Virus                       by: Destiny

 

Part 6

As he walked out of the hotel towards the waiting staff car Sam had an uneasy feeling that they were being watched. Sam looked around at the street outside the hotel but could see nothing but tourists. He put the feeling down to nerves, he still had not recovered from the embarrassment of fainting and crying. The transition from strapping young man to stunning woman was neither an easy nor desirable one, and he still felt sensitive about it. Especially when he found himself doing something feminine. When all three of the group was ensconced in the car Greg told the driver to follow Franz's instructions. Greg noticed his friend's worried looking expression as he kept glancing out of the rear window. Again he wondered about the changes that had overcome Sam, did Sam realise just exactly how feminine he had become? Would Sam be able to change back, and more importantly, did Greg want him to?

"Sam. Are you all right you seem worried?" Greg asked. "I don't know Greg. I just had this feeling... It's probably just nerves."

Sam inwardly cringed as the slight tremor entered his voice. It made him sound like a silly little girl.

"You still look tired Sam." Greg told him. "You should get some more sleep, it's going to be a long journey. Franz said his lab was out of town." Greg put his hand on Sam's shoulder.

"Maybe you're right. I am tired." With that Sam unconsciously curled his legs under him, rested his head on Greg's arm and fell asleep. Natasha watched as the trio marched down the steps of the hotel. One of the men was the man whose death she was to arrange, Dr Greg Banks. The woman she also recognised, that was the transformed body of her first victim. Natasha smiled to herself as she imagined his reaction to finding himself in that body. The smile faded as she realised she knew the second man as well. His photograph had been included in her briefing pack. It was Franz Shmidtt, without whose work the virus would not be possible. As the car carrying her quarry pulled away Natasha revved the engine of her hire car. This time she would not repeat the mistake of being spotted. She would not have to stay too close, she had a fair idea where they were headed.

Sam moaned slightly and wriggled against his uncomfortable pillow at the sound of voices. Then his memory prodded him, he was in a car and didn't have a pillow. He shot awake and brushed his long blonde hair out of his eyes. What had he been doing, snuggling against Greg's chest like that. He pushed himself away, his face flushing a bright red. Sam also realised he had tucked his legs in under himself, as a woman would. God, he thought, what was he doing. As his anger fought with his shame, Sam found himself blinking back tears. Fortunately, he noted, Greg was to busy arguing with Franz to notice.

Sam looked out of the car's thickened glass window. He must have been asleep for quite some time. They were no longer in the city and the bright sunshine had given way to an angry looking thundercloud. They were approaching a derelict looking warehouse. This, Sam decided, was the reason for Greg and Franz arguing.

"I told you Gregory, I have not returned here for over a year. Not since you destroyed my career." Franz's voice was bitter "You destroyed your own career Franz. You should have let it go, but no, you had to start threatening people."

As he listened to the argument going back and forth, Sam decided that perhaps, it was a good thing to lose all that testosterone. The car pulled up in front of the warehouse and Sam was grateful to see no other cars in sight. Franz led them inside into the gloom. How, he wondered, were they meant to see anything in the dark. As Greg entered he switched the lights on and was slightly taken aback to see Sam blush. The warehouse was a mess. One of the windows was smashed, benches had been overturned and half burned papers littered the floor. Franz was standing with a stunned expression on his face, gazing at the destruction around him. "My work, my precious work." Franz muttered, then ran towards an interior door.

Greg ran after the fleeing Franz, and Sam followed. As Sam left the main room he heard a muffled crack of thunder.

Franz stood in an office. He was surrounded by more destruction. His mind whirled, who had destroyed his life's work? Whoever it was had been thorough. All of his files had been gone through and burned or stolen. The door to his safe had been ripped off and his biological samples gone. Worst of all his hard got supercomputer was smashed. Greg followed Franz through the series of labs, in each one it was the same scene. As Sam followed his heart sank lower and lower. If Greg was right about Franz being their best hope then he was going to be a woman forever.

Franz was distraught at the damage done, but there was still one chance. He had always been paranoid and for once it was going to pay off. As Greg came around the corner he saw Franz scrabbling at the corner of the wall, and was just about to challenge him when the whole wall swung loose to reveal an intact isolation lab.

Once they were all inside the lab the lab Franz started to pull files off of the shelves and handed them to Sam.

"There you go my dear. These are my life's work, my proof that it was not all in vain" Sam fumed at the way Franz addressed him but took the files and handed them to Greg. Greg started to read the files and was shocked by some of the results in them. He was just about to tell Franz what he thought of him when there was another loud crack. At the sound of the crack Sam spun round to see Franz start to dribble blood from his mouth then fall down. As Franz fell to the floor the figure of an exotic arabian woman holding a gun. It was a figure he knew only too well. Sam clutched at Greg in panic and wished that the woman who was screaming would shut up, then realised it was himself. "You, you..." Was all Sam managed to say.

"Ah I see you remember me." Natasha taunted him. "As well you should. You could say that I made you the woman you are today." Then she turned to Greg. "Dr Banks, how nice to finally meet you. Don't shed any tears for that fool on the floor, his work was most useful to us, even if he didn't know it. Give me those files in your hand I can find a use for them." Greg reluctantly gave them over. "You'll never get away with this you know. Our driver is..."

"Dead." Natasha finished the sentence. "As you soon will be. The curious thing about isolation labs is they are designed so if the occupants are contaminated, they cannot get out on their own." Natasha laughed as she shut the door and locked it. For the second time in less than 24 hours Sam could contain his emotions no longer and started sobbing uncontrollably.

 

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