join patreon for update and advance 40+ chapters
"Sheldon was fired?" Ron turned to the other scientists. "So, is your university throwing a big celebration party tonight?"
"Absolutely," Howard nodded.
"Ron!" Mary glared at her second son disapprovingly. "I don't remember raising you to treat your brother that way."
Ron waved dismissively. "Don't get mad, Mom. I'll march over to their school and stick my Glock in their dean's mouth until he rehires Sheldon.
I just want to know—what did he do this time?"
Leonard whispered, "He publicly humiliated the new dean at the faculty welcome reception."
"Of course he did," Ron said, slapping his forehead. Sheldon had been precious since childhood, everyone's golden boy. But he had a razor-sharp tongue and zero self-awareness.
Ron could practically picture the scene—how mortified the dean must have felt under Sheldon's brutal verbal assault.
But in his opinion, firing Sheldon was just a knee-jerk reaction. Sheldon was a brilliant scientific mind, and no administrator worth his salt would fail to recognize that. If he couldn't see it, he didn't deserve the position.
Ron figured that if he just sat back and let Sheldon continue being Sheldon, the dean would find a way to bring him back eventually. After all, researchers of Sheldon's caliber were gold mines that every university fought over.
If Ron remembered correctly, Caltech had already been courting Sheldon with a better offer.
Of course, that was just a thought—Ron wasn't about to tell Mary that and get another lecture.
"Ron, that's too aggressive. This isn't East Texas. I think a more diplomatic approach would be better. Do you think I should speak with his dean?"
Mary considered her options thoughtfully. Ron wasn't really listening at first, but suddenly he snapped to attention and stopped her. "No! Mom, I think I should handle the dean myself. If that doesn't work, I have contacts at MIT. If Sheldon wants to do research there, I can make some calls."
It wasn't that Ron had suddenly become less busy, but he remembered that something had happened between Mary and Sheldon's dean in the original timeline—though that was after George had died and she'd been widowed for years. George was alive and well now.
But Ron, believing in the principle of avoiding unnecessary complications, decided to handle it himself. He didn't want his father, a high school football coach in Texas, to end up wearing horns.
"MIT? Please," Sheldon scoffed dismissively. "What's the difference between that and a community college?"
Howard's face immediately fell, since he was an MIT graduate and the only one in their group without a PhD—which seemed to confirm Sheldon's assessment that MIT was basically a trade school.
Ron patted Howard's shoulder consolingly.
"Alright, I'll go talk to your dean, but only if Sheldon apologizes first." Ron spread his hands helplessly, indicating he had no other choice.
"Impossible! I'd rather conduct research from home than grovel to that intellectual peasant!"
Probably because he had Mary there for backup, Sheldon's defiance was particularly fierce.
"Well, my brilliant genius, what groundbreaking research have you been doing at home these days?"
"Scrambled eggs, luminescent fish, glow-in-the-dark feminine hygiene products, and macramé..." Sheldon counted his recent projects on his fingers. While none had yielded publishable results, Ron was genuinely impressed by the scope.
"The glowing fish I get, but can you explain the glow-in-the-dark tampons? Are you worried women won't be able to locate their feminine products in the dark and insert them incorrectly?"
Ron was speechless at his eccentric brother's daily brainstorms. If they weren't blood relatives, he would have wanted to stick a gun to Sheldon's head and let the bullets scramble that brilliant brain of his.
Ron suppressed his irritation and turned away from Sheldon. Addressing Mary, he said, "Mom, you know how Sheldon is. The university wouldn't fire him without cause. Actually, we all know exactly why they did it. If Sheldon doesn't apologize, there's no way he's getting back in, and we all know he's in the wrong here."
Ron spoke with such conviction that even Mary, despite her obvious favoritism toward Sheldon, was a reasonable woman. She sighed. "Then we'll do it your way. Sheldon will go with you tomorrow to apologize. I'll just visit the Wolowitz house to meet that boy your father speaks so highly of."
"Mom!" Sheldon protested anxiously. "I—"
"Sheldon!" Mary said firmly. "You will apologize with your brother tomorrow! Otherwise, you're grounded until I say you're not!"
Sheldon finally capitulated.
With the matter settled, it was time for a pleasant breakfast. Ron ate heartily and made good time, then returned to his room to catch up on sleep until noon before dragging his tired body back out.
The DEA task force that Hank belonged to was in session, discussing their current case.
"There's been some serious action down in El Paso lately. Border Patrol stumbled onto a multiple homicide. A truck was torched, packed with bodies, and the cab was like a goddamn crematorium. You can't imagine how horrific that scene was!"
"Border Patrol's been playing cat and mouse with these smugglers for years, but this time, they got hit hard as soon as they crossed. We're talking about a driver and nine undocumented immigrants. No sign of the shooters. But there was more than just people in that truck."
Hank was briefing the team when an agent asked, "So what are we looking for? Meth? Cocaine?"
Hank paced the room. "Neither. This doesn't look like a drug transport."
"Then why did Border Patrol kick this to us?" the agent asked, confused.
"They didn't. I requested jurisdiction," Hank suddenly turned to address the room. "I think this is cartel leadership making a statement—maybe the Juárez organization. The question is, how did this level of violence reach our side of the DMZ?"
"I'm thinking they're either sending a message, clearing a route, or maybe one of those border crossers saw something they shouldn't have and got silenced for it."
Ron pushed through the door and strolled in confidently. He grabbed the coffee cup that another agent, Gomez, was handing to Hank and drained it. "Sorry for eavesdropping outside for so long."
But there wasn't a trace of embarrassment on Ron's face.
(End of Chapter)
join patreon for update and advance 40+ chapters
https://www.p-atreon.com/c/Soulforger
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)
"If you're enjoying this story, don't forget to drop a Power Stone! Your support keeps me motivated and helps the novel reach more readers."
"100 Power Stones this week = 1 extra chapter release!"
"500 Power Stones = bonus side story."