For a moment the three girls just stood there, totally thunderstruck.
"Oh, my God!" said Randi incredulously. "You absolutely, positively, have got to be kidding me!"
"No, I am not," he told her in complete seriousness. "I can think of no one better qualified."
"You people have got to work on your recruiting program," muttered Tania with a hollow laugh.
"That's not what this experiment was for," the director assured her. "We weren't expecting that to begin for at least another year. As I said, you surprised all of us."
"You're nuts!" Caitlin blustered. "Look at us! We're actresses, not secret agents! We don't have any training or skills or--"
"You are wrong!" he interrupted. "You don't know how wrong you are, do you? Look at what you've done in the last few days! You escaped from a high-tech facility and broke into another, using only your wits. You climbed down the equivalent of hundreds of feet of building, in the dark, with no training whatsoever. You must have fought your way past any of dozens of creatures twenty-plus times bigger than normal, and emerged without a scratch. You eluded capture, avoided being seen, and even learned many of our most closely guarded secrets in the process. Oh, trust me, you are indeed secret agent material!"
"But--but I just couldn't!" objected Randi. "I barely got through this as it was!"
"But you did get through it. Look at yourselves!" The director pointed at each one of them in turn. "Caitlin Rogers! Your profile showed yourself to be a woman of surprising intelligence and resourcefulness, and an untapped capacity for leadership. We observed these features in you almost at once. You have already admitted that you were exploring the building the very first night, and I suspect it was your conclusions then that led your group to decide to escape. In effect, you were the glue that held your team together, and you were the one who led them to its ultimate success. Without this experience to awaken something in you, would you ever have taken advantage of your unique gifts? You and I both know the answer.
"Tania Peterson! You are a strong-willed, emotional, hot-tempered individual with extremely strong passions. Your tendency to anger quickly has driven away nearly everyone of any importance to you, including your father. You slide from job to job, angry at the world, blaming everyone but you for your own problems. In all your life you have never seen anyone as important other than yourself. I ask you now, is that still the case? In these past few minutes I have seen enough to tell me it is not. I feel you would gladly lay down your life for these others. Did you ever imagine such was possible? Had you experienced even the slightest ounce of true friendship before this all began?
"And you, Randi MacPherson! Your parents spoiled you, so that you never wanted for anything. Even at twenty-five, you were still so hopelessly immature you could barely operate in normal society. You ran away from home, came to LA, and have been living off the money you brought with you. You have tried out for a dozen acting jobs and been refused from all of them for lack of skill and intensity. Within a month, you would have been broke, and probably gone crawling back to your parents, doomed to a life of mediocrity and failure. Your profile showed you as timid, easily frightened and very likely to fail to adapt to the miniaturization process. Yet, despite all these things, you persevered! With the help of the others, you have come out of your shell. True, you probably felt fear during these last few days, many times, but unlike all of our other similar subjects, you rose to meet it, and in it you have found a courage you probably never dreamed you possessed.
"Now, with this being said, I ask you all: Can you truly say that you are not better off for this experience? Regardless of what you may think of me, of our project, or of my offer to you, at least always remember that we challenged you, and you were equal to that challenge!"
His soliloquy over, the old man paused to catch his breath, leaning back against the wall and watching their reactions carefully and hopefully. They were looking at him, and at each other, with surprised, chagrined, and even bemused expressions on their faces. Then, while the others were still gathering their wits, Randi laughed, startling everyone. She laughed for several seconds, and then finally said, "He's right! He's absolutely right. He has us all completely pegged! Some of the things we did, I would never have been able to do a week ago."
"And I wasn't lying when I said I was having fun," Caitlin agreed. "At least some of the time, when we weren't in mortal danger, I was enjoying myself."
Tania looked at both of them, wide-eyed. "I can't believe you're seriously considering this!" she exclaimed. "After everything they did to us?"
"I can see why they did it," Caitlin responded immediately. "If what he's saying is true, what choice did they have? How do you get volunteers for something so secret you can't even tell them what's going to happen?"
"Plus our national security is at stake," put in Randi. "Do you want some country full of Rons getting their hands on this technology, without us having some counter to it?"
"I still say you're all crazy," Tania went on. "After everything we went through, you're forgiving them just like that!"
"What did they do?" Caitlin responded. "Think about it. They were having us make a movie! They went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. We're the ones who caused all the problems. If we hadn't run off, everything would have been fine. We let our own suspicions run away with us!"
Tania thought about that for a moment. Something the director had said, about her being so quick to anger, slipped into a corner of her mind. Instead of snapping off an angry reply, she considered Caitlin's words, forcing away her usual emotional reaction. It was true, what Caitlin had said. They had fled because of their own imagined fears. "But we didn't know any of that!" Tania insisted defensively.
"I know," Caitlin told her. "In the same situation, I'd do exactly the same thing again, in a heartbeat. It turned out to be the wrong decision, but now, I think, maybe it was for the best."
"Well," said Tania in a determined voice, "you two can do whatever you want, but I'm not even going to think about it until I see Kevin!"
"Oh, that's no problem," said the director. "In fact, I believe I can help you with that right now." Then he reached up above his head and waved his hand, looking past them at the other end of the parking lot.
At that, a tall, muscular man with long hair walked around the corner, looking back at something in irritation. Then he glanced around, as though unsure of where he was. Almost at once his eyes fell on the three women by the building, and then he stood up straight, mouth hanging open.
It was Kevin!
Everything else forgotten, Tania gave a cry of delight and immediately ran towards him. The two met at the center of the lot, embracing and hugging each other, laughing. Kevin lifted her up into the air, spun her around, and finally drew her down to him passionately.
"Aww, isn't that sweet," said Randi. "Oh, and that reminds me. I have something I need to do, when we're done here."
Caitlin nodded, knowing full well what she was talking about, then turned to the director. "All right," she said, "I admit, I'm intrigued and flattered by your offer. I'll at least consider it. But first, I want to go home and take a long, hot bath. And watch some television, real television, with sound and everything. I just want to feel normal again. Oh, and I want to spend my paycheck."
"But of course," he answered. "We will, naturally, honor that agreement."
Caitlin looked over at Tania and Kevin, who were now literally dancing across the parking lot. She shook her head, smiling brightly. "Good. Then I have something I want you to do for me. It's a small request, no pun intended, but it's very important. I think we'll all feel a little bit better if you agree to it."
"Very well," he answered curiously. "State your request."
She told him, and a wide grin spread across his face. Randi, standing nearby, laughed out loud and agreed at once that it would be perfect.
"Oh, but of course," said the director. "I would be more than happy to oblige!"