Raiyev - Parts 6-10

Part 6



Toni caught Raiyev’s eyes and gently nodded her head, her face looking genuinely concerned about something. With a final glance around the large hallway, Raiyev slowly approached the ferret.

“You wanted to see me about something?” he asked her, the curiosity in his voice more than apparent.

“Yes,” she replied in a whisper, casting her eyes about nervously.

“Why did I have to come alone? What is this all about?”

“I have to tell you…you are involved in something—something much larger than you or me. I fear you might be in danger.”

Raiyev gave an odd sort of laugh. “What the hell are you talking about?” he said skeptically. Surely this was some type of elaborate practical joke, he thought.

“This is no joke!” Toni exclaimed angrily, reading him. “Look—they changed it all. They lied to us. That’s why today has been so busy. That’s why—“

“Changed what? Who is ‘they’?”

“Look, I know that I’m being watched. I don’t have much time.”

“Yeah, sure.” Raiyev was still unbelieving of this odd ferret.

“Do you know what happened to the guy I replaced? Do you know what happened to Edward?” Toni had played a wild card, and Raiyev was taken aback. Raiyev had met Edward Haskins before; he had been Dr. Paxton’s former personal assistant and secretary. Raiyev hadn’t even given thought as to why Haskins was no longer at EarthTech. Subconsciously, he had just assumed that Haskins had quit or was fired, but now that Toni had brought it up, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Raiyev, listen—this is most urgent. You have to stop everything. Just go off somewhere. Leave EarthTech—just for a while, at least.”

“This is insane. I can’t leave my job! I can’t leave Brad, either! Will you just tell me why? What the hell is going on?”

“It’s why the planet is shrinking. It’s—“

“MS. HAWTHORNE!” called a shrill voice from further down the hall. Dr. Paxton had just rounded the corner and was trotting down towards the two of them. The tail of her white lab coat was fluttering behind her. The course, frizzy fur on her head looked unkempt, and her glasses were in complete disarray, nearly falling off her face. She was an aging and ever-so-slightly eccentric German poodle, but Raiyev knew that she still usually took better care of herself than this.

“Ms. Hawthorne, I’ve been looking all over for you! I need you—immediately!” Her high-pitched voice pierced what had been the near-silence of the corridor. When she finally reached the ferret, she grabbed Toni’s arm and started to pull her away. Raiyev didn’t know what to make of this and just stayed rooted to the spot. “You can finish this conversation later, Raiyev,” she called back as she promptly made her way with Toni towards the exit from which she came.

“Raiyev!” Toni called, her face turned to him. She wasn’t showing any signs of struggling to get away, but Raiyev saw a look on her face that looked as if she though she was being led to her death. “Raiyev! Just do as I told you!”

And with that, Toni and Paxton rounded the corner and were out of sight. Raiyev finally found his legs again and started down the corridor towards the exit he saw the two of them take. But he didn’t see anyone as he peered around the corner—they had moved quickly and were gone. He just stood there a minute, contemplating whether or not he should try to follow them. After all, it’s not like he didn’t know where the Astronomy department was. But he had a strange gut feeling that he shouldn’t follow. He chucked it up to being reason, the logic that he could always talk with Toni the next day. Besides, it probably wouldn’t be best to further disturb an upset department head. One thing he knew for sure from his brief conversation with Toni was that he wasn’t leaving his job based on the ravings of someone he had only just met.

Somewhat drudgingly, the raccoon made his way to the front security desk. “Not even an ear bent towards that yelling?” he asked Bilicek, who had her face buried behind a copy of Reader’s Digest.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” she replied apathetically, still staring at the magazine. She looked up over the top of her magazine as Raiyev gently slid his security badge across the laminated countertop. “Checking out?”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” he replied. She gave an obvious sigh and took the badge. Raiyev signed out and left. She must be one of the worst security guards this place has ever seen, he thought as he passed through the doors at the Eastern entrance. Brad was waiting for him, the car in neutral just in front of the steps leading to the front entrance. The parking lot looked much emptier than it had earlier that morning when Raiyev and Brad arrived, but the couple dozen cars still there told Raiyev that some scientists might be up for an even longer shift.

“So what was that about?” Brad asked his fiancée as he opened the car door.

Raiyev sat down and felt something squish and crunch under him. He got back up and picked up a squashed and damp Styrofoam box. “My lunch, I presume?” he sighed, holding it up.

“Sorry,” Brad replied as Raiyev sat back down, tossed the squashed leftovers in the back seat, and buckled up. “So…?” Obviously, Brad was eager to learn who had seen Raiyev and why.

“It was Toni Hawthorne—that ferret I bumped into this morning.”

“Really?” Brad said, sounding intrigued. He shifted gears and started towards the exit. “What did she want?”

“I never got to really know. We were interrupted when her boss, Dr. Paxton, came by and said she needed her.” Brad looked at Raiyev, his face twisted quizzically. “Yeah, odd. I know. What’s odder is what she was starting on about.”

“What do you mean?” Brad asked eagerly. Something in Brad’s voice sounded almost expectant, which made Raiyev hesitate a moment before going into a full account of his contact with Toni.

“I’ll just ask her to finish tomorrow,” he said when he finished telling his story. “I mean, she acts as if she knows why the earth is shrinking, and that it’s got something to do with me.”

Brad paused a moment, apparently deep in thought. Finally, he said, “Hmm…well, I don’t know how much time you’ll have if you plan to ask her tomorrow. That emergency UN meeting is tomorrow, you know. Anything they decide to do could dramatically change everything we’re trying to do. I suppose everyone will be busy watching the news tomorrow.”

“Perhaps…” Raiyev hadn’t really thought much about the complications tomorrow’s UN meeting could bring. He decided it was best to just let tomorrow play itself out and to not worry about it just now.

The two raccoons talked for the rest of the car ride home about their day and what they had found out, if anything. The talk really helped Raiyev keep his mind from wandering too much with crazy ideas about what Toni’s warning could have meant. When they finally got home and got some dinner in them, they started to watch the news to see if anything new had developed.

Brad was stretched out on the couch in front of the TV, and Raiyev was lying on top of him. Brad’s arms were wrapped around Raiyev’s waist, their hands clasped together. There was nothing new on the news, much to their dismay—just more about how the earth was shrinking. But lying there with Brad, watching all the information run by on screen made Raiyev realize something.

“I want to get married soon,” Raiyev said to his lover. “If we never find out anything…if we can’t find a way to counteract all this…I want to know that you and I were as close as we could be for as long as we could be.”

Brad seemed to have trouble finding words. After a moment, he just nuzzled against Raiyev’s cheek and said, “Okay.”

“I love you,” Raiyev said, turning around to face his lover.

“I love you, too,” Brad replied, his eyes shining as he stared deeply at the smaller raccoon. He pressed his lips against his fiancée’s, softly at first, but harder as he felt Raiyev press back into him. Raiyev reached for the remote and turned off the television.

Brad carefully held Raiyev as he got up from the couch. He carried the smaller raccoon to their bedroom, set him down on the bed, and laid down with him. The two nuzzled for about half an hour before finally making love to one another.

Tears poured gently down Raiyev’s cheeks as his lover gently but passionately kissed and made love to him—he couldn’t remember a time when he felt happier and more in love with his fiancée. He wanted simply to lie there, forever in the protection of the beefy raccoon’s arms. He almost feared that he needed to stay with Brad like this forever, or else something ill would befall him. It was passion at its peak. Raiyev curled his tail around Brad and held him as tight as he could for as long as he could. The night was long and beautiful, but the two raccoons eventually fell asleep in each other’s arms, neither with a thought about what the next day would bring them.



Part 7



Raiyev was reluctant to get up in the morning—the previous night had been wonderful beyond description—but he had wanted to get to work early, in hopes of catching Toni and talking to her before anything else happened that day. When he and Brad finally got to work, though, it was nearly nine o’clock, so Raiyev only had time to get his security badge and run to the Chemistry department.

I’ll get her during lunch, he told himself. When he got to his lab, he found that a small television on a tall, wheeled stand had been rolled into the lab and plugged in. Raiyev spotted Thomas sitting amongst a few other colleagues, all watching CNN.

“As you can see,” came the voice of the reporter on the news, “we are experiencing a complete media blackout for this UN meeting. I’m standing here across the street from the UN building…”

“Instructions from Dr. Frost,” Thomas said to Raiyev as he sat down next to him. “Every lab’s got one. This meeting could change everything we’re working on, depending on what they decide, so we need to be in the know the moment something has happened.”

“Any news on our test subjects?” Raiyev asked.

“Dr. Frost said they oughtta be here tomorrow,” Thomas answered.

“So…what do we do for now? Just watch this?” Raiyev cried a bit incredulously, pointing to the television.

“Well, if you want, you and I can go over the Gigantism file more, see if there’s anything more we can gain from it. I personally think we’ve done all that we can do. We already have everything set up for tomorrow. We just need the subjects now.”

In the end, Raiyev decided to just sit and watch with the rest of them for a short time. Realizing that the meeting would take a good while, though, he decided to go off to the Astronomy department to see Toni.

“I’ll be right back,” he told Thomas, and quietly slipped out. He quickly made his way to the Astronomy building, near the main building, and entered a hallway somewhat similar to the main corridor to the Chemistry building. Reading the room list on the wall to his left, he found what he was looking for: “Dr. Amelia Paxton – Dept. Head – Room 116”

He hurriedly looked at each room number as he sped down the corridor with anticipation. When he got to room 115, though, he was at the end of the hall, and no other rooms were left. Dumbfounded, he peered inside the open doorway of room 115. Behind an empty desk was a shut door with the number “116” at the top of its doorframe. The door read “Dr. Amelia Paxton – Head of Astronomy Dept.” He had guessed, then, that the empty desk before him was supposed to be Toni’s desk. But where was she?

Hesitantly, he knocked on Paxton’s door. “Come in,” called a high-pitched voice Raiyev recognized. He opened the door and saw Dr. Paxton sitting behind her desk, busily typing away at her computer. “Dr. Kosekovic?” she asked oddly, looking up at him.

“Yes, but please, call me Raiyev,” he answered.

“How can I help you?”

“Is Toni in today?”

“You mean Ms. Hawthorne? No, I’m sorry—she didn’t come into work today.” Raiyev didn’t know what to do for a moment. He cast his eyes down, as if looking on the ground for an answer.

Looking up again, he said, “Well, then, can I have her home phone number?”

Paxton smiled and shook her head. “Now, Raiyev, you know well that I can’t give you such information without just cause. Besides, I’ve been trying to call her all morning, and I haven’t got an answer yet.”

Raiyev paused, as if completely lost. “Oh…okay…” he said, and reluctantly turned to leave. Suddenly, he remembered something. Turning back, he said, “One more thing, Dr. Paxton.”

“Yes?”

“What happened to Edward Haskins? Why doesn’t he work here anymore?”

Paxton studied Raiyev for a moment in silence, then said, “He fell extremely ill and had to be hospitalized last week. The doctors don’t know what it is yet. Why do you ask?” she said, a foreboding ounce of curiosity in her voice.

“No reason,” he lied. “Just wondering.” He turned and left the office quickly, but slowed his pace as he went down the long path back to the Chemistry building. Something seemed wrong here. A seemingly simple ferret tries to tell Raiyev that something big is going down, is interrupted before she can explain, then seems to disappear the very next day. Raiyev convinced himself that there was a perfectly normal, logical explanation to this…but one little voice in his head kept telling him to stay on his toes.



The rest of the day was uneventful. The UN meeting was still in progress with no new news when everyone left at five that evening. When Brad and Raiyev got home that evening, Brad started for the kitchen to prepare dinner, and Raiyev turned on the television to CNN.

“Brad, you might want to come see this,” Raiyev called, his eyes not leaving the television screen. Brad came in and watched with Raiyev as one of the American representatives—a tall and aging husky—made a statement to the dozens of reporters surrounding him.

“After much debate,” he started slowly, “it has been decided what the best course of action is to take on this matter.” The media seemed impatient with the politician, but held their breath as he lethargically continued. “Through a combined effort of all the major nations, their people, their space programs, and the taxpayer’s dollar, two large omni-directional jet-like thrusters will be constructed, one on the North Magnetic Pole, and the other on the South Magnetic Pole. These thrusters will reach as high into the sky as they need to, and will be rotational to the point that they can safely keep the Earth in its proper orbit. By using the thrusters to counteract the gravitational pull of any outside forces, the Earth will remain on the same path it has been a part of for billions of years.”

“Do they know what has caused the shrinking of the Earth?” a small Schnauzer reporter yelled from further back in the crowd.

The husky replied slowly, “Top scientific minds from all over the world are still working on…” Raiyev turned his attention away from the TV to see Brad standing by the kitchen entryway, still holding a box of rice in his hand, entranced by the events on the television.

“Brad,” Raiyev called, but Brad remained unmoved. “Don’t watch too much of that guy, Brad—he’s got a voice more potently ethereal and tiring than Bob Ross.” Brad shook his head a bit and looked at Raiyev, grinning dopily. “Better turn this off—for your own safety,” Raiyev smirked as he pointed the remote at the TV and pressed the power button. “Otherwise, you’d end up burning the apartment building down or something.” Brad laughed and went back into the kitchen to prepare the meal.



The next day, Raiyev strode eagerly into Lab 8 to greet the new test subjects: six young furs, all between the ages of seven and twelve, and all quite large for their age. Raiyev, Harper, and Thomas were the most friendly and caring with children, so they took the blood samples.

“Their parents are all waiting in the main building, Raiyev,” said Thomas softly, “so we’d like to make this as quick as we can.”

Raiyev smiled, nodding in understanding, and approached an 8-year-old vixen who looked a bit worried. “Don’t worry,” he said, holding the syringe. “I promise that this won’t hurt too badly. You’ll just feel a small, quick prick.” She still looked tentative, her head cocked against her shoulder and eyes cast downward. “What’s your name?” he asked her.

“Sarah,” she said softly and sadly, her eyes now focused on the hypodermic in Raiyev’s paw.

“Well, hello, Sarah. My name is Raiyev.”

She smiled a bit. “That’s a funny name.”

Raiyev chuckled. “I’m glad you think so,” he whispered, “because I think so, too, but they won’t let me change it.” The vixen giggled and loosened up a bit, looking up at Raiyev. “And you know what else?”

“What?” she whispered.

“You’re a very important furson today. You’re helping save the world, you know.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up with wonder at Raiyev.

“Yes, really. Plus, I have a lollipop here for you if you’re a good girl and sit still during this.” She smiled at Raiyev and allowed him to draw some of her blood from the back of her neck.

“And now, we see exactly how special you are,” he said as he drew her blood, more to himself, and with a sense of wonder and hope in his voice. He really hoped this plan would work—for the sake of the world, for the sake of science, and partly for the sake of letting an 8-year-old vixen be a heroine not only in her childhood fantasies.



Part 8



“She’s dead!” he cried. The tall fox was stooped over the body of Dr. Paxton lying on the ground in the cafeteria. Raiyev had seen it happen; well, most of it, anyway. He, along with the rest of the cafeteria, had looked over at Paxton when he heard the shattering crash of her coffee mug being cast to the linoleum floor.

She had slipped out of her chair and fallen on the floor, going into seizures. A few furs ran over to try to help her, but her convulsions turned into twitches, and then finally into nothingness. One of the furs, a tall and slender fox whom Raiyev didn’t know, checked her pulse, his eyes still wide with terror. After his proclamation to the room, however, Raiyev saw the fox’s face turn from terror into a sort of respectful grief.

Being a room full of bright scientific minds, the uproar was considerably milder than it would have been had the event happened in any run-of-the-mill restaurant. However, that is not to say that there was no uproar at all. Almost everyone stood up, some rushing over to get a closer look at the body or to confirm her death, some rushing off to try to get help. The few who decided to remain sitting were either still too shocked to fully believe or be aware of the situation, or merely peering over at the commotion (the body quickly surrounded and blocked from view), or else chatting hurriedly amongst themselves in hushed whispers.

Raiyev was one of the few still sitting in shock at his usual table by the window with his fiancée. Raiyev looked at Brad with a quizzical look on his face, only to see that Brad was still gazing open-mouthed at the scene, his sandwich still being held inches away from his face.

“Out of the way!” Raiyev heard a gruff voice call, and looked back towards the body again to see Ms. Bilicek tossing furs aside to get to Paxton’s body. She knelt down by Paxton’s body, placing two fat, stubby fingers to one of Paxton’s limp, thin wrists. Unsatisfied, Bilicek tried once more, this time with two fingers at the neck. Placing her head to Paxton’s bosom, she finally got up, a grave look about her. “Alright!” she called to everyone, making her already-loud voice boom even louder. “No one comes within twenty feet of this body! This is a crime scene now, and I won’t have all your filthy paws grubbin’ it up and makin’ it hard to investigate, ya hear? Now, everyone wait just outside the cafeteria!” She pointed towards the doors leading outside to an open field, then picked up her walkie-talkie and called for some back-up to watch the body.

A short and slender young cougar adorned in the same officer’s outfit as Bilicek came running in and stood guard by the body with a surly look on his face. Bilicek, in the meantime, was ushering all the furs out to the field just outside. Raiyev and Brad were still just sitting and watching, the shock not completely worn off, when Bilicek finally came around to them.

“Up, you two!” she barked at them. She grabbed Raiyev and yanked him up from his seat, trying to move things along.

“Hey!” Brad yelled. “We’re going! No need to rough-handle us!” He got up from his seat and looked Bilicek up and down, sizing her up. She glared back at him with a queer look in her eye, as if she almost wasn’t sure if she could fully handle someone that practically matched her size and strength.

“Brad, let’s just go,” Raiyev said, not wanting any trouble to spark between the two. After a moment, Brad reluctantly let the matter go, and followed the rest of the group outside to the field.

“She shouldn’t have done that to you,” Brad said as they strode outside onto the springy grass, where all the other furs were mulling around, talking excitedly to one another. “We were going, after all!”

“I know,” Raiyev offered in return, “but think about it: someone just died—someone we know, or least have seen before. She was probably just having difficulties functioning under the stress. It’s understandable.”

“She’s an officer—she’s supposed to know how to operate properly under stress! That’s her job!” Brad was still fuming as he stared back inside one of the cafeteria windows to see Bilicek getting the last couple furs up from where they were still sitting. Raiyev watched, too, as Bilicek followed behind the last couple furs (a barn owl and a tapir), calling back orders Raiyev couldn’t hear to the cougar standing guard. The cougar then handed Bilicek a large, flat object that Raiyev couldn’t make out through the tinted windows.

Bilicek, the owl, and the tapir all rushed outside, Bilicek prodding the other two into a quick trot with a “Come on, we haven’t got all day.” She surveyed the group of furs, counting heads—a task made easy for her, since she stood so much taller than most of the lot. “Alright,” she called, and everyone grew silent. “Everyone’s still here, from what I can see—all fifty-six of ya.” How she could know for sure that no one had slipped away unnoticed, Raiyev could only guess. “That’s fifty-six eye-witnesses, in my book, and all of ya are going to give me a full report of what you saw and did!” Some nervously looked around at each other at this remark, but everyone silently agreed.

“However,” the bear continued, “I can’t survey you all right now, so the best I can do is get all of your names and question you later.” She held up a clipboard—the object the cougar had just handed her a moment ago, Raiyev figured. “So form a single-file line and let me write down your names.”

The mass of furs carefully turned from an amorphous mob into a neat, single-file line, moving rather quickly as each fur stated his or her name and in which department he or she worked in. Waiting in line, Raiyev considered Toni’s warning to him…what had happened to Paxton? Was this what Toni was referring to when she had talked about danger to him the other evening? And where was Toni, anyway? Is it possible that she murder Dr. Paxton? Scores of questions raced through Raiyev’s mind as he drew nearer to the line’s end.

As soon as Raiyev got up to the front of the line, Bilicek immediately grabbed hold of Raiyev’s security pass and scribbled down his information from it, totally disregarding Raiyev and paying only attention to his pass. Raiyev waited for Brad to go through the same quick ordeal so they could say a final goodbye before going back to their respective departments. Raiyev, however, took this opportunity to check back at Paxton’s office before returning to his lab. His eager expression turned a bit forlorn as he poked his head inside Room 115 of the Astronomy department to see yet again an empty secretary’s desk.

“Toni?” he called out softly, a bit tentative. There was no answer. He stood there for a moment at a loss of what to make of the situation. The death of a colleague just now had sent his reasoning mind out of whack, and he was slowly finding himself. Perhaps it was just as well, then, that Toni wasn’t there—Raiyev didn’t really know what he was going to say to her. He was considering her warning again. Should he leave? Was someone out to get him? He remembered that it was Paxton, after all, who had stopped Toni from telling Raiyev all that she had wanted to tell him. Had Toni herself been murdered?

Raiyev figured that whatever Toni knew, Paxton knew as well. Now, someone who didn’t want that information—whatever it was—getting out had murdered Toni, then murdered Paxton. Was he next, then? Is this what Toni’s warning had meant? Raiyev started to get rather frightened at this whole notion, but then, regaining himself, reminded himself that there had to be a more logical explanation for all of this. He was still standing by the doorway of Room 115, staring idly at the empty office, when a voice rang through his ears.

“The perpetrator always seems to show up where the victim could commonly be found.” Raiyev’s eyes widened as he jerked his head towards the sound of the voice. It was Bilicek, and she was headed down the corridor towards him, her look as mean as ever. “You lookin’ to be arrested or something?” she said to him, and Raiyev’s throat became suddenly dry.



Part 9



How long had he been standing there, idle with his thoughts? Raiyev silently cursed his foolishness. Bilicek eyed Raiyev up and down, glaring almost irately. Raiyev tried to think of something to say.

“Well?” Bilicek said after another moment had passed. “What are you think you’re doing over here, huh?”

Raiyev decided that the truth was the best answer. He finally replied, though a bit dryly, “I was just looking for Toni Hawthorne. She is—was—Dr. Paxton’s assistant.”

Bilicek glared at the raccoon a moment more, studying him. “Were you in the cafeteria, then, when it happened?” she asked of him, her tone not letting up.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I remember you,” she said, then consulted her clipboard, which Raiyev had just noticed was still in her large paw. Finding his name, she tried to sound it out. “Cossuh…cossuhCO…”

“Kosekovic,” Raiyev offered quickly.

“Yeah, whatever,” she grunted. “Well, you were there, and you’re scheduled to be questioned, anyway. So get on out of here and go back to wherever you’re supposed to be workin’!”

Raiyev slinked away, his generally bright tail slinking apathetically behind him. He muttered a couple curses under his breath, his anger towards Bilicek at that moment greater than it had ever been. Yes, she had seemed incompetent before, but now she was just being a bitch. Raiyev’s anger subsided, though, as he made his way slowly back to his lab.

When Raiyev got back, he was almost lost, having nearly forgotten about his work after the events that had just happened at lunch. The collection of blood he, Harper, and Thomas had taken just that morning now seemed like days ago. The subjects were dismissed for now, and all of Raiyev’s coworkers were silently and solemnly set to work. Raiyev recognized that some of them had also been in the cafeteria when the…scene had…occurred.

Geez, Raiyev thought silently, it feels so superficial to say it in such an analytical tone. He took to his general workstation by Thomas and asked what the status quo was.

“Just general analyzation of the samples and such for now,” Thomas explained, referring to the procedures on a photocopy of the older file he had shown Raiyev previously. Raiyev sighed and set to work, just as silently and solemnly as everyone else in the room. It was a long and tedious process, which Raiyev would generally enjoy regardless of its tediousness, but the idea that someone’s life had just been lost…right before his very eyes, too… Who had done it? It really didn’t seem like just a freak accident…

“What are you doing?!” Thomas exclaimed. “You just saved new data over another data file!”

“I did?!” Raiyev was feeling terribly distracted. He took another look at the computer screen. “Fuck!” he exclaimed, berating himself loud enough that everyone in the lab looked up.

“Stand aside,” Thomas sighed, gently nudging the raccoon out of the way. Thomas typed away at the computer for a couple minutes. Raiyev watched half-heartedly, his eyes casting to the ground every so often, his tail limp and ears folded back. “Got it,” Thomas said after a couple minutes. “Was able to tap into the company’s main system and get it back—but I shouldn’t be doing that, so be more careful in the future!”

Raiyev sighed and whispered an apology and got promptly back to work, doing his best to focus on the subject at hand. As the day wore on, the team was able to find and isolate the general chemicals that seemed to be in excess in the blood stream. Different strands of seemingly random chemicals were slowly collected in an order that gradually made more and more sense, like fitting together pieces of a huge genetic puzzle, until finally…

“I think we’ve got it,” Harper said, coming to Thomas and Raiyev to compare notes. There was some mild debate, and a bit more testing, but it looked rather clear: they had isolated the chemical that appeared to cause Gigantism. Lab 8 took a huge collective sigh, and everyone took a fiver.

“So we’ve got the chemical,” Raiyev said, holding a Styrofoam cup of water in the break room, talking to Thomas and Harper. “What now?”

“I think some basic testing,” Thomas answered after taking a sip of his tea. “You know—on plants.”

“Plants?” Harper said, somewhat incredulously. “You want to test an animalistic chemical on plants?”

“Can you suggest something better?” Thomas asked, a vague hint of challenge in his voice.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, we’re not gonna start on THIS again, are we?” Harper said coldly. “So you have the highest fucking IQ in the Lab. Big fucking deal. Grow up. That doesn’t make everyone else incompetent, you know.”

“I was merely asking—“

“I know what you were asking, and no—I can’t think of anything better, other than to test it on other ANIMAL subjects that don’t have Gigantism.”

“I dunno,” Raiyev said. “Getting test subjects to extract blood from is one thing; getting subjects to inject a foreign chemical is whole other story. We could get into a lot of hot water with the activists groups and media, you know.”

“I don’t care!” Harper exclaimed. “They don’t pay us enough here to worry about hype from the media.”

“But they do pay us enough to make us sign a legal contract about secrecy of what goes on here,” Thomas argued.

“Whatever,” the rabbit sighed, giving in. “You guys can test this chemical however you want. Let’s just get some results, okay?!”

The group headed back to the lab and started the set-up for Thomas’ idea. Testing on plants was going to be difficult, though, as there were only a few specific plants that would show similar results to animalistic chemicals. By the next day, the lab had acquired only a small handful of plants they could use for testing, and more were on their way.

This was also the day, as Raiyev was told that morning by his fiancée, that Brad was to be questioned about everything he witnessed at the scene yesterday. Brad was scheduled to go early in the morning, so Raiyev was looking forward to hearing from him again during lunch.

“Wow,” Raiyev said, sitting down at his and Brad’s usual table. “I just realized something.”

“What?” Brad asked, already munching on his salad.

“It’s just…24 hours ago, approximately…you know?” He was staring over at the table at which it had happened. The police line was still set up around the scene, orange cones set around it. “Just…weird, I guess.”

Brad looked down at his plate, a grim look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Raiyev asked, concerned.

“The fricken’ questioning—that’s what.”

“What happened?”

“They treated me like shit!” the larger raccoon said, looking up at Raiyev. “Especially that bitch Bilicek. She kept badgering me about it, as if I was the one who did it!”

“Well, you didn’t, did you?” Raiyev realized in horror what he had just said, but it was too late.

“Of course I didn’t do it!” Brad bellowed, turning a few heads in his direction.

“Sorry,” Raiyev whimpered, lowering his head. “I didn’t mean…”

Brad sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t mean to suggest anything. It’s just this whole goddamn week has been messed up, you know? It’s enough to break anyone, I guess.” Raiyev was still staring down at his food. “Hey,” Brad said gently, reaching over and lifting Raiyev’s head in his paw, a finger tucked under Raiyev’s chin. “I’m sorry I got angry at you. Okay? I love you.”

Raiyev smiled weakly. “I know, sweetie. It’s okay.” The two ate in silence for a couple moments before Raiyev spoke again. “She really rode your ass about it? She really thought you did it?”

“I don’t know what she was thinking—I think she’s just trying to scare information out of people. I think I overheard someone else saying that she had been mean to them, too. So when are you supposed to get interviewed?”

“I really don’t know,” he said, going back to his food. “I sure hope the same doesn’t happen to me,” Raiyev thought aloud. However Bilicek treated him, he wasn’t quite ready to return his mind back to that event. Death wasn’t a fun topic to think about.



Part 10



Raiyev was a bit uneasy going back to work after lunch. He meandered slowly down the long corridor of his building before entering Lab 8. What did she have against him and his fiancée? Why did Bilicek seem to have it in for him and Brad? Or did she just treat everyone the same?

When the raccoon entered his lab, he saw most of his coworkers milling around the bulletin board. He walked on over to the bulletin board to see what the new posting was.

“Questioning schedule,” the sun bear said to Raiyev, a slight hint of disgust in his voice. “Taking away from our work!”

Raiyev took a closer look and found what he was looking for. Around the middle of the short list, it read: Kosecovic, Raiyev 10/02 10:20 a.m. “Shit, that’s tomorrow!” Raiyev said softly.

“They’re finishing it up quickly,” the sun bear told him. “They want to be done by the end of tomorrow.”

“And to think that I usually look forward to Fridays,” Raiyev said.

“You almost sound like you’ve got something to hide…” the sun bear drifted off, grinning at him.

“Oh, you know I didn’t do anything, Jake!”

The bear chuckled. “I know, Raiyev, I know. So why are you so worried?”

“I hear that Bilicek’s being a royal bitch to people that she questions. She gave my fiancée a really hard time.”

“That sounds like Bilicek,” Jake said with a grimace, then walked back to his workstation. Raiyev took one last look at his time to verify it in his mind, then went back to work. He was still having a hard time concentrating, as his mind continually drifted back to everything that had happened since Monday. He was so distracted that he got nothing done for the rest of the day and stayed late afterwards so that he could try to catch up.

The lab emptied at the end of the day, and Raiyev called Brad, telling him to go have an early dinner and come pick him back up around 6:30. He decided the best he could do for now was to inject the chemical into the few untouched plants. His head felt a bit woozy as he reached for the chemical-bearing syringe and stuck it into the stem of the first plant. He continued surreally, his mind going back to the week’s events…

“The world started shrinking due to some unknown force…” he recapped aloud. “…Toni, a new assistant, had only been there a couple of days, and she seemed to know about what was really going on…Dr. Paxton came in right on time to stop Toni from telling me what she knew or thought she knew…right on time…how odd was that? What were the chances that she would turn up at the very moment that…AAUURGH!”

Raiyev let out a loud cry as he stumbled back, holding his left forearm. He looked down and gazed stupidly at the syringe still stuck into his arm. What the fuck had he just done?! He slowly and painfully took the syringe out of his arm, rushing to the sink to wash the wound as fresh blood began to ooze out slowly. He grabbed a bandage and sealed up the wound, then picked up the syringe again, looking at it.

His expression of astonishment at his own stupidity turned to one of horror as he realized that the syringe was half empty. “Oh, shit…no…please, PLEASE don’t let this be true…” He started babbling at the syringe in his hand, trying to come to terms with what he had just done. He cursed himself, berated the fact that he let himself get so distracted…

Maybe it wasn’t in his blood? He tried to remember if he had injected any from that syringe into the plants… He couldn’t remember. He slowly made his way over to the break room and sat down in a chair. He was shaking violently, he was so nervous and scared. “What the fuck have I done? What’s going to happen to me?” He looked down at the Band-Aid covering the small prick on his left forearm.

“Come on, Raiyev!” he said to himself. “Get your head on straight and think rationally! Now…what would be the outcome of this? What’s the worst that could happen to you?” He looked at the clock on the wall of the break room. 5:43. He still had about 45 minutes before Brad was supposed to pick him up.

After another minute, he headed back to the lab and started to clean up, leaving no evidence of the dire mistake he had just made. He spent the rest of the time looking through the data already collected to see what, if anything, might happen to him…there was nothing clear; it was all too vaguely hypothesized. So with a tired head and a guilty conscience, he made his way to the front parking lot where Brad was waiting. Raiyev barely slept at all that night.



At his scheduled time the next morning, Raiyev headed to Bilicek’s office for his questioning. The room was rather cold and barely decorated. Large metal filing cabinets stood in a row behind Bilicek’s small desk. In front of her desk were a couple of uncomfortable-looking armchairs. Only a small plant in one corner made the room feel as if it had any sense of life.

“Sit,” Bilicek ordered Raiyev when he walked in. She was holding her clipboard, filling out some paperwork quickly, muttering incoherently to herself.

“Raiyev, right?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Yes,” the raccoon replied.

“So…tell me what you saw, from the beginning.”

Raiyev told his story. He told her how he had only really seen anything after he heard the crash of Paxton’s coffee mug shattering on the floor. He told her how he had sat there and watched, just like everyone else, and everything following.

“That’s it?” she said, after he finished.

“Yeah,” he said innocently, as if the matter was closed.

She looked at him, a queer look in her eyes, as if searching for something more. “Fine, you can go.”

He left quickly, hurrying back to his lab. So far, there were no signs of any sort of change in any of the plants. Everyone was somewhat upset, though patient, about this. Everyone except Raiyev, who gave a silent sigh to himself. Maybe nothing will happen after all? he hoped. He was glad it was Friday, and that his questioning was done. He now had the whole weekend to look forward to, and he, as well as pretty much everyone at EarthTech, could really use a couple of days off.

The weekend went by too quickly, though, and before Raiyev knew it, it was Monday morning again. He was still in the bedroom when Brad was calling for him from the living room.

“Raiyev, honey? What’s taking so long?” Brad’s voice rang throughout the small apartment.

“Uhh…I’ll be there in just a moment!” he called back. The truth was that he was having difficulty getting his clothes on. His pants didn’t want to zip up, and his shirt didn’t want to button; they were stretching on him, as if too small. Had they shrunk in the wash? Was Raiyev putting on weight? No…Raiyev looked down and noticed that he was still in the same perfect shape that he had been in for years now. Why were his clothes suddenly a touch too small, then? With a good struggle, Raiyev finally managed to make his clothes fit on him—somewhat of an uncomfortable fit, but still a fit nonetheless.

When he got to his lab, the team had just started working when Bilicek and her young cougar assistant waltzed into the lab. Bilicek pointed the cougar in the direction of Harper, and the cougar walked right up to the tall rabbit.

“Dr. Amanda Jean Harper?” he asked.

Harper, looking a bit confused, responded, “Yes?”

The cougar held up a document. “Dr. Harper, I have a warrant for your arrest for the premeditated murder of Dr. Amelia Tabitha Paxton. You have the right to remain silent…”

Raiyev watched surreally as Bilicek walked behind Harper and cuffed her, while the cougar continued, and the two officers led the rabbit out slowly out of the laboratory. Harper had frozen up. Raiyev couldn’t tell whether she was scared or just solemn. Either way, she didn’t protest at all. She left the room without a single word.