The Chemist

“Val did a good job,” Alex said, and then she started moving again. “Let’s get Olivia set up.”

Einstein was sniffing around the blanket-covered child. He whimpered quietly, ill at ease.

“Is it good enough?” Daniel persisted while pulling the child out from under the cart and cradling her against his chest.

“Let me think about it while I do this,” Alex hedged.

Daniel laid Olivia on the flowered coverlet, smoothing the sweaty fluffs of hair back from her forehead. It took Alex only a few seconds to get the IV bags hanging. One clear, one white and opaque, and then a very small bag with a dark green fluid inside. She quickly placed the IV catheter using the smallest needle she had and then started the fluids.

“Back out of the way,” she told Daniel.

Alex pulled up the camera on a phone Val had given her – left behind by a friend, Val said – and snapped a few pictures of Olivia sleeping. She flipped through them and found one that she decided would do.

“This is my least favorite part of the plan,” Daniel muttered.

She glanced up and saw his pained expression. It looked strange on his new face.

“Let’s hope Carston feels similarly.”

His frown deepened. Alex took his hand and pulled him from the room. The way he was holding his mouth made the round shape of his cheeks more prominent.

“What did she do to your face?” Alex asked.

Daniel stuck two fingers in his mouth and pulled out a little piece of plastic. “These make it a little hard to talk.” With a sigh, he replaced the plastic, and his cheek rounded out again.

Val waited for them in the big living room, eyes still lit up with her success.

“That baby’s not going to wake up, right?” she asked.

“Right.”

“Good. I wouldn’t know what to do with a kid. Now, what do you think? Totally altered, yes?”

Alex looked at Daniel again, and her shoulders slumped. He was thicker around the middle, too; she hadn’t noticed that before. It all looked so real.

“You don’t think it’s good enough, do you?” Daniel asked.

“It’s good enough,” Val answered for her. “And she knows it. That’s why she looks so glum. She’d much rather risk my life than yours.”

Daniel looked at Alex, waiting for her answer.

“Val’s right. Except for the part about risking her life. I don’t want to risk anyone’s.”

Val snorted.

Daniel grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled her against his chest. “It’s going to be fine,” he murmured. “We can do this together. Your plans always work. I will follow your instructions to the letter, and we’ll make it through. I promise.”

Alex squeezed her eyes tight, trying to force the tears back into their ducts.

“I don’t know, Daniel. What am I doing?”

He kissed the top of her head.

“Cut it out,” Val interrupted. “You two are making me jealous, and that’s never a safe thing to do.”

Alex opened her eyes and pulled away, brushing at Daniel’s suit to make sure she hadn’t left any makeup on it.

“I see you had time to get the things I needed from the Batcave. This toolbox is perfect.”

“More than perfect – check the fifth drawer down. I packed the rest how you asked,” Daniel told her. “Do you want to go through it before I put it in the car?”

“That’s a good idea.”

The silver toolbox – one of the props from Kevin’s stash, she assumed – had wheels and a pull-up handle, like a suitcase, but unlike a suitcase, many locking drawers that pulled forward out of its face. She went swiftly through the top drawers, identifying the location of the different drugs by the color rings on the syringes. The syringes were stacked in the rubber trays she usually stored them in. The next drawer down had a variety of scalpels and razor blades. She wouldn’t need so many; the point was to make the drawer look full. Saline bags and tubing were next, along with needles and catheters in different sizes. The next compartment was deeper. It held her pressurized canisters and several random chemicals from Kevin’s stores.

The second-to-last drawer was key. It held another tray of syringes – these empty – and seemed shallower than the last. She traced the edges of the bottom of the drawer – of course Kevin would have something like this. She could fit her fingernails around and lift up the false bottom. She peeked at what was underneath.

“Let’s hope Carston’s up for some Oscar-level acting,” she murmured to herself.

She went through the final, deepest drawer, where Daniel had stowed her more ostentatious props – the blowtorch, the wire snips, the pliers, along with several arbitrary tools Daniel had added from the items available in Kevin’s hoard.

There was one more useful thing she needed – just a tiny configuration of wires that she’d picked up the first time they’d visited the local Batcave. She pulled it from her backpack now and hid it in the third tray of the first drawer, under a syringe. She would want easy access to that one.

Alex straightened. “Perfect. Thank you.”

“You,” Val said, pointing to Daniel. “Get to the rendezvous point. You,” she continued, moving her index finger toward Alex’s face. “Let’s fix you up and get going. The clock is ticking.” She motioned to a set of double doors across the room.

“I’ll be there in thirty seconds,” Alex promised.