“What now?” asked Eddie, when they stopped for a rest.
Shelton thought. “I’ve got a friend here. Keróer, Dr. Gallo. We should try to find him, if he’s around.”
“How?”
“A radio terminal. I think there’s one somewhere near here. Follow me.”
They trekked a short distance, before reaching some thick bushes. An unconscious human male lay on the ground.
“How much farther?” asked Eddie.
“Uh, it should be here.” Shelton looked around. “Right here.”
Eddie looked around. “I don’t see anything.”
“Well, it should be here!” Shelton looked at the ground. “Look for tread tracks. Maybe it was rolled somewhere else.”
Eddie knelt down near the soil. “No. Nothing was rolled from or through here. There aren’t even prints from where something used to sit.”
Shelton was perplexed. “There’s another a short walk that way.”
Yet again, despite an unconscious Beagle scientist, there was no radio terminal in sight.
“But why would these people be here, unless there was something to work with?” exclaimed Shelton. “There must have been something here.”
“Well, there isn’t now,” said Eddie. “So we need to come up with the next best thing.”
Shelton rubbed his forehead. “What were we doing again?”
Eddie thought. “Looking for somebody. A friend of yours.”
“Dr. Gallo, right. Well, if there’s anywhere that shouldn’t disappear, it would be Lab 101. Seeing as it’s the main location and all.”
“That’s be a safe bet,” Eddie nodded. “We’ll head there.”
On the way, they passed more unconscious personnel. There seemed to be more and more the closer they got to the lab.
Shelton’s head was still pounding. “Is your head killing you?” he asked.
Eddie nodded. “Is there anything we can do about it?”
“I wish.” Shelton rubbed his temples. “A tranquilizer dart shouldn’t cause this bad a headache.”
“If anything, you’d think it would help numb the pain,” agreed Eddie.
Shelton’s eyes lit up. “You just gave me an idea. Remind me when we reach the lab.”
In a few minutes, Lab 101 appeared through the trees, still where it should be. Shelton and Eddie walked right past the unconscious guards at the door.
Shelton entered a specific room in Lab 101. “Does your head hurt near the middle, in the back?”
Eddie nodded. “Do you know what’s causing it?”
Shelton nodded. He found a specific pulse transmitter, and held it up to Eddie’s temple. He clicked the button, and Eddie sighed with relief. “Thank you. What was that?”
Shelton used the device on himself. “Do you remember in the Oregon desert? When we took a week off so every member of Dragonstorm could receive one of those prototype ëemail’ chips?”
“Yes.”
“They were inserted between the parietal and occipital lobes of the brain. Their design is based off the ëphone tooth’ invented in 2002, just a step up. The eventual plan is that that they interact with signals sent from the secondary chips in our back molars, to allow us to send and receive messages silently. Almost a private ënetwork,’ only for Dragonstorm members.”
“I don’t recall hearing the chips were ever switched on.”
“Apparently they were. That’s the only reason I can think of why they’d suddenly start hurting.”
They started looking around Lab 101.
“What did we come here to do?” asked Eddie.
Shelton racked his brains. “I don’t remember. This constant memory loss isn’t natural. Something is definitely interfering with our memories.”
“Could it be the chip?” Eddie asked, climbing up onto the rafters and peering out the window.
No answer. He glanced back. Shelton was still staring at him. “What?” he asked.
“I still swear I’ve seen you somewhere before…”
“Recently?”
“No,” Shelton shook his head. “A long time ago. But I’m sure of it.”
“You can’t even remember why we came to this lab, but you remember me from some nondescript time in your past?” Eddie asked incredulously.
Shelton spotted some radios on a desk. “That’s what we came to do! Contact my friend!”
He grabbed one and checked for open frequencies. “There are two frequencies currently in use. I can’t tell which one, if either, is Dr. Gallo.”
Eddie shrugged. “Guess.”
Shelton tried the higher frequency. “Hello?”
There was a pause. Then, Alpha Leader’s voice came back over. “Who is this?”
Shelton quickly cut the connection. He tried the other. “Dr. Gallo?”
Kerzach’s voice came over. “Shelton, is that you?”
“Aye, this is Simpson,” Shelton stressed, glancing at Eddie.
Kerzach got the drift. “Is someone with you? Who?”
“He’s a friend,” reassured Shelton. “Where are you?”
Kerzach seemed less trusting this time. “Meet me back where you first fell unconscious.”
“Right,” said Shelton, but Eddie hissed, “Do you know where that is?”
Shelton paused. “Gallo, where exactly was that again?”
Kerzach sighed. “Our tent. Gallo out.”
Shelton cut the connection. “Good call,” he said.
“Thanks,” said Eddie. “We should probably write that down.”
Shelton nodded. He crossed to a small desktop calendar and ripped today’s page off, scribbling down Kerzach’s location. He pocketed it and the pulse transmitter, and looked around. “Is there anything else we need to do here?”
Eddie opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly gunfire peppered the other side of the door. “The soldiers!” Eddie cried, grabbing a rafter and swinging onto the roof.
“Eddie, wait for me!” Shelton cried, running to the rafters, but suddenly the door was kicked down, and an anthro Tasmanian Devil marched into the room. Taking aim, he shot the ladder to the rafters at the top, sending it and Shelton crashing back to the ground.
“Got him,” Gamma reported. “Lab 101.” He stepped forward and grabbed the dizzy Shelton out from under the ladder. “Now where’d you think you were going?”
Shelton tried to fight, but Gamma laughed and held him at arm’s length easily. “You go on trying. The others will be here in a minute.”
Gamma slid his pistol out from its holster and showed it to Shelton. “See this? No more tranqs. We switched to live ammunition, just for you.”
Gamma rifled through Shelton’s pockets, retrieving the pulse transmitter, which he discarded, and the calendar page. “What’s this say? ëMeet Kerzach at tent, ASAP’.” Gamma looked up. “There ain’t no Kerzach I know of that’s in Dragonstorm! Can you explain this?”
Shelton tried to speak, but Gamma’s grip was blocking his windpipe.
“I’ll just tell the others about this,” said Gamma, unhooking his radio again, but before he could do anymore there was a horrid squelching sound, and Gamma looked down to see a long metal rod jabbed through his chest.
He staggered and fell, and Shelton freed himself, crawling backwards to see Eddie, holding a bloodied rod. “Jesus! What the hell is that?”
“A mop handle,” Eddie panted, “with the head unscrewed.” He let it clatter to the floor. “I wasn’t going to leave you behind.”
Shelton shakily got to his feet. “Well, thanks. We should be going.”
“Wait,” Eddie stopped him. “The man said Kerzach. You told me his name is Dr. Gallo.”
“Oh, that.” Shelton’s eyes traveled to the mop handle. “Uh, Kerzach is his first name. We’re on first name terms, being friends you know.”
“Oh.” Eddie didn’t look like he believed him, but let the matter go. “You’re right. We need to get away from here.”
Eddie walked past Shelton, whose eyes hadn’t left the mop handle, and the two headed out.
