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AFTER THE PIT DOOR had shut and the sound of the idiots had muffled and then ended. Ridgeway and Rucker went to look for the others and found Joe in the demolished kitchen area. He had some three-ring binders with him and waved them over. “These fuckers have been working on other formulas. Maybe something that won’t melt your insides. This could be a goldmine. Meet up with Suzanne who’s in the laundry room while I grab our expert. The genius isn’t answering his phone. He can have a look at this stuff.” Joe set down the binders on a partially destroyed kitchen counter and ran out the door toward the SUV out in front.
“Hey asshole, time to earn your keep.”
A mumbled reply came from the rear of SUV.
“Out, now, chemist.”
A figure stepped from the SUV on shaky legs and began to wander away from it.
“This way, toward the house. You don’t look like much, so you had better be one of those really clever guys with nothing else going for them or this is going to be a very short trip for you,” Joe snarled.
“Awright, ah wis juist a bawherr groggy efter mah ummm. Ye ken, ah rested mah een fur a bawherr. Geez, whit th' hell happened in here?”
Joe poked the chemist in the chest and snarled, “What did I tell you about that phony accent shit?”
There was silence followed by a wheezing sound and then, faintly, “You would break my kneecaps?”
“Correct, at least I don’t have to repeat myself. We found some notebooks hidden away and these ingredients written in them looked familiar. Suzanne took a look and thought the equations jotted down are similar to what’s on the market now. Was she right and, more importantly, will this turn people’s insides to jelly too?”
In a slightly stronger voice, a reply came. “Geez, I can’t tell just by looking.” The business end of a pistol appeared in his line of vision. “Looking closer at these notes now, they do seem promising.”
“Promising as in, valuable? Promising as in this will work and won’t melt peoples insides? Is this a better formula?
“Oh, yes, that is exactly what I mean.”
“Wait here, and make sure that’s what these notes say.”
The chemist, who did not have nerves of steel, decided he’d better find a place to lie down, preferably with a stiff drink. He rummaged around the kitchen and saw an un-damaged bottle of something that looked alcoholic, and stumbled into a bedroom with bottle in hand.