Slugtectives Gary and Larry the Leopard Slugs
-My human has a name!-
Understanding
Dru's eyes opened slowly and he stared at the ceiling while he slowly woke up. Once his eyes could stay open on their own he sat up and looked around the now clean bedroom, or at least cleaner. He had moved the piles of garbage out to the front of the house on the plastic and was able to place the new bed against the wall were it belonged. During his cleaning he had managed to find some of his clothes that had not been shredded during the raid and had set them in a pile on a chair in the corner.
Climbing from the bed he put his shirt and pants on then walked to the kitchen where he saw the phone blinking with a message. He looked at the blinking phone for a while before shaking his head and turning to the refrigerator. He opened the door to reveal empty shelves save some condiment bottles in the door. Slamming the door he thought, “I have to go get food today, this is bullshit.”
He turned around and again glanced at the phone as it sat blinking at him on the counter. He ignored it and instead went to the front door, put his shoes on, then walked outside. He stopped on the patio and looked around the yard in the early morning light, looking past the pile of garbage on the plastic in the middle. He walked to his car and yanked the driver side door opened and pulled the driver seat forward. As he rummaged in the rear seat he tossed various pieces of paper, wrappers, and random trash onto the floor boards before he triumphantly pulled up a still sealed six pack of bear claws.
He climbed out of the car and after shoving the driver seat back again he slammed the door and walked back into the house. He tossed the package of bear claws on the counter next to the phone and again glanced at the blinking light in the corner of the phone. He really did not want to deal with anything at the moment. All the cleaning had him drained even after sleeping and the prior weeks had him mentally exhausted. He grabbed the bear claw package and carried it to the living room where he plopped onto a chair, ripped the package open and began devouring them one by one.
He sat in thought as he finished the last bear claw from the package and tossed the empty package on the chair next to him. He was just leaning back in the chair when he heard a chime from the kitchen and he got up to see what it was. Walking into the kitchen he again saw the phone blinking at him and with a slight sinking of his shoulders he picked it up and turned the screen on. He had a voicemail and text messages, a lot of text messages, so many the notification bubble just showed dots.
He shook his head and dialed the voicemail first, figuring it was from Vivian.
“Dru, call me when you wake up. Pince’s plane went down last night,” Vivian said quickly in the short voicemail.
The options came up on the voicemail and he sat staring at the wall as it repeated in his ear. He slowly put the phone on the counter and pressed the end call button, his mind suddenly blank as he stared at he wall. Slowly questions began to form and he started to get slightly angry.
“If his plane crashed then what does this mean? He can’t be dead, there’s no way,” he thought, “there’s no way that he was on that plane. I just don’t believe it.”
His vision focused again and he looked down at the phone to see it still blinking with the messages. He picked it up and opened the text messages app which popped open to the first in the long line and began reading.
“Dru, please read this. I am writing to apologize to you for causing your house to get raided and I want to explain how it happened.”
“When the Bollinger emails were leaked and the news reports came out I became determined to find out more and to see how deep the hole goes. It quickly became clear that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
“Using a site made for the leak I was able to get the list of every name in all the emails. I’m the one who posted it. I’m sorry I didn’t know that it would get your house raided, I just wanted to get the information out there in hopes that it might lead to more.”
“You used to “investigate” (need different term) the human trafficking groups during the war and Bollinger is neck deep in it. Pince and Bollinger have worked together for years and when my post got tracked back to your ip address, with your connections to Pince, they thought it was you that leaked the list.”
“When the raid happened they took all the electronics in the house thinking you were me. After they took you away they used a robot to blow something up behind the house. They hauled away boxes of your things and ransacked your house.”
“I heard you say that you would like to blow this up and get the world to see what has been going on for so many years. I want to help. I know we could turn this into something immense, something that could shake the world.”
“What would you say to working together to expose all the people named in the list? With my skills online and stealth and your experience with OSI we could make a great team, I know we would make a great team.”
“We can only communicate through text though, I don’t think you would like me if you saw me, but I want to help you. Please seriously consider my proposal, I think we could do great things.
--LarrSlug4242—“
Dru read each text through then he read them again, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. He couldn’t believe what he was reading and as he set the phone on the counter he said to himself, “this has to be a joke”. He looked down at the phone and as it sat glowing up at him he felt the swell of annoyance rising. The entire situation felt like someone was screwing with him and this was the punchline of their sick joke. His blood began to heat and he felt himself getting angry the longer he looked at it and finally turned the screen off, leaving the phone on the counter.
He stood staring into space as the memory of Vivian’s voicemail slid back into his head. He suddenly stopped on the memory that Pince’s plane had gone down and he picked the phone up again, going to the browser and typing into the search engine “Pince, Plane”.
The screen quickly opened to a list of results and the top one was a news headline, “Backwater owner Eric Pince and a number of his advisers and guards were reportedly on the plane that went down late last night.” He read the next headlines which where all a variation of the first. Setting his hand holding the phone on the counter he again stared into space lost in thought.
Slowly his vision refocused and he looked down at the phone, raising it back up he opened the messages again and went to the last one and tapped reply. He typed “Is this a joke?” and hit send. He opened his contacts and called Vivian, when she answered he said, “you wanted me to call?”
“Good morning. Did you see? Pince’s plane went down last night with a bunch of advisers and guards on it. They aren’t saying if they’ve found any survivors yet or not,” Vivian said excitedly.
“Yeah I just saw. I’ll believe it when there are bodies. Right now it’s just a plane down,” he replied.
“Uh, okay,” Vivian stammered.
“The guys is known for trying to hide his tracks and this could just be one of those, just watch,” he said.
“I guess,” she said slowly.
“So I got a message from —-LarrSlug4242— this morning,” he offered.
“What? You did? What did they say?” she blurted excitedly.
“It has to be a joke. They want to work together with me as a team to expose the global trafficking groups. Doesn’t want to meet, just talk through text. Super shady, but they know a shit ton about what’s been going on. I just replied asking if this is a joke and I’ll see what response I get, if any,” he said with his face scrunched in annoyance.
“That sounds, interesting. How did they get your number?” she asked suddenly suspicious.
“I have no clue. I just woke up this morning to your voicemail and to this stream of text messages,” he answered.
“Well, let me know what happens, I’m curious now,” she said.
“I will. Hey, could you find out about getting a dumpster dropped here, I have a pile of shit in the front of the house that needs to go, the animals are getting into it and it’s starting to smell,” he asked.
“Sure, I’ll have one dropped as soon as they can,” she said quickly.
“Thanks. Maybe I can find someone to help me load it,” he said with a frown then, “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, let me know what they say,” she said then hung up.
He tossed the phone on the counter and walked back to the living room to finish hauling the last of the pile outside.
#
Larry sat next to a pile of lizard droppings he was lucky enough to find. One of the finer delicacies among the variety that he can find around. It ranked right next to rabbits in his mind and as he happily devoured bite after bite he slowly felt the fullness feeling invade his mind. He looked over the remains of the pile and then around him to try and lock its location in his memory. Good food like this has to be remembered.
Feeling fat and happy he slugged back to his nook to enjoy the full feeling and as he entered he saw his pda blinking. He went to it and turned it on to see a reply from Dru. His mouth fell open and his eyes went wide. He opened it and read, “Is this a joke?” and his eyes narrowed as he reread it.
“Why would I be joking?” he said to himself.
He pushed the pda aside and sat in a huff. He had no idea how Dru could think all that, after everything he had written, how much he knew and the fact that he apologized, yet he thinks it’s a joke? It seemed ludicrous to him and he found himself beginning to pace in circles around his nook. Each time he passed the pda he glanced at it with an angry look.
After a lot of circuits of the nook he began to get tired and stopped net to the pda, absentmindedly tapping it on and scrolling with his lower tentacles. He was barely watching as he skimmed the notifications, lost in his thoughts. He got to the bottom of the list then paused, his eyes focused on the screen and he opened the reply again. He sat and stared at it and reread over and over searching for the proper response.
He finally felt the thought hit his head and he opened a reply and began to type, “How is an apology a joke? I’m serious about us working together. How can I prove myself?”. He read a couple of times then feeling content with it he hit send. He stared at the screen for a while before pushing the pda aside and turning to the entrance and then slugged out of his nook.
Stopping outside Gary’s hole he called to him before starting to go inside without waiting for a reply. From behind him he heard Gary say, “I’m not in there”.
Larry stopped and turned around slowly in the tight entrance, finally making his way back outside he said, “I got a reply from Dru”.
Gary’s eyes opened wide and he said, “oh? What’d he say?”
“He thinks it’s a joke,” Larry said dejectedly.
“A joke?” Gary asked.
“Yeah he just replied, ‘Is this a joke?’ to my apology,” Larry said shaking his tentacles.
“What did you respond?”
“How is an apology a joke and how can I prove myself,” Larry replied.
Gary shrugged and said, “guess that’s all you can do”.
“I’m hungry again and there was a pile of lizard dropping back up that way,” he said motioning away from them then asked, “wanna go with?”
“Sure, I’m always up for some good lizard,” Gary said with a hungry look in his eyes. They slugged away from his hole for the food laying in the grass.
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