Weeks of teaching after school sessions had invigorated Jeremie. Each pupil had made progress, even Erin was doing better. But what was had lifted him out of the pit of despair was the completion of the Digitizer. These events mixed with the beautiful weather prompted Jeremie to change his lesion plans for a few days.

The week had been taken up by several labs, Jeremie had brought out a few Ion accelerators and the classes were enjoying the time with them. Blasting a stream of highly charged partials into just about anything did have its excitement. Sparks, smokes, and remains of objects filled the room at the end of every day. Fascination was plastered all over the faces of the students when melting magnets suddenly became spike balls of destruction.

Jeremie realized that he loved teaching, as a tutor to Odd and Ulrich he had often got annoyed by the fact that it took several times to get something. But now that his patents, with others as well as himself, had grown he had become ever searching for the look of realization when a child finally understood something for a first time.

And then there was Kari, the program seemed to become more human every day. Like a child first learning about the world, Kari was eager to hear everything Jeremie had to say, and even what he didn’t. Kari had the ability to read his mind; Jeremie had asked her to not delve into his mind, and for the most part she had. Even his sleep had begun to improve, restless nights became few and far between. And on those nights he would converse with Kari.

As Jeremie looked over the class, this was their last day with the equipment, he felt joy. For once the tragedies of his previous life slipped from mind. He felt young again, energy and optimism filled his heart. What a wondrous feeling.

**

Several miles away Escariot too was buoyant with the feeling of ecstasy.  A place that he could terrorize anew had brought up his spirits significantly. As he quietly shut the door he became aware that his joy ride would end soon. This time the encounter was different.

Dagger met dagger and the two were immediately locked in a temporary stalemate. Mayhem leaned in close to the face of the crime king. “Your slow.” A shrewd grin flew onto Escariot’s expression, “Relax, you’ll get your little presents on you special day, half pint.” Mayhem’s dagger suddenly gave and flashed toward Escariot’s neck. But it was met again with the second weapon. “Time is running thin, as is my patents. Make your move, or find yourself in a very uncomfortable check.”

“Yes, I do suppose you would want smother mate wouldn’t you.”

“I merrily wanted you to act as a skewer, and I don’t want him to get any chances to discover.” Mayhem flicked the dagger out of Escariots hand a slid back into the shadows. The crime lord picked up his dagger. The first thing he would need for this adventure would be a few accomplices. No one too smart, the usual gang goon would suffice.

**

“Hey Jeremie, did you make this?”

Jeremie glanced up from the diagrams on the nano-board. On one of the displays a box displaying a spearhead like object had appeared. “What is it?” Several more boxes came up displaying lines of code. A quick summery showed that the thing had been riffling through the computers files. As for the actual thing it seemed to be a virtual miner program. The program had not sent any data back to where it came from, but it did seem very intent on finding something. “Can you get rid of it.”

“No, I’m getting something like environment aspects inaccessible. Got any ideas?”

Jeremie shook his head confused.

**

Doctor Rocorson seemed drawn to the room that he worked in more and more. As he had no family he began to spend most of his time in the small room. The voices had become louder, the call of the cryptic poem, and its even stranger response.

But Rocorson began to wonder if his mental stability was holding out. Voices from no were and now the lights. Periodically he would see wisps of light flit around the room, balls filled with a rainbow of colors. The mystery and beauty of these visions were as unnerving as the voices. Call, response. Poem, reprise. But still he was drawn to the room, almost like his subconscious was waiting for something. And the doctor wanted with all his heart to be there when it did.

**

In a cot in Africa an officer in the international peace force began to mutter in his sleep. On his dog tags was the name William Dunbar. The verse that was repeated held mystical powers “Fire of Mind, give us a call, give us an answer, or nothing at all.”

“Leave All”