Carl just stared, and his eyes opened up so much that Caitlin was afraid they'd pop right out of his head. "Okay, somebody wake me up from this dream," he mumbled almost incoherently.
"What's the matter?" Caitlin snickered, unable to suppress a huge grin. "You've seen shrunken people before, haven't you?"
"Uh--I--um--" Carl stammered.
"That's all right, take all the time you need," said Caitlin. "Tania, see if you can't get started on those handcuffs."
"All right," she said after a moment, once she'd managed to control her laughter. "Hey, Carl, you're gonna have to turn around again so I can break you loose."
He complied, somewhat slowly, keeping his head turned and his eyes on Caitlin. Afraid his neck would twist right off his body, the little blonde swung back and forth a couple of times and then let go of the cable, landing comfortably on his shoulder, where he just stared at her dumbly. After a moment, he muttered, "Okay, I knew this was going to get weird the moment I saw Melissa and the others, but this is really taking the cake. Someone want to bring me up to speed so I don't feel like the preschooler in a college course?"
"All right, listen up," she replied into his ear. "My name's Caitlin, and I'm here because the man who captured you is a dangerous fugitive."
"Yeah, I kinda gathered that with the whole secret facility thing, not to mention those poor girls shrunk down to your size," Carl replied.
"Don't interrupt," said Caitlin with a wink. "I'm sure it's painfully obvious why."
"Let me guess," Carl went on, almost babbling now. "Was it at the secret facility part, the girls shrunk to three inches, or the fact that he's obviously got a few screws loose? Any one of them at this point is grounds for him to be considered dangerous in my book. Melissa mentioned something about him using those girls for experiments of some sort. I can grasp how my girlfriend and the others were shrunk, but what about--"
"Never mind," she told him firmly. "It's a secret. You might think of us as miniaturized secret agents."
Carl just nodded and went on. "Okay, the whole government angle comes into play here. Why is it always the government?" Seeing Caitlin's harsh glare, he quickly added, "Okay, okay, no more conjecture about you all. Sheesh!"
Behind him, Tania dropped to the stool and started swinging her sword repeatedly into one of the links of the handcuffs. Caitlin, meanwhile, pranced back and forth along Carl's shoulder, seemingly unfazed by how big he was. Actually, she was a bit scared about revealing herself to someone like this, but it had to be done if she wanted to get his help. The question now was, had she freaked him out so much that he couldn't do anything? He seemed to be staring at her now, mouth slightly open, and she was afraid he might start drooling at any moment. "Hey!" she said, putting her hands out and clapping them together in front of him. "Are you with me, Carl? We're gonna need your help here in a minute!"
"I'm with you, Caitlin," he replied after a moment. "Sorry, you just kinda took me by surprise. It's not every day you suddenly have little ladies appear in front of your face or find that your girlfriend has been shrunk by some mad scientist guy. What do you want me to do?"
"Well, you want to save your girlfriend, right? Melissa, did I hear you say her name was?"
"Absolutely," he replied enthusiastically. "Hell yeah, but she's small, like you. What can I possibly do to help her?"
"Let us handle getting her back to normal size," Caitlin told him with a knowing smile. "You don't think I'd let myself be shrunk like this permanently, did you?"
"Hardly," agreed Carl, "but I'll admit, it must be interesting to do that stuff." Caitlin cocked her head and was about to say something, but he didn't wait for her comment. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be funny or anything. It just sounds like you must be involved in some interesting and important stuff if they need to shrink you down so small. I'd be interested in knowing more." Seeing Caitlin raise her eyebrow at that, he quickly added, "But--uh, yeah, okay, no more questions. Sorry."
Caitlin smiled and decided not to bother pursuing that particular topic any further. "We'll make sure she gets restored. What I need for you to do is take us to the other girls, then go make a break for it back the way you came. Just run like hell. They'll be so busy following you they won't know we've headed off with the prisoners."
"Whoa! Hand on a second! What about the machine?" said Carl concernedly. "That Alex Samuel guy is shrinking people down here! There's no chance in hell that I'm gonna let him do to someone else what he did to Melissa or those other girls! "
Caitlin narrowed her eyes and looked him over for a moment. An ordinary man, she figured, would be happy to just get the hell out of here once he was sure his girlfriend was safe, but Carl was actually looking at the bigger picture. That was awfully level-headed thinking for someone she figured probably wasn't even out of high school yet! Still, her job was to make sure he was safe, not to indulge him in foolish notions of heroism. "Don't worry, we've got connections," she insisted cryptically. "Hey, Tania, you about done back there?"
"Yeah," came a voice in her headset. "Just a couple more--ah, never mind, there it goes."
Carl lifted up his hands, which were now freed, except of course for the now-useless cuffs on each wrist. "Thanks!" he said, turning back to look at Tania, who gave him a little salute from her position on the seat. "Let me see about getting them off completely."
At that, he reached down to his shoe and withdrew a set of something that looked like little metal spears. Caitlin raised an eyebrow as she realized they were actually lockpicks! Was this guy some kind of juvenile delinquent? Nah, that didn't seem right, she thought. He seemed like too nice a guy for that. Still, he'd broken into the facility somehow, so he must have had some kind of tools. These must be what he'd used.
Seeing her expression as he started to work on the handcuffs, Carl said, "What? You never met a guy who knew how to pick locks before? Let's just say my earlier years were a little more exciting than your average teenager's. Just one of a few skills I picked up along the way."
"Hey, guys," Randi's voice said through their communications gear. "That blond dude is on his way back here, and he looks pretty upset."
"Uh-oh," said Caitlin worriedly. "No time for that right now, Carl. According to one of my partners, the blonde-haired assistant is coming back and he's pissed."
Carl quickly put the lockpicks back in their hiding place. "Damn! I was almost through with the locks. You say he's coming this way?"
"He must have noticed the camera going out. Quick, sit back down like you don't know what's going on, and pretend your hands are still bound."
"What about you two?" asked Carl as he quickly complied. "there's no way you can get back up into the ceiling in time. He'll spot you in a heartbeat!"
"Put us in your jacket pocket, quick!" she urged him.
Carl picked them up carefully. "I'll do my best not to squish you," he said, causing Tania to roll her eyes. He deposited them both inside his coat, then he put his hands back behind himself and drooped his head, pretending to be waiting resignedly for his fate.
About five seconds later, they all heard keys turning in the lock, and then the assistant stepped in, an angry look on his face. Carl looked up at him, and saw the muzzle of a gun in his face. "What the hell did you do to the camera?" demanded the blond man.
"Excuse me?" asked Carl insolently. "Look, blondie, you knock me out, cuff me, stick me in a room and tell me that I'm about to be shrunk to an inch tall, and I'm supposed to magically know that there's a camera in here? Who do you think I am, Harry Houdini? I don't have a clue what you're talking about. I've just been sitting here. Maybe you should call a repairman."
As he ranted, Thomas appeared to be getting angrier and angrier, but of course this only egged Carl on. "Oh, that's right! This is a secret facility that no one knows about but you, Doc Samuel, and me. Damn! Guess you'll have to fix it yourself."
"Maybe I'll just kick your ass and wipe that smug look off your face!" came the barely controlled reply. Thomas started to walk past Carl, keeping his gun leveled at him. "You just sit there. Try to move and you die."
Carl didn't move, but kept a wary eye on the man. From within his jacket, a tiny voice said, "Get ready!"
The assistant took his eye off Carl for a moment to look at the camera. "Hey! It's shattered!" he said, but just as he did, there was a pop from above and something very small struck him in his extended arm. Involuntarily, he jerked it aside, and the gun suddenly found itself pointing at the wall. "What the hell?" he demanded just as Carl plowed into him.
The fight only lasted about a second. The assistant was so surprised that he had no way to resist Carl's lunge, which threw him back into the nearby wall. His head smacked loudly onto the hard, flat surface, and he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"That's a shame," said Carl under his breath. "I would've loved having the chance to kick the crap out of you for what you said about Melissa." He reached down to recover the gun, then noticed a small trickle of blood dribbling down his victim's arm. That must have been what distracted Thomas, but where had it come from? "What the hell just happened?" he asked, shaking his head in confusion. "He jerked his hand away as if he'd been bitten or something."
"That's our little sniper," called out Caitlin from within his pocket. "Thanks, Randi! Now quick, get over to where the other women are and take out the cameras there."
"Aye-aye, Captain," Randi's voice replied in her headset, along with the sound of rapidly shuffling feet as she sped away.
"Damn!" said Carl with obvious appreciation. "You ladies may be small, but that doesn't mean you aren't able to take care of yourselves. This secret agent business seems full of surprises!"
Caitlin glanced up at him with a wry smile. She didn't say anything, but her look seemed to confirm everything he'd said, and then some. She almost laughed at the way she and her compatriots had managed to befuddle him so completely, and yet, he seemed to be recovering quickly and accepting their presence without too much effort. Perhaps it was just that after seeing his girlfriend reduced to tiny size, a few more small women running around wasn't all that big a deal, Caitlin thought.
Carl looked away and stared down at the unconscious man, glancing back and forth at the gun in his hand. "A part of me says I should kill him for what he's put Melissa and the other girls through," he said, cocking the gun. "Should I go ahead and kill him? Or do you want me to tie him up so he can be taken into custody later?"
"You should probably kill him," yelled Caitlin, "but you don't look like the kind of guy who likes killing people."
"You underestimate me, Caitlin," Carl replied, shaking his head sadly. "When I was younger, I saw some pretty nasty things. I may not want to kill, but if there's no other choice, I can do it."
Caitlin considered that, turning her head slightly to the side, but finally made the decision for him. "Just tie him up with his belt. And be sure you grab his keys. You can lock him in here, and he won't bother us again."
Carl complied, yanking off the man's belt and using it to truss him up like a rodeo calf. "There, that should hold you," he said to the unconscious man. "Oh, wait a second," he added, withdrawing the lockpicks from his shoe once more. He worked the broken cuffs for a few moments until they dropped from his wrists, whereupon he massaged the raw flesh for a moment before putting the picks back where he'd found them.
He took the keys from Thomas's helpless form, stuffed the gun in the back of his pants as if it were natural for it to be there, and headed for the exit. He left the room cautiously, and after a moment's searching for the right key, locked the door behind him. Once he finished, he looked around, confused. "Caitlin, do you have any idea where the room is where Melissa and the others are? " he said, scratching his head. "They knocked me out and I woke up in that storage room where they questioned me."
"Okay, well, good thing we've done some recon," said Caitlin. "Turn right, then right again, and it's the door on the left."
He repeated the directions, then moved cautiously through the corridor as he'd been told. He hurried as best he could, but when he got to the door, Caitlin yelled, "Hang on a minute. Randi? You got it?"
"That's an affirmative," she replied with a snicker. "One dead camera. Come right on in."
They did, and Carl immediately rushed over to the cages filled with Andrew Saul's shrunken victims. "Melissa!" he called out. "I'm back!"
"You're all right!" she yelled back at him, her tiny voice all but inaudible. "How? Thomas said that they were planning on shrinking you down!"
"Long story, honey, let's just say I've got friends." He opened up the plastic containers, letting the twelve captives free, where they milled about on the table.
Melissa yelled up at him as he opened the other cages. "I was so worried about you! When Thomas said they were going to shrink you, I thought I was going to lose you!"
"Well, you probably would have if it wasn't for my new friends," said Carl with a nod. Then he reached into his pocket, took out the two tiny agents, and set them down nearby. This caused the prisoners to gasp in surprise and stare at the two new arrivals in complete shock.
Caitlin grinned at that, imagining what must be going through their heads right now. "Hello, this is Tania, and I'm Caitlin," she said by way of introduction, trying to sound authoritative. "We're here to help you get out of here, all right?"
"Where the heck did you come from?" demanded one of the prisoners. "Am I dreaming? Tell me it's true, I don't think I could bear to stay this way much longer."
"Never mind, we'll tell you later," said Tania. "Just trust us. We're from the government and we're here to help you." At that, she laughed a couple of times, drawing an annoyed stare from Caitlin. "Sorry, couldn't resist," she added weakly.
Carl led his girlfriend off to the side for a moment, intent on showing her something, and Caitlin and Tania didn't intrude. Instead, they occupied themselves talking briefly with the other women, most of whom appeared shaky and distraught. The one who had spoken earlier, whose name was Carla, looked completely drained of energy. Caitlin felt at once that there was no way she could possibly lead this bunch up into the ceiling and up several floors to the minicopter. Only one of the girls, a curly-haired brunette named Becky, seemed unaffected by what had happened, while the others all had the exhausted, forlorn look of hostages being rescued from a long ordeal.
After a moment Melissa came back to join the others, almost being pushed there by her boyfriend. "No, Carl, don't leave me!" she called out desperately, obviously having just been told about his intention to escape the facility on his own. "Please!"
"It's okay," he insisted. "I'll look for you again when I get out, all right?"
"No, it's not all right," came a voice from behind them. Carl spun to see the angry-looking face of Andrew Saul staring at him. He was holding a pistol and aiming it directly at Carl's chest. "Now why don't you be a good boy and discard that weapon you have in the back of your jeans, hmm? That's right, place it on the examination table beside you, place your hands on your head, and back away. The rest of you, get back in your cages. And hello, what's this? Two new additions to the flock? Lovely!"
Carl had no choice. He put down the gun, stepping away from the table as the man he knew as Alex Samuel stepped forward to look down at the two black-clad agents. There was nowhere to hide on the tabletop, so there had been no way to avoid being spotted. "You, back away and don't make me use this," Alex said evenly. "I may be an old man, but back when I worked for the government, they saw fit to teach me how to defend myself, including being able to put a bullet through your skull if you try anything."
Carl didn't reply, but the look on his face said he was clearly surprised by Dr. Samuel's ability to wield the pistol.
"Well, well, well," said Andrew, reaching out with his free hand to seize Caitlin and Tania. "It seems that I was right after all. Those fools did go ahead with the MAT project after all. Nice to make your acquaintance, ladies. Now, come with me, and we'll find out who you are and what you know."