Tielens Institute of Science and Engineering

10:30 AM

       The Electrobus quietly buzzed as it floated along on the Electro-strips down the street. On either side Rick saw nice stone houses surrounded by small yards with vibrant green grass and brick walkways. It wasn’t as crowded here in the Mids District, compared to the Crick District. Rick had often told Alice if they ever came upon a bunch of money they would move here. As the bus passed a park, children could be seen running and playing Tow Ball, a game centered around inchemy. In the game there were two main rules, you cannot touch the ball physically, and you could not affect any of the players with inchemy. So, they would run towing the ball and trying to get it into a goal about five feet off the ground.

Rick sighed and readjusted himself in the faded red, hard plastic seat. He had looked a bit into Danny, he appeared to be a smart kid who was working on becoming an engineer. He had also been a part of the linguistics club where he met Mike. Danny seemed to not have had a particularly loving home life so he would stay with Mike’s family a lot. Rick had also found out that Danny hadn’t been able to go on the field trip to the Nexus Public Museum, but Danny had still stayed at the house with Mike’s parents while he had been going through a divorce. Martha also seemed to be helping pay for Danny’s education, since Danny’s parents seemed to be out of his life. 

The stone houses gave way to rows upon rows of stores and other various businesses, some of the stores sold nice, pre-packaged food items, perfect for the lazy family, others sold things like furniture, clothes, or appliances. In front of all the stores delivery trucks sat with their respective businesses plastered on the side ready to deliver the goods to pretty much any corner of the city. Rick remembered vaguely going to the store with his family to buy food items and he vividly remembers his grandfather ranting about not being allowed to enter the local grocery because they had switched to delivery only.

The Electrobus made a stop, some people got off, and some got on, then, with a slight lurch, it continued its way. Slowly the small businesses and nice houses gave way to metal and stone buildings with large windows displaying the newest and best in tech. Other buildings advertised that they could fix anything electronic. Most buildings were factories that looked like metal windowless cubes where they built technology using robots and humans who were expected to work like robots. Every tech company in the business had a branch here in the Tielens District to ensure proximity to the college.

As they turned a corner the buildings parted and there stood the Tielens Institute of Science and Engineering. A multi-story beast of a structure built from red brick with accents of white brick on the corners and around window and door frames; it held a large green space in front with various smaller buildings scattered haphazardly around. In the middle of the large green there stood a bronze statue of a man in loose robes and long flowing hair. In his right hand he held the Bronze Book, the first Nextian Holy book, and in his left a telescope. He was William L. Tielen an explorer for the Holy Wanderers (What the Nextian Church called themselves before the discovery of the Nexus three thousand years ago) he was the man who discovered the Nexus and set up the first church.

Rick disembarked once the Electrobus came to a halt. He headed to the dorms on the left where the registry had said Danny lived. “44” Rick repeated to himself. “Room 44.” Rick came upon the door. It was about lunch time, so Rick didn’t see anyone in the halls as most were presumably in the dining hall. Crossing his fingers, he hoped Danny would still be in. Before knocking he set his camera to record.

Rick only had to knock once before he heard a quick, “What?!”

“Danny!” Rick called through the door. “Can we talk?”

There was a pause. “About?”

Your friend, Mike.”

“I’ll be right there.” After awkwardly standing in the hallway for a few minutes the door swung open to reveal a short, portly kid with black hair and a skinny nose. “Who are you?”

“Detective Rick A. Estle.” He paused, waiting for Danny to step back to let him in. When he did not move Rick continued. “What do you know about Mike Ethel’s whereabouts?”

Danny crossed his arms and looked annoyed and rather bored. “I assume he is back home, we general talk every week or so.”

“You are working to be an engineer, Do you have a current project?”

“Oh, well,” Danny relaxed a little, “I’m trying to make a touch screen tv.” He then turned and motioned Rick in. “Let me just move some clothes so that you have a place to sit.” When he went to move them, Rick looked around the Dorm. It was a small, two room living space, the two rooms being a bedroom/bathroom combo and a kitchen/dining room/living room combo. On the wall there was a scantily clad model in red lingerie that looked to be in her 40’s. Then there was the aforementioned television which had apparently vomited its parts across the entirety of a four-person kitchen table. “Uh, take a seat detective.” Danny then moved to sit in a chair in front of the detective’s that was still covered in paper.

“So, why a touch screen tv?”

“Well, I doubt it will be practical, but you cannot buy prebuilt touch screens the size of a television meaning that I must build the touch screen up from scratch. For some of the more delicate pieces this school has a static free room which I can reserve for an hour or two. Which has been honestly wonderful.”

“Did Mike hold a similar interest in engineering?”

“No, he was much more fascinated in linguistics.”

Rick nodded, “but you have an overlapping interest in linguistics as well?”

“No, I found it a bit boring.”

“But you were in the linguistics club with Mike?”

“Yeah,” Danny nodded “I met him there, he was two years behind me. I joined the club for my last two years because I needed the credits and I had heard the teacher could be a pushover.”

“Was he?”

“Oh yeah, if I felt lazy and didn’t do the work, I would complain of a belly ache and he would still give me credit.”

“Well, Mike who you met in that class…” Rick tried to readjust in the uncomfortable chair. “He has been reported missing and I was hoping you might have some information that will help.”

Danny pulled out some of the paper he was sitting on and threw them on the floor. “I haven’t talked to him in days.”

“Which you mentioned but was there anything unusual the last time you talked to him?” Rick pressured.

“He, uh.” Danny crossed his legs. “He seemed; he seemed fine.”

“You don’t sound very sure about it.”

“He mentioned something about investigating something at the Nextian Academy.”

“Anything else?”

Danny looked up and took a deep breath to steady himself. “Honestly, I do not know where Mike is beyond that, ok. I wish I could help but I cannot. Are you satisfied?”

 Rick stayed silent, waiting, letting Danny feel uncomfortable, seeing if he would say something to fill the silence.

 “He found out something he shouldn’t have.” Danny spoke quietly,” about, about the Ethel family’s amulet.

“Do you know any other detail?”

“I’m sure Mar- Mrs. Ethel and the Ethel estate will turn up something more substantive.” He looked around nervously, “I don’t know what happened to Mike, but please, find him.”

Rick felt annoyed, this “lead” Martha had given him had been nearly pointless, the only new thing he had learned was something about an amulet. Sighing, he stood up thanked Danny for his time and assured him that he would do his best to find Mike then left.

Dusk would be coming in a few hours, so Rick decided to head home. Tomorrow he would go to the Ethel house.