Mysterious strangers are never a good thing, particularly if you have a secret to keep. Boys and their toys. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It's really appreciated, however many I get :)
Keri walked through the door behind the counter and took the two white plastic containers which Frank handed to her. She put them down on the counter and smiled at the KORPS agent. "We'll see you again on Thursday then," she said brightly.
"Yeah. Thanks," said the man, picking up the containers and leaving quickly.
"Or maybe earlier," said Keri under her breath.
Back at HQ Frank and Stella watched the tracers they had placed in the electronics boxes travelling through the KORPS base. "Like taking candy from a baby !" said Keri quietly. Frank and Stella glanced across at her. "Is it always this easy ?" asked Keri.
"No," said Frank, Stella and Aneisha together, before looking back to their screen.
"They've stopped," said Stella. They all leaned in to get a better look. "That must be where they're building these disguise units," said Stella.
"But that won't be where they're keeping Tom and Dan," pointed out Aneisha.
"Tom will probably be there most of the time," said Frank. "It's a start. Hopefully Tom will find the equipment we put in the boxes and build a communicator. Then we can find out some more information," he added. "You two need to show your faces upstairs. We've arranged for you both to have morning dentist appointments. Report in to the school office when you get back. I'll let you know if we find out anything," he instructed Aneisha and Keri. "If we look like we're going to take action tomorrow, I'll arrange a cover for you both," he promised them.
In a KORPS headquarters across town Tom and Mr. Strang were staring at four large boxes of components and two containers full of pure carbon. "Where do we start ?" asked Tom.
"Well, I could show you the current control system and you could learn how to make one. If I explain the deposition process for the graphene and how I've adapted the 3D printer you know how to do everything," said Strang.
Tom looked over his shoulder to the closed door and stood closer to the scientist. Still unsure if they were being overheard, he pulled a piece of paper over and scribbled on it, "Don't teach me everything !"
Strang looked at him in complete puzzlement and pulled the paper towards him. "Why ?" he wrote.
"If you teach me everything, they won't need you any more !" wrote Tom.
"Oooooh," said Strang quietly. There was a pause of a few seconds before Strang spoke again. "Well, there's no rush to learn everything straight away," he said a little too loudly. "Let's take it one step at a time." He picked up the piece of paper they had used and pushed it into a glass chamber at the side of the room, pressed a button and the paper vapourised instantly. Strang dusted off his hands and said, "Let's get to work then."
Strang opened up a control device and explained its main components to Tom. Strang programmed up the memory chips while Tom was putting together the components. One of the KORPS guards brought them food in what Tom assumed was the middle of the day. With no windows, it was difficult to gauge the passing of time. He hoped that Dan was being fed as well. After they had eaten, the Crime Minister came to check on progress. She looked less than pleased to find a partially complete controller and nothing else.
"This controller has no suit to control," complained the Crime Minister.
"There are only two of us Crime Minister," said Strang.
"Can you teach the other boy to produce the suit ?" asked the Crime Minister.
Tom and Strang looked at one another. "I could show him how to coat the suit," suggested Tom. It would be good to see his friend again, although he wasn't keen to speed up the process.
"Very well. Bring the other boy !" instructed the Crime Minister. Shortly Dan was brought into the laboratory. Tom instructed Dan in what Strang had shown him, using the carbon to produce the graphene coating on the suit. Dan followed the instructions and got to work.
It took them the rest of the day to complete the control unit and suit. "I wonder why they aren't getting you to train up the KORPS guards," Dan said to Strang.
Strang shook his head. "I don't know. They don't seem particularly, erm, technically minded to me," he said quietly. This cheered Dan up enormously. Nobody had ever called him technically minded before. Then he realised that Strang only meant that the KORPS guards here were exceptionally dim. Dan quite enjoyed making the Chameleon suit. It was way more interesting than sitting in the tiny cell on his own.
Dan pulled on the finished suit so that Tom and Strang could test the new controller. With the hood over his head, he couldn't tell what he looked like himself. He had apparently worn it once before, but he had no memory of the mission he had been forced to carry out. "What does it look like ?" Dan asked.
"Take the hood down and look in the mirror," suggested Tom. Dan did as he was told and looked at himself in bafflement. He looked like he was wearing a long red dress. He could see his head on top, but he was wearing a long red dress with bare arms and women's legs showing through a slit which ran up to his thigh. Deeply weird ! The whole experience was creeping him out, so he turned away from the mirror. Tom and Strang were in deep discussion over the operation of the controller.
"Is it working all right ?" asked Dan.
"Seems to be," said Tom in a distracted voice. Strang continued muttering to himself and didn't reply.
Dan was feeling stiff after being cooped up in the cell and then hunched over the graphene and printing machine for the rest of the day. He did a couple of warm-up stretches and then cart-wheeled across the floor.
"Whoah ! What happened there ?" asked Tom.
Dan stopped and looked at the two concerned faces of Tom and Strang.
"What's the matter ?" asked Dan.
"Something went weird with your legs," said Tom. "They kind of multiplied when you turned upside down."
"Felt all right to me," said Dan.
"Well ? Have you got it working yet ?" demanded an angry voice. The Crime Minister walked into the room, accompanied by three KORPS agents they hadn't seen before.
"Yes Crime Minister. It is operational," Strang assured her hurriedly. The Crime Minister clicked her fingers at Dan. He pulled the hood back over his head and walked across the room and back.
"Excellent !" said the Crime Minister. Dan pulled the hood off his head again. He started pulling off the suit. "Keep it on !" ordered the Crime Minister. "We have a mission. We will need both of the suits. You will use one," she said to Dan. "You boy, will help Strang operate the suits !" she said to Tom. She turned and pushed her face into Dan's. "If you do not follow our instructions perfectly, your friend will pay," she spat at him.
"But, he's the only other person who knows how to make the Chameleon suit," Dan protested.
"Oh, we won't kill him," snarled the Crime Minister. "We will make him suffer," she said, with an evil smile. One of the guards raised his stun stick and pointed it at Dan's chest. "I have heard that they're painful," she said. Dan swallowed and nodded.
The Crime Minister whirled around and pointed to one of the newly arrived guards. "You will take the other suit. Instruct the boy on the mission," she ordered the man. He nodded and waved for Dan to follow him. Tom and Strang watched as they left the room. This man looked to be a cut above the other guards who worked at the facility. He moved like a cat and his expression was severe and cruel. Tom wondered what 'mission' KORPS had planned.
