Helen, Ashley and I were in the library looking over Henry's shoulder at his computer when Will walked in holding a brown bag.
"I did say 9:00, didn't I?" Helen asked us as his footsteps grew closer to us.
"Sorry I'm late. Bagel run, assorted savory, poppy seed for the big guy and two kinds of schmear." He told us and we all gave him a blank stare. "What? Okay, don't tell me that you wanted raisin." He asked us.
"There's an interesting case I'd like you to see. Henry?" Will came towards us and watched the video on the screen.
"Security footage, from a pawnshop robbery last night near the campanile." Helen told him.
"How the heck did you get into the precinct LAN?" Will asked Henry.
"Well, I'd like to take credit for that, but I got the password from the boss." Henry confessed to him. Being the age she was Helen had made a lot of higher up connections and could get almost anything she wanted.
"And you got in? How?" Will asked her.
"Now, where would a girl be without her secrets?" She answered. She wasn't always good at moving the conversation off of the topic she didn't want.
"That's... Not an answer." He told her.
"I know." She told him smiling coyly. "You'll see the owner shift his weight. That's the foot-operated silent alarm." She told him as it happened on the screen.
"Hey…Henry, can you go back for a sec?" Henry did as Will asked him to do. "Yeah, right there. Now, zoom in. Huh…." Will pointed something out to us on the monitor. "Check that out; looks like he's scooping up all of the gold jewelry and leaving everything else, including the diamonds."
"Okay, that's just wrong." Ashley said, watching them.
"Diamonds your best friend now Ash?" I asked her smiling.
"Interesting; fast forward if you would." He fast forwarded it a bit.
"Now, they react to the siren and become frantic. And this gunman fatally shoots the owner in the back." Helen told Will.
"Brutal." Will said watching it happen.
"The two robbers split up, and one is pursued down an alleyway." Helen told us.
"There's the dashboard camera from the cruiser." Henry said bringing it up for us to watch.
"And into a coal chute basement." Helen continued.
"Okay, I'm still not getting why this ends up on our radar." Will told her.
"Just wait." I told him watching the video.
"The officers enter the basement just moments after the gunman did. And once inside, they report that there's absolutely no sign of him." Helen told him, watching him instead of the video.
"So, what, he just... Disappeared?" He asked her.
"According to the police, there was absolutely no way this man could have possibly exited. It's all in the police report." She said handing him a file. "Quite the enigma." Will turned and walked away while studying the file. "Have I taken your mind off bagels?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure, knock yourself out." Will picked up the bag and handed it to us. Henry took it while Helen smiled knowingly at me.
Later that day we went to the chute room the robber escaped from. Ashley slid down the chute into the room last.
"No tape, no seal." Ashley said looking around.
"Crime lab finished their sweep this morning." Helen told her as we were looking around.
"Concrete floor, no windows..." Will said listing off every thing he couldn't have used to escape.
"This doorway was bricked over decades ago." I told them as I walked over to it.
"And if he didn't leave the way he came in..." Ashley said looking back up the chute.
"Oh, please don't tell me we have another teleporter." He said remembering John.
"Not likely, but I'm not ready to rule anything out quite yet." Helen told him as we continued looking around.
"What about this?" I looked at where his flashlight was pointing at and saw a 10 inch pipe.
"That?" I asked him, making sure I was looking at the right thing as he walked toward it.
"Yeah."
"Yeah, sure if he morphed into a boa constrictor." Ashley told him.
"No, Will's right, if only as a potential place that the robber hid his booty." Helen told her as we bent down to inspect it.
"I never saw a man with that small a booty." Ashley told us as we looked inside it I gave her a look as she and Will shared were amused.
"Did we bring Henry's camera?" I asked them.
"Uh, yeah, we did. It's in the van." Ashley said going off to get it. When Ashley got back we knelt back down to peer into the pipe and Helen placed Henry's camera on wheels in the pipe.
"That's a nice toy." Will said.
"A "toy" like this helped discover several secrets of the great pyramids. All right, go slow." Helen told me as I controlled the camera car. They all turned to look at the monitor that Ashley set up to receive the images.
"Switch on the U.V." Helen instructed.
"U.V. is up." I told her. The device went a little ways before the image of a finger print became clear.
We all stood in the lab looking at the image the camera recorded for us.
"So how does a fingerprint get that deep into the middle of a 10-inch pipe?" Will asked us.
"Well, it doesn't, unless a person squeezed in that far." Ashley told him.
"Yeah, but you saw the size of that guy." Will reminded her.
"Well, I've seen stranger things." I told him looking around before looking at Henry.
"Okay, seriously, why are you staring at me?" He asked me and I smiled at him.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were looking at a folding man." I told them.
"A folding man?" Will asked.
"Urban legend crops up in city after city, supposedly a man who's capable of collapsing his skeleton to fit through narrow spaces." Ashley clarified for him.
"Although, the legend falls short of a feat like this; but it is possible that we're looking at some sort of super-folder." Helen pointed out.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa okay, just... help me out here." Will asked, in his own way, for more clarification.
"You're familiar with a newborn's fontanelles?" I asked him.
"Yeah the soft spot on the top of a baby's head sure." He told me.
"Nature created it so the child could fit through the birth canal." I finished the definition.
"Yeah, but for a newborn the head is the widest part of the anatomy. And, what, you're talking about in an adult….it's impossible." Will told us and I smiled at him.
"Will, look around you. Ten days ago you, would have said all of this was impossible. Henry, could you run the print?" Helen asked Henry.
"I'm on it." He said leaving as I looked back up at the print.
"These urban myths we're talking about go back a lot further than contemporary sightings." Helen told us as we poured over books in the library.
"But they're all part of what, the same phenomenon?" Will asked us.
"No, no, there's quite a range; flex-people, whole tribes with genetic defects in collagen synthesis. There's a sect of Shinto monks that are said to bow without bending." I told him reading it from a book.
"Then you've got your turn-of-the-century sideshow contortionists...The Human Corkscrew, Henry Athol The Boneless Wonder, and not the least; my personal favorite, Elastic Ed." Ashley said showing us pictures of the carneys.
"But no one's ever been able to fully document these folding men?" Will asked us.
"Well, if they even exist; they must be quite elusive." Helen told him going back to her book.
"You know, there was this case that I worked on at the agency that never got solved but had a very similar set of circumstances." Will told us.
"Austin, Texas, 2005." Helen said never looking up from her book.
"How do you know about Austin?" Will asked her.
"Are you serious? She knows when you switched from boxers to briefs, man. Ah…what's the similarity?" Ashley asked him.
"Three bank employees gunned down in cold blood, and the robbers run into a vault with the cops on their heels, and apparently "disappear. " Will told Ashley and I.
"According to Will's report, the only possible means of escape was a nine-inch-square ventilation shaft; a scenario that didn't win you many points, if memory serves." Helen continued for him.
"No, but it gets weirder. The only thing that was stolen in that robbery was half a million dollars...in gold." He told us.
"Whoa."
"Do you think it's possible that Austin and our folding man are somehow connected?" Will asked us.
"At the very least it's a working theory." I told him closing my book.
Will was sitting at a desk working on his closed case as Helen, Ashley and I came in with the blood sample we'd taken.
"Looks like your cold case file may have given us our first positive lead. I analyzed trace blood from that bank vault. It didn't match any of the victims." Helen told him.
"Which means it must have come from one of the robbers." Ashley finished.
"Do you have a DNA match 'cause we could never find one?" Will told us.
"Nor did we; at least not to an individual who left it. But we did find someone right here in old city whose DNA matches 16 alleles out of the 20 that we looked at." I told him.
"That many genetic markers has got to be a close relative." Will said.
"Probably the Austin thief's father. He's a 71-year-old by the name of Oliver Braithwaite. His DNA was in the system from a suspect sweep a few years back." Helen told him.
"Do you have an address?" Will asked us.
"He's a drifter, he won't be sleeping in the same part of town every night." I told him.
"But he hangs out in my favorite part of town, the old Bryant Street Corridor." Ashley told him.
When we got to Bryant Street Corridor we separated to cover more ground, all of us asking the same question and receiving the same answer.
"Any luck?" Will asked us as we met back up. Ashley shook her head no and I sighed my defeat.
"Did you find anything?" Helen asked him.
"Oh, yeah, I got a great recipe for a rubbing alcohol martini." He told us sarcastically.
"They know the name. They just seem afraid to talk." I said looking around noticing a man come out of a corner looking like he was fixing his shoulder. Folding man.
"Stay close." Helen said walking over to where the man was and we followed her. An older man walked from another area to us as other folding men appeared.
"I believe you're looking for me?" He told us.
"Oliver Braithwaite?" Helen asked.
"Are you the police?" He asked us.
"No, absolutely not." Helen answered him.
"Then you really have no business being here." He informed us.
"My name is Magnus, Dr. Helen Magnus." She introduced herself. Every abnormal knew her name and what it meant.
"The Sanctuary?" He asked us and she nodded. Oliver then turned to the other men. "It's all right; leave us." and at his command they left. "I heard about the Sanctuary ever since I was a boy. A good place; where people like ours are treated like human beings."
"But you're not..." Will reminded him.
"We're better than human; we have the gift." Oliver told him.
"The gift of folding." I clarified.
"My days of folding are long gone." He informed us.
"We'd like to talk to you about your son." Helen told him.
"Aaron? Do you know where Aaron is?" He asked us and I grew confused.
"He's missing?" Ashley asked him.
"He's taken up with a madman. I can't contact him anymore." Oliver informed us.
"We're talking about a folder?" Will asked him.
"They call him Nomad. He's taken the best of our youth, ripped them from their homes, turned them against their families. Aaron was going to study medicine." Oliver told us.
"What's this Nomad's agenda?" Helen asked him.
"Well, he may be crazy, but he's also a criminal genius. He gets folders hooked on this addictive drug of his. He's got some hotshot drug chemist to make it locally. If I could find out where; I'd kill him myself." Oliver told us with hatred and anger in his eyes. I remembered those emotions well.
"We want to stop this Nomad too. Maybe we can help each other." Will told him.
"I just... Want my boy back, that's all." Oliver said.
"We'll do everything we can I promise you." Helen told him smiling at him. Oliver nodded to us and left.
"So, who would know about this high level of trafficking?" Will asked us.
"What about our high-flying friend Mr. Jones?" I asked Ashley.
"Worth a try." She told us.
"You're going to trust an addict as an informant?" Will asked us.
"Of course not; he's a crime boss controls most of the city's drug traffic." Ashley told him.
"And he'll only talk to Ashley." I told him.
After the others captured Malcolm we put him in a MRI to see the differences between him and the humans.
"I've sedated him. He'll be out for at least a couple of hours." Helen told us.
"You know, you pass him on the street; you have no idea what he's capable of." Will told us.
"Of course, you could say that about almost anyone." I told him. "But this is a reminder that he's not like anyone." I said looking at the MRI results.
"-Wow, the gaps in the bone." Ashley said as we all look at the image.
"Hinges crumple zones, if you will. Now, watch. I'll trigger a localized reflex." We watched as the rid cage began to squeeze together.
"Incredible." Will said watching.
"Efficiency of form; but at what price?" I asked looking back at the man.
"I'd better see about transferring this guy to a cell." Ashley said going to find a decent cell.
"One without vents." Helen reminded her.
"So, did his blood tell us what he's addicted to?" Will asked Helen as she came into the room. She had taken some of Malcom's blood to find out what drug he was on.
"Are you strapped in?" Helen asked him.
"I have been since I got here." He told her.
"I'm guessing it's nothing you ever heard of." She told him.
"I'm guessing its gold." he said looking at the papers on the table.
"TPG... Tertiary phosphene gold how did you know?" She asked him.
"I didn't. I just figured it had to explain their obsession with it." He said explaining his reason.
"So folding men steal gold and turn it into their own form of crack?" Ashley asked her.
"Gold's un-reactive to most chemicals, but it will bond to certain organic compounds. Now, this one's part of a whole new wave of metallotherapeutic pharmaceuticals." I told them looking at the computer in front of me. Helen gave me the blood results and I looked them over.
"So it's a medicine?" Will asked me.
"For Normals, yes, but for folding men; at least based on what I'v seen of Malcolm's DNA, it creates a virtually instant craving. It likely also dulls the pain of folding; acting like a sort of beta blocker. Without it, the pain would be beyond excruciating." I told him putting the paper down on top of the keyboard.
"Well, if Jones is right, two nights from now, Nomad floods the market with this Cheap, powerful TPG. It turns the whole society of folding men into his private criminal army." Will told us.
"If this quantity of designer drug is being made locally, it'll leave a trail...we'll look for that. Meantime, find out what you can from Malcolm." Helen ordered.
"Hey, what about the police?" Will asked us and I gave him a confused look. We've never nor will we ever involve the police.
"What about them?" Ashley asked.
"Well, I mean, this guy's an accessory to murder, maybe more..."
"And what would you have us tell them? That their man's addicted to gold and that he slithers like a python?" Helen asked interrupting him.
"That's a good point." Will said walking away.
After Will's first session with Malcolm he came and told us everything then decided to pace in front of us.
"It's pretty much what I expected." Helen told him.
"I can get him to talk, I just need more time." Will told us.
"There's an expression amongst creature hunters; if you could teach a lion English, you still wouldn't understand him." I told him, looking out the window.
"We're not talking about a wild animal here." Will told me and I turned to him.
"Oh, Will, that's exactly what we're talking about. Only this guy's way more intelligent than most." Ashley told him.
"And, as a consequence, more dangerous." Helen finished.
"I'm late." Ashley said getting up and grabbing her coat heading to the door.
"Going out?" Helen asked her.
"Yeah. I owe it to Mr. Jones to tell him what we've learned." She told us and Helen nodded to her.
"Stay safe." Helen said as she walked out the door. Will left soon after that and I continued to look out the windows.
"Is something wrong Liz?" Helen asked me getting off the couch and walking to me.
"Do you ever get the feeling like your being watched?" I asked her.
"Every once in a while, mostly when I'm with you though. Why? Have you seen someone out there?" She asked me looking out the window scanning the ground below us.
"I haven't seen anyone and almost everyone I know is here. Maybe it's old age finally getting to me." I joked with her.
"You still look the same as when we first met." She told me and I gave her a look." Whatever it was that was affecting me, I wouldn't let it stop me in what I was doing.
"I'm going to be going to the restaurant after this, would you like to join me this month?" I asked her. There was a restaurant I went to once a month in memory of a man I once loved. Helen normally joined me, but I asked her every time.
"I would be honored to." She told me smiling.
When Ashley came back she told us she and the Big Guy found Mr. Jones dead on the ground with clipped wings. She'd also brought back blood for us to test along with pictures.
"And there was a struggle with the knife; undoubtedly at the top of the building. The assailant left traces of his own blood." Helen told us.
"Did you run it for DNA?" Will asked us.
"No matches to an individual, but genetic markers indicate it was definitely the blood of a folding man." I told him.
"Retribution for the help that he provided us?" Will asked looking at the pictures of Mr. Jones.
"Not retribution, a power grab...control of the city's crime syndicate and hundreds of thousands in drugs and cash; just as Mr. Jones feared." Ashley told us.
"No doubt Nomad will use it to pay for his truckload of TPG. We've got less than nine hours. If we don't intercept that drug shipment and Nomad gets his way, the city had better brace itself for a major crime epidemic." I told them.
"I still think Malcolm knows more than he's telling us." Will told us.
"Has he ever talked about Oliver's son?" Helen asked him.
"Aaron? No, not yet. Why?" Will asked her.
"Well, based on his father's description, I think he might be a chink in Nomad's armor. Intelligent, close to his family...see what you can find out." Helen told him.
"All right." He said walking out to talk to Malcolm.
Will kicked down a door to an abandoned warehouse with furniture littering the area. Malcolm had told him about Aaron and where to find him.
"If Aaron was in that apartment; he must have moved everything out." Will told us.
"You think these might be his things?" I asked with my hand on my gun. I didn't want to be surprised this time.
"Maybe." Will said looking around the place.
"Or maybe Malcolm led us on a wild goose chase." Ashley said as she walked over to a washing machine. I was standing next to her when she opened it and inside was the body of a young boy. Aaron.
In the living area at the Sanctuary, Helen was sitting next to Oliver on the couch while Will and I sat in chairs across from them.
"I'm so sorry. When we promised you that we would find your son, I never imagined that it would be like this." Helen told him after we'd delivered the news of his sons death.
"I wanted Aaron... to be a doctor. I could imagine him working in a place like The Sanctuary. He...he was a smart boy. He was kind. What is there left for me? What's left for any of us?" He asked us and we held no answers for him.
Helen was sitting at her computer with Henry Ashley and I on each side of her. We were looking at Henry's research into the ingredients of the ingredients for TPG.
"When you broke it all down for me, the most basic recipe for TPG, no shortcuts, everything from scratch, the only local buyer is a small manufacturer just three miles north of the city." He told us.
"Aridan Labs." Helen said reading the screen.
"It's almost 4:00. Our chemist will be leaving for his rendezvous any time now." Ashley reminded her mother.
"Well, if we're right, he should lead us straight to Nomad." Helen said getting up and walking to a table. "I've come up with a chemical test for the TPG once we find it. It's about the only thing that will turn this liquid a brilliant blue." She said putting some in her pocket.
"What about Will?" I asked her.
"He wants one more run at Malcolm. I don't think we should take him away from it." She told us.
At Adrian Labs, a man was taking large containers from the dock and loading it into back of a van. Helen and I came up behind him and stops him with our guns to his chest.
"Sorry. No deliveries after hours." She told him. He tried to turn and run but he found Ashley instead.
"Hi."
"Do you mind telling us what's in those containers?" I asked him with a smile.
"Yeah, sure just don't shoot me. It's... Its laxatives." He told us and Helen just smiled at him.
"Sorry, I don't believe you." Helen told him going to his cargo and getting one of the items out of the containers and tested it. "It's not TPG." she told us.
A truck is pulling up a dock we'd tracked Will down to. The driver went to back up truck and started to unload. Ashley got behind him with her gun aimed at him.
"That looks like barrels of fun." She told him with a smile.
"Now Ash, be nice. He's just the messenger." I told her sarcastically from behind him, my gun trained on his back.
In the holding cell were all the folding men who'd lived through the encounter Helen had with Malcolm. Ashley, Will, Helen and I stood watch over them from day to day.
"Four to six weeks and most of our folding men can be returned to their homes; hopefully drug free." I told Helen as she walked up to us.
"Look, can you just say it, please? I mean, it's the elephant in the room. I let myself get conned." Will told us turning from the folding me to us.
"We all let ourselves get conned. Some of us just had a Plan B." Helen told him referring to the tracker on his car.
"Yeah, well, that's the last time I play by the old rules." He said turning back to the boy in the cell.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. We stopped the destruction of an entire culture of Abnormals. And you got to the bottom of one of your agency's biggest mysteries." I told him and he turned back to us.
"You're right. What am I talking about? I'm a hero." He told us sarcastically.
"Actually, on a scale from zero to hero, you're more like..." Ashley stopped and thought about it for a moment and that's when Helen intervened.
"Ashley..."
"…Almost respectable." We all smiled at each other and when Will turned around the three of us all gave each other a look.
I sat at my usual restaurant with a glass of red wine in front of me waiting for Helen when a man sat in her seat.
"Hello, Lizzy." He said smiling at me.
"So you've been the one watching me." I said taking a drink from my wine.
"Of course, I have to make sure you're still safe. You are my wife after all." He reminded me.
"I'm as safe as I can be at the Sanctuary." I told him. "What do you want?" I asked him and he just smiled at me.
