COME, Alvaro! Bring the gas masks with you!”
That order came for the bulky one guarding the terrace. For he bolted at once and went combing through a sack of tools.
Marcuz froze in that moment. He turned back to watch the young man as he left his post.
That dude whom the professor called Alvaro was quite a fierce-looking one.
The fellow in fact had a pair of dark shades on, night as it was. Along with a pair of boots... the military kind.
Marcuz noted his form as he moved from there.
Quite a few activities went on up the stairs in that moment when Marcuz stopped. It seemed everyone was fixing a protective gas mask over their face.
Then he heard the sound of flasks and beakers, tubes and reagent bottles... several things reminding him of inorganic chemistry experiments.
He trembled.
What is Professor Barbar doing with chemical apparatuses and masks?
Did he intend to gas that new witness? Is he killing him right here and now?
Suddenly it dawned on the young kid that he’d got his chance to run. The way had been clear for a while and Alvaro hadn’t been back yet.
Marcuz raised himself and lifted a foot. He looked back and no one was stopping him.
Then he grew a bit bolder. For when he looked back and saw his bicycle, he reminisced on precious things.
He always left an MP3 stick on his bicycle. And if he was losing his golden bike now, it felt too much to lose music too.
That was the thought in the kid’s head when he turned back and went for the device.
It was the dumbest move that Marcuz made.
In the meanwhile, the boy heard D.M.B. resume.
“Hey mind activist, or what are you? Listen to me...
“I’m simply carrying out a control experiment for study. And you’re just going to sit down there and help me do it.
“You’re one fortunate boy to be a part of my ongoing method, you know!
“Now this experiment I’m setting up here is a stroke of genius.
“See, it gets to feel in your system like nitrogen oxide – I mean what you guys call ‘laughing gas.’
“That anesthetic that thrills your brain and keeps you laughing wild till you slip into bliss.
“But come, you not sleeping here! You get to die enjoying life, and nobody’ll say I took it!
“Cos it ain’t gonna act like that laughing gas... nah!
“Instead, it’ll choke the life outta you like pure concentrated ammonia!
“Now people will say you simply took your life trying to enjoy life! This is how I’m rewriting you!”
At this point Marcuz López wasn’t sure anymore if this was D.M.B. Barbar, or Anton Jacques.
Yes, he’d always followed the news on the ongoing case. So he’d read things on Professor Barbar. The genius chemist turned law fellow.
Again, the associate professor Jacques was the oddball of Pure Chemistry Department...
So if professors at Cannon were mere fireballs, Jacques was the one that students named “Time Bomb.” The most intentional with evil.
So this time Marcuz wasn’t quite sure if it was D.M.B. or Time Bomb. He struggled much trying to find who.
Now the victim struggled, too, where he was. He struggled to break free and to talk.
It appeared that his mouth had been sealed already. It seemed he was also tied to his chair, the way he struggled and fought.
The unknown don gave a neat wrap-up.
“Now this is what you do for me. You behave yourself while I fix this up your nose... you get that?
“Okay! And then you simply breathe like everybody does.
“But then, you can hold your breath for the next half hour—who cares? Ain’t no man gonna force you!”
Suddenly, Marcuz’s limbs couldn’t stand. His knees gave way under him where he stood by his bike.
He’d just plucked the MP3 device from the bicycle handle, but this whole movie wrecked him down to bits.
He lost his lame grip on his cycle, slumped down to ground beside the wheels as his ride went tumbling over him.
There was a loud crash that wakened the night.
Loud enough for everyone to hear.
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