She shook her head in amazement. Shrinking! Who would've thought? That must be what the wussy Corwin guy was there for. Some scientist who probably owed Paul money! Well, even so, she owed him a little something after this was all over, too. No one shrinks Shauna Lassiter and gets away with it!
She started to head back towards the highway, but then changed her mind. If what Paul said was true, she was going to keep getting smaller, and one gust of wind from a truck would knock her right off the road. Fortunately, she knew the area pretty well from her frequent street racing, so she took off down a surface street towards Burbank.
The speed limit was forty, but she had no idea what her speedometer's readouts really meant any more. Instead she just tried to keep even with traffic. Seeing over cars was impossible now, so she concentrated on keeping in one lane as much as possible. Looking down, she saw she was doing over eighty, and yet the cars nearby were matching her. One driver to her right was staring at her openly, his mouth agape, but she ignored him.
Finally she came to a light, and Shauna slowed to a halt. The car behind her pulled almost up to her wheel, and she drifted forward slightly, afraid he might not even be able to see her. The vehicle's grille was higher than her head! Nervously she waited for the light to change, then gunned it, afraid the car would run her down if she waited more than an instant.
She drove on, revving the engine as much as she could, leaving the other vehicles behind. The wind whipped through her hair as she flew down the road, but now she had a new problem. Cracks and ruts she'd normally ignore were threatening to cause her to lose control. She began to weave back and forth, dodging them as best she could, drawing on all her skill as a racer. Finally, she moved to the side and up onto the white line that bordered the right-hand lane, where the pavement was smoother.
Now the cars she left behind earlier began to catch up. She cursed as they passed, rocking her with their air wash, and she slowed. Above, another light changed, and she came to a halt, awed at how high the traffic control hung above her. To her left, the tire of a car now stood as high as she did. "Damn!" she swore. "What am I, two feet high now? How far away is this blasted place, anyway?"
Paul got out of the car and absently lit a cigarette, pacing. How far away was she now, and how small was she? He laughed as he thought of the high-and-mighty Shauna Lassiter gradually dwindling down to doll size. He wished he could see it, but according to his otherwise worthless associate Corwin, things didn't work that way. The device operated on some kind of proximity field modulation or whatever, so the closer the focus object got to the power source, the smaller it became. Corwin tried to explain it once, but it made Paul's head hurt to listen to all that quantum physics nonsense. All he knew was that Shauna was shrinking, and that was fine with him.
The ironic thing was, all she had to do was turn around and ride off the other way and she'd be back to normal in no time. The effects worked in reverse, too. He knew Shauna too well, though. She'd never give up. She'd keep on coming towards the finish, no matter what, just to keep him from winning the bet. She didn't even care about the bike so much. She just wouldn't let Paul win.
Paul shook his head and sucked deeply on his imported European cigarette, thinking about how much he'd come to love Shauna over the years. Was it really love, though? He knew he loved money, and his life, and his dear departed parents...but Shauna? Perhaps it was never love after all. Maybe he just had a fascination with her wild, untamed sexiness. Ever since that first day she came to work for him he desired her, and eventually he thought he won her heart. Hadn't he always given her everything she wanted? How many times had he bailed her out of jail, or forgiven her debts, or rescued her from another near overdose? Where would she be now without him? Hadn't he at least earned her love?
Well, apparently not. The suspicions began a few days before. Just little things, really. A sideways glance here, an offhand comment there, a slightly different way of reacting in bed at the end of another all-too-brief lovemaking session. Fortunately, Paul had more than one private detective owing him a favor, and it didn't take long to discover who she was seeing.
Ryan Sheffield! He could hardly believe the man had the balls to dare something like this. He and Shauna were at least making an attempt to keep things secret, so Paul hadn't yet been publicly embarrassed by their actions. The base betrayal stung him most, so much so that he hadn't even bothered to think about how to deal with Ryan yet. The man would pay, that was certain, but first Shauna had to be taken care of in a suitably humiliating fashion.
He couldn't think of a better way than to turn her into a little doll. The perfect solution, really. He could put her in a cage, and let whoever visited see what happened to those who betrayed Paul Ramirez! Maybe he'd shrink Ryan too, and imprison him in his own cage close enough to see Shauna, but not to touch or hold her. Yes, yes, of course. That would be perfect!
There was one problem, though. He wanted Shauna to be so small she couldn't possibly hope to escape. A foot tall was too big, really. Perhaps just a few inches high would be better. Small enough to hold in his hand, to tease her with his fingertip, to press the tip of his tongue between her teeny-tiny breasts...
Whistling to himself, he walked over to the briefcase along the wall and opened it, crushing out the nearly spent cigarette on the concrete nearby. With a flick of his wrist he cranked up the power output on the miniaturization device, glancing back to see if Corwin was watching. The frightened-looking man seemed to be staring the other way, as if looking for Shauna's approach down the street. Good, Paul thought. The less he knew, the better.
He shut the briefcase and headed back to the car, smiling as he imagined holding a tiny Shauna in his palm, where she belonged.