Have you ever seen one of those animated cartoons from Japan, with the badly dubbed-in English? And, the big-eyed characters? Ted's eyes got wider than _that_ when Diego didn't even make the effort to deny that he was CIA!
When I said as much, and asked him why he had pretended to be a mere p.i., he shrugged:
"The p.i. license is for real. But, whenever the Company needs to conduct a stateside investigation that they're not officially authorized to do? They hire a plausibly deniable free-lancer...like me. In this case? The Company got nervous when Mr. Ivanov, here, began making inquiries about his ex-girlfriend. And, then, disappeared so soon after coming to UGA. Just like some of its students!"
Diego went on to say that my own sleuthing into the matter seemed heaven-sent to him. Because, tagging along with me, to keep me out of trouble (at my editor's high-priced insistence), gave him a perfect excuse to poke around the campus. Physically and cybernetically.
"Well!" I replied: "Seeing as how you're now in the same fix as me and Ted, I think it's safe to say you were only half-successful."
Again, he grinned: "That's what you think."
Whereupon, he stood up, and went over to a pair of bars to the left of the birdcage door. He then took off his Gatsby cap...and withdrew a container of dental floss from it!
Ted and I stood up, ourselves, as one.
"What the frig are you doing? Pick the lock! Not your teeth!"
"Tranquilo, ese! This isn't real floss. It's more like primer cord. Watch!"
He wrapped a long piece of this faux-floss around each bar. Then, after biting it evenly in half with his teeth, he took a Bic cigarette lighter out of his left cover-all pocket...and ignited both halves.
A couple of loud "pops" later, those bars were burned completely through!
Yet, again, that shit-eating grin: "Mr. Ivanov. How's about bending these bars for us? Like you did for that Mexican circus in 'El Carbonado Contra Chupacabra?' "
tbc
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
Next: Escape!!