Part Three
Metaphysics
“I am peace,
and war has come because of me.”
—The Thunder, Perfect Mind
Lil screamed.
She had seen Ráichéal sucked into the maw of the giantess, and she had not come back out. The man had shuddered, and blown his load, and Ráichéal was gone.
And so Lil did the only thing she could do. She leapt for the giantess, hoping she could make it to her destination in time.
The woman’s breasts were slick with perspiration, and Lil skidded down them, coming to a rest at the edge of her brassiere. Throwing caution to the wind, she threw herself over, bouncing off the shirt and back underneath the breast, and sliding down the beyond-vertical slope toward the panties below.
“Lloyd! Sue! Quick!” she cried as she skidded past the woman’s navel as the woman was standing up, with the sickening knowledge that she was passing by Ráichéal as she did so. She didn’t know if the giant couple meant to do anything more, and didn’t care. Now was for running, and sliding, and hurtling toward the only hope Ráichéal had.
She hit the waistband of the panties and bounced beyond it, grasping onto a bow that decorated them. “Can you hear me?” she cried out, for a moment terrified that something had happened to them.
Lloyd’s head jerked up. “Lil? Is that you?” he called.
“Yes, bloody – you have to do something! The giantess swallowed Ráichéal!”
“What, on purpose?”
“No, by accident. She was pleasuring the giant, and then – well, look, it doesn’t matter, you have to do something!”
Lloyd looked at Sue, who had her eyes closed.
“Sue?”
“Damn,” she said, quietly. “Damn it all to hell.”
“Sue, we have to do something. Quickly.”
Susi punched the labia of the giantess, and sighed. “All right,” she said. She considered her options, and realizing she had few, she decided to throw caution to the wind.
“Transport,” she said, and she was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Jake said, as he lay hog-tied next to Jane in the back of the SUV. “If only you hadn’t found me, if only…”
“Jake,” Jane said, quietly, “don’t ever think that. I knew this day would come, didn’t you?”
“I hoped,” Jake said, “that you’d be anywhere but with me.”
“That would be awfully lonely for you,” Jane said. “I always hoped they’d take us together.”
That brought weeping from her husband, and anger from Jane. “You bastards really think this is going to get you somewhere? Huh? You took away years of his life, left him tiny and scared and alone, and when things got better for him, he was just tiny and scared. Why would you do that to him again?”
“He could have stayed with us,” came Michaelson’s voice. “He didn’t have to run.”
“Oh, yes he did,” Jane said, furious. “It’s fucking obvious he did, isn’t it? Monsters.”
“You know, you’re coming close to treason with that kind of talk. Where’s your love of country?”
“My country doesn’t kidnap people,” said Jane, defiantly. “Doesn’t force them into lives of degradation. Doesn’t conduct experiments on unwitting human subjects. My country is better than that. Wherever your paycheck comes from, you aren’t part of my country.”
“Believe what lies you want to believe, Dr. Matthews. But your country has done far worse than this simply to keep you in test tubes and Bunsen burners. This is just routine, a pretty standard NSA black ops mission. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“You know the Society will look for us when we come up missing.”
“Let them,” said Michaelson. “Let them come and find you.”
The pit of Erica’s stomach smelled like vomit, cervelat, and beer. Actually, it may just have been cervelat and beer, the smell of the sausage and vomit being too close to be discerned.
“I want to crush you. Or maybe drop you between my lips, and swallow you whole. That…that would be a bad way to go, don’t you think? Oh, Pete, I can think of so many ways to dispose of you. Which should I choose?”
The words danced through her head unbidden as she felt the slight sting of the stomach acid against her skin. “Ráichéal!” she shouted. “Ráichéal, it’s Sue! Where are you?”
She swam in the murky sludge, hoping that Ráichéal was still above the surface. She listened to Erica’s heartbeat, reverberating in the pulse that fed the stomach, that the stomach fed. She could hear, far distant, the distorted sounds of her voice. This was what she’d subjected Pete to, only worse.
She coughed up the contents of her own stomach, and continued to call out for her friend.
Suddenly, the world tossed sideways, as Erica evidently dropped onto her back; whether in preparation for bed or more sex, Sue didn’t know. She dropped below the surface, and popped back up, coughing and sputtering.
“Ráichéal!” she cried out.
“Sue?” came a faint reply, several meters distant.
“Thank God. Are you okay?”
“What happened? Where’m I?”
“You’re in the giantess’s stomach, Ráichéal.”
“What…giantess stomach? I…Sue, that you?”
“You’ve got a concussion,” deduced Susan, swimming with all her might for her friend’s voice. “We’re going to need to get you to a doctor.”
“We were running away from someone,” Ráichéal mumbled. “Running away from…a guy with a taser?”
Sue grabbed her friend around the shoulders. “I’ve got you, Ráich. I’ve got you. It’s okay,” she sobbed.
She hoped it was okay.
With a wave of her hand and a barked, “Transport,” she was back out in the bush, by Lloyd and Lil.
The dim light underneath the blanket didn’t give her much to go on. “You two, grab onto me,” she said, not hesitating. She knew what had to be done. She just hoped she had the right range.
Feeling Lloyd and Lil grab her shoulders, she said, “Transport” once more. And they were gone.
“So we’re doing everything we can to find her, and I’m not leaving here until we do,” said Sarah, finally, as she finished telling her mother what little she knew.
“So. Susi has powers like you,” Sharon Kensington said, quietly. “Another daughter I get to lose to this.”
“I don’t think I’ve been ‘lost’ to this, mom. Frankly, I think I’m too easily found. As for Susi…I think she does have powers. But I don’t know to what extent.”
“You said you could see them from Chicago, Sarah. Don’t try to snow me.”
“I’m not trying to; the one time I asked Susi about this, she said she didn’t have any. Now, I think events seem to indicate she was lying to me, but I won’t know until I talk to her.”
“So you think she’s alive,” said Dr. Kensington.
“Yes, she’s alive,” said Sarah, with a certainty she was unsure of. “But something’s put her on the run. I’m just hoping she knows she can come to us.”
“You don’t think she’ll come home?”
“She might,” Sarah allowed. “If she does, let me know right away. We can protect her here, no matter what.”
“Can you?”
Sarah sighed. “Yes, we can. You know, it’s funny; the Chancellor of Germany treats me with deference and respect, like an actual equal. Yet my own mom can’t seem to grasp that I actually am a somewhat powerful individual, that I head an organization that spans the globe, that I can take care of my kid sister, for God’s sake!”
There was a brief silence, before Sarah said, “I’m sorry.”
“I know how powerful you are, ditto,” said Sharon, quietly. “I do. I am proud of you, you know. And I know how scared you are for Susi, because I can hear how badly you want to protect her. But she’s my daughter, Sarah, and some day you’ll understand, you don’t care about anybody more than your kids. And as much as you’re terrified for your sister, I’m more. So understand that when I question you it is not because I would doubt your ability to protect anyone. It’s because I have to doubt your ability to protect my child.”
“I’m able to protect myself.”
“I only doubt that, ditto, because you’re my child too. And as tough as you are, my heart leaps into my throat with every breaking news segment I ever see, or ever will see. But I know you love Susi, and I know you’re probably better equipped to take care of her than me; if she comes home, I’ll let you know.”
Sarah slumped back into her chair. “I’m sorry, mom. I should have pushed her to tell me.”
“It wouldn’t have done any good. She’s stubborn. She got it from me, like all of my daughters. Let me know when you find out anything.”
“I will. Tell dad I love him.”
“I will.”
Sarah hung up the phone, and cried.
“Your friend’s going to be okay,” said the doctor, quietly. “She’s got a concussion, and some chemical burns on her shoulder, but otherwise she’s healthy. Lucky, though, you got her out when you did; a few minutes more and she probably would have gone under and aspirated.”
“Thanks, doctor.”
“Look,” the man grumbled, “I know what you two were doing. Stupid thrill-seeking kids. You were swallowing each other, weren’t you? That’s how she came to be in your stomach, right? First you, then her, that’s how it goes, right?”
“I…you’re right,” Sue said.
“Seen it a couple times, kids who don’t know what they’re doing with this stuff. Look, you’re adults, so it’s your own lives you’re dealing with here; I can’t make you be smart. But have you ever read Sarah Kensington’s Guide to the Transforming World?”
Sue had to fight back the smirk. “I haven’t,” she lied.
“Do. It’s laid out well, smart, simple-to-read, and with good advice for proper safety procedures if you’re going to try stunts like this. Doesn’t have a bunch of bullshit theory, just practical stuff. Also, the GTS Society website’s got loads of information. Look, you want to play with size, do a little light vore play, whatever floats your boat – but for God’s sake, don’t do it stupidly! Safe sex is at a whole different level of meaning these days. You got it?”
“Yes, doctor.”
“Good. Because I do not want to see you two back here again. And I doubt you do, either. Anyhow, Miss O’Riordan will be staying overnight, if all goes well we should be able to release her in the morning.”
“Thanks, doc. Really, for everything.”
Sue marched triumphantly down the hall, to where Lloyd and Lil were waiting. “So, all’s well?”
“Yep. Ráichéal should be good to go in the morning, I guess. That’s what the doctor said.”
“So now we just have to find a hotel room,” Lloyd said. Then lowering his voice, “With these nice new IDs you whipped up, that shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Eh, the credit cards won’t work, you know. But the cash should spend okay. And I doubt they’re going to be expecting us to turn up in Winnipeg.”
“Why did you choose Winnipeg, anyhow?” asked Lil.
“Free health care. Plus, there’s a mid-sized GTS pharmaceutical company in town, former actor runs it. It’s one of the brightest lights on the whole North American map, given the size of the city. If I aimed us right, we shouldn’t have been noticeable, at least on this end. Switzerland, of course, probably lit up like a Christmas tree, but we’re half a world away. We should have a little time. Look, you two go, find a decent hotel, take a shower, get some sleep.”
“What about you?”
“Ráichéal’s here ’til morning, I am too,” said Sue. “If I’d been less afraid to use my powers, we would have been here all in one piece.”
“We’ll bring you dinner,” Lil said.
“Thanks,” said Sue. “But I’m not really hungry right now.”
Erica screamed as the door to the hotel room was broken down.
“Sie sind nicht hier, Herr von Karajan,” said a young woman, swinging a grildrometer from side to side. “Aber sie waren in diesem Raum, vor nicht allzu langer Zeit.”
“Who are you? What do you want? You can have money, but don’t hurt us.”
“We will not harm you, Herr Treehorn. I am with Interpol, we are on the trail of some fugitives. Katja, was sehen Sie?”
“You can’t come in here without a warrant,” said Matt, trying to cover himself and Erica up.
“Come, come, Herr Treehorn, this is not America, and not even your home. The hotel knows we’re here. Katja?”
“Ein großer Höhepunkt, aber verblassen. Wahrscheinlich ein ‘Transport’ buchstabieren.“
“Naturlich. Herr Treehorn, Frau Treehorn, we will need to do a thorough sweep of the room. We’ll give you a few minutes to get yourselves dressed, and then we have arranged for you to have the Presidential Suite for the remainder of your stay, and €5000 for your troubles. Will that suffice?”
Matt looked at Erica, who was nonplussed; $7500 was far more than they’d spent on this trip. “All right,” he said, slowly, “but we would take that few minutes to get dressed now, if it’s all right with you. Mr…uh, von Karajan?”
“Certainly, certainly. Katja, kommen Sie mit mir.“
The intruders left, and the Treehorns looked at each other quizzically. They weren’t quite sure if they should laugh or cry. And so, in silence, they got up and got dressed.
“Oi. Wher’m I?”
“Winnipeg,” said Sue, squeezing Ráichéal’s hand. “How do you feel?”
“My head feels like it’s filled with coddle. But I think I’ll live.”
“Do you remember what happened to you?”
“Last thing I remember I was being swallowed by a giantess. So either I’m insane, or I was swallowed by a giantess.”
“It was the latter,” said Sue, sighing deeply. “It’s my fault.”
“I don’t recall you throwing yourself down the gullet of a giant woman.”
“No, if I’d been less afraid to use my powers…I knew what we had to do. But I was too scared, that if I started, I’d lose control.”
“Sue, I feel plastered right now, so I’m not sure I’m being clear, but if you’re trying to tell me that this is all your fault, you can go feck yourself, ya neddy.”
Sue smiled. “I think that was the next lesson on Irish slang there.”
“And there you go, falling back into your Minnesota heritage. You’re the only person I’ve ever heard end a sentence with a gratuitous ‘there.’”
“That will change, and right quick; you should be discharged in the morning, and when you are, we’re going to see my family.”
“How? Where are we, anyhow?”
“Winnipeg, in Canada. And if anyone asks, you remember you’re an exchange student going to North Dakota; dullest state in the union, even people who are from there don’t want to talk about it.”
“So, I finally get to meet the source o’ your troubles,” said Ráichéal, her brogue deepening a bit as she began to fall asleep. “Should be interesting.”
“Yeah,” said Sue, unsmiling. “It sure should.”