"Carl?" Gary gasped, as the arm around his neck threatened to crush his windpipe.

"Who are you working for?" Carl hissed.

"Rachel! She wants you to come home!"

"Liar! Rachel thinks I'm dead!"

"No! She recognized you when she saw the security camera tapes of the Lumina Ball!"

The pressure on his throat eased slightly.

"I never could fool Rachel for long." said Carl, "What else do you know?"

"That Jordan Stark is Alexander Nikos!"

"POLICE!"

Officers Tibbs and Eliot entered Felicia's suite cautiously, with their guns drawn.

Cass immediately started kicking the bedroom door and yelling, as best he could, through the gag:

"MMMM!" Thump, thump "MMMMM!"

The two cops burst through the door.

"What happened? Was it a burglar?"

Cass gasped with relief as the gag was removed from his mouth. Tibbs started working on the boa knotted around his wrists. Feathers flew everywhere.

"Felicia! She's gone to see that lunatic Nikos! She has some crazy idea that she can get him to play nice! Oh, thank you!"

The bonds parted, and Cass was able to stretch his cramped arms at last. He rubbed his wrists.

"Come in, Felicia!"

Felicia entered 'Jordan Stark's ' office cautiously. All was in darkness, except for the shaded lamp on the desk.

"Turn on the lights, Alexander," she said, "I want to see your face."

The lights came on. Nikos had shaved off his beard, and lost weight. He looked more like Lucas than ever - yet somehow, that fact no longer worked its magic spell upon her.

'I guess it was just infatuation, not love' she thought. Aloud, she said, "Why, Alexander? Why this elaborate disguise - this whole Lumina nonsense?"

"Obviously, I could not return to Bay City as myself. I would have been arrested."

"Why come back at all?"

"For revenge! Carl Hutchins and his whole family must pay for what they did to me!"

"Carl is dead!"

"Rachel is not - yet! Her children - Carl's children - are alive!"

"Alexander, NO!" cried Felicia, "Give up this whole crazy vendetta and - and I'll go away with you! We can go to that island of yours - what's it called, Skathos? But only if you promise to leave Rachel and her family alone!"

"Of course you will come with me, Felicia," said Nikos, rising to his feet, and grabbing hold of her, "Why do you think I told the guard to let you come up? We will leave tonight - after I kill Rachel!"

"Let me go!" she cried, as he dragged her into the lab.

"Never! You are mine!"

"Your what? Your prisoner? Are you planning to keep me locked up? Drug me? Because otherwise, I won't stay with you any longer than it takes me to escape!"

Nikos forced Felicia into the black chair, and fastened the restraints.

"A few hours of the Brain Control Machine will change your way of thinking." said Nikos, turning it on.

"You won't get away with this! The Bay City police know who you are!"

"The Bay City police? They work for me!" laughed Nikos, and left her alone in the lab.

"HELP!! Somebody help me!" screamed Felicia.

"We're plannin' to raid the Lumina Foundation, as soon as we can find a judge willin' to sign a search warrant." said Joe.

"No time for that!" said Cass, "Felicia has walked straight into that madman's clutches! We've got to go after her!"

"Whadda ya mean, 'we'?" said Joe, "This is police business!"

"Well hurry up and do it !"

****

Carl let go of Gary and stepped into the light. Gary's eyes widened at his appearance: the tangled hair and patriarchal beard, the filthy overcoat, tattered jeans and battered hi-tops.

"I wouldn't have recognized you."

"No one pays attention to a shambling derelict." said Carl, "Even Nikos has walked past without noticing me, on occasion."

"You wanna get cleaned up before you go see Rachel? We can stop at my place."

"No time for that." said Carl, "We shall take your car."

"HELP!"

A slim blonde figure entered the Lumina Lab. "What's all the yelling? Oh, Felicia Gallant! What are you doing here?"

"Zoe? Help me, please!" said Felicia, "Alexander turned on some kind of brainwashing machine! Turn it off, I beg of you!"

"Oh, that!" said Zoe, "Don't worry - it doesn't do anything but make noise." She switched it off.

"Untie me, quickly! We've got to stop Alexander before he kills Rachel!" cried Felicia.

"Well, doing that IS why he came back to Bay City." Zoe pointed out.

"And you have no problem with that?"

"Trying to get Daddy to change his mind - about anything - is like beating your head against a brick wall." said Zoe, "I don't even try."

"Zoe, your father is a sick man! He needs help!" said Felicia, "We've got to stop him before he does something that can't be made right!"

Zoe thought about it.

"You know, if Daddy gets put in the looney bin, I'd probably get Power of Attorney!" she said, and unfastened the straps holding Felicia to the chair.

When Joe and the BCPD burst into the lab a few minutes later, they found it empty.

"Nikos could be anywhere!" said Joe in disgust.

"Captain!" said Eliot, "The security camera tape from the lobby shows that Felicia Gallant Was here; she just left - and Zoe Nikos was with her!"

"They've probably gone after Nikos." said Josie.

"If Nikos knows we're on to him, he's gonna leave the country!" said Joe.

"Not without doing what he came to do." said Josie, "I bet he's gone to the Cory Mansion!"

To be continued