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I went back to my office and had Trick inform me of any updates. She showed me satellite pictures of the swamp. Some of the pictures had been enlarged.

“What am I looking at?” I asked her, irritably.

“Yeah, I’m sorry the pictures aren’t that clear. We had to zoom in quite a lot,” she apologized. “You see those black dots?” she pointed at a few on the picture. “Those appear to be newly spawned frogs. But bigger, much bigger.”

She pointed at other flecks. “They seem to change into men and disappear into the lake. There are thousands of them.”

“Frog men?”

“Something like that,” she nodded.

“And the lake is full of them?” I could see why she was worried.

“Can’t we just nuke the lake?”

She shook her head. “The water belongs to the Hattaris, they use it for fishing as well as irrigation and it is an important part of the landscape. We need to be careful or we stand to damage our relationship with them permanently.”

This was not good news.

I was heading out to a War Council meeting when I suddenly felt an agonizing sensation, like someone was twisting something in my non-existent gut.

Ruby.

She was in trouble.

I could feel it, she was being threatened and was in serious danger.

I dropped everything and rushed outside, channeling all my energy in getting to her as quickly as possible. I couldn’t delay a second. Time was important here, if I risked even one conversation, I might be too late.

The intensity of her emotions were like a magnet, pulling me towards her. I could feel her pain and her fear. It directed me to the town, to her house and then down the street until I located her in a building and saw the beast coming towards her. I was on top of him in a second and I did not let up until I knew he was dead.

When I looked up, I saw her sitting on the floor, tears in her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded. “That… was Danny.”

She got up and came down the stairs, looking at the pitiful remains on the floor.

“I had this, you know.” Her voice was small but firm.

“You did? Didn’t feel that way,” I said.

It was a mistake because her eyes flashed in anger.

“I had this!” she said and showed me a pair of decorative scissors.

“What were you going to do with that?” I asked with a laugh. “Cut a little thread?”

“No! I was going to plunge it in his eye!”

“You know how to do that?” I asked, with a bit of respect.

“Of course, it won’t be the first time I did it either!” she snapped at me.

I was surprised at her reaction, I had expected a word of thanks at the very least. A steamy kiss was really what I was hoping for but that was clearly the last thing on her mind.

She pushed past me down the stairs. “You’ll have to get out of here before his buddies find you.”