no go

i'd gotten in touch with my buddy mike the librarian, who i hoped could help me with my current problem.

the pack of the primordial feather was in town, and i had to find them. not that i wanted to really. however my mysterious informer from inside the pack, ruffled feather, insisted they had to be found, and more to the point the crate they were trying to hide.

once i found the primordials and their crate i wasn't sure what was going to happen. not that at moment it was an issue. i had no clue where they were!

that was of course where mike came in... so i headed over to his place. letting myself in, what he left it unlocked! i found mike busy working on his puter.

looking up mike let out a startled. "traumador?!?"

"hi mike!" i happily greeted back, not thinking about his surprise.

"what are you doing here?" mike demanded.

"coming to see how you're doing," i answered. i quickly added. "the door was unlocked, so i figured it was okay i come in."

"no, i mean what are you doing here?!? i have never invited you to my apartment before! how did you know i lived here!" he stated.

oh right that... i guess this was the second time i'd ambushed mike this week. "i looked up your address."

"it's not listed in the phone book," mike warily stated.

"i know!" i whole-heartedly agreed, that made it a bit harder to find mike's place. "i just phoned your library and told them it was an emergency."

"you called my work?" mike stated in horror.

"yeah, and your coworkers are really nice and friendly," i assured him, man i wish my former coworkers had been that fun. they were laughing throughout the whole tale of my adventures with the pack and their stupid crate.

mike shook his head. "how did you even think to do that?"

"you taught me," i complimented him, but that just seemed to make him more upset.

mike stopped and collected himself. "okay, what do you want traumador?"

"to find the pack," i said in an obvious manner.

"well," mike went all sour again. he needs to lighten up if you ask me. "i have had no luck on that mark. i haven't been able to find a trace of them."

i grew slightly disappointed and worried. "so you don't think they are here?"

"quite the contrary!" mike countered me, and started clicking away on his puter. "seriously i can find no trace of the pack in calgary. there should be some sort of clues or tidbits left behind to indicate whether they have or haven't been here sometime. ever."

i looked at him puzzled, prompting him to explain. "no matter what you do nowadays, the instant you do, or in many cases do not do, something it leaves behind information in various nooks and crannies in "the system". even if you are unaware of it."

"really?" i asked kind of scared.

"its why we call it the information age," mike informed me. "and as it is my job to retrieve information, i should be able to find some trace of the primordials in regards to calgary one way or another. only there isn't any."

"where can we look instead?" i was trying to think if the pack worked with anyone we could call for their address...

"you're missing the point, traumador," mike corrected me. "i have looked in all sorts of places. there isn't a single fragment about the pack anywhere," i blinked dumbly at him. "they have systematically gone through every system and removed themselves from the calgary grid. the only reason you would do that is if you were around but trying to hide."

"so we're finished," i stated in defeat.

"no," mike again corrected me. "we've only gotten started. at least if you are serious about this. removing information, ironically leaves new information, i just have to find it and reverse engineer it back to the source."

"cool!" i perked up... though why i was as excited as i was, worried me a bit. it was my hunter instincts kicking in, and i could feel the hunt that was coming... i went to sit down beside mike.

"what do you think you're doing?" mike asked me.

"sitting down?" i answered unsure if it was the right answer.

"not if you are, again, actually serious about finding the pack," mike told me. "i will eventually find a trace of them, but without some sort of triangulation it could take days, weeks, months, maybe even the whole year," that prospect suddenly worried me. "i need you to go do some leg work in the dinosaur community."

"there isn't really a community of vivus dinosaurs around here," i tried to explain to mike. the only place near calgary with a large population of dinosaurs was drumheller.

"i know that," mike stated slightly frustrated. "obviously i didn't teach you enough about information retrieval. a little can be a lot. i don't need you to find a lot of dinosaurs. i just need you to talk to anyone or anything that knows a lot about dinosaurs. surely you know some people in town who deal with dinosaurs or fossils. you need to see if they have heard anything about the pack. that way i'll have a better idea of where to narrow the search."

as a matter of fact i did. that and i'd been meaning to look them up anyway. that settled that, it was time to look up some more old friends...

to be continued... by going to university!