Sally's Secret

Chapter 31

Maria headed up to the lounge where Sally was sitting and Brains was pacing, his brows furrowed in concentration.

"Oh, Maria, you're here. Maybe you can help," Sally said.

"Help? What's up?"

"Yes! M-Maybe you can see something I'm m-missing," Brains said. "We think The Alchemist is r-responsible for this huge chemical cloud that's headed t-toward Cape Town, South Africa. It's out in the Atlantic r-right now. A ship reported it was b-burning people's lungs and eyes until they g-got out of it. That wasn't even the worst part. It's more concentrated t-toward the center of the cloud. A ship can m-move out of the way easily enough, but if they have to evacuate a city, it's going to be a c-catastrophe."

"Do you know what's in the cloud?"

"Scott flew in and s-sent us a scan." Brains projected dozens of molecular stick-models into the space over the lounge, where they floated around like a strange soup, some of them crazy-huge and complicated.

Maria studied the molecules for a good two minutes, then she smiled. "You're tired and you're making this harder than you need to, Brains. Most of this is just inert filler meant to distract and confuse us. Look close, right here." She grabbed the control to highlight something on the display. "Isn't that a hydroxide group? That's the only caustic part I can see."

"How did I m-miss that? Of course! It's just an inorganic base. All we n-need is some acid to neutralise it."

"You can't go spraying acid on a city!" Sally declared.

"Of course you can," Maria said. "A superfine mist of lemon juice or vinegar will probably do the trick. When you mix an acid and a base you get water and a salt. If we can force the reaction before this cloud reaches land, the precipitate will end up in the ocean. Harmless to fish and people. No evacuation, no panic."

Brains went into planning mode, resuming his pacing. "I'll need to m-modify the foam canisters to d-deliver a fine mist and we'll need three heli-pods to get the b-best distribution..."

Maria shook her head. "You shouldn't have to do that. Call the GDF and tell them to recruit some local crop dusting planes. They're closer and they won't need to modify any equipment, just what they put in the hoppers."

Brains looked up and smiled at her then spoke into the centre of the room. "C-Colonel Casey, did you g-get that?" It sounded like she had been listening this whole time.

The colonel's image projected into the lounge, replacing the molecules. "I did. Recruiting some crop dusters right now. Thank you, International Rescue." She winked out.

"Crop d-dusters for the win!" Brains lifted his hand for a high-five.

Maria gladly took him up on it. "Did you say this was The Alchemist? Did anyone get a lead on him?" She really, really wanted to see that madman behind bars.

Brains sighed. "Unfortunately, n-no. It's only a g-guess he did this. These chemicals didn't occur n-naturally and someone had to p-put them there."

"Sounds like something he'd do," Maria agreed.

Just then, Virgil returned to the lounge with his hair dry and looking handsome as usual. "Hey, you were supposed to be getting your suit on," he said.

"Maria was busy saving Cape Town from a cloud of chemicals," Sally informed him.

"You did? In under five minutes?"

Brains chuckled. "She figured it out in t-two."

Sally added, "The other three minutes were devoted to saving us all time and trouble to do a job that the GDF could handle."