Part Two

Free Will

"Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!

Do not be ignorant of me."

--The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Chapter Eight

Objects in Motion

Four days late.

Sarah tried to think of something beyond those three words. She'd been trying since yesterday, when she'd been thinking "three days late" incessantly.

She tried to calm herself, to reach out yet again and try to see through her husband's eyes, to try to connect herself to him, to know where he was, to know that he was all right. She could do it at will almost at any time--about the only times she couldn't were those rare times Scott tried to block her, and that generally revolved around him trying to surprise her, so she forgave him that.

But this wasn't the busy signal that a blocked attempt seemed to be. This was more like a dead line.

She didn't want to dig deeper into that metaphor.

The knock at the door broke her thoughts for a moment. "What?" she snapped, then composed herself. "What is it Teri?"

"Hey, Madame Chair," she quietly replied, walking calmly into the room. "I came to see how you were doing."

"What's the report on our escapees?" Sarah said petulantly, looking down at a sheet of paper. It had not helped that in the week since three of the most high-value prisoners they held whisked themselves away, the trail--never all that warm to begin with--had grown stone-cold.

"Ana says she tracked them to New York--she's gifted as hell at following the aftereffects of a spell--but nothing from there. She thinks they're either holed up in the city, or moving using conventional means."

Sarah nodded. "All right, give a call to Lucky, have him begin a sweep of the area."

"Already done, Ma'am."

Sarah smiled slightly. "You're too efficient, Teri. The new parameters are in place for the thirteenth?"

"Yes'm. The interlock now requires two guards to open at all times, and any camera down is a red alert--lock everything down, get everyone back to their cells, and so forth. I should note that Warden Collins has turned in her resignation; I'd recommend you reject it, but it was the right thing for her to do."

"I'll reject it," said Sarah. "But I'll let her stew for a day or so." She groaned. "All right, I've avoided the question long enough, I guess. Teri--four days."

"I know, Sarah," she replied.

Sarah leaned back. "I'm about to my breaking point."

"No, you aren't," said Teri. "You're nowhere near your breaking point. Not unless ten years has made you a lot softer than you used to be."

"That was different," said Sarah. "I knew why he'd left, and I knew that he was probably safe--he was just being an idiot. This time…."

She trailed off.

"Scott knew what he was getting into, Sarah," Teri said, after a bit. "This is dangerous work. Believe me, I know."

Sarah looked up. "Yeah, you know better than I do. Is Scott dead?"

Teri was struck by the bluntness of the question. "I don't know," she said. "I don't think so. What I've seen makes me think he's in danger--but alive. But I don't know for sure that my interpretation is correct."

"I need to see him, Teri," said Sarah. Teri just sighed.

"I can't just make you see him. It doesn't work like that. Would that I could. But I can't."

Sarah nodded. "I know. But I thought you could help me at least find my way through this." She pulled out a deck of cards from her desk drawer. "Picked these up on the way home last night. I know you're out of practice, but last time…."

Teri smiled, breaking the seal on the Rider-Waite Tarot deck that Sarah proffered. "Okay," she said, pulling out a card and laying it aside, without so much as glancing at the deck. "This is your significator. The Queen of Swords," she said, as she shuffled. "Calm and forthright, and deeply intuitive. Tough call between that and the Queen of Pentacles, but I think your perspicacity makes this the right one. Besides, you were Queen of Swords last time."

"How do you remember--" Sarah said, but Teri just smiled, deftly spun some cards and continued shuffling.

After a moment, she said, "All right, cut the deck."

Sarah cut, and Teri picked up the deck again. "Good," she said. "Let's begin."

* * *

"So what should we do tonight?" asked Lil as she walked across the brown plain. "Eat in?"

"Ha. Yes, love, I think so," said Lloyd, walking behind her. "What day is it, anyhow?"

"Friday," Lil said. "So it's a good night for going out. We could walk along the canals and look at the moon and each other, and then we could come back home and do some fun things."

"Sounds lovely," Lloyd said, "but I think we'd better get a move on if we don't want to give Meintje a real shock."

"True," said Lil, pausing. "I wonder what she'd think if she knew she had roommates?"

"Well," said Lloyd, "She seems nice enough. But I tend to think that she'd still be a bit shocked."

"I still say we should've gone with that strapping young man instead," said Lil.

Lloyd stuck his tongue out. "You'd just rather have him to look at in the morning than her."

"Well, if you're going to have a small skyscraper naked in the same room as you, I'd just as well it was male--but I suppose you're happier with Meintje anyhow, aren't you? If I didn't trust you, I'd be a bit worried."

"First, love, I don't speak Dutch, and as far as we've been able to find out, she doesn't speak English. So that would be a bit of a sticking point," said Lloyd. "Besides, it's not any girl who'd agree to come live with me in the flat of a girl we don't know. Especially if she had to stay in a room underneath a bookshelf. Don't worry--if you'd stick with me through this, I'd be the biggest prat in the universe if I'd chuck that for a face that's not even half as lovely as yours."

Lil gave Lloyd a long and lingering kiss for that, and said, as they broke, "You lie very well, honey. Meintje is prettier than most anyone I've ever seen."

"Ha," said Lloyd, returning her kiss for a while. "I've never seen anyone more beautiful than you, ever. And I know I never will. Now," he said, "let's go get a bit of down collected. It's three o'clock. If we hurry, we can be down and out before our unknowing hostess gets home from work, and we can spend the evening among the size of actual human beings."

"You're not afraid they'll see us?" Lil asked.

"If they looked at the ticket to Moscow we bought--no, they won't be looking here. We shouldn't use our credit cards, but the cash you took out in Calais will pay for a nice night out, I think."

Lil held her fiancé's hand. "Well, I suppose I'll have to wear clothes again, won't I? No matter. Any night with you is nice, love. Do you think--"

The sentence was left unfinished as they heard a key in the door.

"Shit!" Lil said. "She's home already? I thought she had a job!"

"Must've cut out early," said Lloyd. "Quick, love, let's get up by the pillows. We can shrink a bit more and hide out there."

They raced across the bed, reaching the pillows as the door opened, as Meintje Dierickx opened her door and stepped inside.

Meintje was a beauty, Lloyd's general disinterest notwithstanding. She was short--maybe 5'2"--but her small frame and pixie-cut brunette hair belied the spitfire personality that fairly radiated from within. She turned as she entered, kicking a high-heeled shoe off and saying to someone behind her, "Kom binnen, Tiede. Kan ik u een drank krijgen?"

"Het is geen drank die ik heb gewild. Het is u," came a deeper reply, as a larger man came through the door, and without further ado, kissed her hard.

"Oh, no," said Lloyd and Lil simultaneously, as the two lovers pushed the door shut awkwardly. The two trespassers had no way of knowing that Tiede and Meintje had been lovers back in college, seven years ago now--that they had both been more fond of sex than relationships. They couldn't know that on those somewhat rare times when Tiede got up to Amsterdam or Meintje got down to Dordrecht and neither happened to be in a relationship, that they generally found an excuse to hook up.

All Lloyd and Lil knew at that moment was that the two giants were moving rapidly from the front entryway to the bed, shedding enormous canopies of clothing as they moved as one.

Lloyd looked around. "Watch out--I'm going to shrink us," he said, thinking a quarter-inch would probably be safe.

"Shrink us?!? Why?" Lil said.

"Because three inches is too bloody tall. They'll see us!" he said, as they both saw the room start to expand beyond its already Brobdignagian proportions.

Lloyd put his arms around Lil and said, "Hold on tight--this is going to get bumpy, I think." And then it most certainly did, as Tiede and Meintje reached the bed and fell into it, sending Lloyd and Lil spiraling up into the sky.

* * *

"Okay," said Teri, turning over the first card. "The Three of Wands. Interesting. The atmosphere is one of people moving toward their goals slowly and cautiously, of partnership and trust. And, interestingly, of leader feeling too heavy the burden of command. Yes, this fits. Now," she said, turning over another card and placing it atop the first, "The Queen of Swords, reversed. Ironic, that.

"Your enemy," Teri said. "The dark side of air and water; a thunderstorm, or hurricane. Symbolically, that is--and more than that, someone who is violently capable of attack, and yet feels hollow inside. The hollowness, I think, is the key."

"Leah Jackson?" Sarah asked.

"Maybe. Maybe the adept she recruited. Maybe the League as a whole. All right, next, we have The Moon." Teri grimaced. "I won't lie to you, this isn't the best card to turn over. It implies metamorphosis and transformation, as well as dangerous and frightening tribulations."

"That's the best we can hope for?"

"I'd say that's where we are right now, Sarah. So it doesn't surprise me. All right, now let's find what this situation is based around."

At this card, Teri grinned in spite of herself. "The Lovers. Yes, central in the formulation of our problem, I think." She looked up at Sarah, who blushed slightly. "Moving on, we have things we must let go of, and we have…Nine of Wands, reversed. Hmmm."

Teri thought a long minute. Odd, that card should turn up. "The Nine of Wands symbolizes strength, and when reversed it suggests treachery and sabotage. I think we must root out the mole, and fast. He or she is the key to this.

"Now, the approaching influence, what we should accept, is Temperance. Major arcana again--not surprising. Calm, self-control, patience, balance. We can't go charging off pell-mell," she said, looking pointedly at Sarah.

"Your attitude. Another of the majors--this time, The Chariot. You want to fight, to conquer, to triumph. I know this. But you must be aware of the last card. The Chariot implies that discipline and endurance will out. Temperance and The Chariot together make me think we must patiently wait for our opportunity."

"I'd rather it said I should go charging in pell-mell," Sarah said, bitterly. She wasn't sure how she could patiently wait for Scott to die.

"Now, your environment and the people you are interacting with--King of Swords, reversed. A gray sky.

"One who is a talented deceiver, a smooth liar, one who is inspires fear, respect, and obedience. This is Leah, I misdoubt--you're squaring off against her."

"Wonderful," said Sarah.

"Now, for your deepest fear--Seven of Wands, reversed. The Seven of Wands represents Valor, and it suggests the opposite of valor--you're afraid you're a coward for staying here and not charging off after Scott."

Teri looked directly at her superior, and said, "Knock it off. Stop blaming yourself. You're one of the least cowardly people I know, Sarah. You're brave beyond belief. Trust in that."

Sarah wiped away a tear, but said nothing.

Teri touched the top of the deck. It felt cold. She was afraid of the next card, but turned it over, and stared at it a good long while. She exhaled. "Well, at least it isn't Death," she said, trying to reassure herself as much as Sarah.

The upside-down card showed a man kneeling at a bedside, weeping. "The Nine of Swords," said Teri. "Cruelty. Reversed. This is the ultimate outcome should we continue on our course. It suggests danger, and the potential for great loss. Suffering and anguish. But--and this is important--when reversed, it suggests a near miss. It suggests that Scott is in danger--but that he will live."

"But," said Sarah, staring at the card.

"But this suggests a narrow miss," said Teri. "And a narrow miss can easily change to a hit. The cards are like my mind, cloudy. They don't predict so much as suggest. They suggest Scott is in trouble, but they suggest he can survive. They also suggest he might not."

"Do you think they say he's alive now?" asked Sarah.

"Yes," said Teri. "And hopefully, he'll stay that way for some time."

Sarah looked at the cards, and flashed back eleven years. "You were right last time, Teri. I hope you're right this time."

"You've no idea how much I want to be," Teri replied.

* * *

The two titans began to kiss, Meintje on top, Tiede below, and the two insects between them, laying dazed in the thicket of Tiede's chest hair.

Lloyd looked up at the dazzling monstrosity of Meintje's breasts, which were still enfolded by a brassiere; he wondered idly what she was waiting for, before he came to his senses and looked for Lil.

She was shaking the cobwebs out, and looked up to see Lloyd half running, half crawling to her as the two lovers moved in a perpetual earthquake. He reached her just as Meintje dropped herself onto Tiede fully, and the two rolled over. Lil and Lloyd lurched as suddenly they fell out of the chest hair of Tiede and in between two mountains, whose canopy was suddenly whisked away as Tiede removed his once-and-current lover's bra and casually discarded it.

"We have to get out of here!" Lil said, as the two of them cowered against Meintje's left tit.

"And go where?" Lloyd said. "Even if we got off of her, we'd still be on the bed. And I think they're planning on using the bed for a while. We can't just run willy-nilly."

"Bugger!"

"Possibly," Lloyd said. "But for now, I'm hoping that Meintje is the kind of girl who wants her needs attended to before she returns the favor."

As he said that, the two shivered, as Tiede lowered himself to his lover's breasts, and began sucking her nipples far above them. He ran his tongue down to the canyon in her breasts, and Lil and Lloyd came within inches of being swept up by the pink monstrosity. Instead, they watched as it traced a line down her stomach, and watched as Tiede himself disappeared, save for a mess of blond hair, between the thighs a football pitch or so away.

"Well," said Lloyd, as the earthquake subsided a bit, "that gives us a bit of a chance. Now, how do we get off of this giantess?"

"Let's go away from the giant," Lil said. "She won't know or care if a bug is crawling on her right now. If we get up and over her shoulder, maybe we can get past her head and go off of the top of the bed."

"Good idea," Lloyd replied, as he tried to keep his footing on Meintje's chest, which was now heaving heavily beneath them. "It'll be slow going, but we'll do our best. Come on!" he said.

The two insects crawled through the valley of Meintje's breasts, coming out on her sternum. "All right," said Lloyd. "We'll go right. It's--"

Suddenly, the steadily heaving chest began to heave unsteadily. The two tiny Brits fell down.

"Shit--she's coming already?"

"He should've taken more time. It's always fun when it lasts a bit longer," said Lil.

"I'll remember that if we survive this," Lloyd said.

"I'll complain if I've cause to complain. I haven't yet," Lil said, as Meintje began screaming in ecstasy.

"I guess she hasn't, either," said Lloyd as she finally became quiescent.

The breathing became regular again, and slow. The skin was slick with perspiration; shallow pools of saltwater dotted the landscape. Tiede moved back up the bed, and lay down by Meintje.

"We need to stay put," said Lil.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd said. "Now's our chance!"

"No!" said Lil as Lloyd began to run. "Wait, you idiot, and listen. She's going to be hypersensitive now, she'll feel every inch of her body. At least, that's how I get," she said.

Lloyd hit the brakes. "I hope you're an aberration," he said.

Above them, the two lovers whispered. "Kunt u mijn borst alstublieft krassen?" Meintje asked, softly.

"Ik houd van ontroerend uw borsten." Tiede replied, and without a word, his right hand snaked around her shoulder and began to lay waste to the valley of his lover's tits, and anything that might be causing her distress.

Meintje purred as Tiede scratched, and Lil and Lloyd dodged the fingers of a monster, until they couldn't anymore. They held each other as the finger swept them up, the short fingernail sliding along and bringing them into the air. Had it been a few moments earlier, they may have been killed in another round of scratching, but just as Tiede caught them, Meintje purred out a simple "Goed dat, dank."

Tiede reacted wordlessly by taking the fingers he had been using to scratch her chest, and sliding down, he began to scratch in her bush.

Meintje purred as Lloyd and Lil were dislodged in a new thicket of brown hair, with the scent of pussy heady in the air.

"We're not where I think we are, are we?" asked Lil.

Lloyd was trying to think through a sudden and rather inopportune erection, and all he could do was nod wordlessly.

"You're probably horny as hell, aren't you?" Lil asked, smiling.

"If we survive this, it's definitely going to be one for the memory banks," he said.

"Well, I can't blame you," said Lil, pointing. "I must say, that's a sight to behold."

Lloyd followed his fiancée's gesture to Meintje's enormous left hand, which was currently wrapped around a tower-sized cock, one which was slowly growing with each squeeze and caress of her well-manicured fingers.

"Well," said Lloyd, swallowing hard, "I guess I kind of pale in comparison to that thing, don't I?"

"It's not the size that counts, love," said Lil. "It's all in how you use it. Although I must say, that's a strong counterargument."

Lloyd chuckled, then suddenly blanched. "Oh, no. He's going to be using it very soon."

Lil held her lover's hand. "I know," she said.

"What do we do?" he said.

"Watch the show," Lil said. "I think her bush might actually be one of the safest places on either of their bodies right now. Think about the mechanics of it."

Lloyd looked at his fiancée, and smiled a bit. "You kind of want to stay, don't you?"

Lil blushed, but nodded. "You've got to admit, this has been a spectacle, hasn't it?"

"Bent u klaar?" they heard Tiede whisper.

"Ja," Meintje replied.

"Well," said Lloyd, "I don't speak Dutch, but I know when someone's asking if he can bring it about for docking. Hang on, love. This is going to be a bumpy ride."

They were indeed in for a bumpy ride. Tiede pulled himself above the trio, Lil and Lloyd watched in fascination as Meintje spread herself wide to accept him, her pussy glistening with the proof of her ardor.

The shaft plunged down and forward, and the tiny couple marveled as one hundred fifty feet of penis disappeared in but a second, buried within Meintje.

"Bloody," said Lloyd as the two titans began their slow groove. The world bucked as Meintje gave as well as she got. The two Lilliputians found themselves unable to hold on, and soon found themselves bouncing through Meintje's thicket and toward the point of impact.

"No!" cried Lloyd, but Lil kept her head. Seeing where they were heading, she simply shouted out, "Left!" If she was right, one thrust should put them both there.

They bounced up as if in slow motion, one right after each other, just a quarter-inch or so into the air, but enough to clear the edge of the hood that protected Meintje's clitoris.

Lil wached Lloyd almost bounce by her, but bracing herself against Meintje's clit, she grabbed him by the foot and yanked him down to her grotto, which was pulsing and throbbing with arousal.

"Nice grab," Lloyd said, as he collided with his fiancée and hostess. Here they were safe, braced between Meintje's nub and her skin. Indeed, they were in close quarters, laying by the pussy of a beautiful woman who was being serviced by an equally beautiful man, and despite the absurdity of the place, it was only natural that the two would look at each other for a moment and begin to fuck like rabbits, Lloyd's back against Meintje's clit, Lil riding him for all she was worth.

As for the two macroscopic lovers, Meintje wasn't sure quite what was different than usual, other than that Tiede must have hit a sweet spot. As it was, she told him to take his time, that it felt unusually good. And he was happy to oblige, as any man with pride in craftsmanship is. And so, though only two of them were fully aware of it, all four lovers came within seconds of each other, and collapsed into interwoven heaps--Tiede on top of Meintje until he became so flaccid that he slipped out of her, Lil and Lloyd hidden in the folds by Meintje's pussy until the somewhat less enormous penis slipped away. They slid down the outer lips, landing on the bed in a puddle of sludge.

"We're in no shape to go out tonight, you know," said Lloyd a half hour later, as the two reached their home, with the sound of Meintje and Tiede snoring softly in the background.

"Oh, that's okay," said Lil, gesturing to the titan and titaness. "They think they did some work. I think I could go to sleep now and stay there until sunrise."

And that is exactly what Lloyd and Lil did.

* * *

"So tell me again why we aren't just transporting to League headquarters?"

Liz had to restrain herself from killing Victoria. It wasn't that hard; heck, she'd been getting a lot of practice of late. She was more than a little upset that fate had stuck her with this psychotic bitch; had Tori and Yvette not been making their break at the same time Liz had been….

Actually, it had worked out all right. They both had some advantages, and they both had some help from outside. Liz still wasn't sure what the duo's help was--indeed, Tori didn't seem to know exactly, and Yvette didn't know anything. Indeed, Liz was pretty sure Tori had just brought her along for sex.

But Liz wasn't sure she'd have made it out without the two of them. And that kept her from killing Tori, much as she wanted to.

"We don't want the Society following us," said Angie, answering for the group. "They probably already know you went to New York. Spell like that doesn't go unnoticed--even when cast by an expert," she said, patting Liz on her thigh.

It's funny how life works. Liz was actually excited to see Angie. They'd had some good moments. Some very good moments. But their total experience together was but a couple of days. In some ways, they had picked up where they left off. But in others…well, Liz thought Angie had been acting very much like a widow who just found out her husband had really been a POW for five years. Angie loved her--but more the image of her than she herself.

"Can't we just fly, then? Or is this place in Bangladesh?"

"Tori--look, we're driving because it's less obvious. Hell, we've made it into Saskatchewan already. Can you just suck it up for another day? If you really need to, we'll get on one of those cool airplanes when we hit Juneau."

Liz looked out the window at the prairie. The sun was setting to the west, and it reminded her achingly of home, a few lifetimes ago.

* * *

Scott rested. It was a nice moment. He hadn't been allowed to rest for a couple of days. Leah was toying with him, of course--using conventional extraordinary rendition techniques, rather than the unconventional GTS ones. Of course, she knew that he'd break anything she forced him into, eventually. And so she kept him here, his power drained.

Except….

Scott was possessed of a simple faith. It wasn't a belief in his righteousness or immortality, or that God was on his side, no matter how many times Teri told him that story--or, frankly, how many times Jake paid him a visit. He couldn't really imagine that God was on anyone's side; he figured if She paid attention to Earth at all, it was with benign disdain for the rampant stupidity there.

No, Scott didn't believe that he was saved and others damned. His was simply a belief that whatever there was behind the universe, it had set up rules, and it played fair. Scott knew that he had lucked into massive power, power beyond what any morphogenetic dampener could contain. And he believed that there had to be a way for him to find a way through the haze that surrounded him to wield that power.

And so as he rested, he pushed his mind and his power to its limit. That he could not feel anything changing or moving did not faze him. There would be time. He just had to be patient. He would find the key. And when he found the key, he would free himself, and destroy Leah Jackson once and for all.