Chapter
3 Dr.
Retinoff’s Party
“He can’t
have gotten far,” thought the Jade Dragon, as she hurried after the
mad doctor. She knew that Retinoff
was not the most physical criminal she had ever
chased. He was probably somewhere
close by. However, the building
was quite large. He could be
almost anywhere or even may have made it down to the ground floor and out
into the street. Somehow she
didn’t think so, however. She
felt that he would probably stay close to his mistress, the Black
Leopard. No doubt he would have
some sort of lab in the building.
That was the way he worked.
She found herself in the hallway where the trap had been sprung on
her. There was an elevator just
to her left, but she noticed that its door was open and that the elevator
was still there. Since it was
a manually operated elevator it was unlikely that Retinoff had gone that
way. That meant he had probably
taken the stairs, which were just across from the
elevator. She darted into the
stairwell. It was a four-story
drop to the bottom floor, but she didn’t
hesitate. She stepped over the
stair railing and left herself fall.
Using her powers of mind control, she made sure that her descent was
slow enough that her superbly toned muscles would handle the impact at the
bottom.
She dropped lightly to the bottom floor.
She had seen no sign of Retinoff on the way down, but that didn’t
mean he wasn’t somewhere else in the
building. However, she wanted
to check out the basement first. If
Retinoff had a lab somewhere, that seemed to be the most likely place for
it.
A separate staircase went down to the basement
level. The Jade Dragon followed
it down. At the bottom of the
stairs was a heavy steel door. This
looked promising, but of course, the door was
locked. That did not slow her
down for long, however. From
her utility belt she took out a small
package. It contained thermite
embedded in putty. It was one
of the Scarlet Falcon’s inventions.
She molded it about the lock and ignited the
mixture. A fierce light flared
as the thermite melted the lock mechanism
away.
Gingerly she pushed the door open.
Sure enough, she was in the mad doctor’s
lab. Long benches covered with
all sorts of scientific apparatus lined the
walls. In the center of the room
was a collection of machine parts.
It appeared that Mad Ivan had been working on some major
project. There was, however,
no sign of the tiny scientist. She
moved farther into the room, passing a large gray
machine. Suddenly, from behind
her there came a distinct whirring sound.
The machine she had just passed was rolling toward her on well-oiled
wheels. It made almost no
noise. Only the sound of its
motors gave it away.
Surprised, the Jade Dragon backed away.
She had tackled many human opponents before, but never a machine,
and she wanted to determine its nature before attempting to deal with
it. The machine was rather squat,
resembling a large gray cube about four feet on a
side. As she watched, a couple
of small doors opened in on either side of the cube, and from these doors
emerged a pair of powerful mechanical arms equipped with pincer-like
hands. They looked quite capable
of sheering off an arm or a leg.
The Jade Dragon wanted no part of the
machine. She was much more agile
than the rolling monster, so she simply scuttled away from it, keeping what
she considered was a safe distance from
it. Obviously the machine was
one of Retinoff’s inventions, and there was no telling what sort of
weapons he had built into it.
The machine followed her around the
laboratory. It did not seem in
any hurry. Perhaps it could not
go any faster than it already was.
The Jade Dragon had no trouble keeping ahead of
it. For a minute or so the heroine
and the robot played cat and mouse, and then there was a second whirring
sound. From across the room a
second machine was rolling toward her.
She decided it was time to get out of the
lab. She headed for the door,
but before she got there a third machine rolled into the
doorway. Now she was cut
off. For the first time in this
encounter, Sun Lin began to feel a little
apprehensive. She looked around
her for some other way out of the lab.
With the third robot covering the door, the other two machines kept after
her. She had no trouble avoiding
them, both machines were ponderously slow, but they forced her to keep
moving. As she moved about the
lab, the Jade Dragon looked for an alternative
exit. There must be one
somewhere. A good deal of the
machinery in the room was too large to have been brought through the door
she had entered.
Continuing to avoid the robots, the Jade Dragon worked her way toward the
back of the lab. There were several
large machines there, and she was sure that there must be a way out just
beyond them. She soon found that
she was right. Just behind the
machines was a huge steel door. But
it was closed, and there were two more cubical robots waiting there for
her. They rolled toward
her. Now she was pursued by four
of the tireless machines.
“Enjoying the party, Jade
Dragon?” It was Retinoff’s
voice coming in over a loudspeaker.
“I hope you find my little toys
entertaining. I had them built
especially for you. They are
programmed to chase anything in the color
green. Of course, you could always
escape them by removing your
costume.” The last statement
was followed by a high-pitched giggle.
Remove her clothes? The idea
was ridiculous. And
Retinoff was probably lying in any
case. But she now realized that
she was in serious trouble. The
machines were too slow-moving to catch her, but they were absolutely
relentless. If
Retinoff decided to simply let them chase her,
eventually she would become too tired to escape
them. And one those fearsome-looking
pincers got hold of her… Well,
she didn’t even want to think about that.
Retinoff made no more comments.
Possibly he simply enjoyed watching the chase, or perhaps he was busy
with some other evil idea. In any case she heard no more of
him. With the
robots, however, it another
matter. No matter where
she went the dogged machines followed
her. There was no way of escaping
from them completely. The workbenches
were too low, and there were no light fixtures or overhead beams to cling
to. The game of fox and geese,
with the Jade Dragon as the fox, continued for another three
hours. By that time Sun Lin was
approaching physical collapse. Her
costume was completely soaked in sweat, and her breath game in harsh
gasps. Retinoff’s robots
had almost run her into the ground.
Had the mad doctor been telling the truth about the color
green? She was now desperate
enough to find out.
She unfastened her black and green cape and tossed it at one of the
robots. Immediately the machine
swerved toward the flying object, catching it in its pincers and then shredding
the fabric. It looked as if Retinoff
had been telling the truth. She
took off her utility belt next, and then her
boots. All the time she had to
keep moving to avoid the untiring
machines. Now she was down to
the main part of her costume. Since
it was all in one piece, she would have to take the whole thing
off.
She jumped up on one of the workbenches.
It was not high enough to escape the robots, but it gave her a little
breathing space. Two of the
mechanical brutes were heading straight toward
her. Quickly, she pulled down
the zipper at the back of her costume and stepped out of it, aware as she
did so that she was probably giving the demented little Russian scientist
quite a show. Now
she was clad only in her light green underpants and bra, and her
cowl. There seemed no point in
giving the robots something else to rip apart, so she stowed her costume
in a rubbish container, removing it from sight, but now the machines were
orienting on her again. Chagrined,
she realized that she would have to go all the way.
She pulled off her cowl, releasing her waist-length black
hair. Then moving quickly so
as to not change her mind, she removed her bra and
panties. She was now stark
naked. She stood on the workbench,
her bosom heaving and her arms wrapped bout her in a vain attempt to conceal
her nudity.
“Very entertaining, Jade Dragon,” boomed Retinoff’s
voice. You are every bit as beautiful
as I remember you.”
The Jade Dragon blushed. She
had forgotten that Retinoff had seen her naked body close up when she had
been captured by Brick Henson. Of
course that did not make any difference to
her. She still would not have
stripped in front of Retinoff, given the
choice. There was one
bonus, however, the robots were no longer following
her. The little scientist had
told the truth. The robots were
programmed only to chase green objects.
She jumped to the floor, fully aware of what she must look
like. She was almost completely
exhausted and naked and covered in sweat.
But she was also one of the most beautiful women on the face of the
earth, with the long, slim body of an athlete, but the full breasts and
magnificently rounded contours of a Greek
goddess. Her muscle tone was
so perfect that her breasts hardly quivered as she
walked.
Picking up the small garbage bin where she had stashed her costume, she headed
back toward the back of the lab.
Although Retinoff was not present in the room she guessed he must
be close by. She neared
the large steel door and this time the robots made no move to intercept her
as she approached. She stopped
a few feet in front of the door.
There was no way she was going into action stark
naked. She began to replace her
costume. She had her suit partially
on when the floor suddenly gave way beneath
her.
She did not fall far, only about ten feet before she engaged her mental powers
and managed to slow her descent.
But the trap door that had opened beneath her now swung back into
place over her head, trapping her in a tiny
compartment. She dropped to the
floor ready to defend herself, only to hear the faint hissing sound as an
anesthetizing gas was released into the
room. She was not wearing her
cowl! She did not have her breathing
apparatus!
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