Lost Boys and Golden Girls

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 4

When the sound of the gun going off reached my ears, I was
already out of the office. Not of my own doing, but from
Rethin's quick reflexes. When he saw that Natarn had a gun,
his reaction was to grab my collar, and pull me back, saving
my life.

Pulling myself off of the floor, rubbing my neck from where
the collar's claps had bit into my neck, I looked to Rethin.
"Thanks."

He shook his head, "Now's not the time, he's running."

I glanced back into the office, and saw that it was empty,
and the side exit was open. "Where does that door lead?"

"To the back offices."

I nodded, "Listen, get them to lock the exits." Then with
that I headed into the office, and through the other door.
Inside I found a long hallway with cubicles on each side. At
the far end I could see Natarn ducking through the door.

I guessed he was thirty seconds ahead of me. Which, giving
how well I could run, was a lot.

Kicking my legs into high gear I ran down the hall, which
caused some looks from the people inside. Going through the
far door I found myself in another office.

Running out of it, I found myself in a short hall. Each side
a T junction. Looking at someone who walk towards me I
asked. "Have you seen anyone running though here?"

He nodded, and pointed me down one of the halls. I only got
maybe ten steps before I was slowed to a crawl. The hallways
was full of people and I had to elbow my way through.

About 20 feet away I could see Natarn was stuck in the same
jam, but was slowly making his way towards a stairwell.

There was little chance of me getting near him before I
would have lost him. Right then what I needed was some way
to clear the hall.

My first though was a fire alarm, but I had no idea what to
look for. All the time Natarn was getting farther away.

Shoving my way through the crowed was staring to give me a
headache from the Matrix. It was getting to much input and
was having problems feeding it though with out causing some
overload.

Then it hit me, I had everything I need to get people out of
my way right there with me. Raising my watch to my mouth I
said, "Matrix off."

Instantly my vision was filled with other explosion of
light as the illusion shut down. All around me I could here
people gasping. As the light cleared everyone in the hall
had stopped, and where staring at me. The only one moving
was Natarn, who appeared not to have noticed what happened,
and he was making good time.

"Out of my way!" I yelled, and the crowd parted, just at my
prey slipped into the stair well.

Running again, I covered the 30 feet in under ten seconds.
Bursting through the door I saw him dive through the door of
the first floor. Taking the stairs three at I time, and
nearly falling twice, I hit the door running, and skidded
into the hallway.

I saw him turing a corner a few feet away. Still following I
saw that I was right in locking the front door. For in front
of me was the two story lobby of the building.

I also saw that Natarn had stopped in the middle of the
lobby, and what I guessed where security guards where
approaching him.

Natarn turned around to start running, and saw me. His eyes
widening, he took a step back.

I slowly walked into the lobby, causing a more gasps,
and some of the guards.

Looking at me, he sneered. "Cutter, who else." He said. Then
he started running again. Not to one of the exits, but the
side, towards a window.

Pulling out his gun (which if I had forgotten he had) he fired
one shot. The bullet went through the glass in a neat hole,
cracks spiraling out from the impacted like some kind of
demented spider web.

Natarn hit the damaged spot of the glass with his shoulder.
Causing it to shatter completely, and fall down on top of
him as he ran.

The whole event took less then five seconds, and as the
guards tried to follow, he vanished into the city outside.

Some of the guards went though the window after him. The
rest turned towards me, most had there guns in the paws, and
pointing to the floor.

"Put your paws up." a guard said.

"Now there's a cliche." I said, doing so.

The guard who had spoken approached. "Who or What are you?"

I shrugged. "My name is Fox Cutter."

"Would you please come with us." He said.

"Why not, I have nothing better to do." I and followed him
as he left the lobby.

After a short walk I found myself in what I guessed was the
security office. I was sat down in some back office and left
there. A few minutes later A women came in and sat down at
the desk.

She looked me over, "Your a sight."

I shrugged.

"How did you get into the building?"

"Through the front door."

She sighed. "Give me your right paw."

I held my hand out to her, and pushed it under the same kind
of scanner I saw Rethin use. There was a quick flash, and
she gave a puzzled looked. "There's no id code." She stated,
letting go of my hand.

I grinned, "Let me guess. That's impossible, right?"

She shook her head, "No, just rare. Some people are allergic
to the dye. Give me your card."

I shrugged again, and pulled out the card Rachel had given
me, and handed it over the desk to her.

She looked at the card, then back at me. "Who did you steal
the card from?"

"Obviously from the person who's name is on the card."

She sighed. "Give me your paw again."

I held my hand out to her again. This time she pulled out a
small box and pressed it against my palm. I felt a slight
stinging, and she pulled it away. Taking the small box she
put it into a device hook into her computer.

"What was that?"

She hit a few keys, "Getting a sample of your DNA."

I grinned, "That should freak it out."

She shook her head, and turned back to the computer. After a
minute or two she said, "It's found a match. Now we'll see
who you really are."

Reading over the screen, she shook her head. "That's
interesting."

I leaned forward, "What?"

"According to the records, this," she tapped the card, "is
you. Not only that, it makes a note of a possible photo
discrepancy, and that your have diplomatic immunity."

I leaned back in the chair and chuckled. "Not what you
expected?"

"Damn right."

We paused, looking at each other. After a few seconds her
intercom buzzed. Stabbing at it, she said "yes?"

"Sorry to bother you, but someone is here to see it."

"Send them in."

A few seconds later the office door opened, and in walked
Sothia. "Hi." I said.

Sothia walked up to the desk. "I'm sorry to barge in here,
but Cutter is an aid to the foreign diplomat I'm working
with."

The women behind the desk nodded. "That's ok. I was about to
turn him lose. He has diplomatic ammunition."

She nodded, "Well then. I'll take him back with me. I'll
also have my office call you about this." Turning to me she
said, "come on."

I stood up, and started to follow Sothia out of the office,
when I heard the women in the office mutter to herself. "I
wonder where there from."

I turned back and said. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far
far away." Then with a wink I closed the door, and caught up
with Sothia, humming the Star Wars theme to myself.

* * *

Standing out side of the small bedroom, I started thinking.
I still had no idea how had hooked this large cave into the
house through such round about means, though I did know who
had cleaned it up and used it.

Looking up at the ceiling, I played my flashlight beam over
the stone. It only took a few seconds to find a light
suspended above me. From it's mounting ran two power cables,
one head to each side of the cave.

Picking a direction at random, I followed the cable to the
left. When I finally reached the far side I saw that it went
over about 20 feet, then headed back to the other side.

I started walking along the wall, still looking at the
cable, and how it looped back and forth accost the ceiling.
When I reached the far corner I found what I was looking
for.

The cable went into the wall though a small hole. Right
under it was a door. Opening it, I found myself in what
only could be called a maintenance room.

One one wall was a stenciled outline of the cave I was in,
outlining the route I had taken in. It also showed four
hallways leading to other caves. The only other thing in the
room was a large bank of switch, and meters.

All the meters where reading zero, and all the switches
where off. Writing along the front of the case, in
standard, was the word "generator." Each of the switches
and meters where also labeled.

On a bit closer inspection I found a small panel on the
front, that with a little preying swung open. Inside I found
some more controls, and taped to the inside of the panel, a
note saying how to start it.

Following the directions I had the generator humming in about
five minutes. Then I went through and hit all the switches.
After the third one, the lights came on.

After I had finished with all the switches, and everything
else the note said to do, I went back into the cave, and was
a amazed.

It was a large as I had first though, and now with the
lights on I could see more. The cave was clearly natural,
with the floor leveled out and the ceiling trimmed. In the
distance I could here a light thrumming sound, as I started
to smell fresh air. Mean that fresh air was being pulled
in. I could also feel the temperature starting to rise (which
was rather fast considering the size of the place) though I
hadn't really noticed the cold.

In a far corner of the cave, I could see a practice mat, and
a line of mirrors, along with more exercise equipment. Along
one wall was a workbench with some tools laid out over it.
Off to one side I could see a small cleaning robot, the same
kind they used at Mabel Hall, starting to clean up the dust
on the floor.

I grinned, this place really was a find, and with some of the
things in the bedroom... well I couldn't wait to tell Fox
about it.