“Yo, Bob, we got another one.”
Bob leaned past the edge of his cubicle to read over Trevor’s shoulder.
Is it normal for my hamster to glow everytime I fart?
“That can’t be real,” Bob said.
“Do you think they are messing with us?” Cathy asked.
“Can’t be. The kids don’t know about the Worm. Schools don’t even know about it,” Trevor said.
Trevor was the mastermind behind the Worm—a computer program installed on school internet firewalls to help find kids with superpowers. It scanned social media, search engine results, and chat room content for anything that might indicate a kid had a power.
“I’m not telling the field team,” Cathy declared and walked away.
Bob drew the short straw.
“Glowing hamster? Super-powered fart?” Gary chortled. The video call shook for several minutes before Bob could see his face again. “Ping me the address. I’ll check it out.” Bob sent the address. It was only a couple hours from where Gary was stationed. “And yes, I’ll send pictures.” Gary hung up and Bob went back to work.
How long are drinks supposed to stay warm in an uninsulated mug? Bob shook his head as he copied the searches into his report. This was the eighth search this kid had tried. Last weeks had included Are doorknobs always hot? and How high is too high for a fever? Can it be a fever if I don’t feel sick? Unfortunately they had been too late to the scene and the kids house had burnt down. Thankfully no one had been injured, but the kid was pretty shook up. Bob finished the report and faxed it to the field office. Why they refused to use email, he couldn’t fathom. Something about privacy and government bureaucracy that put them into the same category as hospitals with their antiquated communication failures—errr, systems. Fifteen reports later and the fax machine beeped. It was from Gary.
Bob paused before flipping past the cover page. Was he going to regret this? Cathy leaned over the cubicle to watch.
Bob took a fortifying breathe and dropped the cover page. The first page was full of pictures. Sure enough, the hamster glowed. So did the bed and the walls and the bookshelf and the rug…
“Don’t need a blacklight to see everywhere that kid’s been,” Cathy said between massive belly laughs.
Bob gagged and flipped past the photos. He skimmed the message and opened a new document to start the case action plan. There was no time to waste, this power needed to be contained.