She thought of a plan. She knew a friend in the department that was trying to identify Belle’s phone number. She thought she could reason with him; to get him to see reason here. Any contact by some military hostage negotiator to this drunk-on power woman was going to met with hostility and probably the flattening of Mt. Weather. A large TV with an aerial view of her. She’d grew tired of standing and had sat down on a suburban area north of D.C. The casualties alone for that action were in the tens of thousands. The Goddess was now toying with Baltimore. This was all going on in the background though. Her unit had a job to do. Her peers were all smart people- tolerating bureaucratic insanity but not wanting to die for it. She approached Bob, a fresh out of college whiz kid, typing away on his computer, hacking telecommunication commands. She placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t look up. He was immersed. “Bob. We’re all going to die”. “Yeah Ari, but until then I got a job to do”. ”Bob. I’ve had a breakthrough with understanding this woman. Don’t you want to hedge your bets”. Bob sighed. “If you can fucking distract this bitch, then yes”. He clicked away for a few more minutes. “Done”. He scribbled the numbers on a sticky note and handed it over to her. “Get this done before the hostage team enrages her. They should be able to remotely hack her phone in another 30 minutes”.

Ari submitted her psychological profile to the hostage team and slipped away. She started to try and dial the Goddess’ phone on the minute. After a few tries, it rang through. They’d turned the phone back on……

“Did you insects hack my phone?” Ari heard  the Goddess’ angry voice on the line. Well, she was pissed. Ari decided to cut right to the chase. “Goddess, please hear me out. I share your rage at the lies society has told you, its useless transactional careerism. I am a 35-year-old unmarried woman. You are too large for close contact with your subjects. You need a right-hand woman”.

Belle froze. Of course a lot of her rage had been subconscious, but it all made sense. Belle was having one of those moments when someone figures you out better than you know yourself. Who was this woman? Belle asked Ari exactly that “who are you?”. “I’m a psychologist with the U.S. Army. But I’ve gone rogue. They’d kill me if I knew I was talking to you….I’d literally probably be court-martialed. They can’t make the changes you want- there’s too much bureaucracy. Make me into a mini-giantess and I can be in your enforcer, goddess”. Belle had to respect this woman. But she had no way of growing her; of pinpointing the growth ray so precisely. Maybe if she a flew in a plane very close to Belle’s body? But that was going to be difficult. Belle finally spoke again. “If we are to do this, speck, then you must always obey me. This will not be a relationship of equals. You must give me your location, and name at once, then send me a picture of yourself. Even if I grow you, you will still be half-an-inch tall to me. I will think about how we can do this. Or I must just kill you. That is a risk you have to take”……

John was finally in luck! The government must have hacked into the Goddess’ phone. He could hear her speaking and saw her using her phone! Now was his chance…as soon as she hung up with Ari, he dialed…..

Belle got another phone call. This time, it was from one of her contacts. One of her ex-boyfriend’s friends. She smiled slightly. Was he paying homage? Was he horny? Or was he impotently horny and ripe to be toyed with? But John spoke first. “Belle” he said. “I want you to remember the good times. Do you remember when your favorite aunt died and we all took you on vacation? Just because you broke up soon after that isn’t the point. You have to remember the good in spite of the bad. That’s the only way you can live, not through hollow acts of mass carnage”.  Belle of course, didn’t like that. “You’re awfully bold, speck. Why don’t you tell me where you are so I can address this….”. But John was not fearful. “I’m already on you” he replied. “I wanted to try and reason with you, so before you grew the 2nd time, I grabbed onto your heel at the nuclear plant. I made it to the upper curve of your ass when you grew the 2nd time, and that’s how I’ve survived, resting on this gentle slope”.  Belle was a little turned on. She’d always thought of John as extremely attractive and what he had done was insane. He truly was someone who could not be controlled. She would have to talk to him more closely. “Which cheek are you above, hun?” she asked him. John gulped. What was she planning to do? “Uhhh left”. “Ok. Hold still”. Belle grabbed the growth ray and fired it at the speck on her ass, causing him to grow to just over 800 feet, or about half an inch tall to Belle. She quickly brought her arm around and clinched him between her right index finger and thumb, bringing John to her face.