Curiousity killed the cat

"Status report, everything looks quiet...for now."

Crouching behind a back alley dumpster wasn't the most sanitary of hiding places, but it did give the best cover. Light blue eyes barely moved from the back door she was watching.

A few months ago when the Health and Growth Center had opened everyone in the city was really excited. They had chosen to open it in one of the poorer sections of town and had offered a large discount for the people in the area. Since many of them weren't covered with insurance this was a blessing to the poor families. They would have the assurance that they would be take care of, even if they couldn't pay now or soon they wouldn't be turned away. The mayor had made a big show of his support and very generous donations were pouring in from the rich across the state.

But not everyone was happy about the new medical center. Alice Giles, self styled investigator. At first she was just curious about how they were getting the funding for the work they did. Even with the donations they had to have spent it all already. It was a nice thought to make healthcare really cheap, but in the end you stilled needed the money to pay for the equipment and the dctors. So where were they getting it? But as she started doing a little digging she found something interesting. The center had opened it's doors for any homeless man or woman to receive care free of charge. That would have been great except for the fact that once they went into the center, they never went out.

Which brings us to why she was behind a nasty dumpster watching a door at nine o clock at night.

On the other hand, Thomas, ordinary student, decent musician, and friend of Alice's, was wondering what the hell he was doing here. He wasn't exactly the most politically motivated person, and he'd rather be back in his dorm studying than sitting in a dumpster in one of the rougher sides of town, watching a medical facility that probably had nothing wrong with it.

He supposed, in the end, he was here to make sure Alice didn't get in over her head. She had dragged him along on this, however unwillingly, but he'd never leave her out to dry.

"I know," he replied wearily, a bit tired due to the time. "I'm right next to you." he was less concerned on watching the place, and more concerned with the people going past, making sure none of them noticed the pair in the alley, though it was doubtful they would. "I still can't believe I let you drag me out here."

It wasn't the first time she'd dragged him out on a spying trip like this. To be fair it was probably due to him that she didn't get into trouble for it as often as she should have. Like in tenth grade when she'd wanted to expose the principals drug cartel in her green house. After breaking in and finding the old woman's prize tomatoes they would have been caught if he hadn't been keeping an eye out and heard her calling the cops.

Alice gave him a light punch in the shoulder, "Come on, where's your sense of adventure? Besides!" she carefully zoomed in on the door with her camera. "Are you even the least bit curious about what happened to Crazy Tom?" For as long as anyone could remember Crazy Tom had sat in the park near campus, playing the ukulele for cash and feeding pigeons. But a week ago he'd just up and vanished. "I know he must have come here. They probably have him inside, doing all sorts of weird experiments to him! Now hush and keep your eyes open!"

The time ticked by as they watched and soon they'd been there for another hour. By now even Alice was starting to think about heading home. With a sigh she put down the camera and started packing up her things. "Looks like we'll just have to try another night..." She switched off her camera and was about to stand up when a loud bang reverberated through the alley way. The door burst open and something that looked like a man covered from head to toe in a rug ran out screaming, "Nooo! Don't take me back!" He was being chased by two big guys in lab coats who soon tackled him to the ground down the alley from them. Alice quickly turned the camera back on and stood up snapping pictures as fast as she could. The two men saw her then, "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"Uh, oh...C'mon Tom time to bail!" She jumped out of the garbage and took off down the alleyway towards the street.

Thomas took the punch on the shoulder good naturedly. "My sense of adventure is a bit more tame. Mountain climbing, white water rafting, bear wrestling. Stuff where I can't get in a lot of trouble if caught." It wasn't that he didn't like adventure. He just preferred it to not be aimed against authority. He was a law abiding person, except when Alice dragged him into it. As long as they didn't bother him, he'd leave them alone.

"And I bet it's just like I said, either he left, or the city finally got around to actually enforcing those vagrancy laws they have."

He sat on the watch with Alice as the time passed. getting bored, he began imagining fun scenario's in his head, but kept an alert eye on their surroundings. It was pretty boring, and he was secretly relieved when Alice finally gave up and decided to head back. He stood up, stretching his tired muscles, but his attention was attracted as a door near the end of the alley slammed open, revealing a strange man chased by some doctors. Alice quickly started taking pictures, while Thomas braced for trouble, and he was not disappointed.

It was with almost a sigh that he found himself having to run away from trouble yet again. Hopping out of the trash can, he took off, following after Alice. If it came to it, he'd rather take the fall himself than her.

Alice couldn't believe how lucky they were. After all that waiting and sneaking and spying she finally had something! She tucked the camera safely in her coat as she ran towards the open street. It wouldn't do to come so far only to lose the evidence. But seriously what was with that weird guy they were chasing?

As they were about to hit the street something shot past her face and embedded in the wall next to her. She paused for half a second as she looked over to see what it was. "A tranq dart?! Are you serious!?" She looked behind to see that more people had come out of the building and were chasing them down. I mean yeah they'd been technically spying on private property but really, a tranquilizer? The men weren't too far behind them, but they only needed to go a bit further to get to the car they'd parked outside of the bakery next door. "Start the car!" she yelled to Thomas as she fished her pepper spray out of her pocket. Stopping at the end of the alley she turned on the spot and let loose a cloud of pepper spray at the group, trying to make sure the stream hit the ones in front.

Luckily her aim was right on and soon they started dropping, yelling and grabbing their eyes. "Ha! Take that you fiends!" It gave them the few seconds they needed to get ahead of their pursuers and jump in the car. "Go, go , go!"

Thomas pelted down the alleyway after her, instinctively ducking as the tranquilizer dart flew past. "Not good not good not good,' he muttered to himself, crouching to show a smaller profile as he ran past Alice, who was fishing something from her bag. He could hear people chasing them, but he wasn't about to look back. That was more because he didn't want them getting a good look at his face than fear. At least, that was what he told himself.

While Alice stopped to confront their pursuers, Thomas hopped in the drivers seat, fishing out the keys before starting the engine. He waited until she hopped in before speeding off, taking it fast for a few streets before slowing down to blend into normal traffic. He also started to breathe slower as he calmed down. "Well, that was more excitement than I expected in my night," he commented. Glancing over, he got a concerned look. "Oh, please tell me we aren't going back there," he pleaded. there was something up there, and he was pretty sure he'd rather not be involved in it.

As he peeled out she was practically bouncing in her seat and it was only when she whacked her shoulder on the window that she remembered to buckle up. "I can't believe it! We did it! We got actual photographic evidence that something's going on at that place!" She let out a whoop and got her camera out of her jacket to look through the pictures. "Oh man! This is so great! I need to get these developed and sent over to the press!"

Alice shoved her finger in his face with a grin, "Darn straight we're going back! This proves it!" She shook the camera in his face. "I mean you saw that guy right? He obviously didn't want to stay there. And what was up with his face? He looked like a wookie!" There was a gleam in her eye as she tapped her chin, "You know, I bet that they're kidnapping those hobos and doing unspeakably horrible things to them. We've gotta go back!"

Thomas was a bit overawed by Alice's exuberant excitement. She got like this a lot, which wasn't bad, but she usually ended up dominating his own personality somewhat. This was something else that usually ended up getting them in trouble, and he got the feeling that he should stop it this time. They were getting in over their heads in this, and he preferred to get out while they were ahead.

"It's a bad ideas," he warned. "They'll be more alert this time. It won't be so easy again. You've got your photo evidence, let's not take unnecessary risks" HE fell silent until they arrived back at their dorm, pulling into the parking lot and heading inside to get to work on school stuff.

Back in the alleyway the patient had been taken back inside and they were cleaning up any evidence. That was when they found it. A small plastic library card with a picture and the name Alice Giles on it.

Alice was focused looking over the pictures, and was more or less lost in her own world of excitement to the point that she didn't notice how uneasy her friend was. She couldn't wait to get back to her room and pull the pictures up on the computer to inspect them further. She didn't know the meaning of quitting. It was a good trait to have, however it also meant that she didn't know how to cut loses and move on.

"But-" she began, but seeing the stubborn set of his face and his silence she sighed. He didn't usually object so strongly. "Okay Thomas...I promise I won't go spying on them again." He was right, she had her evidence and with this she could come out to the press and start some curiosity. When they got back to the dorms she gave him a quick one armed hug, "Thanks for coming with, I owe you one!"

She split then to the girls dorms and was soon locked in uploading the pictures. She got to work cropping them and making them more clear spending her time to get it right. As the night wore on she soon started to notice something. "No way..." she zoomed in again on the hairy guys hand until she was sure. She glanced at the clock, it was three in the morning. Alice debated for a moment if she should call now and wake him up or wait. But in the end she couldn't wait. "C'mon Tom....pick up..."

While she waited she saved her work and emailed him a zoomed in shot of the hand. Under all the hair could be seen part of a dragon tattoo. She typed in, 'Remember Crazy Tom? Are you sure now they enforced the vagrancy laws?'

Thomas had departed, heading back to his dorm, where he sat himself down in front of a computer and finished up on his school work. He then played about an hour of minecraft while checking his various websites That he frequented. After the excitement of earlier, he needed to relax. Of course, he didn't mention it to anyone online, since he preferred for nobody else to know. Around midnight, he got his night clothes on and got in bed to sleep.

Sadly, he was rudely awoken three hours later by his cell phone going off. Glancing over, he grumbled at what time it was, getting up and rubbing his eyes before picking up his phone and stepping into the hallway to not disturb his roommate further. He sighed to see that it was Alice. Geez, thi9s had better be important, considering the time.

"Yes? Alice, you realize what time it is, don't you? It couldn't wait until later?"

He couldn't see the email, since his phone was an old flip phone that doesn't do that stuff. It wasn't that he didn't like technology, he just didn't think he needed it.