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| �I know you�re both unhappy, but there�s nothing I can do if you want to keep living,� Julie explained to her two guests. �Rebecca�mom, I was gonna make you big, I reread the letter. I�m not supposed to let normal people know about it. If you got big again, that would ruin everything and get me in trouble. Stop huggin� each other an� cryin�; it won�t change anything at this point. I�ll try not to shrink anyone else, but I�ll keep the ray gun so I can shrink stuff for you two. I have to get ready for graduation now, but I won�t be having the party after all.� �Kylee, we�ve had two possibles come up. One�s an email from a girl, a high school senior. It was addressed to apparently an Internet pen pal in Bulgaria. She claims that her best friend has a tiny version of her own mother. The girl saw it in a bathroom at a club. You have the girl�s address and what we believe it the friend�s address.� �What�s the second?� �No names, nothing too definite at the moment. A few reports of missing persons all in one area of Utica, New York. A homeless man, reeking of bourbon, told police he saw �a beautiful young woman shrinking a bunch of girls and collecting them as she walked the street.� � �Did he give a better ID?� �Yes, his queen from the planet Denea. I have the spelling correct, the police asked him to spell it himself. She has dark metal skin and glowing hair. Her magical scepter, or phaser depending of which statement you read, is what shrinks the women.� �Any reason to believe him at all?� �Preliminary Tox screening showed a pharmacy stockroom in his bloodstream. However, his description of the wand-� � �Scepter� � �Yes. Well, he gives a hell of a compelling description of an X-409. I�d like to see the odds of a delusional mind creating a device as close to any of the models as he got.� �I�ll take the high school kid first. I like recapturing my youth and don�t feel up to tackling any royalty just yet.� A skinny redhead, Jessica she called herself in pathetic squeaks, tore across the desk. Her little legs pistoned, inefficiently making an effort to escape. She finally regained enough of her senses to veer. A rampaging tennis ball missed its prey. Jessica rolled and gazed into Pete�s eyes. The question, the pleading, hung between them. �Nope, we�ve been over this ground too damned many times,� his deep voice boomed. �You are now my pet and you�ll stay in my collection as long as it amuses me to have you. After that, it�s all up to me.� Jessica went back to her room in the dollhouse without a hint of effort. The miniaturized bed sheets lacked the comfort they had been provided for. She checked to be sure the dollhouse had been left alone and the other girls were occupied. In little time, one sheet and the balcony freed her. No one found her hanging for nearly an hour. A moment in time, a choice of too many paths lay before her. Kylee exited her issued Suburban but kept her back to the home. Her left hand casually flipped open her jacket and her right went to her sidearm. The hand strayed a few inches further to the other gun, fully charged. Her deepest thoughts screamed to the surface, taunting with the realization that things may not end well. That would be par for the course, though, wouldn�t it? The other girl, the one from the Internet, was gone. All messages to her pen pal had ceased, not even responses to his worried inquiries. Surveillance of her home yielded nothing and subtle investigations of the parents showed she had not come home in some time. Apparently she had done it before and they weren�t getting the police involved yet. Kylee figured two possibilities; the girl was either a victim or an accomplice. There had been a lot of activity in this home and Kylee wished that audio surveillance had been employed. Something big had happened there recently and the results had been bad, her instincts were always good in determining that much from very little evidence. The accented feminine voice ran out, �Got a problem, Commander? Well now you�ve got one more because the only way you�re getting my weapon is if I�m dead.� Julie paused the DVD and cast aside the remote in disgust. There had been too many visitors lately, all threatening her secret. She needed a break to think of a good hiding place now and in the future. How could she do that if people kept knocking? Throwing the oak front door open, she jumped at the blonde on the other side. Julie sized her up, sneering at the heavier body, but admiring the curvy and sultry look it created. Her authoritative bearing set the younger girl on edge, triggering numerous mental alarms. She saw the vehicle outside; didn�t government types drive those around in the movies? �Can I help you?� �Hi, I�m just driving through and my car started acting funny. Can I use your phone to call a tow-truck? Or maybe I could speak to your parents.� �They�re not here. My father died when I was young and my mom�s out.� Julie tried to covertly grab the shrink ray. �Julie, keep your hands where I can see them and step out here.� She drew the pistol and trained it on the eighteen year old. �You are under arrest for the possession and use of size altering technology.� Julie shrieked and ran inside her home with Kylee in pursuit. The agent dodged blasts and watched random objects shrink to a fraction of an inch. She switched the gun for her own shrink ray and set it to a manageable height of eight inches. Julie fired a split second before she could, but her shot went wide and into a mirror. Two beams of reducing energy overtook the young criminal and she vanished. After four hours, Kylee�s search yielded only the mother and the friend. Both were carried away in a Styrofoam cup pending counseling and gradual restoration. Julie hadn�t been found and was declared lost. Even her weapon had disappeared with her and the possibility of her returning concerned some higher-level individuals. However, continuing the search was deemed too time consuming and the house was left alone . |
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