Borderline [On hold for major revision]

Chapter 18:The Thing I Never Thought Would Happen

Chapter 18

Russell arrived twenty minutes later with a huge backpack on his back. The thing looked big enough to hide another person in there. I opened the door and let him in, curious about what was inside.

            “Hey,” I whispered in greeting, “a couple of my relatives are watching a movie, so it’d be great if you could keep the volume down.”

            “Gotcha, chief,” he whispered back, giving me a thumbs-up.

            Russell hadn’t changed a bit since I’d first met him four years ago. Same nerdy glasses, same goofy grin, same tie that stretched down past his waist. I was taller in fourth grade than this kid is now.

            Ryan and Ben had turned all of the lights off and made popcorn since the last time I’d checked up on them. They must have gotten more into the movie than they were expecting. Ryan expressed mild curiosity as Russell and I snuck into the other room, but Ben didn’t appear to even notice.

            When we reached my closet, Russell gaped at its contents. “Dude, where is everything?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean, all you’ve got in here are Border Patrol uniforms and like, ten pairs of jeans. Where’s the rest of it?”

            I motioned to the dresser, confused. “I have clothes in there.”

            “Yeah, but…People are supposed to put their best stuff on the hangers and hooks, the things that they don’t want to get soiled by sitting folded up in a drawer. Yours doesn’t have that. You seriously need to get out more. Really, it’s like—”

            “Okay,” I interjected, “if we’re done psychoanalyzing my social habits based on my wardrobe, can we get on with this? What’s with the giant backpack?”

            “Huh? Oh, this.” He took the giant pack off of his shoulders and set it on the ground.

            “Yeah, that.”

            “It’s a new machine I’m trying out. The department just signed off on it a couple days ago, so I’ll be the first one to get to use it.”

            That didn’t sound very encouraging. I was hoping to actually get something out of this—specifically the identity of the person who broke into my house, if they even existed. “What does it do?”

            “It’s a microbial vacuum, also known as the M-Vac.”

            “Sure, but what does it do?”

            “It’s a DNA collector. It sucks up all traces of DNA and stores it inside. It’s more than thirty times more accurate than our normal swabbing methods, from what I hear.”

            “And you’ve never actually tried this before?”

            “Nope! No one in Falkner has.” He made it sound like that was some great accomplishment.

            I didn’t feel like arguing. “Alright, just…don’t break it. I know you.”

            “Good, so you know how good at this kind of thing I am.”

            Couldn’t argue with him there. I watched as he unzipped the pack and pulled out a giant white box. He flipped a switch and several lights blinked on. Then he turned it around and took a little tube off a hook I hadn’t noticed before.