Sleeping Dogs Lie

Chapter Thirty

I have figured out how to make Snap.

Sure, maybe it doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal or anything, but believe me, it's HUGE. If the Snappers ever find out that I know what I know – or, more to the point, whatever entity is controlling the Snappers – I'm pretty sure I'd be a goner.

And I'm already having enough trouble sorting through everything that went on last night with Sander and Aaron and the other building and that poor, anonymous woman on Gemma's Sector.

So I'm thinking it's probably best to just sit back on some of this info and keep it on the down-low for now.

And besides, it's not like I'm planning to go snag a Bunsen burner and start cooking up some Snap for myself. It's a tad trickier than anything a one-man, bathroom junkie lab would be able to produce anyways. But I have figured out the whole "how-to" of the operation. And I'm pretty sure I could make it if I ever had the proper tools and materials. And if the right fancy ever took me.

But I don't need to go hashing out the long-and-short of how and where I'd do it.

Honestly, I am working on such a small amount of sleep right now, that I can barely remember my name. After I left that poor woman on Sector 4 last night, I managed to make my way safely back up to my room – I think.

At least, there's been a whole lot of radio silence from everyone so far today. Aaron. Sander. Larry Lawrence. I either haven't heard from any of them (the first two) or have barely spoken to them (the last one). I wish I could at least see Aaron at work, so I'd know if he's suspicious of me or whatever. But he's been nowhere to be seen all day. I suppose if he thought I were up to something, he'd have found some way to torch my ass down in his lair, but all I found down there for me was instruction on work to complete, and a DVD with a video of some green shit growing at the Farms.

I couldn't even watch his video.

I don't even feel like his friend any more. Not after all this sneaking around I'm doing behind his back.

Besides, I was too busy during my time in the lair figuring out how to make Snap, anyways.

I was totally right, by the way. About Aaron's access to the Snappers' Attic? He's got that place covered like a new mother swaddling her firstborn son.

It's a strange, dark place with a lot of cavernous rooms. And those people over there don't seem to pick up their trash at all. Yuck.

It seems like most of them spend a lot of time in this one huge room that has a bunch of dirty mattresses spread out all over the floor. There's a movie screen in there, and they all just kind of loll around on those gross mattresses. I think they're too lost in Snap to really pay attention to whatever movie's on, though. I don't know – how do you focus on any one thing when your mind is constantly being liquefied by Snap? It really sucks away your will to do anything.

I know they have what are called "working Snappers" in the Hex, too. People like Sugar, whose systems have somehow leveled out on the drug so they can function in what might almost be considered a normal capacity. What I don't know is if they all hang out in that Attic with the rest of those lazy Snappers, or if they're actually a part of the Hex's normal everyday community. I haven't finished investigating the Snappers yet.

I also found the filthy lab where they manufacture their product. As dirty as their lab and equipment are, they seem to be high tech enough, and everything they're working with is computerized. Somehow, though, I don't think it runs through the Hex's main system like the equipment in the Med Tech does.