Chapter 15 - Getting out

Jennifer looked off in the distance as she thought about what Donna told her. Shaking her head, she looked at Donna and said “I don't know if I could do that. He might think it's a little weird. Not that I'm saying I think it's weird.”
Donna put her hand on hers and said “Listen, you don't think I've heard how weird this sounds? I don't care. It's a wonderful part of out relationship, and I wouldn't change a thing. Women that aren't accepting are just tied up in their own insecurities.”
“I guess.” she replied. “But I'm curious, how does it work?”
“Work?” Donna asked.
“I mean does Pete just come up with it all of a sudden?” Jennifer asked.
Donna laughed and said “Sometimes, but it's mostly me.”
“You?” She asked, sounding quite surprised. “Really?”
“I can turn him on like a light bulb, any time I want.” Donna replied with a devilish grin.
“Wow. So, if you don't mind me asking, what do you do?” Jennifer asked her.

“I don't mind.” Donna replied. She leaned over and said “Last week, I booked a trip to Jamaica. I told him that we would be on a beach and I wished he could be two inches tall. I asked him how he would feel if I stepped on him in the sand.”
“You didn't?” Jennifer said. “You're just taking advantage of him Donna.”
“Pete is putty in my hands, and he loves it.” Donna said. “I told him I could just picture his stunned face buried in my footprint, staring up at me. I would love to take pictures of that.”
“You seem to be really into it, the whole shrinking thing.” Jennifer said.
“At first, I wasn't you know. It was very strange for me, but now, If I could actually shrink him, I would.” she replied.

Jennifer was finding the conversation was starting to get into a whole new level of strange, but she couldn't help but wanting to know more. How did this woman find such a strong connection to her husband, and could get him to do, basically whatever she wanted. It was so intriguing.
“Donna.” Jennifer said, looking around. “This is probably not the place we should be talking about this.”
Donna looked around and then back at her. “This place?” she said, rolling her eyes. “The only stuff that gets talked about here is who's ass you were kissing this week. Nobody listens.”
“It's just.....” she said.
“Just what?” Donna asked.
“It's not like people can shrink.” Jennifer said, totally unaware that it was, in fact possible, and the proof was on her toenail. “But if you could? You would do that to Pete?”
“I know what you're getting at. You want to know if I couldn't make him his normal size again, right?” Donna asked.
“Well kind of.” Jennifer replied.
“Of course not. That would be cruel and I would never do that.” she replied. “But if I knew I could reverse it? In a heartbeat.”
“Donna, I have to say that this has been the strangest conversation topic I have ever heard. Not that it's bad, just strange. If I was ever able to do something like that to Everett, he would flip out.”
Donna raised her eyebrows and said “If Everett was standing two inches tall in front of that size nine and a half foot of yours, I don't think he would be showing you any attitude.”

Jennifer seemed a little embarrassed as she rubbed her cheek. “I guess not.” she said.
“I can see this is making you a little uncomfortable, so we can change the subject.” Donna told her. “I'm lucky to have found the love of my life and something that has made us so much closer. Am I embarrassed about his fetishes? Not a bit. I have Pete in the palm of hand and we both know it. He treats me better that anyone has ever treated me. I love him dearly.”

A waiter arrived with the first of several courses and set a bowl of soup down on the table in front of the two women. They separated and readjusted their chairs. A few minutes after they started their soups, a salt and pepper haired man, dresse in a black suit arrived and sat down beside Donna. He leaned and kissed her then said “Sorry I'm late sweetheart.”
“No problem.” Donna said. “I was just talking girl talk with Jennifer here.”
Pete reached over and offered his hand. “It's nice to meet you, I'm Peter Ruger.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Jennifer replied.
He sat down and saw that Jennifer seemed a little uneasy about something. The two women looked at each other and a little smirk appeared on Donna's mouth. Pete looked at them and asked “What's going on?”
“Nothing.” Donna replied.
Looking at them again, he frowned and said to the pair “She's been talking about our little secret. Hasn't she?”
When neither replied, he shook his head and smiled. “Forget it. I don't want to know.”
He took a few spoons of his soup and looked at the empty chair beside Jennifer and asked “Is Mister.....uhhh...sorry, I didn't get your last name.”
“Of course. My husband is late, like usual. I'm Jennifer Wiley. My husband, Everett Wiley is stuck somewhere and I can't seem to get a hold of him.”
“Oh, that's strange.” Pete replied.
“What's strange?” Donna asked, a little concerned.
“Yes, what's strange.” Jennifer reiterated.
“Well I was just talking to one of the Joint Chiefs and your husband is supposed to deliver a keynote speech tonight and they can't locate Mr. Wiley either.” he told them.

Jennifer tapped her foot on the floor nervously, wondering where he was. “This is not like him.” she said, biting her finger nail. 
“I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason he's not here yet.” Donna said, trying to comfort her.
Under the table, Jennifer's foot lifted and lowered quickly as she continued to tap the floor. She stopped tapping and tilted her foot on the spike heel of her sandal, flexing her toes and scrunching them in her sandal. Wiley felt every movement that she made, but it was intensified thousands of times. The idle tapping of her foot on the floor sounded like massive booming to him. He kept thinking how he could get out of this, but it was starting to sink in that there was no way out. Paige had silenced him and used his own wife to do the dirty work. She was going to crush him and not even realize she did. 

“He was with another agent in his office.” she told Pete. “Paige Mitchell, I think it was.”
“You saw him there?” Pete asked.
“No, I didn't actually see him.” she replied. “She told me he had just stepped out for a few minutes. She  said she was working on a report for his trip to Langley.”

Pete listened to her and then motioned to an agent standing about twenty feet away. The man approached and Pete spoke to him in his ear. Jennifer could see the ear piece and curled wire down his neck, so she knew he was probably CIA or Secret Service. “Of course sir. I'll get on it right away.” the man said. He walked off and headed for the exit.

“I asked him to go over to the HQ and check on this or me.” he said. “Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of it.”
“Pete's the assistant director of security with the secret service, so if anyone can find somebody, he can.” Donna told Jennifer.
“Thank you. I'm just a little worried.” she replied.
“I can imagine.” Donna said. “Just relax and let the professionals do their job.”
Nodding, Jennifer said “You're right. He'll probably turn up any minute now.”

Back at the Agency, Paige was pacing around holding cell six, wondering how Deborah had gotten out. She looked up at the grate on the ventilation duct, but it was quite high and looked intact, so she ruled that out in her mind. She turned to the two agents in the cell with her and said “I paid you both a lot of money to make sure things like this don't happen. Find her!” She walked out of the cell and headed back to her office.

Back in her office, she took the container with Carlos off the shelf and opened the lid. She gazed inside at the top of his little head. Tapping her finder on the side, she said “Wake up little man.”
Carlos had been inside the container all day and was quite out of it. He was numb all over from being suspended in the gel. Tapping the container again, she grinned as his face tilted up, red eyes and all. “Miss me?” she said, mockingly.
“Where.....Where's Deb....Deb.....Deborah?” he gasped.
Paige rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Deborah, Deborah, Deborah. That's all I ever hear.” She sighed and continued “It seems that your hero has escaped and left you here, all alone. It doesn't matter. I'll find her, and when I do, I'll show you both the new and improved formula we've been working on.” She raised the container up to her mouth. “You two will be reunited soon enough.” she said. “Reunited under my foot.”

“If you touch her....I swear!” he shouted as loud as he could.
“Oh....that's sweet.” she mocked. “She said the same thing to me about you. I think she likes you. Anyway, I have to get you down the lab. We need those little things running around inside you.”
She screwed the cap back on, grabbed her bag and closed her office. She locked the door and tried it to be sure it was locked. She headed back down the hall to the elevator and pressed the up button. “I'm going to kill her.” she mumbled. “As soon as we get the antibodies. I'm going to kill her, nice and slow.

The elevator doors opened and she got in. She pressed three and stood against the wall. “Oh yeah. Almost forgot about him.” she said as she pulled the container containing Davidson from her skirt hem. She opened it and looked at a terrified Davidson, breathing in as much air as he could. “Pppppaige.....Please. You can't do this to me. I'll do anything!!!” he blubbered, trying to get out.
She put her index finger on him and pushed him back inside and said “Just relax. I have a few more things to deal with, then we can talk about what you are going to do for me.” she told him, then closed the container and put it back into her skirt hem. “The things I have to do.” she muttered.

The doors opened and she got out. She walked down the dark grey corridor, slowly, looking around as she strode. Passing the holding cells, her eyes shifted left and right, looking for anything out of the ordinary. “She's still here. I can feel it.” she whispered to herself, stopping and listening, all she could hear was the hum of the ventilation system.

A man approached from behind, asking “Excuse me, do you have clearance to be in here?”
She turned and looked at him. “Oh...Mitchell. Sorry.”
She pointed her finger at him and snarled “I told your two buddies and I'll tell you. I want that bitch found. Am I being clear?!!”
She looked past him and spotted another agent approaching. She rolled her eyes and said “What is it with you guys today. Do I have to do everything myself?”

He walked up to her and said “I just came from a fund raiser on Madison.”
“So?” Paige replied sarcastically. “Do I look like I care about your dinner plans?”
“That's not it.” he said, in a hushed voice. “Peter Ruger told me to come here and look for Everett Wiley.”
“Who the hell is Peter Ruger?” she asked.
“He's secret service.” he told her. “He was sitting with Wiley's wife. What's going on? What did you do?”
“I didn't do anything.” she snarled. “Now you listen to me, both of you! You each have two hundred grand of my money.” She reached down and pulled her pump off her foot and raised it to their faces. “If you don't find her, you're going to find yourself inside this. No get moving and do what I pay you for.”

She watched them scurry away as she slipped her shoe back on her foot. She shook her head and turned around, heading for the labs. She fumed to herself about how incompetent everybody was. “Wiley.” she said. “They can look for him all they want. They'll never find him.”

Reaching the lab entrance, she entered her access code into the keypad and the locked door opened, then she walked in and opened a second door. Inside, a man in a white lab coat turned around. She held up the container with Carlos and said “Here is the first sample.”
He took the container and said “And second sample?”
“I don't have it yet.” she answered.
“Without second sample, it is not possible to create more of serum, or proper antidote. You know what will happen to anyone with antibodies without antidote?” he told her.
“You think I don't know that, you fucking Russian.” she shouted at him.

He leaned in and glared at her and said “This fucking Russian is in deep in crazy program just like you. We are not dealing with small time player here. They will think nothing about cutting your head off. Then they will find my family, and kill them.”
She looked around and up at the ventilation ducts hanging from the steel girders for a few seconds, then looked back at the him and said “Just get the antibodies out of him and leave her to me.” she growled. “I'll find her.”
“This is getting out of control.” he told her. “I did not agree to this.”
She put her hands on her hips and said “Listen Orolov. You back out on me now, you're dead. You're family's dead. We're all dead. You read me?”

Deborah lay quiet in the ventilation shaft. She stayed perfectly still, not wanting to give away her position. She had climbed in from her holding cell and had crawled the three of four hundred feet to the labs. Luckily there were no cameras installed and she was undetected. She squinted to see as much as she could through the grate, without making a sound.

Paige tuned and stormed out to the lab. The doors clicked shut after her. Shaking his head, the man in the lab coat turned and said “Yobanaya suka!” as he lay the container on the stainless steel table in front of him. Computers and equipment buzzed all around him. There were all kinds of robotic looking gadgets and trays filled with test tubes all over the place. He pushed a button on the bottom of the container and it popped open, leaving a jelly like cylinder that was holding Carlos. He held it up and looked at him. “So. You the poor guy that they use for antibodies.”
“Who the fuck are you. You have to get me out of here.” Carlos yelled.

The man turned and walked over to another table and picked up a scalpel. “I cannot help you. I'm sorry.” he said, not turning he head. He heard a crash and then a thud, and thought the cylinder rolled off the table. He turned around and gasped as someone landed on the steel table in front of him. Carlos screamed as a shoe landed inches from him with a boom. He looked up but whoever it was was moving so fast that it was blur. His mouth dropped open as he he saw long shapely legs and tight running shorts. “Deb....” he gasped.

He watched her jump off the table and run toward the man in the lab coat, grabbing his hand in a single stride and twisting it around his back. She put her right hand on the side of his head and slammed it down on the steel surface of the table, twisting his hand causing him to yell out in pain. The scalpel landed on the floor with a ping. She kicked it away and leaned down and said “Now. You're going to tell me who you are and what the fuck is going on here, or I'll break your fucking arm. “I know nothing!” he shouted, grimacing from the pain.

Deborah saw his eyes look at something on the table. She reached over and picked it up. “What's this.” she asked.
“A pen!” he said. “Just a pen.”
“Just a pen?” she said, with obvious scepticism in her voice. “What is it?” she asked again, using her weight to put more pressure on his arm. “Arrrrhhhhhgggg!” he yelped in pain.
Pressing the button on the top, she saw a needle pop out. She held it so he could see the needle. “If you don't start talking, I'm going to find out for myself what this is.”
“No...No...Don't.” he yelled. “Don't do that! I tell you what it is.”

She let him up, then took his arm and pushed him over to a chair and threw him do into it. “Stay there!” she told him, then walked over to the table where Carlos was. She picked him up and looked at him. “Sweetie! What have they done to you?” she said, seeing the ball in his mouth.
Carlos just stared back at her in disbelief. He thought he would never see her again. His head drooped and the eyes rolled into the back of head as he passed out. “Carlos!” she said, looking at him closely. She took the tip of her finger and lifted his head. His eyes opened for a moment, then closed again.

“I need to cut this thing off his head.” she said the man in the lab coat.
“I help you.” he said, getting up.
“Stay where you are.” she pointed at him. “Just tell me where I can find me something to cut a plastic tie.”
“There are wire cutters on that table over there.” he said, pointing to another steel table. Deborah carried Carlos over to the table and picked up the cutters. “I'm going to cut that off, just keep your head still.”
Carefully, she positioned the cutters and snipped the tie, then carefully pulled it off his head, removing the ball from his mouth. He gagged and coughed and took deep breaths. “Deb......Deb.....what...whats..going on?” he blubbered, tears streaming down his cheeks. “That's what I'm going to find out.” she said. “I'm going to get you out of this thing sweetie, I promise, bit first, I need to get some information.”

She turned to the man in the chair and said “Who the fuck are you? Start talking.”
“I don't know anything. I'm just worker.” he said.
Taking slow steps toward him, she said “I can break your fucking neck with my bare hands, or should I try that needle over there?”
“No. That will not be necessary.” He said, holding up his hand. “My name is Orolov. Sergei Orolov. I am Micro Biologist.”
Holding Carlos in her right hand, she said “It's obvious what the antibody does, I what to know what's in that pen, and I want to know how to reverse this fucking thing that that bitch has done to him.”
“Oh, you knew about antibody?” he asked.
“I knew of it. I didn't know how it worked.” She replied. “I wasn't given very much information.”
“Oh. So you and uhhhh....” he said pointing to her and Carlos and her again.
“That's right.” she said. “I was tricked into it. And once we got started. Well, that's another story.”
“No need to explain.” he said, holding up his hand.

“You and him are two of the six people that we could find that have the correct combination of genes and white blood cells that make this entire project possible.” he told her.
“Project.” She said. “I love the word project. You fuck up people's lives and you call it a project. How did you find us?”
“Blood samples.” he replied. “We used the used many databases to locate proper candidates.”
Is Mitchell one of the six?” she asked.
“Yes.” he replied.
“So this is why I was placed in the NYPD? With him?” she asked, holding Carlos up.
“I believe so.” he said.
“And what do you want from us then?” she asked him.
“We need antibody from both to be able to reproduce new samples consistently. It is the hormone that is released during extreme arousal that activates the antibody.” he said.
“Why us? What about the others?” she asked.
“You both have the purest form of antibody.” he replied. “We discover already improved formula that will work, uhhhhh basically on...”
“Anyone.” she completed his sentence.
“Yes.” he confirmed.
“And that pen over there?” she asked.
“It has hormone built in already.” he replied.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So it's pretty well instant.”
“Yes.” he replied. “Depending on dosage.”

Deborah stood quiet for a moment, thinking about the ramifications if this got out. “Mitchell is behind this?” she asked?
“That woman is nenormalnyj!” he said.
“Come again?” Deborah said.
“It's crazy in Russian.” he continued. “I don't want to do this. She will kill my family if I don't. You must understand.”
“So we were the guinea pigs for this little experiment.” she said, then looked down at Carlos and said  “Sorry Carlos, I didn't mean little that way.”

“Listen Orolov.” Deborah said. “I'm sorry she got your family involved, but you know what you are doing is wrong. Who else is involved?”
“There is another micro-biologist, Alexander Blevich,  and she has many agents that she has paid a lot of money to do what she says.” he told her.
“And you?” she asked. “How much is she paying you?”
“We get small amount. She tells superiors that we get one million of dollars, but she takes it.” he told her.

“How do I get him back to normal.” she asked, pointing to Carlos.
“I need both antibodies to produce antidote.” he told her. “We tried with other samples, but the result was not as expected.”
“Not as expected how?” she asked.
Hesitating, he fidgeted before saying “The subjects did not increase back fully to normal size.”
“So they were stuck at whatever size she got them down to?” Deborah asked.
“Yes.” he replied, feeling very uncomfortable.

She held Carlos up and said “I'm getting him out of here. There's no way that I'm going to leave him in here.”
“But without both of antibodies, I cannot create antidote.” he told her.
“I got that, but he's been through hell and he needs to rest.” she said. “I'll be in contact with you.”
“How will you contact me?” he asked. “She knows everything that happens. She has many agents that are on her payroll. You can't get back in here. Why not do it now?”
“Listen Orolov, you let me worry about getting back in.” she told him. “Now you're going to get me out of here. Open the doors.”

He did what she said and entered his access code. “If something happens to me.” he said.
“She needs you. She's not about to let anything happen to you.” she told him. “I need to even the playing field a bit and slow things down.”
“Okay. Understand.” he said. “You have to go down hall and at few hundred meters, on left is stairway to garage.” he handed her a card and said “Use this to open parking garage.”
“Thanks.” she said as she took it from his hand. “Don't do anything out of the ordinary to raise suspicion. I need to find out what she is up to.”
“What will I tell her about him?” she said, pointing to Carlos.
“Nothing. Tell her you got what you needed and disposed of the evidence.” she told him.
Orolov watched as she headed out the lab and down the corridor. She found the stairs where he said they would be and raced down to the garage. Opening the door carefully, she peered through the crack to make sure there was nobody around. Slowly walking through the garage, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked down between two cars and saw a file folder under one of them. She crouched down and picked it up. She looked on the tab and saw the words “Project Arto”

Standing up, she took the folder and put it under her arm. “We're almost there sweetie” she told Carlos.
Before she could get to the gate and flash the card Orolov gave her, she heard a car door open and close. She darted behind a pillar and waited. The car's engine started and then the driver headed for the exit. She peered around the pillar to get a look at the driver. “Fuck!” she said at seeing it was Paige. The door opened and she drove out. Deborah ran for the door and slid under it just as it closed. She got up and stood against the door's concrete frame and watched as she drove away. Once her car turned at the next corner, Deborah looked down at Carlos and said “I have to get some things at my place, then we're going to find a safe place for the night.”