Chapter 6
The next day, sanctuary laboratory, London
Declan and Henry came back empty.
"Where's the Lilliputian?"
Will couldn't repress his own smirk; he lifted his eyes from the microscope's lens and roughly rubbed his temple in order to chase the growing roots of a nasty migraine away. Declan took his turn in front of the instrument and Will applied himself to find Magnus, wherever she was hidden again. On his way, he randomly stopped in the kitchen, grabbed a piece of bread, and was about to leave when he saw her there, sitting on a shelf, nibbling at something undefined. He could see her bare foot escaping from the lacy patterns of a long purple dress and lightly swaying in the void.
"You know, while observing the genetic structure of the mushrooms, I noticed it was the very same than the ordinary amanitas except for one chromosome, which is rather strange. You could expect the mutation to mingle with several chromosomes as in any natural evolution, but instead in this case, the shrinking gene seems independent as if one's had duplicated a chromosome to sustain it… She said.
"You think it's genetic engineering ?"
"That's a possibility."
" Though, correct me if I'm wrong but back in Dogson's time, we didn't know about DNA manipulations yet."
"No, WE didn't but…"
"Praxis!"
"Exactly!"
"Maybe we could try and contact Rana as you did for me."
"She has her hands tied Will, I won't take the risk to bring suspicion of the senate and for now, neither Thomas nor I are in imminent danger. So let's keep Praxis as a last resort, shall we? What about the stone? Any news from Henry?"
« He spent the last hour doing weird tests and conjugating all the variations of « cool », that's all I know. How did you climb up here?"
Magnus's only answer was to raise her shoulders and Will started to tell himself there was something different in her gesture since she was smaller, something wilder and somehow childish.
"Could you bring me to the library, there must be something about this stone, at least a reference somewhere?"
She made him go through agonizing hours: bringing some books then putting them away, fighting against sleep and turning the pages for her, facing the temptation to blindly stare at her, venturing some theories, then refuting them all, drinking tea, holding back his yawns… He refused to acknowledge it to himself, but at this point, he was envying Henry and Declan: first because they were both asleep for three hours and secondly because they were free of those twisted masochistic feelings towards her. One would think his only real and proper ability was to watch her think, work and walk around in that fiendishly enthralling doll-dress.
"Maybe we're looking at the wrong place" He finally sighed.
She slowly looked up as to encourage him to persevere but his doughy eyes came to her notice and she sent him to bed. He casted a last glance at the scene before leaving and smiled. Lounging on the desk, Titus pricked up his excited ears each time she would struggle to turn a page.
7.30 am, Sanctuary kitchen
The next morning, when Will opened the kitchen door, Helen and Henry were already lost in what seemed an enthusiastic discussion.
"So, if my intuition proves right, we're soon going to get our answer!"
« Which intuition? » Will asked out of the blue.
"Well, first, we find hollow earth and then, three months later, my father's former sanctuary came in contact with a Praxian amanita that had mysteriously disappeared since Charles Dogson's death. Thomas and I get shrunken and, as if by coincidence, at this exact moment, I find the miraculous stone my father had let me. What if everything has a link? What if the doll-house had been a sort of clue leading to the stone?"
"You mean you think the whole scenario is another frame-up of your father? Magnus, isn't it a little…You're speculating here... »
« Well, perharps, but you are the one who first gave me the idea last night."
5.20 pm, Laboratory
Henry was quite litterally pulling his hair out while studying the stone and he sometimes gave a desperate look at the Minimoys version of his doc who was busy dissecting shrooms when Will and Declan came back from another vain rescue mission, their shape a fine dark brown in the springtime twilight.
"Thomas managed to leave the city. We roamed every miles possible so, either he's not in London anymore, or the detector isn't working." Will said, pointing an accusing finger at Henry. Declan let his fist hit the table in defeat.
« No way ! It works like a charm! » Henry retorted, tearing the device from Will's hand and placing it above Helen's head. She offered him an assassin look when the red light switched on and the little "bip" came out of it. He muttered what sound like an apology and aimed a challenging glance at Will. Everyone seemed in the verge of losing his patience and, as minutes went on, Will started to fear a serious outburst. Strangely enough, Magnus, who was tough the first one concerned, was maintaining an expression of perfect serenity rather similar to mischievous nonchalance.
« You don't give a damn, don't you ? You found that stone and since that, nothing else seemed worthy of interess to you?" Will bitterly asked.
Helen rose an outraged eyebrow and crossed her arms high on her chest.
« Doctor Zimmerman," she started –and at that minute, Will already regretted his words- "I suggest you to leave this room if you're not able to keep your sang-froid!"
« Magnus, it's been a week now since you're… small and we've just spent another day searching for Thomas, so you'll excuse me if, unlike you, I seem to take the situation to heart! »
"The effects are not permanent Will" Henry calmly said.
"What?"
« No they aren't ! She confirmed. Maybe you didn't progress this afternoon, Will, but we did and you should consider listening to us before unleashing your bile." She sighed and then continued: "The one who conceived this mutation designed it for humans specifically, it doesn't affect other species and he probably even did it for himself. Each time I observe the amanita I discover some new elements which assure the safety of the transformation. It's benign Will, as if every measure, every precaution had been taken to avoid risks. The only remaining danger was that the smaller a creature is, the faster its heart beats and the shorter its lifetime becomes, in other words, a man of this size would only survive two or three dozen years maximum, and besides, who would want to be permanently shrunken? There must be some kind of inner protocol that restores the normal size after some time has passed…"
« Question is : How long ? »
« No, Will, the real question is : why would someone want to be smaller in the first place, what for? And the answer is in that stone. Show them, Henry."
Henry took the stone and threw it on the table where it started to spin like a top. It sparkled wildly and headed towards Helen who was walking slowly. It followed her until she stopped and began to draw circles around her.
« Wow, awesome ! »