Addergoole: A Ghost Story - Chapter 65: Leofric

Chapter 65: Leofric
by Inspector Caracal

Thursday, May 3, 2001

Leofric watched the pool in the grotto, the water's surface rippling as Aviv swum around below. It was usually peaceful, spending time there, and this time was fortunately not an exception, which he was very much appreciating. (Even more than the view through the water, which he was also appreciating. It had taken weeks for Aviv to stop making self-deprecating comments about skinny dipping and traumatizing Leo. Weeks. It was like the man never looked in a mirror before!)

Theoretically, he could be swimming too, but swimming was not really his strong point. Electricity and water just don't mix - you don't throw a pikachu into a pond, not unless you hate the pikachu and are a jerk. So instead, most of the time he sat on the rocks near the pool in his swim trunks, watched, and did Idu Workings on the plants (which he was not allowed to eat, despite his Keeper clearly having a lot of experience doing exactly that).

read on...

X-Factor

“We’ve studied one million samples.”  Professor Georges was very solemn.  It didn’t keep Professor Osborne from scoffing at him.

“There aren’t a million people in this part of the world anymore.”

“We have been studying for a long time.  At approximately fifty thousand people a year for the first one hundred fifty years, and then a much reduced rate.  The last five years, we took samples from merely a thousand people.”

“So your rate of testing decreased over time.”

“The population decreased over time, and the methods became, by necessity, more circumspect: we could no longer use blood tests overtly.  Also, our own population was badly hit by the Disaster.”

“Yes, of course it was.  What did you determine?”

read on…