Two Schools Out - Forever

26

"Hmm," I said.

Fang propped the map book on a fire hydrant and braced it with one knee. He took out the page of code, and I held the penlight so he could see. He double-checked the coordinates, showing them to me. I looked at the street signs at each end of the block.

"No, you're right," I said. "This is it. If those are map coordinates, then this is where we should be."

We looked at the building across from us. It was not a cute house with a picket fence, suitable for bringing a baby home to, a baby that would later be turned into a mutant bird kid by mad scientists. No, it was a pizza parlor.

On this block were a car wash, a bank, the pizza joint, and a dry cleaner. On the opposite side of the street was a park. No houses, no apartment buildings, no place where someone could have lived.

"Well, crap," said Fang.

"I concur with that assessment," I said, crossing the street. "Maybe there was an apartment building here and it got torn down."

We stood in front of the darkened store and peered inside. Hanging on the wall was a black-and-white photo of a bunch of people standing in front of a new, shiny version of the store. "Here since 1954," the caption under the picture said.

"So much for that theory," said Fang.

"Do you want to swear this time or do you want me to?" I asked.

"You can," said Fang, stuffing the page back into his pocket.

"Well, crap," I said. "Okay. Let's try the next one. Maybe we'll get lucky."

And we did get lucky-in that the next address was actually a house.

Unfortunately, it was an abandoned apartment house in the middle of a hellhole block inhabited by some of the more scum-sucking members of society-many of whom were conducting "business" right now, at two in the morning.

"Let's check it out anyway," I said, drawing farther back into the shadows.

We had landed on the tarry roof of the building next door. Half an hour of waiting and watching had shown us that at least two guys, and maybe more, seemed to be squatting in this bombed-out wreck of a building.

Twenty minutes after the second guy left and didn't come back, I stood up. "Ready?"

"Ready," said Fang, and we jumped across to the other roof.