Thanks for the comments so far. This is the final chapter of this story but is open enough that I can write more later. I hope you enjoy it, and remember, be polite and helpful in the comments.
PART III
TWO DAYS LATER AT THE POLICE STATION
"Mr. Blinns, I get that you think your precautions are good enough, but they are not. From what we have gathered, your art collection is the next target, and it will happen within the next few days. I am going to be blunt here, you don't have a choice in this matter. I have a court order and a warrant, and you will cooperate or I will toss you in jail until after this is done."
Diane scowled at the speaker as the billionaire sputtered various threats and his lawyer pipping up in the background until she slammed her hand down.
"Enough! You have the paperwork, are you going to cooperate or not? If no, get your toothbrush packed because I have a cell with your name on it."
There was silence and then a "Fine! I am departing this, this, ghetto of a city for a vacation and when I return, if you have NOT caught this "Animal Gang" I will see the mayor about your badge. It will look very nice on my wall."
Click.
"Nice guy." Kim quipped.
"Not freaken now, Doc. We need to get our folks over there quietly and get things set up. Lisa, you have the roster?"
"Yes, right here. Ten handpicked officers, not counting you, me, and the Doc. All women."
"Are you sure about that LT?" John glanced around nervously since he was the only man in the room (Steve was working some stuff for their extra set of cameras). "Look, I know this will sound sexist as hell, but only women? This guy is a hulk, and the snake girls are dangerous. I know they are some of the best, but no SWAT? None of the powerlifting crew? You might need some raw muscle for this."
Diane glared at him and then let out a breath. "Ok. I get it, and I understand how nervous a lot of officers are about this. But the bunny and snake girls are especially effective against males. One whiff of a bunny's pheromones and you would be pulling your dick out to fuck. Accidentally look a snake girl in the eyes and you are a zombie. From what we have found out, females have more resistance to these abilities. Enough we can act and react. Men? You would be mindless fuckpuppets in about ten seconds. My orders stand."
"But what if this guy gets to you?"
There was a pause at that. Kim had determined that somehow the transformation had something to do with the clothing. If it touched a person and stayed touching that person, that person was going to transform. That news had spread fast.
"We have briefed every female cop, and especially everyone on this detail about what to look for. No one is going to be touching strange clothing or opening strange packages. Besides, it would be pretty obvious if someone was wearing a rabbit fur coat or a snake-skin skirt."
After a moment John nodded. He didn't look completely convinced, but he didn't say anything else.
"Alright, we move in now. Set up and get ready."
Lisa looked a bit too focused. Diane waited a bit and then spoke. "Lisa. What's up? You have that "something's not right" look."
Lisa frowned. "Diane, are you sure this is it? That bit of paper we found in the alleyway that blew out the truck's door just seems bit too lucky to me."
"I thought so too, but this makes sense. None of the cash that we can trace or any of the diamonds have shown up in anything legit. But we have had a couple diamonds and some cash turn up in the underworld. Our informants can't tell us much other than Dr. Olsen is using a lot of cut outs to do some things, nearly all of it illegitimately. So he isn't looking to use any of this above ground. With that being the case, stolen artwork is perfect. A famous art piece can never be shown in public if it was stolen as it will immediately be made. But there is a huge underground market for private collectors and underworld types for this stuff, easy to trade, easy to sell if needed, and hell, a pencil sketch by Picasso can be worth millions and can fit in a coat pocket so it's easy to move in an emergency. This set is big, it's private so security is less than that of a museum or big gallery, and some of it is already shady. I hear some of Mr. Blinn's stuff he keeps under wraps because it may not be legitimately acquired, so even better for a thief. Maybe, if enough of this stuff is hot, the guy may not even report it. I'm telling you, THIS is the next score for the "Animal Gang".
Lisa still didn't look quite convinced, but she nodded.
"Ok, you are boss. But the timing? So soon?"
"Mr. Blinns is going out of town for an extended vacation. He does this every year, same time. Minimal manning at his mansion, which also happens to be in a private and isolated area. He's gone for several weeks so yeah perfect. And most of his staff takes vacation in the first two weeks so they can come back and get everything shipshape. If it was me, I wait a day, let the staff ease down and then hit them. Not today, probably not tomorrow, but the day after. That's the time."
Lisa nodded and Kim smiled. "LD is gonna score and I'm going to win the office pool."
Diane rolled her eyes. "I swear you are all degenerates. I should arrest you all for gambling."
The phone rang. Diane picked it up.
"Lieutenant Harris."
"Lieutenant Harris, I'm Captain Fred MacDale with Iron Horse Security. We handle security for Mr. Blinn's estate. I have been briefed on what is going on, but something just came up. Several of my employees, all females, just got some packages delivered. Wrapped in brown paper, with no return addresses."
Diane stood straight up. "Shit! Have any of your guards opened them?"
"None, except I haven't heard from one of them. They were all on the Blinn's roster too. I, um, I was on the force and have some friends. When the diamond exchange got hit, I hit them up so I could see about anything we needed to be watching for. A couple of days back, an old friend let me know about the packages and that they might be linked so I put the word out to my people yesterday. Good thing because the packages were delivered this morning. Right now, I have four of them, and one of my guards not answering her phone. I sent over one of my folks to check on her, but I'm thinking you may want to send some officers."
Diane wrote down the address and tossed it to Lisa who was out the door with Kim right behind her.
Several hours later Diane and Lisa watched Kim work on the coat in full sealed protective gear in a sealed lab.
"Damn, we lucked out. That would have been a fun thing if they had started to change and had shown up at the mansion with us there." Lisa said.
"Yeah, but we need to play it a bit differently now. These five women need to be appearing to be on duty. The transformations happen during the shift so they have people taking over the inside. I'd feel better if we knew how the change was triggered and how Dr. Olsen communicates with them, but I think our trap just got even more ironclad. Good thing that last guard had just overslept with her phone off." Diane said with smile.
"Okay, so we have two rabbit coats and three snake-skin skirts and leggings. I'm doing some more tests, but the initial DNA appears to be a match. I'm still not sure how this stuff would work exactly, it's inert. Something else must trigger it remotely." Kim
"Like what?" Diane asked into the speaker.
"Cripes could be anything. Gas, radio waves, heat, you name it. This stuff is cutting edge experimental science fiction medical tech, it could take me years to unlock and understand."
"Any hope of a blocker or immunization or something?" Lisa asked.
Kim snorted. "You wish. Since I don't know how it reacts or even turns on, I can't begin to figure out a way to block or stop it. Right now, you just don't touch it. But I did figure out something. It appears that the more exposure to bare skin the faster and more powerful the reaction. Did you notice how all the women in the coats were wearing sleeveless and shoulder-less dresses? And I did some peeping on the video footage from the bank. Several of the women took off their panties prior to the transformation and the women who turned first were wearing the most snake-skin. One of the tellers had on a full sleeved, shoulder-covered halfway to knee dress, and she turned first. The girls in the skirts were the last ones and it appears that they needed some nudging in a couple cases."
"Hmmm, that makes sense. Good to know, too bad we don't have an antidote or a vaccine or something. But we nipped this in the bud at least." Diane said.
Kim cycled out of the sealed room and unmasked. Lisa and Kim looked at Diane who focused on the items lying in the sealed room. She nodded and looked at them.
"Alright. You two head home and get some sleep. We set things up tomorrow, and the next day is it."
MEANWHILE AT AN APARTMENT IN THE CITY
"Do you underssssstand what you musssst do human?"
"Yes, I understand, I will obey."
Cindy smiled and hissed quietly. "Very good. Now ssssssleep, you will wake in five minutesssss and remember nothing of my vissssssit. But tomorrow, you will do assssss you have been insssstucted."
The man's eyes closed and he slumped in his chair. Cindy hissed at Tina and the stood up. They slid their clothing back on (just a regular dress and some pumps), put on wigs, and swayed out the apartment door. Cindy kept her mouth shut even though she was desperately wanting to flick her tongue out. A snake used its tongue so much it was nearly torture to not use it. And having to WALK like a human was very annoying. But Master had commanded and she of course obeyed.
A quick elevator ride down and they were out the door and into a SUV with tinted windows. Julie Bunny drove and she giggled when they began to slither out of their dresses.
"I know, clothing is just so annoying." She said in a high-pitched voice. She wiggled her nose and then trembled a bit. Even though the snake girls would never harm her (she belonged to Master after all), her bunny senses simply were hardwired to fear snakes. But she was able to drive and her hearing and vision made bunnies much better drivers than snakes. So she and her sister bunnies were making some rounds with the snake girls, visiting some human males across the city, getting things ready for tomorrow.
