MacCoyote

By Ebonhawk

This time of year I usually head up north and find some quiet stream and relax. The last couple of year that place has been 5 miles due north of a little town called Hilton Head. It may have be the next best thing to Eden left on Earth. Most of the town works for one of two employers - the Michelle's Paper Mill and Taylor’s Software Company. Every year this place gets a little less simple and a little more urban. This time I wasn’t doing there for just a vacation, this time it was business. I could only hope it would turn into a vacation.

“Hey, Mac. How is the nicest coyote in the world?”, came a booming voice. I turned around just in time to be thoroughly hugged by Jason Bean. He had the honor of being the biggest squirrel I had ever known. He was a good fur even if he was a little over affectionate.

I had to slip out of his friendly embrace so I could breathe again. Then I could respond, “I’m fine, J.”

“How is the old phoenix?”

“He is fine. He actually keeps saying how much he is looking forward to his Immolation day.”

“Is he going to go out as a single or double egg?”

“The word is he is going to fission so in a couple of years, phoenixes won’t be rare anymore.

“I’m going to miss his current incarnation though.”

“So will, I. But I didn’t put my vacation on hold to talk about the old bird with you, my friend.”

“Yes. That is why I asked you to meet me here.”

He lead me into the old mill building. The mill actually predates the town by a few years. The word permanence was perfect to describe the feeling the place gave me. The place was filled with monatos of the past. When he threw open the doors their was nothing inside. Gone was the presses and wood processing machines. Gone were almost two hundred years of this town’s live and a piece of the town’s soul.

“What happened?”, I asked.

“I locked up the shop on Monday night and was heading home when I remembered that I had left little Joe’s birthday card in my desk. I turned around and came back here. I found the place just like this. It took them less then a half hour to clean us out.”

As I walked the across the floor, the pads of my feet felt the smooth floor bellow me. I sniffed the around and I found not a scent to go on and not a trace of wood or single wood shaving was to be found. Every trace of the shop was gone. Tons of equipment gone in less time then it would take to move one piece of equipment.

“This is amazing work”, I said. “I wonder how they could pull it off.”

“Twice”

I was floored. But less then ten minutes later I was witness to the exact same at the software company. The place was stripped to the bear walls just the week before. Not even a scent to go on.

Jason tried to explain his though it was clearly hard for him to do so. “I figured that who ever was doing this wanted to really hurt our town. Loosing both our major businesses is bad but if we loose our bank this community is done for. Mac, we don’t know how to find the people that did this. I told your boss what was going on and he sent you. Can you help us, old friend?”

Jason was right. After hitting either of the two companies, they would net millions of dollars. Hitting the software company made sense - you can always sell a computer but milling equipment is fairly unique and even selling it as scrap metal would be noticed. This couldn’t be about just money, but the bank was the next most logical target. If the pattern were to hold it would happen a few minutes after closing.

Once we got to the bank, I spent the next four hours convincing the manager to allow us to stay in the security office with their head of security. We studied the closed circuit screens and then, five minutes after the manager left, it happened.

A little silver ball smashed through the window. The ball proved it was special by not falling to the ground. It just hovered in the air and then began to glow. Then I realized that it wasn’t the only thing growing. Everything else in the room was glowing as well. Then in a flash the monitor went dead. One minute later, the ball floated into the next room and the process repeated. At this rate, the bank and by extension the town would be lost inside of 10 minutes. I had to act fast.

I ran through the back as if my tail was on fire. I saw the ball in the next room when I thought about it for a second. The ball didn’t take the floor or the paint on the walls. I pulled out my penknife and ducked behind a slate gray desk. I had to move fast. I started to scraping the desk as I clawed at the floor with my feet. It felt funny but soon I had two important parts to my plan. All I had to do now was ad a few common cleaning chemicals in nearly the correct amounts pour it into a balloon that I carry with me and instant air soluble floating paint. When the ball came into the room I threw the ball just under the ball. As the paint rose, it revealed a fox holding the ball.

The moment that the fox realized that he was uncovered, he tried to run but he ran right into Jason - a very un-sympathetic Jason to be more correct. One punch from that squirrel was more the enough to knock the fox out cold.

Upon closer inspection, the fox turned out to be the former mayor of the town. He must have used his former position to order an Acme teleportation ball so that he could steal the town blind in revenge for voting him out of office. Once the ball was reprogrammed, we could find the place where the items were taken. I figure that will take me another week, sitting beside my favorite stream.