Bollar landed on top of a table that tipped over with a crash, knocking drinks and plates to the floor. Bollar realized as he got up that he had twisted his ankle in the fall. He saw another fire exit and quickly hobbled toward it.
Trent grabbed the A56 that was still on the floor as he and Genghis ran for the stairs.
Bollar hit the fire exit in a run and pushed the door open. A blaring siren went off and automatically silenced the music. House lights came on, and people who up until then had been dancing obliviously, started rushing for the exits.
Jeff and Genghis again found themselves fighting the crowds in the attempt to make their way to the same exit Bollar went through. Jennifer was still on the other side of the club when she saw them and started for the door as well. Jeff and Genghis found themselves outside the back of the club. People were flowing out and bumping into them in a panic. Genghis stuck his nose to the ground and said, “Jeff, this way!”
It took Jennifer a couple of minutes to reach the door and get outside with everyone else. She ran to the sidewalk and started looking up and down the street.
Bollar ignored the pain in his ankle – as well as the pain in his forehead, nose, arm, chin, teeth, and groin – and ran as fast as his bleeding, limping human body could. Why are human bodies designed to be so fragile? His chest burned with every breath of cold air he sucked into his lungs. He looked over his shoulder and saw the IPF agent a half a block away running after him. But it was that damn human canine that was coming up fast. Bollar knew he could not outrun the animal so he chose to turn, face him, and fight. Genghis slammed into Bollar, who could do nothing to stop the animal's forward momentum and went to the ground.
Jeff ran up with the A56 in his hand and said, “Bollar, I am an agent with the Interstellar Police Force. You are hereby ordered to stand down. You are under arrest!”
“Get up Bollar,” Genghis said with a snarl.
Bollar was surprised as Trent grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. He looked down at the Doberman, “What the hell, you’re an agent too!”
They were standing next to a vacant store with a very flimsy door. Jeff kicked the door in and pushed Bollar into the building.
“What happened to you? Were you replicated intentionally to look like a human canine?” Neither one answered him. Trent spun him around to face the back wall, shoving the A56 through his belt, and started going through Bollar’s pockets. They heard someone else enter the building and turned to see Jennifer.
She stood at the entrance staring at Bollar, the man who had murdered and caused so much havoc in town. “Jeff,” she nervously said, “I have the duffle.” She held it up by the strap.
Bollar looked over his shoulder, “Oh, for crying out loud, is she also an agent, too?”
Jeff pushed Bollar against the wall. “Thank you, Twinkie. Just put it there. Twinkie? You can drive, can’t you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Would you please go back to the club and bring the cruiser around?” He threw her the keys.
“I’m on it!” she said, as she ran from the building.
“She’s not, is she?” Bollar asked. “Since when does the IPF hire human females to do their work for them?”
“That’s none of your concern, Bollar,” Trent said, as he pulled a wallet from his pocket. He removed the ID. “Or, should I say, Mitch MacAfee.”
“Oh, please,” Bollar said, with the air of disgust. “I hate that stupid name the replicator gave me. I never used it.”
“Yes, as I recall that’s from the human film The Giant Claw where an extraterrestrial giant bird made of antimatter terrorizes the human race.”
Genghis snorted out. “Antimatter!” He then reached into the duffle bag and removed the portable replicator and started setting it up.
“And you?” Bollar looked down at Genghis, “What’s your story?” Jeff shoved him against the wall again and started going through other pockets. “I mean, why a canine? Is that what you selected? Do you get those little bugs that make you itch?”
Genghis paid no attention to Bollar and finished setting up the portable replicator. “You know,” Bollar continued, “you kind of remind me of a Codas canine, except you can . . .”
“Stow it Bollar,” Jeff said, pulling out his PK30A and turning Bollar around and pushing him against the wall. “Time to change you back.”
“And why do we have to do that? I’ve become used to this . . .” Trent triggered the replicator. A thin red laser shot from the device and struck Bollar harmlessly in the head. It then fanned out and started oscillating up and down. Light that flashed through the poorly boarded-up windows to the outside looked as if someone was in the vacant building operating an acetylene torch. Bollar’s clothes started to rip away since he was much bigger than his human form. The light flickered and then abruptly shut off. Transformation was complete.
Bollar was of a slug-like race with leathery dark gray skin from a foggy wet marshland of a planet that orbited a Red Dwarf sun. He had large, oblong gray eyes with yellow green pupils, a wide mouth that constantly dripped saliva and just a small vertical slit for a nose. He had four tentacles, two of which were very long and thin, protruding from where his human shoulders once were. Two shorter and thicker tentacles were directly under the longer ones. Each tentacle tip had several tiny digits. He had no use
