Dimensions. That's what Doctor Takagawa called them. Dimensions. Like something out of a corny old comic book. After six hours of prodding and poking me with a hundred different instruments, from the standard to the exotic, that was the best he could come up with. Dimensions. I'd had access to the things for years, and I figured the best term for what they really were had come from an old friend of mine, a professional thief who had a front job in the daylight world as a shrink, one of those therapist types. He called them Pockets.

Which was perfect, because that's exactly what they were. Pockets. You put stuff into them, carry it around and have easy access to it later. You never really think about where it goes, it just isn't in your hands anymore. It's out of your way; it's in your pockets.

It made stealing things really easy. That old friend had taught me all the tricks of the trade, but having the kind of pockets I did gave me an advantage. I was the only one that could open or close them, so when I got manhandled and searched by some of the less reserved salesmen and cops, they never found anything. No evidence, no case. I walked every time.

I also did a quick stint as a smuggler, but finding myself under the gun every time I picked up a shipment or unloaded it in some dusty warehouse was too much for me. I didn't need the money that bad.

‘Course, they begged me to keep working the route. I was the only guy that could walk across the border dressed in nothing but shorts and a Hawaiian shirt with three hundred keys of pure Columbian in my pockets. The border guys never hassled me. I knew most of them by name, and the dogs couldn't smell the product when it was in my pockets, so I never had to deal with cavity searches or random spot checks. I was just the wealthy eccentric guy that everyone liked, flashing my passport and trading friendly words with the esteemed representatives of good old Uncle Sam. In the end, though, I called it quits, and moved on to simpler things.

One week. That was the shortest civilian job I ever held. Postal employee. The boss was a good guy, but it unnerved the rest of the staff when I loaded my entire route's mail into my pockets and hit all the boxes on foot.