Chapter Nineteen


I was slightly amused by the queasy looks of the soldiers around me. They had clearly never experienced purse travel before, and were heavily feeling the effects of it. I for one considered them lucky. At least Tamyra had been considerate enough to empty the purse out before stowing us in it.

One of the soldiers was busying himself taking stock of the inventory, rummaging through the Jeep. "Five shock prods, sixteen grappling hooks, ten assault rifles," he continued to drone.

"Careful not to damage any of that, Soldier." murmured Peter. He seemed to be faring the worst of us.

I decided I needed something to occupy myself, and pulled out the communications equipment. "Sarah, you got any news?"

"Eric, I'm so glad you've called, how's the mission coming?"

"Good so far, we're currently in transport to the military facility, where we think the portal's being stored. How's everything back in my world."

"I won't lie to you," Sarah began. Her tone was filled with concern. "It doesn't look good. With you and Peter gone the General's been arguing more successfully. The president really seems to be listening to him, and even Ms. Arroz is wavering."

I grimaced. If the black woman gave up the argument, all was lost. "Sarah," I said heavily. "I need you to promise me something."

"Anything you need, love."

"If the situation gets out of hand, I need you to control it. Do whatever you deem necessary, but they can't launch weapons. If they do, millions of civilian lives could be at stake. Okay?"

"Yes, Eric. I'll do my best."

"Wish me luck, I'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you too."

I hung up the receiver and put my head in my hands. If the General had his way, the whole mission would be a waste. I had a strong premonition that firing on the giantesses would spell doom for the whole planet. Right then, the mission took on a greater urgency.

The sky opened above me, and was instantly filled by a huge face. "We're almost there," Tamyra whispered into her purse. "We've just got to clear security, then I can help you find the portal."

I waved up at her. "Great, just tell us when you hit the checkpoint."

Peter staggered over to me, trying to maintain his balance and looking quite green in the face. "There's a big problem."

"Other than your being sick?" I taunted. I hated the bastard's guts far more than Sarah could ever know, and although it was cruel I relished the opportunity to lord this little weakness over him.

"No." He answered flatly. "We're carrying metal."

Peter's meaning slowly dawned on me. The jeep, the weapons... All of it would be discovered when Tamyra passed through the metal detector. "What do we do?" I asked.

"You're the leader of this mission, you tell me," Peter said miserably, before curling into a ball and dry heaving for a few minutes.

"Pull yourself together," I said dragging him to a sitting position. "Now, we're going to have to figure out a way of taking out the guards without attracting attention."

"Not possible," Peter said with slightly more control. "They're bound to have cameras watching the place. We won't be able to do it without tripping an alarm."

"Damn, you're right." I pondered for a few more minutes. "Check the inventory once more. I think I might have a plan."


The constant rocking and swaying of the purse came to a stop. From somewhere above, a surly voice said, "Okay Ma'm, please remove all metal items and step through the detector."

The roof zipped open, and a tremendous brown hand reached in. Tamyra snatched out a small wallet ten times my size. She left the bag open. Everything was going to plan.

"Now," I instructed the other three men in the Jeep, adding a hand signal to make sure they got the message.

Each of us shot four grappling hooks into the conveniently low ceiling, aiming for the section beyond the detectors. I prayed that the combined strength of the ropes would be enough to hold the Jeep and its precious cargo. Then, we piled into the already packed vehicle and began hoisting it into the air.

We rose above the purse, out into the open lobby. It was a fairly plain affair; two metal detectors, two bored security guards. We were about twenty feet away from the ceiling, hundreds from the ground. I watched as Tamyra walked through the metal detector, fingers crossed.

Nothing. No beeps and no alarms. I wiped the sweat from my brow.

The radio crackled to life. "Okay, make sure they're not looking, then lower yourself to ground level. Tamyra will bend down like she's picking up something she dropped, and take you in the process."

"I already know how the plan's going to work, Peter," I said irritably. "I helped develop it." He always acted like such a know-it-all.

"Okay, now!" Peter yelled.

All of us quickly pressed and held our triggers, causing us to rapidly descend, the grappling hook ropes extending to their full capacity. They were stretching as it was, the rapid descent putting stress on them. But when I looked down, we were still a good hundred feet from the floor.

I cursed quietly over the radio. "The ropes aren't stretching enough. We're still in the air." I said urgently.

Peter swore more loudly than I did. "Okay, she'll go over there anyway, we've just got to hope she sees you."

"No good, Pete." I exclaimed. "One of the guards is turning towards our position." I turned to the other three men in the jeep, carefully bringing out my combat knife, indicating they should do the same. I positioned the knife at the rope.

"Eric, don't do this, the equipment..."

"We've got no choice." The guard was about to see us...

"We can't afford to lose the weaponry!"

"Screw you!" I shouted. Then, to the others aboard, I yelled, "CUT!"

Each of us sliced through the ropes tethering us to the ceiling. There was a sickening drop. I closed my eyes.

I opened them a second later to find I wasn't dead. There were folds of warm brown flesh surrounding me. I saw the overturned Jeep behind me, one of the men crawling out from underneath it.

Then I turned to see the immense face of Tamyra. She was grinning contentedly. I couldn't blame her. A catch like that only happens once in a lifetime, and that's if you're fully aware of what's dropping and where.

Unfortunately, it had also caught the attention of the guards, one of which was striding towards us. I felt myself slipping head over heels off Tamyra's palm as she hastily dumped everything into the purse.

"Ma'm, what were you just trying to catch?"

"What, I don't know what you're talking about." Tamyra replied casually. Her acting wasn't bad, but it wasn't going to save us now.

"Ma'm, show me the inside of your purse."

"Why? I don't have anything to show."

I already saw the guard's hand moving towards the purse opening. If Tamyra didn't think fast, we were doomed. "Let me see the bag." The guard said forcefully.

"Fine," said Tamyra, her tone resigned. Her hand moved towards the bag opening, and the guard bent down to peer in. Then she quickly balled her hand into a fist and smashed into the bending guard's nose.

Then everything was in motion, the purse veering crazily front to back, side to side. The men and equipment were jostled around, the Jeep hurled about the bag, almost rolling someone over in the process. Tamyra was running as fast as she could, and I wouldn't have liked it any other way.

Behind us a shot rang out, sounding like a cannon being fired. Tamyra stumbled slightly but managed to keep her bearings, and continue running.

It was chaotic for a while, all of us trying to stay safe as the bag's contents tumbled about. Eventually, however, the motion slowed, then stopped entirely. The purse opened and once again Tamyra's face filled the opening.

"Everyone all right?" She asked, sounding truly concerned. She slowly tipped the bag so we were able to walk out. Surveying my surroundings, I saw that we were on a counter in what looked like the women's restroom. I took a good look, considering that this would probably be the last time I'd see the interior of such a place.

"Don't worry," Tamyra said as I looked. "No cameras saw us, I made sure of it. And I doubt anyone's going to look in a bathroom during a security alert."

I checked over the remaining men. There didn't seem to be any casualties, although several looked pretty banged up. Then I turned back to my savior. "Thanks for catching us back there."

"It's nothing," she said with a small smile. "What now?"

Peter stepped forward to answer. "All we need to do is locate the portal, then arm the explosives and get the hell out of Dodge."

"So, does anyone have any idea where the portal is?" I asked tentatively.

The other shoulders shook their heads. Peter slumped slightly and withdrew back into the crowd.

"I've got an idea," Tamyra said, chewing her lip. "It may be held in the Experimental Technologies sector."

"How far is that from here?"

"It's on the other side of the installation, so it should take me ten minutes running."

"Your hunch better be a good one," I said grimly. "This may wind up being our only shot."


Tamyra was as good as her word, and it took only ten jarring, nauseating minutes for her to stop. When she did, it was with a loudly exclaimed, "Shit!"

I turned on the amp and spoke through it. "What is it?"

She carefully lowered us to the ground before answering, bending over so she could talk into the purse. Tamyra positively loomed over us. "The door is locked with a two-scanner combo. You need to have both fingerprint and retina confirmation in order to get in, and I don't have either."

"That isn't good," One of the soldiers to my left said.

"What're we going to do?" asked Peter, stepping to the front.

"We have to abort the mission," Chloe said somewhat hysterically.

"No. We've got to hack the scanners, that's the only solution." I boldly stated. "Who here knows their tech?"

Not a single soldier raised a hand, but Tamyra somewhat sheepishly raised hers.

"Okay then, it's you and me, Tamyra. Let's do this."

Without letting me get any other equipment, Tamyra lifted me up, raising me into the air at breathtaking speeds. Soon I was directly in front of the scanning mechanism.

I quickly looked over the device. "No obvious routes of entry," I thought aloud. "Two bolts, possibly screws, on either side of the device, might allow us to remove the plate..." I turned on the amp and spoke to Tamyra. "Do you have anything that we can use to remove those two squarish fasteners?"

"What do I look like, a walking toolkit?" Tamyra rumbled softly behind me.

I turned, getting an eyeful of the tremendous breasts behind me before quickly shifting my gaze to her mountainous face. "No, but do you have something we might be able to use?"

"I don't know," she said irritably, stress showing on her huge face. "Can you use a paper clip?"

I studied the bolt carefully. Yes, there was a small slot on one side of it. If I could maneuver it correctly. "That paper clip just might work."

Tamyra fished in her pocket, then carefully dropped a huge tube of dim, curved metal next to me. Then she moved me close to the bolt. I raised the massive paper clip, and jammed it into the small slot. Then I worked it up and down, until there was a clicking noise. Jiggling it a little in that exact position caused the whole thing to yield, and me to fall over in the process.

The panel swung wide open, revealing a mass of tangled wiring. "Looks like this might be harder than I thought." I muttered before throwing myself onto one of the wires. I slid down the wires until I reached the bottom, and was able to truly admire the awesome clutter of tubes.

"Uh, Eric," Tamyra said hesitantly. "It looks like your friends below are trying to tell you something." She bent down and picked up one of the few remaining ropes, which I carefully anchored and slid down.

I hit the floor, and Peter and a few of the soldiers rushed up to me, carrying the interplanar communicator. "Sarah wants to talk to you," Peter said breathlessly.

I picked up the receiver, then motioned the soldiers away. "A little privacy, please?"

Sarah's voice came through the radio. I couldn't have been happier to hear it. "Eric, honey, how are you doing?"

"Almost there, Sarah. Just got to get through one last security door, then we've made it. I'll be back in no time."

"That's good," she said worriedly. "It's been decided that everything's coming down to a vote. To launch or not to launch. And between Rathbone, the President, and that bald guy, I think his name was Lon... well, they've pretty much got all the votes they need."

"Remember Sarah, I'm trusting you to stop this if it goes awry."

"I know, Eric. You can count on me. But I'd feel better if you were here."

"I'll be there soon, my love. Just be patient." I hung up the receiver. "Now where were we?"

Nobody responded, everyone was too busy looking to the left. That was because a female guard was at the other end of the hall. And she had just spotted us.

The woman rushed us, forcing the soldiers and I to scatter. Tamyra seized the opportunity to plant a hand in the guard's gut. The woman doubled over, but recovered quickly. Soon the two giantesses were in hand to hand combat.

"Quick!" I yelled. "Someone get a shock prod!"

Chloe quickly brandished one of the lethal instruments, running fearlessly towards the guard's black leather shoe. I would have yelled at her to stop, but I lost my chance. Chloe charged the woman's foot, screaming. She managed to leap up to the small shoe's ankle, plunging the shock device deep into the guard.

Chloe sprung away as the guard toppled, falling towards the instrument panel. An outstretched hand fell into the cavity I had opened, ripping through all the wires.

The door opened swiftly. "Well, it just figures." I said with a shrug.

We quickly entered the large lab area. I scanned for the portal, but couldn't find it. I did see something else however. "This is the wrong place. We've found a nuclear reactor." I said unhappily.

"Precisely," said Peter, stepping up briskly. "Seize him."