Chapter 4

Toaster went to class the following day and met up with Dr. Talcuin in the RPD lab afterwards. As they began checking the data from the night before, they quickly noticed the spike in Phosphorus levels around midnight.

“How many meth operations are going on around here?” asked Toaster.

“It's not all meth labs, there are other conditions that could cause Phosphorus emissions. In fact it is possible that we recorded a huge natural event where large quantities of P were released somehow into the atmosphere.” stated Talcuin.

“Won't that make the job more difficult for the cops?” asked Toaster.

“Maybe, but that isn't our concern. We're just identifying the levels and trying to correlate them to actual locations. It may or may not help them, but it definitely helps us.” said Dr. Talcuin.

Toaster began to get the idea that the Doc was more into this detection program for some other purpose, but he wasn't exactly sure what. It was cool though to be able to see how this one element could be tracked throughout the city almost as easily as tracking the weather.

“We need one more control group.” Dr. Talcuin said out loud as he thought to himself.

“If we could consistently produce a certain level of Phosphorus, we would be able to verify that our measurements are accurate.” he continued.

He then gave Toaster a list of substances to analyze for their capability of producing traceable amounts of Phosphorus. Toaster's job was to take each substance and measure its P level. Dr. Talcuin left the lab and Toaster went to work. Most of the substances were rock shavings or little piles of fluff. Each was labelled with a reference number, so Toaster was really not aware of what each one was. Except for item number 3773, he knew the instant he removed the cap from its translucent plastic container. It was good old fashioned marijuana. The sight of the weed gave Toaster an instant flashback to the last time he lit his pipe as he sat in disbelief. But the real shock was when he tested it and it gave off a steady detectable rate of Phosphorus. And then he knew. He immediately left the lab and rode home. Toaster realized that Dr. Talcuin was out of his mind. Then the questions began to race through his mind, why would a fire science professor need some noname to make drugs for him? For what purpose? Why all of the secrecy and large amounts of cash? Was this an elaborate setup? The only thing to do was head over to Choony's place and chill.

“So, let's say you keep growing the shit for him.” Choony reasoned, “and let's say that he ends up turning you over to the cops, have you got any evidence against him that would help you out later?”

“Just the note, but nothing that connects him to it.” said Toaster.

“What about the money itself?” asked Choony.

“What about it?”

“Well if he's been handling Phosphorus and handling your money, maybe that detection equipment can link the two together.”

“Yeah, but I've been handling Phosphorus as well. I could have linked the two.” said Toaster.

“Ok then, where does he get the money?”

“Well, that's probably what we need to figure out.” said Toaster.

“Ok, let me help you put your hydro lab back together buddy!” said Choony rather enthusiastically.