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[Below Par]

I've had better days. Every trick I've known, every contact I've worked with, every other resource I could use to track this place down and . . . nothing. In fact it's as if I'm wearing a sign telling everything and everyone to put as much distance between myself and them as possible. My accounts were frozen too and the stashes of credit I put aside for emergencies are drying up fast. Speaking of which, time to soak the patch again. Just a drop of the stuff in a lot of water and leave the patch to soak for an hour then apply. Been doing it twice a day and the scar's healed to the best it can. There's not much to keep me going though. I don't even know if I'm using too much, enough or too little or even how much was in my present to start with.

That's not the only thing I didn't know to start with. How dumb could I have been ! I thought that Cambridge or the Sigmas would be the ideal places to find out more about what a research facility would need in terms of supplies or on board equipment but, everywhere I went, I only had sat down in the bar before large people with larger guns were looking around for someone. I swear I was followed all the way to Kusari. Right into that KNF patrol. That was fun. In fact it was funny, I felt like a kid again, being chucked out of a club for trying to get in with a fake ID. "Illicit materials for personal use" is what they called it. Goes to show though that the good honorable people of Kusari might have the right idea. No fines or firefight, just leave the system for your folly.

Folly, that's what this has been from the start. One guy'd be able to get the story of the century by him self in some super secret lab. One guy'd be able to fix some strange scar from a stranger scratch from an even stranger again set of circumstances. Talking to those . . . guys? People? Person? First I lose a stone and a half in my trousers when they just appear then, out of all the fight or flight in my head at the time I rage and ramble at them like a dribbling looney. Nice going. Great guesswork but terrible follow through.

That's also all I've been doing. Guessing. Why was I so sure about things before ? Have I always just been wrong ? Too wrapped up in myself to see I'm just not as good as I think, or thought, I am? Wait ! That's it ! I was wrong ! Wrong about who I'm looking for, the papers were wrong too ! Where is it ? I've still got one, grabbed it running through the back offices when I doubled back to the hangar. . . gotcha !

Look at you Mr Piece Of Paper. You're a very light green. The papers in that mystery place were white ! Of course they were ! Who's going to build a super secret lab and use corporate headed notepaper, but the paper itself . . . you can't just put in an order for delivery to 'No.1 Secret Lab, just off ring 4, Manhattan Trade Lane'. You'd deliver it somewhere else first then move it on. You'd have to use paper too, keep it as low tech as you could. That office I stumbled into, there were only 4 VDU's so only maybe one closed loop console in the whole place. If I could get a hold of some details on who's been ordering a lot of paper lately. No, wait a minute. I'm cut off from almost everything and everyone now. I'm radioactive. I'd never be able to go round all the low tech distributors and get the info I'd need.

Radioactive. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Well, actually 'cause everything's radioactive. That's how carbon dating and all that stuff works. Decay of . . . thing . . . and . . . umm . . . . something? I don't think I learned that at school. Did I even go to school? Odd. Can't remember that just now. Probably just with so much going on with the scar and the transport and the lab and all the rest. Shame I can't just carbon date all of that to get the answers. Scan it in and bingo ! All done ! Actually why couldn't I ? I might have been getting it wrong all this time, the answer's been staring me in the face ! Sort of. Different things at different places at different times. Nail down the timeline and I've got a shot at working out the rest.

Well, I can work it out but I'm gonna need some help. Two problems though. First I've been given a little gift to help me already. Second I'm not sure how happy they were after talking to me. Hardly the ideal conditions for them to be feeling generous. Then again, I've been wrong about so many things up to now, maybe I'm wrong about that too ? Only way to find out is to give them a call. Or, find out how to give 'em a call then give 'em a call.