Slightly more than forty eight hours later, Brad Majors was jarred out of a fitful sleep by the harsh peal of his bedside telephone. Blindly, he groped for the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello, Brad."
Brad rubbed his eyes and tried to clear his sleep-fogged brain. "Dr. Scott?"
"Yes. I'm very sorry to have awakened you, but I have learned some rather startling information about our…foreign friends. Will you contact Janet and be at my house as soon as possible?"
Brad hadn't spoken to Janet since he dropped her off at her apartment after Dr. Scott debriefed them. He wasn't sure he was quite ready to talk to her, much less see her. However, he heard the urgency in Dr. Scott's voice. This must be big, for him to call at such an ungodly hour and summon them. He sighed. "Yeah, sure. We'll see you soon."
By 7:30am, Brad and Janet were sitting numbly on the worn sofa in Dr. Scott's living room. Dr. Scott, in possession of a thick manila folder and an air of suppressed excitement, thanked them for coming.
"I just received this folder by government courier. It is from the Bureau's main office in Washington. It seemed I was not the first agent to file a report on visiting Transylvanians. An agent in our London office spent a considerable amount of time with a low-level Transylvanian operative stationed there, developing quite a close relationship with him. Through that operative, he acquired an astonishing amount of data about the workings of the Transylvanian mission here on Earth."
Brad and Janet were waking up quickly. Janet asked, "What did he learn?"
Dr. Scott replied, "A great deal about a lot of things. However, most pertinent to our experience is what he found out about the Transylvanians we ourselves encountered. Apparently, nothing was quite as it seemed."
Brad frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
Dr. Scott ran his fingers through his hair. "The only truthful things we discovered were
everyone's names, and the fact that they were Transylvanian. With the exception of two people…well,
three, if we are to count Eddie…everyone in that castle was an actor, most
likely including those party guests you mentioned."
Brad and Janet stared at him, their mouths open in complete astonishment. "What?"
Dr. Scott nodded. "Yes. Frank N. Furter is not a scientist. He is, in fact, arguably the most popular actor and singer in Transylvania. He is particularly noted for three things…his talent for improvisation, his skill at seduction scenes, and his status as the young Transylvanian queen's most highly favored lover. According to our Transylvanian source, it was the Queen herself who insisted he be an integral part of the Earth mission, probably due to a desire to have someone she trusted completely in a position to see what was being done. He, in turn, recruited the rest of the 'cast'."
Brad and Janet sat in silence, trying to digest what Dr. Scott had just told them. Finally, Brad asked, "You said two of them weren't actors. Which two?"
Dr. Scott answered, "Riff Raff and Magenta. However, they are not a handyman and a maid. Riff Raff is actually the Court Scientist, and the man in charge of the Earth mission. Magenta, who really is his sister, is also his research assistant."
Janet looked confused. "Then why would Riff Raff kill the people helping him in the mission?"
"I don't believe he did. The more I read, and the more I think about what happened to us, the more convinced I am that what we encountered was an elaborate scenario carefully plotted to measure our reactions."
Brad was infuriated. "It was all a big joke?"
Dr. Scott shook his head. "No, I am quite certain it wasn't a joke. It was an experiment, and we were its subjects. Actually, you and Janet were the subjects in this instance; I just happened upon the scene and was incorporated into it."
Janet still looked confused. "If it was an experiment, what were they trying to find out?"
Dr. Scott shrugged. "Based on what I have read so far, I'd say their main goal was to see how adaptable we Earthlings are when confronted with their blatant sexuality. That is where Frank's talent for seduction would come in handy for them. If he is able to seduce 'typical' Earthlings, even as a character most of us would find completely outrageous, and in circumstances we would find totally bizarre or even frightening, it may be assumed that even less charismatic Transylvanians visiting Earth would be able to get their rather voracious sexual needs met. From all available data, Transylvanians are positively obsessed with sex. There is, undoubtedly, more they are attempting to learn, but that is probably a cornerstone of their research."
Brad wasn't sure he should ask the questions that next occurred to him, but finally decided to take the chance. "What about Eddie? How did he factor into all this? Do you think Frank really killed him, or was his murder faked, too?"
Dr. Scott sighed. "I wish I knew for sure. Certainly the lifestyle in the castle would have appealed to Eddie; were he to stumble upon it, I'm certain he would have wanted to stay. The Transylvanians, in turn, may have discovered his relationship to me, and decided he could prove useful. I'm sure they had him write me that letter in order to lure me to the castle…perhaps only to insure I would, in the end, see them leave, and hopefully conclude there was no need to continue my investigation of them. Had they been willing to allow Eddie to accompany them back to their home planet, I know he would have been quite anxious to do so. Whether in fact that was what they did, or if they killed him once he served his purpose, I cannot say."
Brad asked, "Do you want to revisit the castle site? Maybe something got left behind that could tell you what happened to Eddie, or give you more information about what they were doing."
Dr. Scott looked doubtful. "I would be surprised if that were the case. However, as a scientist, I really should visit the site."
Janet spoke up. "Can we come with you? You might need help getting around." She looked at Brad, and he nodded.
Dr. Scott looked as if he were about to voice an objection, but changed his mind before speaking. "Yes, that might be a very good idea."