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| Lauren risked a quick backward glance. Whoever had been following her had either broken pursuit or hid very quickly. No, the hallways wouldn't have permitted that at this hotel. Well, maybe in a few spots, but she was confident this time. She caught her breath and used the keycard to finally enter her room. She had come here to get away from her problems, but why Poughkeepsie, New York? The best answer, of course, was that it was the least likely destination for her. No matter, the Grand Hotel was gorgeous and would be an elegant relaxation spot. If only the pesky device hadn't snuck into her luggage. He faced the computer, set in his work. She correctly figured he wouldn't even hear her approach and if she could see his face she'd have seen it locked in with the focus of a missile. So much the better when she reached to his neck and let him have it. The needle plunged in quick and precise. "Gotcha!" she screamed. "Hozargh!" or something to that effect came out of Duverge. He whirled to meet his adversary and broke out laughing. He could have passed for Ben Sisko when he still had the hair and no goatee. His youthful appearance and exhuberance belied the years of experience locked in his brain. "Miss Kylee, how nice of you to disrupt work here merely to give me one of those "boosters" you use." His right arm swept out to encompass a room of startled, and alert, FBI agents. "Paging you to come down to my level just lacked� entertainment value." She sat on his desk directly in front of her partner and toyed with his hair. Kylee couldn't help but smile as the others went back to their work so easily. "Besides, I wanted to review your data, Agent Duverge." "That is Special Agent Duverge now." He grinned with the playful look of a child receiving a new toy. "You people downstairs don't seem to care much for important matters such as that. However, I'll overlook it this time. Maybe you don't circulate memos very fast down there." "We have all kinds of problems, it's just a small organization where I'm from." She got off his desk and her expression switched to the stone of a golem. "You know how important friends are to me, so let's skip ahead. Have you finished our cover stories?" He held up the papers. "They got it to me almost two minutes before you arrived. We're a married couple, if that doesn't bother Matthew." The faintest spark of a smile escaped. "Thanks for trying, I'll bite. Matt and me, only a couple of dates and he knows what I'm like." She snatched the documents and power read them. "Good stuff, easy to remember, and more than we'll ever need. Anything else?" "September in Ogdensburg stays decent enough. No chance for sunbathing, though." Ideas cascading upon ideas; building, destroying, and reinventing themselves in an orgy of intellect. The formulas and diagrams merged into one cohesive unit. The information leapt from the page and danced before her mind's eye. The time, the effort, the research; all of the elements were at last fitting together! The results and lessons from every failed experiment actually meant something and worked as pieces of the grand cosmic puzzle. "I've finally done it," she told her favorite pet. She pressed the minute blonde to her cheek and hummed. "I mustn't forget to write it all down, or course. So you must leave my hands free." She tucked the little woman into her cleavage and smiled as her pet snuggled against a breast. "This is a joyous day indeed, unless your name is Kylee." Rachel moved through her pain and fought to explore further. She and Janel had once shared this space, but it was alien to her now in its magnified form. She had found some food before and she knew there was more if she kept fighting. She knew she was more than strong enough. Her nostrils went to work involuntarily. An odor at first tickled her senses and moved on to permeate her entire being. She lived for the aroma and it was her. Food, warm food cooked with the perfect blend of spices. Her feet moved of their own accord, freed from the slightest independent thought. At the end of her trek - who knew how long it lasted or if that even mattered? - she found a woman two inches taller than her wretched state. This stranger held out a plate of something deliciously edible that had been resized to their proportions. "No doubt you are hungry." "Who� how� why?" her voice creaked and croaked from lack of use and the damage of her banshee howl. "None of that matters. Only know that I will take you someplace better." |
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