A Whateley Academy Tale

Whisper

by Sleethr

** Chapter 36 **

We turn onto the long driveway of a really nice house. It’s not a mansion or anything, but it looks expensive to me. Now, my parents aren’t poor, but our house is very normal looking compared to Uncle Jim’s house.  His house looks very new and it has a three car garage. From the outside, his house looks very open, modern and custom. Not at all cookie-cutter like the houses in my neighborhood. I also notice that his lawn looks perfect and that makes me extra glad that I live in New Mexico because I would hate to have to mow their yard.  It is friggen huge and I hope they have a riding lawnmower or can pay someone to cut it for them in the summer.

As we pull into the garage, I notice a very new Mercedes GL450.  So new that it still has the temporary tags on it. Wow. I really hope that Uncle Jim can adopt me for a few days.  I also notice a weird looking green mower that has levers on each side instead of a steering wheel.  Hmm, that could be kind of fun, too bad it’s not summer.  Maybe I could have earned some extra money by offering to cut their yard.

“Okay Bree, I mean Chloe, can you reactivate your Chloe disguise?  I think it might make our story more credible if she is able to see you change with her own eyes.” Uncle Jim asks as he turns off his car.

“Oh, sure.” I say as I concentrate on being 100% Chloe again.

“Plus, there is still that big manhunt that is going on for you right now.  While I am pretty sure that we don’t have any additional company, I wouldn’t want to take the chance.”

I cast the spell and once again, I feel the magic settle over my body.  This time I did not forget the purse or the sound effects for my shoes.

“Wow.  Seeing magic in GEO when you know it isn’t real is kind of cool, but seeing it done for real is just incredible.” Uncle Jim says.

I can’t help it, I feel myself blush from his praise and I have to admit that it is pretty cool, but once again, I wish that I didn’t have to get turned into a girl to have cool magical powers.  

While I am opening my door, Uncle Jim surprises me again by racing over to the passenger side and helping me out of the car.  That causes me to blush some more.  “Thanks, but you didn’t really have to do that for me.” I say.

“I know.” He says with a smirk.

I struggle to come up with more reasons why he didn’t need to help me, while at the same time, I find that for some reason, I kind of like it.  It actually helps me find my inner ‘Chloe’ and get back into character.  I am not looking forward to facing his wife and the more armor I can wrap myself in, the better.

Uncle Jim leads me into the house by opening the door and holding it open for me. “Here we go.”

My high heel sound effects made some noise on the concrete floor of the garage, but they make a very definite clicking sound on the tiled entry way.  I cringe at how loud they sound to my ears.  His home smells clean, new and yummy.  I mean, the smell of fresh cooked food coming from somewhere in the house smells yummy to my nose and that makes my stomach growl once more.

Uncle Jim removes his shoes at the door. “Honey!  I’m home!” He yells.

Crap, now I am going to need to tweak the illusion to remove my shoes.  

He notices my concerned expression as I look down from his feet to my feet. “You can just leave them on for now.”  He says.

My targeting system paints a pair of red brackets around a tall blond haired woman as she turns the corner.  Well, taller than me.  My system helpfully supplies me with all of her stats and measurements, but I don’t really need to know that she is exactly 3.89 inches taller than me to feel a little vulnerable. It did identify her as an ‘enemy’, I just entered her den with her husband and based on the phone conversation, I expect her to maul me at any second.  She doesn’t look ‘that’ tough. I think that I can take her.  

That’s what I try to tell myself, but I am frozen into inaction. I don’t know how to handle this kind of situation.  This is just not a scenario that has ever crossed my mind as a possibility.  Jealous boyfriend mad at me for looking at or stealing his girlfriend, yes, but jealous wife mad at me for looking at or stealing her husband, heck no!

“Julie, I am sorry that I didn’t call you sooner, but this is our ‘niece’, Chloe.” Uncle Jim reaches over and gently pulls me forward by steering me by my shoulders.  “Chloe, this is my wife, Julie.” He says.

It does not escape my notice that he calls me by my newest alias and now I am kind of wishing I had came up with a better name.  I just don’t feel like a ‘Chloe’, although, I don’t really feel like a Brianna either so I guess one more new name is not much of a difference.  “Hi!” I manage to squeak out as my brilliant reply.

I find Julie’s, umm Mrs. Stiles’ expression hard to read as she studies me for a second before she glances back up and past me to her husband’s face.  I can’t tell if she is pissed or not. Her expression shifts to concern as she rushes forward.  

Now I am really stuck and I don’t know how to respond.  It doesn’t look like she is trying to attack me, but it also doesn’t look like she is trying to give her husband a hug.  I am kind of in the way for the hug her husband scenario.  

I can’t decide. I am pretty sure that A is bad, while B is not an option either. I think that I am already doing option C, which confuses me about option D.  What is “Other”?  It shouldn’t surprise me, but it does, when she grabs my hands.

“Oh, you poor dear!  You look positively terrified.” She quickly steals a glance back at Uncle Jim before turning back to look at me. “Did you run into that Whisper person that they are talking about in the news? Is that why Jim brought you home?  Are you a witness? Is that why Jim called you our ‘niece’?” Mrs. Stiles asks, while she gently, but firmly pulls me down the short hall, away from the relative safety of Uncle Jim and into a large open space that appears to be the living room.  

She directs me to sit beside her a comfy looking tan suede fabric couch, I turn to look back at Uncle Jim and he just gives me the look that says, “Go with it, for now.” I glance back at Mrs. Stiles and my attention is diverted by the live news report that is playing on a large LCD or Plasma TV mounted above a gas fireplace.  The TV is muted, but it looks like they are talking about me.

Mrs. Stiles notices my gauze. “Oh, here.  Let me turn that thing off. It is probably pretty alarming for you anyway.” She says as she reaches for the remote that is sitting on a side table next to us.

“No!” I accidentally yell, then blush from the shame and lower my voice. “Umm, sorry, but can you turn it up instead? I kind of want to know what they are saying about this, umm, Whisper person.”

Mrs. Stiles glances back to Uncle Jim, which is starting to confuse me a bit because I am thinking of Mr. Stiles as Uncle Jim, but her as Mrs. Stiles. I just don’t feel comfortable calling her by her first name. She is an adult, but I also don’t feel comfortable thinking of her as Aunt Julie either.  Uncle Jim looks interested in finding out what they are saying about me too. He nods his head yes.

The sound on the TV comes to life with voice of a stereotypical square jawed and ruggedly handsome anchorman who is paired with a petite and pretty blond anchorwoman. “...FBI officials are reporting that the suspect in the deadly shooting rampage that was reported to have left one off-duty police officer and two DPA agents dead might not be who they are looking for.”

“The suspect known only as ‘Whisper’, seen here in this photo helpfully supplied by the MCO, made the news last night during a seemingly random attack by the mutant hate group known as Humanity First.  This station is still trying to uncover the details surrounding that attack, but so far the FBI has been unwilling to release any information due to it being a ‘pending investigation.’” The male anchorman says with some skepticism, with the ‘pending investigation’ part of the story.

All the ‘suspect’ and ‘reported’ connotations are starting to annoy me.  He is talking like he doesn’t really believe the words. I imagine that he is really thinking ‘guilty as sin mutant criminal’ when he uses the word ‘suspect’.

The blond anchorwoman takes over the story. “However; The FBI has issued an update regarding the newest incident that may or may not involve this unknown mutant known only as ‘Whisper’ by stating that the off-duty police officer initially reported as dead, is actually alive. However; he is currently listed in critical, but stable condition at Norfolk General Hospital.  Additionally, the head of the DPA has issued a statement indicating that after a careful audit of all of their agents, they have no DPA agents in the area.  The DPA appears to be as mystified as the FBI and the local police as to who the rumored DPA agents are that initially reported the attack and who the DPA agents that we reported killed by this Whisper suspect could be. More on this breaking story during our ten o’clock news hour.”

“Next up, is your trash being illegally dumped in the ocean?”

Mrs. Stiles catches our mutual glances. “Jim, what’s going on?” She asks.

His phone begins to softly vibrate, but it looks like he is going to ignore it to respond to his wife.  “Umm, Uncle Jim?” I say, cringing a little at myself for using that name while I notice Mrs. Stiles’ shocked expression. “You probably should answer that one.”

He turns back to look at me with a surprised expression. “I don’t know, but it is probably Mr. Reilly using a secure phone or something.” I whisper as he pulls out his phone and fumbles it a little in his haste to answer it before it stops ringing.

Mrs. Stiles looks back and forth between the two of us with even more alarm. “Jim?”

“Hello?” Uncle Jim cautiously says with a apologetic glance at his wife before he turns to look at me.

Of course, I listen in on the call.  

“Is this James Stiles?” I hear Mr. Reilly’s voice ask.

Is that really Mr. Reilly?

Okay, so it sounds like him and it most likely is him, but it could be the CIA pretending to be him.  “Mr. Reilly, 93.3 percent match.” I whisper and shrug my shoulders.

Uncle Jim gives me a slight nod. “Yes, why? Who is this?” He asks, sounding a little cautious.

“Sorry, DARPA Deputy Director Nicholas Reilly speaking, but before we get into the introductions, I would like to personally thank you for assisting us with both Whisper’s medical investigation and now, her latest, umm, adventure.”  

I tense up with excitement and smile. “Yep! Mr. Reilly, 99.8 percent match.” I whisper, automatically rounding up to the nearest 10th. My math teacher would be so proud.

“Well, I am glad that I could help, sir.” Uncle Jim says.

“You didn’t have to, but we are all very glad that you did.” Mr. Reilly says.

Mrs. Stiles looks startled at Uncle Jim referring to someone as ‘sir’.  “Jim!  What is going on?” She asks with an increased level of urgency as she looks back and forth between the two of us with confusion.

Mrs. Stiles is totally out of the loop and based on her expression, she doesn’t appear to be too happy about that. I look over at the TV.  I think that I could connect to the TV’s speakers and route the audio to that so Mrs. Stiles can listen in, but that might end up being too loud.  I spot an expensive looking cordless phone on a nearby end-table. I hold up my hand to signal Mrs. Stiles to wait a second as I walk over to their home phone. As soon as I touch the phone, I match frequencies and remove it from its cradle. Then, I tell it to receive the active call and I rebroadcast the current call to it.  Satisfied with my results, I race back over and hand her the phone.

“...and with me, I have General Evans, Admiral Jensen, Captain Howards, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Townsend.”

I am a little startled that Mr. Reilly has an Admiral there and that he names Captain Howards instead of calling him Mr. Smith, but I guess there is no reason for the secrecy with him now and “Mr. Smith” as a name sounds so fake anyway.  I know that Captain Howards is a Navy SEAL, but what is an Admiral doing there?  Is that Captain Howards’ boss?

Mrs. Stiles looks more confused than angry and upset now. “What is going on?” She asks with her hand over her phone’s microphone.

“Umm, it’s Mr. Reilly, my Mom and, umm, some other people.” I softly whisper to her, but I don’t think that my explanation helps her.

Mr. Reilly starts off by getting directly to business by outlining the problems that  my kidnapping has caused and that someone in the CIA has made worse. Well, I think he mostly blames the CIA and not me, but I still feel somewhat guilty about it.  I shouldn’t have let Michelle lead me out of the lobby.  There were so many red flags that I ignored until it was too late.

He also hints at, but does not let slip the fact that the freaking President of the United States of America is involved in this too. He just says, “Some people in Washington”, but Uncle Jim already heard the story from me, so he gets the reference.

“Okay sir. What can we do to help?” Uncle Jim says after a slight pause while he studies his anxious looking wife.

“Actually, you already are helping.  However; I need to ask another favor of you.” Mr. Reilly says.

“Okay. If we can...” Uncle Jim says conditionally and that starts to make me worry.

“I won’t sugar coat the situation. It could be risky to you and your wife, but the folks in DC need a few days to clean house here and after discussing it, we feel that Whisper would be safer with you than anyone else right now.  You are 100% under the radar and completely unknown to anyone outside of this room, but would you be willing to host Whisper until Friday evening or Saturday morning?”

Uncle Jim looks over at his wife.  She glances over at me and reads my desperate expression. I would love nothing better than to be with my mom and Mr. Reilly right now, but if they all feel that I would be safer here with Uncle Jim, then I want to stay here. She thinks about it for a brief second before she nods her acceptance before looking back at Uncle Jim. “Yes.” She says, simply.

“Yes sir, that would be fine with my wife and me. Is there anything else that I can do?” Uncle Jim asks.

“No more than you already are, Mr. Stiles, and I think that just about covers everything.  Does anyone else have any additional agenda items that we should discuss?  General Evans? Admiral Jensen? No? Okay, Mrs. Peters, as a parent of a ‘gifted’ daughter myself, I know that this is difficult for you, but is there anything that you would like to say to her before we end this call?” Mr. Reilly asks.

“Umm, yes.  I love you sweetie and I am glad that you are safe!” My mom yells over the speakerphone.

“I love you too, Mom.” I say as my voice breaks from the tears that start to well up in my eyes.

“Now, I expect you to be on your best behavior and listen to Mr. and Mrs. Stiles. Oh yeah, and stay out of trouble, no malls! Please?” My mom says with a note of humor in her last instruction.    

“Yes, Mom. I will. I love you.” I say with a laugh and a sniffle. I can count on my mom to both comfort and order me around in a predictable parental fashion.  Mrs. Stiles gives my shoulders another squeeze.

“Love you, see you soon.” My mom says in a rush just before the line goes silent and we are disconnected.

“Well, that is certainly not what I expected when Jim said that he was bringing a female guest to our house tonight.” Mrs. Stiles says with a mischievous quirk of her lips.

“Umm, sorry, Mrs. Stiles.” I say.

She pats my hand reassuringly before she stands up, walks over to her husband and gives him a hug and a kiss.  “Now, dinner is ready. Let’s eat. I think that we can break the ‘no business’ rule during dinner this one time and discuss all this...” She waves her hands around with a gesture that indicates everything. “...while we eat. Right, Uncle Jim, dear?”  She asks, looking at Uncle Jim with a smug expression.

“Of course, Jewels.” He says with a nervous glance at me.  

The Whisper operation was supposed to be a relatively simple snatch and grab, tag and release operation. Yes, it was technically illegal for the CIA to perform an active operation on CONUS soil and even more so, against a DOD facility, but the CIA was used to bending the rules when needed.  His team had performed many successful operations against far harder targets in the past. Plus, all those terrorists in Gitmo and valuable intelligence leads didn’t happen by following the law.  The law was meant to help the innocent, not the guilty.

The only part that went according to plan was the first part.  The target should not have been able shake off the sedative effects so quickly.  Their ‘borrowed’ test data indicated that the sedative should have been more than adequate to keep the target safely unconscious for at least six hours.  Even with that SNAFU, his operatives were highly skilled and very competent. Yes, the target had some enhanced physical abilities, but she should not have been able to escape and evade his operatives so easily.

Based on Mirage’s reports, it had to have been magic that she used to escape, but she had only tested out as a one with her wizard rating. She was untrained and with that rating, the target should be barely able to light a candle without a match. How had she been able to confuse and misdirect his agents so easily?

Director Falk surprised himself by not feeling surprised when two Internal Affairs agents opened the door and entered his office unannounced.  He spotted at least four more agents standing outside his door handling the rest of his staff.  “Director Falk. Your presence is requested in Deputy Director Adamson’s office immediately.”

He wondered how his operation had been compromised.  Did his Deputy turn him into IA?  As he was escorted out of his office, he spotted his deputy being questioned by IA and he did not look happy about it.  So, it probably wasn’t him.  Did his operatives turn themselves in and finger him?  He also doubted that because they were still in the field and not in contact with anyone.  Did his NSA contact get caught and raise suspicions by pointing to him or did the target somehow hack into the CIA?

He mulled over the scenarios as he was escorted through the halls and rode up the elevator to the ‘executive’ floor.  If the target had hacked into the CIA and exposed him, then that would actually be the best for his case against her.  If his NSA contact had fingered him, then he could simply explain it away by saying that he saw her on the news and was curious.  Just performing his due diligence in the interest of National Security.

Well, except that IA was questioning his deputy and it was highly unlikely that his deputy wouldn’t tell them everything that he knew.  

Crap.  I guess I will just have to offer the CIA my resignation and retire a few years early. Joannie will probably like that anyway. I do owe her a few vacations, real vacations, not working vacations.

CIA Deputy Director Adamson’s expression was set in stone as Falk entered his office. Adamson nodded and with that cue, the two IA Agents escorting him silently turned, exited the office and silently closed the door behind themselves.

Adamson sighed, leaned back in his chair and directed Falk to one of the chairs setup in front of his desk.  “This probably isn’t going to take that long, but go ahead and sit, please.”

As ordered, Falk walked over and sat down. He noticed that there was a single sheet of paper lying directly in front of Adamson and that was the only bit of stationary on his desk. It looked like a standard resignation form.

Adamson leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his desk. “Brian, I don’t think that I need to tell you that you royally stepped on your dick by authorizing this op, do I?” Adamson said getting right to the point.

“No sir.”

“Your record is excellent. You were a good field agent and a great Operations Director, but I am afraid that I am going to have to request your resignation.”

“Yes sir, I understand and I just want to go on record and state that my Deputy advised me against this operation, but I overruled him.”

“That is admirable and I will make a note of it, but why did you go ahead and do it?”

“Based on the data and my past experiences with the PALM AI task force and a similar individual, it was and still is my opinion that this Whisper girl could be a grave risk to our nation’s National Security.  She needs to be evaluated by a trusted third party.  Someone who knows what to look for and  is not corruptible or easily influenced into hiding or covering up the results.”

“I see. I will make a note of that and pass it on to the Director. Well, here is your letter.” Adamson said as he slid the letter forward for Falk to sign.

Falk quickly read it and it appeared to be the standard letter.  No hidden or tricky legalize ticked away between other sentences.  He signed it using Adamson’s own fancy gold pen that had been conveniently placed on his side of the desk, just for that purpose.

“Thank you, Brian, for reacting so professionally about this.” Adamson said with a relieved smile.

“No problem sir, I’ve been around long enough. I know how it works.” Falk said. He knew that The President only had another year and a half in office and that with his record he could always work as a consultant until the CIA could quietly reinstate him after the political situation changed.

“Your personal items will be boxed and delivered to your home as soon as our investigation is complete.  I will take your badge now and provide you with an escort to your vehicle. Also, please consider this your official notice to not try to leave the country or we will have to have you detained and I think we both know what that means, right?”

“Yes, sir.”  Former Operations Director Falk said as the blood drained from his face when the hidden implications sank in.  He had just been given his burn notice. There would be no consulting options available to him. No one would want to touch him.  The only way he could get rid of a burn notice was to figure out some way of redeeming himself.  He knew that Whisper was a danger, but now it looked like it was up to him to find a way to prove it.

Dinner with the Stiles proves to be somewhat of a relief for me.  Not only is the food good, but Mrs. Stiles, I mean, Aunt Julie, as she insists that I call her since that is my ‘cover’ to use secret agent terms, cooked a salmon filet just for me so that I wouldn’t feel left out while they ate what looked like some delicious stuffed pork chops.  The salmon was delish, but I really miss my old taste buds.

It takes a bit longer than 30 minutes for me to repeat my story and bring Aunt Julie up to date.  It takes longer this time because I am eating, but also because when I tell her that I got shot in the back only two hours ago, she insists on giving me an examination. She raises a skeptical eyebrow when I try to tell her that  my latissimus dorsi thing, as well as my kidney and small intestine are 100% healed, but the doctor in her will not accept that as an answer.

That adds even more time to my story since I have to drop my Chloe illusion in order for her to even see where I was shot at.  Uncle Jim is only a little surprised to see me 100% in the flesh, but Aunt Julie is positively stunned.  I don’t think that she really believed me when I said that I can do magic on myself and maybe other people.  

However, Aunt Julie quickly recovers, grabs a small medical bag, complete with a cold stethoscope, and marches me into the bathroom so that she can examine me in private.  She gasps at the sight of the huge hole that my nanites ate when they tried to clean my clothes. Even though there isn’t much left of my top in the back, she still makes me remove it so that she can examine my back.  Of course, she doesn’t find anything wrong with me.  She does find a reason to listen to my heart and lungs with the freezing cold stethoscope.  I know that she pulled her bag out of a closet and not the freezer, but I think Uncle Jim needs to check that closet’s ventilation or something.

Reluctantly, she concludes that I am healthy, but she insists that I wait in the bathroom while she retrieves me a spare top from her closet. She returns with an iridescent dark green silk spaghetti strap camisole that I think is kind of a pretty color. It should go well with my eyes and complexion.

Pretty? Eyes and complexion match? Did I really just think that?  That’s it! I am deleting Amanda’s wicked, evil magazine the first chance I get tonight!

“Sorry, but this is the only thing that I have that might not be too big for you and made of silk.  It was one of my favorite tops when I was in high school and it was what I wore on my first date with Jim, but I guess it shrunk, or something.” Aunt Julie says with a wry grin.

Her explanation startles me and distracts me from my evil girlish fashion thoughts. Her top is old, like over 10 years, but it still looks new.  She must really like this top.  “Oh, no! Aunt Julie, I can’t wear that.  I am not doing that well with my clothes lately. What happens if I wreck it?” I ask.

She laughs. “Oh, don’t worry about that Chloe. I can’t wear it and I have other things to remember him with now.  It’s just a top.”

Reluctantly, I try it on and it is still a size too large for me, but with the straps adjusted and the bottom tucked into my jeans, it is hard to tell. I do notice that my bra straps are showing and I also recall how much I noticed it when any part of a girl’s bra showed.  For me and all the guys, it was like seeing a glimpse of the forbidden fruit, melons to be exact, and we loved to try to guess the color and style of her panties based on her bra color.

However; I am pretty sure that we would never have guessed that a girl might not be wearing any panties. Wow! That would have really blown our minds and added an entirely new dimension to our little guessing game.  I look down at my bra and I can’t help it, I grin and even worse, I think that from now on, when I see another girl wearing a black bra; I am going to accidentally wonder if she is wearing panties or not.

“Yes, my old top looks pretty nice on you, but why aren’t you wearing any underwear?” Aunt Julie asks, misinterpreting my grin and distracting me from my bra concerns.

I feel myself blushing pretty hard due to my previous thoughts and I am glad that she’s not my mom.  That would have been totally embarrassing. “Umm, I haven’t made it to that part of the story yet and is it okay that my bra straps are showing?” I ask deflecting her from my missing panties problem.

Aunt Julie sees right through my redirection and shows that with a slight pause. “It’s fine dear, but normally you would want to wear a strapless bra for support or a light sweater to cover the straps when you wear that kind of top.”

“Oh, okay.” I say, feeling a little bewildered by all the rules for girl clothes. Why do boobs have to cause so much trouble?

Uncle Jim doesn’t say a word about my lack of a disguise or the fact that I am wearing Aunt Julie’s favorite old top from their first date when we finally rejoin him at the table. He doesn’t even seem to notice the fact that my bra straps are showing.  Maybe old guys don’t notice those things like I did when I was younger. Umm, you know, like last week.  Not that Uncle Jim is really ‘that’ old, but he is at least 34 and that is kind of old.

I am able to finish my story and two more servings of Aunt Julie’s excellent salad with feta cheese, but by the time we finish dinner it is 1930 hrs, umm, 7:30pm and Uncle Jim is starting to look a little bored. Which seems strange to me because my day has been anything but boring for me. However, he keeps glancing at the clock.  Aunt Julie doesn’t seem to notice his nervous behavior, but then it hits me.  Tuesday night is raid night and the raid was due to have started 30 minutes ago.  He is late and he is the guild leader.

“Umm, Aunt Julie?” I ask.

“Yes, Chloe?” She asks.

My cover name is very strange to hear and respond too, but it is starting to get easier since both Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie have been using that name almost exclusively for me. It is like my story about Whisper, Brian and Brianna is Chloe’s story and not my own, very strange. “What time do the stores close?” I ask while knowing the answer already.  2100 hrs is pretty standard, but Virginia might have stores that close at 2000 hrs.

“Oh!  I need to get you some essentials!  Thanks for the reminder!” She says as she jumps up, grabs her purse and a notepad.  “I wish you could join me, but for now, what are your sizes?”

She quickly writes them down as I recite them for her. Then, in a rush, she grabs her purse, gives me a quick hug and after giving Uncle Jim a slightly longer quick hug and a borderline mushy kiss, she runs out of the door. As soon we hear the garage door close, Uncle Jim and I look at each other with that “What now?” expression.

“Raid?” I ask.

Uncle Jim’s eyes light up as he smiles at me. “Thanks, you don’t mind do you?”

“Nope.” I say, shaking my head slowly back and forth a few times.

“Well, I expect your ‘Aunt’ to not be back until well after 9 and loaded down with bags of clothes for you.”  He grins at me as my expression falters with his ‘bags of clothes’ assessment. “Hmmm, you know? I did load GEO on her laptop in an effort to get her to try the game.  You could play.  Maybe just to see if your character is still alive.”

I hesitate at his offer.  I am very curious to see if Whisper is still alive, but on the other hand, I am also very afraid to even touch a computer that is running or has run GEO.  “Umm, no thanks. Can I watch you instead? Maybe from across the room or something?”

Julie Stiles felt pretty pleased with herself. Her emergency shopping trip for Chloe was a success and she could not wait to get back home. Since she knew that Jim would not be able to take tomorrow off, or probably any time at all this week, she had already called her hospital’s patient scheduling service and had them cancel her appointments for the rest of this week.  Unfortunately, she still had to go in tomorrow afternoon for a quick visit to some of her more critically ill patients and it would mean more work next week to catch up her schedule with the canceled appointments from this week, but she felt that Chloe was worth it.  The poor girl has had such a rough last few days.  

Medically, she wasn’t sure if she could believe some of Chloe’s claims regarding her gender, race and the nanites, but she also didn’t really believe in magic until she saw her remove her illusionary disguise. She had seen magical super-heroes in the movies and even in the news, so she knew that magic existed, but she had never actually seen magic happen right in front of her eyes. Chloe’s little demonstration was a shocking and amazing at the same time.

The nano-technology was another thing that she had trouble believing, but the idea of what they could accomplish did excite and fascinate her though. The research into using nano scale particles in medicine was just starting to heat up and nano scale medicines showed a lot of potential, but the scale and sophistication of the nanites in Chloe’s system just seemed a bit too hard to believe.  While what Chloe described sounded possible, in the future; today, it sounded too much like science fiction to her.  

Chloe did seem a little more self conscious about her body than most girls her age.  In the four years that she has been a licensed pediatrician, Julie has examined hundreds of pre and post pubescent girls Chloe’s age and none of them acted as self-conscious and shy about their body as Chloe did.  Nor did girls her age need to ask if it was okay if their bra strap showed or not. Most girls her age would be proud to have a body and pair of breasts like Chloe, but Chloe just acted embarrassed and uncomfortable about herself the entire time that she examined her.

Julie made a mental note to herself to speak with some of her colleagues at the hospital to learn more about mutants, a BIT and if it was even possible to change genders as completely and as rapidly as Chloe claimed.  She knew that it was possible, due to hormonal imbalances, for boys to develop secondary female sexually characteristics, but she had never heard of primary sexual characteristic development post gestation.

During a brief lull in her shopping, Julie decided to call her sister-in-law, Karen. She knew that, as smart  an attorney as Jim was, it was a raid night in his game and his brain turned to mush on those nights.  So, she took it upon herself to call Karen and get her in on her ‘daughter’ Chloe’s cover. That way, if someone tried calling to ask how John and Karen’s daughter Chloe was doing; they would know how to respond.  Karen sounded excited to be helping out and assured her that she would talk to her husband, John, about Chloe.  Karen did ask what her ‘daughter’s’ middle name was and Julie wasn’t able to tell her.  So, between the two of them they decided that Chloe Jessica Stiles would be her name after rejecting ‘Amber’, ‘Lisa’ and ‘Ann’ in favor of being named after Karen’s mother.  Not once did she even mention to Karen that Chloe wasn’t Brianna’s real name.  One, that was information that Karen didn’t really need to know and two, Julie was so used to thinking of Brianna as Chloe, that Chloe just felt like it was the poor girl’s real name.

With that bit of skullduggery out of the way, Julie was able to dive into shopping for Chloe, but she had so much fun talking to her sister-in-law about girl names.  It almost felt like she was picking out a name for a baby.  She frowned a little at that thought.  It is not that she and Jim didn’t want to have a child of their own; they were both just too busy to raise a child.  Between finishing med school for her and law school for Jim, then building their careers and their home; they just decided that they didn’t have the time.  Sure, they talked about it every year or two, but always decided to put it off for another year.  Maybe she would have to bring the subject up and push Jim a little harder this year.  Neither one of them were getting any younger.

Shopping for complete sets of clothes for a girl had been a lot of fun and that experience just reinforced her decision to talk to Jim.  It kind of felt like she was shopping for her own daughter instead of a guest. It had been a little harder than she expected to find clothing made from natural fibers in Chloe’s size, but she had done it and it had only set her back a little over $800.  Fortunately, her normal stores were all high-end enough to carry the more ‘environmentally friendly’ brands.  Sadly, those brands were not cheaper, but Chloe didn’t really need a full closet.  She was only going to stay for a few days.

With that in mind, Julie found Chloe a pair of ankle boots with a two inch heel and that was only because she had mentioned how much she liked them in her story. She also bought her one pair of all purpose black pumps with a simple and sturdy two inch heel, a set of simple two piece cotton pajamas, slippers for walking around the house in, a half-dozen silk panties, none of them pink or overly frilly, two new bras plus one demi-bra, a few tops, two pairs of jeans, a medium length skirt, just in case, and two pairs of black leggings to go with the skirt. The leggings were 94% cotton, 6% spandex, so she hoped that they wouldn’t trigger an allergic reaction for her. Tights would have been better with the skirt, but finding natural fiber tights proved to be too difficult within the time constraints. Plus, with Chloe’s history, the skirt concerned her, but it was too good  a deal to pass up and she thought that it would look very cute on her.  

She wanted to get her a modest one piece swim suit, but once again, natural fibers were hard to find in swimwear. However, she did find Chloe a cute Tahiti green two piece 100% cotton bikini, just in case she wanted to use the Jacuzzi. With all the power shopping she just did, she hoped that Chloe would want to join her for a relaxing dip when she got home. Jim probably jumped into his office to play the game before she even made it out of the driveway and he probably didn’t even show Chloe around the house like a good host should.

As she walked to her car, multiple high-end store logo bags in hand, she sighed with frustration.

Men!

As she got close enough to her car for her remote to unlock the doors, she noticed that there was an older teenager, maybe young 20 year old man in sort of scruffy clothes angling toward her with an intense look in his eyes.  He kind of scared her. So, she picked up her pace and rushed the remaining 20 or so feet to reach the safety of her car.

[HONK!]

“Ahh!” She screamed just as she reached for her door handle.  She was so focused on opening it, jumping in and locking it behind her that she never noticed the new black mustang with a Department of Defense sticker on the windshield that stopped behind her car.

“Sorry ma’am!” The male driver yelled out his rapidly opening window. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but do you mind if I grab your spot when you pull out?”

Julie found herself giggle with relief.  She glanced over at the man who was following her to find that he had turned around and was heading away as rapidly as possible without making it look too obvious.  

Phew, that was close!

She turned back to the gentleman in the mustang. “Sure, sorry. Lemme just put my bags in and I will pull right out for you!”

“Thanks ma’am!  Oh, wait!  I think I see an open spot over there!” He said before he lightly gunned his car’s motor and jetted over to an open space that was even closer to the mall entrance.  

As she drove past them, Julie couldn’t help smiling at and waving to the two men who were obviously in the military as they exited their car and walked toward the mall’s entrance.

MCO Special Agent Lainer was not happy.  This was the second time that the DoD’s pet mutant slipped away from him, but this time; he didn’t even have a photo or reliable eyewitness account to prove that she was even in the same time zone. For that matter, according to the U.S. Government, Whisper didn’t even exist and he might have started to believe that himself, if that prick, DARPA Deputy Director Nicholas Reilly hadn’t stopped him taking her into ‘protective custody’ by producing a MMID card for the girl.  

He had to admit though, as soon as he reported the H1! incident to his superiors and mentioned the fact that Nicholas Reilly was involved, shit started happening.  So, he figured that this Mr. Reilly guy must have pissed off someone pretty high up in the MCO chain of command once or twice before.  He had the full weight and support of the MCO behind his investigation of this Whisper mutant.

Unfortunately, even with that support, all he had now were the statements given to the police by two DPA agents who might not even be DPA agents.  No one knew one way or the other and the DPA steadfastly denied even having any agents in the area. He smelled a rat though. Something happened in Norfolk tonight. If it was nothing, then why were the FBI, CIA, DPA, DHS and the DOD, just to name a few, all in a tizzy? Why did the FBI pay so much attention to the MCO’s search and investigation of the mall?  

The mall had security cameras!  That was it!  He made a few calls and discovered that even though the Feds had already carted off the day’s feed, the mall security office had backups available and even better; their head of security was rightfully worried about the mutant threat and he was more than willing to let his agents make an unofficial copy of them.

Now, all he had to do was wait for the copies to arrive at his office, then spend the hours poring over the footage in the hopes that something would jump out at him that would give him a lead.  He didn’t care how long it took. He was positive that he would find something on the footage that would lead him to Whisper.

I sit off to the side and watch with a surprising amount of envy as Uncle Jim starts up GEO and logs into his account.  When he gets to the character selection screen, I am also surprised to discover that he has a low level cleric alt with a female name, but he clicks right into Lord Vincint without ever selecting her. So, I don’t know what she looks like, but now I am curious.

“You made a cleric alt and it let you?” I ask, bypassing the gender question to get to the heart of the matter.  GEO is really good about limiting your options to professions that match your personality and Uncle Jim’s paladin character, Lord Vincint, seems to match Uncle Jim perfectly.  So how was he able to make a cleric?  Clerics heal and while Lord Vincint is a paladin and can do some healing, Paladins are more warrior based and seem to fit his personality better.

While Lord Vincint loads, Uncle Jim turns his head to face me. “That was Julie’s character, from when I tried to get her to play.” He says.

“Oh.” I say because there isn’t much else I can think to say as a reply.  I think that it is kind of cool that Aunt Julie even tried to play GEO.  My parents and Lindsay never even bothered trying to like the game.

I shift to my magical sight to distract me from my envy and I watch as the game somehow creates a tiny magical link to Uncle Jim via his mouse.  It is barely even noticeable and I probably wouldn’t have even spotted it if I didn’t know to look for it. As I lean in to examine his mouse a little closer, a tiny tendril of magical energy that is barely the size of a hair separates from his mouse and starts to move in my direction.

“Holy shit!” I say with a gasp as I jump back a few feet.

“What? What is it?” Uncle Jim asks as he pushes his chair back, stands up and looks around trying to spot what spooked me.

I point down to his desk. “Your mouse, when you logged into GEO, your mouse started to, umm, glow a little from some sort of magic.”

“Huh?” Uncle Jim asks as he looks down at his innocent looking mouse with concern and confusion.

“Umm, yeah, when they investigated my problem back at the lab, they noticed that Brenda’s computer had some magical residue on it. They think that GEO somehow uses magic to create a link between the game and the player.  That is why the game seems to understand and adapt to the player more than you would expect and that could be part of the reason why I got changed.”

Uncle Jim takes another step back while looking at his mouse like it turned into a snake. “Is it safe?”

“Umm, I think so?” I hesitantly say, as I shrug my shoulders.

Uncle Jim looks back to his mouse and now his character is waiting patiently for him on the screen.  He carefully reaches down and touches his mouse again, almost like he is expecting it to shock him or something now.  I watch as the magic reconnects with him and when he doesn’t get shocked, he glances back at me.  “Is it doing anything now?”

“Umm, yes.” I say as he quickly snatches his hand back from his mouse.  “But, it only seems to be forming a very weak connection. It is probably safe.  I mean, I’m really the only person out of hundreds of thousands of people who has had a problem with it, right?”

Uncle Jim gingerly reaches forward again and this time he doesn’t snatch his hand away. He moves his mouse a few times and looking reassured, he slowly eases himself back into his chair and rolls it forward to play the game.  After a few minutes of controlling his character and not getting zapped by anything, he relaxes and seems to forget about it while he enjoys the game.  

I continue to watch and listen to him play, but I retreat to the middle of the room where I feel safe from GEO’s magic.

Lord Vincint apologizes to the guild for being late, but he is quickly forgiven when the evil Dark forces attempt to mount an attack on the Light forces position.  It is a close battle, but Lord Vincint’s active participation seems to make all the difference as the evil player character Marala’s forces are defeated and forced to retreat back to their stronghold.

“You should...” I start to tell him that he should counterattack them now, while they are disorganized, but he beats me to it by jumping onto his waiting warhorse and leading an attack to accomplish that idea. I guess that he doesn’t really need my help with advice from the back seat.  That really makes me wish I was playing, because as Whisper, I could have scouted the enemy’s stronghold and told Lord Vincint where the weakest points were.

The charge led by Lord Vincint smashes into the retreating rear of the enemy, taking them completely by surprise. It also takes the folks manning the gates of their stronghold by surprise since Lord Vincint’s mounted forces are able to enter Marala’s stronghold via the open gate while they belatedly try to close it.  Lord Vincint slaughters the Dark force’s NPCs manning the gate controls and that allows the rest of our forces to quickly gain control of the stronghold’s outer defenses.  

It’s pretty much over for the evil Marala at that point, but she still manages to surprise our forces and inflict more than a few casualties before Lord Vincint finally manages to break through and seize control of her stronghold’s central command center slash throne room.

Protected by a small force of warriors wearing gleaming black plate mail, a very pretty and slightly demonic looking woman dressed mostly in black is standing on a raised dais in front of a glowing escape portal. I can’t help it as I find myself drawn a few feet closer to the screen so that I can study her face.

Whoever is playing her, Marala’s face reminds me a little of Sara, but she can’t be Sara, because Sara isn’t ‘that’ evil. Well, Sara did say that she plays and that she is on the evil side, but I still find it hard to believe that Sara could be Marala. I know that GEO is just a game and also more than just a game, but I’ve heard some pretty nasty stories about Marala.

It looks like she has claws or talons for finger nails because her hands are covered in fresh blood. I guess that she took an active role in taking out a few of our teams as they broke through Marala’s defenses. I watch as she casually licks some of the blood off her fingers and smiles, displaying her fangs while she waits to see if her remaining defenders will be able to stop Lord Vincint’s forces.

She totally reminds me of Sara with that sort of lazy and sensual smirking smile.

“Holy crap! I think that Marala is Sara!” I blurt out before I can stop myself.

Uncle Jim looks back at me with surprise. “What? Are you sure?”

Ashamed by my outburst and by the fact that if she is Sara, I just ratted her out to Lord Vincint, I blush. “Umm, not sure, no, but she does kind of sort of remind me of her.”

Uncle Jim turns back to his screen and appears to study her a bit closer, but before he can do anything about, Marala gestures toward her guards and takes a step backwards and towards the portal. Just one more step and she will enter the portal and escape.

“Damn you, Lord Vincint and your so called forces of ‘Light’!” Marala yells with a sneer that seems to tell me that she doesn’t really think we are the good guys here.

“You haven’t seen the last of me!” Marala snarls as she steps into the portal, followed by her honor guard.

I almost expected her to say, “I’ll get you, my pretty!”, but she doesn’t and now I am not really interested in watching Uncle Jim play GEO.  I am feeling a little upset and confused and I don’t feel comfortable being in the same room with someone playing GEO.

“Umm, I’m going to get some water. Do you want anything?” I ask.

“I’m good. Thanks.” Uncle Jim says without taking his eyes off his screen. He looks pretty busy managing the cleanup and ownership transfer of the stronghold into Light control.

So, I slip out of the room, grab a glass of water from the kitchen, take a few sips and plop myself down on the couch in the living room with a huge sigh.  Well, huge for me, but my ever vigilant girl behavior audit alerts me to the fact that I sounded like Lindsay when she’s depressed about something.  Okay, so maybe my girl behavior alert system isn’t all that reliable, but the last few days have been a little difficult for me.  I really wish that I could talk to Sara or Nikki right now, but that is probably not possible.  I just saw Sara, well, pretty sure I saw her, playing GEO. So, there is no way that she could jump into my head right now.  Besides, I’m not even in my head for her jump into; if that makes any sense.

I check my internal clock and it is only 2030 hours. Aunt Julie left at 1936 hours and Uncle Jim logged into GEO at 1940 hours.  I watched Uncle Jim play for almost an hour?  I find that hard to believe. It didn’t seem like it was that long.  

They have a very large and realistic looking gas fireplace built into the wall and I find myself staring at it, lost in thought as the flames dance around. After a few minutes of zoning out, I decide that I would probably be more comfortable if sit back and snuggle myself into the couch.

Crap!

I sit up and I feel the exposed skin on my back and shoulders tingling a little.  Their couch looks like suede, but I guess that it isn’t real suede. I don’t know why I didn’t think to check it first.  This is so frustrating!  I walk over and sit down on the stone mantle in front of the fire place.  

Ahhh, nice and warm.

But, after five minutes of vegging out in front of the fireplace, my butt decides that the hard stone surface isn’t all the comfortable even if my butt is a little more padded now.  With that, I decide to just get up and explore the house some.  It is pretty big and it should take me more than a few minutes to see what I can find.  

There is an upstairs level, which I assume has the bedrooms, but I also spot some stairs leading down.  So, I softly pad down the stairs and I find myself in a large open area that has a nice bar off to the side and a wicked and by wicked, I mean, totally awesome home theater setup.  There is a huge 55” inch High Def TV on the far wall and expensive looking black stereo components on an expensive looking brushed aluminum and glass stand.  Even better, it looks like the couches and chairs are made of leather and designed specifically for watching movies. The speakers are bit harder to spot.  They are all built into the walls and ceiling with color matching mesh grills.  Watching a movie with this setup must totally rock!

As I walk around the room and drool over everything, I notice something that smells suspiciously like a large open body of water.  Kind of like there is a pool, but I don’t know where they could be hiding it. The house is big, but isn’t that big.  Following my nose, I enter into a large and very well insulated spa room, complete with a large built in Jacuzzi tub, shower and a small room of some kind.  I peek into the small window set in the door and it looks like it is one of those steam room things that old fat mafia guys from the movies like to sit naked in while they plot their next crime.

With that bit of mental imagery disturbing my mind, I turn back around and spot a clock on the wall and I notice that it is almost 9pm now, so I decide to head back up stairs.  Aunt Julie should be getting home any time now, I think. As I sneak back up to the main floor, I hear a phone softly ringing from the kitchen. I head into the kitchen thinking that Uncle Jim left his phone in there and maybe I could take it to him so that he could call back who ever is trying to get a hold of him. It is not Uncle Jim’s cell phone that is ringing. It is the house phone, but before I can figure out if I should answer it or not, their answering machine picks up and I hear Aunt Julie’s voice.

“Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I am on my way home. I had a bit of a scare, but I’m done now. I can’t wait to show Chloe what I got and I should be home shortly.  Love ya, bye!”

I thought about picking it up as soon as I heard her voice, but it’s not my house; I’m not sure I should.  I decide to just go and give Uncle Jim the message.  He is in the middle of some sort of boring council meeting when I walk back into his office and tap him on his shoulder to get his attention.

“Umm, sorry, but, Aunt Julie called and left a message. She is on her way home.” I whisper in his ear.

Somewhat distractedly, Uncle Jim turns and mouths. “Oh, thanks.”

“Need anything?” I softly ask.

Uncle Jim gratefully smiles at me. “Sure. Water?”

I nod and quietly tiptoe out of the room to retrieve him a glass of water.

While my system is doing its searching thing, I hear a burst of static from what I assume is another transmission.  I decide that Uncle Jim’s water isn’t important anymore.

{“Delta four, in position. Target zone is quiet. No sign of Principal.”}

{“Roger Delta four. Golf two reports Secondary is inbound. Echo tango alpha in ten mike.”}

{“Roger Echo One”}

I just want to scream. I am so freaking mad.  

God damnit!

Oops, sorry. Didn’t mean it, but where in the hell, pardon my language, are these assholes and what in the hell are they doing here? How did they find me so fast?

With that thought, a small window pops up on my HUD with an overhead view of the house.

It’s not a great view. Since I have not even thought to look out the window and into the back yard, that part of the map is black, but the front yard is pretty good since I saw that when we drove into the driveway.

After a second or two, a small glowing dot appears in the front, near a large clump of bushes and a second glowing dot, labeled “Delta 4” appears in the back, but due to the state of my map, I cannot tell exactly where in the back yard the second dot is located.

A third dot appears on my map, but it is even further into the blackness. That might be that “Echo One” person and as I think that, a label saying just that appears next to it.

Okay, so who is the dot in the front?

Damn it!

Sorry. Are they with Delta four and Echo One?

Okay, so they probably are together and the Echo One dude said that “the Secondary was inbound and echo tango alpha 10 mike.”  Secondary must be Aunt Julie and her ETA is in 10 minutes.  I can’t let them hurt Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie!  I look around the kitchen and spot a really sharp looking 10 inch chef’s knife with a black wooden handle.

I am not sure if I can actually use a knife on another person, but lacking a gun, it will have to do.  There is no way that I am going to try fighting them without a weapon of some sort.  Well, other than my keen wits, but I am not feeling all that keen right now.  Whoever is in the front, they need to not be a threat to Aunt Julie and it sounds like I have less than 10 minutes to make sure that they are not a threat.  Then, I will need to umm, neutralize, the target in the back yard and finally, I will have to run away so that Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie won’t get hurt.

I feel my eyes start to sting as the tears well up and begin to drip down my face. I hate to do it and sorry, Mom, but I think that I need the STIMS for this.

My tears stop falling almost instantly.

** Chapter 37 **

I should use this stuff more often and now that those pesky emotions are done. It is mission time and following the KISS principle, my mission is to:

a) Eliminate enemy targets.

b) Evade detection and escape to Whateley Academy.

The label for the target in the front yard changes to ‘Alpha’, while the label for ‘Delta 4’ changes to ‘Beta’ and ‘Echo One’ changes to ‘Charlie’.

The odds for my primary mission aren’t all that great, but at least, the secondary odds are better.  Well, if I can survive the primary mission.

Well, I do know one thing. I need something to wear that is a bit stealthier than a green silk camisole top thing, but I don’t really have anything like my VR Selena vampire butt-kicking outfit or Whisper’s GEO outfit either.  The knife is a bit too shiny too.  My Selena outfit would be good, but I need something to camouflage my face, too.  Okay, I need my GEO Whisper outfit and with that in mind, I concentrate and cast my self-illusion spell.  I feel the magic ripple across my skin, almost like a caress. It feels good and it did not seem all that hard to cast this time.  Maybe all the forced practice I did this evening helped?

I don’t feel any different, but when I look down at myself I am dressed in Whisper’s black silk rogue ninja style outfit. I catch my reflection in the glass door of the microwave and my face is concealed by Whisper’s rogue mask.  That should help me blend into the night a little easier and the blade of the chef knife is now flat black too.

I don’t have a sheath to hold the knife, so I just switch it to my off hand and reverse the grip on it so that the back of the blade rests against my forearm, nice and snug.  I don’t want to have an accident with the sharp knife.

That update makes me smile a little as I slink through the hall and pass Mr. Stile’s office door.  He is still stuck in the council meeting. I hope that he doesn’t notice that I didn’t bring him his glass of water for a long time.  I would not want him to come looking for me, check outside and accidentally walk right into the line of fire.  There is no telling what these bozos would do to Mr. Stiles.

My egress point is from a window on the side of the house. As I touch the window, I detect the circuit of an active alarm system. I tell it to ignore this window’s sensor for an hour.  That should give me plenty of time to get my primary mission done and reach a safe distance from the house before the house alarms start going off.  With the knife, I carefully and slowly cut the bottom part of the screen window. I don’t want to make any noise that might alert Mr. Stiles or the targets outside.  

They probably have night vision goggles and maybe even thermographic scopes. I am not sure, but I think that invisibility covers thermographic too. So, with that in mind, I cast my invisibility spell before I exit the window. Based on my last attempt to use invisibility, I don’t expect it to last very long, but it should last long enough for me to sneak up on the first target.

I am going to need every trick in the book and watching Uncle Jim play GEO reminded me that Whisper was a rogue before she learned some Illusionist tricks.  With that in mind, I briefly debate trying to activate or use Whisper’s rogue powers to hide in the shadows and move undetected through shadows. I am able to visualize the icon for those abilities and the icons are similar to my illusionist spell icons, but not, they feel, if that is the right way to think of them, dark. Not evil dark, but light versus dark, which kind of makes sense, since hiding in shadows is the absence of light.

Hmmm, were  Whisper’s high level rogue abilities really magical darkness spells?  I am going to need to spend some time researching that little, umm, ‘feature’, but not tonight. I know that invisibility works, mostly.  Additionally, I have not thought to try the rogue stuff yet and I don’t know how those spells would work against people with night vision and IR/Thermographic vision.

Careful to not make any noise, I slide out of the window and drop down to  lie on my belly facing the front of the house.  It is only 41 degrees Fahrenheit out here, but I don’t notice the cold as I lie on top of the mulch that covers the ground between a gap in the low bushes and the side of the house.  Except for a hazy and ghostly outline of myself, I can see right through me. I hope that no one else can see that outline.

I add the thermographic spectrum to my vision and notice that the ground beneath me is starting to change color. If they are using thermographic scopes, I need to keep moving or they will spot me by my body heat soaking into the ground.  A small part of me marvels at how my thermographic view of the world reminds me of the movie, Predator. Except, I don’t have the triangle targeting bracket or dreadlocks, but other than that, it doesn’t matter who these jerks are; I am the Predator this time and they aren’t Arnie.

I suppress that tiny bit of emotion as I low-crawl over to the front corner of the house and look for my target. Emotions like that will only get in the way and slow me down.  With that reminder, I quickly spot my first target 94 meters away, hiding in the shrubs near the road and next to the start of the driveway.  Mr. and Mrs. Stiles have a really big yard.

My target is lying on his belly, facing towards me and it is his face that makes him super easy to spot. With thermographic, his face is glowing like a light bulb.  If it was not for that, he would have been pretty hard to spot because his body is not so easy. His clothing is somehow breaking up his heat signature very well.

“What is that other lump next to him?”

Oops! Correction, there are two targets and even with the thermographic, it is harder to spot the second target than I expected.  Briefly, I filter out the thermographic and with just low-light and normal vision; even though I know where to look, they are both practically invisible to me. They are camouflaged very well.  They must be wearing those ghillie suit outfits that I have seen on TV.

Both of the targets are lying on their bellies and have what appear to some sort of rifle at the ready. One of the targets is facing toward me and the house, while the other target is facing away. I guess that they are watching each other’s back.  I am no expert, but that seems very smart of them. Much smarter than I would give the MCO or the H1 credit for. Could they be one of those CIA black-ops assassin teams like they show in the movies?

Maybe I watch too much TV?

My invisibility seems to be working, because during the entire 10.347 seconds that it takes me to do all this thinking and with my head partially exposed, the target facing the house does not appear to spot me. He also doesn’t appear to be actively  using night vision or thermographic. Just his eyes, but he does have a large electronic scope of some sort mounted on his rifle.

Time to move and really test my invisibility spell on these guys.  I step out and casually stroll across the lawn. I am right out in the wide open. No cover and no concealment what so ever, but Target One just doesn’t even twitch in my direction.  I am totally relying on Murphy Law’s of Combat #5, “If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.”, but I also aware of #12, “If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.”  I hope that Target One isn’t just pretending to not see me.

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty cocky when I close the distance to 20 meters, but I decide that I should probably alter my stride so that my feet don’t make noise on the grass.  Well, less noise anyway. Oh, what about Whisper’s ‘Move Silently’ ability?  Nope, not a spell.  That icon is just an icon with a picture of some bare feet on it versus a spell pattern.  

Crap!  

Oh, wait. I remember watching some hunting show about how to walk silently while hunting deer. No time like the present and having your life on the line to learn a new skill!  No pressure there, at all! I mean, all it would take is for the guy to shoot me, is to spin 45 degrees to his left and start firing. With that  firmly in my mind, I pay very close attention  not only to him, but also his weapon and where it is pointed. It’s not an M4A1 like the Army dudes had back in New Mexico.  What is it?

Oh, that’s good to know. I guess.  His eyes pass over me and I freeze, but he doesn’t appear to see me.  I am so glad that I am using the STIMS right now because I am pretty sure that I would be totally flipping out right now if it weren’t for that stuff.  I very slowly creep to within 5 meters of him and still no reaction from him or his buddy lying next to him. My knife is ready and I am pretty sure that I will be able to surprise the first target, but my second target; not so much. Who uses that kind of wicked looking weapon?

That bit of data causes me to freeze again.

Oh, that is not good.  Now what in the hell do I do?

{“Delta One, this is Eagle Two. IR shows an open window on east side lower level.  Do you detect any hostiles?”}

Really!?  Like, Duh!

A little red dot lights up on my map 400 meters away and 10 meters above ground level, but I can’t tell exactly where because that part of my map is all black; just like the back yard.  Eagle Two must be a sniper team.

{“Negative Eagle Two. Delta One, Over.”}

{“Delta six, Delta seven.  Check east side of residence.”}

{“Delta Six, this is Echo One. Be advised. Secondary ETA in fife mike. Please confirm area is secure ASAP.”}

{“Roger Echo One, Delta Six, Over.”}

Another team?  Frack!

Who in the hell are they?  I can’t detect any CAC ID cards on these guys or anything else, other than their equipment that I could use to identify them.

{“Echo One, this is Delta Seven.  Window is open six inches. Screen has been cut. Possible forced entry.”}

{“Shit! All teams, this is Alpha One. Force entry. Weapons hot. Deadly force authorized. Secure Principal.”}

Before I know what is happening, the two guys that I just snuck so close to, jump up and run toward the house.  Their weapons are constantly at the ready as they search for targets.  They make it 50 meters across the lawn before it hits me. Alpha One sounds like Mr. Smith, I mean Captain Howards.

What is he doing here and what is a “Principal”?  If Mrs. Stiles is a “Secondary”, does “Principal” mean me, or Mr. Stiles?  Damn it! I should have tried to, umm, neutralize, the two dudes that were lying down next to me when I had the chance.  I can’t let them kill Mr. and Mrs. Stiles. Maybe if I just told them I was outside, they would change their minds about killing them and just be happy with killing me instead?

{“I’m not in there, Captain Howards. Please don’t hurt Mr. and Mrs. Stiles.”}

{“Whisper? What are you doing on this net? How did you...never mind. Where are you?”} Captain Howards asks.

{“I’m not going to make it that easy on you all to kill me.”} I say as I grip my knife tighter.  Delta One and his partner skid to a stop, drop to a knee and face away from each other so that they can scan more ground in their attempt to find me.  I grin at their confusion and lack of success.  Time to pull a Han Solo and ignore the odds my little C3PO is giving me.

{“Whisper, what are you talking about?”} Captain Howards asks, sounding confused for some reason.  His voice stress gauge is creeping into the upper yellows now.  Good.

{“Aren’t you all here to, umm, how would you say it? Umm, neutralize me?”} I ask somewhat snidely as I stalk toward the two SEALs that have spread out a few meters from each other as they attempt to find me. Good.  I can take out one, and then use his body to help block the aim of the other while I ‘appropriate’ the first guy’s weapon.

I told you to not tell me the odds!  Oh, hey, at least my system thinks that I am now more likely to take out these two guys here.

{“What?!? Fuck no...”} Captain Howards sounds very confused now and his gauge bounces into the red. {“All units, stand down! Report!”}

The two guys that I am sneaking up on quickly drop a knee, glance back at each other and after a slight hesitation, I watch as they set their weapons on safe.

{“Delta One, Standing down.”} Starts it with Delta Eight finishing the reports.

{“Eagle One and Eagle Two, Standing Down.”}

I pause in my advance on the guy that I now know to be “Delta One” based on his call sign.  I guess I can pause for a few seconds. {“Whisper, Standing down...for now.”}

{“Look, Whisper. I am sorry that I didn’t think to knock on the door and introduce ourselves sooner, but we needed to secure the area first.  I was planning on formally introducing ourselves in the AM.”}

Now it is my turn to feel confused. {“Explain.”} I say as a little bit of hope sneaks past the STIMS.

{“Look, my SEAL team is here to watch over not only you, but also Mr. and Mrs. Stiles.  We are here to keep you all safe until that damn CIA team is found.”}

Now, I am not sure what to believe.  I want to trust him and since he was with Mr. Reilly and my mom, am pretty sure that I can trust him.  My mom would have known or felt something if Captain Howards was planning on killing me, right?

{“Can you provide verification via Mr. Reilly or my mother?”} I ask.

{“Sure, but it might take a few.”}

I try not to play elevator music in my head, but some sneaks in before I can stop it.  

{“Bree? Captain Howards says that you wanted to talk to me.  Is something wrong?”} My mom anxiously asks exactly 12.37 seconds later.  She sounds like she is on her cell phone instead of in the room or wherever Captain Howards is located.

{“Mom?”}

I know that!  

Sorry, umm, me. I just didn’t expect it and my invisibility spell decides that I have been ignoring it long enough.  It drops, leaving me out in the open and totally exposed.  

“Holy shit!” Delta Two yells as he jumps back half a meter while he simultaneously brings the barrel of his weapon up to aim it at me.

{“Yes?”} My mom asks.

Instead of replying to my mom’s question, I react to Delta Two. Time seems to slow to a crawl for me as I spring forward to close the gap between us.  If I can get inside his firing zone, I can take him down before he can shoot me.  I slam a block against the barrel with my right forearm.

[CLACK!]

The sound of my arm hitting the hand guard that that partially covers the barrel is really loud to me, but the force of my block knocks his rifle partially out of his hands.  More importantly, it knocks his rifle away from me as I step inside his guard and onto his leading foot to try and keep him from taking a step backwards.

I slam my left elbow into his ribcage, but the force of my blow is blunted by his body armor. Since I am holding the knife against my left forearm, my elbow strike also manages to leave a deep gash in his armor, exposing a metal plate. I manage to hit him hard enough to make him grunt and even with my massive 120 lbs holding his foot down, he still manages to take a step back.

He surprises me by just letting go of his rifle and bringing his right elbow around to try and hit me in the side of my head.  I dodge his elbow by continuing my forward motion and slamming my right elbow into the center of his chest.  Once again, his body armor blunts the force of my blow, but I still manage to knock him onto his butt.   

“Yamete!”

I am so conditioned to reacting to Sensei Rogers yelling that Japanese word to stop our sparring matches, that I pause, take a step back and drop into a guard stance.

“God damnit, Spencer!  Wolfman told ya to stand down!” Delta One says with a disgusted growl.

I look up and see Delta One standing four meters away with his rifle sort of pointed in my general direction; like he is ready to use it if I do something dumb. Spencer, or Delta Two, is looking both slightly ashamed and surprised by his current situation.

“Sorry, ma’am.” He says as he cautiously gets back on his feet, retrieves his rifle and settles his gear back into place. “Fuck me...” He mutters under his breath when he notices the gash across the left side of his armor..

{“Bree!  What’s wrong? What’s happening?”} My mom says, anxiously over the radio.

I calmly acknowledge Delta One by nodding my head and taking another step back.

My mini-map shows two flashing red dots from off to my right and slightly behind me.  I look over my shoulder and spot the team that was sent to check out the window that like a noob, I foolishly left open.

{“Sorry Alpha One, Delta Two just had a bit of a lesson here.”} Delta One says.

{“Sorry Mom. My invisibility dropped at the wrong time and I inadvertently surprised Delta Two. I was forced to engage him to prevent harm to myself.”} I say.

{“Inadvertently?  Bree, are you using that STIMS stuff again?”} My mom asks.

{“Affirmative.”} I say.

{“Brianna Nicole Peters! Off! Right now young lady, do you understand me?”}

{“Yes Mom, but I am unable to comply with your order at the moment.”}

{“What?!? I thought I told you to not use that stuff? Now, turn it off right this instant!”}

{“Sorry Mom, but the current engagement has not been resolved and the tactical risk assessment is too high due to the momentary weakness caused during system purging.”}

{“Bree, please. They really are there to help you. The boss of the CIA agents has been taken care of, but they are still looking for the agents that took you. We all agreed that, umm, covertly placing a SEAL team there to watch over you and the Stiles to keep you safe would be the best course of action.”}

I want to believe my mom. It doesn’t sound like she is being fed anything and that she believes in what she is saying.  Besides, what could it hurt? My odds were never that great to begin with.  {“Okay.”}

My knees buckle and I lose control of my Whisper illusion as I drop to the ground.  The knife slips from my fingers and drops into the grass. I feel so weak and drained. “Oh god, that stuff sucks...” I say, softly to myself, but Delta One and Delta Two are close enough to overhear me.  Delta Two takes a cautious step forward before he recalls his lesson and halts with a nervous glance back to Delta One.

“Ma’am, do you need any help?” Delta Two softly asks.

Now that I am not all drugged up and ignoring everything, I reflexively hug myself and start to violently shiver from the cold. I look up to Delta Two, with the intention of telling him that I am fine, but the barely above freezing, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, hits me hard and my teeth begin to chatter uncontrollably.  Delta Two overcomes his caution, steps forward, pulls me to my feet and in one smooth motion puts me over his shoulders and into a fireman’s carry.

“H-h-h-ey!” I stammer out as I am ungraciously carried by Delta Two.  

{“Alpha One, this is Delta One. We need to get the Principal back inside the residence ASAP.”}

{“Roger Delta One. Return Principal to residence, then resume mission as planned.”}

Delta Two heads toward the front door.

{“Umm, Delta Two?”} I ask using the radio.  As violently as my teeth are chattering, I doubt that I can actually speak that clearly. {“Maybe I should go back in via the window?  I am not sure how Uncle Jim would react to all, umm, this.”}

{“Delta One, be advised.  ETA of Secondary is now two minutes. Alpha One, Over.”}

Delta Two responds by running around to the side of the house, like my weight means nothing to him.  We are flanked by Delta One and the other two SEAL dudes.  Reaching the still open window, Delta Two gently lowers me back to my feet while Delta One pulls the cut screen aside.  I reach up and grab  hold of the window sill, but I am shivering so much that it is a struggle to pull myself up and back into the warm house.  

Delta Two surprises me by wrapping his left arm around my upper thighs and smoothly lifting me up.  That proves to be all I need to get my upper body into the house and shimmy the rest of me through the window.  I drop to the floor with a thump that is muffled by the carpet and I just lay on my back for a few seconds as the blessed warmth hits me.  The window slides down as someone lowers it from the outside.  

{“Alpha One, Principal is secure. Resuming operation. Delta One, Over.”}

Still shivering, I roll over, carefully stand back up and look out the window. I catch a glimpse of movement, but nothing else.  I snug the window down, lock it and tell the alarm system to pay attention to this window again.  Satisfied that everything is working, I start to turn back to return to the kitchen for Uncle Jim’s glass of water when I hear a single light tap on the window.  I look back out and my, I mean, Uncle Jim’s chef knife is lying on the window sill.

Crap! I forgot all about that.

I quickly disarm the alarm and retrieve the knife.  “Thanks.” I whisper out the window as I softly reclose it, and then re-arm the alarm, again.  Still shivering, I wrap my arms across my chest, careful to not stab myself with the knife’s exposed blade and sneak past Uncle Jim’s office and into the kitchen.  He is still playing and it looks like he isn’t even aware that I haven’t returned with his glass of water yet.  Well, it has only been five minutes since I went all Whisper and tried to get myself killed, but I guess Uncle Jim might still be thirsty.

I slip the knife back into the knife block where I found it. Then, I grab a fresh glass for Uncle Jim, add some ice...

Brrrr...

...Fill his glass and enter his office.  “Here ya go Uncle Jim. Sorry it took so long. I, umm, got distracted by the size of your house.” I say as I hand him his glass.

With a very brief glance away from the action on his screen, Uncle Jim takes the offered glass from my hand. “Thanks, Chloe.” He says as he takes a quick sip before he sets it down and returns to playing, totally ignoring me.

I don’t feel at all offended by Uncle Jim basically ignoring me. I am actually lucky that he is playing, because if not, he might have noticed my own little adventure.  Besides, I recognize the dungeon that he is currently in and it is not an easy one.  Additionally, he is filling the main tank role, so he is a bit busy. One bad pull and he could wipe the entire group.  

Now that my hands are free, once again, I wrap my arms around my chest in an attempt to warm myself back up.  It doesn’t work, so I sneak out of his office and rush over to sit back in front of the fireplace.

“Ahhhh...” I say as the fire’s warmth starts to soak into my back. I shiver once more before regaining control.  Then, I turn to face the fire and warm my hands.  My fingers are freezing and the warmth feels heavenly.  I don’t want to ever move. Maybe I can sleep in front of the fireplace tonight.

{“Alpha One, this is Delta One.  Secondary’s vehicle spotted.”}

That announcement jolts me to my feet.  I am not sure what I should do. What would Aunt Julie expect me to be doing right now?  Watching TV?  Probably, but I can’t really sit on the couch due to the fabric.  

Grrrr.

I intercept the garage door signal and I assume that Aunt Julie is now in the drive, about to pull into the garage.  Maybe she will need help carrying stuff?  Reluctantly, I step away from the warmth of the fireplace, rush to the door that leads to the garage and open it just as she begins to pull her SUV into the garage.  The cold air rushing into the house from the open garage door hits me like a hammer and I instantly start to shiver again.

I can’t help myself from smiling when Aunt Julie spots me and happily returns my smile. She also gives me a quick wave as she cautiously inches her SUV forward and into the garage.  Satisfied that she has her SUV properly parked, she turns off the motor and pushes a button her visor.  That sends out the garage door signal again and I find myself anxiously watching as the door slowly closes behind her SUV. I almost expect one of the SEAL teams to try and sneak in while the door is closing, but no one does.  I wouldn’t blame them if they did though. It is cold outside!

Aunt Julie exits her SUV, opens the door to the back seat and that is when I spot a lot of expensive looking name-brand bags.  “Umm, Aunt Julie, do you need any help carrying those into the house?” I ask.

Aunt Julie looks up and frowns at me. “Chloe! You’re shaking like a leaf!  Get back inside where it is warm. I can get these.”

“I-i-it’s o-kay. I want to help.” I say as my teeth begin to chatter again.  I don’t think that I am doing such a good job with the cold.  I would like to think that it is only because I am a girl, but I don’t think that I would be doing any better if I was still a boy.  Then again, if that were the case, I wouldn’t be here and I would for sure be wearing something warmer than a flimsy silk top that exposes my upper torso, shoulders and arms to the cold.  

You know, something practical, like a long sleeved t-shirt with kick ass picture of Wolverine or Spiderman on it. Oh heck, who am I trying to kid here? I would be wearing my geek-tastic D&D t-shirt with the picture of some half-dressed warrior chick attacking a dragon or my GEO Rogue t-shirt with the picture of the bad ass looking rogue dude on it.

Aunt Julie shakes her head as she grapples with all the bags. “No, no, no!  Get inside before you catch a cold! I’ve got them!”

I don’t need to be told twice, well, okay I do, but Aunt Julie still needs someone to hold the door for her and that was my job.   Unfortunately, I fail at containing my shivers as she rushes through the door with her hands full of bags.

“Thanks!”  Aunt Julie peeks around from the bags that are partially blocking her vision. “Chloe!  You’re shaking to death!  What did I tell you?  Get in the living room and sit down in front of the fire while I dig out the new sweater that I found for you.”

“Y-y-yes, ma’am.” I manage to say just before I scramble ahead of her and race to my now preferred spot directly in front of the fireplace.  

“Jim!  I’m home!” Aunt Julie yells towards Uncle Jim’s office.

“Okaay!” Uncle Jim yells back. He sounds somewhat distracted.

Aunt Julie just looks at me with a pleased smile. “Well, from the sound of his acknowledgement, I’d say we have at least another hour before he is done in there.  Plenty of time for me to show you around the house and have you try on these clothes, but first, something warm for you.  You are still shivering like crazy there!”

The fire does feel rather good. “I am doing much better now, but I am only staying for a few days. You didn’t need to get all that.” I say as I gesture towards all the bags.

“Nonsense. I didn’t get that much and it was actually kind of fun shopping for you.”  Aunt Julie says as she roots through a large bag, pulls out a dark purple sweater. “Here, try this eggplant sweater on. It is made of cashmere, but it was on sale and I couldn’t pass it up.”

Eggplant?  I thought that was a vegetable.  Weird name for a color aside, it is soft and even better, it has a zipper in the front that allows me to zip it all the way up.  While I am getting my shivering under control in front of the cozy fireplace, Aunt Julie pulls out more clothes than I expected.  I thought she just said ‘essentials’?  I can understand why she got me half dozen new panties, but why did she have to buy me more two more pairs of jeans, six tops, three bras, one of them one of those demi things she mentioned earlier and a new pair of boots?  Oh yeah, and a pair of some black shoes that she calls ‘pumps’.

Oh crap!

I try not to scream when Aunt Julie pulls a dress out of one of the bags.  “Now, I got you this cute little skirt, but you don’t have to wear it; if you don’t want to.” Aunt Julie says as she holds it up for me to briefly inspect before she puts it back in the bag.

I know that my mom got me one, but when your mom buys you something it does not carry the same expectations as when a friend or someone whose house you are staying at to hide from the MCO and the CIA buys you something. When she showed it to me, I could see from the look in her eyes that she will be very disappointed if I don’t at least try it on.

“Okay, let me show you your room and we can put these away. I am going to guess that your Uncle didn’t show you the house before he started playing ‘that’ game, right?” Aunt Julie asks as she stands and grabs a few of the bags.  

I nod my head to her question as I grab the rest of the bags and follow her up the stairs. She leads me into a very large room with a queen size bed.  The room has large windows that look out over the front yard and a vaulted ceiling. It looks bigger than my parents’ room and it has its own bathroom. “Umm, isn’t this your room?” I ask.

Aunt Julie laughs and looks back at me as she closes the window shades. “Oh no, our room is down the hall.  This is just our guest bedroom. We have one more if you don’t like this one.”

{“Alpha One, Secondary just closed the shades to the second story guest room.”}

{“Umm, yes Alpha One, that’s my room.”}

“Oh no!  This one is way nice. It’s just so big. I thought, well...” I say, blushing from embarrassment.

“That’s okay, Chloe. I know that it is a little large, but when your Uncle Jim and I had this house built for us, we made sure that it was big enough for a family.”

“A family?  Did your kids already move out?” I ask because if I had a room like this, I would never want to leave home.

Aunt Julie giggles at me as she begins unpacking and organizing all the clothes on the top of the bed. “Oh, no, Chloe. We haven’t had any children, yet.  We have both just been too busy, but I am thinking that we might need to change that situation soon. We aren’t getting any younger.”

Now, I am really embarrassed. “Oh.” I say as I realize that I sort of just called Aunt Julie old.

“Here!  Try this skirt on for me, please?” Aunt Julie asks as she digs out the small black dress thing as retribution for me accidentally calling her old.

Now that I am better prepared for the shock, I notice that it has small purple flowers scattered all over it. She also pulls out some black leggings out of the same bag.  Then, after a second of deliberation, she chooses a black camisole and a matching pair of black panties.  

“Try it with these.  You can change in the bathroom.” Aunt Julie says with a glance toward the cavernous looking bathroom.

Why do the panties need to match everything? Who is going to see them when they are buried under two to three layers of fabric?  Why do I even care when there are now much bigger fish to fry?  Because, how can I say no to the dress, I mean skirt, without sounding like a complete and ungrateful b, i, t, c, h?  Anyway, what is the difference between a dress and a skirt?

What? How could I not know or have heard what the difference between a dress and a skirt is at some point in my life?  I mean, I know that I never needed to know, but I am sure my mom, sister or some random TV show would have said that a dress is “this”, while a skirt is “that”. Maybe that is just one of those things that real girls are just born knowing the answer to?  Is there a difference? Am I freaking out over this a little too much?

“Ummm...Okkay.” I say as I take the offered items and walk into the bathroom. I know that I have worn more girlie stuff in my VR dressing room, but that was just me. It wasn’t real and my Chloe illusion totally doesn’t count either.  This is for real.

The bathroom momentarily distracts me from my mini freak out. It is huge!  It has a separate bathtub and shower area and the bathtub is one of those giant spa tub things with jets and everything.  The only downside is that it is made of plastic, but I am not a huge bath fan anyway.  I prefer showers and the shower is a wonder. It not only has jets on the top, but also on the side too!  Yes, there is a toilet and a sink in there too. The toilet, well, it is a toilet, but the sink is nice. It is one of those standing bowl things that make it look like someone stuck a big mixing bowl on top of a counter, then a faucet leading into it and called it a sink.

I sigh and wistfully look at the pure girl clothes in my arms. I am still not sure what the correct technical term is, but Aunt Julie called it a skirt, so skirt it is. The skirt thing is black with a tiny purple flower pattern and flowers on clothes are a 100% pure all girl thing.  No guy would ever knowingly wear an article of clothing with a flower on it. Unless, said flower was kicking some other flower’s butt.

*sigh*

I guess I should just get it over with.  I strip down to just my bra, then slide the new panties on, followed by the leggings. They feel weird because I am not used to having pants that hug my legs so tightly. Well, except for my Selene outfit, but that is leather and not real.

“Do you need any help in there Chloe?” Aunt Julie asks through the door.

“Nope, I’m almost done.” I say as I quickly step into and slide the skirt up. I am glad that there is a label in the back, because without a zipper, I would have no clue which side was which. I look at myself in the mirror and I can’t help it. I look good, but I think that I need to put the cami on too. I realize that the cami has a built in bra when I try to put it on.  So, I quickly remove my bra, then slide the cami on and tuck it under the skirt.

My god, I am doomed. I can’t stop myself. I smile when I look at my reflection in the mirror. I just look so damn pretty and that alien thought is, unsettling.  I cautiously open the door, poke my head out, then with Aunt Julie’s encouragement; I step out from behind the door.

Aunt Julie’s smile is all I need to see to know how utterly and completely doomed that I am now because I feel pleased that she likes how I look in it.  “Oh my. It looks even better than I expected on you. Here, try it with the boots.” She says as she steps over to the closet, pulls out the new pair of boots and hands them too me.

She already has everything put away and hung my new clothes up.  Did she talk to my mom or something? Is putting clothes away and hanging things up in the closet a girl thing?  I try the boots on and Aunt Julie has me walk around the room a bit. I can’t help myself; I pretend to model the outfit for her and strike some poses.

“Wow, Chloe. Just wow.  That skirt just looks so cute on you.”

Okay, so this is definitely a skirt. “Umm, thanks.  I do kinda like it.” I say as I look down at myself. I suddenly realize that I might sound ungrateful to her. “I mean, I do like it. Way more than I thought I would.”  

I look up at Aunt Julie and she has that look in her eyes.  The look that tells me that she is very happy and trying not to cry.  

My eyes suddenly tear up and I start to cry.

Damn it!  Don’t tell me that I need to use the STIMS when trying on clothes.

Aunt Julie stands and pulls me into a hug. “Shhh, it’s okay. I was so worried that you wouldn’t like it, but when I saw you wearing it and even happy, I just couldn’t help it.”  She says with a slight sniffle.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just never worn a dress, umm, skirt, before. Well, not for real anyway, I didn’t expect to like it and umm, that kind of freaks me out a little.”

Aunt Julie steps back a little and studies my face with a concerned expression. “I would say that I understand, but medically speaking, I still find it hard to believe that you were ever a boy.  You just don’t look like you were ever a boy...”

I don’t know how to handle her assessment and I guess that I pout a little too.  

A wry smile lights her face. “...but you do act and speak like a boy at times. Well, more than can be explained by you just being a tomboy.  I have never treated a girl your age who was so self-conscious, unfamiliar and unsure about her own body.”

“Oh.” I say realizing that my fear of losing my male mojo is making me stand out more.

“So, I have cleared as much of my schedule as I could for the next few days in order to spend more time with you. I can’t just leave you home alone all day for the week, can I?” Aunt Julie asks rhetorically.

I am not really alone.  There is an entire team of SEALS camped out on her lawn. “Umm, well...” I say as I hesitate over whether or not I should let her know.

Aunt Julie shakes her head no thinking that I am going to ask her to let me stay home alone. “Nope, I feel guilty enough about having to go for a couple of hours tomorrow and leave you here, but I will do what I can to help you adapt and I promise to try and not be too pushy either.”

“Umm, okay Aunt Julie, but you really don’t need to worry about leaving me here alone. I am sure that I will be safe here.” I say.

Aunt Julie laughs at me.  “Oh, Chloe! If even half of what you told me is true, I am not sure if it will be possible for the rest of this week to go off without something going wrong.  I mean, I think your luck...” She says by adding air quotes as she says ‘luck’. “...has rubbed off on me already.”

Now I am worried. “What?” I ask as I take a step back and look around for hidden enemies.

She smirks at my response. “I might have had someone try to mug me as I was leaving the mall tonight, but two military guys scared him off instead. So, I am not really sure, but it was a tiny adventure for me.”

“You did!?  Oh my god. I am so sorry, Aunt Julie. I didn’t mean for you be in danger too!”

{“Alpha One, did you know that, umm, Mrs. Stiles was almost mugged at the mall tonight?”}

{“Yes Whisper, I do and the would be mugger is being spoken to about the error of his ways even as we speak.”}

{“Oh, umm, so it was ‘just’ a mugger and not...umm, you know?”} I ask.

{“Yes, it was ‘just’ a mugger as you say it.”}  Captain Howards says with amusement in his voice.

{“Oh, okay. Umm, should I tell Mrs. Stiles or wait until tomorrow for you to tell her about the extra security?”}

{“Unless fit hits the shan tonight, how about you let me explain it to them in the AM?”}

{“Oh, okay. Sorry, umm, sir. I didn’t mean to cause you all so much trouble.  Is Delta Two okay?”}

I start to worry when he doesn’t reply right away.

{“Umm, sorry Whisper.”} Captain Howards says with a note of amusement in his voice. {“Yes, he is okay, but I am sure that he is not going to be happy with his remedial training exercises tomorrow.”}

Aunt Julie is shaking me trying to get my attention. “Chloe!  It’s okay. I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”

{“Oops, sorry. Gotta go! Umm, Whisper, Over.”}

“Sorry Aunt Julie, I was just, umm, thinking.” I say.

“Well, you scared me there with that spaced out expression.  You looked like you were a million miles away. Anyway, I am going to go relax in the Jacuzzi for a bit.  Do you want to join me?” She asks with a grin that seems to hint at something.

No, not really.  There is no way that I want to be seen parading around in my underwear or even worse, nothing.  “Umm, I would, but I don’t have a suit.” I say instead.

Aunt Julie’s grin turns into a pleased smile for some reason.  “Well then young lady, you are just in luck then!” She says as the butterflies in my stomach start flapping like crazy. She reaches into the one bag that is left on the bed and pulls out a tiny, to me, dark green two piece bikini that looks suspiciously like it will fit me.

“Ta da! I found this Tahiti green two piece and I just had to get it for you.” Aunt Julie says as she wiggles its hanger back and forth triumphantly.  

Eggplant and now Tahiti green?  What is it with women and colors?  I would have just called it dark green and been done with it. Who comes up with these names?

I think that Aunt Julie sees the horror in my eyes as I frantically try to come up with another reason. “It’s 100% cotton too. I tried to find a one piece for you, but it’s not really the season for swimwear and this is all they had in a fabric that would work for you.” Aunt Julie says.

Dang it.  Aunt Julie is worse than my mom and I am trapped now.  “Umm, okay, thanks?” I say hesitantly as I gingerly accept the flimsy bits of fabric.

Aunt Julie’s eyes are sparkling with mischief as she smiles at me with victory. “Great! Now, go get changed while I hop into my suit. Then, I will come and fetch ya before we head down stairs, okay?”

“Umm, okay.” I say, feeling defeated and out maneuvered as I examine the suit with confusion as she leaves my room.

There are no bands or straps to be adjusted; Just strings that need to be tied. Now what do I do?

“Fuck me to tears!” Ken Fovel muttered under his breath as he rapidly walked away from the mall. He only had a ten spot to his name and that rich bitch looked like she would have been worth at least $100 bucks and probably more.  Bitches like her could be carrying as much as $500 in cash, plus the good platinum and sometimes,  the titanium cards.  His fence would give him $50 easy for one of those cards.

If only those two jarheads hadn’t interrupted him. He briefly considered pulling his piece on them to scare them away, but they didn’t look easily frightened and he didn’t want to take the chance that he would have to off them.  Getting nicked for robbery was nothing compared to murder.

“Hey buddy, ya got a light?” He heard a man ask from his right.

As he turned to tell the asshole to fuck off, he sensed a presence behind him, but before he could even react; the lights went out.

He came too when he felt himself being lowered onto the ground.  His head hurt like a son of a bitch. He felt right away that his hands and feet were bound.  That really scared the crap out of him.  Whoever clocked him, they knew what they were doing. He heard the sound of surf nearby and smelled the fresh salt water in the air, but he kept his eyes closed and pretended to still be unconscious. Not that keeping his eyes closed really mattered right now. He felt a blindfold wrapped over his eyes.

“What do you think we should do with him now?”

“I dunno.  His ID checked out, he’s just a petty crook with no convictions, but he probably saw us so we should weigh him down and just dump his body in the ocean.”

“Well, he did graduate from high school and he had a 3.4 GPA, so he’s not a complete waste...”

“Hmmm, I dunno. I still think it would be easier if we just dumped him.  Much cleaner that way.”

“Shhh, he’s coming around...”

Ken groaned a little to help sell his waking up a little better. “Whoa, where am I? What happened?”

“Crap, he’s awake.”

“Who are you? What do you want? I have a ten! You can have it! I didn’t see nuthing! Honest!”

“We know that. Now shut up while we figure out what to do with your body.”

“Well, we could just let him go...”

Ken felt the cold barrel of a gun touch the back of his head and he felt a little bit of pee leak out before he regained control of himself. “Please! Dear god! I didn’t see anything and I won’t tell!”

“I dunno...”

“Well, remember how many hours it took you to clean your weapon the last time you used that monster suppressor?”

“Hmm, yeah, that did suck and that asshole took three shots, but I guess I didn’t really need to blow his knees out first.”

“Nope, but your weapon was still a mess to clean and I had to listen to you complain about it for days afterwards.”

“You might be right, but this punk did have a weapon on him. He might do something stupid later, then how would I feel knowing that I could have stopped him now?”

“True...”

“I never used it!  Honest!  I’ve never shot anyone and I promise that if you let me go, I will throw the damn thing away!”

One of the men chuckled.  “Don’t worry punk.  I already did that for you and I probably saved your life.  That thing was trash and it might have even blown up in your hand if you had tried to fire it.”

“I swear! I’ll turn myself in or something!  Just let me live!”

“Hmmm, what do you think, Coop?”

“Okay punk. Here’s the deal.  There is a military recruitment center five miles down the road from here.  Show up there first thing in the morning, pass the tests and maybe I will forget about you.”

“Oh my god!  I’ll do it! I promise!  Thank you! Oh my god!”

“Don’t forget. We know who you are and we will find you.”

“Oh fuck! Oh my god! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“We are leaving now, but don’t try to slip your bonds or take off the blindfold until you can’t hear our car. I’ll be watching you with some high powers and if start trying to escape before I can’t see you, we will turn around and finish the job.  Understand?”

Ken felt a little more pee run down his leg, but he didn’t care. He had a chance and fuck if he was going to mess this up.  He had messed up a lot of things in his short life, but this was one thing that he wouldn’t fuck up.  “Yes!  Oh my god! Thank you!” He yelled with relief as he heard the sound of a v8 engine rumble to life and accelerate rapidly away, spraying some gravel and sand on him in the process, but he didn’t care. He was still alive and damned if he was going to fuck up a second chance.  He waited a full five minutes before he started to even try removing the blindfold, followed by the duct tape that held his feet and wrists together. It took about 15 minutes to get the sticky duct tape off; he was wrapped up pretty good, but he got it done. He found his wallet, still with the ten inside of it, lying on the ground next to him.  Amazed that they didn’t take his wallet, he pocketed it and quickly began walking in the indicated direction.

MCO Special Agent Lainer set his fourth cup of coffee down before he yawned and tiredly rubbed his eyes in frustration.  It was 2 AM and his team of four agents had just wasted the last three hours watching and rewatching every single individual camera feed to no avail.  The damn mutie wasn’t in any of them and he was so sure that she was.

Why else would the FBI have taken the tapes in the first place?

“Fuck!  The damn bitch has got to be in here! Why can’t we spot her?  She couldn’t have dodged every fucking camera.” Agent Lainer said.

“Sorry boss, but she’s just not here. Maybe we missed a tape?” Agent Harris asked.

Agent Lainer sighed and leaned back in his chair. “No, we didn’t miss a tape. The mall’s security chief assured me that we have everything the feds have and with as much footage as we do have, I am inclined to believe him.”

“What now then?”  Agent Harris said with a yawn.

“Let’s pack it up and get some sleep. Maybe something will jump out at us tomorrow morning.”  Agent Lainer said as he held back a yawn of his own.  He watched, lost in thought as his team shut down their workstations and left the MCO Field Office.

After fifteen minutes of struggling to keep his eyes open, Special Agent Lainer slammed his fist down on his desk with frustration and stood up to leave.  “Fuck, oh well. Maybe tomorrow...” He said.

For some reason, “...she’s just not here...” kept running through his sleep deprived mind during his 15 minute commute to his apartment.  He didn’t think much of it as he stumbled into his room and fell asleep on the top of his bed still in his clothes.

Woo Hoo! I manage to sleep for a massive two hours tonight!  It is only 0130 hours and I am going to guess that I have at least four hours before anyone else is up.  Aunt Julie said that Uncle Jim normally leaves the house at 7 AM, but since she didn’t need to go into work this morning; she was looking forward to sleeping in until at least 8 AM.  

The bed is awesome, my new cotton flannel PJ’s are cozy and I can only dream of being able to sleep in until 8 AM now.  8AM used to be early for me when it wasn’t a school night.  I want to sleep some more, but I can’t. I am wide awake. So, I give up after tossing and turning for five minutes, sit up and push together the pillows to lean against while I do what I always do now.

I enter my VR living room and after a moment of thought, I decide that I need more rooms in my VR house. In addition to the shooting range, I also need a Jacuzzi and pool room.  Once I got over the fear of being seen in a tiny bikini, the Jacuzzi with Aunt Julie was actually very relaxing and even fun.  

I did learn one thing that gives me some hope for my shattered male mojo. For being old, Aunt Julie is still pretty hot. I am pretty sure that if John and I had seen her in at the pool, we would have been totally checking her out. I think that was part of my initial reluctance to join her in the Jacuzzi.  

Uncle Jim joined us after 15 minutes and I felt so relaxed and safe that I never even considered jumping out.  Heck, I even allowed myself to be seen out of the water as I sat on the edge to cool off.  

With Uncle Jim there, Aunt Julie informed us that she had called her sister, Karen, and got her on board with my Chloe identity.  Uncle Jim was surprised that she would feel the need to take that step, but after Aunt Julie chided him on his lack of witness protection skills, he grudgingly admitted that he should have thought of that too. Especially, after I told him about the MCO dudes and how I was also pretending to be his niece with both the MCO and his police buddies.

He was a little worried about the fact that my identity would be blown out of the water if anyone actually performed even a simple records search on his ‘niece’, but he didn’t think that the risk of that was very large. I was only going to be with them for a day or two and that probably wasn’t long enough for anyone to even suspect that I wasn’t who I claimed to be.

For my Jacuzzi room, I decide to make it an outdoor Jacuzzi that is attached to a massive swimming pool that has a water slide.  Also, since I don’t need to worry about chlorine or even salt water, I add a coral reef with some clown fish just to keep it entertaining.

As I switch my clothes over to my new bikini, I decide that it will be nighttime, a full moon and a pleasant 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Shivering slightly from the cool night air, I slip into my new Jacuzzi, activate the jets, close my eyes and relax. The warm water and powerful gets against my back and legs feels so heavenly.  It almost feels like someone is giving me a massage.

“Ahhh, that feels so so good.” I say with a contented sigh.

“Oh good. Do I get a turn now?” A sexy female voice breathes into my ear.

“Ahhh!” I jump at least 10 feet straight up before I land with a splash back in the Jacuzzi.  As I surface and hastily try to clear the water from my face, I hear an evil giggle that can only be one person.  “Sara!  That wasn’t funny!” I yell as I turn to face the sound of her evil giggles.

“Oh, yeah it was and I really must say, that suit looks hot on you!  Ta-zow!” Sara says, not sounding a bit sorry for scaring the crap out of me. She is trying to look all sweet and innocent, but failing miserably with the cute little devil horns and string bikini that isn’t hiding a thing on her body.

“What!?  You scare the crap out of me and that’s what you have to tell me?” I ask feeling a little upset with her still, but she does look pretty hot. Wait a minute!  She is not going to distract me so easily!  I cross my arms over my chest and give her my best, “I’m mad at you expression.”

“What?  I thought you knew I was here when I was giving you a massage and I must say cousin, you have really nice legs!” Sara says not at all sounding sorry.

Wait, what did she just call me?  “Umm, what?”

“I said, you. have. really. nice. legs.” Sara says with a smirk.

Now, I know for sure that she is messing with me. “No, not that. Cousin?” I ask as her statement causes me to self-consciously check my own legs out.  Hmm, they are kind of nice.

“Well, of course!  Nikki is my sister and since her Queen-ness adopted you and Nikki made you her cousin, that makes you my cousin too.” Sara says, then she giggles and bounces up and down like an excited little school girl.

Umm, that distracts me, a little.

“I can’t wait until your new Unkie Gothmog hears about this.  He is going to be so excited to meet you!” Sara gushes.  

“My what?” I ask. She is really confusing me now. Does she have ADHD or something?

“Your Unkie, Gothmog, my dad. Hello, is my suit distracting you that much?” Sara asks as she puts her hands on her hips in mock indignation which forces her breasts to strain against the flimsy fabric of her non-bikini.

I can’t help it. I start laughing. “Sara!  You’re impossible!” I say as I pull her toward me and give her a hug while steadfastly ignoring the feeling of her lithe body against mine.  I mean, she is my cousin now and that would just be weird, right?

Sara returns my hug and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before she steps back and sinks under the bubbling water.  “So, I understand that you’ve been a busy little beaver with the H1 and now the MCO?” She says, a little uncertain about the MCO.

“Well, yeah, there was the H1, but it wasn’t the MCO, well, not at first. It was the CIA.  Someone sent a team to kidnap me and maybe have me checked out by some mad scientist or something.” I say as Sara’s eyes widen with shock before they settle down into something that kind of scares me.

“Can you give me a description of these CIA agents?” Sara asks with all traces of ADHD gone.

“Well, yes, and I have their CAC ID card info too, why?” I ask, suddenly feeling a little nervous to be standing so close to Sara.  

Little black shadowy tentacles are starting to swirl around her body.  “Give me their info, please.”

I tell her the names of all four of the agents.  “Oh yeah, and Captain Howards let it slip that the CIA dude that started all this was being ‘taken care of’, but they are still looking for the agents.  That is why I am hiding out at Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie’s house right now.”

“Uncle Jim?” Sara asks as the shadowy things start to recede.

“Oh yeah, he’s Lord Vincint. I watched him play for a little bit tonight. Are you Marala?” I ask. Now I feel like I have ADHD.  I kinda miss the fun, sexy and mess-with-me Sara.

“Lord Vincint, huh?  Yes, I play Marala.” Sara smiles apologetically at me. “Sorry, I’ll be right back. I need to talk to a, umm, friend.” Sara says just before she fades out, leaving me feeling cold in spite of the fact that I am standing hip deep in a bubbling hot Jacuzzi.

Sara’s abrupt departure leaves me with mixed feelings.  In the span of two minutes, she has made me almost poop my pants, umm, bikini, laugh, love her and finally fear her.  Why did she want to know their info? I know that Sara is a demon or something, but what can she find out about them that Mr. Reilly can’t?

** Chapter 38 **

<Wed Feb 21th, 2007>

With Sara’s departure, I look around my Jacuzzi and pool area and decide that I just don’t feel like hanging out here anymore.  I will myself back to my living room and into my new pajamas.  That is one nice thing about VR, it’s not real, so I don’t need to waste time drying off.  

With a sigh, I plop myself down on the couch and look around for something to do.  I know that I promised myself that I would delete Amanda’s girl mag as soon as I could, and I could do that right now, but now I am bored. Plus, after my new clothes, first dress, I mean, skirt, first bikini and Jacuzzi time with Aunt Julie, I’m actually interested in reading a few more of the articles.

Shudder...

I sigh with defeat, open up the magazine and start reading. I hope that Sara won’t be gone for too long.  I make it through the advice column about why a boy is sending the girl text messages and what that means. The girl asking for advice is so clueless that I want to scream. Plus, she gets an answer that isn’t at all helpful and is totally not what boys think. I could have answered the girl’s question with just three simple words.  “He likes you, duh!”  Okay, four words.

After reading that, I feel like throwing the magazine in my mental shred machine, but I accidently turn the page and find an article about nail colors and proper nail care.  I make it halfway through that article when I hear Sara cough to get my attention.  Well, it’s an improvement over her last method.

I look up and she is not alone.  That reminds me. I need to ask her how she is able to get into my head because standing next to Sara is another girl.  She is beautiful and looks to be about my age, but she also looks older somehow. I don’t know how to explain it, but I get the feeling that she had been through a lot. While she looks around my VR living room with undisguised curiosity, I notice that her black hair has some vivid blue streaks running through it. I think it looks kind of cool, but her most striking feature is her eyes.  They are a brilliant electric blue. Not just her cornea, but her entire eye is blue, like Paul Atreides from Dune.

“Okay, Bree, this is Paige. Paige, this is Bree, my new cousin on Nikki’s side.” Sara says as she looks back and forth between us.

I stand up, nervously smile and cautiously offer my hand to her.  I am not used to having visitors, well, except for Sara, in my VR world.  She shakes my hand, but surprises me with a quick hug and a friendly smile.

“Nice to meet you, Bree, and I can’t wait to find out what Sara interrupted a really good dream for.” Paige says with a wistful expression.

“Paige is a, umm, friend of mine who is good with computers and I thought that she might be able to help us.” Sara says with a warning glance at Paige when Paige looks at her with a raised eyebrow.

I think that Paige is wondering why she is a ‘friend’, because there seems to be more to it than that.  What is Sara trying to hide or protect me from?

Paige regains my attention. “So, Bree, I was able to look up the CIA agents based on the info you provided Sara, but I need to know a bit more for my search.”

“Umm, okay. I can show you what they looked like and I have a video of what happened with everything they said and did; would that help?” I ask.

Paige’s eyes widen with surprise. “Sure?”

I play back the start of my kidnapping and up until I shoot John in the shoulder. “Stop!” Paige says, then with it paused, she intently studies the image of John.  “Hmm, so we have two CIA agents with gunshot wounds...okay, I think that might help. I can search all the hospitals and clinics in the area for patients admitted this evening.  They will probably be treated anonymously, but their wounds should be specific enough for me to get a match on them.” Paige turns back to Sara. “If I do find them, what do you want me to do?”

“Let me know. I am very interested in finding out more about this medical exam and who the ‘doc’ was that they mentioned. I might have to make a quick trip to Virginia.” Sara says menacingly.  “Also, can you find out who their boss is?  I might have some extra questions to ask of him, or her.”

“Okay, anything else?” Paige asks.

“Not at the moment, but I might have more work for you to do when you get back.  How long do you think it will take you?” Sara asks.

“Oh, not that long. I just need to hack into the CIA’s personnel database and maybe root around some of their other less secure databases.” Paige pauses thoughtfully. “It could get a little risky if I need to go deeper into their ultra-secure mission and intel system, but I could use the challenge. How deep do you want me to dig?”

Sara purses her lips as she mulls the idea over.  “Hmmm, let’s not take the chance right now.  I just need to know who we are dealing with here.  Sorry Paige, I know how bored you are right now, but we just can’t take the risk.”

Paige looks a little disappointed with that. “Sure. I’m sorry. You’re right, but this could get us a little payback.”  She sighs with frustration. “Okay, with just the surface hack, it should take me five to ten minutes, tops.”

Sara holds Paige by her shoulders and looks seriously into her eyes. “Okay, do it, but be careful too, please.  If there is even a chance that they will discover you, cut the cord. Okay?” Sara asks.

“Sure.” Paige says and receives a reward hug from Sara. Paige surprises me by giving me a quick hug. Then with a smile and quick wave, she fades away.

Paige seemed to be hinting at something else. Maybe something in her past, but I don’t see how she can break into the CIA’s systems.  It is the freaking CIA! Their stuff is super-secure and super top ultra secret.  If she can do what she seems to think that she can do, then when I get to Whateley; I am so going to try and be her friend. Also, I am witnessing a new side of Sara. This side of Sara is calmly planning on breaking into the CIA as if it is a normal and everyday thing. It is kind of cool.

“Is there anything that I can do to help?” I ask Sara in the hope that I will get to do something fun and exciting.

Sara smirks at me. “Haven’t you done enough over the last few days?”

Ouch. She just had to remind me.  “Hey, it’s not my fault!” I say, somewhat petulantly.

Sara joins me on the couch and pats my leg affectionately before turning to face me. “Now, tell me the rest. Once you made it to the mall, how did you manage to evade the police, the MCO and find Lord Vincint?”

I tell Sara all about my illusion tricks and before I can get too far, she makes me show her what I look like as Chloe.  Then, she embarrasses me by forcing me to admit that I had a crush on the real Chloe back home, but she does admit that I had good reason because Chloe is hot.

Sara is fascinated by the real life Lord Vincint and she decides that “Aunt Julie” is a keeper. “Hmmm, maybe the next time I have Lord Vincint in my grasp, I will have to ‘accidentally’ let him escape. So, you went out and attacked a SEAL team?”

I can’t stop the groan of shame. “You just had to bring that up?”

“Well yeah, I mean you should have realized that they might be friendly forces when you were able to crack their radio systems and if not then, you should have been more suspicious when you ID’ed their weapons.”

“I didn’t know...” I say with a definite whine.

Sara grows still and motions for me to wait. “Sorry, hold that thought. Paige is on the way.”

Paige materializes in the center of my living room. “Maybe I should add some Star Trek style transporter discs there.” I mutter.  

That earns me a brief giggle from Sara before she turns back to her business mode.  “So, what did you find?”

Paige looks at me curiously, like she doesn’t recognize me.  Then, I realize why that might be. I am still in my Chloe disguise for Sara.  

“Well, after doing a search on the local hospitals, then matching transactions made with government issued credit cards, specifically CIA issued cards, I was able to find the rendition team. They are currently holed up in a hotel in Williamsburg, Virginia.” Paige says.

Wow, Paige is good.

“And their boss?” Sara asks.

“As of yesterday, he is now former CIA Operations Director James Falk.”

Sara stops Paige. “Sorry, former?”

“Yes, he was allowed to tender his resignation...”

Sara’s expression darkens and more of those spooky tentacle things start to emerge from her body again.

Paige notices Sara’s display of displeasure and hurriedly provides more of an explanation. “But, he was also ‘burned’ or blacklisted.  For them to do that, he must have really pissed off his bosses with his attempt on Whisper.”

Sara manages to calm down and the spooky stuff recedes back into her body. I really need to find out more about her and this new “Unkie” of mine.  What is she and what is he?  Do I really want to know?

Paige resumes her update. “So, without digging into the operations database,” She frowns with distaste by that limitation. “...I was able to find out that he had a long and successful career with the CIA. He served eight years in the Army as an intelligence analyst, made it to E-6, and then was hired by the CIA in 1982.  Worked his way up from there. Nothing too juicy in his personnel file, but he did receive a commendation for his role in Project Kitten.” Paige says, putting emphasis on the last bit of data.

“What was Project Kitten?” I ask.

Paige and Sara glance at me with surprise. I think that they forgot that I was there. While Sara looks angry about something, hopefully not me, Paige’s eyes look positively haunted.  Was she involved in this Project Kitten thing?  How could something called Project Kitten be that bad?  Did the CIA try to train Kittens to be spies or something?  Maybe they turned cute kittens into deadly assassins, but then the kittens got out of control and they had to put them down? Okay, now I think that my imagination is running out of control.

“Umm, it was just a dark time for me and I still don’t feel comfortable talking about it, sorry.” Paige softly says as her eyes begin to tear up.

Now I feel bad for asking.  I jump up from the couch and give her a hug. Not sure what possesses me to do so, but I just feel like she needed one. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I say while Sara smiles appreciatively at me.

Paige smiles through her tears. “It’s okay. Not your fault. So, Bree, is this what you really look like or what?”

I glance back down at myself and blush from embarrassment. “Umm, no. Sorry. This is the disguise that I used to sneak out of a mall with the MCO and police hunting for me. I really look like I looked when you first, umm, visited.” I say as I drop the virtual illusion of Chloe.

“Oh, okay. Well, you looked pretty like that, but I think that you’re prettier as yourself.” Paige says.

Sara coughs to get our attention and I am a little relieved by that since I was starting to feel uncomfortably pleased by Paige’s appraisal of me.  “So, can you provide me with the address for this Falk guy? I think that I will want to pay him a special visit sometime very soon.” Sara asks.

Paige nods her head. “Sure, I have all that, plus his DMV records for you, too. Is there anything else?”

Sara studies me and ponders the question way more than I would think is necessary. “Yes, can you put together an ID and background for ‘Chloe’?  I want it to be as real as possible, but we probably don’t have much time to make it bullet proof.  It just has to be able to pass the standard background check process.”

Paige’s eyes gleam with excitement with that request. “Sure! What can you give me for her background?”

Sara glances at me with a bemused grin. “Chloe? How about if you fill Paige in on yourself while I go check out that new hot-tub of yours?  Then, when you are done, join me.”

I find myself gulp for air at the thought of that. “Sure.” I manage to squeak out.

As Sara saunters from my living room and into the pool area, her outfit morphs into a very revealing string bikini thing and it is even more revealing than the one she surprised me with the first time.  Both Paige and I take a few seconds to regain our focus. “So, Umm, this Chloe ID?” Paige says, breaking the spell.

I fill her in on everything that I know about the real Chloe back home and what Aunt Julie told her sister in New York.  When done, five minutes later, Paige gives me another hug before she stands to leave. “I can’t wait until you get to Whately!  I so wanna go over your internal security with you; maybe show you a few things...”  Paige says, trailing off with as if she expects me to refuse her help.

“That would be awesome!” I say.

Why is everyone so eager for me to get to Whately?

I shake my head with amusement at that thought as I stand and follow Paige as she peeks her head into my Jacuzzi area. “Wow! This is nice.” She says with a wistful glance back at me before she turns back toward the frolicking Sara. “Heading out, Sara! I will let you know when her ID is ready.”

“Cool!” I hear Sara say. “Sorry! I would ask you if it would be okay with Bree if you could stay, but no rest for the wicked!”  

“Hah! That means you should have left hours ago, right?” Paige asks with a grin that turns positively gleeful when Sara stands up in the Jacuzzi, topless while pretending to not notice that she is topless.  

Well, she has to be pretending, right. I mean how could you not know something like that?

Oh yeah, so, topless, Sara pouts mischievously at Paige.  “Paige! I’m not ‘that’ evil and I am insulted that you would make such an insinuation with poor young Bree there. Think of the children!”

Paige just laughs at Sara, but then, she glances back at me and notices how beet red my face is; Paige gives me a hug. “Don’t let her bully you...” She whispers into my ear.

“Hey! I heard that! I am NOT a bully!” Sara yells.

How did she hear that from way over there?

Paige sticks her tongue out at Sara, then winks at me and disappears.

“Awesome! Now that the party pooper is gone, get in here cousin! I only have 30 more minutes before I have to leave and you really look like you could really use another massage.”  Sara says, still accidently displaying her rather awesome breasts for me.

I glance back to the safety of my couch, and then back at an expectant looking Sara. At what I am sure is my best deer in a headlights expression, she smiles, exposing her dainty, cute little fangs as the steam from the water swirls around her body. The steam provides just enough obscurement to hint that it could provide her with some modesty while not providing any at all. I feel a brief, very brief, feeling of respite when she sinks back into the water, but then, she arches her back up just enough to leave her breasts out of the water as she angles her body to let one of the water jets massage her shoulders.

Yep, she really is ‘that’ evil, if not more.

MCO Special Agent Lainer blearily slapped his alarm off. The glowing numbers told him that it was six AM and time for him to head back into the office.  

“Three hours of sleep just isn’t enough.” He thought to himself as he forced himself to make his way to his bathroom so that he could take a shower to help him wake up.  He peeled off his clothes from last night, they were wrinkled beyond fixing.  He hoped that he had another clean suit to wear. It would not look good to his men or his superiors if he came into the office looking like a slob.

The warm water helped revitalize him and as his thoughts slowly began to churn, he found himself cursing the U.S. Government for their stupidity. Didn’t they realize how dangerous these mutants were to humanity?  The MCO and organizations like the MCO where the only thing that stood between humanity and mutant domination because he knew that power corrupts.  The MCO was the only reason that the damn mutants hadn’t realized just how powerful they were. They had to be repressed and divided because if they woke up and realized that they didn’t need lowly humans, the human race was doomed.

The government was hiding something here. Not really a surprise, but what was surprising was how well they were hiding it.  Even with the cockup from yesterday, there still wasn’t even a whisper of data on their new top secret pet mutant.

“Whisper? What kind of name is that?” Agent Lainer asked himself as he absently washed his body.  “Sounds like some sort of stealth name...”

“Why didn’t we spot her on the video feeds?  Can she make herself invisible?”

“No...that can’t be it. That takes magic and Whisper doesn’t sound like a good magic powers alias. Not like Fey or Cirque anyway.”

He was rinsing the shampoo from his thinning hair when a sudden thought struck him.

“What if she is a shape shifter?”

Shape shifters where the ultimate secret weapon, capable of infiltrating even the most secure facilities.  They made excellent spies and assassins, but they were also very very rare and thus valuable.

“Holy shit! That’s gotta be it.”  

That was the only reason he could think of for the U.S. Government to want to keep her so secret.  They didn’t want anyone to know that they had a shape shifter in their employ or that they were training one. Her fight with the H1 heroes indicated that she was very well trained already, but that she might be out of control. In his haste to turn off the water and get out of the bath, he accidentally turned off all the hot water first.  The sudden splash of cold water made him gasp for air.

“Fuck!  That’s cold!”

Agent Lainer forced himself to shave and he was in luck, he did have a fresh suit to wear.  Still, with traffic it took him over an hour to make it back to his office. He spent the next two hours poring over the tapes and keeping his team well supplied with coffee.  They looked for people who were seen entering the mall, but never leaving.  Then, they looked for people leaving the mall who were never seen entering the mall.  Then, just in case their target could have made herself look like one of the shoppers already in the mall, they also looked for people who appeared to have left twice.  

They failed to spot anyone matching that pattern, but by 11 AM, they had six, no seven, possible matches for people who matched the enter and exit criteria.  The seventh match wasn’t really a match, but it was interesting none-the-less.  They spotted Mirage, a mutant who was known to be working for the CIA, among the crowds.  She and her partner appeared to also be trying to find someone.  Could that mean that the U.S. Government had lost their little shape shifting pet mutant?  If so, what did that mean and how could the MCO benefit?

Now, it was just a matter of time and old fashioned detective work before they could try to match some names to the faces. Then, once they had the names, they could start narrowing down the suspect list and use that to pick up her trail again.

Yes, they already had one suspect that he felt confident that his team could identify and question in no time.  It was the pretty blonde girl that they spotted speaking with a team of MCO agents, followed by a K-9 police team and finally spotted leaving via a late model BMW.  She matched their search pattern, but he didn’t think that she was their target. Her behavior just did not fit with a wanted criminal, but if that girl really was their target; then she was pretty damn ballsy to attract so much attention to herself.

He just wished that the camera had been able to capture the license plate, but oh well; he would just have to make a few calls to speak with the MCO agents and the K-9 team to see if they knew anything about the girl that might lead them to her.

The remaining five suspects might be a bit tougher to track down, but that is why they paid him the big bucks.  That made him snicker.

The morning and Uncle Jim starting his morning routine did not come fast enough for me. Sara was very very naughty, but she tried to tell me that she was just trying to help me with my body image problem by eliminating the mystery. She never kissed or touched me inappropriately and I am not sure if I am happy about that or not.  She confused me so much, but by the time she had to leave; I no longer felt the need to avert my eyes every time she flashed me her boobs or when she made a show of displaying her body to me by lying next to the hot tub in a sexy pose. Instead, I was mostly able to keep my eyes on her face and hold a normal conversation.  Mostly, because 30 minutes of desensitization therapy as she called it just wasn’t enough to completely rewire my brain.

After she left, it took over thirty minutes of swimming in the cold pool to cure me of my Sara thoughts. Even after my cold shower treatment plan, I still think that she is hot and even though she is my cousin, still not sure how that works, just thinking of her makes my insides feel strange and my nipples embarrassingly sensitive.

Uncle Jim rolls into the kitchen promptly at 6:30 AM. I think that I surprise him by meeting him in the kitchen, completely dressed and presenting him with a fresh cup of coffee and a smile for his morning commute to the courthouse. He does grumble a little bit about me being one of ‘those’ morning people. However, he seems to like the coffee, but I am not sure because I had only made it for my parents twice before. The first attempt didn’t go over so well because I poured too much coffee grounds and used too little water, but they didn’t spit out my second attempt later that month. Which was good, because I really wanted them to get me the new Xbox game. It didn’t work, but Lyndsay volunteering to wash the dishes for Mom that evening got her the new purse that she wanted. How fair is that?

While Uncle Jim works on his cup of coffee, I decide to see if I can get myself and him something to eat because a good breakfast is the best way to start the day. Or so my parents and teachers claim.

“So, Chloe? Are you going to refresh your disguise now, just in case?” Uncle Jim asks from the little breakfast bar built into their spacious kitchen.

I glance down at myself and realize that I still look like myself. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, kind of forgot.” I say.  Then, simply call up my mental image of Chloe and cast the spell to make me look like that image. Unlike last time, I leave my clothes alone with the illusion. I only change my hair, face and body to match Chloe’s body. It comes much easier now and by not including the clothes in the illusion; I think that I could recast it in less than a second. As an added bonus, doing it that way took so little power that I think that I can maintain the illusion all day if I have to.

I spot some fresh bagels and a tub of cream cheese in the fridge. “Oh, Uncle Jim, would you like a bagel with your coffee?” I ask.

“Oh, sure, but I can do that myself.” Uncle Jim says, smiling appreciatively as his coffee starts to wake him up.

“Oh no! You just sit and drink your coffee. It’s not a problem.” I say as I dig the bagels out and glance at the eggs tray. Those would be good for his breakfast too, but I’d probably just end up with rubber hockey pucks if I tried to cook them. “I would offer to try making you some eggs too, but have only cooked eggs once before and that was with my mom’s help. So, I am not sure if I would destroy the kitchen or not with an attempt.” I say with a grin as I pop two of the much easier to cook bagels into the toaster.

Uncle Jim laughs.

“When is Aunt Julie going to wake up?” I ask as I wait for the toaster to finish its job with the bagels.

Uncle Jim glances at his watch, and then thinks about it for a second. “Umm, probably not for another hour.  She drank one glass of wine too many last night and stayed up a little later than normal.  So, I don’t expect for you to see her until at least 8.”

“Okay, does she drink coffee too?” I ask.

“Yep. One teaspoon of sugar and a splash of cream. If you have a cup waiting for her when she makes her way down stairs; I am sure that she will want to try and adopt you.” Uncle Jim says with a grin.

He silently watches me as I spread the cream cheese on his bagel for him. “You do like cream cheese, right?” I ask, probably just a little too late.

He nods and takes another sip from his coffee.  

I serve him up his bagel, and then refresh his coffee. I am not sure why I am feeling so helpful this morning. I have never done this for my parents without wanting something in return, but I guess that I feel so grateful for their help that I just need to help in any way that I can. They didn’t have to help me, but they did. I start to feel my eyes tear up.  

Damn it!

I turn back to the toaster and spread some cream cheese on my bagel as a diversion. I do not want him to see me crying over something so silly.  I gain a little more time for my eyes to dry out by pouring myself a glass of orange juice before I join him at the breakfast nook.

We both eat in silence, until he glances at his watch. That makes me check my clock. It is exactly 0700 hrs.

“Time to head out. Sorry and I hope that you and Julie have fun today.” He says. Then, he surprises me by giving me a hug before he leaves.

Sigh...another hour before Aunt Julie wakes up...maybe.

{“Alpha One, Delta Two. Secondary’s vehicle is leaving the garage.”}

{“Roger Delta Two. Charlie One, Secondary is yours.”}

{“Roger Alpha One. Charlie One, over.”}

It sounds like Uncle Jim’s protection team is going to follow him to make sure he stays safe.  That makes me feel better. I debate saying thanks to them, but I think that I have caused enough trouble already.  

Would they want some hot coffee?

{“Alpha One, umm, Whisper One? Would you all like some coffee or something?”} I ask, suddenly feeling nervous that I am messing something up.

The 1.239 second delay in a response gives me way too much time to second guess myself. {“Hehe, thanks Whisper One, but I don’t want my boys getting spoiled on this op. Alpha One, Over.”}

{“Damn...”} I hear an unidentified mutter that my system automatically triangulates as coming from the team that is positioned in the back yard.

{“Oh, I mean, Alpha One, Whisper One. Sorry. Umm, over?”} I say as a cringe at how pathetic I sound to myself, but it did sound like Captain Howards, I mean, Alpha One wasn’t mad at me for asking.

After I recover from my embarrassment, I spend the next 15 minutes alone, bored out of my mind.  I debate going into VR, but I just can’t dredge up the energy for that right now.  So, I start meandering around the house and find my way to Uncle Jim’s office.  His computer is sitting right there, in standby mode, all ready for me to play with.  I shift my vision into the magical band and I can see a very faint residue from GEO. I debate just leaving his computer alone, but I really want to check my mail and surf the web to catch up on my manga and anime.

A touch is all it takes to wake his PC and bring it out of standby mode.  He has it password protected, but I bypass that without thinking about it.  Unlike my parent’s PC, his is actually pretty clean. I don’t spot any malware infections.  I have two emails from John, which is a surprise since he might send me one once a month, if that.  What really surprises me is the one email from Lisa.  She has never sent me an email before and this one is pretty fresh. The timestamp tells me that she sent it to me late last night.

Bree,

I had so much fun hanging out with you the other night. I know that it was a little weird for you and John, but I can tell that he still likes you and thinks of you as his friend.  Only a friend, especially after I threatened to break him in half if he tried to think otherwise.  I just didn’t want my new BFF to feel weirded out by my horndog boyfriend and her best boy who is just a friend-friend. :-P

Okay, that’s a little ‘awkward’ and I am not sure if I should feel relieved or scared shitless. On one hand, I think that Lisa sees me still as me and likes me, but on the other hand, I think that she sees me as someone who might steal her boyfriend from her.  That is so not happening!

Lyndsay told us that you were going to be going to some private school called Whateley Academy and not returning home due to some H1 attack.  We were all devastated to hear that, even your sister.  I didn’t tell you this, but I think that she was looking forward to taking you to the mall to shop for clothes;  hehe

Hah! I knew it!  

Anyway, the other reason I am sending you this is because my dad got a strange call from one of his old Navy SEAL buddies.  After he got off the phone, he called me into his office and asked me a bunch of questions about you. I’m sorry, but I had to tell him about your change.  Please don’t be mad with me!  :-(

XOXOXOXO,

Hmmm, how much do I want to bet that Captain Howards called Sensei Rogers? But, more importantly, what is up with the hugs and kisses stuff?

P.S. Please stay safe and come home as soon as possible!  We so need to go shopping!  LOL

I knew it!

P.P.S. Oh yeah, my dad wants to take you camping with us this summer and he NEVER lets me bring any friends with.  What did you do?

Yeah, what did I do and do I dare ask what camping with Sensei Rogers is like? I will have to reply to Lisa, but first, I need to read John’s emails.

John’s emails are pretty simple and refreshingly normal.

Dude!  Where the fuck are you and when are you getting home so I can p0wn you in Ghost Recon!

Pfft, like that would ever happen and that is what I reply with.

Oh shit!

Should I have done that? Will they be able to trace me with my email?  I start to panic a little until I remember that no one knows me as Brian and that my email is on the Gmail servers, so it isn’t even coming from the PC that I am currently using.  I am probably safe, but just in case, I decide that I probably shouldn’t reply to any more emails. At least, not until later and maybe I should set up a new email address.

John’s second email is from this morning. He sent it only 15 minutes ago.

Dude! Lisa told showed me the news about your fight with the H1 assholes. Holy fucking shit man. Remind me to never piss you off!  Anyway, I will still p0wn you in GR! LOL.

Lindsay also sent me an email and as I read it, I start to wonder if she was replaced by a Pod Person because I do not know this person.  Her email is over a page long and it details everything that she has done since I left.  She talks about how she feels about me and how sorry that she is for treating me so bad in the past. She tells me that she misses her big brother, but that she also loves her ‘big’ sister just as much.  Yes, she used quotes around ‘big’ to remind me that she is now a little taller than me.  Ha. Ha.

It takes me a few minutes to read it, but she predictably finishes with, “I can’t wait to take you shopping!”.  I think that I am done with shopping.  I was starting to think that it might not be that bad, but if I ever step foot in a mall again, it will be too soon.

I want to check my sites, but I feel a little guilty for using Uncle Jim’s PC without asking him first.  I look around and that is when I spot his wireless router.

Crap! Why didn’t I think to try using that first and more importantly, why didn’t I check for wifi when I first stepped into his house? If I can connect to his wifi, I wouldn’t need to use his PC.  I activate my wifi and try to connect to his service. It is secured with WPA2/TSA  and I don’t have the password. So, I decide to see if his router will be willing to help me out. A simple touch, one second later I have the password and I am in.

I have never surfed the web directly before and I have to say that it is pretty cool. It is almost like that “Johnny Mnemonic” movie with cyberspace stuff.  Everything looks like neon colored buildings connected with glowing white roads that lead to every building and I can soar above it all. I can also dive down and use the road to instantly go to any building that I know the address for. I lose all track of time as I explore and I discover that most of the sites that have passwords to access are super simple to bypass, but when, out of curiosity, I check out a bank’s website; I discover that it is very well guarded.

I would really like to send Dr. Edmundson and Mr. Reilly the videos from yesterday. They might help them find the CIA team, but when I try to connect to the mil-net again; no roads seem to lead to it. Maybe it isn’t connected to the internet?

“Chloe?” I hear Aunt Julie ask from upstairs.

Crap!  

I check the time and I am surprised to discover that it is 0832. Holy crap! I lost all track of time, but wow, I think I have found a new toy to play with when I am bored with my VR world.

“Aunt Julie? I’m down here!” I yell as I reach the hallway outside of Uncle Jim’s office.

“Okay. *yawn* I will be down in a few minutes.” Aunt Julie yells just loud enough to travel down from the top of the stairs.

I race into the kitchen, pop another two bagels into the toaster, I’m hungry still, and pour her a cup of coffee.  One teaspoon of sugar, a splash of cream later and Aunt Julie starts to make her way down the stairs.  I set her cup down where Uncle Jim sat earlier this morning and smile at her when she walks into the kitchen with a surprised look on her face.  She is wearing a warm looking white bathrobe over what appears to be a red negligee or something. I can only see a bit of red silk peeking up where the robe crosses her chest.  She also has on a pair of warm looking fuzzy pink bunny slippers.  

They are so cute and I can’t help smiling at her when I spot the slippers.  They are the last thing that I expected to see her wearing around the house.

“Chloe? You made me a cup of coffee?” Aunt Julie asks as she spots the steaming cup sitting on the breakfast counter.

“Umm, yep. Before he left, Uncle Jim told me how you liked your coffee. I hope that it tastes okay for you.” I say, suddenly feeling a little worried that she I messed it up for her.

“Thanks Chloe! That’s so sweet of you.” Aunt Julie says as she sits down in front of her cup.

I anxiously watch her as she takes a cautious first sip.  Then, she sighs with contentment and smiles at me. “Thanks, tastes perfect.”

Then our bagels pop up and she looks surprised at the sight of those.  “You made me a bagel too?” She asks.

“Yep.  Do you like cream cheese too?” I ask as I jump up a little so that I can pull a plate down for her bagel. I hate being so short.

“Yes, cream cheese would be great, but only a little. I’m trying to watch my weight.” Aunt Julie says with a grin before she hides it by taking another sip of her coffee.  

“Okay.” I say as I reduce the amount of cream cheese that I was going to spread on her bagel. It might be easier to let her prep her bagel herself, but I feel better doing it for her.

“How long have you been up dear?” Aunt Julie asks just before she takes a bite from her bagel.

“Umm, I’ve been up since 0130 hours or exactly 7.1 hours.” I say expecting her to not be happy with that answer.

Aunt Julie stops chewing her bagel for a few seconds. She is not happy with my answer. “Chloe!  That’s not healthy for a young...” She pauses for a fraction of a second. “...person.  You need more sleep than that!”

I think that her pause is because she was going to say “girl” or maybe even “woman”, but she changed her wording at the last second.  “Umm, well, I would like to be able to sleep longer, but it’s all that I seem to need now. The doctors checked me out, a lot, but the most that I have been able to sleep since my change has been 2 hours and that was only after a big day with a lot of stuff happening. So far, my normal sleep has been exactly 1.5 hours.” I say as she starts to look more and more concerned about me.

“As soon as I finish my bagel, I want to check you out again.” Aunt Julie says in her doctor to patient voice.

“Umm, okay, but...” I start to say before she gives me the “no buts” look. I decide to ignore it. “...I could just use Uncle Jim’s PC to show you everything directly from my medical status system.”

Aunt Julie studies me with a dubious expression. She opens her mouth as if to say no to that idea, but stops herself.  “You can do that?” She asks.

I nervously nod my head.  “Well, I think that I can. Dr. Edmundson has a special program on his laptop, but I am pretty sure that I can duplicate that for you on Uncle Jim’s PC.”

We finish our bagels, but I still feel a little hungry. I would ask Aunt Julie if they have any cereal, but she looks anxious to check me out.  I sit down at Uncle Jim’s PC and connect to it. I search my system for the monitor program and discover that I have a copy of Dr. Edmundson’s exe that he runs on his laptop.  I push that over to Uncle Jim’s PC, make a few tweaks to it so that it will work on this network, then I activate it.  

Aunt Julie walks into the room just in time to see my health data start to fill the screen. She rushes over, gently pushes me to the side and studies my data.  She glances back at me once, with a questioning expression. “Is that really you?” She asks.

I nod my head once. “Uh huh.” I say.

Aunt Julie looks back at the screen. “Amazing...this has everything. Heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, iron, oxygen content, red and white blood cell counts...If we had this at the hospital...” While she intently studies the screen, she absently reaches for her bag and pulls out her stethoscope.  “I want to listen to your heart beat to make sure that what I am seeing is what is really on the screen.”

She takes a long time with her stethoscope. So long, that it is completely warm by the time she is satisfied and that never happens.  “Amazing...well, I guess that you really are healthy or at least, your body is, but I still worry about how your sleep patterns might affect your mental health.”

Of course, she had to toss in that disclaimer for me. “Umm, sorry, but I feel fine in that area too. Well, except for all the emotions.  Do women always feel so...umm...on edge?” I ask as I try to avoid saying ‘emotional’ or ‘hormonal’ because I know that my mom has bristled at those words in the past.

Aunt Julie stops and just stares at me for what feels like the longest time. I can tell that she is surprised by my question because I think that she forgot that I used to be a boy or she deep down inside, the doctor in her just doesn’t believe me.  

{“Whisper One, Alpha One. I am on the way. ETA 5 minutes. Have some updates for you.”}

That snaps me to attention and makes Aunt Julie even more concerned.  “Chloe? Is everything all right?”

“Umm, sorry. Yes, but umm, Captain Howards will be here in five minutes.” I say.

{“Okay, Alpha One. Whisper One, ummm, over?”} I say in return.

That causes Aunt Julie to panic a little. “Oh my god! I am still in my bathrobe! Are you sure?” She asks.

I grimace and nod my head affirmatively.

“Crap! Ooops, sorry. I need to put some clothes on!  If he gets here before I am ready, just let him in and offer him some coffee or something.”  Aunt Julie yells as she rushes from the office and scrambles up to her bedroom.

She doesn’t make it back down before Captain Howards rings the doorbell. “I’ll get it!” I sing as I run to the door. I stand on my tiptoes to peek out of the spy hole, just to confirm that it is Captain Howards.  It is him, or it looks like him, but he doesn’t seem have his CAC ID on him, or it is shielded. So, I can’t use that to ID him. I open the door and motion for him to come in.

He looks surprised by my appearance as he furtively glances around to make sure that there isn’t someone else here. I am a little surprised by his appearance too. He is wearing a tasteful and expensive looking business suit with jacket and tie. I guess that showing up in this neighborhood or any “hood” wearing combat fatigues would be a little noticeable.

I decide to try and have just a little bit of fun at his expense. “Oh, hi! I’m Chloe. You must be Mr. Smith. Bree has told me sooo much about you.” I say using my best Chloe, the spoiled rich kid voice.

Captain Howards’ eyes narrow as he studies me. “Whisper?” He asks.

He still hasn’t entered the house. That means that I have an excuse to stay in character, right?  “Who?  Oh no, I’m not Whisper.” I laugh a little as if Chloe finds that idea amusing. Then, I glance meaningfully toward the kitchen area. “Whisper is in the kitchen...”

He takes the hint and enters the house without taking his eyes off of me.  Yeah, I don’t think that he trusts Chloe. I happily smile at him as he passes me, then I softly close the door behind him and turn back to face him.

“Okay Whisper, what’s going on and why do you look like that?” Captain Howards asks.

I debate dragging the charade on, but he doesn’t look all that happy. I drop my Chloe disguise. “Hi, Captain Howards. I kind of forgot that I was in my Chloe disguise when I answered the door, but then after I saw your face, I just couldn’t resist. Umm, sorry?” I say, wilting a little under his stern gaze.  

He doesn’t say anything, but his expression slowly shifts to a more thoughtful and less stern looking one.

I take that as a positive sign. “Umm, Aunt Julie is upstairs getting dressed. Would you like some coffee while we wait?” I ask as I move past him and head toward the kitchen.

“Sure.” He says, following me.

I motion him towards the breakfast nook as I pour him a cup. “Sugar and cream?” I ask, pausing before I bring his cup over to him.

He shakes his head, no. “Black is good, thanks.” Captain Howards says as I reach over and slide his cup toward him.  “So, just how did you do that little trick there?”

I fix Chloe back in my mind and activate the spell again. “What, this?” I ask as I feel the magic settle over my body.

His eyes widen with surprise, but only briefly. I might have missed it if I had not been watching for it and expecting it. “Yes, that.” He says.

“It’s an illusion and I thought that Mr. Reilly would have told you that I could do some magic?” I ask as I hear Aunt Julie start to come down the stairs.

“I saw it on your file, but it just said that you had a Wiz one rating and grudgingly at that.” Captain Howards says as he takes a sip of his coffee, then using his cup, he salutes me with appreciation.  “Is that how you were able to sneak up on my men last night?” He asks.

“What was that? Who was sneaking up on whom last night?” Aunt Julie asks from the edge of the kitchen.

“Umm, Aunt Julie, this is Captain Howards. U.S. Navy SEALS.  Captain Howards, umm, Julie Stiles.” I say, playing the proper hostess in the hopes that Aunt Julie will forget what she just asked about.

Captain Howards stands and shakes her hand. “Pleased to meet you Doctor Stiles and sorry about the surprise visit, but I needed to update Whisper and you on a few things.”

Aunt Julie smiles at him. “Oh, it’s not a problem Captain Howards.”

“Kurt, please.” Captain Howards asks looking a little uncomfortable with this scenario.

Aunt Julie laughs. “Okay, well then how about Julie for me then?”

“That would be fine with me, Doct...I mean Julie.” Captain Howards says as he stumbles a bit with using her non-formal name.

Aunt Julie turns back to me with a questioning expression. I don’t think that she forgot. “Now, what was that about some ‘sneaking up’ last night?” She asks.

I anxiously glance over to Captain Howards. He doesn't look like he is willing to lend me a lifeline here.  Actually, he looks like he is interested in hearing my side of the story. “Umm, well...last night when you were on your way home from the mall; I overheard someone on a nearby radio talking about a ‘Secondary’ being ‘inbound’ and I was worried that whoever it was, they were going to try and hurt you...” I pause and look back to Captain Howards. I really wish that he would just jump in and take over or even better say that it was Top Secret or something. He doesn’t.

“Go on, and?” Aunt Julie asks.

“Well, I sorta got mad and I took a knife...” I gesture toward the knife block sitting on the counter. “...and I snuck outside to try and stop them from doing that.” I say, cringing at the horrified expression on Aunt Julie’s face.

“Young lady! What were you thinking?” Aunt Julie asks as her horror shifts to anger.

“Umm, I was thinking...” I say before Aunt Julie stops me.

“No, I don’t want to know what you were thinking, because you clearly were not thinking! What if you had been hurt?”

“Ma’am, my men wouldn’t have hurt her.” Captain Howards says, coming to my defense.

Finally!

Aunt Julie turns on him. “Your men?! What men? Just how many of these ‘men’ did you have out there?” She asks.

Rut roh!  

Now we are both in trouble with Aunt Julie.

“Ma’am, my orders were to protect Whisper, yourself and your husband until the CIA Rendition team was found. Now, as to your original question. I had enough to ensure the success of those orders.” Captain Howards says without emotion.

His answer seems to take Aunt Julie by surprise. I don’t think that she is used to dealing with the military.  As a doctor, I think that she is used to getting answers to her questions. “I don’t care about your orders! What if she had been hurt?” Aunt Julie asks, glaring at Captain Howards as she reaches for me and clutches me protectively to her body.

“Aunt Julie, I know it was stupid of me, but they are here to help.  They stopped that guy from hurting you...” I say, trailing off when I realize that I might have said too much.

“Wait, what did you just say?” Aunt Julie asks, turning back to me, then glancing over her shoulder at Captain Howards as if to say that it is all his fault.

“Umm...” I helplessly look at Captain Howards.

“Ma’am like I said, my team was assigned to protect both, you, Mr. Stiles and Whisper. A man was spotted acting suspiciously towards you in the parking lot last night. Two of my men intervened to prevent him from harming you, but the primary reason that I am here this morning is to inform you that my team is no longer needed here.”

Now it is my turn to panic. “What? Why?” I ask.

“The CIA Team was located and brought in for debriefing 30 minutes ago. As a result, we feel that the immediate danger has passed and that we can safely pull back your protection.”

“Oh.” Aunt Julie says, sounding a little deflated.

“How did they find them?” I ask.

Captain Howards hesitates, as if debating if the information is secret. “Luck.”

“Huh?” I ask.

“They used a CIA issued credit card to rent a hotel room and from what I understand, those cards are not tracked. However, due to a glitch in the credit card company’s system, the transaction was flagged for review as a possible fraudulent transaction.  That drew the attention of the CIA’s Internal Affairs.”

Wow, Paige is good. I really need to get to know her. “Oh, okay.” I say.

“Captain Howards, you said that you had a ‘primary reason’ for this visit and that has been answered, but what is your other reason or reasons for this visit?” Aunt Julie asks.

It seems like the adults are now more comfortable using the formal forms of address and I am amazed that she noticed that slip from him because until she mentioned it, I totally didn’t notice it.

“Yes, Doctor Stiles.  The secondary reason for my visit this morning is to get back to your original ‘sneaking’ question.  I need to know how Whisper was able to get the drop on my men so that I can address any training deficiencies that might exist.” Captain Howards says. He too is back to the formal mode of address.

Aunt Julie releases me from her protective grasp and turns to expectantly look at me.  I glance over to Captain Howards.

“Umm, well, I cheated?” I hesitantly say as I glance back to Aunt Julie, then back to Captain Howards to see how much more I am going to need to explain that answer.  I think that Captain Howards might be amused with my answer.

“Cheated?” They both ask in stereo.

I guess I have to show them. “Yes, like this.” I say as I cast my invisibility spell and take a step back as soon as I feel it take hold.

They both look shocked when I disappear right in front of their eyes, but Aunt Julie’s shock turns to panic almost immediately. “Chloe! Where are you?” She asks as she spins around trying to find me.

“Right here.” I say from off to her right, then cancel the spell before she really starts to panic.  Her reaction surprises me, but Captain Howards looks thoughtful.

“I am certainly no expert on magic, but that seems like more than a Wiz One power rating to me.” Captain Howards asks.

I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe? I don’t really know. I haven’t been trained.” I say with complete honesty because I really don’t know. Fey’s and Sir Wallace’s assessment wasn’t official and I haven’t been trained so I can honestly say that I am not lying.

Captain Howards doesn’t look convinced by my answer. “You have an idea though, don’t you?” He says with a dubious smirk.

I really am beginning to wish that I was a better liar and that he wasn’t so good at reading me. I glance back to Aunt Julie and she looks a little lost, but also curious about my answer. “Fine...” I sigh. “I have been told by a person that I trust, that with training, I might be a five, but they didn’t really know what my rating might currently be and that is the end of this line of questioning.” I say, glaring at Captain Howards with frustration.

“Chloe!” Aunt Julie exclaims.

I turn to Aunt Julie. “I’m sorry Aunt Julie, but so far, having all these powers reminds me of that line from Spider-man.” She looks confused. “You know, the one about ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, but in my case, it’s just been a whole lot of trouble and I’m getting a little sick of it.” I glance back to Captain Howards, daring him to say something. “I could go off about all the other cra...stuff that has happened to me just in the last 48 hours, but I don’t think that needs to be said right now. I’m mad. I’m frustrated and all I want to do is just go home and forget that this ever happened to me, but I can’t.”

I glance back over to Aunt Julie and I can see that her eyes are about to spill over. She has that ‘I just want to hug you’ expression. I pre-empt her hug by giving her a quick hug then stepping away before it can get all mushy.  I look back at Captain Howards. “Now, Captain Howards, would my video of last night’s little op of mine help?”

He smiles at me. “Why, yes. I believe that it might help answer a few of my questions now that I know about your ‘little’ trick there.”

We walk into Uncle Jim’s office and I sit down in front of Uncle Jim’s PC.  After it comes back from hibernation mode, I restart my monitor program.  Then, I pretend to use that interface to download the video to his PC instead of just directly transferring it. I might have let my magic rating slip, but there is no way that I am going to let him know about my computer skills.

“Do you want to watch it now or take it with you to watch later?” I ask as I glance around Uncle Jim’s office for a blank DVD ROM. I spot a box of blanks and turn back to look at Captain Howards as I grab them.

Captain Howards glances over at Aunt Julie and I can see him weighing the risk. If she saw the video with his men and their weapons, she might freak out.  “How about if I just take it with me?” He asks.

I pop a blank disc into the PC and start the copy. “Okay, this is going to take a few minutes.” I say as I sit back in Uncle Jim’s comfy chair and then, spin back around to look back at Captain Howards and Aunt Julie.

Captain Howards reaches into his suit and pulls out what looks like a ruggedized cell phone, but unlike normal phones I cannot detect any signal from it at all. This one is either missing its battery, it is totally powered down or it is somehow shielded from my power.  “Well, while we wait...This is a secure cell phone.” He holds it up for display before setting it down on Uncle Jim’s desk. “Mr. Reilly would like for you to call him at 1000 hours and the number to call is already loaded into the phone.” He says.

I check the time and realize that I have almost an hour before it is time to call him. I reach for it with my hand and it isn’t until I hold the phone in my hand that I can sense its electronic guts. Unlike a normal cell phone that is turned off, with this phone, I can only sense the battery and the power circuit.  I guess it really is secure.

“You just push the button...” Captain Howards starts to say as I push the button that is connected to the power circuit.  “Okay, well. Whisper, Doctor Stiles, I am sorry that we couldn't have met under better circumstances, but I do wish you both the best.”

“Thanks Captain Howards and sorry about your guy.” I say as Aunt Julie looks back at me with one of those, “you have some explaining to do” expressions.

“Hehe, it is not a problem Whisper, but Spencer is a little put out by the fact that he will have to requisition a new vest and explain to our supply officer how he damaged his current vest while officially being on a training exercise.” Captain Howards says as he glances toward the door.  It looks like he is ready to leave.

Aunt Julie picks up on his non-verbal communication and with a smile, she leads him to the door.  I watch as they shake hands in what appears to be mostly friendly fashion. “Thanks for coming, Captain Howards, and please tell your men thanks for helping me last night.” She says after they finish shaking hands. She closes the door, then turns to me with a thoughtful expression that does not bode well for me.  

“Now, young lady, where is that video from last night?” Aunt Julie asks.

** Chapter 39 **

I debate trying to tell Aunt Julie that the video is Top Secret, but I doubt that will work.  She looks very determined.  I lead her back into Uncle Jim’s office and with a touch of a few keys to make it look like I am using the PC like a normal person, I will the video to play.

“I really thought that they were here to hurt you and Uncle Jim...” I say, trying to mute the impact of what she is about to see.

I forgot to cut out the part where I sliced open her screen window to get out of the house.  She merely raises an eyebrow at that display. Oh yeah, that is coming out of my allowance.  

Aunt Julie protectively grips my arm as I begin my ‘attack run’.  I do not need to watch the screen. I am more interested in what she thinks of it.  I watch her expression as all the status, projections and targeting information flashes and overlays the action on the screen. She looks both amazed and alarmed at the same time.  She jumps when I attack Spencer with her kitchen knife.

When the video stops, she does not say or do anything for what feels like forever. Is she going to kick me out now?  Is she going to think that I am too dangerous or out of control to feel safe with me in her house?

Finally, she turns to me and silently studies me for another 3.213 seconds, not that I was counting or anything.  “Well young lady, it certainly appears that you have a slight impulse control problem.” She says, without expression before her lips quirk into a smile that tells me that she might not be too upset with me.

“Umm, yes ma’am.” I say, blushing furiously.

“But, I can’t really fault your logic too much.  They should have known better.” Aunt Julie says, frowning briefly before abruptly standing. “Come! Let’s check the damage, shall we?”

Aunt Julie leads me to the egress window. Without opening the window, she looks at the outer screen. “Hmm, I don’t see anything...”  She says as she studies the screen intently for a few seconds. She turns to leave the room. “Wait here, I just need to turn off the window alarms.”  She makes it to the room’s door before she stops and spins back around.  

Rut roh.

“Say, just how did you open the window without setting off the alarm?” Aunt Julie asks as she studies me with suspicion.

Yeah, rut roh was right.  Busted!

“Umm, I kind of told the alarm to ignore this window for an hour?” I say, hesitantly as I feel even more ashamed of myself.

“Oh, okay. So, could you ‘tell’ the alarm to ignore this window now so that we can check out the damage?” Aunt Julie asks like it is no big deal.

I am not sure if she understands what it means that I can turn off the window alarm from here or if she understands, but just does not think that it is that big of a deal.  

“Sure.” I say as I touch the window frame sensor and connect with the alarm system.

Aunt Julie walks back over and looks at the window suspiciously. “Is it off?”

“Yes ma’am.” I say, waiting for her to freak out or get mad at me.

Aunt Julie pauses and studies me for a second. “Chloe, I am not mad at you for cutting the screen or taking my best chef knife.” She looks back at the window and sighs. “And, yes, I know that what you just showed me, even though it doesn’t look like much, is a big deal.  I may be old in your eyes...”

I shake my head slowly back and forth. “You’re not...”

Aunt Julie smiles. “Hehe, thanks Chloe, but what I was getting at is, I do know enough about computers to realize that Jim’s PC was responding to your touch just a bit too fast and that ‘kind of telling the alarm to ignore this window’ is also a ‘big deal’.” She says, signing air quotes as she dropped her voice an octave or two.

I sigh with defeat. “Yes, ma’am.”

Aunt Julie surprises me by laughing gently and giving me a hug. “Oh, don’t worry about it Chloe. I trust you.  Your Uncle Jim and I had a rather long talk about you last night.  He trusts you and that is saying a lot!  I know that you are a good person and far too smart to try and use that power to rob banks or start Global Thermonuclear War.” She says with a grin when my mouth drops to the floor at her “War Games” reference.

Yes, I know, I know. That movie is way old, but it’s still required viewing for true geek certification. “Thanks Aunt Julie. I was really worried there. I was warned to keep that ‘little’ skill or power or whatever it is, secret because it scares people, ya know?”

Aunt Julie nods with agreement. “Yes, I can imagine that it would. Smart advice and I won’t say a word, but how much can you do with computers?”

I think she knows too much already. “Umm, how about a nice game of chess?” I ask, hopeful that she will understand and drop this line of questioning.

Aunt Julie holds up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, I get the hint. Now, how about we check the damage here?” She smiles reassuringly.

I know that she is going to be at least a little upset when she sees her screen. “Thanks and I am really sorry about cutting the screen.” I say because I am worried about how much one of those screen windows will cost.  

I cringe as she slides the window open, then looks back at me with confusion. “I thought that this was the window?”

I cautiously peek at the screen in question. There is not a single cut, rip or tear to be found.  Actually, it looks brand new.  “Umm, it was. Maybe Captain Howards replaced it?” I ask, hopeful that he did instead of just swapping it out with a different screen window.

Aunt Julie ponders the undamaged screen. “Hmmm, well, if he did, then I guess I will have to thank him if I see him again.”

“Yes ma’am.” I say feeling relieved.

“Now, how about if I cook us something better for breakfast than a bagel while we wait for your conference call?” Aunt Julie asks, smiling as she leads me back to the kitchen.

I am pretty hungry and that reminder causes my stomach to growl. “Sure! That sounds good to me.” I say, trying to cover my embarrassment.

She pauses for a second. “Yep, something is definitely in order.  Omelets? Cheese, mushrooms, green peppers with some sun-dried tomatoes sound good?”

“Oh, yes, that sounds awesome, but you don’t have too do all that. A bowl of cereal would be fine.” I say.

“It’s not a problem.” Aunt Julie says as she begins pulling stuff out of the fridge.  “Chloe, would you mind cracking four eggs into a bowl for me while I work on the other ingredients?”

“Umm, sure?” I say, hesitantly as I take the carton of eggs from her and grab a small mixing bowl from the cabinet.  Breaking eggs, that I can and I can even do that without too many shell fragments.  I manage to do it this time with zero shell, then she pours a bit of milk into the bowl and I whisk it all together.  Aunt Julie gives me a quick omelet cooking class and I even manage to duplicate the results with my very own omelet.  

After we eat, I make a second omelet all by myself.  Aunt Julie is a little surprised by my appetite.  

“I’m not sure why, but I seem to need more food now.  They mentioned something about me possibly being an energizer, but it could also be due to my muscles just needing more fuel too.” I say, shrugging apologetically as I polish off the second omelet.

“Okay, one more thing that I will want to check on.” Aunt Julie says with a wry grin. “Oh, for the call, can you route it through the house phone like you did before?”

I study the secure phone for a second before decide to try cloning it. “Here, I think that you can just use this while I connect directly.” I say, handing the phone to her.

Promptly at 1000 hrs, I dial the number for Mr. Reilly with my internal cloned phone and the real phone connects at the same time.  

“Nicholas Reilly speaking.”

“Hi Mr. Reilly. Umm, Whisper here with Mrs. Stiles.” I say.

“Excellent Whisper. I think that I can safely say that everyone in this room is glad to know that you are safe and sound. Of course, Captain Howards just finished briefing us on your little, umm, training exercise last night.” Mr. Reilly says, his voice sounding a little amused, but with some exasperation in there too.  

“Yes sir, I know. I have been informed that I have some ‘impulse control’ problems.” I say as I feel myself shrink down to three feet tall from embarrassment.  Aunt Julie does not help when she covers her mouth to hide a giggle.  It also doesn’t help when I hear the rest of the people in the conference room laugh.

“Well, I hear that there is a school that can help with that.” Mr. Reilly says.

Now I am worried that Whateley will not accept me. “Yes sir, but do they let trouble magnets like me in?” I ask.  

Mr. Reilly laughs at me this time. “Oh Whisper, I’m sorry, but I don’t think that you will have a thing to worry about on that front.”

“Oh, okay...” I say, still feeling a little unsure about that because I know that public schools are prone to kick out troublemakers and send them to the special education centers where they can learn a valuable trade skill, like small engine repair.

Mr. Reilly clears his throat. “So, down to business.  As you already know, the CIA team was found early this morning and are currently being debriefed.  The good news is that there are no other CIA teams on the loose, the bad news is that it appears that we have a leak with this facility. More bad news is that the MCO is still looking for you.  The FBI informed us that the MCO managed to get a copy of the mall security feed from yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s not good...” I say as my stomach drops to my feet.

“No, it’s not. If they spot you on the video, then they might be able to find you.”

“Weeellll, I know you told me not to, but I kind of disguised myself with an illusion so I doubt that they will recognize me.”

I hear a new voice in the background sputter. “Impossible!” It sounds like the esteemed Dr. Remus. I stick my tongue out at him, which makes it a good thing that I am not in the room with him.  

“Hmmm, how good of an illusion?” Mr. Reilly asks.

“Is Captain Howards there?” I ask.

“Yes I am here and I have to say that based upon what I witnessed this morning; I have zero fears that the MCO will be able to identify her in the video feeds.” Captain Howards says.

“Well, that is certainly reassuring and I think it helps with our current plan. We would bring you in right now, but we need time to isolate the leak here. Because of that, we would prefer to keep Whisper with you and Mr. Stiles until Saturday morning. Will that be okay with you and your husband Mrs. Stiles?”

Aunt Julie looks at me and smiles. “Oh, that won’t be a problem Mr. Reilly. She is an absolute gem! Will Chloe’s, I mean, Bree’s mother be able to join us?”

Mr. Reilly sighs with relief. “I am glad to hear that and as much as she would love to join her daughter; we all feel that her presence would increase the risk of detection since Mrs. Peters can be placed at the H1 incident.”

“I could disguise her too, I think...” I say.

“I am sure that you could, but remember what Fey told you about pushing yourself?” Mr. Reilly says.

I was hoping that he forgot about that. “Yes sir.” I say, despondently.

“I know that you probably miss your mother and I know that she misses you. I would love nothing better than for you to be on a Air Force dropship and at Whateley right now, but Mrs. Carson feels that would be too disruptive to the students during Spring Finals.  The majority of the student body will be leaving for Spring Break starting Friday afternoon and an early Saturday arrival will be the best from a security standpoint.”

Did he just say ‘a dropship’? Wow! I would love to get a ride in one of those things. I try to keep the excitement from my voice. “Okay, I guess that if it is okay with Aunt Julie, then I wouldn’t mind staying with her for a couple more days. Are you really going to get me a ride in a suborbital?” I ask, totally giving away my excitement.

Once again, I hear the room laughing at me. “Yes. The Air Force has a training flight that has been on the books for over a month now. We could fly you out in my jet, but the MCO is watching that like a hawk and I don’t trust them to not try something stupid.  They really hate secrets that aren’t of their own making.”

I try not to bounce up and down on my chair with excitement, but I fail in that too. “Yes sir!”

“Now, Captain Howards showed us the video from last night. Is there anyway that you can connect to our network and upload the rest of your adventure?” Mr. Reilly asks.

“Umm, I tried, but it said that it couldn’t find it.” I say while wishing that I had thought to make a copy of it when Captain Howards was here.

“Did you try with the VPN client?” Dr. Edmundson asks.

“No, do I have one of those?” I ask as I take the liberty of searching for one myself.

Ummm, Yes?

Spooky. Yes.

“Well, yes, you should. It should be called vpn.exe. Can you search for it?” Dr. Edmondson says.

“Found it and I am connected now using Uncle Jim’s wifi, is that okay?” I ask both to Aunt Julie and Mr. Rielly.  Aunt Julie nods her head.

I guess that means that it is okay since that is the same IP that Dr. Edmundson used the last time. Sure, I mean, Yes.

I feel the data pouring out of me as Dr. Edmundson accesses the monitor. “Interesting, very interesting...” He says, distractedly and just loud enough for their conference room phone to pick up his voice.

“Can you upload the video from the abduction and up until you were picked up my Mr. Stiles?” Mr. Reilly asks.

I queue that file, but it is huge. “Umm, yes, but it is two gigabytes and over Uncle Jim’s wifi it says that it will take five hours to transfer. Is that okay?” I ask.

“Yes, that will be fine.” Mr. Reilly says.

I decide to break it into two parts before I start the file transfer so that they can view the kidnapping video sooner.  “Okay, it is on its way and I broke it into two parts for you.”

“Great! Thanks Whisper. I am sure that we will be very busy analyzing the feed. I think that we are done here. Mrs. Peters, is there anything that you would like to say?” Mr. Reilly says as I hear people start to move around in the room.

“Yes, thanks. Now Bree, I love you, but please try to stay out of trouble and listen to Mrs.Stiles.”

“Mooomm...I will.” I say, feeling embarrassed by my mom’s reminder.

“Mrs. Stiles thank you so much for being willing to watch after my daughter.” My mom says warmly.

Aunt Julie giggles. “Oh please, it is not a problem. Like I said, she is a delight to have as our guest and please, just call me Julie.”

I hear the room empty as my mom and Aunt Julie start discussing me like I am not here. I sink down into my chair. I wonder if a person really can die from embarrassment.  I can hear the wistfulness in my mom’s voice when Aunt Julie tells her about the bikini and the skirt that she got me to wear.

“Is Bree still there?” Mrs. Townsend asks.

“Uh huh.” Aunt Julie says.

“Yes, I am here.” I say with Aunt Julie.

“Amanda says hi and wishes you could come to her slumber party Friday night.” Mrs. Townsend says.

Oh god!  That’s just what I need to keep a low profile.  Hang out at Amanda’s slumber party and be surrounded by a bunch of giggling girls.  I wonder if they have pillow fights while dressed in skimpy nightgowns?  Hmmm, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Oh wait. If I was there, I would be one of the girls dressed in a skimpy nightgown.  I sigh with frustration.

“Thanks Mrs. Townsend and say hi back please. I miss her already and I wish that I could go, but that probably wouldn’t be very safe with the MCO.  They are probably watching your house since they saw you all at the H1 thing.” I say and the sad thing is that I really do wish that I could go. I wonder about myself sometimes. Maybe Sara is right, I just need to jump in with both feet and be the girl, na na na na na.  No, that is much too perilous! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!

I am such a geek. That makes me stifle a giggle and causes Aunt Julie to look at me with a curious expression.  

“That is probably true dear, but if something changes; you’re invited!” Mrs. Townsend says ending on a cheerful note and bringing me back to reality.

“Thanks Mrs. Townsend. Maybe the MCO will give up...” I say, hopeful that will be the case since now I really do want to go.  

Am I crazy?

“I hope so! Well, I need to get back to my desk. I’ll let Amanda know you said hi when I get home tonight!” Mrs. Townsend says.

Mom and Aunt Julie decide to chit chat some more. Aunt Julie asks what kind of foods I like, but I decide that it is time to run to the bathroom when my mom drops the gender pronoun. “He liked everything except eggplant and brussel sprouts, but now that she is an elf and a vegetarian, I don’t know.”

I have a feeling that the conversation is just going to get more embarrassing for me and I am right when they start talking about how cute I was when I was a baby.  I mute my phone because if I don’t hear it, I can pretend that it never happened.  While in the bathroom, I check my Chloe disguise and even use the toilet. Damn cold toilet seats.

Now, in addition to the pee-standing-upper doohickey, I am going to invent a seat warmer for toilets. Like those hand warmer things that hunters use for their hands. Maybe something that is antimicrobial and will easily fit into into my purse. As an added benefit, you can use it as a hand warmer!  And if you call now...  

I sigh as I finish wiping. I can’t believe that I am even thinking about this kind of stuff or that I would have a purse to store said device. If someone had accused me of having a purse last week, I would have seriously considered punching them.

My mom and Aunt Julie are still chatting, so I carefully sit down on the couch and watch some TV on their big screen.  Yes, I could watch it on my built in, but they have cable.  Strangely enough, I find myself watching Project Runway and it takes me hearing Aunt Julie end the call before I realize that I stopped on that channel.  I quickly change to Dirty Jobs to help regain some man cred because there is nothing more manly than learning how to artificially inseminate a horse.  Eeeewww!  

I switch back to Project Runway just as Aunt Julie walks in on me. “So, your mom and I were talking and it sounds like you might need a few more clothes.  Mr. Reilly has agreed to reimburse me for up to $2,000 worth of clothes for you. Do you have any colors that you don’t like?” She asks.

That is a surprise. I mute the TV and look up at her. “Umm, definitely no pink and maybe purple?”

“Okay, well, I need to run into the office for an hour to check on some patients. After that, I will grab a few more outfits for you and if that doesn’t take too long, maybe you can come with me to the grocery store?”

“Oh, sure, that sounds good because how many people attack grocery stores these days?” I ask with a grin.

Aunt Julie laughs at my joke while I decide to look up the crime stats on that very question. I do not find a lot, but it looks like convenience stores are pretty dangerous places. She runs back upstairs to her room to get ready and amazingly, returns five minutes later ready to go.  She gives me a quick hug and races out the door looking extremely excited. “I can’t wait to go shopping for you!”

I follow her out the door and wave goodbye to her as she backs out of the garage.  She smiles and before the garage door closes I see her mouth, “Stay out of trouble...”  Geez, it is not like I look for trouble.  Up until the past week, I managed to live a pretty normal and trouble free life.  Can’t I use that as my record?

I check the upload status and the first video upload is only 39% complete with an estimated four more hours to go for the complete upload.  Uploading files via the interwebs is so slow.  I wish that I could connect via a satellite or something faster.  Well, part of the problem is with the wifi.  Hmmm, they have cable internet.  The download speed is pretty darn fast.

Is the modem limiting the upload speed to 500 kb per second instead of allowing 10 mb per second like it does for the download speed?  I find the cable modem and give it a closer look.  Yes, it is the modem itself that is controlling both the upload and the download speeds.  It looks like the modem is actually capable of 20 mb per second both ways, but the cable company is limiting it.  I fix that little ‘bug’ and bam!, the ETA drops in half.  

Crap! Now it is the wifi that is limiting the speed. I debate sending it faster, but that might raise more questions that I want to have asked.  Hmm, I decide to tone down the cable modem upload speed limit to match Uncle Jim’s wifi speed limit and leave things alone after that.  No sense in taking chances by attracting attention at this stage.

With that it going as fast as I can safely allow, I decide to watch some more of that fashion show. It is surprisingly entertaining watching these people come up with outfits out of nothing.  That lasts for 20 minutes before I can’t take it anymore and I find a Mythbusters episode. Sweet!  They are blowing up a cement truck!  Male mojo infusion, check!

[ding-dong!]

The front doorbell rings.  What the heck?  Should I answer it?  I peek out the door and there is a delivery dude there.  I don’t detect anything strange about him. No hidden radios, CAC ID cards or ray guns on him.  He has a handheld package scanner and a small mp3 player.  I cautiously open the door just as he is about to turn and leave.

“Sorry it took me so long. Did you have something for my Aunt or Uncle?” I ask.

His eyes widen with surprise or something as he sees me.  Did I forget to re-activate my Chloe disguise? Am I not wearing clothes? Why is he smiling at me and blushing?  

He looks at the label on the letter sized package. “Is your Aunt named Chloe Stiles?” He asks.

That is a surprise.  “Umm, no. I’m Chloe, why?” I ask, then feel dumb when I realize how stupid that sounds when he is holding a package in his hands that appears to be addressed to me.  “Oh god, that’s pretty stupid of me isn’t it?”

He laughs at me, but it is a nice laugh. Not mean or anything.  “No, not at all. It happens all the time. It is amazing how many people are surprised that someone would want to send them a package.”  He grins as he holds out his scanner with the plastic stylise. “Sign here please.”  

The scanner looks legit. No sign of a hidden stun gun or anything else.  I grab it and sign Chloe Stiles in the box.  He hands me the package with a smile. “Have a nice day ma’am.”

“Umm, thanks. You too...” I say, somewhat distractedly as I study the thin cardboard envelope and close the door behind me. I don’t detect anything electronic in it. So, it should not blow up on me if I open it. Who would send me a package and who would even know that I am here?

I set the envelope on the coffee table in the living room and study it for over five minutes before I dredge up the courage to open it.  Okay, it was 5 minutes and 23 seconds. It is not my fault that my built in timer is so anal retentive.

It does not blow up and no knockout gas poofs out of the envelope when I open it.  Inside I find a piece of paper with a typed note, a New York Driver’s License with Chloe’s name and picture on it, a Social Security Card, a Student ID card for some religious private school called The Saint Quiteria School for Young Ladies along with a class schedule, official looking birth certificate that says my name is Chloe Jessica Stiles with Mother listed as Karen Stiles and Father as Jonathan Stiles and the return portion of a round trip plane ticket from Norfolk to New York.  The most important discovery that I make is that both my birth certificate and driver’s license says that I am 16, while the student ID card says that I am a sophomore.  Sweet!  I can drive!

With that discovery, I almost forget about the note.

Wow. Just wow. I REALLY need to be nice to Paige when I get to Whateley.

I decide to use Uncle Jim’s shredder on Paige’s note. No real reason to destroy it, but no real reason to keep it either.  Plus, using the shredder is easier than eating it.  Since my kidnappers left my purse back in the not so secret test lab, I don’t know what to do with my license and student ID card. The back pocket of my jeans will just have to do for now. I leave the class schedule, birth certificate and SSN card in the envelope. No reason to carry those around with me.  That was my plan, until I discover that pockets are all sewn shut.  Why do they do that?  Don’t girls use their pockets?

I borrow one of Aunt Julie’s knifes again and fix that little defect with my jeans, then satisfied, I slide my new license and student id into my back pocket.  No, I did not perform the pocket surgery while wearing the jeans and no, you do not need pictures of me without my pants on.

I make some lunch, watch more Mythbusters, watch a full episode of that other show, sorry, I can’t help it. It is kind of funny to learn how fashion designers think about clothing.  It is just clothing, but they treat it like it is going to solve world peace or something.  The show does have Heidi Klum though. She might be old, ummm, er, but she is still pretty hot and love that German accent of hers.

At 1323 hours and just as the designers are picking their models, the phone rings. I let their answering machine pick up the call. “Chloe? It’s me. Are you there?” I hear Aunt Julie say over the answering machine. I race to the phone that has the answering machine hooked up to it and pick up the line.

“Hi, Aunt Julie! I’m here.” I say.

“Oh, good! Was starting to get worried.” Aunt Julie says with a relieved laugh. “How are you doing? Is everything okay? Did you have any trouble?”

“Hehe, nope. No problems here. I made myself some lunch and not once did someone try to attack me. It’s actually kind of boring...” I say, trying to sound disappointed by that.

“Chloe!” Aunt Julie says with a smile in her voice. “I’m almost done here at the hospital and it should only take me an hour or two to find you a few more outfits. Is there anything else you need?”

“Umm, a purse?” I ask, feeling very reluctant to admit that need to myself or her.

“Oh yeah. I can’t believe that I didn’t think of that last night. I have a few extra ones in my closet. Feel free to grab one while you wait.” Aunt Julie says.

Just like my parents, I feel a little hesitant to venture into their room. “In your room?” I ask, cringing as I immediately regret my question. My hair isn’t really blonde, why am I asking so many stupid questions this morning?

Aunt Julie giggles. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing in there that will attack you.”

“Oh, I know, I think. I just don’t feel comfortable going through other people’s rooms.” I say, finding it ironic that as a rogue, that is my job in GEO.

“Okay, well, I need to go. I have my cell, call me if you think of anything.”

“I will...bye Aunt Julie.” I say as I hang up the phone and debate hunting for a purse. I do have a lot more stuff to haul around now, but then again, no I don’t.  A driver’s license and a student ID is not “a lot of stuff”.  I don’t have a phone. I don’t have or need makeup. I don’t have, but might need some of those tampon things, eventually.  Okay, that decides it for me. I do ‘not’ need a purse right now.

Woot! Time for more of my show. I plop myself back down in front of the TV. Who will win this challenge?

[Ding-dong!]

What the heck?! Do Aunt Julie and Uncle Jim get this many deliveries every day?

“Coming!” I yell as scramble to the door and reach for the handle.

What does that do?

Oh crap, I mean, crud.  Does my illusion cover the IR spectrum?

“Be right there!” I yell as I run to the bathroom, switch to IR and view myself in the mirror.  Yep, my Chloe IR signature looks like Chloe and not me.  No elf ears detected. I flush the toilet then run back to the door.  

Crap!  Maybe I should have pretended to not be here.  Oh well, too late now.

“Hi? Can I help you?” I ask as I cautiously open the door and am almost immediately bombarded with an IR pulse from their glasses.  I pay more attention to what their system is doing than to them as it tries to find a match for my face.  It fails, but it makes me wonder if it would have failed anyway.  Do they even have a good scan of my real face?  The failure sends a buzzer tone to their earpiece that I assume indicates a failure.

“Yes, we are sorry to bother you ma’am, but I am MCO Agent Schiller.” The dude on the right says, sounding genuinely apologetic as they both display their MCO badges to me. Agent Schiller gestures to the second dude. “And, this is my partner Agent Mattsen. We just need to ask you a few questions regarding a deadly mutant who escaped from police custody yesterday.”

Wow, they are really laying it on thick there. I never realized that I was both “deadly” or in “police custody”.  Okay, I am Chloe Jessica Stiles. I am on vacation and I am missing the ending of my show. How will I ever find out who won the design challenge?  I narrow my eyes with anger. “Again? Is this about that girl from the mall yesterday?  The one who interrupted my shopping?!?” I ask, crossing my arms across my chest and insolently canting my head to the side.

“We are very sorry ma’am, but we are just following standard procedure and doing some random follow ups with potential witnesses to make sure we didn’t miss anything.” Agent Schiller says as he glances back to their car with longing.

Standard procedure random follow-up my butt!  They had to have used the video footage that Mr. Reilly mentioned. “Oh, well, that’s easy. No. I didn’t see anything except for the Michael Kors purse that I couldn’t buy due to this missing mutant of yours.  Can’t you all keep better track of them?” I say, huffing with frustration as I glance back at the TV impatiently.  Now I have that show to thank for because until I watched it, I never even knew who Michael Kors was. I hope that he actually has some purses in his collection or whatever they call it.

They both take a step back. “Sorry ma’am. I think we got everything that we came for. Very sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day!” Agent Schiller says before they both retreat back to their car.

“Fuck...I told Lainer that she wasn’t the one...why in the hell did we have to get the short straw?” Agent Schiller mutters to Agent Mattsen when he thinks that they are out of my hearing range.

I close and lock the door, then peek out the front window to confirm that they are really leaving.  I detect an encrypted radio transmission from their car as they pull out and aggressively accelerate away. Yeah, I think that they are officially pissed and Chloe is off their suspect list. I hope.

The phone starts ringing again. Geez, now what?  It is probably Aunt Julie again. I run back into the kitchen and pick up the phone before it can go to the machine.  “Hello, Stiles residence. Chloe speaking.” I say.

“Chloe!?” Uncle Jim asks, sounding worried about something.

“Oh, hi Uncle Jim. Sorry, I thought you were Aunt Julie. Is something wrong?” I ask.

“Have the MCO come yet?” He asks.

I laugh. Okay, giggle darn it.  I blame the adrenalin rush. “Oh yeah. Agent Schiller and Agent Mattsen just left. I got mad at them because they interrupted Project Runway. Why?” I ask, trying to stay in character just in case ‘they’ are illegally tapping Uncle Jim’s phone.  I don’t detect any taps, but I also don’t really know what a phone tap ‘feels’ like either.

“Oh...” Uncle Jim pauses with surprise.  “You got mad at them and they left?!”

“Well, yeah. I am Chloe Jessica Stiles and like I said, they were interrupting Project Runway.  Why wouldn’t I get upset over something as important as that?” I ask.

“That worked?” He asks, incredulously.

“Yep, I can tell you all about it tonight during dinner and would you believe that I missed who won the design challenge?”

“Well, I guess everything is okay then?” He says hesitantly. “When do you expect, umm, Aunt Julie to be back?”

It sounds a little strange hearing him call her ‘Aunt Julie’, but it is part of my cover. “Oh, she just called and said that she was on her way to shop for some clothes, then depending on how long that took, she would either come home or just go to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner tonight.  Do you want me to ask her to call you?”

“No, that’s okay. I will be in court the rest of the afternoon. Just let her know that I should be home at the usual time.”

“Okay. Oh! Commercial is over. Is there anything else?” I ask with a touch of impatience for the benefit of any possible listeners.

“No, that’s it. Thanks Chloe.” Uncle Jim says, sounding a bit bewildered, yet relieved at the same time.  Chloe seems to have that effect on people.

“No problemo! Bye Uncle Jim. Love ya!” I say cheerfully as I set the phone back down and cringe at my girlness there at the end.  Where did that come from?  This Chloe character of mine is effecting me now too.  I need to change the channel back to Mythbusters or something before she takes over!

I switch the channel and some ultra-manly show about custom built choppers is on.  Phew!  I can practically feel the testosterone oozing back into me from the TV screen as the big old dude uses an axe to make a hole in his son’s office door.  Not sure why, but it is kind of entertaining in a train wreck kind of way.  That show ends and I am halfway through a very interesting show on sharks when I intercept the garage door signal.

Woot! Aunt Julie is home!  I am so bored.  I run to the door that leads to the garage and open it as Aunt Julie pulls into the garage.  She happily waves at me as she shuts off her car and closes the garage door.  “Oooh, Chloe! I can’t wait for you to try on some of the outfits I found for you!” She says as she excitedly opens the back and pulls out far too many expensive looking bags.

Her excitement, plus my chopper testosterone infusion causes me to pause.  “Umm, okay. Do you need any help carrying things in?” I ask.

Aunt Julie waves me away. “Oh no!  I can get it. Besides, I don’t want to ruin the surprise.  I can’t wait to see what you think!”

“Oh, are you sure?” I ask as I take note of the growing pile of bags with alarm.  How did she get so much in only an hour or two?

“Yep, why don’t you head upstairs to your room and I will bring your stuff upstairs for you try and see what you think.” Aunt Julie says.

I anxiously wait on my bed as she brings in the first load and sets them on the floor.  “Wait here. No peeking.” She says before she runs back down to the garage for more bags.

Even without peeking, I can’t help noticing the expensive names on the bags. Macy’s and Nordstrom's are predominant before she returns with a couple Gap and Forever 21 bags. Oh yeah, and another Victoria’s Secret bag.  Oh joy.

Counting last night’s purchases, I think she spent at least 2k on me. If not more.  Aunt Julie reveals and has me try on a tan pair of leather ankle boots with a three inch stiletto heel. Yikes! She also pulls out a pair of comfy looking black with a hint of pink Puma wrestling style shoes.  

“Sorry about the pink in them. They were the least girly girl sneakers that I could find.” Aunt Julie says, apologetically as I try them on and yes, they are comfortable.

The Victoria’s bag is easy. In that bag are a couple more bras and an assortment of panties, including some cute boy cut panties designed to resemble briefs.  Did I just think that they were cute?  Fortunately, she doesn’t have me try on any of those.  

She does pull out a few pairs of shorts, two pairs of Capri pants and three more pairs of jeans.  All of those, I kind of like the black jeans with the shiney vertical row non-functional buttons that rise about six inches from the hem.  Yes, I learned a new word from that show.  

The shorts, I think those are too short, too tight and no pockets.  Why couldn’t Aunt Julie find me some nice and loose khaki explorer shorts that almost reach the knee?  I mean, these aren’t Daisy Duke shorts, but they show way too much thigh. Which is fine with me when other girls wear them, but on me?

The Capri pants still confuse me, but I guess high water pants could be okay to wear in the summer instead of jeans.  The fabric is thinner and probably not as hot.  The pockets are worse than my jeans though.  The rear pockets are totally fake while the front pockets are just a few inches deep.  Why did they even bother?

That takes care of almost half of the bags.  From the Macy’s bag Aunt Julie pulls out a dark grey skirt.  “Now, this charcoal skirt is more dressy. It is something you can wear to a meeting or job interview.” She says as she lays it on the bed.  She matches the skirt with a white silk blouse and a matching charcoal blazer.  Her words. I would have called it a jacket or coat even though it doesn’t look very warm.

Next, Aunt Julie pulls out some silk skirt thing. “This is a slip. It goes on under your skirt to keep the lines smooth and the skirt from bunching up or clinging to your legs.”

She lays that on top of the skirt and pulls out a pair of black tight looking things. “Cotton stockings with 10% spandex. The best I could find that don’t need a garter belt to hold up.” She says as she hands them to me, and then reaches into the bag and pulls out another black and two white pairs of the same.

They don’t trigger an allergy alert and that both pleases and alarms me at the same time. I am not really going to wear tights, am I?

“Okay, now lets see if this stuff fits.  Take off your jeans and top, then put the tights on.” Aunt Julie says with an excited twinkle in her eye.  

I dubiously look at the tights, then stick my toe in and start to pull them up like they are socks. “Whoa!  Not like that. You will rip or snag them trying to pull them up like that.”

She has me roll them and slowly pull them up, past my hips.  With these, I am not sure why I need to wear underwear, but there must be a reason or she would have told me to take my panties off too, right?

Next is the slip and that plus the tights feels real strange on my legs. The blouse is next, followed by the skirt. “Your slip is showing.” Aunt Julie says critically before she rolls it up around my waist to shorten it.

“Okay, is that bad?” I ask, wondering why a slip is treated like some forbidden thing to see, like panties or something.

Aunt Julie smirks. “Not entirely, but it can be embarrassing to have it show.”

“Why?”

“Because it isn’t supposed to show and if it does show, it tells people that your skirt doesn’t fit properly.”

“Oh, can’t you just buy skirts that don’t need slips and why not just wear pants instead?” I ask because this seems like a lot of trouble for silly reasons.  Who cares if lines show or if the skirt clings a little?  

“Chloe, Chloe, Chloe...I can see that your fashion education is going to be so much fun.” Aunt Julie says with a happy smile.

There is not a lot that I can say to that. She is having way too much fun with this and I can’t believe that I am wearing this. What happened to me?  Are all the girls that I know, plus some that I don’t, along with the TV conspiring against me?  Was it chance that today is a Project Runway marathon?  Now, I am starting to get paranoid, but is it really paranoia if they are really out to get you?

Aunt Julie hands me the matching blazer suit coat thing and with that ‘look’ complete, she pulls out her super secret weapon.  A box with a pair of shiny black pumps with a three inch heel.  “Here, put these on and walk over there. I want to see how you look.” She points to the window.

I gingerly take the offered, umm, pumps from her. “Are you sure?” I ask, hoping that she will change her mind.

“Of course, other than some jewelry, the shoes are the only thing that is missing.” Aunt Julie says.

Aunt Julie watches me like a hawk as I take a step backwards to sit on the bed so that I can slide the pumps onto my feet.  Why is she looking at me like that?  I start to sit.

“Stop!” She says.

Surprised, I stop and look at her. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

“You can’t just sit. You have to smooth your skirt underneath you as you sit and keep your knees together. Remember, you wearing a skirt.” Aunt Julie says as she pantomimes her instructions.

“Oh yeah...” I say feeling a tad annoyed with all the rules, but I follow her instructions and sit down.  The pumps go on without a hitch, but once again Aunt Julie is watching me, ready to pounce.  I bet that she expects me to fall over or trip in the heels.  Well, that is one area that I should not have problems with due to all my VR training.

I put that to the test when I stand without a single wobble and casually walk over to the window. Aunt Julie smiles at me when I turn back to face her.

“How was that?” I ask pleased with myself.

“Fine dear. Have you worn heels before?” Aunt Julie asks.

“Well, I had some two inch heels on my boots, but I have worn longer in my VR space to see what they were like.” I say, looking down at my feet and enjoying the feeling of being so tall.

“Ahh, that’s good, but look at your skirt.” Aunt Julie says, gesturing at it with her eyes.

I look at it and the back is a little crumpled. “Oh.” I say as I self-consciously smooth it out.

“Remember to also smooth it out when you stand.” Aunt Julie says.

“Okay.” I say as I walk over to the bathroom mirror so that I can see how I look.

“What is this ‘VR space’ thing you mentioned?” Aunt Julie asks.

I think that I look really really nice. Well, Chloe does anyway, but her question interrupts my pleased self admiration.  “I guess that I can tell you...” I say as I collect my thoughts on how to best explain it to her. “Due to the nanites, I have this Virtual Reality thing that I can do inside my head.  I have a virtual living room that I can relax in and read books or watch TV. I have a Jacuzzi and pool area now. I added that last night.” I blush when I mention that addition.  “I also have a shooting range that I practice in too.” I try to gloss over that, but she startles a little when I mention it.

“A shooting range? Is that safe?” Aunt Julie asks, sounding concerned.

“Umm, well, I guess so? It’s not real, but it is a lot of fun.” I say, shrugging my shoulders.

“Oh, so you practiced walking in heels in there then?” Aunt Julie asks.

“Yeah, a little.  Sara likes to visit every now and then and she likes it when we play dress up.” I say, cringing a little at how pathetic that sounds.  Dress up? Really? Is that the best I could come up with?

“Sara is a virtual friend of yours?” Aunt Julie asks.

That question surprises me and a giggle escapes me.  “Oh no, she’s real.  She goes to Whateley and is Fey’s sister or something, so now she is my cousin because Fey sorta adopted me since I am a Sidhe elf...” I notice that Aunt Julie is looking a little confused. “...yeah, it’s a little complicated.” I lamely finish.

“Okay, I guess you can try to explain it all to me tonight or tomorrow.” Aunt Julie says as she stands and grabs another bag.  She roots through it and pulls out a small black leather purse. “Here you go.  You probably don’t have much to put in it right now, but you can’t go out without a purse.” She says as she hands it to me.

“Oh, thanks!” I say with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.  Surprising for me anyway.  I grab my jeans and pull out my Chloe driver’s license and student ID from the back pockets.

“What are those?” Aunt Julie asks suspiciously.

Rut Roh!

“Oh,” I try to laugh like it is no big deal, but it comes out as a no big deal giggle instead. “Sara managed to send me a real fake ID to help with my disguise. Sorry that I forgot to tell you about it when you got home, but...” I glance down at my outfit and all the bags.

“Hmmm, can I see them?” Aunt Julie asks as she holds her hand out expectantly.  

“Sure.” I say as I hand her the IDs.  

She studies them and holds the license up to the light in an attempt to discover if it is a fake.  The license has the official looking hologram and Paige sent it to me, so I doubt that it is fake.  

“It looks real to me and The Saint Quiteria School for Young Ladies is a pretty exclusive private school in Karen’s, umm, your Mom’s neighborhood. How did?” Aunt Julie asks with wonder as she hands them both back to me.

I shrug my shoulders. “Beats me, but I also have an official looking birth certificate, a round trip plane ticket and a class schedule downstairs on the kitchen table.”

Aunt Julie shakes her head with a mixture of confusion and wonder. “Amazing...” She says.  Then, she thoughtfully studies me. “Hmmm, can you drop your illusion? I want to see how you look as yourself.”

I drop the Chloe illusion and gaze at Aunt Julie self consciously.  What will she think?  

“Okay, turn.” She says as she studies me.

I turn and catch my reflection in the mirror. I think that I look pretty nice, but I am not sure because I think that my pale skin, short black hair with the charcoal suit kind of makes me look a little too pale.   

Aunt Julie purses her lips in thought before she joins me at my side. “Hmmm, I think that you could use just a little more color around your eyes and maybe something to bring out the color of your lips a bit more too.  Maybe some green to help make your already gorgeous eyes pop a little more along with a touch of red on your lips.”

With that in mind, I cast a very minor illusion to add some smoky green eyeshadow with a touch of red to my lips.  Not too dark, but not too light. I do not want to look goth or have pink lips. I keep the illusion open so that I can make adjustments to it if needed.  

Aunt Julie looks at me with surprise as my make up changes to match her suggestion. “My, that’s umm, surprising.” She laughs nervously. “I mean, I guess it shouldn’t be due to your Chloe disguise, but wow, just wow. Can you do that to other people?” She asks, sounding a bit hopeful.

I decide to drop the makeup illusion on myself so that I can concentrate on Aunt Julie’s look.  Using a VR overlay of Aunt Julie, I change her hair from blonde to dark black and make it long and full of body or gentle curls as they explained on the show during the makeup and hairstyle portion.  I give her that sort of wild and unkempt look that probably takes a lot of time and hairspray to achieve in real life.  Then, I give her image dark red lips and to help make her blue eyes pop, I add a brilliant turquoise blue/green color around her eyes that fades to dark blue.

Essentially, I just follow the example that the pros did to one of the runway models for the big reveal, but I also tweak things a little to adapt it for Aunt Julie.  I also add some thin dangley blue sapphire earrings that hang down to the top of her jawline and for a twist, a blue sapphire nose stud.  I finish the look with a matching blue sapphire encrusted choker necklace and I smile at those additions.  Sara is definitely a bad influence on me.

“What are you doing?” Aunt Julie asks, nervously.

“Nothing...yet.” I say as I lock her image in my head and open myself up to the magic.

Aunt Julie shivers a little as the magic settles over her and I can’t help feeling extremely pleased by how she turned out.  All I need to do to complete her look is change her outfit to a tight black mini-skirt with some black leather stiletto heels and she would look, umm, my thoughts trail off there as I start to blush. Then, I notice that my nipples feel strangely sensitive and something low in my belly reacts in embarrassing ways.

“Chloe? What’s wrong?” Aunt Julie asks as she studies my face.

“Umm, nothing. Look in the mirror.” I say, managing to squeak out a reply.

Curious, Aunt Julie turns and spots her reflection.  “Holy shit!” She says as she grabs for her hair, then runs forward to examine her face in the mirror.  Her fake hair responds as if it was real when she runs her hands through it, but I can tell that she feels something wrong because her real hair is straight.  

Aunt Julie laughs when she spots the stud in her nose. “Oh my!  Chloe, this is so, ummm, well, I don’t know.” She cautiously touches the stud, then smiles when she realizes that it isn’t real. She also tries to grasp the choker. Finally, she takes a step back to take in the entire look as she turns her head from one side to the other.

“Wow...I thought your Chloe disguise was amazing, but this is...How long will this last?” Aunt Julie asks.

“Umm, I’m not sure? I think it might last for a few hours, but maybe a day. I can cancel it now though.” I say apologetically.

Aunt Julie doesn’t say anything as she intently studies herself in the mirror for another minute. “Hmmm, I like it. I might have to dye my hair black one of these days. I doubt that I could get away with the nose stud, but, surprisingly, I like that too.” She turns to me and laughs. “You’re a bad influence Chloe. I might have to get a magnetic stud for Halloween.”

Her grin fades as she looks at me with a calculating expression. “You know, if you could make this last for a day, you could make a pretty good living as a makeup artist. Heck, more than just a makeup artist...can you do this to me again tonight after dinner? I have something that I want to...” She trails off with a blush.

I grin and nod my head as I figure out what she probably plans on doing. Uncle Jim is going to be so surprised when he sees her.

Abruptly, Aunt Julie looks past me. “Whoa! It’s almost 4:30. We need to get to the grocery store so that I can cook dinner tonight. Can you cancel this...” She gestures toward her face. “Redo your Chloe disguise and then, lets get a moving.”

I cancel Aunt Julie’s illusion and look down at myself.  I am wearing a skirt and high heels. “Umm, shouldn’t I change my clothes too?” I ask, hopefully because I do not want to go out in public like this.

Aunt Julie glances at me without concern. “No?  Why? You look perfect in that.”

“Umm, I don’t want to get anything on it?” I say, hesitantly as I pray for her to agree with me.

She waves my concern away. “Oh, we are just riding the grocery store and walking down a few isles. Shopping is not like football or something.” She laughs.

“But...” I say, feeling the hope dwindle away.

“No buts, plus, we don’t have time for you to change right now. We gotta go. Come on.” Aunt Julie says as she motions for me to follow her out of the room. “And, don’t forget your purse Chloe.”

“I could stay here and umm, guard the house...” I say timidly and with the dreaded purse in hand as I let her lead me to the car and my doom.

Somehow, I manage to get into her SUV without too much trouble. I smooth out my skirt as I sit and even keep my knees together as I swing my legs into the passenger footwell. That accomplishment distracts me from my current emergency. Should I start up the STIMS?  

Aunt Julie starts the car, opens the garage door, but stops backing out after only a few feet.  Maybe she is stopping so that I can go back into the house where it is safe?

“Chloe. Your disguise.” Aunt Julie says.

Curses! Foiled again...

I recast it and she backs out to the street.  I longingly stare at the nice and safe house as it disappears behind us.  I look down and my stocking encased legs fill me with dread.  I know that I shouldn’t feel this way. I walked all over the mall yesterday as Chloe and looking like I was wearing a much more revealing skirt, but that was not real and this is.

During the drive, Aunt Julie talks to me about dinner, but I find it difficult to pay attention. I think she says something about making stuffed salmon and some other stuff.  I manage to nod my head or say “uh huh” at the appropriate places in the conversation to keep her going, but I can not stop worrying about wearing a skirt in public.  What if people laugh at me?  I know, I know, pretty darn silly of me to worry about that since girls wear skirts all the time and the last time I checked, I am definitely still a girl.  

“Okay Bree, it’s just a skirt. You can do this!” I think to myself.

“No I can’t!”

“Stop that! Yes you can! It’s just camouflage, remember?”

“But...”

Hey, yeah. It is just camouflage.  That reassuring thought lasts all the way until Aunt Julie surprises me.

“Are you getting out?” She asks, looking over at me from her open door.

“Umm, sure?” I say as I flail with the door handle a few times due to my nerves.

Aunt Julie meets me on my side of the car. “Come on dear. You look fine. No reason for you to be nervous about this. It is just a grocery store and don’t forget your purse.” She says with a gentle smile.

We enter the grocery store and I feel somewhat reassured when no one points me out by yelling something like, “Hey! Look at the boy in the skirt! Ha ha!”  No one said that irrational fears have to rational.

“Relax Chloe.  You’re starting to draw some second glances due to your panicked expression instead of your beauty.”

I sigh with frustration and that helps. “I know. I’m sorry Aunt Julie, I’ve just never worn a skirt or heels out in public before and I’m so nervous about it. What if I do something wrong?” I ask.

“If anyone notices, I will just explain to them that you’re a recovering tomboy, but I really don’t think that anyone will notice a thing if you just relax.” Aunt Julie says as she inspects some broccoli.

“The other one is fresher.” I say, pointing to the clump that looks a bit greener to me.

Aunt Julie picks it up and then, turns and smiles at me. “Thanks!” She says as she puts it in a bag.  

Aunt Julie helps me relax by explaining how to cook this vegetable or that with what seasonings and method.   By the time we make it to the fresh seafood section, I am feeling a little embarrassed about my reaction. No one, including myself, sees anything other than a pretty girl shopping with her mother or older sister.  I might be over dressed, but a lot of women are dressed the same way since the store is probably their last stop before they return home after a day at the office.  

My outfit is almost the perfect disguise and that realization causes me to fully relax and enjoy myself.  It is so nice to be out of the house and not being chased by someone bent on killing or capturing me. I am able to maintain that happy zen state until we turn down the aisle that has all the feminine hygiene products, and then, we stop right in the middle of the display.

I look up and see a veritable tsunami of choices, options and colors ready to crash down on my head.  Aunt Julie must need some tampons. She can’t be stopping here for me, can she? I wouldn’t know what to pick, I don’t want to know and the longer that I can put off that inevitable first purchase; the longer that I can pretend that I am not really a girl even though I am.

Besides, my mom stocked my purse, I avoided looking at them, and furthermore, pre-girl infection, I specifically avoided this aisle when I was forced to join my mom in the store. The one time my mom made me hand her a box of these things, I felt guilty and self-conscious until we left the aisle. What if one of the guys from school had seen me touching the box?

“Ahh, here we go, last stop. If I am not mistaken, you need some of tampons young lady. What brand do you use?” Aunt Julie asks as if it is the most normal thing in the world to ask another person.

“Umm, umm...” I stare at the shouting wall of girlhood reminders and I start to feel overwhelmed. First it was the skirt, plus all the additional girl stuff that I am wearing. Then it was appearing in public while wearing those things and now it is the one thing that I have been purposely avoiding since I turned. I want to run, but where would I run to?

“Doctor Stiles?” I hear a woman’s voice call out with surprise and distract me from my current emergency.

We both turn and I spot an older, well dressed woman approaching our position.  She appears to be in her mid to late forties and makes me look underdressed. She smiles as she receives confirmation of Aunt Julie’s identification.  

I glance sideways to Aunt Julie and she looks surprised to see the woman. “Mrs. Grantson? What a pleasant surprise.” She says with a smile.

“Oh my dear. It is such a pleasure to see you again. How long has it been?” Mrs. Grantson asks as she gives Aunt Julie a hug before stepping back. “Just look at you! How do you manage to look so young?”

“Oh, just healthy eating and regular exercise. You know, doctor’s orders.  You’re looking stunning as usual. What brings you here?” Aunt Julie asks, looking a little embarrassed and flustered.

Who is this woman?

Mrs. Grantson laughs. “You mean why am I doing my own shopping when I don’t have too?”

Aunt Julie looks embarrassed. “No, no, no. I was just surprised to run into you today.”

“Oh dear, you don’t have to pretend. I would normally never step foot into a grocery store, but we are hosting a promotion party for Rear Admiral Jensen on Friday and I had to make some last minute changes to the appetizers.” Mrs. Grantson says before she turns her gaze to me. “And who is this beautiful young lady?”

“Oh, this is my niece, Chloe. She is on break this week so she decided to visit. Chloe, this is Admiral Grantson’s wife, Mrs. Victoria Grantson.”

I feel like saluting or something, but instead, I copy the curtsy that I performed as Whisper. “Pleased to meet you ma’am.”

“Oh my.” Mrs. Grantson says, clasping her hands together with pleasure. “Such fine manners. Just where do you go to school my dear?”

“Oh, I go to The Saint Quiteria School for Young Ladies in New York.” I say, then immediately regret my answer when I see her eyes light up with recognition.

Mrs. Grantson hugs me. “It is so rare to meet a fellow Sister of the Nine!”

Oh crap!