1: Fast Eddi - The Perry Problem

Eddi didn't know how much time had passed, but from the look on the boy’s face, it was most probably a very long time. Or a very short time. It was increasingly hard for her to judge these days. What was obvious was that the boy had not understood anything that she had just said. 

Remembering her mother's advice, Eddi stopped speaking and took a deep breath. She counted to ten, which seemed to her to take absolutely ages, but the boy was still standing in front of her when she had finished, so she assumed that it could not have been that long.

Ten seconds. 

She tried again. 

"Hello," she said. "My name's Eddi." 

"How'd you do that?" said the boy. "That was sick!" 

"Sorry," said Eddi. "I was in a hurry. It sometimes takes me a little while to change down from  hyper-mode. Didn’t mean to freak you out!" 

"You were like, 'blurggh-blurrgh-blurgh-blurrgh!'" burbled the boy, flailing his arms around. "It was like you weren't really real or something. It was mad, bro!" 

Eddi winced with embarrassment, then hastily changed the subject. "I'm looking for someone,” she said, “A boy, about your age." Eddi got out her phone and scrolled through her photos, looking for the one that Delores had sent her. "I was wondering if you might have seen him about?" 

"I ain't seen him," said the boy, suddenly defensive. 

"I haven't even shown you the picture yet," said Eddi. "Look, he's not in trouble. You're not in trouble. His mum's worried about him. That's all. She asked me to check that he's OK." 

She found the photo and held up the phone. 

"That's Perry," said the boy. 

"You seen him?" said Eddi. 

"Nah, he goes to my school. Used to. Not seen him for time. How you know Perry?" 

"My mum knows his mum," Eddi explained. "I've never met him. He's been missing for over a week. Do you know any of his friends? Somewhere he might stay?" 

"Who you talking to?" said a new voice from behind Eddi.  She turned to find a group of six, slightly older boys - around sixteen or seventeen - looking her up and down in disgust. 

"She's looking for Perry," said the younger boy, whom Eddi had been chatting to. 

"Hello," said Eddi, "I'm..." 

"I know who you are," said the oldest boy, with a sneer. It was clear that he was the leader of the group, and from the look of him, had a big issue with Eddi being there. "You're that Fast Eddi. I seen you, yeah? You're a fed!" 

"No, I’m not," said Eddi. "I mean, 'yes', I am Fast Eddi. But, I'm not a 'fed'. I'm just doing a favour for Perry's mum. You haven't seen him around have you? Perry?" 

"This is our ends!" shouted the oldest boy. "Y’want me to shank you, fam!?" 

"No, look," said Eddi. "You've really got this all wrong..." But, the oldest boy was not listening. He reeked of stale skunk and Eddi could see the fear glistening in his glassy eyes. She would have left there and then had the oldest boy not, at that exact moment, decided to pull out a knife. 

Once upon a time, Eddi would have taken the time to talk the boy out of this course of action. If she had put in any effort, she would have most likely succeeded too. He was, after all, just some stoned, paranoid kid.

But, Fast Eddi just didn't have that sort of patience anymore.

She left him with his laces tied together, his jeans around his ankles and his knife dropped down the nearest drain. She had also confiscated the remainder of the bag of weed that he had hidden inside his hoodie. Cannabis no longer had any effect on Eddi; she just metabolised it too quickly now. The weed would go to her mother, who used it for her arthritis.

Wrestling with the moral conundrum of whether or not to use her hyperspeed to check all the groups’ phone contacts, without their consent; Eddi justified it to herself as the price the boys had to pay for pulling a knife on her. 

She was in luck. One of them had a number for someone called 'Perry'. It was different from the one Delores had given her, which could have meant that it was a different Perry altogether. It would not hurt to check.

All of this took Eddi around half a second. 

When she had finished, she ran up the side of the nearest tower block, decelerated close to normal speed, then peered down onto the street. The look of bemusement on the faces of the gang, due to Eddi's sudden disappearance, was funny enough. Their laughs at the expense of their fearless leader, falling flat on his face, was absolutely priceless. 

Eddi stifled a laugh and ducked out of sight. Sitting down, her back against the wall, she noticed that there was a missed call from her mother and a new direct message from someone else.

The message was from Doctor Zachariah Brinkman.

Eddi took half a second to read the message and then double check it, two hundred times. It seemed perfectly legitimate. It really had been sent from Brinkman. Eddi laughed out loud, and then immediately phoned her mother.

"Mm! Yrnrgsswt! Ijssss!" said Eddi as her call connected.

"Eddi, darling," said her mother. "Change down, love. You're not making any sense. Take a breath."

Eddi took a breath and started to count.

"Now, listen, while you are counting," her mother went on, not missing a beat, "Delores has just left, she's calmed down a bit. She kept saying how she is such a bad mother. I told her, it's not her fault and I was sure Perry would turn up when he's good and ready. I mean, she does spoil that boy, so it really is her fault, of course. But I didn't say as much to her. You haven't found out anything, have you?" 

"I've asked around," said Eddie, finishing her countdown. "I've got a phone number. I'm still on it. But, listen! Mum! You'll never guess what! I got a DM from Zac Brinkman!" 

"From whom, dear?" said her mother.

"You know! Doctor Brinkman! Your favourite!" said Eddi, laughing.

As the penny dropped, her mother's tone of voice changed. It shifted from the, 'Come along, Edina' pitch, she reserved for her only daughter, and deepened to the register she used whenever she took notice of a, 'delightful young man.' 

"Why is Doctor Brinkman messaging you, dear?" her mother wondered. It was a gentle provocation that her daughter ignored. "Because we're in the same line of work, of course, Mum," said Eddie. 

"You're not a scientist," said her mother. 

"Not that line of work," said Eddi. "You know, the 'costumed altruist' line of work?" 

Her mother tutted. "He doesn't wear a costume, Eddi," she said. 

"He's always in bottle-green," Eddi protested. "He wears bottle-green with red accents. Remember, he had that dark green velvet jacket, and sort of claret-y shirt at that awards ceremony we watched? And then that red vest and khaki shorts on that documentary? It's the 'Brinkman Brand'." 

"I remember the red vest," said her mother, wistfully. "He really doesn't dress anything like you, dear." 

Eddi was not going to be drawn on this again. The lycra and trainers she wore were the same as any other runner in Avalon City would wear. The goggles stopped her from getting crap blowing in her eyes, whenever she was moving at hyperspeed. The gilet had pockets for her phone, her keys and her emergency cash. It was a look that was both practical and distinctive. 

"Anyway!" said Eddi. "He's organising a sort of meeting of other local mods, to see if we can't pool our resources. Help each other out. Cover each other on bank holidays and what not." 

"I see," said her mother, struggling against the urge to sound impressed. 

"At least he's taking me seriously," said Eddi. 

"I do take you seriously, Eddi darling," her mother insisted. "I just worry. After what happened..." 

"I am turning that negative into a positive, Mum!" Eddi reminded her. 

"Yes, I know, darling, It's wonderful!" her mother agreed, backpedaling to avoid restarting the old arguments. "You should phone him straight away! Go on! I'll speak to you later, love. I love you!" 

"Love you, Mum!" said Eddi, and cut the call. 

Eddi grinned. She took another deep breath and began to psych herself into phoning Brinkman’s number. It was no big deal. She was just doing what she had been asked to do; to call Doctor Zachariah Brinkman, the Saint of Avalon City!

She swallowed and made the call.

It went straight through voicemail. Obviously. 

Eddi left a slightly rambling message, then wondered if she should have deleted it and tried a more sensible one. It was too late by then. Had she blown it?

She decided not to dwell on it and returned to her Perry problem. Eddi tried the phone number that she had got from the boys on the street. It rang for a very long time (probably) before a panicked girl's voice answered. "Who’s that?" she said.

"Hello," said Eddi. "I'm a friend of Perry's mum? Perry Trencher? His mum has not seen him for a while and is getting a bit worried. Have you seen Perry recently?" 

The girl started crying. 

"Hey, don't worry!" said Eddi. "You're not in any trouble! I'm here to help. We've got to find Perry. Make sure he's safe. What's your name, sweetheart?" 

"Jade," said the girl. "This phone is running out of battery." 

"Where are you, Jade?" said Eddi. "Can I come and talk to you? My name's Eddi" 

Jade said that she was at the playground by the duck pond in St. David's Park, about a mile away from Eddi's current position.

Eddi found Jade, sat alone on the swings, before they had even finished their phone call.  

Jade was about fifteen, dressed in a grubby tracksuit, with her hair tied in a ponytail. She was pasty skinned and looked like she had not eaten for a week. 

Jade got up to leave as soon as she saw Fast Eddi appear at the edge of the deserted playground. Eddi intercepted her, taking a few minutes for Jade to calm down, slowly convincing her that she could be trusted. It was clear that Jade was desperate. Eventually, Eddi convinced her. This was only because Jade did not know what else she could do. 

They sat on the swings and Eddi listened as Jade told her what she knew. 

Perry had been an old boyfriend of Jade's. She had broke it off with him when he started to run errands for a local, petty crook, who lived on the same estate as him, someone called 'Ish'. 

Ish had paid Perry in weed. Jade had stayed friends with Perry - Eddi suspected Jade didn't have that many friends, and couldn't afford to be too choosy. Perry had asked her to hang onto his spare phone, so his mum didn't get suspicious. 

"When did you last see him?" Eddi asked. 

"A week ago," said Jade. "He said he had a new job, but he wouldn't say what it was." 

"With this Ish guy? Who gave him the weed?" said Eddi.

"Nah," said Jade. "Ish came round looking for Perry a few days later. He was really angry. Said that Perry had ripped him off. Said he would kill Perry if he found him!" 

"Where does this Ish bloke live?" said Eddi.

Jade shook her head. "He got nicked," she said. "Police raided him a couple of nights back. He's banged up. Perry's involved in something else now. Something proper dark. I don't know what, but he was really weird when I last seen him." 

"In what way?" 

"He was talking about Zilch." 

"Zilch? Zilch is dead." 

"Perry says he isn't. Perry says Zilch is coming back. This time, Zilch is gonna kill everyone." 

Fast Eddi sighed. 

Perry, like many a teenage weed-head, was clearly a conspiracy nut. According to them, Zilch never died, never existed, faked the moon landings, did Roswell, chemtrails and climate change. 

Zilch had been real enough - a particularly nasty criminal, with an admittedly powerful brand identity, and modifications to match. But, Zilch had died, very publicly, thirty years ago. The credulous and the paranoid had then spent the next three decades forecasting his return.

Eddi reached into her pocket and handed Jade her emergency £20. "Buy yourself something to eat, Jade" said Eddi. "Now you’ve got my number. If Perry gets in touch, or if you remember anything else that might help, or if you just want a chat about anything at all, give me a call, yeah?"

Jade nodded, pocketed the money, then wandered off across the playground and disappeared into the estate. Eddi's phone buzzed. She checked the caller.

It was Brinkman!

Eddi jumped to her feet and said, “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodomygod!” several thousand times. If anyone had been near enough to hear it would have sounded as if she were emitting a very high-pitched whine. 

Eventually, Eddi answered the call. "Hello, Doctor Brinkman!" she said, sounding surprisingly professional. "Eddi, I am so sorry that I missed your call," said Brinkman. "Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. Listen, we've got a bit of a problem here that I think you may be able to help us with." 

Eddi laughed slightly too loudly. "Yeah, sure!" she said, "Whatever you need! No problemo!" She winced. No problemo?

"We have a situation here," said Brinkman. "It could really do with someone of your expertise. How soon do you think you could come?" 

"I can come right now," said Eddi. "Whereabouts are you?" 

"Do you know the disused Lovington Tube station?" 

"Near the gasworks? Yeah, I know where you mean.” 

Eddi knew that part of town only too well. Although she had not been back there since…

 “I'm on my way," said Eddi.

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Chapter 2 in two weeks!