Kim Possible belongs to Disney.
THE MONKEY'S VALET
Chapter 13
Months flew past swiftly and before Bates even fully realised it, he found himself standing at Middleton Airport with Fiske, having just emerged from the plane. The valet had never been in the States before because the country had never been a place of interest to Fiske who rarely travelled to locations where he couldn't explore ancient temples or dig into some old monkey shrine.
"What sort of place is this… Middleton again, milord?" he asked. He had to pause to read the name from the travel brochure he had taken from the plane. First impressions made it look like fairly normal town to him, not one to attract tourists but a good place for raising a family and living a quiet life.
"Unimportant to us," Fiske replied in a bored tone. "We're travelling straight away to Mount Middleton. Amy said she'll be waiting for us at some sort of local hotel."
Bates could only nod at that. For the past months, he had expressed his concern for their plans and asked several times if Fiske really intended to go through with everything, but he had received nothing but angry snaps and disbelief at his behaviour for this. It was obvious that there was no doubt in Fiske's mind, and he had eventually learnt to remain silent about the whole genetic mutation issue.
"Milord, I wonder if her laboratory is located somewhere in that area. A hotel swarming with tourists is not something I would want too close to my secret lair," he pointed out.
"Hmm. True. Amy didn't mention the specific location. We can only hope she has enough sense in her to keep everything hidden," Fiske said with a frown.
Bates had noted that his master's opinion of Amy wasn't nearly as flattering as it had first seemed like. It was a relief to notice that even in his enthusiasm Fiske was level-headed enough to realise that there was something wrong with her, but he wasn't sure if lying to her and buttering her up with false praise was the best way to go about this. Bates didn't like using people, and he was afraid they might never get rid of Amy if Fiske continued this game much further.
Well, he supposed this was a hole that his master had dug for himself. He had done all he could to protest against mutation and getting involved with that insane woman, so Fiske could only blame himself if something went wrong. Bates didn't wish for that, of course, but he couldn't help but think that being taught a lesson would do Fiske some good.
"Find us a taxi so that we can get out of here," Fiske said. His distaste for the people around them and impatience to proceed were so obvious that Bates hurried to fulfil the task without another word.
As much as the upcoming events were making him nervous, Bates enjoyed the trip through Middleton and up to the mountains. The streets were tidy, the houses looked well-kept, and most of the people they passed looked happy. There was something charming and peaceful about the place, and he could easily imagine himself living a good life there. Just looking out the car window eased his fears somewhat.
One glance at Fiske, however, told the valet that his master was feeling the exact opposite. The man had his hands crossed on his chest, and he was tapping his fingers impatiently in a steady rhythm. The scowl on his face could only be described as irritated. Bates was half-expecting him to demand the driver to go faster.
He wondered if Fiske wasn't at all nervous about what was going to take place. He had to realise that what they were about to do was highly risky and could go wrong in so many ways, yet he hadn't heard Fiske mention one word about that. If the man was feeling any doubt, he was hiding it well.
"Isn't this a little odd time of the year to go to the ski resort?" the driver asked after they had been travelling a while in complete silence.
Bates waited a moment if Fiske wanted to reply, but the man had no interest in talking to anyone. It was probably for the best if Bates handled the talking; Fiske could be so impolite when he was annoyed enough.
"We're interested in the local fauna, sir," he explained. They had agreed to let nobody know their real identities so that there would be no questions. Fiske had insisted that nobody should know about what they were doing, at least not before he had the fourth jade monkey.
"Oh. Well, I'm afraid you aren't going to see much up there. We have nothing rare," the driver said.
That was all that was said during the drive. The silence made Bates feel uncomfortable and as soon as they got out of Middleton and started going up the mountain road, he found he could no longer relax by staring out the window. His attention was drawn to Fiske who was playing with the sleeve of his coat and staring at some fixed spot before him. Bates wanted to say something to ease the strained atmosphere, but the presence of the driver made it impossible. The valet couldn't have been happier when they finally reached the ski resort and could step out of the car.
As expected, Amy was there waiting for them. She rushed out of the hotel to greet them with a wide smile on her face.
"Ooh, you're finally here!" she said. Without stopping to take a breath, she grabbed Fiske's hand and examined it. "Looking nice. I don't think we're going to have any trouble."
"Well, that's good to hear," Fiske said and took a glance around to make sure nobody was looking at them. Fortunately the hotel was mostly empty this time of the year, and the taxi driver had already gone back to Middleton. He pulled his hand back and hid it in his pocket away from Amy's eyes.
"I can't wait to show you everything that I've done. You'll be just amazed to see the lab. It's so much better than the one they have at the university," Amy said as she took Fiske's arm and started dragging him towards the mountains. Bates picked up their suitcases and followed in a hurry.
"Where will we be staying?" he asked. They hadn't made reservations because Fiske wanted to be extra careful and not have his name in the hotel book.
Amy smiled. "You can stay with me. I've got more than enough room, and I need to pay back for your hospitality," she said. "Besides, it's probably for the best that you stay hidden after the procedure. It might take a while to get used to the changes."
"Maybe we should refrain from discussing that until we're alone?" Fiske suggested with a modest cough.
"Oh, right. How silly of me. I'm so used to talking to Phil and George that I forgot not everybody is supposed to know about this," Amy said. Her words made Fiske freeze with surprise, and Amy turned to look at him in confusion.
"Monty, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Who exactly are Phil and George? I thought a single word about this wasn't supposed to get past the three of us!" Fiske snarled, making Amy let go of his arm and take a startled step away from him.
"They're the help I got to build the lab, dear. Did you think I could do it all alone? But don't worry about them; they will never tell a soul what is going on. They don't even know the exact nature of your business here, and we don't have to tell them if you don't want to," she explained quickly, an almost desperate look crossing her face when Fiske kept staring at her with furious eyes.
"We can't trust outsiders. Who knows what they will do once you no longer need them? They must be dealt with somehow," Fiske said, calming down somewhat but still glaring down at Amy. Bates was used to that sort of treatment, but the small woman was experiencing Fiske's rage for the first time. The valet supposed it had to come as a shock to her after the charming compliments she had received before.
"They're in on this just as much as we are. You shouldn't talk about them like you're planning to kill them," Amy said with new determination in her voice. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at Fiske with a small pout on her face, almost as if challenging him to argue.
"We shall see about that," Fiske only said. Bates knew that if they didn't need Amy, Fiske would have never put up with that kind of attitude.
He cleared his throat to ease the tension a little. "So, where exactly did you build your laboratory, madam?" he asked.
Talking about genetics brightened Amy's mood somewhat, and she shot a grateful smile at Bates, ignoring Fiske for the time being. She pointed behind her back to the mountains.
"Some distance over there. I have a small patch of land beyond the forest," she said.
"I trust nobody knows about it," Fiske said.
"It's very well hidden," Amy said. She glanced at Fiske from the corner of her eye and didn't take his arm again when she started leading them towards the mountain path. Bates was appalled by that they had to walk, but Fiske and Amy agreed that it was for the best if nobody knew about where they were going. Getting vehicles would no doubt have raised questions about their intentions.
Well, he supposed this was nothing new. He had accompanied Fiske through deserts and jungles, so one forest in the mountains couldn't be that bad. Then again, never before had he had to carry several suitcases at the same time. Neither of his companions looked like they would help him, probably too excited to even remember his presence. His poor back was going to kill him in the evening.
Of the three of them, only Fiske was in a good shape. Every now and then, he had to stop to wait for Bates and Amy who felt like they were swimming in their own sweat and that their lungs couldn't get enough air. Bates felt seriously tempted to just throw the suitcases away and collapse against a tree.
"I really should have created some cute cuddly monster that could carry us," Amy mused as she wiped her sleeve against her forehead.
"How much farther do we still have to go, madam?" Bates asked.
"A few miles over there," Amy replied.
Fiske was looking at them with his hands in his pockets and with a small smug smile on his face. His hair was a bit more ruffled than usual, but other than that he looked like their hike was nothing but a pleasant stroll in the sun for him. He had enough manners not to hit them with a snide remark about how exercise would have done them good, but Bates knew he had to have several such comments running around in his head.
"Do you want me to carry the suitcases, Bates?" Fiske asked.
"Absolutely not, milord," Bates said.
"You could carry me," Amy suggested.
"Oh, I would, but it would be horribly inappropriate to touch a lady in such a way," Fiske said, but the short glance he shot at Bates told the valet that Fiske didn't think even he was in a shape good enough to do that. Maybe it was because Bates himself was feeling so exhausted, but he realised he was very annoyed by Fiske's attitude all of a sudden. Yes, maybe he and Amy were terribly out of shape, but they didn't need to be treated in such a condescending way.
"I wouldn't mind," Amy said, but she was too tired to get a real smile on her face.
They rested for one more moment before they continued on their way. It took them a little over an hour to reach the entrance to Amy's laboratory, much to Bates and Amy's relief (they were almost crawling by now) and Fiske's annoyance (he would have liked to get there much earlier).
Bates could see two male figures standing by the entrance. He supposed they had to be Phil and George, so at first he didn't think twice about it. When they got closer, however, he noticed something peculiar about them.
"Milord, do you see what I see?" he asked.
"If you're referring to the anthropomorphic pig and bird creatures, yes I do," Fiske replied.
He wasn't dreaming, then. That much was a relief to Bates, but it also meant he would soon have to deal with two such things that he had never thought he would encounter in his life. Though he wanted, he couldn't tear his eyes from the two men – if they could be called that. They looked much more like animals.
"Is everything in order here?" Amy asked her two assistants.
The bird, which Bates thought looked like a chicken but it couldn't be because it had a male figure, clucked in affirmation.
Amy turned around to introduce them to each other. "This is George," she said and pointed at the pig. The bird was revealed to be Phil. Both creatures lifted their hands in greeting, and Bates guessed they couldn't speak any human language.
"These are the two guests I was talking about, Lord Monty Fiske and his valet, Bates," Amy said.
Bates and Fiske glanced at each other and kept their distance from the animals. They seemed friendly enough and obviously had human intelligence, but Bates couldn't bring himself to trust two such freaks of nature.
"I must admit I wasn't expecting this," Fiske pointed out.
"You shouldn't be surprised. I did tell you that I would experiment with the effect animal DNA can have on humans," Amy asked. "Didn't I?"
If possible, Bates's eyes widened even further when he looked at the two creatures. "You mean… they are… were humans?" he asked. How could she ever commit such atrocities? He felt bile rise in his throat when he looked at the men and tried to imagine what it must have been like for them, forced into being helpless subjects of Amy's perverted obsession.
"Yeah," Amy said. She looked from Fiske to Bates with a confused frown on her face. "Why do you both look like that? What's wrong?" she asked.
"How could you do that to them? Do you feel no compassion?" Bates asked, entirely forgetting etiquette. He couldn't bear to look at Phil and George anymore; his heart was too filled with pity.
"I'm more interested in what are the odds of this happening to me," Fiske remarked. He, on the other hand, was eyeing the two mutated men with great interest and fascination.
"Oh, no, no! You got it all wrong! I didn't force them into anything! They're volunteers," Amy hurried quickly, and George confirmed this with a snort.
"Volunteers, madam?" Bates repeated. He couldn't comprehend how anyone would want to be subjected to this. These two men would never be able to show their face in public, and they probably would never be able to speak again either. Who could want such a life for themselves?
"Why did they --?" he asked, but he was interrupted by an annoyed comment from Fiske.
"We don't need to know that," he snapped. "All that is relevant is whether this will happen to me."
Bates wanted to know the same thing. If this was what could happen if something went wrong, it would be most advisable to forget all about the genetic mutation and go straight back home. Nothing was worth this risk. He could only hope that the shock of seeing these two men would make Fiske realise that as well.
Amy looked from Fiske to her two assistants before shaking her head and smiling reassuringly. "Don't you worry about a thing, Monty. What I did to them was different. There will be no complications with your procedure. And if there are, we can always reverse it," she said.
"I didn't think it would be that simple of a matter," Fiske said in doubt. Bates, who knew even less about genetics, couldn't really believe it either. It wasn't like one could just create a mutating machine with a reverse button.
Amy chuckled and winked at the two of them. "You underestimate me. Once you see my lab, you'll understand!" She opened the entrance to the lair and led them inside. The bare interior and pale walls reminded Bates of a factory hall, or maybe an extremely dull medical ward. He liked neither impression, and he couldn't really imagine why someone like Amy had built herself such a place. Maybe it was an evil scientist thing.
Phil and George took a turn to right and left the three of them alone. Bates was glad; the presence of the two men quite unnerved him.
After a bit of walking, they finally arrived to the centre of the complex, Amy's laboratory.
"Ta-daa!" she exclaimed and pointed both her hands triumphantly at her toys. Wires came down from the ceiling and entered the walls and bizarre machines that were nothing like Bates had ever seen before, tanks of different shapes were filled with bubbling liquid, and blinking lights and oddly shaped buttons covered every surface. On the far side of the laboratory, there was a tall shelf that was filled with a colourful collection of Cuddle Buddies that would have made a zoologist weep.
"My…" Bates whispered as he looked at it all. He hadn't thought they would be facing something like this. It was far bigger and more complicated than he had ever imagined.
"Quite impressive," Fiske said in a suitably interested tone. He had never been one to be fascinated by science. This occasion wasn't an exception, but Amy didn't notice his lack of enthusiasm.
"Isn't it? I planned everything myself!" she squealed. "Over here I have my neon-synchronic gene splicer and…"
Bates quickly lost track of her scientific babble and didn't even try to look like he understood what she was talking about. It wasn't his job to know this, and it didn't look like Amy had eyes for anything but her precious laboratory at the moment. She probably wouldn't notice even if a bomb went off next to her.
"Milord," Bates whispered as he turned to Fiske, "how much did it exactly cost to pay for this?" He hadn't been expecting anything of this scale when Fiske and Amy had told him of their agreement. He didn't need to be an expert to realise that this sort of equipment wasn't cheap. Before this, his mind had been filled with so many other fears that he hadn't even thought about worrying about Lord Fiske's financial affairs, but now there was a new item on his ever-growing list of problems.
"Considerably much, but as you can see, it was all worth it," Fiske replied. He wasn't listening to Amy's explanations either. He wasn't even keeping an eye on her as she rushed from one spot to another.
"I wonder if you weren't a tad too generous, milord. Ms Hall's services cannot amount to such a sum," Bates said.
"What good is a family fortune if you don't do something with it? This was a far better option than letting my relatives tear each other apart over it when the time comes," Fiske snapped.
Bates waited a moment to see if the scowl on his master's face would loosen and reveal a joke, but that didn't happen. He swallowed a bit.
"You don't mean the entire family fortune, of course, milord?" he asked with care.
"I put aside enough money for you to get paid, if that's what you're worried about," Fiske said. He turned his attention entirely to Amy. Bates frowned a little; he hated it when Fiske chose to end a discussion before they had reached any significant point.
"That's not what I'm worried about, milord. What about you? Maintaining the castle is not free, and what will happen to your expeditions? Now that you aren't working with the museum --"
"My, Amy! That was mighty interesting!" Fiske exclaimed heartily and marched over to her. She was beaming with prime and joy and took the man's arm as she pointed for the final thing she had to show, the shelf of Cuddle Buddies.
"Look, I put the one you gave me on a special spot!" she said.
"Which one was that again?" Fiske muttered under his breath.
"You silly thing, stop toying with me! It's this one right here. I'll treasure it forever!" Amy said and picked up the Pandaroo. She shoved it at Fiske's hands and didn't even notice how displeased he was at having to hold the thing.
"When can we get started?" he asked and put the toy back on the shelf.
"Why such a hurry? We have all the time in the world, and it's my turn to be a host to you. We had such a good time at your castle," Amy said with a hopeful smile. Maybe she was more interested in Fiske's company than playing with DNA.
Fiske glanced at Bates with shifty eyes as Amy held his arm, but he smiled at her. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can concentrate on more important matters," he said.
"Oh, you have a point!" Amy said as faint blush crept on her face. If he had had any doubts about it before, it was now clear to Bates that Fiske had her entirely wrapped around his little finger. Anything he asked for, she would gladly provide it. Too bad Fiske didn't seem to realise that she would eventually come to ask for something in return. He had never been that good with women. Bates felt like shaking his head.
Amy walked over to one of her machines and pressed a few buttons to make it hum with sudden life. There was finally a hint of fascination on Fiske's face as he watched her work.
"When can we start?" he asked again.
"There are a few more things I have to take care of, but --"
"When?"
"This evening if we're lucky. Oh, don't look so agitated, Monty." She winked at him. "It'll be over soon if that's what you want."
Those few hours that remained before everything would get started felt the longest in Bates's life. He tried to busy himself with preparing the room Amy had shown them, but he found he didn't really know what to do. He had no idea in what sort of condition Fiske would be like after the procedure. Would it be like after surgery? Would he be conscious? Nobody had seen it important to fill him in on such details. He slammed a pillow on the bed in annoyance.
It was still quite unbelievable that they were actually going through with this. Science of this sort was alien to him and if he had read about it from a newspaper, he would have had trouble trusting it. This was like bizarre science fiction and not part of Lord Fiske's life.
He supposed that all he could do at this point was to stand back and let things happen. He had certainly tried to put a stop to the mess, and it wasn't his fault that nobody had listened to him. Nothing good would come out of what they were doing, but Bates knew that Fiske was the kind of person who had to learn his lessons the hard way. The valet could only hope that his master wouldn't regret the procedure later on in his life. Even if it could be reversed like Amy had said, he had still wasted almost everything he had on it.
Bates finished preparing the room much sooner than he had planned. In this unfamiliar setting he had no chance to walk between rooms and halls or stop to think when he was reminded of something by some old item. Thinking was exactly what he didn't want to do at the moment; dealing with the uncomfortable knot in his stomach was already hard enough without picturing the procedure in his mind.
Though he knew they wouldn't start just yet, he felt compelled to return to the laboratory to see how Fiske and Amy were doing. He had tried to suggest that his master could accompany him so that they could talk alone one last time before the procedure, but Fiske hadn't listened at all. He was too anxious now that everything was going to happen soon, and there was no room for any other thoughts in his head.
He saw Amy making some more adjustments to her machine while Fiske watched over her shoulder. Neither noticed his arrival, not even after he coughed modestly.
"And that's about it," Amy said once she was done. She greeted Bates with a smile when she turned around and spotted him. "Oh, hello!"
Fiske didn't acknowledge his valet's presence. He nodded at the machine that Amy had been working with.
"Is this truly all we need? I was expecting something a tad more delicate," he said.
"Well, mostly. I've already downloaded the orangutan DNA into the database, and I just finished programming the machine so that it'll only work on your hands and feet. I've mainly used it for creating complete hybrids, so we'll have to see how that goes," Amy explained.
"And?" Fiske pressed, having caught a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
Amy frowned and scratched her chin. "I don't think there's going to be any trouble with your hands because the basic structure is so similar to what orangutans have, but I'm a little worried about your feet. I mean, the bones are a bit different because the big toe is in a different place. I'm not sure if my machine can fix that. I'm still test-driving it," she said.
"And it's only now that you see it fit to tell me about this?" Fiske snarled. Within a split second, he had turned from a collected gentleman to an enraged madman who was looming over Amy's short form with pure fury in his eyes. Bates didn't blame her one bit when she retreated in sudden fright.
"Don't worry, Monty!" she said in a shaky voice. "I know what to do!"
"Well?" Fiske asked.
"If you let me, we could fix it with surgery. The chances of my machine working are much better if we've already altered the bone structure a little," Amy said quickly to calm him down.
"But you are not a surgeon, are you, madam?" Bates asked before Fiske could say anything. It was one thing to let an insane but talented geneticist tamper with his master, but there was no way he was going to watch someone with no experience or education use a scalpel on him.
"Stay out of this, Bates!" Fiske snapped at him.
Amy looked from one man to another with a saddened frown on her face. "Don't fight!" she pleaded. "Everything can be fixed! George is a surgeon, so we could ask him to help."
"I don't really like the idea of letting anyone else know about this," Fiske said. He pursed his lips and rubbed his chin in thought for a while, staring at the floor as he considered all his options. After a while, he reached a conclusion that disappointed Bates and made Amy happy.
"I suppose I do not have much of a choice," Fiske admitted with a reluctant sigh. "And he is also too deep in this to reveal my secret."
"Great! Now everything is in order again!" Amy squealed and ran to a small radio to call George to join them.
"Milord, are you sure this is a good idea? If something goes wrong, you might not be able to walk again," Bates pointed out. Amy had said her machine had a reverse button, but there wasn't much you could do about failed surgery.
There was a grim but determined look in Fiske's eyes. "I know, but I will not turn back now," he said.
"But is it truly worth the risk, milord? Your hand is healed and you're in perfect condition. You may not really need any of this," Bates pressed.
"Of course it is worth the risk! And this is not merely about agility or strength anymore," Fiske hissed at him so that Amy wouldn't notice.
Bates blinked. What else could this be about, then? There was no other possible reason for Fiske to want monkey hands and feet, unless it was such an illogical reason that nobody else would think of it. He hated to admit it, but that was probably the case.
"Milord?" he asked in worry.
"We will talk more about this when we return home. There is no time now, and I have not yet determined if I can trust you with everything," Fiske said.
"If I have ever betrayed your trust, milord…" Bates started but winced when he remembered the diary. Even if it had been justified, it had still been a dishonourable act. And while his outburst when he had first heard of the mutation had been entirely reasonable, Fiske probably saw it as an act of doubt and rebellion.
"We shall see."
The door opened and George entered the room without his bird companion. He, Amy and Fiske gathered together to discuss the procedure and what they could and couldn't do to make it go smoothly. George had to draw his ideas on paper because he couldn't speak, so Bates got a very limited picture from the whole thing.
"So, you're going to cut the bone here, attach it here and still have it function normally? That shouldn't be possible," Fiske pointed out and pointed to several places on George's drawing.
"It's not medically possible, but that's where my machine comes in. If my theory is right, the orangutan DNA should kick in and make the foot heal without any complications," Amy said.
"And if you're incorrect?" Fiske asked.
Amy shrugged. "I don't really know. I haven't tried to combine genetics with surgery before. What do you think, George? Should we do it?"
"May I just point out that the conditions are hardly sufficient for such a procedure? There is no operation room here," Bates said.
The other three stopped their conversation and turned to look at him. Their silent stares made Bates shift uncomfortably and wonder if he should have kept his mouth shut after all. But it was a point to consider, and he couldn't believe it that he was the only one to notice.
Fiske slit his eyes in obvious distaste. "Really, Bates. Do keep to yourself if you have nothing of worth to contribute."
"I only wanted to--" Bates started, but the others turned back to their papers. He waited for a moment to see if there was any reason for him to say, but he was being ignored so thoroughly that he didn't think they would even notice that he was gone. He knew he shouldn't have abandoned Fiske among these people, but as the man had said, he had nothing to add and no way to help. Most of all, he didn't want to be there to witness any part of the procedure. It would have been too gory for him.
He slipped outside unnoticed and took a seat by the door. He wouldn't bother anyone there, but he was close enough to run to Fiske's aid in case the man needed him. Bates almost hoped he would because then they could have left all of this behind and start making their life normal again. Fiske hadn't really needed him for much of anything lately. It was making the valet feel lonely.
Time went by. Bates took a look at his pocket watch and was startled to realise that almost an hour had passed. A sudden and irrational sense of panic threatened to crush his chest, and he had trouble swallowing. They had to have started the procedure by now.
They could have informed me, he thought as he glanced at the closed door. At the very least, they could have let him know how long it would take. Now he had no way of knowing if it was taking too long and if there was trouble, which meant that every passing minute was making him twice as worried. He didn't dare just open the door and take a look; even if there was a problem, he couldn't do anything to help and there was the chance that his sudden appearance might make something go wrong.
He sighed as he forced himself to put his watch back into his pocket. The dread inside him reminded him of the time when his wife had become ill. He had felt just as terrified and unable to help back then. He could only hope that things would go better this time.
The approaching sound of faint clicks made him raise his eyes from the floor. Bates thought it had to be Phil coming to run some errand, so his eyes widened in surprise when he realised that it was actually a small dog. Not just any dog, either. It was that horrid crab hybrid Amy had told them about, Lucy.
"Woof, woof!" Lucy barked happily and approached him with her tongue dangling out. Bates felt his skin crawl at the sight of the limbs attached to the dog's body, but he resisted the urge to stand up and run away.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. He wasn't really one to talk to animals because they couldn't understand or reply, but it felt like the right thing to do at the moment.
Lucy only wagged her tail at him and sat down beside him. Bates got the feeling that what the dog really wanted was to jump into his arms, but she couldn't do it with her new limbs.
"You poor thing. What has she done to you?" he wondered. After a moment of hesitation, he leaned to pick her up. Lucy immediately took into licking his hands like they were covered in meaty sauce or whatever dogs found delicious.
Bates looked at the dog as he absent-mindedly scratched her from behind the ears. If Amy could do this, maybe she knew what she was doing with Fiske, too. Lucy certainly seemed happy enough; she had no pains and acted like any normal dog would. It was only the abnormality that bothered him, but maybe that was the problem. He was the only one troubled by any of this; everyone else was content and eager to keep going. Perhaps it was for the best to save his judgement until he could see the results of Lord Fiske's procedure with his own eyes.
As I said last time, see you guys in about four weeks!