Samantha, Ryan, and Jeffries watched Sallow's group carefully. Larry and Carrie stood near them quietly.
Sallow, meanwhile, had managed to reach Rachel McLewis on the phone. He put it on face time, so everyone could see and hear Rachel give her harrowing account of the incident in the boardroom. When she was finished, everyone could see the look on her face. She had the look of someone who'd recently seen and heard some extremely disturbing things. Sallow showed the phone to everyone, and very few in the room doubted she was telling the truth.
"So, let me get this straight, and try to sum up what you just told us." Sallow began. "Stragey's attempt at a hostile takeover backfired because Dankworth stole the Random Gun from him, possibly in a takeover attempt of his own?"
"Yes." Rachel said. "Stragey zapped everyone else once, but only succeeded in making Dankworth even more evil and ambitious than he already was."
"So Dankworth took over the takeover. And then THAT blew up in his face ... literally ... because he accidentally turned himself into a transformation-crazy maniac that kept zapping people until his Random Gun overheated and turned him into a gooey mess all over the walls and the floor." Sallow said, almost with a tone of satisfaction at the last part. "Is that right?"
"Exactly." Rachel said over the phone. "And the others are still a bit confused. Getting changed twenty times within three minutes will do that to you. Dr. Elaine's still tending to them. We don't know what this will mean in the long run, but right now, we need people from the Board to step in and take charge of this situation. People who weren't at that meeting, I mean."
Ryan turned to Sallow. "Don't get me wrong. We were worried about you and wanted to be sure you were safe. But after Rachel told us what happened to Mr. McMillan and the others..."
"I see." Sallow said. "Well, I'm okay now, thank you. You may have saved us all from doing some things we'd regret."
Milt Smukmeyer spoke up. "I wasn't very keen on it myself, to be honest."
"Looks like things might be changing here anyway." Teresa Talton said.
"So, are you up to it?" Samantha asked Sallow.
"I think so." Sallow said. "I'm thinking a lot more clearly now. And that's what we need in a situation like this. What about Mr. Adaway?"
"Last we heard from Mr. Adaway, he was still hiding." Rachel said over the phone. "He's seriously spooked by the whole Transformation Gun thing, and I don't really blame him."
"Well, see if you can reach him. We'll also need to contact the directors who aren't in the building right now." Sallow replied.
"I will. Oh, and Jerri wishes you to know that her name is Jerri with an i. Jerri Blazestorm. And she quit." Rachel said.
"I see. Well, we may need the authorities to help back us up and make sure no Transformation Guns leave the building without our approval." Sallow said.
"Over at my son's school, the Principal has my son and his classmates finding and turning in Transformation Guns." Samantha said. "It's long past time we started doing that here. There should be one of each type on the upper floors, unless people had some ordinary guns that were transformed into Transformation Guns by the wave."
"And down here are all the ones left over that didn't get transported with the Chamber." Jeffries said. "I think we can consider them accounted for."
"Sounds reasonable." Sallow said. "We'll work with our security and the local authorities, and make an announcement that we're looking for Transformation Guns throughout the upper floors of the building. When found, they can be turned in and sent down here to the basement."
"I hope people listen." Rachel said. "I've had more than enough excitement and dramatic action sequences for one day."
"I know." Samantha said. "We'll be coming up to help in a while. We just need to make sure everything's organized first."
Samantha then turned to Ryan and Jeffries. "I think we can turn our cell phones back on now."
She hoped her son Jay Duncan and his classmates were doing all right at Lake Point High School.
