R60: Vide0
Title: Video
Characters: Giovanni, Pearl, Police Cadet, Police Officers, Important Polife People
POV: N/A
Notes: Oh, what's this? An important CD gone to the hands of the police... And Pearl refuses to tell the Boss what exactly the CD was.
“If you didn’t want it to be stolen, why did you put it in the minimum-security section?”
“I didn’t expect anyone to want it!”
“Well, it looks like someone did!” He turned back to his desk and continued reviewing the dispatch forms.
Pearl didn’t leave. She continued tapping her foot angrily and staring at him. “Sir, we’re talking about a major security breach. Someone just stole data from the Team, data that-“
“Minimum-security data that happens to be important? Pearl, I don’t think so-“
“It was only because I didn’t want to go through all of the trouble with a high-security vault! So I put it in a minimum-security for a few days, just a few, while I took care of work and stuff, and now I go back and it’s gone! Gone! Gone! Gone-“
“Well, you did leave it without any security whatsoever-“
“Do you know how long I worked on it? Labored on it, with my blood and sweat? How much this means-“
“The last time I saw you laboring over anything was when you were in labor. And this goes back to the point. If it means so much to you, why, woman, did you put it in-“
“I didn’t think anyone had the guts to take it!”
“Well, someone obviously did! And what do you expect me to do about it? Make a big ruckus for a lost shared minimum-security file?”
“Yes!”
“No.”
“But Boss….”
“Go get my coffee. And don’t you dare put whatever that was in again.”
“Sir, a bit of Viagra really doesn’t hurt-“
“Damn it! Get the coffee, woman!”
Pearl quickly fled the room. She should not have told him about the missing file. She should not have. Who could have taken it? If it fell into the wrong hands…
She gritted her teeth and stomped off.
He flew under the doorway to the Police Department Head’s office. “M’am!” he panted. “The infiltration was a success.”
Immediately all heads in the room swung around to look at him, and the cadet nearly froze up and fell down- the most important people in the country’s police force, and he had this honor, presenting them with secret files from a criminal organization! It didn’t guarantee anything, but hopefully someone would remember his face from his momentous occasion, this breakthrough, this first victory over the shadowed forces of crime!
“We had no success even with the medium-security vaults,” he began, watching their eyes narrow, “but we did find something in the minimum-security sections.”
As if he were born to it, he smoothly stepped forward, inserted the disk, and began downloading the files. “We followed the female Executive and found that she had hid data in the minimum-security vaults. Judging from her behavior, the files are quite important to her and insist on putting it in the storage herself rather than having an underling do it…” He paused, and the high-ranking officers in the room knew the significance. What could be in this mysterious file?
“That is… Clever of her,” someone said. “The minimum-security storage is used to things of no importance whatsoever… Junk, mostly. Silverware. Lost-and-found items. The such. I would never have even considered looking there myself- the perfect place to hide something…”
The download completed.
“Ladies, gentlemen, let us see the file.” He autostarted the program.
A few minutes lapsed. As the video played, every eye was riveted to the huge screen on the wall.
“Cadet! To attention!”
“Ma’m?” he yelped, his face white with horror, his eyes stuck to the screen.
“What do you suppose this to be, the Executive’s File?”
“Ma’m, with all due respect, Ma’m, I believe it to be a time-lapse video of a watermelon rotting.”
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I know, I know, I have like no sense of humor.