Vey Returns from the Alley

    Vey burst through the door to her shack and slammed the door behind her. Panting, she peered out the cracked open window to check if anyone was following her.

    "What happened?" Vey jumped at Juniper's question.

    "Oh jeez! You scared me."

    "Did you forget I was here? Why are you so out of breath?"

    "Right! Check this out!" Vey handed Juniper the mesh. "Think we can make use of it?"

    "Whoa. I'll have to run some diagnostics on it, but this doesn't look like something you picked up at the mart on the way home. . ."

    "Not quite. . . I spied some weird activity down one of the alleys, and snatched this during a lull, though I think they know it's missing."

    "They?"

    "I saw two men experimenting with another one of these things, and the technology looks pretty cool.  It seems to exploit different substances' inherent properties to enhance the user in various ways."

    ". . . Yeah, I'm gonna need to do some tests. You might have something really valuable here. But first, what if they did follow you?"

    Vey thought for a moment. "Got that mouce working yet?"

    Juniper shook his head and smiled, knowing exactly what she was thinking, then sighed "just about."