The Micro-Files
by Ace Corona
Two FBI agents in the 22nd century investigate crimes involving miniaturization


In the 22nd century...

Jake Joplin, a handsome 28-year-old with dark blonde hair, got out of his
convertible and shut the door, as a hovercar glided by in the distance. Jake
saw the hovercar, and wondered why they had never quite caught on with the
general public. Millionaires and cops used them, but most other people
couldn't have cared less about owning a car that could fly. And unlike 20th
century sci-fi flicks, the sky wasn't filled with flying cars, and there were
no skyways of hovercars flying through the air. In fact, you could stare at
the sky for five minutes straight and not even see a single hovercar.

Jake walked in through the front door of the FBI building in San Luis Obispo,
California. He was being assigned a new partner today, and a new division was
being formed, and he wanted to make a good impression. He took the elevator to
the third floor, exited, and went to the office of commissioner Sloane.

Sloane was seated behind his desk, as usual, and a man was sitting in a chair
in front of him. "This is Jake Joplin," Sloane told the man, "the agent I was
telling you about! He's our best man!" the commissioner turned his head to
Jake. "Jake? I want you to meet Dirk Devon, recently transferred here from the
Santa Barbara branch today! You two are going to be partners!"

Dirk was 40, with short, dark hair, and was about the same height as Jake.

"I understand we're forming a new division," Jake asked.

"Too true!" commissioner Sloane replied. "As of today, all branches of the FBI
are forming a Micro-Files division, to investigate crimes involving
miniaturization!"

"Chief," Jake asked, "don't you think it's a little soon to start
investigating shrink-crimes? Right now, there's no way to re-enlarge someone
after they've been shrunk!"

"That's not true, Jake! In 2118, neutrino transfer was developed. It's been
kept top-secret, but the FBI has access to this technology. You boys don't
have anything to worry about!"

Sloane reached into his desk and handed two devices over, one to each of them.
"Neutrino transfer devices. One for each of you! If your partner gets shrunk,
the other of you can re-enlarge him! Now can one of you explain to me the
theory of neutrino dissimilation?"

"Sure, chief!" Jake replied. "Atoms are composed of protons and neutrons, with
electrons orbiting the nucleus. These three particles are made up of quark and
gluon particles. If you strip neutrinos from the outer surface of these quarks
and gluons, the atom shrinks!"

"You're leaving out the electron aspect of the theory!" Dirk said. "Electrons
all have a negative charge, so they repel one another. As the electrons
shrink, the force of their charge diminishes, resulting in the shrinking atoms
maintaining the same proportionate distance from each other relative to their
distance apart from each other at normal size."

"Correct!" Sloane replied. "The electron aspect of the theory is referred to
as direct variation, by the way. But with neutrino transfer, the opposite
effect takes place. Neutrinos are stripped from nitrogen atoms in the
surrounding air, and transferred to the quarks and gluons of the miniaturized
atoms. With one of these babies, a miniaturized man can be restored to normal
size!"

Then Sloane shuffled some files on his desk, and opened one particular file,
and spread out some photos on his desk. "This is Cassidy Wainwright. Her
father owns a big production company out in Hollywood. She recently took a
trip to Belize this summer, and we think she purchased a shrink-ray from a
dealer in Colombia. She is currently a student at Cal Poly. Your job is to
infiltrate her social circle, find out if she has miniaturized hostages, and
bring her in if she does!"

"Sure thing, chief!" Jake responded. He picked up a photograph of Cassidy, and
Jake and Dirk left the room.

On their way out to Jake's car, Dirk said, "We can maintain radio contact, and
I'll stay with the car in case you get shrunk, to call for back-up. You just
go to admissions and get yourself signed up for classes!"

They spent the whole afternoon getting Jake signed up. He bought books, and
secured an apartment near the campus. For the next several days, Jake went to
his classes and got adjusted to the routine of college life, and reported to
Dirk at lunch and after school each day. By Friday, he managed to get to know
some frat boys, and arranged for some of them to throw a party at his
apartment.

There was no guarantee that Cassidy Wainwright would show up, but he could ask
around about her. Jake, at 28, fit in, because he didn't look too old. Dirk,
at 40, would've definitely been wrong for the role of college student. While
Jake went to school, Dirk lived on take-out food in his car, parked at various
locations on and off campus. The night of the party, he was parked in a campus
parking lot where Cassidy kept her vehicle parked.

When the party was in full swing, Jake looked around the room, looking for
Cassidy. He had memorized her photograph, and would definitely recognize her
if he saw her. He didn't see her. As the party wore on, he met a young woman
who knew Cassidy.

"Why do you want to talk to her?" the young woman asked.

"I've read about her," Jake replied, "and I want to have her look at a
screenplay I'm working on!"

"No problem!" the woman replied, eager to help Jake while being completely
unaware he had lied to her. She got on her cell-phone, and called Cassidy.
Within fifteen minutes, Cassidy arrived at the party. After spending a few
minutes chatting with some friends of hers, the young woman Jake had lied to
introduced Cassidy to him.

"So you're working on a screenplay?" Cassidy asked Jake.

"Yeah!" Jake lied, "I was hoping your father could hook me up!"

"Can I see what you've written so far?" Cassidy asked.

"It's on the internet," Jake explained, "and I don't have my computer hooked
up yet!"

"Oh, that's okay," Cassidy answered, "I have a laptop in my car!"

As she turned around to exit the apartment, Jake threw his arms around her
waist, spun her around so she was facing him, and kissed her.

"I don't want to waste your time talking about my story!" Jake told her
between kisses, "I just want to make out with you!"

The two of them started making out, and after a few minutes, Cassidy invited
Jake over to her dorm. He got his jacket, and told everyone not to wreck the
place, and the two of them left. They walked to Cassidy's dorm, and went to
her bedroom and started making out. After several minutes, Cassidy wanted sex.
They made love for twenty minutes, then, after they got dressed, Cassidy asked
Jake a question.

"Have you ever wanted a miniaturized captive, to do with as you please?"

"I don't know," Jake replied, "I've never really thought about it. Why do you
ask?"

"I've got a neutrino dissimilator," Cassidy replied, "and I have some
captives. Do you want to see them?"

"Sure!" Jake replied. As soon as Cassidy pulled out the transparent plastic
cube containing half a dozen miniaturized hostages, Jake pulled out his
two-way radio and called Dirk. "Dirk, she's got hostages! Move in!"

"You're a cop?" Cassidy asked, and before Jake could reach his gun, Cassidy
pulled out her portable neutrino dissimilator and fired at Jake. He jumped out
of the way a split-second before her finger applied pressure to the trigger.
He landed on the other side of the bed, and the chair that had been behind him
was miniaturized down to the same proportionate size as the shrunken people in
the plastic cube. Jake pulled out his pistol, and got up just enough to aim at
Cassidy, but she had him in her sights, and fired the neutrino dissimilator.
Jake was now the same size as the people in the cube, and a bullet fired from
his gun a split-second after he was shrunk went across the room, and imbedded
itself in the wall.

Cassidy scraped the wall at the sight where the bullet went in, and the
miniaturized bullet fell to the carpet and was lost. Jake pulled his two-way
radio to his lips, and called for Devon. Meanwhile, Cassidy sauntered over to
where Jake was, knelt down and picked him up with one hand, and with the other
hand, she took his radio away.

"There'll be no more of that!" she said. She carried Jake over to the cube,
and tossed him in with the others. Jake hit the side of one of the plastic
walls, and slid down to the bottom. Three men and three women were in there
with him, and they were all about the same size as Jake.

"I'm Jake! I'm with the FBI! I should have you people free pretty soon!"

One of the men, who looked like he had been homeless before he had been
abducted, said, "I don't want to be free! My life is better now than it ever
was! Cassidy is good to us!"

"That doesn't change the fact that what she's doing is illegal!" Jake
responded. "Right now she's guilty of two felony counts: possessing a neutrino
dissimilator, and kidnapping!"

Cassidy peered down at her captives. "There will be no escape for any of you!"

"Give yourself up!" Jake said. "My partner is outside, and you're going down,
one way or another! Why don't you make it easy on yourself and give yourself
up, so it will look better for you in court?"

"You're a fool!" Cassidy argued. "There's no way I'm going to give up my
precious pets! I have a sports car parked in the parking lot, and I can go
anywhere in the country with you! My daddy's a multi-billionaire!"

She picked Jake up in her right hand. Jake, at two inches tall, was no match
for her strength, not by a longshot. Cassidy lifted him up so his altitude was
at the level of her mouth.

"Let me give you a sample of my power, and the pleasure we can expeience with
your new-found stature!"

Cassidy opened her mouth, and shoved Jake horizontally into her mouth. Without
completely sealing her lips, she tilted her head back slightly and massaged
Jake's entire body with her tongue. Jake was covered from head to toe with
saliva within a few moments. After about twenty seconds of this, she freed
Jake by lifting him gently out of her mouth.

"Do you see?" she said. "My slaves get to experience that every day!"

"The police have already been called!" Jake replied. "Give yourself up!"

Hearing this, Cassidy decided to flee. She found a duffel bag big enough to
conceal the plastic cube, and zipped it up and carried it carefully out the
front door of her dorm. Devon, parked outside, was waiting for a move, and had
called the local police for backup as soon as he received Jake's first
transmission. He was now parked in the parking lot, and noticed Cassidy
walking over to her car. When she put the duffel bag in the front seat and got
in the driver's side of the car, Devon started his engine, but didn't make a
move yet.

Cassidy put the car in drive, and took off out of the parking lot. Devon
followed her, but not too closely. After she got on the freeway, Devon made
another call to the local police, and soon they were on the freeway with him.
Cassidy sped up past one hundred miles per hour, and swerved between cars as
she changed lanes, trying to put as much distance between her and the college
as possible.

The police notified the highway patrol, who were armed with hovercars. They
spotted Cassidy's car, then hovered above and in front of her, then touched
down and landed in front of her car to block her path. Two other police cars
did the same thing to her left and to her right. Cassidy surprised them by
activating her own hovercar engine, and the red sports car took off like a
rocket.

The six police and highway patrol cruisers took off after her, and the chase
was on. Devon, not to be outdone, activated his hovercar engine, and took off
after Cassidy. With the push of a button, Devon rolled down his window,
matched the speed and altitude of Cassidy's car, then jumped out the window
into the back seat of her car. He could see three police hovercars cruising
nearby, and as he tried to make the jump into the front seat, Cassidy fired
off her neutrino dissimilator at Devon, missed, and hit a police cruiser
hovering behind Devon. Before she could fire again, Devon grabbed the portable
shrink-ray device from Cassidy, and put the car on autopilot.

Cassidy tried to wrestle with him, but he was stronger, With a pair of
handcuffs, he cuffed her successfully, then programmed her car to go into a
landing protocol after thirty seconds. When he had programmed the navigation
computer, he jumped back through the window of his own vehicle, and took it
off autopilot. He landed the car when Cassidy's car landed, and pulled up
beside her as her car stopped. Instantly, seven police cruisers landed to
surround her. (One of them had come to the scene to assist at the last
minute.)

Devon took the plastic cube out of the duffel bag, and released Jake and the
others. With his neutrino transfer device Sloane had armed him with, he
re-enlarged all of the miniaturized people. Cassidy was very angry,
threatening that they would all lose their jobs because her father was very
powerful and that he also had connections in the underworld.

Six months later, Jake and Devon were sitting together in court, testifying
against Cassidy. As they sat there in the audience chamber, Jake was having
his doubts.

"I just feel sorry for her, that's all. I don't think she should have to do
prison time over this."

"Jake," Devon advised, "you weren't two-hundred feet in the air going a
hundred miles an hour trying to wrestle a neutrino dissimilator out of her
hand. If you feel sorry for her, just look at it this way: our job is to
arrest them. After that, whatever the judicial system sees fit, isn't our
concern."

THE END