you had discovered, but I couldn’t risk having you blow the whistle. Our new line of necroceuticals was being released in the Quarter, and I had to take you out of the picture.”
“Sorry to pee on your parade, Brondon, but I wasn’t looking into the new product line at all. I don’t even use the stuff.”
Brondon blinked. “But you were following me! I saw you.”
“Miranda Jekyll hired me to do covert surveillance on her husband. She wanted to catch Harvey having an affair so she’d have leverage for her divorce settlement. I was following you just to get to him.”
Robin said, “The cat’s out of the bag now, Brondon—you might as well explain it. Isn’t that what villains do?”
“I’m not the villain—I’m trying to save humanity.”
“Strange way of showing it,” I said. “With all those people dissolving horribly in the last couple of days.”
“Do you still have graveyard dirt in your ears? I said I’m saving humanity, not unnaturals. The whole line of necroceuticals was designed for this purpose, and this purpose alone.” Finally, the villain’s soliloquy! I used the distraction of his ranting to advance another two steps toward the catwalk.
“JLPN is the most popular toiletry line for unnaturals. All the monsters use our body washes, shampoos, deodorants, skin creams, perfumes and colognes, toothpaste, hair gel . . . and every single product is impregnated with a seemingly innocuous Compound X.”
“What an original name,” I said. “Compound W and Preparation H were both taken?”
Brondon sneered. “After prolonged use, Compound X saturates unnatural tissue. They don’t even know it. It raises no red flags on any chemical analysis. But now . . .” He spread his arms wide to indicate the factory floor and the bubbling cauldrons. Then he caught himself in the middle of his overly grandiose gesture, looked embarrassed, and trained the gun back on Robin to stop her from kicking him again. “With all of our advertising, the unnaturals will have to try the new and improved Fresh Loam line. And each new product contains a different, very special trace chemical.”
“Let me guess: Compound Y?”
“No! Compound Z! And when that innocuous chemical reacts with its counterpart Compound X, it becomes a deadly dissolvogen! The contaminated unnaturals disintegrate like the filth they are. They’ll drop like a plague of locusts flying through a cloud of insecticide. And because Compound Z is pervasive in the products used by all unnaturals for their personal hygiene needs, the monsters will be virtually extinct before they know what hit them. The streets will run pink with goo!”
I thought his crackpot plan was good enough to go on a website that listed top-ten nefarious schemes. Since I had never used any of his samples, my own body wasn’t affected when I was exposed to Compound Z. But poor Mel . . . and I even felt sorry for the three zombie cougars.
“If thousands of unnaturals melt into puddles on the same day, it won’t be hard to follow the bread crumbs back to JLPN’s product release,” Robin said. “Even if you kill us, someone will figure it out. You’ll go to the electric chair.”
Brondon snorted. “Do you really think the rest of the human race won’t applaud? Wholesome citizens will see this as a second chance, a cleansing after the Big Uneasy. How hard could it be to eradicate the few stragglers and take care of any new unnaturals as they arise? I’m betting that good people would say enough is enough and finish the job.”
Even without asking, I had another reason to be disgusted with the man. “I watched you flirt with Cindy, Sharon, and Victoria, saw you pretend to be their friend—and then you made them all just dissolve. You murdered them.”
Brondon shrugged. “Since when is it a crime to kill dead people?”
“I can make that case,” Robin said.
“Decent people are sick of bleeding hearts like you. Getting all uppity about human rights. Who cares about a few monsters? Harvey Jekyll and I will be celebrated as heroes.”
He tried to push Robin to the edge of the vat, but she held her ground. I wanted to lurch forward and strangle him, but I was still four steps from the top. I could never get to her in time.
Sheyenne’s ghost reappeared, flitting onto the process floor. She saw us, absorbed the tableau in an instant, and swept up in front of Brondon Morris, looking as scary as she could manage. “I’m not going to let you hurt Dan again! You killed him