A Phone Call

Letting the transforming Dr. Glasseye walk ahead of him out of the subway station, Jared pulled out his phone to call HQ.

“Hello?” Maddison's voice crackled through the line.

“Maddison, this is Agent Rollins.” Jared kept his voice low, watching Dr. Glasseye’s receding figure. “Dr. Glasseye is here in the city and… I think he wants me to think he works with me at my civilian job.” The silence stretched. “Hello?”

“Who is Dr. Glasseye?” Maddison asked, somehow sounding more confused than he did. “I don’t think we have a record of anyone by that name.”

Jared pinched the bridge of his nose. The former old man had terrorized three continents with his inventions. How could one of HQ’s top analysts not know him?

Ahead, Dr. Glasseye’s transformation continued. His weathered clothes morphed into a crisp black suit as his body was somewhere in his thirties, though the changes didn’t look like they were stopping. The morning crowd flowed around him, blind to the impossible changes.

Glancing at the street sign, Jared frowned. They had ten minutes until they reached the office building where his civilian identity worked.

“I think something is happening to him,” Jared said, sidestepping her question. “He’s been getting younger by the minute, and his clothes are changing too. And that’s not mentioning how he thinks we are work buddies.”

“Wait, what?” Maddison's voice slipped into an unfamiliar accent as the snap of gum punctuated her words. “You still didn't answer my question. Who the heck is Dr. Glasseye?”

Jared froze mid-step. He had worked with her for years, and she never chewed gum… or used that accent. His gaze snapped to Dr. Glasseye, who was now a few paces ahead without a care in the world. The transformation had nearly stabilized as his pants ripped and reformed into a neat skirt as his sock slid up his bare legs. He, though he was starting to look more like a she, looked like an executive that could charm a room without saying a word.

“Maddison?” Jared asked cautiously. “Are you feeling alright?”

Maddison giggled like she was in a sugar rush. “I’m totally fine, except for all this work on my computer. Why’d you ask? Do you think I should go on a five-minute break? I’m going to take a five-minute break.”

Jared’s stomach sank. Maddison was one of the most disciplined people he knew, practically married to her job. She would never act this flippant, especially while on the clock. His hand tightened around the phone as he tried to keep his voice steady.

“Maddison, I need you to focus,” he said, keeping an eye on Dr. Glasseye, who had stopped to chat with a street vendor as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “This isn’t like you. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Oh, I’m better than alright, Jared!” she chirped, her voice brimming with unnatural cheer. “I mean, I’ve never thought about it before, but why should I spend all day crunching numbers when there’s a whole world out there? Maybe I’ll take a yoga class or start a channel. What do you think? YouTube or Twitch?”

Jared’s jaw tightened. He’d seen this pattern before in cases involving psyche-meddlers, those rare individuals who could rewire personalities and memories. The erratic behavior, the sudden shifts in priorities. It all fits. But if this was connected to Dr. Glasseye's transformation and that strange crack, they were dealing with something far more dangerous than a typical psyche-meddler.

Still, none of it explained the morphing clothes and body or the public’s collective blindness to these impossible changes. Dr. Glasseye now looked barely thirty and was more woman than man. His suit and dress were perfectly tailored to his curves as if it had always been that way.

“Listen to me,” Jared said, injecting authority into his voice. “I need you to run a diagnostic on yourself. Look for any recent abnormalities in your head.”

“Ugh, you’re so boring,” she groaned, punctuating her words with another gum snap. “Fine, I’ll check... after my break.”

The line went dead.