Under My Skin

Under My Skin - Part 3

Louis stood on a lab table inside the inner lab room, his shades off, holding a medicine ball before him. And he was less than three inches tall. A BT sensor panel buzzed next to him, and he glared at it. If he had a gun he'd shoot it, right in the power cord.

Louis tapped the microphone attached to his earpiece, talking to Rachel who hovered over him like a giant from Gulliver's Travels. "Okay, so I can shrink things as long as I can hold them or touch them while I shrink."

Rachel nodded and glanced at the readings on the BT screen, marking things down on her clipboard. "According to the readings you can extend the electrical field of your body to anything you can physically touch. We'll have to try something organic next. Then we'll test whether or not you can shrink things without having to shrink yourself."

"Great," muttered Louis, sidestepping away from the BT.

Rachel set down her clipboard and sat in a chair in front of the table. "Now, level with me. How are you sleeping?"

Louis bounced the medicine ball her way, his jaw tense. He was getting average 6 hours a night. Having dreams about sliding back down William's throat didn't matter, and Rachel didn't need to know about them. "I'm sleeping fine."

"And what about waking?" The Head Med Tech rolled the small ball around in her hands, her tone persistent.

Louis rolled his eyes. "I haven't woken up in my shrunken form in over a week."

"And what would happen if I took a picture of you with a flash camera?"

He growled. "You'd have a very pissed off agent standing six feet tall on your table."

Rachel huffed. "Louis, you need to control this, practice. The BT shows that the energy patterns that react with light are connected in lines that lead straight to you brain. You must have some control over it. What'll you do if your sunglasses fall off on a sunny day and you find yourself three inches tall on a busy sidewalk?"

"I got the point, practice. Can I un-shrink now?" snapped Louis.

Rachel shook her head in resignation. "In a bit. I need some—"

Cetz's voice came in over the intercom. "Rachel, is Louis there with you?"

Louis grimaced, the voice almost booming to his sensitive ears.

"Yes I am!" he shouted.

"Good," the boss replied. "Meeting, in fifty-five minutes. Important." The intercom clicked off.

Louis lifted an eyebrow. "Finally, some action. See ya!"

Rachel stuck his pen in his way. "No, you're going to stay and finish these tests. We have plenty of time."

Louis growled and bounced the medicine ball on the table. "If I wasn't afraid you'd stuff me in a Pez dispenser, I'd call you something very rude right now."

***

At ten in the morning, everyone vital sat in the meeting room with Cetz at the front. The head of Watch Two looked like he had been up all night, and not open to any arguments. William took his seat next to Louis, who seemed grouchier now that he had that morning.

"How was your appointment?" asked Will.

"Don't ask." Louis winched, rubbing his eyes and putting his sunglasses on.

Cetz clapped his hands and everyone turned to him.

"Good morning kids. At 0845 this morning we received a mission outline from Base One." Cetz turned on the projector. A beak-nosed man with a balding head and a lab coat was pictured.

"Doctor Terrance Palmer, a Bio Engineer, has been working with the government for the past five years, until three months ago. He was in the process of designing a virus, the details of which are unknown. Doctor Palmer disappeared along with his research and prototypes. Now he has shown up as the right hand man of an underground weapons distributor headed by..."

A wave of the projector wand showed the picture of a squat-faced man with squished features and a bulb for his nose. "Randal Kore, iron monger and black market favorite, is now spreading out into weaponry other than a flash and boom. From what all our resources can tell, Doctor Palmer's virus is finished, but not yet assimilated into weapons."

The picture of the entrance of a mine shaft came up.

"The prototype has been hidden in the Webster mines up north in the Wilson nature reserve, along with a lot of other contraband. The mission: retrieve the virus, and set up surveillance. Some of you will be setting up and checking for movement and patterns along the outer perimeter, others will be waiting as back up. You will be briefed with further details by your Section Heads. Move out."

As the staff moved out, Cetz waved the two agents over.

"I'm going to need you two to be the ones to go in and get the virus."

"Why us?" asked Will.

"Because Louis's arm is fine, your leg and arm is beyond fine, and..." Cetz leaned in close. "I want the two of you to check around the mines for anything resembling our own equipment."

Will frowned, the gears turning in his head. "Do you think they managed to steal from a Watch Base? Or..."

Louis cocked an eyebrow and his voice lowered. "Or were they given it?"

Cetz sucked his lips together. "I don't know yet. Just keep your eyes peeled and don't tell anyone else about it except me and Rachel. 'kay?"

"What are you not telling us?" asked Louis.

"Ask me when this mission is over. Then I might have some answers." Cetz stepped back into his office. If he was lucky, he could get in an hour of sleep.

Will chewed his bottom lip, hands on his hips as he followed Louis. "You have that look on your face."

Louis unclenched his hands. "What look?"

"Like you want to throttle someone. You don't like being left out of the loop."

"Duh, fanboy," said Louis as he headed back to his desk and drained the dregs of his cold coffee. "But that's his job sometimes."

"If you know that then why are you so tense?"

"Because it means he might not trust us."

William wanted to point out that Louis rarely even trusted him, but kept silent. He went to his desk, gathered a folder, and then headed for Massaru's room in the Med wing.