Sorry it's taken so long for me to update. RL has been a bit of a b-with-an-itch what with exams and such. So this chapter is a bit short, but there is more to come. Hopefully soon. WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING YOU A SHORT INTERLUDE FROM THE COMM. FLOOR!
Chapter 29
Tank's POV (starts a few hours earlier than the last chapter left off)
By mid-afternoon I was fairly sick of paperwork, but I knew there was no way to avoid it. I'd neglected it the past few days in order to make sure I was available for Magenta. The boss would understand, no doubt about that, but it didn't keep Gazz the office manager off my case. He'd been working at Rangeman since he was 18. Started out in the mail room where he served three years until the previous office manager transferred out and he was promoted.
Gazz wasn't your typical Rangeman by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, he was physically fit, thanks to mandatory gym sessions, but it was nowhere near the field work employee standard. No, Gazz's strongest muscle was his brain… The brain is a muscle right? Oh well. You get what I mean. He's smart. Does-hard-math-in-his-head type smart. And his organisational skills were phenomenal. Within a month of him being office manager operations were running smoother than a baby's bottom, and thanks to the "Must not enter the command centre directly after a workout" rule, they smelled better too.
We respected him as our office manager, this is true. But as a person, well… there's only so much you can take.
For starters, his overall image was what Magenta referred to as "Trendy Nerd". Think Clark Kent. That's approximately the realm we're talking. Perfectly quaffed hair. Black rimmed glasses. Muscular but not too muscular physique. Button through shirts with the sleeves rolled to the elbows. Perfectly creased pants. Shoes a woman could do her make-up in they were so shiny. Several of the guys had taken to asking him who the hell he was whenever he took his glasses off. He laughed along like it wasn't annoying at all, which, unfortunately for him, only encouraged them to do it again. And again. And again.
Other than the way he dressed there was the way he talked – like he'd just stepped out of the dictionary – and the way he treated the rest of us. I think the power of being office manager and having a bunch of big bad guys – some of which, admittedly, weren't the brightest bulbs in the box – had gone to his head.
I was passing through the comm. room with a pile of files I needed searches done for and he called me into his office. I groaned inwardly as I passed over the threshold.
"You're a week behind in your paperwork," he informed me sternly. "How do you expect this company to run properly if you don't get your paperwork done on time?"
I bit my tongue to keep from telling him to get bent. Patience was the key. Her certainly didn't respond well to angry Rangemen. Especially since we were all bigger than him. I took a deep cleansing breath and replied, "I've been working on catching up all day. There's an awful lot for me to get through. Perhaps I could get back to it?"
"There wouldn't be so much to catch up on if you did it during the allotted hour at the end of each day," he countered. "What excuse do you have for that?"
"The boss required my assistance," I grated out through gritted teeth. "Now if you'll excuse me, the more time I spend in your office, the further behind in my paperwork I get. And I don't want invoke the wrath of my office manager. He can be a bit anal about punctuality."
I didn't even wait from a reaction. As I said the last few words, I turned and marched across the comm. room to dump the files in Benny's inbox. Then, just to spite Gazz, I went to the break room and poured myself a cup of coffee which I then drank while chatting with Junior about his niece who had recently joined the army. Ten minutes later I was on my way back to my office when Lester called me over to the bank of monitors.
"I don't know what happened, man," he said, gesturing to the screens. "I was sitting here watching the screens, thinking about Steph. One minute they're working fine and the next they're like this."
I followed his hand gestures and saw with great shock that the screens were full of static. This hadn't happened in well over fifteen years. I tried to cast my mind back the circumstances surrounding the last time, but to no avail. Had it been an electrical fault? Some kind of interference? Nothing was ringing a bell, and none of the guys looked like they had any kind of a clue. I had to report this.
"Get Hector to check the electricals," I told Lester as I pulled out my cell and hit speed dial one.
"Speak," Ranger said as he picked up. He sounded frustrated. I guessed he was sick of Gen's questions already. I had to admit, she could be a bit full one once she got into a subject. And she had definitely gotten into the subject of her Mama.
"We got a problem," I began.
"I got problems of my own," he growled, then sighed. "What is it?"
"Is Gen alright?" I asked. Maybe something had happened and that's why he sounded frustrated. "What's happened?"
"Everything's fine," he assured me. "Something just… cropped up, that's all. What's the problem?"
"Static." It was the short and to the point. "All the buildings security cameras are showing nothing but static." I heard him snarl a few choice words. "This has happened before. Years ago."
"I know." Gee, he really wasn't in the greatest of moods. I hoped Gen was okay. I thought he would have been super-duper, over-the-moon happy. He'd spent all day with his daughter talking about the love of his life. How had he managed to get into such a fouly?
"What was it last time?" I asked
The one word he uttered next explained it all. It explained the camera problem as well as his mood. "Diesel."
He hung up.
Of course. The note in Gen's package had hinted he would be turning up soon. I relayed the information to Lester and told Hector not to worry about the checking the connections. They would return to normal in a few minutes. Once I saw that the feed was fine I returned to my office and the mound of paperwork I'd been avoiding. It felt like only a few minutes had passed when Bobby was at my door.
"It's been hours," he informed me. "You need a break."
"I have to get through my paperwork," I informed him.
Bobby snorted. "As the company medic, I say you need a break for the sake of your health. Mental and physical. So come on. Lester's been snooping in old computer files. He found some stuff from when Steph was working here."
With a half hearted sigh, I tossed my pen down and followed Bobby to the bank of monitors. Lester was there paying very little attention to the screens he was supposed to be watching. Luckily, someone had pulled in a couple of the newer guys to play sitting duck. I gave the men a cursory glance to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing before pulling a chair up to Lester's computer.
"Get a load of this," Lester said, pulling up a video from the web cam folder for STeph's cubicle. The file was dated seventeen years ago, to the day. I was confused for a moment by what I was looking at. I'd expected to see Steph's face taking up the entire screen, as is the usual picture on Rangeman Webcams. This, however, seemed to be some kind of Yeti.
"Is that –?" Bobby started, then stopped, obviously too fascinated by what was going on to finish his question.
"Is she using the webcam to do her hair?" I asked instead.
"Seem's that way," Lester mentioned then fiddled with the computer keys for a moment. Seconds later the screen was divided. On one half, was the back of Steph's head as she expertly put pins in place. On the other, was the security feed from the same day and time, showing both the back of Steph's head from a different angle to the webcam and the computer screen where the webcam image was displayed. As we watched the webcam stopped but the security feed continued.
Steph had apparently finished with her hair and was moving the webcam back to the top of the computer screen where it belonged.
"No watch this and be confused as hell," Lester said, indicating for us to stay focused as he expanded the security feed to full screen.
She was now working on her make-up. The confusing part? She was using the webcam once again and what appeared on the screen was not a mirror image. It was the opposite. But she appeared to manage it just fine. I totally dumbfounded. I didn't think I'd have been able to do that if my life depended on it.
"I'm not surprised," Bobby said, leaning back in his chair. "A, she's resourceful. B, I've seen her do her make-up without a mirror or anything and she did it perfectly. C, I tested her once, her brain has a supernatural ability to think backwards."
"Oh, come on," I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "You just made that up."
Bobby grinned at me, and replied, "Yeah, but I've seen her do this before in person and I don't know anyone else who has ever accomplished the act successfully."
"True," Lester agreed, "I wonder if Gen can do it. It seems like the kind of skill that should be extremely rare, but also genetic."
"Are you aware that we're sounding a bit like teenagers here?" Bobby asked, just as my phone rang.
"Tank," I answered as I opened the phone.
"Finally," came an exasperated voice on the other end. She sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it off the top of my head. "Did you all drop off the face of the planet or what?"
"Who is this?" I asked.
Like I said. It's a bit short. And it's not the main story line that we've been following for the past few chapters. But we'll get back to that soon and it'll all come together... *fingers crossed*... Don't forget to review. Pretty please?
