When everyone got back into town, I gave them each a thorough scan. I still didn’t know how I’d break any bad news to them, but if they had something that needed immediate attention, I’d have to find a way. Luckily no one had any issues that I could identify yet. I’d make sure to scan everyone on a monthly basis. One thing that I’d learned was that an early diagnosis gave you a much better chance at a full recovery.
Scanning friends and family was an easy decision, but now that I was back in school, should I scan every student there, every teacher? Is that how I wanted to spend my life, constantly scanning people and trying to find indirect ways to let them know they’re sick or dying? There was also a privacy issue. What if they already knew about their illness and didn’t want anyone else to know?
“Ev, James, why aren’t more superheroes doctors? The Flash or Superman would be incredible doctors and they could save lives that way too.”, I asked them during lunch.
Eva answered first, as I’d caught James mid bite. “Because you don’t need superpowers to be a doctor. Anyone can become a doctor, if they can memorize stuff and take the training. My Aunt Missy is a doctor and she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. We want our heroes to be better than us. Our society even considers the top athletes to be heroes because they can do things that the rest of us can’t. Comic superheroes are the modern version of the Greek Gods, with better morals and less sex. Gods don’t do mundane stuff. They do grand feats of awesomeness. They’re not simple human body mechanics.”
“Superman and the flash would also be incredible janitors”, James added, “but that’s not what we need them for. With great power comes great responsibility, not regular or average responsibility. Connor McDavid would be an incredible minor league hockey coach, but that would be a colossal waste of his talents.”
“I see what you’re saying, but saving lives is saving lives. Does it matter if you save a life by catching a person about to fall to their death or by unblocking an artery?” Given what they’d said, I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it.
“Can a doctor catch the person about to fall to their death? It’s all just a question of resource management. Everyone needs to play to their strengths. Superman also doesn’t go with the police on every domestic abuse case. He uses his time for the big stuff that only he could handle, and he trusts the police to do their job. If he was always doing their job, then he wouldn’t be doing his.”, Eva answered.
I guess I had my answer. I could spend all my time being a walking x-ray machine, but then I couldn’t do the important work that I wanted to do and no one else could do my job, at least not in the same way.
I decided that I’d keep my scans to friends and family and limit all other people scans to my training at the hospital. While I was improving my scanning, I’d also be looking for a way to scan people and let them know the results without giving away my secret.
With that settled, for now, I got back into my normal routine of practicing with my shield throughout the school day and scanning objects while I rested. At night, I returned to Kung Fu, as Uncle Magnum had reopened the school after vacation, and worked on my skills there.
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On my return to Kung Fu, I was surprised to see that Uncle Magnum assigned two new students for me to work with; Maggie and Bobby. Ever since Uncle Magnum had told me all about his wonderfully romantic vacation with Maggie, I was sure that she’d finally be showing up soon to start regular classes. Bobby, on the other hand, I hadn’t expected so soon. I was sure that he’d give it a try eventually, but not yet. Maybe losing in the finals, not to Northfield though, was a wake-up call for him. I’d have to ask him one day, but only once he was fully hooked. Regardless of their reasons for joining, I was happy to work with them and I tried to make the class as enjoyable as it could be, despite having to do horse stance and plank.
January soon ended and only one thing still bothered me. I wasn’t making any progress on finding out where Len took his kidnap victims. I’d read the journal dozens of times, looking for any clues, but only those three sets of initials came up and I had no way to decode them. I tried scanning the journal, in the hopes that something was hidden in the cover, but it was just a cover. I’d even scanned the duffle bag and all the money. Nothing. I was seriously considering how to get the ledger into the hands of the police and drop the whole thing in their laps, but I just couldn’t give up yet.
One of the first things that I’d done when I got home with Len’s things was to correlate the ledger numbers with the numbers the women were holding in the picture and put a sticky note on the picture with the name of the victim. I didn’t want them to be anonymous numbers anymore. I’d also separated the pictures by delivery location. Most of the women had been beaten at least a little bit and they had a lost and broken look in their eyes. A few of them however, looked at the camera with fury. They looked like they wanted to rip out Len’s guts. My mom would have been in the next picture, had Len gotten away, and I pictured her as be one of those furious women. She would have fought them with everything she had. As I looked through the pictures, imagining my mom as one of these victims, I knew that I wasn’t going to hand this over to the police. I wasn’t giving up.
I kept flipping and flipping, not really paying attention anymore to the victims, my thoughts wandering a bit, and my mind registered something different on one of the pictures almost at the end the stack. It was Tanya Gray, delivery number 5794, one of Len’s earliest victims at number 5. Her picture wasn’t taken from the same spot as the others that were delivered to SLS. This one was taken several steps back because there was a half pallet of boxes on the spot from which the picture was usually taken. By taking a few steps back, Len had gotten more background in the picture than usual and to Tanya’s left, I could see an image of a snake in the shape of the letter S, with its forked tongue sticking out, stenciled on the wall. Nothing was written above or below it and I had the impression that it was a company logo.
Was there a way to search company logos? I quickly checked the internet and found that the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) did have a searchable database for logos that were trademarked. If the company didn’t trademark its logo, then it wouldn’t be there, and I’d have to try other ways to find the logo. I started looking through the site and learning how to search. First, I had to find the category for snakes and then I had to search it. It all took time, but I didn’t care. I finally had something to latch on to. Even if this didn’t work, I had a clue. I was determined to keep at it until I found what I was searching for.
A few hours later, I found them! Serpentine Logistic Services. That’s what SLS stood for. They did all sorts of freight handling services in the port city of Wilmington, NC. It was a four-hour drive, but only an hour flight away. I finally had a target to focus on and I would need to prepare for it.
To do that, I had to speak with Mary O’Reilly at the soup kitchen.