On the Case

Author : N. Thomas Parshall

The Heinlein-Schrödinger gate changed everything. “Anything is possible” went from platitude to a reality.

Schrödinger’s cat theorized observation sets reality, and Heinlein’s world-as-myth theorized that thought sets many realities. They were both right, and it’s my job to track unauthorized crossings.

My name is Spade, and I’m a reality cop.

The call came in about non-here weapons and off we went. To the retirement home.

My partner, Garrett, rolled out his flying carpet, telling me it would be faster. He was right, but, I’m still not comfortable with things from the fantasy side. I climbed on and it was as bad as I thought. It was faster than my car, however.

We arrived at the gate to a reality protected neighborhood. The gate guard forced Garrett to trade his carpet for horses.

It was another quarter-mile to the crime scene. Garrett hates horses.

We arrived at the scene of the disturbance to find a pair of grown men slamming laser swords together. The sparks were impressive, and they had obviously practiced not actually hitting each other. But, the swords were from a proscribed as dangerous reality, and the damage each had done to property while missing the other was impressive.

When we made ourselves known they quit and turned over the swords. I had to have a kid from this reality familiar with the other show me how to turn them into non-lethal foot long batons.

That was my day.

Sometimes, I miss gorgeous dames, bullets, and bird statues.