Episode XXXVIII

Damien wasn't sure what he thought about Q Lab, but they weren't quite what Dr. Dinglethorpe had led him to expect. The scientist had often opined about the "secretive freaks in Q," though his language was normally less restrained. Privately Damien felt that Dr. pHinn was actually jealous of their abilities and funding. Pushing the thought aside Damien returned to speculating about his package.

“Remember,” Rubber Snake had quietly cautioned him. “Don’t open it until you’re outside the base. They told you about some of the security in the building, but that doesn’t even scrape the iceberg. We know about tuna and anchovies and all about Susan.”

Unbeknownst to Damien, Frodo Baggins had forbidden Nightrider from either meeting Damien or exposing him to knowledge of the Queen device. With the inscrutable wisdom of supervisors everywhere he assured her that he knew best and promptly sent her away. With the truth unavailable the Q Lab conspirators had resorted to inflating the reputation of the base’s actually ailing security system. It was the only way they could think of to explain everything they knew about him.

As his thoughts drifted towards Susan, Damien finally reached his apartment on the outskirts of Sector #XY1492. Once inside he sat down at his computer and opened up a new tab in the already open browser window. A quick search via Google (he refused to think of it as “googling” something) brought him to Susan’s blog. He chided himself for yet again forgetting the URL. After catching himself up on her accounts of books, school and boyfriends he checked his e-mail and was disappointed to see no replies from her. Once again bored Damien clicked on a link to a blog belonging to one of her friends, someone named Lakota. At first he was interested, but then he noticed that the guy hadn’t updated his blog in over two months.

“Pathetic,” Damien sighed before switching to searching for web comics. One comic strip in particular caught his interest, La Ardilla Loca, apparently written by a Mammoth U student as a cross-cultural project. If there was one thing Damien remembered from high school it was Spanish, he had suffered through four years with Señora Jackson. Engrossed, Damien followed the web comic until the end where he was disappointed to find a conclusion lacking. Instead he discovered that the artist, Carry Hobson, had dedicated the exploits of Enrique, the secret agent squirrel, to her boyfriend and promised to one day complete the saga.

Damien was ready to leave the site when he noticed the name of the boyfriend and webmaster, Dennis Brown. He remembered that his friend Hegel Jeremiah knew a kid named Dennis Brown that he said had been a computer wiz. Deciding that it couldn’t hurt to enquire Damien sent off a quick e-mail to Brown’s listed account, brownde@mammothu.edu. As he signed out of his e-mail and prepared for bed Damien recalled Blackbird’s apology.

“I’m sorry kid, I didn’t really mean to lead you on at all. It’s just that, well… The boss, see, he…” The scientist gradually trailed off. “Look, let me know if I can help you in the future, okay kid? R. S. here will show you out.”

Rubber Snake had indeed shown Damien out, but that hadn’t been all he’d done. He’d quietly slipped a small package of something into the assistant’s backpack along with some advice. Damien had refrained from opening the package, but a small handwritten note on the outside warned Damien that he would probably need the assistance of another geek when he finally opened the package. Damien figured that either Hegel Jeremiah or this Dennis Brown character would have to do, and it would probably have to be Dennis as Hegel Jeremiah was off on a backpacking trip in Yellowstone. He yawned and stretched. There would be time enough for this tomorrow. Right now he needed to take a quick flight in an area that Blackbird had indicated was free of surveillance before he’d become so unhelpful.