MAU: The Ultimate Costume, part 50
added by ElrodW on 09/18/2016 14:14
Holly was just about to sit down with the paper when the doorbell rang. She glanced at her seat, then she dropped the paper and walked to the door. She glanced through the spyhole, then she opened the door.
"Ma'am?" a dark-suited older man said firmly, "Are you Holly Daniels?"
Holly nodded slowly. She saw another man, similarly attired, standing behind his partner.
"Who are you?"
The man held up an ID card. "We're with the government, ma'am."
Holly looked at the card. It all _looked_ official.
"May we come in?"
"What's this about?" Holly asked cautiously.
"We're investigating some strange goings on associated with a friend of yours," the man answered. "May we come in?"
Holly nodded, then she undid the safety lock and opened the door. The two men came in.
"Sit down. Please," Holly offered as she shut the door. She sat down in Jeff's chair opposite the agents.
"Is your husband home?" the older agent asked.
Holly nodded.
"Jeff?" she called. "Some government men want to talk to us."
Jeff glanced into the room, then he glided in and sat down in a vacant chair. "Who are they?"
"We're with the government," the older man said simply.
The younger agent, set a manila folder on his lap and opened it. He extracted a picture and passed it to Holly, who glanced at it and passed it to Jeff. "You know him?"
Jeff and Holly nodded.
"That's Fred. Fred Richards," Jeff answered. "We've been friends since school."
The agent handed Holly another picture. Her mouth dropped when she saw it. Jeff reached over and took the picture. His eyes widened in surprise.
"And that?"
Holly glanced at the picture once more.
"That's Fred, too," she said softly.
"What's this about?" Jeff asked.
MAU: The Ultimate Costume, part 51
added by ElrodW on 09/18/2016 14:22
The agents ignored him. The younger man retrieved a third photo and passed it to Holly.
"I presume you've seen this?"
It was a picture of the strange box Fred had let them use. Holly sat in stunned silence, but Jeff nodded mutely.
"Is this some kind of top secret thing?" Holly asked fearfully as she looked up from the picture.
The agents exchanged a quick glance.
"You two were changed by the box, correct?"
Jeff nodded slowly. "What's this about? Is this some kind of Z-files thing? What's going on?"
The older agent continued. "We're investigating this device and the changes it makes to people."
The younger man nodded. "Since you two were changed by the device, we're interested in finding out what you observed while using it and if there were any ... aftereffects."
"Is this ... some kind of alien thing?" Holly asked cautiously.
The older agent nodded. "Yes, ma'am, we believe it is."
Jeff grinned.
"I _knew_ it!" he said softly but insistently. "I _knew_ it was some kind of alien device!"
"Last Halloween, you two used the device to make yourselves into two independent heads on a single body, correct?"
Jeff frowned.
"Yes," he said softly. "What does that have to do...?"
"And you restored yourselves without any side effects?"
Jeff glanced at Holly and saw the uncertainty on her face.
"Yes," he answered slowly.
"We'd like you to describe your experience with the device. How you operated it. Any constraints you observed. How you were able to control one body with two independent minds. What you observed when it ceased functioning. Anything you remember."
Jeff glanced at Holly. He had the uneasy feeling that these guys knew a lot more about the device than they were letting on.
MAU: The Ultimate Costume, part 52
added by ElrodW on 09/18/2016 14:26
"You're sure you don't want our doctors to examine you?" the younger agent asked, puzzled. "To make sure there weren't any ... side effects?"
Jeff glanced at Holly, then he shook his head.
"No thanks," he said with certainty. "We're okay."
"If you think of anything else you'd like to add, you have our numbers."
The older agent stood and walked to the door, with his junior partner following him.
"But..." Holly seemed puzzled.
The younger agent stopped. "Yes?"
He saw her bewilderment.
"You're wondering if we'll do some kind of Men-In-White thing to make you forget, or something like that?"
Holly glanced at Jeff, then she nodded. "Yeah, something like that."
The older agent shook his head.
"I _hate_ that movie," he spat.
"No, ma'am. We don't operate like that."
"Oh." Holly watched them walk down the steps as she shut the door.
Jeff came up behind her and put his arms around her.
"How many people _did_ Fred change?" he asked softly. "And how do these guys know about everything that happened?"
Holly shook her head.
"I don't know." She glanced at Jeff. "You didn't tell them about ..."
Jeff shook his head. "Neither did you."
Holly smiled. "I didn't think they needed to know."
She reached up and gave her husband a kiss.