Chapter Thirty-Two
Lefty’s Strange Past
A few, short minutes later, the newly formed fellowship was barreling down the rural roads of Hollow Oak, in hot pursuit of their quarry. They had all piled into a large, bright blue van that Lefty kept in his garage. He explained that he used the vehicle for various experiments that he conducted in the field, when his laboratory would not be sufficient. As such, the van was crammed full of high-tech gear, electronic components, and scientific equipment.
With the eight of them, plus all the materials, the van was quite full. Squeezed between all the equipment were centerfielder and shortstop, pitcher and catcher, scientist and squirrel, Labradoodle and robot. It was, the Beans reflected, quite possibly the oddest team ever assembled in the history of the planet.
Lefty kept one hand on the steering wheel of the van, as it careened madly around the twists and turns of the roads, the headlights illuminating the night. With his other hand, he held his computer tablet. Much to the distress of the Beans, Lefty seemed to be spending a good deal of time examining the screen of the tablet, as opposed to the road before him.
“I say, they make these things remarkably durable nowadays, don’t they?” Lefty asked, indicating the tablet. It had suffered a few scratches during the previous commotion, but it was otherwise unscathed.
“Yup… but, um, the road, uncle!” Jack reminded him, as the van swerved into a bend.
Lefty didn’t seem concerned, for he was studying the tablet intently, as he nonchalantly spun the steering wheel this way and that. “Apparently, it failed to occur to those rattlebrained doorknobs from the Black Hats that I might have felt the need to install a GPS transmitter in the power cell. Now, all we have to do is follow the signal, which I can track with my navigation app!”
“Beep boop beep!” Noodles said with great enthusiasm.
The robot seemed quite passionate about catching Jasper and Ebenezer, for he had taken exception to their poor behavior. Not only had the villains ensnared him in a net and taken his life source, but they had also left his new friends beneath a whole pile of heavy junk.
Noodles eagerly looked out the windshield, his antennae ears twitching, as if trying to make the van travel faster through sheer will. He was crammed into the passenger seat, and his round, shiny head was bumping against the ceiling of the van. His lanky arms rested atop his gangly legs, his knees pressed against the dashboard.
“Who are these Black Hats that you keep mentioning?” asked Jack. “I mean, I realize it has something to do with Jasper and his crazy friend, but who are they, exactly?”
“Yeah, fill us in,” Sara encouraged. “We seem to have missed quite a bit.”
Neil groaned with regret, and woefully counted all the things he had missed, ticking them off on his fingers. “Jasper getting thrown by a break-dancing robot… super-smart squirrels… some dude in a jetpack crashing through the roof… ugh, how did I miss all this great stuff?”
“Well, we might be in for some adventure, yet,” Lefty said, voicing his optimistic opinion. “As far as the Black Hats are concerned, that is an interesting subject. Years ago, I worked in a government research unit that included my sister, Ebenezer, and Jasper.”
“Jasper?” Maria demanded. “Did you say Jasper? The evil school janitor? Are you sure about that?”
“Oh, yes! Though I’m sure it must be hard for you children to imagine, Jasper is a mechanical genius. He was one of our research unit’s finest engineers,” Lefty explained. There was a twinge of regret in his voice, as he reflected on those years gone by.
“Well, that… is pretty surprising,” Neil said.
He exchanged a worried glance with his friends, as if he once more feared for the integrity of Lefty’s noggin. It was almost impossible for the Beans to imagine Jasper doing anything other than waving his broom about, and yelling at them to stop scuffing his floors.
“Was your research unit working on the power cell?” Sara asked.
“Yes... Our mission was to capture the power of a star… to harness the energy of the sun that heats and lights our planet. Solar power is hardly a new idea, but our goal was to break through the ceiling that had limited our predecessors, and tap into the full potential of the sun.
“The energy of that fiery star is simply staggering, and if not for its presence, there would be no life on this planet. Yet, despite its enormous energy output, the human race has been forced to rely on antiquated combustion engines, and limited fossil fuels. Why would we continue to engage in such futile pursuits, when a ball of pure energy burns above our heads every day, just waiting to be put into use?
“Unfortunately, prior solar researchers had hit a wall. Solar power cells, like the one that Noodles uses, are not a new idea. In fact, you’ve probably all used calculators that are powered by such cells. The only problem with these cells is that they are only able to convert a very small percentage of the sunlight that they’re exposed to, transforming it into electricity. Our unit was determined to triumph over that barrier, and create a power cell that would revolutionize the world.
“The team consisted of two dozen scientists and engineers. Ebenezer and I worked side by side, feeding off of each other’s ideas, challenging each other to greater heights and breakthroughs. We were a marvelous duo! Unfortunately, Ebenezer has always had a tremendous ego, and been driven by the need to prove his genius to others. At first, I thought that this was a good aspect to his personality, as it drove him to work terrifically hard. Eventually, however, he became rather, ah… unhinged. And I had underestimated what lengths that powerful ego would drive him to.
“Those who were opposed to our project, of course, insisted that such efficient and useful technology could not be achieved. They claimed that it was impossible to harness such power from the sun. But what skeptics always fail to remember is that every technology that has been created by man was once considered impossible.
“Just think – those who lived in the time of the Wright Brothers told them that it was impossible for men to fly. But thanks to their pioneering efforts, traveling by airplane is now considered a commonplace aspect of our society. One day in the near future, it will be the norm for every human being on the planet to have access to clean, affordable energy… and we will laugh at the days when we thought such a thing was beyond our reach!
“With the minds that had been assembled in our unit, the research went smoothly, and our progress was startling. However… I would be remiss if I did not mention that we owed a great deal of our success to the intervention of some disruptive technology that assisted our efforts, and which proved immeasurably valuable… forcing us to examine things in a new light. And that is why my sister, with her expertise in biology and zoology, was assigned to our unit.”
“What?” asked Jack. He leaned forward, his curiosity engaged. Like the rest of the Beans, he was hanging on every word of this remarkable story, even as the van careened around corners, tires screeching. “What does that mean?”
Lefty gave a brief shudder, as if recalling some difficult memory. He then nodded his head toward the tablet, and said, “That, I’m afraid, is a rather long story, and we’re approaching our destination quite quickly. Let me accelerate this synopsis by telling you that our research continued to progress at a wonderful speed.
“However, as time went by, a vast disparity in ideologies began to arise between certain members of our team, and those that we answered to. Eventually… I had to leave the research unit. I left voluntarily, despite whatever rumors you may have heard to the contrary. When it became clear to me that the government would utilize our research for military applications, and to fuel their foolish war machines, I could no longer take part. Such was the complete opposite of what I had been led to believe the solar technology would be used for. My employers, of course, argued long and hard for me to stay, as did Ebenezer. But I was firm in my resolve.
“Just as I was about to make my exit, however, I stumbled upon an even m
ore disturbing revelation as to the motives of my colleagues… our research unit had abandoned its previous, unified vision. Within it, there had formed a secret splinter faction, determined to use the product of our research for its own, nefarious plans.
“We came to call them the Black Hats… a group of scientists who thought that there could be only one future for humankind, and that this future would belong to them. They planned to use the resources of the government, while secretly pursuing their own agenda. To my great dismay, I learned that they were led by none other than my close friend… Ebenezer.
“He tried to enlist me in the ranks of the Black Hats, but I found their goals and ideologies to be reprehensible. In turn, I attempted to steer Ebenezer from this dark path, but he was set in his ways, and his hunger for power could not be extinguished. When it became clear to him that I could not be swayed to his team, he went after my sister, trying to get her on board. Ebenezer felt that if my sister joined the Black Hats, I would follow her example.
“When she resisted his efforts to enlist her, Ebenezer became even more reckless. He realized that with the Black Hats having been revealed to both my sister and myself, it was only a matter of time before the government took action against his splinter group. Racing against time, he interfered with one of my sister’s most dangerous experiments, and that’s when something that none of us could have anticipated occurred. Ebenezer vanished, along with my sister. They disappeared… into the Void.”
The Green Beans, Volume 2: The Strange Genius of Lefty O'Houlihan Page 32
