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The Interrogation

Kyle shook his head as the black bag was pulled off it, squinting at the sudden light. A pair of strong arms pulled him to his feet and shoved him forward, into a rack of metal bars. He was strapped to it quickly, by a set of handcuffs bolted to the bars. Someone kicked his legs apart and latched another set of cuffs around his ankles. Blinking, Kyle saw he was strapped to some sort of raised, circular platform.

Coming to his senses, the spy suddenly realized most of his clothing had been removed, leaving him in his undershirt and boxers. Kyle's heart raced and his head lurched as it tried to answer unanswerable questions; When did they catch me? How did MEG find out about our investigation? Does anyone know where I am? How long have I been unconscious? Where am I!? _ All those came to mind with alarming frequency, but were drowned out by a more immediate: _Oh shit.

For a little over two years, Kyle Nauten had been the intelligence officer in charge of investigating a very suspicious bombing in a rural Canadian town. Though the government wasn't happy to admit it, a thin, unlikely but ultimately compelling chain of evidence linked the violence to MEG; one of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Manufacturing & Engineering Générale had once been dozens of major European manufacturing firms, power companies and banks; now it controlled a little under five percent of the world economy. Their current CEO had promised to raise it to six before he retired.

Kyle was shocked back into the moment by a slap against his cheek so heard it made his head whip to the side. He fell on top of the rack he's been strapped to, but stayed standing. Kyle could make out a thrusting finger near his face, but was too disoriented to follow it. "Agent Nauten! Who the FUCK has a thousand digit password on their dataserver! What is it, your fucking obituary!?" the man yelled.

Blinking in the relatively bright light, Kyle saw that Lars Renneton- head of corporate cybersecurity for MEG- was pulling back his cybernetically-enhanced arm in preparation for what looked like a haymaker when a black blur intercepted the man's wrist. Someone else's hand; a hand clad in a black glove.

"Lars, baby, let me handle this," his savior said.

Turning and profusely if-silently thanking the other man, Kyle saw that his black glove transitioned into a black trenchcoat. His eyes wandered down to a pair of dull, black leather boots, and then up into a face so pale it was almost albino. The man's smile was as flawless and shining-white, though he wore a wide-brimmed black hat and a pair of black wraparound sunglasses. Someone obviously hiding a serious number of body modifications...

"If you're the grim reaper, you're too early," Kyle hollowly spoke. His mouth and throat felt as dry as crumbling concrete.

Mr. only-wore-black rubbed the sides of his temples and sighed, speaking with sympathetic sorrow. Kyle could make out tiny flashes of prismatic light from behind the other man's sunglasses as he leaned in closer- the telltale sign of visual augmentation. "You're not too far off, kid; you really did it this time. You fucked with something you really shouldn't have... and now here we all are."

"And just who the fuck are 'we'?" Kyle said, grinning at the man and leaning back to rest against the bars behind him. Looking around as best he could, Kyle could see that he was surrounded on all sides by featureless cobalt-blue walls. "And where the fuck is this?"

Black smiled at him. "I'm from a transnational economic development organization. We don't really have a formal name, but... "

"You're talking about the Corporate Board. Holy shit... there really is a secret international corporate conspiracy!" Kyle exclaimed, suddenly leaning forward in his restraints. "Nathan Peters was actually right!?"

The chromed-out mystery man began to laugh, adjusting his hat slightly. "Well, okay, fair enough- though I think the term 'conspiracy' is a little bit much..."

Kyle laughed at the absurdity, even though he was beginning to feel far out of his depth. "So... on exactly what authority have you done this, then? You know I'm an intelligence officer for the lawful government of Canada?"

"We know. Legal authority is an outdated concept, Agent Nauten," the man in black replied, gesturing broadly with his hands. "Listen Kyle... you have to understand... just because MEG security had to deal with a dangerous cybersecurity threat through harsh measures doesn't justify your little 'intelligence agency' exposing consumers to..."

"To what you did to those kids!? That car bomb killed three people you son of a bitch! How about that!" Kyle shouted back, his anger piqued. Sneering at the man in black, he wished his mouth wasn't too dry to spit on the other man's clothing.

"Uh, let's get a fact check in here? Kyle, the adaptive code those thieving guttersnipes stole the key to the robotics industry! If that video gets out? MEG is over; finished! It would be the economic equivalent of a... a nuclear meltdown! But more like a fucking meteor, okay! I'm talking suicides-and-food lines!" Black said, hammering one hand into his open palm.

After a short pause, he paced from side to side as he continued talking. "You're a smart guy, Kyle. I figure all that server time you rented are set to flood the web with that video six ways from Sunday if you don't check in every so often. I also figure the wrong password or three is going to force it to send anyway, right?"

Kyle smiled bitterly. "About that, yeah."

"Well... what can we do about that, Agent Nauten?" Black asked. "That video is going to hurt a lot of people, Kyle; you included. What would it take for everyone to win?"

Looking up into the man's sunglass-covered eyes, Kyle almost laughed at the absurdity. "Are you serious? Not a chance in hell, you fucking tool! You might have bought off everyone else on my team but you can't buy me. You can threaten me with whatever you want, but what they did was too much. I *want* the world to see this video! I want them all to see how far you've gone; the power you people have over our lives! Do you even understand the concept of a law!? They don't mean anything if they don't apply to everyone!"

"So... sorry to say this, but we're going to have to agree to disagree on the big picture," Black said, dismissing Kyle with a sigh. "Kid, that company employs 90 million people worldwide. Ole' Canadia ain't even half that big! I really hate to give it to you harsh... but MEG's reputation is more important than your country's laws, and certainly more important than a few teenage hackers. Tell me your password."

"No," Kyle quickly replied.

"Agent Nauten, please tell me the password," Black continued.

"Fuck," Kyle began, coughing to clear his dry throat, "you."

"Fool. You're not getting anywhere with a man like this." Lars Renneton growled, unbuckling the latch on his pistol holster. The security officer flicked the safety off with his thumb as he brought the monstrously large handgun to bear, and then chambered a round with an authoritative *SHK-CLICK*. "You will talk, Agent Nauten. Or you will die..."

Staring down the black-matte barrel of Lars' gun, Kyle shuddered involuntarily before he could regain his composure. "Like you'd do that before I told you anything," the Agent replied hollowly, trying to hold on to the notion Lars was bluffing.

"Lars, heh... why are you still here?" Black asked, turning to face the burly cyborg with a too-friendly smile. "If you over-juiced idiots hadn't pulled an amateur stunt and killed those hackers- instead of doing something SMART!-" the black-clad man suddenly yelled. Kyle Nauten saw another blur of black motion and heard an ear-stinging *TING*- and then saw the bottom half of Lars Renneton's handgun fall to the smooth cobalt floor with a metallic clatter. Mr. Black's voice was quivering; overly friendly. "-like, I don't know, hiring them! Or smearing their rep! Then we wouldn't even be here today! And while I enjoy a trip to the zoo as much as anyone else, my services are expensive and my time is very valuable both to *me* and the Board! So, ciao for now, Larsy. Go cool off."

Lars Renneton's fingers brushed the bisected front of his sidearm as the man in black ushered him out of Kyle's sight. Kyle heard mixed mumbling and curses trail off as Lars stomped away, but couldn't move his eyes from the top of the man's gun. The cut was laser smooth.

"Sorry about that- where were we? Oh, yes! You were about to tell me your code..." Black said, walking past Kyle before doing a flourishing pirouette on the metal floor to face the Agent. "Unlike Mr. Renneton, we have *effective* ways of making you talk so it would really be for the best if you just tell me right now."

Kyle grinned at the other man as he rolled his head around, feeling strangely giddy now that Lars was out of the picture at least. "I think... you're a real professional. You're pretty goddamn smart. I think you might even be able to break me, in a day or two. But my next server stream starts in... six hours, last I remember. I don't know if you're willing to torture the shit out of me, but I *do* know I'll be able to give you enough plausibly wrong answers to trigger the backup auto-send. There's no way you're going to win, not this time."

The man in black laughed and ambled towards Agent Nauten, rubbing the pale flesh of his brow with short squeezes. "No. You are... you are so off-base on us, Kyle. It hurts me; it breaks my heart to hear these things from you. We aren't an enemy country, Kyle! You're our customers! We need you! We love you!"

"What a load of shit," Kyle rasped.

"No, no... look... I sympathize with you. I really do," Black said as he kneeled down closer to the bound man, picking up the end of Lars' gun as he did. "You see this? This is an improper response. This is dumb." He tossed the bisected barrel to the side with a clank. "I have no problem with the use of violence when it is warranted, but this was completely out of line. The Corporate Board has had a stern word with MEG, and I'll be having words with Larsy later myself. They might have a monopoly on universal assembly machines at the moment, but they've been acting too big for the britches a little too often for our tastes. I'm telling you the truth here; you might not believe me but this is one hundred percent legitimate!" the corporate man said, emphatically.

When Kyle didn't reply, he took that as a sign to continue. "An appropriate apology will be made to Canada; a good one. MEG is going to decide it wants to play good corporate citizen, ship the Canadian government a few dozen top of the line autofabricators for blah-blah whatever infrastructure improvements... puts a billion or two into the school system... no? Nothing?"

The bound agent shook his head. "An apology-" he spat the word"-isn't anywhere good enough, and you know it! This is about corporations not having the right to kill people they don't like and get away with it!"

"And countries do!? Like *that* has gone well!" the man in black exclaimed, backing away from Agent Nauten while shaking his hands violently. "Damn kid; you've been conned hard. Hard enough you're doing something terribly against your own damn best interest. Now, I'd tell you how much I've been authorized to pay you for cooperation, but I'm getting the feeling that won't go very well with your honor. You seem an honorable man to me, Agent Nauten..."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a... sickening, twisted abomination of a human being?" Kyle asked, laughing dryly.

"Someone once said something like that while shooting at me with a very large rifle, actually," the man in black replied, dusting the front of his trenchcoat and standing back from the trapped man, smiling fiercely. "That was, ah, before I tore out nine of his vertebrae..."

"Yeah, you're real fuckin' scary; I'm trembling." Kyle swore contemptuously, anger again overwhelming him. "Get this into your metal skull you freak of fucking nature: I'm not telling you shit."

The man in black's smile turned to ice. "Well... I can see where this is going a mile away, kiddo. We're going to-"

"To what? Torture me? Kill me?" Agent Nauten's eyes blazed as he continued laughing. "What aren't you people willing to do!?"

He looked down for a moment at the strange platform he'd been strapped into; it looked like a piece of heavy manufacturing equipment, while the metal rack he'd been handcuffed to was almost an afterthought, bolted in to the bottom of the rig.

"I'm not going to torture you." Black said, spreading his hands in a nonthreatening manner before wagging his finger at Nauten. "I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to hold your relatives hostage. I *will*, however, pump your blood full of psychotropic drugs and extract your password using some extremely inventive interrogation techniques. Give me the password, or else..."

A sudden, jaunty ring caught them both by surprise. The corporate man turned around and walked away, flicking a smartphone into his hand. "Yeah," Black said as he walked, followed quickly by a sharper, carefully enunciated. "Sir?"

"No, sir... I've only just begun speaking with our mutual friend. I have not yet been able to obtain that information from him." The man in black said, with an audibly weary tone.

Kyle pulled from his restraints to hear, but the man in black spoke no further and he couldn't hear a thing from the man's phone. Black paced back and forth twice, and then stood silent for a while as he listened, sighing.

Black finally spoke back up. His tone was immaculately respectful. "Yes sir, I understand. I only wish I'd been informed of this operation in some capacity before flying out here, because there the thing in Mexico City is still giving us some... no, sir, I understand that. I agree, sir; we should be careful with these things. Yes. Goodnight."

He lowered his phone, sighing again. "Well, Kyle, the jig is up. Higher-ups saw fit to purchase Canadian Telecom and what do you know? Mass server mal-functions while the buyout team was visiting," the man in black said, stepping forward as he slipped his phone back into a hard pouch on his belt. "This is bad news, my friend. Your bargaining chip is vapor."

Kyle's heart was pounding. Surely it was a trap! "What... but... that company isn't even publically traded!"

"Yeah, well, neither is your shirt and I bet you'd give it to me for twenty five billion. Board always thinks Telecom is a good investment, anyway." The cyborg joked, chuckling. "Well Agent Nauten! It was a pleasure to match wits but I believe we are done here!" The man in black said, tipping his long-brimmed hat. "Aside, of course, from making you disappear."

Kyle looked up, trembling with anger and shocked sadness. "So... what? That's it? You expect me to believe this bullshit story? You-"

"You believe whatever you want." Black interrupted, coolly. "You screwed us both over by not saying anything, you fucking sadist. I don't deliver results, *I* look bad! Now I go back home... and you disappear."

"No, you're lying..." Kyle said, shaking his head. He could believe in a pan-corporate conspiracy, but one that could buy out a company and track down his accounts already? Without anyone noticing, anyone caring..?

"Aww, having second thoughts now, Kyle? Too late."

"You're lying. You're lying!"

Black sighed, shaking his head. "Look, Kyle, I told you... you were in over your head. You think you can pull a networked dead man's switch on us? You're playing on a level you can't even understand. You aren't anything special, kid. You are the cost of doing business."

The man in black turned to address someone behind Kyle. "Doctor? I believe we're ready here."

"Yes sir," a gruff male voice said in reply as he walked forward. He was an older man of slight build wearing a labcoat and face mask; his blue eyes briefly made contact with Kyle's.

"You're going to want to stay both awake and still while it happens, or there's a chance your nerves won't work properly. Understand?" the doctor asked.

"What the fuck are you- hey!" Kyle mumbled, as the man walked behind him and placed a form-fitting rubbery mask over his face. It was then strapped tight against the back of his head, leaving him to breathe in the cool, wet air inside the mask. It was a big mask...

"Breathe deep and hard." The doctor said, from behind him, tightening the mask's strap slightly harder.

Suddenly, a vent in the front of the mask suddenly shot a load of cool ooze against his teeth and lips. "Mghmpf!" Kyle cried out, feeling the slippery liquid quickly warm against his mouth. More goo filled the mask, until the pressure forced his nose and lips open. He felt himself choke as air was cut off from him, trying reflexively to tug the mask off his face with his restrained hands before breathing in the thick goo as he'd been told to...

The liquid became more slippery and fluid as he choked it down, soon pouring into his lungs. His eyes were red and watery and he felt like he was going to throw up, but Kyle felt the aching suffocation in his chest vanish the fluid filled his lungs. Though it made breathing hard, the liquid mixture never seemed to run out of sweet, replenishing oxygen.

Kyle looked up and saw the doctor adjusting something on the front of his mask. He grimaced as he felt a plastic tube slide over his tongue and towards the front of his throat. At the same time, he felt a curious lurch- as though he was suddenly falling- and noticed that the walls around him seemed to be sinking. No; he was travelling downward...

Kyle now realized he had been on an open elevator of sorts. He was descending into an unlit, slightly larger room with walls of square white tiles and a clear glass floor. There was a harsh click from overhead, and suddenly four lights shot across his suspended body.

Struggling slightly in his restraints, Kyle felt pinpricks of pain push across his wrists and thighs, followed by a spurt of warmth against the back of his throat. Something was coming out of the slick, rubbery tube. Worry what it was, Kyle held his mouth closed and tried not to swallow any of the slick, warm liquid.

"Come on... don't make this difficult." the doctor behind him said in a bored tone. "You're not going to choke; the chemicals suppress your gag reflex."

Kyle twisted his head about, but couldn't stop from reflexively swallowing some of the warm, salty-sweet liquid as the plastic tube was forced down into his throat. The pudding was as thick as cake batter and had a strong vanilla taste. Why were they feeding him..?

The tube pushed further down his throat until Kyle was sure it was quite near his stomach. He soon realized that sucking on the tube seemed to encourage the vanilla paste to flow quicker, while biting made it slow to a trickle...

Shortly thereafter, a slight tremor ran up his body as the moving platform jolted to a halt. Kyle's heart was pounding and his mind was racing as he tried to puzzle out what kind of drugs his unwanted meal contained, but he didn't *feel* any worse after a few swallows. The fluid did seem to get a little thicker and sweeter as he swallowed more, but it was hard to tell because most of it was deposited straight into his gut...

"Keep swallowing... good. Keep sucking whenever you feel tired or cold. Your body needs a lot of energy for this." the doctor behind Kyle said, patting him on his shoulder. Kyle felt a sudden prick along his neck as the doctor injected something into his veins, and he grunted in pain.

A lot of energy for what? What the fuck were they doing!? Kyle's eyes scanned around him as he tried to catch somebody's eyes, eventually seeing the sunglass-clad glare of the man in black.

"You might think of us as amoral people, Agent Nauten, but we don't kill most of the people we have to disappear," Black said, walking forward with a smile slowly growing on his pale lips. "Are you familiar with biomorphic alteration?"

The words were not familiar, but didn't sound promising. Franticly, Kyle looked from side to side, trying to make out more of the room he was in or the apparatus he was strapped into. Something was moving underneath him. He could see a solid glass and plastic tube rise from out of the smartglass floor, surrounding him in a transparent cylinder. Underneath his feet, the frosted glass flashed translucent to show a lattice of pipes and wiring though the thick glass, along with the pale gleam of active-scanning sensors. Flashes of laser light quickly traced his body from back to front, and then the glass underneath his hands and feet again turned opaque...

"And... so far so good..." Kyle heard off to his side. Kyle turned to see another doctor walking into the lower room, stepping in front of the restrained man but keeping his distance. "The suspension is ready. We can proceed."

With a hydraulic hiss, a heavy section of plastic and metal casing descended from the ceiling at the same time as the plastic-glass shell surrounding Kyle rose further. Both ends of the clear tubing met with a smooth, resonate thunk; at the very same time, Kyle felt the cuffs around his wrists and ankles spring open. Kyle pulled his wrists free and jolted to his feet, balancing on the rack he'd just been freed from as he frantically looked around the sealed cylinder. He continued to nervously swallow the sweet liquid pouring into his mouth without hesitation; he was feeling even hungrier than before and the taste was satisfying. But he had to find a way out, and soon...

The vent around the circumference of his tube began to hum, and quickly warm, thick goo began to pour into the sealed chamber. It pooled around Agent Nauten's bare toes before washing over the top of his feet. Cringing, Kyle tried to move his feet out of the warm, tingling substance, but he still felt tremendously weak from whatever had knocked him unconscious earlier. The gooey warmth spread across the bottom of his feet when he lifted them and then across the top as he set them back down. The level kept rising; soon both his ankles and lower legs were enveloped in the cohesive slime.

Kyle stood straight up in the slowly rising goop- both surprised by it feeling strangely pleased by the warmth on his skin- but he knew it could be no good, whatever it was. He reached up to feel the mask strapped around his face, tracing his fingers around it. It was connected to a thick, strong tubing along the front, through which he could feel the flow of liquid oxygenation and sweet nutrient fluids...

The man in black laughed as he watched he fumble with the mask. Kyle was surprised sound still penetrated the sealed chamber, but noticed it came in from a speaker at the top of his strange prison. "Well, you can't talk right now, but I'm assuming you don't have a clue what's happening on account of your general cluelessness. While the precise workings of this process are, obviously, a trade secret... the long and the short of it is an aggressive enough approach to genetic modification, nanotech and bioware can turn a human being into... something entirely new."

Kyle blinked. What the fuck did that mean? The machine he was trapped in seemed like a horribly inefficient way to kill somebody, but he'd heard rumors some medical corporations did ghoulish things to their 'medical volunteers'. Heartbeat racing, he slowly swallowed another mouthful of the sugary-sweet liquid being forced into his throat with a mix of rage, fear, curiosity and anxiety burning through him all at once. Goosebumps bristled on his skin as the slime around him rose, now coming up to his waist...

A sudden, sharp hiss broke Agent Nauten's thoughts. He turned to the side to see the source of the strange sound, only to be greeted by the most bizarre, inexplicable sight he had ever seen.

Kyle found himself staring into the jutting muzzle of a gigantic lizard, not a foot away from the transparent wall of his prison. The green-scaled creature smiled in a way that was far from that of an animal; Kyle saw the lizard shake muzzle to the side and give a soft sigh, before flicking its long, forked tongue downward against the outside of the glass-plastic wall...

"Mmm... and who is thissss..?" the creature hissed, smiling with scale-lidded eyes at Kyle. "A new friend?"

Frozen in shock, Kyle's breaths came quick and shallow as his mind tried to process what he was seeing. Seeing the creature move was even more startling; as it backed away from the tube he could see more and more of its reptilian body. It was completely hairless, covered instead in small forest green scales along its back, snout and tail, and broader, lighter green scales along its belly. Claws tipped the creature's long fingers and even longer toes; even its eyes were narrow, reptilian slits. The creature was lithe though reasonably human in proportion, and stood leaning forward in a low crouch supported by a long stiff tail...

It moved with languid, fluid grace, walking across the glass plate floor with soft *clicks* from the long claws on its feet. The lizard's tail swayed back and forth in motions opposite its' legs as it swayed forward; Kyle caught sight of a number '13' printed in white across the green scales on both its' upper arms. The only thing the strange creature wore was a black collar.

"Hello..." the lizard said, now standing closer to Black and smiling at Kyle- or at least, he thought so. Short, sharp teeth lined the inside of the reptile's pink maw.

"Boy, I bet you're feeling it right now, Agent Nauten!" the man in black said, chuckling and folding his arms together. "We've got gene patents for mammals, fish, birds, lizards, plants... lab brewed things that've never even seen daylight. And you know what the end result is?" He paused, pacing a few steps away before answering, coolly. "Whatever the fuck we want."

Kyle saw another green-scaled lizard walk into his view, slipping its arms around the reptile already present. The second lizard pushed its muzzle over the other's shoulder, giving Kyle a leering smile. Kyle saw the reptile wrap its long-fingered, short-clawed hands around the other's midsection, stroking the light-green scales on the first lizard's belly with its claws. The number '12' was emblazoned on the second creature's arms, on the same place as the first wore '13'...

"He lookssss like he will be... deliciousss..." Thirteen said, rubbing its snout across the underside of the other lizard's muzzle.

"Mmm... so we *are* getting a new friend? That issss... mmmm... wonderful..." Twelve said licking the top of Thirteen's muzzle with his long, forked tongue.

"Yesss... yesss it isss..." Thirteen replied, lazily smiling at Kyle.

It was hard to believe that the naked creatures lying in front of him had ever been human. Was this really how the Board 'disposed' of people?

Kyle groaned pitifully at his plight. The level of warm goo surrounding him was now up to his chest; it completely soaked through the thin boxers and undershirt his captors had left him in. Angry at himself and still nursing a weak hope in the power of denial, the intelligence agent cursed his earlier brashness. He had been stupid, taunting them like that! He shouldn't have even confirmed what they knew! He could have pretended to cooperate as quickly as possible, gotten them to trigger a failsafe...

Black was grinning now. "Get the picture now, hero? You're going to be another pet in our zoo." The man in black said, doffing his hat and bowing towards Kyle. His scalp was completely bald and shone where a synthetic shell had replaced his skull...

Kyle panicked as the cyborg in black taunted him, slamming a hand against the glass-plastic shell surrounding him. He threw a clenched fist at the thick wall, but it barely seemed to even vibrate when he struck it. The green liquid oozing into the tube with him was now coming up to his neck and rising faster. The thick goo spread up over the mask covering his face, and then over his head, immersing him completely. Sound dampened as his ears were covered in jelly; pulling his hands through the thick green fluid was hard and seeing through the thick ooze was even harder. At least it didn't hurt his eyes; if anything it felt soothing...

Floating in the thick fluid, Kyle's mind raced as he thought of what to do. The goo surrounding him was making his skin feel awfully warm...

Frantically, Kyle pushed himself up off the floor of the tank, away from bars he'd been cuffed to. He reached up for whatever sealed the top of his transparent prison, but he couldn't swim up very far before he found his mask was fed by a short tubes solidly fixed to the bottom of the tank. Shit.

Kyle tugged at his mask, and then crept his fingers along the back trying desperately to find a latch or something that would free him but the apparatus wouldn't budge an inch. He spent more of his anger trying to kick the sides of the tank, but found it hard to gather momentum buried in the slime. Frustrated, he grabbed hold of the front of his mask and tried to tear it off with all his strength. It hurt his face but the mask didn't even budge. He tried to scream, and heard nothing but a wet gurgle as his lungs strained against the oxygenated fluid filling them.

Kyle's felt lightheaded and weak. Floating limp in the warm jelly with lungs that didn't need to breathe, the only sound to accompany him in the sealed tank was the sound of his own thundering heartbeat and the slow gush of the nutrient mix pouring down his throat. No way to break out. Nowhere to run. How soon would it begin? There was nothing left to do but wait...

Several long minutes later, he'd been immersed in the warming goo long enough skin felt burning hot. Warmth slowly sunk deeper into his skin, until it reached his muscles. They relaxed as wet heat soaked into them, and Kyle felt his body slowly grow heavier and heavier until twitching a finger was too much effort to even think about. He felt almost too tired to worry about what was happening to him, but the doctor's vague warning kept him from closing his eyes and nodding off.

The relaxing feeling deepened and deepened, until Kyle felt himself settle the ooze around him. His eyes drooped and his tongue relaxed; he was too tired to do anything. The inside of his body grew warmer and warmer, and soon it was all he could do just to stay conscious.

The flow of nutrient paste down his throat abruptly ceased, replaced by something cold, greasy and metal with the consistency of petroleum jelly. The taste was wretched, and was made absolutely vile by whatever artificial sweetener it had been laced with. The cold, nauseating jelly flowed into his stomach as if it was living thing, never seeming to settle. Kyle's stomach churned; his insides felt so cold...

The consistency of the jelly suddenly turned effervescent, and his stomach no longer felt nearly as full as it had been. Nanomachines were the only thing Kyle's fevered mind could think of, but whatever it was it sapped heat from him like greasy, eternally cold snow. He was thankful when the flow of foul-tasting metallic liquid ceased and the warm nutrient paste was back. Desperate for relief, Kyle sucked hard on the tube inside his mask, drawing mouthfuls of warm, filling paste into his freezing stomach.

Slowly, the, liquid meal began to make his belly feel better as it mixed with the foul, cold meal inside it. But even as the nutrient paste trickled down his throat, Kyle could feel a cool tingling spreading through the core of his stomach. The tingling spread through his body slowly, deadening flesh soon thereafter. Kyle felt it creep down his arms and legs, and then up into his neck and...

He felt a jolt as the tingling reached his head. Everything went black, silent, dead. Kyle felt he was entirely disembodied for a few terrifying seconds, before he vaguely sensed his own weight and realized the darkness around him was because he couldn't see...

As Kyle came back to his senses, he felt like his blood was full of tequila and rocket fuel. He felt something vaguely fleshy covering his eyes. His skin itched like it'd been used for sandpaper and his scalp was on fire. His fingers and toes spasmed and he couldn't hold them still. He'd never felt so weak in his life; it felt his whole body was melting like ice in the hot, gooey warmth of his prison...

Kyle suckled on the tube lodged in his throat, coaxing more warm, nourishing paste into his gut as nausea and pain wracked his body in waves. Vaguely, he could feel his skin numb and thicken, feel his fingers and toes stretch. Pressure rose along his sinuses and jaw, and Kyle felt his face grow out into the empty front of mask that had been fitted to him...

Pressure at his tailbone far, far stronger than anything else he was experiencing made a flush of coldness run though his spine and backside, prompting him to instinctively guzzle down more and more warming, filling, nutrient-rich paste. He felt his tailbone grow outward from his ass in slow, steady throbs as the rest of his body underwent the metamorphosis, advancing everywhere at once. His toes and fingers swelled up as clawpoints began to grow from their tips, skin peeling away from their tips like rubber; his ears curled in on themselves and shrank back into his head. Kyle was too flustered, too confused and too drugged to do any more than ride out the experience, able to do little but try and keep drinking the nourishing fluids being pumped into his throat.

His skin slowly grew heavier, his tailbone thicker, his face longer. Kyle shuddered in revulsion as he felt his hair melt away from his scalp, leaving the skin there feeling unnaturally tight as it too began to thicken. The shuddering from his changing bones was maddening; every few seconds they tried to adjust to the wretched shape his body had been forced into, only to be stretched further the moment they seemed to settle. Worse was the tail now erupting from his backside in fits and starts, forcing his hips to widen and the rest of his spine to bend. Kyle shivered in his warm liquid prison as new nerves, bone and muscle knit together and the tail grew longer. It sent a ghostly sensation up through his spine when it finally grew far enough to tap the glass opposite where he faced, making him shudder powerfully in the suspension.

The worst sensation by far was the horrible itching running through his balls and penis. It felt like his equipment felt like it was trying to pull straight up into his groin, which not yet reshaped enough to contain it. He couldn't even tell *what* was happening to his poor genitals...

He continued changing. In the dark warmth of the sealed vat, Kyle found it increasingly hard to sort out what was happening to him as the transformation continued to lurch ahead. What sensations he felt were conflicting, contradictory. He felt his teeth reshaping to fit his growing muzzle with his tongue, as said tongue sank down into the bottom of his maw and mutated. Kyle could feel it stiffen and lengthen from the inside, pressing against the plastic tube leading down his throat. The tip of his tongue pulled apart as it continued to grow inside his muzzle, eventually causing the slimy surface of his tonguetip to split in two...

After his tongue split, another minute or two passed. Maybe it was five or ten. Time didn't seem to be flowing properly anymore. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton candy, and his skin felt thick, heavy and stiff; he could feel his tail hanging from him like a third leg. At least he his body had finally calmed, aside from a ticklish itch inside his crotch. Was it all over? The flow of nutrient mix down his throat was slowing to a trickle...

The tank lurched suddenly, and Kyle felt the cylindrical container swing open with a loud hiss. Stumbling forward amid a flood of suspension fluid, Kyle fell onto a metal grating. His muscles were useless; he collapsed like a sack of potatoes the instant he hit the ground. The only thing that kept him from bashing his brain against the grating was the mask holding his head up.

Strength came back to him slowly. The first thing he did was claw off the thin, organic membrane that had grown in over his eyes. He tore it away like rice paper, along with similar film he found covering... where his ears had been. Nothing but holes now; tiny, leathery holes he rubbed his fingers against in disbelief. Artificial light burned into his retinas like he'd never seen light before, which he feared was close to the truth...

The mask strapped over his muzzle gave a sudden hiss, and the latches on the back clanked open. Kyle tore the long mask off and let it fall to the ground; his lungs were still flooded with oxygen-rich was liquid, which gave him the strangest dream-sensation of drowning on dry land and yet not suffocating. Lungs spasming reflexively, Kyle began to cough it up as he fell down to his hands and knees, feeling his claws scratch against the steel grating underneath him.

The sensation of his huge tail coming to rest across the wet plasticrete under him made his spine tingle. He sat atop the grate, shaking as he kneeled there coughing, staring incredulously at his clawed, scaly hands. What had they done to him!?

Kyle coughed more as he tried to talk; his throat was bone dry. Someone thrust a water bottle into his hands and he quickly tore the cap off it with his shaking, clawed fingers, bumping his muzzle with the open neck of the bottle and spilling water across his scales he tried to drink. Desperate for water, he latched his teeth onto the plastic neck and bit down, tilting his head back and swallowing the entire bottle in a single long drink.

Dropping the empty bottle onto the grating, Kyle shook his muzzle and slowly began to "Urgh... oh my god..." he rasped, slowly coughing up more warm fluid from his lungs. His lips felt stiff; his fingers traced along his scaly muzzle, feeling what the mask had kept him from seeing. It loomed large in his peripheral vision now. He swallowed hard, looking up towards the man in black. "You... you son of a b-bitch..." Kyle cursed at him, shivering as warmed suspension fluids trickled off his scales.

"Who's the freak of nature now, Kyle?" The cyborg laughed wildly. "Actually, you know how much people are willing to play to sleep with these things? This place is a fuckin' money printer!"

"Y-you can't hide this forever!" Kyle screamed hoarsely. He kept screaming even as his voice rasped and cracked. "You don't get away with it this easily! Mark my words, someday you're going to pay for the shit you do!"

"Oh, believe it! From here on, we own your scaly ass and it is entirely rentable! You're going to suck dicks, take it in the ass and fucking love it. In fact, you're not going to be able to *help* but love it because there are designer drug glands now pumping away inches from your heart, filling your blood with a beautiful suite of patented emotional regulators, sexual stimulants and opiates!"

"You sadistic fuck!" Kyle whispered. "I'll f-fucking kill you!"

Black was already walking away. "Enjoy being a high-priced fucktoy, you moralizing bastard! Bet you wish you'd taken the money!" the cyborg laughed, tipping his hat once more and passing through the door at the end of the unloading bay.

In a final fit of rage, Kyle tried to lunge forward but fell to the ground as his altered feet and tail tripped him up. His muzzle smacked painfully into the metal grating underfoot, and Kyle held it there.

What a colossal fuckup. He'd been certain, absolutely certain that he could bring MEG down even if they tried to kill him, and now everything was lost. Trapped in a place no one knew wasn't there, by a conspiracy no one believed in, turned into something no one thought existed. Kyle's eyes burned, but he forced himself not to cry any more than he had to.

The two lizards in the room with him- Twelve and Thirteen by the numbers tattooed on their scales- cautiously approached Kyle, crouching just above where he was lying.

"Heh. You really pissed him off." One of the lizards said, making the other giggle.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Kyle growled at them, instinctively lashing his tail in a sudden fit of agitation. His own voice was like a rasping croak; his throat didn't work quite right...

The other lizards recoiled, standing at tail's length from their new convert as they looked at each other. "Do we look like the bad guys here?" one asked, suddenly speaking quite clearly.

Kyle tried to avert his eyes from the two of them; the mere sight of the other lizards made him painfully aware of his... condition. It was only then that he noticed the white number seemingly woven into the scales of his own wrists: 19.

"Come on; let's get going. If you don't play nice they'll send someone to make you..." the lizard labeled Thirteen said, covering part of his muzzle as he spoke.

"Fuck you. Let them make me." Kyle growled, not bothering to lift his muzzle from the grating.

The lizards looked at one another, and then moved forward anyway. Too tired to stop them or yell any longer, Kyle stumbled up on his feet with their help. The other lizards were surprisingly strong for their size, and easily supported him out of the plascrete loading bay and into an open hallway.

The walls were made of opalescent smartglass reinforced with synthmetal; he felt his toeclaws sink into carpeting. Carpeting? Kyle blinked under the glare of the lights illuminating their way, shivering every so often at the feeling of his tail dragging along behind him. His long muzzle lolled from left to right as Twelve and Thirteen carried him along. He thought he saw two furry creatures with long, black-white, bushy tails pass by them, but he couldn't tell.

Twelve and Thirteen led him into the fifth room they passed, shutting the door and locking it behind them. Kyle, breathing heavily and exhausted by the short walk, lurched towards first thing his saw: the king-sized bed in the middle of the room. The bed was huge and low to the ground, covered in what looked like clean gray sheets; about the most beautiful thing he'd seen since he'd been decanted from the tank...

"Hey! Hey, wait!" Thirteen said, pulling Kyle away from the bed and hissing to Twelve. "Get a towel! His ssscales are sopping wet still."

Twelve returned with a towel and began to mop the excess fluid from him, while Thirteen began pulling on his sopping clothes. His wet boxers were pulled down his legs- his tail had grown in over the band of his boxers and never been constrained by them- and then Thirteen took off his shirt, quickly leaving him as naked as the other lizards. Reflexively, he covered his crotch with a free hand, but he wasn't exactly sure what he was even covering anymore...

Kyle slid his hand away and looked down at his crotch, seeing nothing more than a subtle bulge in the scales covering his groin.

Twelve caught his eyes, and placing his hands over Kyle's. "If you're willing to take advice now... don't freak out when you ssssee your junk."

"What?" Kyle asked, fearing the worst.

The lizard smiled. "I'll show you..."

He rolled back into the bed, gasping suddenly as the other lizards fell in after him and began to lick his neck and muzzle. "Oh-h-h, wh-what are you d-doing! Stop!" He moaned.

"Mmm... don't be silly. We know you like it..." Twelve replied, suddenly straddling him. "We al-l-l-l like it..."

"Yeah... because they've fucking microwaved your brains..." Kyle stammered, weakly trying to push the other male off him. He looked down at the flat, featureless slit behind which his sex throbbed. Jesus Christ, what did they do to him? What the fuck had happened to his dick?

"Oh... we know. We just can't help it. These bodiesss are engineered for ssssex. We are conssstantly in need... " Twelve hissed, tail lashing behind him as he slid between Kyle's legs. "Don't worry... we've all found it rather nice..."

"Are you kidding me! You want to just let them... use you!?" Kyle replied to Twelve, swatting the other lizard's tail away from him. He could taste Twelve and Thirteen's arousal in the air all around him; the room and bed absolutely reeked of sex. "I'm a goddamn Federal Agent! I'm going to break out of this twisted fucking prison someday!"

Neither lizard replied.

"What are we, anyway?" Kyle asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Mmm... what do you want to know? Most of us are modeled after animal ssstock of some kind... catsss and wolfies are always popular, but there is niche demand for reptiles... and birdsss." Thirteen said, grinning. "The birdies can't fly, of course... but they are pretty."

"We don't get sssick. We ssspent our days in each others' company... the herms and femalessss among usss don't get pregnant naturally..." Twelve interjected.

"They treat usss rather well... mmm, and they make sure the people who visit us are nice too. In fact, we've been promised a *very* nice treat in a few weeksss for our good behavior..." Thirteen said.

Kyle, incredulous, hissed at the other lizard. "Are you two listening to yourselves!? You want to sing me the praises of our fucking captorsss?"

"Yeah. Hey, they could have turned usss into nanomachine feedstock." Twelve said, shrugging. "And, mmm, I do enjoy it..."

"Me too..." Thirteen added.

"I ssssee..." Kyle said, before mentally correcting himself. "I mean, I see." Hissing seemed to be an affection they adopted more than something their long tongues force them to do, but Kyle found himself falling into the habit as they talked. Mad urges ran though his mind; what did the scales on Twelve's tail taste like..? What would happen if he just hugged the other lizard right now, kissed him? "Why did they put you two here?" Kyle finally asked, shaking off the urges.

"Heh. Fair is fair, Nineteen... we heard your story play out ourselves, after all." Thirteen said. "I wasss the CTO of a company, the name of which has been expunged from exchange recordssss. The Board renditioned me for patent infringement. Twelve was a hacker."

The lizard frowned slightly at his name. "Well... I was *their* pet hacker... until they saw fit to disappear me for knowing too much about their own ssssystems. Here they don't let usss have anything with a microchip."

"I take it they don't let us out, either" Kyle stated. Twelve shook his head emphatically.

"I do a lot of reading. We all have a lot of sssex." Thirteen said in reply, grinning. "We'll show you..."

"No thanks, I'm f-"

The other lizard suddenly pressed his muzzle down against Kyle's crotch. Caught off guard, Kyle felt his arm tremble as he pulled it around the lizard's head, intending to pull the reptile away from his crotch. But as he prepared to do so he hesitated, and Twelve crept around behind him. "Come on... let him pleasure you..." the reptile said, rubbing Kyle's stomach.

Both Twelve and Thirteen laughed, curling closer around Kyle's naked form. Their dry scales pressed against his wet, shiny ones, and Kyle squeezed his eyes shut as he felt another sharp spike of pleasure jolt deep through his slit. It was almost a relief; he felt like he was getting an erection...

Learning back into Twelve's arms and surrendering to the drug-like pleasure flooding his body, Kyle watched as Thirteen began to bob his muzzle down lower. The other lizard licked the inside of his thighs and kissed the shallow bulge of his crotch before heading for a richer target, licking the lips of Kyle's male-slit...

The feeling of a tongue caressing his slit was like sexual fire. "Holy shit..." Kyle moaned.

"Relax...." Twelve murmured in reply.

Thirteen's long tongue struck deep inside his altered sex, sending powerful pleasure through him. Whatever they'd done to his genitals he still *felt* very much like a male. Thirteen licked his slit in a slow, even rhythm, letting Kyle feel the throbbing build in his sex. He swore he could feel his cock solidly as the lizard's tongue flickered against it...

Twelve leaned over and began to suck on Kyle's neckscales as Thirteen withdrew, wiping his muzzle on his forearm as Kyle's slit stretched to accommodate his erecting penis... penises?

"Oh my god what the fuck!" Kyle blurted, staring at the twin half-hard, crimson-red shafts slowly sprouting from his crotch. They emerged side by side, flopping down between his legs as they continued to inflate with his blood. Each was shaped like a fat spear, swelling out into a thick base past his slit before tapering to a pointed tip...

"Hehe, you ssssee why we're sssso popular here..." Thirteen said, teasing both of Kyle's penises with his deft fingers. Kyle moaned and felt his cocks jump at the touch, spurting a small spray of pre-cum into Thirteen's palmscales...

The new convert sat stiff for a few seconds before sensations became too intense, and he grabbed hold of his own members, pushing Thirteen away. Protectively cradling his mutated, aroused genitals he stared down at them, stroking the tapered, smooth shafts experimentally. He moved them from side to side, and then circles the rods in opposite directions, one clockwise the other counter. Each felt similar to the penis he'd been born with, but sleeker, slimier and far more sensitive. Pleasure continued to thrum through the hardening lengths as he took stock of his altered manhood, stoking the temptations he'd been trying so hard to suppress.

Thirteen, somehow sensing the change of mind returned his hands to Kyle's malenesses, rubbing them against each other. Kyle moaned; he could still scarcely believe what he was seeing and feeling as the lizard expertly stroked both of his shafts with two hands. Thirteen rubbed his thumbs over the tips of Kyle's cocks, drawing powerful moans from the overstimulated male. Twelve slid his muzzle around Kyle's neck and began kissing him full on the muzzle from behind, pushing his forked tongue over Kyle's.

Hormones rushed through Kyle's body and his heart kicked into overdrive as the Thirteen squeezed Kyle's now-erect malenesses together and licked them. Then, Thirteen pushed his muzzle down over both of Kyle's reptilian cocks at the same time, enveloping them in the warmth and wetness of his maw. Kyle let out a wordless hiss as his new genitals were sucked upon, setting both his hands on top of Thirteen's head to hold him in place...

Twelve slid forward on the bed until he was straddling Kyle's thighs and pressing their scaly tails together. Kyle pressed the underside of his tail up against Twelve's ass as the other lizard slid down on it, before lifting Kyle's legs up and out of the way. Twelve bent over and pressed his muzzle down against Kyle's under-tail. For a moment, the new lizard froze; a muzzle-tip exploring his backdoor was *not* something he usually enjoyed in bed. But now he felt exactly that, and it felt so nice...

Twelve kept nuzzling his tail and rear, sliding his scaly snout against Kyle's soft underscales as Thirteen sucked his cocks. The lizard playfully bit the soft-scaled meat of his scaly rear, before nuzzling his ass affectionately and starting to lick around his tailhole. Licks slowly turned into purposive kisses, followed by the lizard pushing his tongue all the way into Kyle's tailhole...

Kyle grit his teeth together to avoid moaning as his tailhole was tongued, shaking and shivering each time he felt the long, wet organ slide into his ass. Tingles of pleasure shot up through his tailpassage before spreading like wildfire into both of his penises. Thirteen was busily sucking on one and stroking the other next to his snout. Kyle only stood being pleasured at both ends for a few seconds before a powerful climax ripped through his re-plumbed body. He shot a huge load of seed up into Thirteen's hungry maw, while spraying a second across the lizard's muzzle.

Thirteen busied himself swallowing Kyle's cum, sucking his spent left shaft dry before licking the right clean. The ravenous lizard kept licking, slurping up the long strands of seed painting his snout and Kyle's thighs. Instinct led Kyle to flick his own tongue out, tasting the wet, sexual heat of his musk soak into the other tastes around him. He could taste the pungent, tangy, unique flavors of the other reptiles; his seed was rich and bitter and salty; Twelve's scent was strangely both fruity and spicy, while Thirteen's seed was closer to a creamier, less bitter version of his own male-taste...

Words left the three lizards entirely as they silently licked the air around them. Kyle felt good, but he'd rather spent himself quickly and he still felt terribly aroused. Despite the naked, animalistic depravity of their shared need he couldn't tear himself away from it. Worse, he didn't *want* to any longer. Twelve and Thirteen both gave needy growls, proudly displaying their own hardnesses. Like him, the other lizards had a matching set of penises split side by side in a v-shape...

Wasting little time, Twelve returned to licking Kyle's tailhole, while Thirteen pushed him onto all fours on the bed. Kyle arched his tail as Twelve tongued his hole again, and then wordlessly presented his ass to the other lizard, driven by lust and instinct alike. What was he doing? He'd never even been attracted to other males, and he was exposing himself to the lizard, wagging his *tail* at the other male and leering gleefully!?

But Kyle never acted on those pangs of doubt and fear. Twelve's tongue was so soft and lithe; it felt *good* but Kyle knew with burning certitude that a hard, throbbing cock would feel *so* much better...

Twelve was soon rubbing one of his shafts against Kyle's entrance, pushing the tip just past his now-leathery asshole. The other male's cock felt *far* larger than inside him than he knew it was. "Ungh... holy ssshit..." Kyle moane,d as he felt the rest of Twelve's cock sink deeper into his body. The other lizard growled in lust, and responded by throwing his arms around Kyle's neck and pushing harder.

Kyle's mind went blank, entirely focused on the sensation of penetration. Like the lizard's tongue, the warm, slick, spear-shaped cock felt *good* as Twelve hilted it inside his ass, hissing merrily against the back of his neck all the while. The feeling of the other male moving *inside* him was breathtaking. Kyle felt the hard, fat knot of cockflesh where the lizard's penises diverged squeeze in and out of his tailhole while Twelve's unsheathed member rubbed against his rear...

Twelve held himself inside Kyle's body for ages, grinding slow and deep and filling his bowels with pre-seed until Kyle could feel the slick fluids start to leak out of his tailhole. The other lizard slowly withdrew and then pushed back into him, taking his hands off Kyle's shoulder and pulling his tail up and out of the way. Twelve held his tail vertical with both arms as he started to mate Kyle faster, easily moving his thickness through the newcomer's slickened hole. Kyle bit his tongue to avoid moaning as Twelve fell over him, pressing hips flush with Kyle's rear as they began to well and truly fuck.

Kyle held his penises and shuddered as Twelve hilted him over and over in savage paroxysms of lust. The newly-converted lizard was so stimulated it felt like his internal testicles were going to burst. He'd never felt the blazing heat of another male sheathed inside his tailhole before, but he was loving it, bucking his hips back against Twelve's steady thrusts...

Growling, Twelve came into his ass hard, while Kyle felt both of his dicks empty themselves all over the sheets and bedding underneath him. By the time he was spent, much of the bedding underneath him had been soaked through with warm lizard cum.

Kyle turned his head, and was met by a kiss from his lover. Then, Twelve withdrew his right shaft and pressed it next to his left, rubbing his malenesses together until they both glistened with white-tinged lizard cum. The lizard wasted little time, aligning his still-hard left shaft with Kyle's tailhole and slowly sliding back inside the male. Kyle's eyes watered as his tailhole was again stretched open, biting down on a chunk of bedding to keep from crying out in pleasure. As this was happening, Kyle saw Thirteen start to lick Twelve's tailhole and penises, and soon all three of them were fucking each other one atop the other.

They swapped positions and mated again soon after. Kyle felt possessed by the lust burning in his loins. Each orgasm seemed to drain only a fraction of the boundless need from his mind, and it seemed to replenish itself quite rapidly indeed. The kisses, caresses, touches, and licks he shared with his fellow lizards was but a palliative dose; the warm gush of cum up his tailhole respite itself. Kyle soon found himself rubbing his snout against the other lizard's cocks, licking and stroking the other reptile's shafts just as eagerly as they had pleasured him. Twelve and Thirteen wrestled and fought with one another as Kyle teased played with them both, arguing over who he was going to suck first.

While the scent and taste of the lizard-musk coming off the other male's members was clearly enough to make his own pair hard, Kyle avoided having to put one of the penises into his maw. But Twelve and Thirteen- perhaps sensing his reluctance- soon pinned him down against the bed and forced his muzzle open. Kyle couldn't tell who won their contest; only that a slick, rubbery lizard-dick was being shoved into his tongue.

Kyle drooled onto the throbbing, tapered cock as the horny lizard humped his muzzle. Something about the taste of lizard-pre made him feel drunk on pleasure; within minutes he was eagerly, mindlessly swallowing a load of salty lizard-seed. Thirteen?

Twelve and Thirteen- doubtless roused by his eagerness- soon humped against both sides of his muzzle at once, filling his maw with three slick, hard cocks while a fourth smacked against his snout...

Later, they masturbated together, cumming long arcs of seed across each other's bellies and muzzles. Then they kneeled together and rubbed all of their dual-shafted members together in a hot press of throbbing cocks. Again aroused but not yet sated, Twelve let Kyle bend him over the bed and fuck his tailhole, and then Thirteen took him...

**** ****

An hour later, the three lizards were slowly coming down from their orgy. All three reptiles were sticky with sex, suffused with each other's scents; the bedsheets underneath them were soaked wet with their mating fluids.

Kyle was entirely beside himself, scarcely cognizant of his surroundings. Twelve was lying atop him; Kyle's could feel the heat of one lizard-dick buried inside his sorely abused tailhole, the other resting snug between his scaly thighs. Underneath him was Thirteen, in much the same state. Kyle could feel both of the lizard's penises pressed against his own equipment, all four of their malenesses softening, wet and utter spent. Kyle couldn't even remember all of what they'd done or how many times they'd done it, but by the sticky heat filling his tailpassage and the things he could taste it felt like quite a lot indeed.

"Mmmm... I've one question for you, Nineteen..." Twelve said, pressing his head into Kyle's shoulder from behind. "What was the password you were hiding?"

"Mmm? Does it even matter?" Kyle replied, too comfortable to dislodge the lizard now atop him. Their tails began to sway together over the edge of the bed, but he felt utterly exhausted.

"No." Thirteen interjected from underneath, nuzzling Kyle.

"I'm jusssst curious..." Twelve replied, shutting his muzzle and smiling.

Kyle smiled; his mind was still awash in a warm sea of sexual bliss. Was there something he was supposed to remember? He half-remembered smoking something with the lizards during a pause in their orgy; swallowing a few pills... no. What had they given him to drink? No; he was getting distracted again. This was something important. The bombing. The video.

Kyle gave a sudden involuntary shudder as he looked down at the handsome male lizard underneath him, suddenly remembering why he was sharing a similar fate. All those the years of work his investigation had taken! He'd fought to keep it alive, despite the fact it seemed like every person on his team had been bought and paid for. He'd ignored veiled threats from his own command, and for what!?

The new lizard smiled and shook his head. Such silly worries they were. "Oh... yeah... a password... I think I remember..." Kyle said.

"Password?" Thirteen asked, as if he'd forgotten the question.

Kyle smiled at the other reptile, flicking his tongue against the other lizard's scaly lips. "Linessss from a poem I once memorized, actually..."

**** ****

Observing- and recording- from the medical bay above them, the man in black smiled. Twelve and Thirteen's thirty pieces of silver had been the promise of a jacuzzi installed in their room. "Bingo." He said to himself as he blinked the lizards off his optical feed, and opened a teleconnect in a new retinal window.

"Sir! Have I got a report for you!" he said, as the person on the other end picked up the line. "Cleanup here is done. It's nine twenty-one; the whole job cost us nothing more than a zoo job and thirty grand in petty cash. I'd say I'm on time *and* under budget..?"