toward the door too, Jim smiled and said, "You're a beautiful woman, Artie. If you weren't my partner and brother…well my sister now, I could date you." He chuckled softly.

She-Artie gave Jim a black look. "I'm not in the mood for humor, excuse-me."

Jim looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Artie. I just wanted to help you relax a little, forgive me…"

Female-Artemus nodded. "I know, and I'm sorry too. Forgive me." He glanced through the barred opening. He spotted a guard in the corridor, sat on a chair, reading the newspaper. "Okay, okay. I'm a woman, so I'm going use my new charms and my talent as an actor, to attract the guard here. Then you will neutralize him and take his gun." He unbuttoned the top of the shirt she was wearing – not looking at his cleavage - not too much, but just enough to reveal the top of his new attributes. He took a deep breath and said, "Guard! Please, I need your help! Please!"

Once the guard was on the other side of the door, She-Artie pivoted and slapped Jim's face, hard. "Please help me! He wants to force me to kiss him…"

Reacting immediately, Jim grabbed his partner by his arm and tried to kiss him. But She-Artie pushed him backward. "No! Stay where you are. Help me! Help me!"

The door opened and the guard entered the tiny room, revolver in hand. "Let that woman alone, you pervert!' he said, disgusted.

She-Artie threw himself in the bulky man's arms, holding him tight… "Thank you!" he said, just before Jim grabbed the gun from the distracted guard.

She-Artemus shot a powerful uppercut to the goon and cried out in pain as the man collapsed to the ground, shaking his hand. "Ow! Ow! That hurts! I think I broke my hand."

Jim chuckled. "Nice punch for a woman. He's knocked out." He took She-Artie's painful hand in his and gently, delicately, massaged it, a smile on his lips, "No, it's not broken."

Perplexed She-Artie frowned and his eyes narrowed. "Jim, what are you doing?"

Still smiling, still massaging the delicate hand Jim said, "Massaging your hand, Artie. Women's hands are delicate and fragile…"

She-Artemus looked down at his less painful hand now that Jim still massaged. "Thank you Jim," he said pulling his hand back. "But remember that I'm not a woman. My body is temporarily female but I'm still me in my head. Me, your very male buddy."

Embarrassed Jim blushed. "I forgot that for a brief moment… I'm sorry."

She-Artie chuckled. "It's alright, don't worry. I have a female body and you're James West. The two go together. Come on, let's move out of here. We have to find Loveless."

Reassured Jim beamed. "You're definitively back!"

WWW

Later

She-Artie and Jim took a long S-shaped corridor and five minutes later arrived in front of a big door. They slowly opened it and Jim, gun in hand, moved forward. They entered a big dining room… interrupting the people seated around the table, drinking red wine.

Loveless smiled. "Ah! Finally. I was waiting for you. Please do come in!"

The two agents immediately moved backward – to be stopped by a caveman that had moved behind them silently. The Neanderthal grabbed the two prisoners by an arm each and sent them flying in the air. They both crashed against the closest wall and dropped to the floor like stones where they bashed their heads against it hard enough to see stars in front of their eyes.

Raising his hand toward the caveman, who was growling like a wild beast, Jim moved protectively closer to She-Artemus lying beside him. "Stay back!" he ordered.

Dr. McAllister intervened. "Miller! Stop!" he ordered. "Move back and stay next to the door."

De-evolved Henry Miller obeyed.

Immediately Loveless's three henchmen moved toward the two agents, one of them picked up the gun Jim had dropped on the floor and the two others grabbed Jim's and she-Artie's arms to haul them to their feet. The room still spinning female- Artemus swayed on his unstable legs. He suddenly felt a strong arm supporting him and turned to smile at Jim standing at his side. "Thank you Jim," he said.

Jim smiled in return. "You're welcome buddy."

Then the three goons escorted James West and female-Artemus Gordon to the two empty chairs at the end of the big table.

Miguelito's smile broadened. "I knew that you would escape from your cell, and as the corridor was leading here, I was waiting for you, Mademoiselle Gordon and Mr. West."

She-Artie glared at the diminutive man. "I have a female body, yes, but I'm still me in my head, Loveless. Call me, Mister, not Mademoiselle."

Loveless chuckled. "Tell me Mademoiselle Gordon, no side effects?"

She-Artemus groaned, eyes darkening with anger. "Yes, one, I have that irresistible urge to kill you with my bare hands!"

Loveless chuckled again. "Nothing new there then. No side effects then, you're perfectly healthy, good." He glanced at his guests. "You do know Dr. Faustina and her aide, Miklos. He has just killed Senator Long, and they are waiting for a thunderstorm to resuscitate the poor man. But a thunderstorm is announced in the next 12 hours. Of course, it's a first step. I will help her to build a machine capableof generating enough powerful electrical energy to re-create lightning bolts. So, she won't depend on bad weather to resuscitate people."

Dr. Faustina smiled. "It's remarkable, Dr. Loveless, Mr. Gordon body is just perfect. Your machine works perfectly."

Loveless nodded. "Of course, it does, my dear. All my machines work perfectly – until those two men destroy them somehow. But not this time."

He gestured to Dr. Arcularis. "You know Dr. Arcularis too. He told me how he hypnotized Mr. Gordon successfully, and failed with you, Mr. West. But next time – I mean soon, he will succeed with the two of you. He has built an instant-hypnotizing machine, or almost. It will need to be perfected too, but I will offer Dr. Arcularis my expertise. Governor Forsythe, Dr. Arcularis' guinea pig, was successfully hypnotized and I will send him back home after your mission. There will be a very important meeting next Monday, with the local politicians and members of the State Department. He'll kill them all."

Dr. Arcularis smirked. "You won't resist me this time, Mr. West," he said.

Loveless turned then to his left, looking at Dr. McAllister. "But you don't know Dr. McAllister. He's a renowned scientist working on both the animal comportment and the human comportment. He has found a drug capable de-evolving a modern man to his primitive self. He's particularly interested by Neanderthals. As you can see, his drug works. But as I didn't want to deal with an unstable and very dangerous brute at my side, I asked Dr. Arcularis to hypnotize our new caveman friend. He's well-behaved now and makes a formidable guard. With an army of those creatures, no one will be able to stop me."

She-Artemus nodded. "Let me guess, you want to conquer the country with an army of hypnotized-controlled Neanderthals, to become what? A king? An emperor?"

Loveless smiled. "No, I just want to rule the world! I have a plan, a foolproof plan. And the two of you are going to help me."

Jim nodded. "We're going to be hypnotized, I know. Let me guess, your plan is to send us back to Washington to kill the President."

Loveless shook his head. "Not exactly, Mr. Gordon will kill the President. The Secret Services agents won't suspect a beautiful woman like Mademoiselle Gordon to be a killer. As for you, Mr. West, you will kill the important people accompanying the President: the members of his cabinet. The US Government will be decimated. There's a reception scheduled at the White House Saturday. You will attend it, bothof you. You will be accompanied by the lovely Mademoiselle Gordon, Mr. West, hiding a gun in her bag. And you, of course will be armed too, as Grant's bodyguard. I'm looking forward to reading the newspapers after the assassination of President Grant: President Grant dead, killed by an unknown woman who killed herself after that. His Cabinet members dead too, killed by the famous agent of the Secret Services Mr. James West, who killed himself as well."

Jim nodded. "The President has bodyguards. They'll shoot us without a split second of hesitation, to protect Grant, if they have the occasion."

Loveless nodded. "I know that, but I prefer the first version of my plan. And if you are both killed – then I'll be delivered from you. Good riddance."

She-Artie paled. "It won't work. It won't work because all your schemes have failed, Loveless. We defeated you each time."

Miguelito Loveless snapped his fingers. "Escort these men to the green room. Dr. Arcularis, I count on you to hypnotize them. I will join you shortly. I have something to write." He took a sip of wine and added, "This time, my schemes will succeed Mr. Gordon."

Dr. Arcularis nodded. "They will be ready in a short moment Dr. Loveless."

Guns poking their backs, hands up, the two agents left the dining room to enter Dr. Arcularis' lab a couple of minutes later.

WWW

Later in the green room

She-Artie and Jim were strapped to a metallic chair each, screwed to the floor, their head placed against a mini headboard and attached there with a strap too. Then the goons left the lab.

They were facing Dr. Arcularis' hypnotizing machine.

Dr. Arcularis took a roll of white paper and said, "I invented an adhesive paper that will serve me in hypnotizing people, by keeping their eyes open during the process.

Moving close to Jim he tore a piece of adhesive paper and placed it as necessary to keep the other man's eyes wide open. Satisfied, he did the same thing to She-Artemus. "There, you won't be able to close your eyes now.

She-Artie began to struggle to free himself.

Arcularis smiled. "It serves nothing Mr. Gordon, you and your partner are trapped like rats." Then he moved towards his machine which he started to activate, pressing buttons here and there, lowering several levers and one big one, at the end. Immediately a blinding light surged from the center of the machine, coming through a reflector using big lenses.

Dr. Arcularis put dark glasses on his eyes. "With that, I'm protected," he said.

Unable to close their eyes the two agents where blinded instantly and felt an intense pain, their eyes burning, tears welling.

Loveless, dark glasses on his eyes too, entered the room, rubbing his hands with glee. "Everything's ready Dr. Arcularis? He asked, looking at his prisoners.

Dr. Arcularis nodded. "Everything's ready. It should take 30 seconds to have them hypnotized, Dr. Loveless and at my command."

Loveless frowned. "At my command," he rectified. "You will read that message to them." Then he pulled out a piece of paper from the pocket of his jacket.

Dr. Arcularis took it and read it. "Alright. Just give me two seconds to activate the rotating light." Then he lowered a final lever. Suddenly the lenses started to rotate at top speed, alternating between red and white. "30 seconds," he added taking out his watch.

Dr. Arcularis deactivated the rotating light 30 seconds later, and then progressively stopped his machine. He then removed his dark glasses and moved towards the two agents. Their eyes were red and puffy, he noticed and their cheeks wet with tears.

Loveless took his dark glasses off and joined the other man, his eyes wide with insane glee. "Perfect! Just perfect! Now read the text."

Dr. Arcularis nodded and read, "Listen to my voice, focus on it, only my voice exists. You will do exactly what I will command you to do." He made a brief pause, hearing a small whimper of pain coming from She-Artie and then he continued, "You are going to forget everything from the time you came to Yellow Springs. But you will remember this: you didn't find the persons you were searching for but you were captured by Dr. Loveless and brought to his hideout, somewhere, you don't know where, but you managed to escape – after he drugged you, hence your amnesia." He moved in front of She-Artemus and said, "Dr. Loveless transformed you into a woman in order to break your duo with Mr. West, because women are not field agents, it's too dangerous. Once in Washington, when you see President Grant, you will kill him, and then you will kill yourself." He moved towards Jim and ordered, "When you see the President, you will kill all the members of his Cabinet then you will kill yourself." He made another pause and concluded, "Obey my command, now." Another pause. 'Now you're going to sleep soundly."

He removed the adhesive paper and the two agents closed their eyes, falling asleep instantly. "It's done, Dr. Loveless." He bent down and began unfastening the straps.

Loveless nodded. "Perfect!"

Tbc.