Case, The

«13»

By Ender

Most of this happens in Larry’s head as he works out a problem. That part is written as a “stream of consciousness,” a log of ideas as they pass through Larry’s brain and fight for attention… at least this is what it sounds like in my head went I’m stressed and need to solve a problem.

Larry stopped a couple blocks from his house. From the cover of a parked delivery truck Larry scoped out his situation. There was an unmarked police car on one side of his house and a black SUV of what appear to be the same model and year as the one that had chased him last night but without the roof lights and Chem Tech logo, on the other. “I’m sure there were only two guys in the police car and there were at least two in the SUV…” Larry considered his options… “There has to be a way to take out the Chem Tech goons…but what if there are more than the two I can see… would the police side with me or the goons… if I use the green vial I have could I handle them all… What am I thinking?? Jason took out a pack of them but that was by surprise… and with at least 3 green and 2 reds in him…they’re looking for me… I’ve had the one green and the red from this morning must be just about gone by now… for me to attack them is insane… maybe I could leverage my one green some how… Instead of letting the vapor disperse I could collect it and be able to breathe the gas several times… I ought to get at least couple times the boost that way maybe more… but the green won’t just make me stronger, I’ll get bigger and slower… I need to get in the house to get my cell phone so I can call Jason and speed would be better for that than brute force… If I could only remember Jason’s number I wouldn’t need the damn phone… If the greens could make Jason brilliant why can’t I remember the stupid number??? And I started a lot smarter… but he said something about “enhance and repair neural pathways…” Maybe… it works on the most disrupted paths first… I should be looking for a hole to hide in but I want to act like Captain America…” Larry grinned. “It gave Jason a brain and we both got backbones… Cool… Jason must have figured that this drive was part of being smarter… Maybe a couple of hits on the greens will get me the phone number… And if not I pretend to be the Hulk and go for the phone… I need to talk to Jason… so once I lose this…” Larry reaches under his shirt and pulls the transmitter from his chest a hides it behind the bumper of the delivery truck. And Larry quickly went to try his re-breather idea. Larry decided simpler was better so he found a grocery store and bought the largest container of water he could find that had a flexible container. And headed for an out of the way corner of the park that happened to have a payphone. As Larry walked he opened the water jug and started to drink it. After a couple of swallows, he decided it tasted pretty good and it was cheap, he would cut back on his Diet Dr. Pepper habit for this.

Finishing the jug Larry tried to suck the air out of the jug and blow it back. “Perfect,” he thought and he pulled the green vial from is pocket, broke the seal and dropped it in the jug. While green vapor accumulated in the jug Larry brought the jug to his mouth and started to breathe. Larry fought off the gagging and chocking but after almost two minutes Larry couldn’t suppress his need to cough longer and he found himself on his hands and knees gasping for air. As the cough ended Larry felt his body start to tingle and his shirt pull tight across his shoulders. ________________________________

Buzz, Buzz, click, “Hello,” “Jason?” “Larry? What,” “Not on an Open Line. I’m at the payphone at the back of the park, I need big clothes and a couple of yellows fast.” “Taller? Why.” “You’ll understand when I see you. Get over here now!” click… ________________________________

“Damn, I lost him, Doug.” “How could you lose him?” “I don’t know. After he saw the Chem Tech had his house staked out he walked over to the park and on the way stopped for some water. I had him clear as a bell walking in the park sucking on the bottle of water. He had been thinking about the green vial we left in his pocket then he was gone.” “You think he used it, Pat.” “Maybe but it would take a lot more then one green to break that link. He was coming through like 50,000 watts on a clear channel.” "We had better get over there fast, we may still be able to catch up what him." •


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