Read Online Case File 13 #3 by J. Scott Savage - Free Book Online Page A

Angelo. Angelo stared at Carter. Carter stared down at the pack. Slowly he unzipped the back pocket and a tiny head popped out. It rubbed its glasses, looked owlishly at the boys, and said in an all-too-familiar voice, “It’s entirely possible that they can’t survive long away from where they were originally grown.”
    It was a little Angelo.
    Angelo blinked at the miniature version of himself. The little Angelo blinked back at him. “It’s . . . it’s me.”
    Nick couldn’t help laughing. “It looks exactly like you. It even has a tiny monster notebook.”
    Carter gulped. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys. It keeps changing. First it was me. Then it was Angelo. Then—”
    â€œIt looks exactly like you,” the tiny Angelo said. Except it wasn’t Angelo anymore. So quickly Nick hadn’t seen it happen, the homunculus had turned into a copy of him.
    The mini Nick put its hands on its hips, frowned, and growled, “Where did you think you were going to keep it, a hamster cage?”
    He gawked at the little him. “That doesn’t sound like me.”
    â€œIt really does,” Angelo said. “It looks like you too. All the way to the hair sticking up in the back.”
    â€œThat doesn’t sound like me,” the homunculus said in Nick’s voice. Instantly it changed back to Angelo. “It really does,” it said in Angelo’s voice. “It looks like you too.”
    Angelo flipped open his notebook. “When did this start?”
    â€œLast night. About an hour after I got home.” Carter patted the homunculus’s head. “I was sitting in my room, trying to figure out what to do, when Carter Junior changed into Angelo. At first it was kind of funny. He sounded just like you. ‘Technically, the statistics point to a probability of—’”
    â€œTechnically, the statistics point to a probability of,” the homunculus said, waving its monster notebook theatrically in a perfect imitation of Angelo lecturing.
    Carter looked down at it, his face a mask of worry and guilt. “Do you think I did something to him? He’s still eating and sleeping. But the changes have been coming faster and faster.”
    Angelo’s brow wrinkled in concentration. “It’s possible this is normal behavior. Or even a stage of development. But there’s no way of knowing. We’ve got to return it to its home as soon as possible.”
    Nick glanced at his watch. “Not to break up the party, guys, but if we don’t book it now we’re gonna be tardy.”
    â€œBook it,” the homunculus said in Nick’s voice. “Do you think I did something?” it said, changing into Carter.
    Angelo sighed. “We can’t take it to school like that.”
    â€œI can keep him quiet,” Carter said. “He really likes black licorice and playing with my Nintendo DS. If I turn the sound off and sneak him food, no one will even know he’s there.”
    Nick and Angelo shared a concerned look.
    â€œI can’t leave him home,” Carter said. “And if I miss one more day of school before the end of the semester, I’ll get suspended.”
    There didn’t appear to be much choice. “All right,” Nick said. “We’ll take him to school. But you have to make sure nobody sees him.”
    Running the whole way, they managed to get to class just before the bell rang. As they came through the door, Angie Hollingsworth and her friends Dana and Tiffany were waiting. The girls considered themselves at least as knowledgeable about monsters as Nick, Angelo, and Carter. The two groups had been archenemies until recently, when they’d had to work together to save another student from an evil mad scientist. Now there was a kind of truce that no one seemed completely comfortable with.
    â€œLook who’s here,” Angie said with a