Page 21 of My Tiny Giant
One of the yirzi I’d shot crashed to the floor nearby, his gun sliding my way. I could really use a second gun right now.
I glanced at Agan squeezed in my left hand. The risk of me losing him or inadvertently hurting him if I set him down was real. I briefly considered stuffing him in one of the numerous utility pockets of my bodysuit. However, the material was designed to envelope the contents of the pockets, holding them tight. It hadn’t been made to carry live beings. I was afraid it would suffocate Agan. I also risked crushing him to death inside a pocket if I fell or rolled on the ground.
Another blast exploded, hitting the glass above my head.
“That’s it, dammit!” I yanked the zipper of my bodysuit down, shoving Agan into my bra between my breasts, then quickly ducked to pick up the second gun.
“Lieutenant Nowak!” Agan bellowed indignantly.
“Hush.” I blasted my way out of the glass trap, facing the remaining yirzi in the room. “And sit tight.”
Having two guns, I was twice as efficient handling my attackers as they came.
“On your right,” Agan’s voice reached me again. He sounded considerably more collected this time.
I turned right, spotting a yirzi hiding behind a crate by the glass wall, his gun aimed at me. I shot, dropping him to the ground.
“Thanks.” I glanced down. Nested in my cleavage, Agan held onto the open zipper on each side of my neckline, gazing out like a captain of a ship on the lookout.
“There! Behind the cage.” He gestured to the left, and I ducked behind a tall box nearby as another laser blast flashed by me. It came from the gun of the yirzi that Agan had warned me about.
It proved handy having another pair of eyes watching out for me, even if those were a pair of very tiny eyes.
The thought brought up an out-of-place giggle.
“Emma!” Agan’s voice snapped me out of my ill-timed merry mood. “Run!”
The entrance to the large room was clear for the time being, and I sprinted for it. Not knowing the layout of this building, I halted in the corridor behind it, my back pressed to the wall. “Now where?”
His face raised, Agan drew in some air through his nose.
“That way.” He pointed left, and I took off in that direction.
“Are you sure?” I asked, not slowing down my pace.
“The smell of the jungle is coming from there,” he explained.
My running sent him into a bounce, and he tightly gripped the unzipped sides of my bodysuit.
The corridor ended abruptly. Worn cobblestones replaced the white-tiled floor under my feet.
“What is this place?” I ran along the walkway, between the weathered stone walls and under the caved-in ceiling.
The vivid foliage of the jungle swayed in the wind at the end of the walkway, and I rushed right into it.
Once out of the building, I turned around, taking in the crumbling walls of some ancient ruins.
“This doesn’t look like a lab. So weird.”
“Not weird,” Agan said. “There are hundreds of old city ruins in this part of the jungle. The yirzi and the Voranian must use them as camouflage. Clever, actually—no one would be looking for a modern lab in here.” He shifted, making himself comfortable between my breasts. “Keep running, Emma,” he urged. “We’re not far enough yet to stop.”
“Where to, though?” I spun around, trying and failing to orientate myself. This part of the jungle looked entirely unfamiliar.
“Can you circle around this building?” Reaching down, Agan produced his map out of his boot. It had shrunk just the way he had. “Stay out of sight but close enough to the ruins for me to identify them on the map.
I did as he said, hiding behind the tree trunks and peeking out only long enough for Agan to take another visual of the building.
“This one,” he finally said confidently, pointing at some place on the map.