Treekenstein worked his way up to a full nineteen dimensions in theoretical and applied quaternion analysis.
Woodpile remained at his side, hiding behind the shack Little Jimmy used to work out of each time Treekenstein performed an intercrannial fusion.
The holographic generator sets that people around the world were watching not only displayed Treekenstein's activities, some of which were edited out, but pundits had started to report earth quakes and tidal waves that were happening around the world as well. They seemed to coincide with Treekenstein's operation of his intercranial fusion injector.
Treekenstein called Dr. Know.
Moments later a ball of light cracked across the now late afternoon. The light then spiraled downward and became a ball of smoke that slowly hovered down toward the picnic table where Treekenstein waited. Dr. Know emerged out of a cloud of steam and smoke to join Treekenstein at the table.
They spoke breifly. Woodpile was then ordered to hop into Dr. Know's hovercraft with Dr. Know and hover to Treekensein's palace.
All the young men and women at the palace knew Dr. Know. Woodpile and Dr. Know both ran down the long tall corridors to the room that contained the sacks of money. Woodpile found and opened the door of the room containing the sacks of taxpayer money for Dr. Know. Dr. Know ran in and back out with a sack full of money over his shoulder.
Dr. Know hovered them to where the press was, behind the mountain, where they were gathering their equipment to go home for the day. Dr. Know left Woodpile in his ultrasonic hovercraft and disappeared behind the steam and smoke. Woodpile heard him opening the compartment that contained the sack full of money.
Reports of earthquakes and tidal waves would soon disappear from holographic generator sets everywhere. The operation of the intercranial fusion injector would not be interrupted. Anyone who criticized Dr. Treekenstein would be ignored, if they couldn't be ignored, forced to meet an impossible standard in reputation. The public's faith in Dr. Treekenstein had to be protected, along with is plans, and at any cost.
8. Woodpile
The following day Woodpile ensured that Dr. Treekenstein had everything he needed for the days intercranial injections so that he could sneak away. He jumped into his old hovercraft and sped away to Treekenstein's palace.
Upon arrival, he was welcomed in by the softly dancing two young women at the door with a smile and a wink. Cetula juice was flowing freely and half dressed young starlets and stars were frolicking and chasing each other around and throwing handfuls of taxpayer money at one another as they downed bottles of cetula juice and smoked cetula leaf.
Some were in the now cetula juice filled swimming pool, others were dancing in the yard to the ancient music that filled the air. Woodpile decided to go to the fridge and grab himself a bottle of cetula juice.
On the fridge there was a note to remind Bubbles: "Don't forget to hide the trees.". At first it meant nothing. Woodpile wondered around the palace, both inside and out, to evaluate his various options if he spent the day there. He wondered if Treekenstein would ever get him, Chimney and Stone new hovercrafts or new holographic generator sets as he slowly drank in the opulence that surrounded him. His hovercraft was old, needed body work and sometimes would not start in the rain.
He decided to join the gang at the swimming pool and chase around, and capture a few of those young starlets for the day. After doing this for a while, the note on the fridge had entered his mind. What if Treekenstein was really merely a surgeon and deserved to be insulted by Little Jimmy? What did Little Jimmy actually do to deserve a six hundred and sixty six consecutive life terms imprisonment? He saw the interview on the holographic generator set, but he had an ex wife too and she too had a best friend.
He decided to leave, go back to work and get some clarity. He set his hovercraft for high altitude and sailed above the hoverway toward the lumberyard. He looked down and saw the hoverway flanked with dense bush and trees on either side. As he reached the lumberyard from above, he saw that it too was flanked by endless trees. The trees went on forever and covered the mountain sides. How did he not see this? Was what he was seeing actually real?
He decided to steer away from the lumberyard, and Dr. Treekenstein, and hover over to a nearby lake to sit by himself and to get some clarity. He settled down on an embankment and opened the lunch he had packed for his workday. From the corner of his eye he saw the sky darken above the lumberyard, another bolt of lightning connected Treekenstein's shack to the sky above. He could feel the ground shake, then he heard a sharp report of thunder several seconds later. He was suddenly drenched from a tidal wave that had developed in the lake. It washed his lunch away and almost dragged him into the lake. He looked around the lake edge and saw several trees had almost been washed away.
He had to re-evaluate his own belief system and not many people could do this, he had learned in an article in Regional Subjective magazine, written by Dr. Know. Once the human mind was made up it tended to stay that way, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Dr. Know had called it "plastic in nature". People in general, as well as himself, decided their beliefs then stayed comfortably in them.
Thoughts of his friend Little Jimmy scraped at the inside of his skull.
If there were so many trees, what was Treekenstein doing? He had heard the brief reports of Treekenstein's operations disturbing the environment from Treekenstein's scientists and engineers but he was told they had it under control and to stay quiet about it.
Drenched, he went back to his hovercraft and glided along the hoverway to his own home, where he could put on dry clothes. During the ride he had thought more of his friend, Little Jimmy, and how skeptical Little Jimmy was of the tree extinction, and of Dr. Treekenstein.
It would soon be break time for Little Jimmy and his fellow prisoners. Little Jimmy knew something about these intercranial fusion devices and he knew that Dr. Treekenstein, in his accelerated testing of the units, may have missed something. Little Jimmy might know what to do, how to stop Dr. Treekenstein.
He came up with a plan after he changed his clothes and returned to the lumberyard.
He found Treekenstein's communicator and called Dr. Know. He instructed Dr. Know by text to meet him behind the shack Little Jimmy used to work in. Dr. Know would expect to be greeted by Dr. Treekenstein behind the shack.
A bolt of lightning once again joined Treekenstein's shack to the heavens above under a darkened sky. Dr. Treekenstein ran to the outhouse across the lumberyard. A ball of light tore across the early afternoon sky, then spiraled down into a ball of smoke and landed behind Little Jimmy's old shack. Dr. Know emerged from the steam and smoke that covered the fast machine.
Woodpile clocked him with the shovel that rested at the side of the shack.
He jumped into Dr. Know's ultrasonic hovercraft, and disappeared in an explosion and into a ball of light, at twenty nine thousand four hundred and fifty three point two four miles per hour. He plotted a course over to an area far above the prison high enough he would not be seen by guards or prison staff. He spied the scene below with Dr. Know's binoculars that he had laying on the floor beneath his feet.
The prisoners were out in the courtyard, all huddled in a four hundred and fifty man huddle. Little Jimmy sat at the other end of the yard, awaiting is fate and wondering if he should even bother fighting back. He was a big thick guy, but so were some of them. Little Jimmy knew that all the guards had gone inside, to have plausible deniability in his fate.
He saw the ball of light rip across the sky above the other prisoners and towards him. It spiraled down into a ball of smoke and landed fifteen feet in front of him in a cloud of steam and smoke. All of the other prisoners were running back inside. Little Jimmy heard the hatch open and was expecting Dr. Know, perhaps an apology, or change of heart.
It was Woodpile. "Hurry up, get in!" "You're going to have to help me squeeze in Woodpile!" Woodpile popped the luggage compartment, jumped out, reached in and found a big stick. Woodpile poked and
prodded and levered to wedge Little Jimmy into the machine as the prisoners all ran inside, none of them looking back.
They disappeared in an explosion and in a ball of light on a course headed straight for the lumberyard.
Dr. Treekenstein sat in the injection chamber, turned the ignition. He stopped and took one more look around outside for Woodpile and then pulled the lever.
Lightening tore through a darkened sky. The ground began to shake. All the media and all the observers had their eye on Dr. Treekenstein's shack. No one noticed the ball of light and Dr. Know's ultrasonic hovercraft smoking and spiraling downward to land behind Little Jimmy’s work shed once again.
Little Jimmy and Woodpile climbed out and emerged from the steam and smoke to find Dr. Know laying on the ground, still unconscious. They ran into the woods leaving him there. From inside the woods, behind a giant stone, they watched Dr. Treekenstein as he ran across the lumberyard once again, holding on to the front and back of his pants, screaming and heading for the outhouse.
Little Jimmy had a plan. He had formulated the plan when he sat in his cell. He had nothing else to think about other than this and reading his books on intercranial fusion devices. He explained to Woodpile that he saw on the holographic generator set that Treekenstein had to