AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

Think small, think small, he repeated to himself. He only managed to get about a foot into the crack and stalled. Think small and back out, think small and back out, he now thought. His mental mantra accelerated as panic started to set in.
    He suddenly found himself out of the crack and saw the cops, firefighters, mother and two others, probably building tenants, all looking at the crack and all starting to crowd the opening again.
    He connected with his partner’s terminal again. “Linda, no luck, I’ll try again but tell everyone to keep back from the opening.” She said nothing to him but ordered everyone away from the crack again.
    This time Munroe started from much farther back and willed himself to charge the opening. He screamed the berserker scream he hadn’t used since college football days.
    This time momentum drove him at least four feet into the crack but he was slowing down and he could feel his stretched essence reforming itself. He came to a stop about six feet into the crack. He could see back toward the others and knew they were already blocking his exit. And he could see through to the Zuni side where another cop was shining his flashlight through the crack. But he could also look down into the gloom of the crack and could now tell that a void opened below the other building. He tried other wavelengths but saw little more than a rubble-strewn surface that appeared to be about three feet below what must have been the foundation footing of the other building.
    Jason, he yelled, forgetting for a second about his situation. He couldn’t help but remember the times he’d gone looking for missing kids during his days as a beat cop.
    He tried moving forward and thinking small with little success. It was a weird feeling for him. Without a body and the innate sense of that body that the living enjoyed, it almost felt like he wasn’t trapped. It felt more like what he imagined a paralyzed person must feel: not restrained but simply unable to move. He looked up and saw the spotlight far above him, shining through the crack. As it moved back and forth, it almost gave the impression that the crack was closing.
    By now the daylight was gone and Munroe suddenly realized he’d been stuck for several minutes. Well this is stupid. What if there is a kid trapped down here … along with me.
    He was still at least 10 feet from where the void began. He tried the “think small and move forward” mantra again but quickly gave up.
    I just need to go from here to there, he thought, without being anywhere in-between. Which sounds just like the crap from that woman who gave the motivational talks at the Seattle PD. He’d been required to go to her seminars because the captain liked her. She liked to talk about the difference between effort and intent and how the former can get in the way of the latter. Which also sounds like the stuff Linda talks about after one of her aikido classes. Of course, for a woman who’s always talking about flowing with your opponent she sure can take a suspect down.
    So all I have to do is desire to be there and not here, he said to himself. And he moved, a little. Encouraged, he tried repeating the words with greater urgency, but didn’t move.
    OK, what did I do different? All I said the first time was I want to be there. And he moved again, a little further this time. He felt a surge of optimism but refrained from repeating his thoughts.
    Don’t blow it. Relax. I obviously can’t force it. I’ve simply got to desire to be there.
    And he was. He was free. Or more precisely, he was now in the void below the other building, with no more than three feet of clearance, but he felt free. It was very dark and he shifted to infrared.
    Now he could tell that the void extended far under the building. Above him, he could see the underside of the concrete floor of the basement of the building. Below, he could see small pebbles or little log shapes that covered the ground. Oh joy, cat shit, he thought.
    He moved forward. The clearance dropped to about two feet and once to a little more than a foot. He could see a few hot spots above him, probably the heating system of the building or a hot water tank. One glowing line that he had to rise over was probably the sewer pipe. He lifted himself over the sewer pipe and suddenly fell because the ground dropped sharply on the other side of the pipe. He fell maybe five feet and found himself in a large pit with steeply sloped sides. At the bottom of