Chapter 69

The Professor

Leo started, surprised to hear from Mr. Osmond.

Teach: The Professor is going to request contact with you and introduce you to a couple of people. I would suggest you let him.

Future Man 10/16: Who is The Professor? They were asking about him earlier.

Teach: At this point, the less you know, the better. Tell these people what you've told me. You have little to lose at this point.

Future Man 10/16: What people?

The Professor: Requests contact. Do you accept? Yes/No

Leo selected Yes.

The Professor's name appeared on Leo's list of contacts.

The Professor: I'm aware of your predicament, Leo. And while I am unable to assist you directly, I've found two people who might be of service. Secret implant wearers who are also members of this government agency. An agency that would be upset should it learn of their presence.

Future Man 10/16: Who are you?

The Professor: Terrorist mastermind. Hero. Whistle-blower. I'm a lot of things to a lot of people.

Teach: Don't forget conceited.

The Professor: I do what I'm doing here. I provide needed intelligence where I believe it will do the most good and connect different parties with one another for their mutual benefit. I've told these two individuals about your situation and asked for their help in saving the world. They are, of course, rather dubious of my claims. I'll leave it to you to convince them. Best fortune to you, Leo.

Future Man 10/16: How? Leo started to ask, before realizing The Professor had left.

Badger 22: Requests contact. Do you accept? Yes/No

Shank 66: Requests contact. Do you accept? Yes/No

He selected Yes for both contact requests.

Shank 66: Leo. I've read your file. I'd like to help you, I really would, but you got to give us something first. You killed an old lady. Why?

Future Man 10/16: She was a cannibal. My Imp gave me a special quest.

Shank 66: How did you kill her?

Future Man 10/16: I almost didn't. I came close to being eaten.

Leo went on to explain how he'd gotten hold of her syringe and used it against her, locking her in her own freezer with her other victims.

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Shank 66: If you're trying to protect Mr. Osmond, I can tell you he's not worth it. In college, he ran an illegal gambling ring. He ran fake health insurance scams to con little old ladies out of their life savings. The only reason he's not behind bars is they never had enough evidence to press charges. Sign the confession and tell us what you know, and I'll try to keep your ass out of prison.

Future Man 10/16: Don't care what he's done. I need him where he is.

Badger 22: Uh, guys, I think we should focus on the end of the world.

Shank 66: How do you know The Professor, Leo?

Future Man 10/16: Before today, I didn't know the guy existed.

Shank 66: He knows you. This evening he announced to thousands of implant-wearers that the world is going to end on October 16. Then he approached the two of us, privately, informing us that you were the source of this information. Are you sure you've never heard of him?

Badger 22: The Professor is never wrong. If he announced the world is going to end on October 16th, he must believe it. This is shit-your-pants serious.

Shank 66: The Professor has obviously lost it. There's a huge difference between knowing a stock is fraudulent and predicting the world is going to end in an alien apocalypse event.

Future Man 10/16: The Professor must have got his information on both events from one of my contacts, who shall remain nameless. Just over two weeks ago, I helped this old man with his groceries to avoid getting my ass kicked.. He gave me an implant and vanished. When I put on that implant. I had a vision of the future.

He went on to tell them the story of the Change and the end of humanity.

Shank 66: I respect your creativity, Leo, but if you're going to lie to our anti-terrorism unit, you need to come up with something more believable.

Badger 22: What if it's true? You know what our agency is covering up. In the decade before Bio-Blessed showed up, there were maybe 100 instances of cannibalistic serial killers worldwide. Since Bio-Blessed, there have been over 10,000--that we know of.

Shank 66: We both know how messed up the world is. But giant tentacled aliens? Come on, guys.

Badger 22: I want to agree with you. But what if The Professor is correct?

Shank 66: In addition to all the other reasons why this is impossible, how about this? Why would these monsters look like monsters? I get the eating humans part, but I happen to know the ultra-rich people you're talking about really like looking pretty. They'd be doing the sexy vampire thing.

Future Man 10/16: They would have if they could have. Nobody was sure why, but for some reason, their attempts at humanoid forms always resulted in something deformed and grotesque.

Shank 66: Awfully convenient, don't you think?

Badger 22: If all this is true, and I hope it's not, it sounds like humans are being set up and we're about to get trapped in a really sick game.

Future Man 10/16: Yes. And if we lose, the human race is dead. And before you ask, I'm reasonably sure nukes don't work. I heard a story of some people going into a nuclear plant to prevent a meltdown. They found radiation there was at background levels and the core, which should have been in the process of melting down, was at room temperature.

Badger 22: Let's assume we believe this. Hypothetically speaking, how can this end of the world be prevented? Or, if unable to prevent, how could the human race be saved?

Future Man 10/16: Hypothetically speaking, I have no idea. Why do you think I've been telling everyone I can? In hopes that somebody thinks of something.

Shank 66: Hypothetically speaking, Leo and The Professor have wasted my valuable time, costing me the three hours of sleep I normally get and I don't appreciate it.

Future Man 10/16: I'm not sleeping either. I'm also freezing, hungry, thirsty, and chained to a wall. I'm completely without sympathy.

Shank 66: You're also a criminal. Signing out.

Badger 22: I don't know if I believe you, but I'll do what I can to help. I'm just a paper pusher, so I'm not sure how much help that will be. Signing out.

Leo groaned. According to his implant timepiece, it was two in the morning. The welcome distraction of the two people was over, and he wasn't sure he'd accomplished anything.