Author's note: Next chapter up! Entirely on Athrun this time. Oh no, but I think this chapter is kind of boring… What do you think?
Chapter 6:
When Athrun pushed open the large glass doors of the Central Police Headquarters at five minutes to seven in the morning, he was greeted with the sight of stoned, distracted policemen with disheveled hair and crumpled uniforms. They were exhausted, tired and dying to go home.
He managed to push through the group clustered at the entrance and bumped into a female officer bustling towards him from the opposite direction. The file she was holding fell to the ground in an explosion of papers. She spun around and glared at him, her shoulders tensed and rigid as she prepared to release her wrath.
When she saw that it was Athrun, she relaxed.
"Sorry about that, Murrue," Athrun smiled apologetically, as he stooped to gather up her papers. "What's the fuss around here?"
Murrue sighed loudly. She looked terrible. The usual neat bun in which she tied her long brown hair in was disheveled and she looked flustered and annoyed. "There was a case at the shipping dock last night. Twenty crates of chemicals went missing. These boys have been up all night going on wild goose chases, gathering witnesses and doing all the other shit we do. Sometimes, I really hate my job." She snarled.
"Well, you're the Assistant Commissioner," Athrun joked, "You can go ahead and assign any kid to do the dirty job."
Murrue shot him a look, sighed, rolled her eyes and grabbed her file before striding off. Athrun watched as police officers, secretaries and admin personnel ducked aside to allow her passageway. It was like a sea of people parting before her. Boy, this woman had such an authoritative aura.
Shaking his head, he entered the lift and took it up to the sixteenth floor, where he stepped out into the passageway and turned left. Policemen coming in the opposite direction nodded and greeted him while newbies tried to salute as they balanced their coffee mugs. Secretaries brushed past hastily, files under their arms, kitten heels clicking on the well polished floor.
He headed for his office and had just gotten to his desk when a young woman knocked lightly on his door. "Good morning, Chief."
"Morning, Meyrin," He smiled. She dropped a brown paper bag on his table and handed him a Styrofoam cup of steaming hot coffee before plopping down into one of the visitor chairs in front of his desk.
Meyrin was the latest addition to his team. The youngest of the lot, she had scarlet red hair tied in two ponytails that cascade down her back. A tight white blouse and black skirt hugged her figure.
"So," She said, "I heard from Luna about the infiltration at the Clyne Corporation last night. What's going to happen next?"
Athrun shrugged. "We move on. They will make their next move soon and we have to be ready for them. Gather the team in the conference room. I want that meeting started in two minutes."
By the time he entered in the conference room, all had arrived, except Shinn. "Where the hell is he?" Athrun barked as he sank down into the chair at the end of the table. There were nervous shrugs and perplexed glances were exchanged across the table.
Then all of a sudden the door flew open and a black-haired young man burst into the room. "Sorry, sorry! I got held up at the coffee machine!"
Athrun fixed him with a glare. "Next time," He growled, "leave your caffeine needs till after the meeting. Now, sit down."
Shinn nodded quickly and eased his way through the chairs to find a quiet, imperceptible spot to sit in, as far away from his chief's burning gaze as he could. He ended up beside Dearka who snickered, then fell silent when Athrun's gaze turned on him.
Athrun let his glare linger on the two men for a while longer as they squirmed, before directing his attention to the whole room and its occupants. "If there are no further interruptions, let's begin the meeting proper. We'll start with Lunamaria. What have you got? And Meyrin, take notes."
A woman with shoulder-length scarlet red hair glanced up from the report on her desk. Her features were identical to that of Meyrin, and at first glance, all who met them could tell they were sisters. "Shinn and I went down to the crime scene earlier this morning and we did get some statements from the guards on duty last night," she began, "for starters, the footage from the security cameras is useless. At approximately one a.m. last night, the guard on duty reported some malfunctioning of the cameras. Static. Then all of a sudden they came back online and appeared normal. But here's the problem: when the infiltration began at one-thirty a.m., the cameras detected nothing. The perpetrators and the guards chasing them ran past more than ten cameras but none of the cameras picked up the chase. So evidently, these cameras have been tampered with. We have no footage whatsoever of the chase."
"But," Shinn took over the reporting, "what we do know, is that they entered via the air duct which leads from the rooftop. We found scratches along the air vent, caused by some kind of heavy equipment. Maybe something they used to stop their fall when they jumped. This also means that they arrived via a helicopter."
"The guards began their chase when the body heat detectors that we installed outside the target area picked them up. So at least something worked out for us. But we didn't guess that they would infiltrate so soon, so manpower was limited last night. Plus, Assistant Commissioner Ramius pulled out two teams because of the chemical incident at the shipping docks."
"Yes, I heard about that," Athrun frowned. "What else?"
Shinn shrugged, exchanging a glance with Lunamaria. "Nothing much. No fingerprints, no footprints. We managed to collect the shells of the bullets used by the perpetrators and Nicol sent them down to forensics. But they probably won't be able to tell us much. Nicol?"
A young green-haired officer nodded in response. "They're standard shell cases. Based on the cases, I think the perpetrators could be using Glocks. So it doesn't say much. There are hundreds of us using Glocks and any regular citizen with a firearms permit out there could be using a Glock. We won't be able to tell much from the shells, so that's a dead end."
Athrun chewed his bottom lip. Damn. They were getting nowhere."What about the scratches you mentioned? What can we gather?"
"The photos are on the third page of the report." There was a rustle of paper as the occupants of the room flipped open the manila file on the table. "Nothing much we can gather. But we did send the photos to the crime scene lab and there are a couple of people analyzing them. We might be able to gather what kind of equipment they used, or maybe not."
"What about the escape vehicle? The black sedan they used? Any leads on that?"
It was Yzak who voiced out. "Unfortunately not. I ran the car plate number through the system. It was a rented car, taken off a rental company just three miles off the crime scene. Rented under the name of Simon Dixon. But that's a false ID. There's no such person in our database."
"And I went down to the rental company with Yzak," Dearka joined in, "firstly, the security cameras picked up nothing. No footage of this 'Simon Dixon'. Secondly, the car was returned at two-thirty a.m. last night, just an hour after the chase. But the car's been vacuumed. It's sparkling clean. No hair, no fingerprints, no whatever. Not a single dust mite."
It was impossible not to feel the disappointment weighing down heavily on the room. An awkward silence had unfolded and suddenly everyone had a tendency to adjust their ties, smooth their skirts or run their hands through their hair.
"Damn!" Athrun's fist landed hard on the conference table, sending a loud thump that made the rest of his team jump. "There's got to be something that can nail these guys!"
He stared round the table, emerald eyes seething. "I need more than this. Meyrin, I want the minutes of this meeting on my table by this afternoon. Luna, Shinn, go through that air vent. Check every bolt, every screw. I don't care if you take it apart piece by piece. Dearka, I want you to run through that car all over again. Check the tyres, the boot, underneath the car. Damn, check the exhaust pipe too. Yzak, I want you to run down to the rental company again. Any fingerprints on the counter, the logbook. Anything this 'Simon Dixon' touched, I want it sent to the lab. Nicol, follow up with the forensics lab. I want all reports and results on my desk by this evening. If they're not, I'm going to charge down to the lab and screw them. Got it? Now, move!"
Author's note: So? Actually, I think this chapter was a bit more about introducing the other characters. Hope it's not too boring, and I'm not that good at all this police jargon. Review, review, review!