Chapter 7 A Different Kind of Danger
"Jeffrey, come back here!" Phineas had shouted, but the boy kept moving. He stood still watching him for several seconds, weighing his options. This was his own fault, he thought, shaking his head. He should've told Jeffrey about this a long time ago. He estimated that there was probably only a 10% chance of the dye being from that particular family of chemicals, still he hated to go in there.
He shook his head again, he had no choice, Jeffrey was in there, and some dyes could be hazardous to children's brains even if they were only exposed for a short time. In this time period, people hadn't realized that yet, which was why the shop was so far from the river. Jeff would've had a minute or so to look around by this time, so Phineas could probably go in and get Jeff out fairly quickly.
He fingered the omni, moving the dials to the Emergency Headquarters position, hoping he wouldn't need it. Then he started toward the door. He hated to cause a stir at headquarters when he wasn't sure, but his memories were still crystal clear from 4 years ago and he just couldn't take the chance that something might happen and he wouldn't be prepared.
He entered and saw Jeff standing in a corner of the room looking into a box. "Jeff, come out now," he said sternly as soon as he was inside the door.
"Bogg, it's okay, come look at this," Jeff answered, sure the puppies would convince his friend that it was safe.
Phineas sneezed twice in quick succession, "come here now," he said as loudly as he could and sneezed again. He was afraid he might have to leave Jeffrey and didn't want to do that.
Jeff looked up, surprised by the sneezing, and the tone of voice. He noticed Bogg's face had gotten red and immediately went to him. Bogg grabbed him roughly by the arm and pulled him outside where there was fresh air.
"But it wasn't dangerous," Jeffrey explained, his initial concern giving way to anger at being pulled so hard.
Phineas knelt down on the cobblestone street, holding tightly to Jeffrey's arm. He coughed several times before he spoke. "Not for you," he gasped and when he took a breath, Jeff could hear the high pitched squeaking sound of too much air trying to go through too small an opening.
The words echoed inside Jeff's head, and suddenly he realized what they implied, "not for you" meant that it was dangerous for Bogg. He reached down for the omni, but Bogg's hand was already there and suddenly they were flying through the cosmos.
