close as he dared, loosed two of them. They fell short, and Brody fumed at his stupidity, forgetting he needed to com- pensate for the trajectory of the ordinance, and came around for another pass. His wingman, RAIDER-2, also missed, which further irritated Brody since he was going to hear about their failures in the debrief. He told the remaining pair to break off,
which they did before attacking, but then something happened that he had only ever heard about. The last plane in this element, RAIDER-3, suddenly fell from the sky in a puff of smoke and flash. He lost confi - dence and broke off his intended pass, ordering the rest of the flight to rejoin him and then nothing – the mission abruptly ended. He tried to restart the game, but nothing changed. Confused and soaked in sweat, he stumbled into the kitchen, fumbling in the cupboards as if looking for something. Hearing the commotion, Mabel confronted him. Mabel: [ calling to him ] Brody, Brody! [ he turned wild-eyed ] What’s the matter? Brody: [ he looked at her confused, eyes not recognizing her immediately ] Wha? I, uh, [ long pause, his eyes dilated from the greenie ] we got any cookies?
Mabel: [ concerned ] Get a seat, k? I’ll get you something.
Brody did as told like a school boy, sitting down at the table looking di- sheveled. She had not seen him like this very often and he was clearly under the influence of something, so Mabel tried to be careful not to alarm him. After a half dozen sugar cookies and deep gulps of chocolate milk, he seemed restored. Yet his grey t-shirt looked like he just finished
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