X-ray Chapter 6, part 5

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Five hours later they were still sitting there, having merely stepped across the sidewalk at one o'clock to get their lunch. Marcus's newspaper, open to the classified section, lay spread out on his lap; Marcus himself lay back on the seat with his eyes closed. Ian lay similarly situated, but the presence of the steering wheel meant that his newspaper spread onto the dashboard. His coffee, now cold, sat on the corner of the dashboard, but this did not save it from being knocked over when the computer beeped, jerking Ian out from a confusing dream and causing him to shove the rest of his newspaper onto the dash as he scrambled to pull up the dispatch: another shift was open, this one late in the evening. Ian passed this information onto Marcus, who had already read it for himself and who closed his eyes and immediately went back to sleep. Ian turned his attention to the mess of cold coffee, paper cup and sodden newspaper on the dashboard, while the larger part of his mind tried to recapture and interpret his dream, which had something to do with Sara and her twin sister.

"Sara doesn't have a twin sister," Ian's mind protested after several seconds. "She has two brothers, neither of whom were her twin. At least the newspaper soaked up most of the coffee," he added aloud, albeit softly. He took the coffee cup (now all but empty, whereas it had been two thirds full when he had set it on the dashboard) and the newspaper and stepped around through the light rain to the trash can at the corner. Though he continued to try to recapture his dream for several minutes, he eventually had to acknowledge that its essence had dissipated entirely. He gave up and fell back to sleep.

Two hours later the shift was just about over, and Marcus leaned over the MDT to nudge Ian awake. "It's about time to head back, Ian," Marcus said.

Ian blinked his eyes in the light and regained his bearings. "We didn't have any calls," he said at last.

In response, the MDT beeped. Marcus shook his head sadly, and Ian remembered that one of the unofficial lessons of the Academy was to never say, never even think the call volume was light.

"Can't walk," said Marcus, reading the computer display. He read off the address and gave Ian directions.

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