It'd Be So Much Easier If You Could Just Tell
Disclaimer: Just because nobody wants to admit it doesn't mean we don't all know it.
.......................................
Bolivar Trask leaned back in his chair and stared at his computer screen. A security warning from one of his longtime programmers glowed back at him.
"I saw her mug fall right through her hands. She didn't drop it, I would've seen her hands move if she had, and it just slipped right through her body."
He knew there was a reason he had moles all over the company. Even when you do a thorough background check on every person hired, someone always falls through the cracks. He had the file for the suspected mutant, Katherine Pryde, sitting right in front of him, and even though her behavior sounded distinctly suspicious, nothing in her background check had been out of the ordinary. It was time to do some research.
He opened up his web browser and typed "katherine pryde mutant" but all he got was,
"Your search-katherine pryde mutant-did not match any documents."
He tried different spellings and nicknames, he searched in conjunction with the University of Chicago, her hometown of Northbrook, even her high school. He found out that she was captain of the engineering team her senior year, but if she was a mutant, he certainly wasn't going to find out about it through Google.
It was time to change tactics. He left his office and started toward the Office of Special Projects.
The OSP division had always been his favorite office. Sure, he got the most money for his regular security systems, but even when he'd been working on huge complex projects for the Pentagon, nothing compared to the excitement of entirely new technology. In the years he'd been working on this project, he'd never once been bored with it. Not only were they practically forging a new way of approaching robotics and artificial intelligence, but he was doing a valuable social service as well. HDS would be known throughout the world for they work they'd done; even the government would come around some day.
To find out now that a mutant in his office could be threatening the integrity of everything he'd been working for in the last fifteen years was a serious problem indeed, one he would quickly remedy if it turned out to be true.
He reached the central room and found the mutant's cubicle. After only a few minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for: a single hair. It was brown and much longer than the average man's; it had to belong to her. He put it in a plastic bag and immediately went back to his office. He'd send it to the lab tomorrow, and if she did actually possess the X- gene, he'd know what to do.
.......................................
"Kitty, you've been unnaturally subdued for, like, a week. Are you sure you like that new job?"
Kitty rolled her eyes and turned to her roommate. "Erin, it's fine. It's just...full of computer nerds."
"Fully of computer nerds, you say? That could be your problem." Erin plopped down on the couch and turned the TV on.
Kitty laughed. "At least I don't spend my day shuffling papers for egotistical lawyers, unlike some people I know."
"True, but I'm not the only woman in my department, stuck in front of a computer all day programming...what is it you program again?"
"Oh, just fixing bugs...and...stuff..." she trailed off. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Erin suspected there was something weird going on at work, but she didn't want to pry. Kitty had dealt with a lot of crap at her old job, so she suspected she could handle whatever was going on now.
"Oh, stuff. How...interesting." Erin decided it was time for a subject change. "Come on, let's get started on this movie or else we'll be watching it until three AM."
"You really want to watch all of Pride and Prejudice tonight?" Kitty asked.
"Um, obviously. You've been so down lately. You really need a good drooling session over Colin Firth."
It wasn't exactly hard to sell her on that point. "Ok," she said. "Let me go get the DVD."
Erin started flipping channels while Kitty went into their room. She got all the way through basic cable with the realization that there was nothing on TV, and Kitty had still not returned from the room. Maybe she couldn't find the DVD.
She got up and started toward the room. "I think I left it right by my b—"
She stopped in horror. Their usually spotless room looked like a war zone, and Kitty was nowhere to be found. An open window let in a cold wind from the street, but all she could see from it was the busy New York traffic.
.......................................
Again, just a short one. I'm writing more, I promise-school's over for me, (and I've finally escaped 5 hours of rehearsal a day) so I actually have time to think about things outside of the theatre building.
Many thanks to those who reviewed (and I'm working on "Shades of Darkness" too-I swear)
hnh
Disclaimer: Just because nobody wants to admit it doesn't mean we don't all know it.
.......................................
Bolivar Trask leaned back in his chair and stared at his computer screen. A security warning from one of his longtime programmers glowed back at him.
"I saw her mug fall right through her hands. She didn't drop it, I would've seen her hands move if she had, and it just slipped right through her body."
He knew there was a reason he had moles all over the company. Even when you do a thorough background check on every person hired, someone always falls through the cracks. He had the file for the suspected mutant, Katherine Pryde, sitting right in front of him, and even though her behavior sounded distinctly suspicious, nothing in her background check had been out of the ordinary. It was time to do some research.
He opened up his web browser and typed "katherine pryde mutant" but all he got was,
"Your search-katherine pryde mutant-did not match any documents."
He tried different spellings and nicknames, he searched in conjunction with the University of Chicago, her hometown of Northbrook, even her high school. He found out that she was captain of the engineering team her senior year, but if she was a mutant, he certainly wasn't going to find out about it through Google.
It was time to change tactics. He left his office and started toward the Office of Special Projects.
The OSP division had always been his favorite office. Sure, he got the most money for his regular security systems, but even when he'd been working on huge complex projects for the Pentagon, nothing compared to the excitement of entirely new technology. In the years he'd been working on this project, he'd never once been bored with it. Not only were they practically forging a new way of approaching robotics and artificial intelligence, but he was doing a valuable social service as well. HDS would be known throughout the world for they work they'd done; even the government would come around some day.
To find out now that a mutant in his office could be threatening the integrity of everything he'd been working for in the last fifteen years was a serious problem indeed, one he would quickly remedy if it turned out to be true.
He reached the central room and found the mutant's cubicle. After only a few minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for: a single hair. It was brown and much longer than the average man's; it had to belong to her. He put it in a plastic bag and immediately went back to his office. He'd send it to the lab tomorrow, and if she did actually possess the X- gene, he'd know what to do.
.......................................
"Kitty, you've been unnaturally subdued for, like, a week. Are you sure you like that new job?"
Kitty rolled her eyes and turned to her roommate. "Erin, it's fine. It's just...full of computer nerds."
"Fully of computer nerds, you say? That could be your problem." Erin plopped down on the couch and turned the TV on.
Kitty laughed. "At least I don't spend my day shuffling papers for egotistical lawyers, unlike some people I know."
"True, but I'm not the only woman in my department, stuck in front of a computer all day programming...what is it you program again?"
"Oh, just fixing bugs...and...stuff..." she trailed off. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Erin suspected there was something weird going on at work, but she didn't want to pry. Kitty had dealt with a lot of crap at her old job, so she suspected she could handle whatever was going on now.
"Oh, stuff. How...interesting." Erin decided it was time for a subject change. "Come on, let's get started on this movie or else we'll be watching it until three AM."
"You really want to watch all of Pride and Prejudice tonight?" Kitty asked.
"Um, obviously. You've been so down lately. You really need a good drooling session over Colin Firth."
It wasn't exactly hard to sell her on that point. "Ok," she said. "Let me go get the DVD."
Erin started flipping channels while Kitty went into their room. She got all the way through basic cable with the realization that there was nothing on TV, and Kitty had still not returned from the room. Maybe she couldn't find the DVD.
She got up and started toward the room. "I think I left it right by my b—"
She stopped in horror. Their usually spotless room looked like a war zone, and Kitty was nowhere to be found. An open window let in a cold wind from the street, but all she could see from it was the busy New York traffic.
.......................................
Again, just a short one. I'm writing more, I promise-school's over for me, (and I've finally escaped 5 hours of rehearsal a day) so I actually have time to think about things outside of the theatre building.
Many thanks to those who reviewed (and I'm working on "Shades of Darkness" too-I swear)
hnh