Earlier that day, Carl and Melissa arrived at school to begin the final Friday of their high school career. The air was filled with excitement in the classrooms as most seniors were taking the last of their exams and daydreaming about next Thursday. For most of the morning, Carl spent his time running messages between classrooms, since he had been fortunate enough to be exempt from his exams, causing his classmates to glare after him in jealousy as he would pass by their classrooms. Melissa had also been exempt from some of her exams, and occasionally she and Carl would just "happen" to pass by each other on their way to deliver messages. Every time they would meet, one of them would reach out and touch the other gently, bringing a smile to their faces.
By lunchtime, the entire school was on the verge of exploding from the anticipation of the end of the day. On the side of the wall near the cafeteria, the "Countdown to Graduation" clock was rapidly ticking down to the three-day mark, and everyone couldn't help but talk about their plans for the summer. Carl and Melissa sat together at a corner table, discussing how their classes had gone and their plans for meeting later on that night.
"Never thought I would become the messenger boy for Riverside High," Carl chuckled as he bit into his hamburger. "I swear; the front office must have had over a hundred messages for me to deliver, just in the first three periods! Almost makes me wish I hadn't been exempt from taking the exams."
Melissa giggled and nodded in agreement, "I know what you mean, love. Mrs. Tasslehoff even had me answering phones in the Guidance Office. It seems that some of the other office assistants have 'taken ill' so they needed help." Of course, what she really meant by the comment was that the assistants had skipped out early to have fun. "Look at it this way, you get to have an excuse for getting out and seeing me," Carl rolled his eyes and tried to conceal a huge grin that spread across his face.
"Honestly, what am I going to do with you?" he asked sarcastically.
"Marry me," Melissa answered him without batting an eye.
For a moment, the two of them looked at each other, trying to keep from laughing, but in the end failing miserably. "Gladly, sweetheart, gladly," he replied. Finishing his burger, Carl washed it down with his milk and looked up at her again. "So about tonight, we'll meet up there around ten o'clock, right?" Carl asked as they got up from the table and walked over to toss out their trash, talking about their rendezvous up at Inspiration Point.
Melissa nodded enthusiastically, "Beth and Amy said they'd give me a ride up there, but I'm sure I'll be there before you will. I usually am," she said with an upraised eyebrow.
"Hey! That's not fair," he answered, drawing back as if wounded, "Can I help it if my uncle needs me to help him around the store?"
Giggling at Carl's expression, Melissa reached out with her finger, looped it through his belt strap and led the way over to her locker down the hall, a great big smile on her face. Before they got there, she released his belt and slipped around the corner. Carl followed slowly behind her, only to be grabbed by his leather jacket and pressed against the lockers as Melissa kissed him long and hard, eliciting a moan of enjoyment from him as he returned her affections.
"Mmmm, sweetheart you better behave," he whispered as he attempted to catch his breath.
"And what if I don't want to?" Melissa's eyes sparkled with a mixture of mischief and amusement, "Who's going to stop me?" Leaning forward, she kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him against her.
Carl pulled away slightly and smiled, "We've got to get to class, and you know it. Only three more classes to go and our final Friday will be over with."
As Melissa released him, Carl kissed her nose, "Save some of that desire for tonight, you're gonna need it." Melissa's eyes rose in anticipation and she kissed him as he made to leave.
"I'll see you tonight, love," she whispered and hurried off to her class as Carl turned and jogged to get to his class before the bell rang.
Later that evening, in Uncle John's computer store, John and Carl stared at a monitor screen as lines of code scrolled down, detailing the work that Carl had performed for the password scanner that lay on the bench beside the computer.
"Well, I have to admit, Carl, this scanner of yours is very impressive. Five years ago, you'd never have been able to make it as small or as efficient as it is." The lines of computer code continued to scroll and Carl could only watch in wonder as his uncle stared intently at the screen. "Ah! There's your problem," he said, pausing the scroll and backing up a few lines.
"How in the world do you read it so fast?" Carl asked in wonder, "I can read code pretty fast thanks to what you've shown me, but you still leave me in the dust, and I was the one who wrote it so I know what I'd be looking for."
Uncle John's eyes gleamed with merriment, "When you've looked at millions of lines of coding like I have, for as long as I have, you learn to ignore the minor details and focus on the important ones." Pointing at the screen, he continued, "See here? You've got a bunch of code that has the scanner bypass the system and read the passwords stored in its memory. The part that reads the passwords is easy so I ignore it completely. Besides, we've already determined that this part of the program works fine. However, the part where it bypasses the system is much more complex. In fact . . . wait a second . . ." John squinted at the code and then turned back to Carl in amazement, "You used Trojan Horse, didn't you? I only showed you that last month, how did you learn it so fast?"
The Trojan Horse program that his uncle spoke of was originally a virus that he had encountered a few years back when he had been called in to help his buddies in Special Ops with a particularly nasty case involving the Japanese Yakuza, better known as the Japanese Mafia. Simply put, Trojan Horse was a watchdog program that guarded the Yakuza database and would infect any computer that attempted to hack into the system. It was simple in design, yet at the same time quite elegant in its effects.
In essence, whenever a connection was made between the Yakuza database and an outside terminal, Trojan Horse would immediately enter the system it came into contact with under the guise of a friendly user. The first step involved tying up the computer so it was unaware that it was being infected; which was accomplished by a subroutine program cloaking itself as a password being entered into the system. However, before the system could verify the password, Trojan Horse would send the verification step into an endless loop that kept it from authenticating it. Meanwhile, the second and more deadly subroutine of the program would insidiously copy and destroy all files on the computer it had infected and back out of the system, essentially leaving a computer that was completely wiped of all data. Unless the system had the code that deactivated Trojan Horse in the initial stages, the computer would suffer a catastrophic shutdown and be useless. So in essence, the hacker would find that he had been hacked; a design similar to the pickpocket idea of tying up someone's attention while another pickpocket stole your wallet.
It had taken John months to finally crack the Yakuza's Trojan Horse program, essentially turning it back on itself. As a memento of the case, he had copied the virus and stored it away, showing it to Carl the previous month, during one of their technical sessions, to see what his nephew thought of it. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that Carl could turn the virus, that had given him so much trouble, into a critical part of his scanner coding, and so quickly! For a moment, John could only gape at Carl in astonishment.
Pleased that he'd been able to surprise his uncle, Carl confessed, "I'd been looking it over ever since you showed it to me. You know, taking it to school, reading over the text, playing with the coding on the other computer. It was such an interesting program that I just had to see if I could improve upon it."
"Carl," his uncle glared at him over his Ben Franklin-style glasses, "you know you're not supposed to take any data that I show you out of the store. That's classified stuff. Technically, I shouldn't even have showed it to you."
"I know, Uncle John, but it seemed like a perfect program for what I was thinking of doing," Carl replied enthusiastically. "In essence, the only part I changed was removing the portion of the program that would wipe out the system. Although I did set it up so that I could release it into a host computer if I ever wanted to."
Taking off his glasses and turning away from the computer screen, Uncle John leaned back in his leather chair and stared at his nephew. "So let me see if I have this correct. You took a computer virus that I dealt with a few years ago, separated the two parts of the program, wrote another program to take the place of the second subroutine, and left the original secondary subroutine as a sort of doomsday response?"
"Basically," Carl grinned, leaning back in his own chair. "That is, if it worked properly. Everything works up until the program pulls out the password, then it locks up and the thing shuts down."
John stared in wonder at Carl, "You've been doing a little bit more studying of this stuff than you've been letting on, haven't you?" Carl nodded, eliciting a hearty laugh from his uncle, "I don't just believe it. Nephew, you're better at this than you willing to admit. It would have taken me weeks to figure this one out, much less write it, but you did it all in less than a month! I think a phone call to my friends in the department is definitely in order. If they see this program and what you've done with it, I can guarantee you that they'll want you on their staff, degree or no degree." John shook his head and turned back to the monitor, "But first, let's figure out what this little problem of yours is first . . ."
Thomas Hendriks had been driving around the outlying countryside for the last three hours, since before sundown. Doctor Samuel mentioned that it was always best to find a volunteer first, preferably a victim of a flat tire or overheated engine, then offer to take them in to town, which would allow him to maintain a semblance of normalcy until he engaged the sleep gas. However, even though Thomas looked for any young lady who would be perfect for the experiment, his search had been unsuccessful. Three rest stops, over a dozen different roads including the main highway, and several hours later, he was still unable to find anyone suitable. Frustration began to set in as he realized that he and Doctor Samuel might have to postpone the experiment until they found a 'volunteer' to test their modifications.
No, Thomas thought to himself, he refused to go back empty handed! For the last three years he had assisted Doctor Samuel with his research, from the initial stages of the machine's assembly, to the first experiment they'd conducted with . . . what was her name? Ah yes! Carla, that's right. Alex may be willing to wait, but Thomas wasn't. He'd been waiting for this moment for three years now, ever since he'd joined Doctor Samuel's project. To see a beautiful young lady shrunk down to one inch tall, it had been an adolescent dream of his and he clung onto it even now, hoping to make it a reality someday . . . somehow.
Thomas had been an intelligent child, graduating a full three years ahead of his friends, and graduating even faster from college with a masters degree in theoretical physics and biology. By the time he was twenty-one, he'd published and even been offered a teaching position at M.I.T., but none of that mattered. Thomas had been interested in Doctor Samuel's work from the very beginning, thanks to the help of some friends in high places. In fact, Thomas knew Samuel's work so well that he could remember most of it from memory. The whole idea of shrinking fascinated him and, at the same time, aroused him. He'd spent his free time in high school and college checking out sites devoted to the notion of women shrinking and what happened to them afterwards. The stories he read from the various authors on the sites helped to spur him on. Magic spells, potions, rings, alien shrink rays were the realm of fiction and fantasy, and he blew them off as a waste of time . . . but science! Now that was something that was within the realm of possibility, and he made it a goal to make his dream a reality! However, the way things were going tonight, he feared that a delay would be inevitable . . . unless . . .
Doctor Samuel specifically forbade Thomas from abducting any of the young ladies from Riverside, for fear that the authorities might stumble upon something, but Thomas was desperate and decided to take a chance. He remembered that some couples met up at a little rendezvous called 'Inspiration Point' where they could 'enjoy' each other's company. He realized that it was a perfect place to find some lovely young lady who would make an excellent volunteer. With his goal in mind, Thomas turned around on the darkened highway and sped off towards Inspiration Point, confident that it would work.
"Well Carl, I believe that does it," his uncle said, closing up the scanner and handing it back to him. "Honestly, I am impressed. I'll give my friends at the department a phone call and put in a good word. With that scanner as an example of what you can do, I'm sure they'd be interested in bringing you on."
Carl slipped the scanner into his jacket pocket, "Thanks Uncle John, I really . . . oh shit!" Glancing down at his watch, Carl realized that it was almost ten o'clock, "I'm sorry Uncle John, but I've got to go. I promised Melissa I'd meet her up at Inspiration Point tonight at ten, and if I don't go now, I'll be late . . ." rushing for the door he called out over his shoulder, "again!"
As Carl dashed out the door and jumped into his car, Uncle John couldn't help but laugh. With a roar of the engine and a screech of tires, Carl's Mustang flew by the storefront and headed out of town towards his rendezvous with Melissa. John saved the work he and Carl had done on the scanner's programming and shut down his computer for the night, turned off the lights, and headed home. If he knew Carl, it would be a long night, but he'd earned it.
Up at Inspiration Point, Melissa sat beside one of the trees that overlooked the valley below, the soft glow from Riverside rising up in the distance. Sighing softly, Melissa looked forward to graduation and her future with Carl. She had already been contacted by several colleges concerning her college career in preschool education, and was planning on working in town during the summer until fall when she had to leave. Hopefully, she and Carl would be able to plan their wedding before the end of the year, Christmas sounded like a wonderful time to get married and she hoped Carl agreed.
Leaning back against the tree, she looked down at her engagement ring, the memory of Carl's proposal last night still sent chills up her spine and brought a wistful smile to her face. Earlier, she'd told her girlfriends and they all screamed in delight, happy for her. In fact, thanks to her admission, everything ground to a halt in her US Government class for the next ten minutes as the girls, and Ms. Jamison, each expressed their happiness at her engagement. It didn't really matter anyway, the class was over, the exam was taken and graded, and all they were really doing was wasting time until graduation. Half the seniors in the class had skipped school early anyway. As for the boys, they simply listened and talked back and forth about their own girlfriends. Good, she thought to herself, let them think about their girlfriends and decide whether they were serious about their relationships. As for Melissa, she was positive that Carl was the one for her.
Although she knew the superstition that taking off one's engagement ring before the wedding was considered bad luck, she wanted to look at it closer, so she slipped it off and held it up to see the design better. As she peered down, she was amazed at how much detail the creator of the ring had put into it. Each individual leaf was made up with intricate veins etched into the metal, as if it was a real leaf, and the vines even had etchings that indicated where each vine split and wove around the primary band. The diamond was a beautiful solitaire that captured even the miniscule amount of light that the moon and nearby light post could offer, sparkling brilliantly. Remembering what Carl had told her last night about the ring having been his mother's, it gave Melissa an idea of just how much his father must have loved his mother to have commissioned such a beautiful ring for her.
A soft crunch of stones behind her caught her attention and Melissa glanced back towards the road in surprise. "Carl," she called out into the darkness, "is that you?" She stood up and looked around, but after a minute, she wondered if she had just imagined the noise. The only sounds she could hear were the breeze in the trees and the crickets happily chirping away around her. Finally, realizing she must be imagining things, she turned back towards the tree to wait for Carl.
A dark shape suddenly loomed out of the shadows, wrapping a rag around her mouth and nose, but not before Melissa yelped in fright. She struggled against her assailant as he wrapped his arm around her, pinning her arms to her side as he continued to press the rag against her face. Melissa tried to cry out, but all she could manage was a muffled scream, which only served to make her gasp for air and breathe in the vapors on the rag further. Slowly, the chloroform overwhelmed her senses and gradually, Melissa's struggling ceased until she collapsed to the ground unconscious, dropping her engagement ring into the dirt.
Thomas looked around, certain that no one was nearby to see him as he lifted Melissa into his arms and slipped into the shadows where the car was parked. He had arrived over an hour before and waited for someone to come along, considering himself fortunate when Melissa arrived only ten or fifteen minutes after he did. At first, he worried that her friends would remain, but they had sped off into the distance immediately, leaving her all alone. It had been another five minutes before he decided to approach her, but thanks to the soft ground, his approach had been stealthy enough that he was able to sneak up on her undetected until the very last moment.
Quickly, Thomas opened the passenger side door and laid Melissa in the seat, snapping the seat belt securely, and hurried around to get in. If he was lucky, no one would even know he had been there. With a turn of the key, the car started quietly and he pulled out, heading down the road, certain that no one had seen him and that there was no evidence that would show that she had even been there. A few minutes later, a car approached from the opposite direction, an old, beat up Mustang that roared past him. Thomas paid it no mind and continued on to the facility, his heart racing with excitement, for tonight he and Doctor Samuel would shrink this lovely young lady to one inch tall, and if his calculations were correct, the shrink would hold!
Glancing down at the clock in the dashboard, Carl could see that it was a couple minutes before ten. As he turned the corner and accelerated up the hill, he relaxed, knowing that he would arrive on time, much to Melissa's surprise. She mentioned something earlier at school about discussing ideas for the wedding, a thought that still sent butterflies fluttering in his stomach every time he thought about it. Even though he was serious when he proposed, the prospect of marriage was still something that left him a little nervous thinking about it. In a way, he wished his dad were there to give him advice, because he definitely needed it; although he knew his uncle would be able to help him.
In the distance, a car approached from the opposite direction, but Carl hardly paid any attention to it, only seeing a flash of blue and white on the front hood of the car before it passed him by. Probably someone coming from the Point anyway, he thought with a grin; which would mean that he and Melissa would have it all to themselves. A few minutes later, Carl arrived at the Point and pulled onto the side of the road, parking the car in his regular spot. Reaching into the back seat to pull out the basket of food he'd picked up on the way out of town, Carl locked the car and walked over to the top of the rise, expecting to find Melissa nearby . . . but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Melissa?" he called out, thinking she might be nearby hiding for fun. "Melissa?!? Ok, you can come out now!" Minutes passed and Melissa didn't come out, nor did anyone else pass by, which concerned him; after all, he was the one who was usually late, not her. Finally, after a half hour or so, Carl realized that something must have come up and that she wasn't able to come like she'd planned. Hopefully, he thought as he returned to his car, she'll be able to tell me about it tomorrow. As Carl got back into the car and started the engine, he failed to see the telltale glimmer of a diamond on the ground, sparkling softly as he set off down the road to return home.
Hours later, Melissa awoke to find herself inside a large round chamber. At first, she couldn't remember what happened to her, until the memory of being kidnapped returned. Gasping softly, she bolted up and pressed a hand to her chest, feeling a strange, silky texture against her skin. Looking down, she found that her clothes were gone, replaced by a lavender spandex outfit that hugged her body. Even as she stood up and looked around, Melissa was able to hear . . .
"Initiate process, subject number fourteen, reduction to one inch. . . . three, two, one, zero, initiating reduction procedure."
Just then, she looked up in fear as a soft blue light engulfed her.