Chapter 12: The Confrontation


The drive up to Middletown was mainly along the all new Interstate 86,
formerly New York State Route 17, which after nearly three hundred years
of preparation finally met the base standards to be included in the
Interstate highway system. Back in the 20th Century when Teek and Vee,
two Guyanese immigrants, opened their Quickway Diner in Middletown near
Route 17, they stated that they chose the location because Orange County
was all set to be one of the fastest growing counties in the area.
Little did they know that the county population would stagnate and then
later drop. And with much irony, to this very day, much of the county
remains a mix of cultivated and abandoned farmland with towns that are
few and far between.

And so it was mostly that farmland that Frankie saw after leaving the
New York Thruway and entering Interstate 86. It was a drive of moderate
length through fields of green and brown, with the occasional scenic
lake and hill. It was a dull grey overcast day. There was a hint of rain
in the thick foggy air as though a downpour was about to start. But
there was not a downpour so effectively, Frankie was driving through a
layer of fog. Traffic was light as it was Sunday and most normal folks
had gone to pack the malls and partake in the support of the consumer
driven economy. After passing the Interstate 84 interchange just before
Middletown, he took the next exit and was on his way straight into the
heart of the Village of Middletown. At first, the scenery was one of
strip malls, the blight of the suburbs. He passed a Home Depot, a
Wal-mart, a Super Stop and Shop, each retailer swimming in its own
asphalt ocean of parking spaces. Then the scenery changed to one
resembling an English shore town with quaint looking stores and houses.
Frankie had some printed directions from Streets and Trips 2308 handy --
he always got printouts because he did not trust in the safety of the
brain beam feature either -- so he knew where to turn from the main road
and within a few minutes, he was driving down Shorter Way.

As Frankie counted off the house numbers, he was wondering how a secret
underground lab could be hidden in a neighborhood like this. Along both
sides of the street, there were only rows of houses. All he saw was
house and yard, house and yard, and house and yard, for what seemed like
a few miles. Then he saw it. Number 1452. That was what the mailbox at
the edge of the sidewalk said. Looking away from the mailbox, Frankie
saw a building that was seemingly out of place for the area. Instead of
a house, all that stood there was a large cylindrical silo. Its exterior
appeared to be all brown colored brickwork. The silo was surrounded by
grass that seemed to be at least two shades of green too light, as
though a hack artist had painted it in oil paints. A stone pavement
started at the mailbox and cut across the lawn to the silo and went all
the way around the silo.

This must be the place, Frankie thought. He parked a few numbers further
up the road, just in case, and walked back down the road towards the
silo. Then he went down the stone pavement to the silo. Frankie wondered
where the entrance was as there did not seem to be one in front. But he
followed the stone pavement around to the back and there he saw a flight
of stone steps leading down into the ground. One step at a time, he
descended down the stone steps. At the bottom of the steps, there
appeared to be a stone passageway with stone tiles on the walls, ceiling
and floor. No security? Frankie thought. It seemed almost too easy.

He took one step down the passageway. As he set his foot down on the
first, he thought he heard a click. Almost by instinct, he leaned back
as a dart flew out of the stone wall to his right, missed him by mere
inches and bounced off the left wall harmlessly. Booby traps, he
thought. Frankie pondered for a moment on what he should do. He had a
vague recollection of having seen a booby trap like this in a movie at
some time but he did not quite remember what the hero did. After
thinking about it for a few more minutes while standing perfectly still
on that first tile, Frankie decided he should make a run for it.

And so he did. He ran like the wind down the stone passageway, as darts
came flying out of the walls behind him. He didn't dare slow down but
the sprint was making him run out of breath and he did not know how
long the passageway was. Then he saw that the stone passageway was about
to end and turn into a regular hallway about a hundred feet ahead. He
made a lunge for it as the darts kept popping out of the wall just
behind him. He got to within 70 feet, then 50 feet, then 30 feet then 10
feet and made a jump for it. He landed on the floor safely but he felt a
sharp pain in his left ankle. Looking back at his feet, he saw a dart
sticking out of his ankle. Frankie sat up, brought his knees to his
chest, and bent forward. Bracing himself, he reached down to his
ankle and plucked the dart out in one swift flick of his wrist. Getting
the dart out did not hurt at all but his ankle had started to become a
little sore. He hoped the dart did not have any poison on it.

He got up and staggered a little but was soon back up to speed. The
corridor was a standard concrete and plaster affair. The floor was a
grey cement layer. The walls were painted in a dark grey gunmetal color,
while the ceiling was cream. Light bulbs in small lamp shades hung from
the ceiling at about every fifty feet of the corridor. At regular
intervals, there was a steel door set in the corridor wall. Most of them
were locked but through the doors that were ajar, Frankie could see all
kinds of strange things. In one of the rooms, there was a steel
contraption with chains hanging down ending in what appeared to be wrist
cuffs. In another room, there was a large fish tank filled with a green
translucent liquid but nothing else was in the fish tank. Not even a
fish. In yet another room, there were a few mannequins that looked just
like his sister and just like the mannequin in the window display at the
Lace 'n Love. Frankie wanted to snoop around a little more but he knew
that time was fleeting and it would only be a short while before the Red
Rooster and his minions found out about his intrusion into the secret
underground facility.

As he turned around the last corner of the corridor, he saw that it
ended at a doorway leading to a room that looked much bigger. He heard
voices in the room. Hiding behind the doorway, he took a peek into the
room. The room had walls painted in a cold looking medium grey color.
Along the walls, there were numerous steel cabinets. Most were closed
but of the cabinets whose doors were open, Frankie could see that they
contained medical supplies. Mostly bandages, gauze and antiseptic
solutions. The Red Rooster was standing there talking to the lion and
the tiger, the duo he saw in the Men's Room at The Tollbooth. Two golden
retrievers in black suits and dark glasses were standing at the ready on
one side of the room. Then he saw his sister. She was on a hospital bed.
There was a large beige machine next to the hospital bed and she was
hooked up to it via a tube attached to her left arm. There were also a
number of other beige machines scattered all around the room. Some of
them did not seem to be switched on, while others had blinking red and
green lights.

After observing the scene in the room for a minute, Frankie knew he had
to take action. He ran into the room. Almost immediately, the two golden
retrievers came for him but he was too quick for them. Frankie jumped up
and swung his foot at the first dog, kicking the dog right in his face.
KA-POW! The second dog threw a punch aiming for the back of Frankie's
head but Frankie bowed down, dodging that punch, while at the same time
striking the second dog hard in the ribs with his fist. WINCE! The two
dogs fell to the floor moaning.

The lion and the tiger drew their guns. They fired at the same time.
Everything appeared to slow down as Frankie went into ferret hyper mode.
The two bullets traced gentle arcs through the air, leaving visible air
pockets in their wake. Frankie, who was running towards the lion and the
tiger, dove down to his left in slow motion as the bullets glided right
past him. Without missing a step, Frankie swung back up into an upright
run and everything speeded up again. He jumped up over the lion and
tiger and at the same time flung both his legs up, kicking both the lion
and the tiger in their faces. WHAMMO! They fell to the floor.

Meanwhile, the two dogs had recovered and were heading towards Frankie
again. The first dog threw a punch at Frankie but Frankie leaned
back and dodged the punch. He grabbed the first dog's arm, pulled him
further to the left using the dog's own momentum. Then Frankie planted
his elbow into the first dog's face. SQOOSH! The second dog jumped up
and tried to kick Frankie's head but Frankie ducked. He reached up
and caught hold of the second dog's leg. Without missing a beat,
Frankie tossed the second dog judo style clear across the room. FLING!

Frankie then turned to face the Red Rooster. Reaching for the leather
holster, Frankie drew his large gun with the pearl white handle. He
lifted the gun and pointed it directly at the red rooster.

"And now I kill the frog" said Frankie in a cold and grim tone of voice.

He looked at the red rooster as he said that and saw that the Red
Rooster was holding in its right hand a black plastic device with a red
button. It looked like some sort of remote control. He saw the Red
Rooster push the button on that device. He felt a tingle and a slight
vibration on the back of his neck. That tingle quickly turned into a
burning sensation. The implant, Frankie thought.

He started squeezing the trigger but he was too late. The gun had turned
into a badger.

Surprised, Frankie let go of the badger. The badger did a somersault in
the air, landing on its feet. It looked up at Frankie for a second and
then walked away. In the meantime, everything else in the room had
turned to badgers as well. The Red Rooster was now a red badger. The
lion and tiger were both badgers. The golden retrievers were badgers in
black suits and dark glasses. His sister was a badger lying on the
hospital bed attached via an intravenous tube to a large badger. All the
other machines around the room had become large badgers too. A few of
the badgers had eyes that were twinkling with red and green lights. As
Frankie looked around in a daze, a badger came up to him and hit him on
the back of his neck. BONK! Frankie then lost all feeling in his legs
and fell to the floor. The red badger walked up to him and said "Badger
badger. You didn't think it would be that easy, did you? Badger badger."
Frankie noticed that the red badger had an aluminum baseball bat in its
right hand but as it was, his consciousness was already fading fast. As
he started to black out, Frankie heard the sound of footsteps
followed by several rounds of gunfire. And then everything once again
turned to darkness.