CHAPTER 28
The decision to move Stone having been made, the group trooped back into the bedroom.
Stone opened his eyes and watched as Sheila sat in the chair next to the bed, reached over, and pulled the IV needle out of his arm. Then she stuck a bandage on the wound and began to pack up the other medical paraphernalia in the bedroom.
Angus sat up and looked at Kat, wondering what was going on.
Stone glanced down at the bandage and then up at Sheila. “I take it from the way you are cleaning house that I am to be moved to another location?”
“Yes, Jordan. It is too dangerous to keep you here any longer. Sooner or later my neighbors would notice the extra number of visitors coming and going and would begin to ask questions, which we definitely don’t need.”
“Are you sure we’ll have time to transport him before the formula takes effect?” Kevin asked.
“Pretty sure,” Sheila answered. “Angus didn’t begin to show changes for at least twelve hours, and I believe for a human, it will take even longer due to their greater size.”
Burton interjected, “Yeah, and the trip to Conroe should only take about two hours at this time of day.”
Stone plucked at the hospital gown he was wearing. “I assume I will not be walking down the halls of your apartment building in this stylish but immodest garment, with its rear air-conditioning. Have the clothes I was wearing when you brought me here been cleaned?”
“Uh . . . about that, Jordan,” Burton said hesitantly, “your clothes were beyond cleaning, and so after I put you in the hospital gown that Sheila borrowed from Ben Taub, I put them out in the apartment incinerator.”
Stone actually blushed. “I am truly sorry that you had to deal with my . . . uh . . . unfortunate lack of personal hygiene, Burton. It is a fact of life on the street that cleanliness is difficult if not impossible to maintain without access to proper bathroom or shower facilities.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jordan. Kevin stopped at a Walmart on the way here from the airport and picked up some sweatpants and a shirt for you. They will have to do until we can get you better supplied after the formula has done its work.”
“Oh?”
“Yes,” Kat answered. “Remember, we told you that Angus burned off several pounds under the increased metabolic rate induced by the formula. We expect you will do the same, and so we won’t know what size clothes to get you until then.”
Kevin stepped over and laid the sweat clothes on the edge of the bed, “We’ll step out and let you change.”
* * *
When they arrived at the Honda sedan parked in Sheila’s garage, Kat opened the rear door and said, “If you wouldn’t mind, Jordan, I am afraid we’re going to have to ask you to lie down on the backseat out of sight.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “We’ll explain on the way, but for now, that’s the way we have to proceed.”
Stone chuckled. “Well, as they say, in for a penny, in for a pound. I feel like I am in a spy movie.”
After he was situated lying on the backseat with Angus cradled in his arms, Kevin covered the two of them with a blanket. While he was doing that, Kat donned the blond wig and sunglasses kept in the car. Finally, ready to travel, Kevin sat in the front passenger seat and slumped down as far as he could get.
When they were out of downtown Houston traffic and on the highway headed to Conroe, Kat pulled the car over at a roadside rest stop. Stone was able to sit up and Kat removed her disguise, while Kevin stood watch to make sure they weren’t being followed.
When Kat pulled back onto the highway, Kevin turned around in his seat and told Stone the entire story about J.P. Ashby, how they were using him to finance their experiments with the formula, and about how he had hired private investigators to follow them in hopes of stealing the formula for himself.
“It seems you have made a deal with the devil to advance your cause,” Stone said, a disapproving expression on his face.
Kevin nodded. “Yes, we did, Jordan. But only out of necessity. None of us, not even Sheila, had the financial resources to fund the development of the formula.”
Kat said over her shoulder, “And if we had depended on the lab we were working at to develop the formula, chances are it would have taken years and years and then the government would have gotten involved and who knows what a bunch of Washington bureaucrats would have done with something this valuable.”
“We were afraid they would keep the formula for the exclusive use of the rich and powerful, and the common people would never get to benefit from the disease-curing effects of the formula,” Kevin added.
Stone peered out the window for a moment, finally nodding his head. “Yes, you are most certainly correct in assuming that the government would not act in the common people’s best interests, since it rarely has in the past.”
Kevin noticed a fine sheen of sweat on Stone’s forehead.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Stone smiled and wiped his forehead. “Yes, Mr. Kevin, quite all right. I do not think this is due to a premature effect of the formula, but rather due to the absence of any intake of spirits. In short, I do believe I am still in a bit of withdrawal from my abrupt cessation of partaking of alcohol.”
“Well, the trip to Conroe only takes a couple of hours. If you can last that long, Sheila gave us some Xanax to give you that should help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms.”
Stone waved a dismissive hand. “Do not worry, young man. I shall be just fine. After all, I have gone through this many times in the past.”
* * *
Stone was surprised when Kat pulled the Honda into a residential neighborhood about a mile from Lake Conroe. “I thought you said you were taking me to your new laboratory location?”
Kevin looked back over the seat. “We are, Jordan. We decided to rent a regular house in a typical residential neighborhood instead of a lab in a commercial building. Like I told you earlier, we are being hunted and followed by some very good private investigators. If they somehow get wind that we’ve located our lab in Conroe, the last place they’ll look is here.”
“Plus, it has the added advantage that we knew we’d need to live here while our subject, you, is going through the transformation. Typical labs have very few amenities for long-term inhabitance.”
“Yeah, this place has three bedrooms, a full kitchen, and even a small office space we can use for our computers.”
“We’ve set up one of the bedrooms as a makeshift lab and one we’ve set up for you, complete with IV poles, a variety of medications Sheila thought we might need, and even a small TV so you can keep up with the news, should you desire.”
Stone got a wistful look on his face. “The TV I don’t need. But if I might be so presumptuous, if I give you a list of my favorite authors, do you think you might be able to pick up some of their latest tomes?”
“I don’t know whether the local Barnes and Noble has a section on philosophy,” Kevin said doubtfully.
Stone laughed. “The heck with philosophers. Give me Robert Crais, Ridley Pearson, David Baldacci, or Vince Flynn any day.”
“So, no philosophers?” Kevin asked.
“Young Mr. Kevin, I read nothing but philosophy for eight years of college and graduate school, and, besides, who said the authors I mentioned are not philosophers?”
Kevin held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, okay, so popular authors it is, then.”
Kat turned into the driveway of a house that sat on nearly an acre of fairly wooded landscape. “Here we are, Jordan, home sweet home for the next few weeks.”
Stone glanced around. The nearest house was almost a mile away. “Why so isolated, Miss Kat? Afraid I’ll cry out in anguish and bring the neighbors running?”
She laughed. “No, Jordan. Burton just didn’t want a bunch of prying eyes seeing all of the lab equipment he hauled in here. Even so, he did most of the moving in during the dead of night.”
“Well,” Stone said as he took Angus and set him gently down on the driveway, “I hope he hauled in lots of foodstuffs, because I am famished.”
Kat glanced at Kevin. “I do believe the Phoenix Formula is already speeding up the professor’s metabolic rate. It’s only been a couple of hours since he ate a huge breakfast.”
Stone rubbed his hands together and took off at a fast walk toward the front door. “Whatever the cause, I am all for checking out the kitchen . . . what about you, big guy?” he asked Angus, who was trotting by his side.
Angus barked happily, and the duo passed through the door as soon as Kevin unlocked it.
* * *
While Stone and Angus were rummaging through the refrigerator, Kevin brought in the suitcases and duffel bags from the car.
Once inside, he dumped them on the bed of the room designated for the scientists to use.
“Hmmm,” he said, looking around. “Only one bedroom with one bed for the two of us to use. Which side do you want?”
Kat punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Both sides, silly.”
She turned him around and pushed him toward the living room. “Burton thought of that and made sure the couch in the living room was a sleeper sofa. It folds out into a queen-size bed.”
Kevin laughed and pulled a quarter out of his pocket. “How about we flip for it? Heads, I stay in the room with you; tails, I sleep out here all alone.”
She shook her head. “If you are that concerned about sleeping alone, I could ask Angus to bunk with you.”
Hearing his name, Angus stuck his head around the corner and barked, his tail wagging furiously, before he whirled around and disappeared back into the kitchen.
“See,” Kat said. “He won’t mind at all.”
With that, she turned and followed the dog into the kitchen.
Stone was already seated at the table, a plate containing two huge sandwiches, several large pickles, and a pile of potato chips in front of him. Angus was sitting in the chair next to him, a plate of ham slices before him.
Around a mouthful of food, Stone said, “Burton seems to have done well with his provisions; however, we could not find any staples for young Angus here, so put that on your list of things to buy, if you do not mind.”
Kat snapped her fingers. “Darn, Jordan is right. I forgot to tell Burton to get some kibble for Angus.”
When she looked back at the table, Angus’s plate was empty and he was licking his lips.
“My guess is he did not mind too much,” Stone said, rubbing the dog’s ears.
“How about I make us a couple of sandwiches and we can chow down before we unpack everything?” Kevin asked Kat.
“Sounds good to me,” Kat said. Watching Stone and Angus eat had made her hungry, too.
* * *
As Kat and Kevin were finishing their sandwiches, Stone got a funny look on his face and put his hand to his chest.
“Oh my,” he said in a strangled voice. “I am afraid something untoward is happening.”
Kat jumped up from the table and rushed to his side. She took his wrist in her hand and looked over at Kevin.
“I think the formula is beginning to work. His pulse is like a hundred and twenty and is very full.”
“Should I be alarmed?” Stone asked, his eyes wide.
Kat shook her head. “No, Jordan, I don’t think so. I believe the formula is doing what it is supposed to do, which is to vastly speed up your metabolism. That is why your heart is racing, and I also detect a slightly warmer temperature.”
“I am feeling rather shaky. Perhaps I should lie down for a while.”
Kat nodded at Kevin, who got up, put his arm around Stone’s shoulders, and escorted him to the bedroom designated for their patient.
He grinned when Angus jumped up on the bed as soon as Stone was under the covers. The dog lay down next to him, his head on Stone’s stomach.
Kevin reached over and patted Angus’s head. “I do believe the big fella has taken quite a liking to you, Professor.”
“And I to him, dear boy,” Stone said, laying his hand on Angus’s flank. “I believe you may leave us to our much-needed rest. We shall be fine.”
Kevin nodded. “You be sure to call us if you get to feeling bad, Jordan. We’ll be in the room right next door.”
* * *
As the day progressed into evening, Stone’s symptoms intensified. His fever climbed to 104 degrees, and he began to shake and quiver so much that Angus jumped down off the bed and stared at Kat with concerned eyes.
Kat continued to monitor Stone’s vital signs every fifteen to thirty minutes and checked in with Sheila by phone on several occasions to determine doses of the various medications Sheila had left in the medicine cabinet to combat the symptoms of a vastly increased metabolic rate.
By the morning of the next day, all of Stone’s grizzled hair had fallen out and been replaced by a fine black stubble.
Kevin had gotten him up twice to change his sweat-soaked bedclothes and take cool showers to help lower his body temperature. On these occasions, Stone had been conscious, but he seemed slightly mentally confused and had to be reminded several times of where he was and what was going on.
Finally, around ten o’clock in the morning, his fever broke, and he fell into a deep sleep. Angus moved from his bed in the corner of Stone’s bedroom and jumped back up into the bed next to Stone. He gave Kat a baleful glance, as if he blamed her for his friend’s discomfort, and then he once again laid his head on Stone’s stomach and relaxed next to him.
Kat and Kevin, exhausted from a sleepless night, checked in with Sheila to reassure her that the crisis had passed, and then they both fell onto the bed in the second bedroom fully clothed, too exhausted to argue about who would sleep where.