Continued from previous message

                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"

    "The crowds are getting smaller by the day." The sleazy-looking midget
told Hirimi as he picked apart a dead bird.  "They've seen the rat all week.
They want something different now.  Kill the thing and sell that arm."

    "Patience, Nagaka."  Hirimi told the gnarled and drooling creature at
his side.  "We will sell it when the time is right."
    "Mr.  Tokito won't wait forever."  Nagaka pointed out.  "We should do it
now I tell you."
    Hirimi struck Nagaka hard enough to knock him to the floor.  "Unless you
want to join those other freaks, you will shut up and do as you're told."
    Nagaka rubbed his bloody lip with a twisted forearm then stalked out of
the room, his eyes filled with bitter hatred.

    A cop.
    The woman also recognized the uniform, even if it wasn't exactly the
same as her husband's.  She fingered the device her son had handed over to
her and wondered what it was.  As she was examining it, she inadvertently
pressed one of the buttons.

                    * * * * *

    The Galaxy Police Commander surveyed the damage done to his beloved
headquarters.  His proud leonine features were a mask of deep concern.  This
was going to take a lot of serious repairwork.  Gritting his teeth and
wishing the coffee maker wasn't currently imbedded in several different
walls, he started fixing the radio.  He would've had someone else do it,
but everyone else was gone, either killed or scattered through time.  He
patched a wire and was surprised when he got a signal.

    Every member of the Galaxy Police has a unique emergency signal which
when activated remains constant even if a criminal grabs it and presses the
button, believing they've shut it off.  The Commander recognized the one he
was hearing as the one belonging to Operative Naoki.  Using his own wrist
communicator, he tracked down Naoki's signal.
    "1970?!"  He stumbled back in shock and hit his head on a fallen light
fixture.  "Ow!" he roared.  He shook his head, and tried to work out how
to get back to 1970 and rescue Naoki.

                    * * * * *

    The boy returned home from school and found his mother gripping the
crowbar he'd tried to use.
    "Mom?" He asked.
    "You stay here," She told him.  "If things get out of hand, I don't
want you getting hurt."
    "You're going to save him, aren't you?" the boy asked.
    "When your father died," she explained, "I couldn't save him because I
couldn't be there for him.  That's why I quit being a nure.  But now I can
be where I'm needed and I *will* be."
    She put on her coat, her mind was made up, and, hiding the crowbar in
an inner pocket, made her way toward the freak show.

                            -page 6-
                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"

    She was so focused on her plans that she didn't see her son following
her.

                    * * * * *

    "Would you, please, listen to me, Washuu?!"  The Galaxy Police Commander
was getting very frustrated.  "One of my best men is trapped back in 1970 and
I want to get him home."
    Washuu picked at his fur, annoyingly, tried to examine his teeth and
looked in his right ear.
    "That's a nasty case of earmites you've got there," she teased, "and you
really ought to invest in a flea collar."
    "I DON'T HAVE FLEAS!!!" The Commander roared at her.  "Now, listen to me,
Operative Naoki is one of the finest in the Galax..." He grabbed the flea
comb away from Washuu and examined the small white flakes.  "I have dandruff,
okay?"   He growled.  "Now LISTEN!"
    "Not until you call me 'Little Washuu'."
    The Commander sighed.  "Little Washuu, my best Operative is trapped back
in 1970 thanks to Kain and I want to bring him home.  There must be some
way you can help?"
    "As a matter of fact," Washuu replied, "there is."

                    * * * * *

    "I told you to stay home."  The boy's mother told him.
    "I wanted to come in case he died."  The boy told her.
    The woman looked down at her son.  When his father had been killed, he
hadn't had the chance to say goodbye.  If he could tell his alien cop goodbye
before it died, if that was the creature's fate, then it might alleviate the
pain he'd held inside him for so long.
    "I understand."  She told him.
    The boy squeezed under the gate like he had before and unlocked it for
his mother.  The two of them made their way to the Operative's cage.

                    * * * * *

    The Commander disguised himself as a wise old Japanese man and hobbled
down the road, trying to find his lost Operative.  Why wasn't he answering
the Commander's signal.  He arrived at the boy's house and when no one
answered he kicked the door open and went inside, thinking that Naoki was
being held prisoner there, strange as that seemed.  He saw the signal lying
on top of an advertisement for "Hirimi's Freak Show".  Reading the ad, he
was utterly horrified.  His best operative was being treated like a common
animal!  *That* had to stop!  He grabbed the advertisement and made his
way to the freak show.

                    * * * * *

    The cage was empty, the floor splattered with blood.  They had killed
him already.  The boy balled his fists in anger at both Hirimi and himself.
    His mother wasn't so ready to give up.  "They might have moved him."
She suggested.  "Let's go see if we can find him before we give up, okay?"
    The boy nodded and followed her.

                        -page 7-

                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"

    The Commander dug his claws into the gate and scaled it as easily as a
housecat scales drapes.  Reaching the top, he leaped down and made his way
to the Operative's cage, moving with the stealth of a cat and the cunning
of a well-trained member of the Galaxy Police.

                    * * * * *

    "What the hell were you *thinking*?!" Hirimi screamed at Nagaka as he
hurled the deformed midget across the room.  He looked over at the doctor
who was huddled over the Operative who was lying there, at death's door.
"We're still making money on this one!"
    "Not enough to keep him." Nagaka told him.
    "He won't live through the night." The doctor told them.  "The internal
injuries are too severe and I don't know enough about his anatomy to even
begin to try to heal him."

    The woman listened to their words with a sinking heart while her son
stood near with anger etched into his bleach-white knuckles.  If there were
only some way she could get get to the creature, then she...  she...  what
could she do?

Continued to next message

 * SLMR 2.1a * "I will pay you back!!"  ...Lady Achika to Kain