MILES STONE'S P.O.V.
* * * * *
My response was understandably instinctive.
"Say what???"
Laura smiled at me.
"They never told you that part. Did they? The ones in charge of Project: Silenus, I mean. And, oh, there's a lot they neglected to tell you, Captain! For example: you weren't shrunken by some exotic transuranic element in the micrometeorites that forced your space shuttle to crash. Or even by the energy of the Bermuda Triangle. It was a side-effect of the genetically engineered mushroom extract you were given!!"
Within the mental landscape where she and I were holding this conversation, I criss-crossed my arms in blatant disbelief.
"Bullshit!"
Rather than offended, she actually seem amused by my profane rejoinder. Because, she grinned like a Cheshire cat...with rabies.
"It's true! The ultimate goal of Project: Silenus was to send Earth's first interstellar spaceship to Alpha Centauri. A ship in which the passengers, and most of the crew, would be in cryogenic hibernation. The one exception among the latter would be a specially trained pilot. One who would have a microelectronic computer chip surgically implanted in his brain, so as to telepathically control all the electronic equipment aboard (including robotic maintenance drones). Yet, who would also have been shrunken down, to the size of a child's toy, so as to conserve on food, water, and air supply consumption! And, of course, shrinking the prospective colonists, as well, would allow space for _hundreds_ of cryogenic tubes aboard the ship!"
"The only problem? How to re-enlarge everyone when they reached Alpha Centauri. A 'slight' complication that Hana Nozama was still trying to lick when M.A.C.H.O. arrested her, five years ago."
"Big deal!" I exclaimed (trying to regain control of the conversation): "That still doesn't explain how you even know about the existence of M.A.C.H.O. So, let's start the proverbial gut-spilling, there."
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE REAL WORLD...
(FROM CHET NORTHFIELD'S P.O.V.)
"OK," I replied: "That explains your mad ninja skills. But, it doesn't explain how Twirl Girl and these Am Ja Hwa Rang got through base security."
"I can answer that," Eric Bravo interjected: "But, you're not going to like it, anymore than I do. I just got off the phone with the base control tower. A Tarhe sky crane got here just before we did. Sent by the Michigan Air National Guard to pick up a decommissioned Grumman Tigercat (in one of those boxcar-looking transport containers) for the Kalamazoo Air Museum. With one stop-over at Grissom Airbase, Indiana, for refueling!"
Sam instantly knew that was bogus.
"Kalamazoo's only a hundred forty-eight miles from Milwaukee. Less than three-fourths of the maximum range of a Tarhe. So, the pilot might have to refuel on the way back. But, definitely NOT on the way here!"
"Exactly," I replied: "That was just a cover story for picking up a Trojan Horse load of Zainichi ninja...and her."
I tilted my head in the direction of the one-way mirror for emphasis. Which is how it suddenly came to my attention what Cornell Brown and Francois LaPierre were doing.
They stood facing each other: hands clasped; eyes closed; and, yet, with their heads looking upward at the ceiling.
* * * * *
MILES STONE'S P.O.V.
"We learned of your organization's predecessor from the mind of one of our most important 'recruits.' A U. S. Senator, named Curtis, whose eldest son was attending Annapolis on a football scholarship. His father sat on the Appropriations Committee, at that time. And, shortly before his 'recruitment,' the Senator had just given the tie-breaking vote of approval for some extra funding needed by something called the M.O.C. What that was, he didn't know. But, his approval had involved some kind of bio-medical help for his younger son! Thus, needless to say, the Supervisors immediately began trying to gain information on this M.O.C."
I nodded my understanding. Unfortunately, before I could ask my next question (a demand for who else in Congress might be under her Supervisors' sway), I was interrupted. By my old buddies from Project: Silenus!
"Get out of there, Miles," Frank LaPierre yelled: "Disengage! DISENGAGE!"
"What are you...?"
"She's been stalling for time!" shouted Titus Armitage (as he grabbed me, and pulled me back, by my astral shoulders): "Until she could make a break for it."
I snapped out of my trance, to find myself in Naomi's cupped hands as she ran out of the interrogtion room to avoid the falling debris from Laura Petrie becoming instantly giant-sized...
...and literally shooting up right through the roof.
tbc
Giantess World
