When we began to monitor Helen's behavior -- when Helen was Zara and Zara had just discovered that she was unable to generate emotional energy -- we'd quickly grown accustomed to this sort of thing. Being on the move, holding our tongues, stepping in only when it needed to be done. And after a few premature interventions, some hand-slapping from higher up, and some plain old wait-and-seeing, we realized how seldom such stepping-in was actually required. Zara'd been pretty good at taking care of herself.

Helen was another matter. We knew better than to dive right in, but we were in position. She was out of practice, after all. She'd been living a quiet life, married to that idiot Jack, doing as little as possible. It was entirely likely that she'd lost her touch, that she'd get in over her head the minute she stepped outside the domestic dream she'd been dreaming, the minute she woke up. We had to be ready.

And I was.

As team leader, it was my responsibility to oversee any significant changes in Helen's behavior. I was woken up when Helen began her flight, still on duty when she put on the mask, and it was I who let the Professor know what she could do with it. I knew this was big. I didn't know the whole story, but I had a feeling it was going to change things. We'd already seen how the things made her hallucinate, but I hadn't noted the energy generation potential. When Helen put on that AS-Mask her car lit up like a Christmas tree. She doubled her speed and didn't even flinch. It was beautiful. The Professor was impressed too, I could tell, but he tried to mask it with concern.

"Get me one of those AS-Masks," he said grimly.

I had one sent to his lab.

Read on in Chapter 9 over at Dogzplot.

**SUBSCRIBE TO THE2NDHAND if you like reading our our respective broadsheet and online series -- any donation above $30 gets you a LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION to THE2NDHAND's quarterly broadsheet. See this page or send a payment through PayPal here:

OUR FRIENDS AT The Left Hand make great soap, salves, balms and other natural hygiene-type stuff, in addition to publishing a zine and running a book swap, a performance series and more from their Tuscaloosa, AL, homebase. When they offered to make something for us, we jumped. We introduce THE2NDHAND soap, an olive oil soap with a quadruple dose of Bergamot, "for the readers we've sullied..." Price is $6, ppd.

**BOOKS BY THE2NDHAND CONTRIBUTORS at Amazon

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Web www.the2ndhand.com

081009