Fractured Bonds - Part 6.

I arrive home exhausted and extremely sweated. I run a few laps under the hose to cool down before I enter the house. Luckily, mom is probably grocey shopping and dad is cooking, so no questions are asked regarding my appearance of a fugitive. I place the card in a drawer and take a shower.

I am sitting on the edge of my bed. I cannot sleep, my brain is reliving every milisecond of today’s events, analyzing the faces, the ‘factory’ and the screaming. And the look on the scientist’s face – poor boy, he must have been nervous as hell. Yet after nearly spotting me, I was conviced I saw a shadow of relief pass through his face. Was he the one who put the card on my bike? What is he trying to tell me?

I tiptoe to my desk and take out the silver card from the drawer. Tomorrow I will visit the internet café and try to search for the company, but for now, I need to examine it the old fashioned way. The card is thick enough to have another layer glued to the original card. I try to peel the back off as if it were a sticker, but I do not succeed and nearly tear off its edge. I sigh and place the card on the windowsill.

In the morning, it turns out I will be quite busy. I have to help my mom with baking some cookies for charity day – another tradition in Hopkinsville is that on every second Tuesday of the month, the citizens prepare some food for those who are a bit financially hindered. I am asked to bring the cookies to the stand in the centre – on my way, I meet Connor and have to agree to an arcade afternoon.

I end up enjoying the arcade with Connor and Camie and completely forget to go to the internet café. In fact, the neglect of my duty to search for ‘genetiX’ hits me only when I see the card irresponsibly placed on the windowstall. What if the wind blew it away or my mom saw it?

Or maybe it was not an irresponsible action? On the surface of the card, some letters are starting to shilouette because of the heat of the sunlight. Of course, the invisible ink trick! You write your message using lemon juice, let it dry and then heat the paper to uncover the secret message! I impatiently check the card. The message is not very clear, but definitely readable.

It says: “no net, danger, food bad, Storm”.

Well, that was not much of a help. Perhaps the ‘no net, danger’ phrase refers to the avoidance of internet usage, because, for some reason, it is prohibited to research the company’s name. ‘Food bad’? Is this a sick joke? Does it mean that everybody in town is getting poisoned by the food the ‘factory’ sells? Or maybe my theory of remembering because of not consuming produced food is correct? Anyways, I will stick to homemade meals from now on. I just cannot put my finger around that ‘Storm’. Is it referring to a literal storm coming to destroy Hopkinsville? Is it a metaphor? But why is it written with a capital? It is a name, but whose name? Surely not the Marvel hero’s. Hang on a second, what color is Storm’s hair in the comics? White. Who else had white locks? That scientist.

Balázs-Blénessi-Pataki Kincső   XI. R