The killer detective

18 - Omita Spiros

On the way to the office, I didn’t forget to drop by the nearest coffee store to get Meiko his Americano. It felt like he made me into his personal assistant instead of keeping an eye on me while I was still put off from the post.

The elevator dinged and I got off. The glass walls and offices around me were just the same. Only I kept coming to the complex with my civilian clothes instead. I wasn’t allowed to wear the uniform until it got confirmed I wasn’t involved in the case. No free lunches in the canteen. I sighed. My eyes stopped at the secretary’s table. She was dressed like always, a black tight skirt and white shirt on top. I was amazed the buttons on her chest didn’t fall off. Her clothes were seriously making sure to highlight her body proportions!

Whereas I was wearing just some jeans, a loose T-shirt and a leather jacket. Nothing special, really.

“I’m here to report to Meiko…” I told her to make sure she actually saw me. All this time I was convinced she was always ignoring me whenever I dropped by. I had to speak to her, otherwise, she behaved like I was invisible. She didn’t even look up to see who came.

“He’s not here for now. Do you have an appointment?” She kept staring into some papers she had been organizing ever since I entered the space in front of Meiko’s office. I could feel steam coming out of me as she had managed to completely forget who I was, why I kept coming here, and that I didn’t need an appointment with that i***t!

“No, I don’t. I believe he should be making appointments with me, not me with him.” I replied to her sarcastically. She wasn’t even that high up in the military career ladder! Yet she was always ignoring me. I bet she had never even seen a person dying in front of her. And still, she was sitting there, bossing me around!

“Well, then you’ll have to wait. He is in a meeting right now.” She had no intentions of even looking at me nor being bothered with my presence. I was getting completely ignored there. I threw myself into one of the armchairs there, taking out my dog tag from under my T-shirt and playing with it. I had nothing to do here except for staring at the walls.

“Is she here already? She’s late!” The landline phone on her desk spoke up without any ringing.

“I’ll send-” I was already opening the door into Meiko’s office until she had managed to reply to him.

“You can’t go in there like this!” She stood up, shouting at me, but the door to Meiko’s office was already open and I was halfway inside.

“Really? Well, look how I can.” I smirked while closing the door behind me right in front of her face.

“What’s going on?” Meiko asked. He looked quite busy and tired again today.

“Nothing much, no need to worry.” I dismissed his doubts and took closer to his desk. I sat on the chair right in front of it, waiting for him to finish signing some papers.

“Everything going well?” He asked, leaning back on the chair. I nodded.

“I know it’s not your job but could you pick up a few things for me on a different floor here? I need to finish signing a few more things and then we can chat.” He looked like he was going to pass out any moment.

“Sure, here’s your coffee.” I passed him the cup and immediately got up to leave. He wasn’t saying anything, instead, he kept scribbling something through the papers in front of him. I closed the door from the outside. The secretary death-stared at me. I gave her a winning smile. She had no power here, even though she tried hard.

I stopped by a few offices to get more papers for Meiko. He should have sent his secretary to do this job! I’m not his or her assistant! I lifted the papers a bit as they were slowly falling down. I was in the elevator back to Meiko’s place. I walked through the glass walk and entered the secretary’s office. Nobody was there. Good. If she showed her face in front of me right now, I would definitely throw these papers in her face! She should pick them and sort them! Would take a pretty long time… I giggled. It was an evil plan, which would satisfy my deepest desires of showing her that she shouldn’t behave that mighty in front of me.

"Hey, Meiko. Got any side jobs for me?" I entered his office with a slight knock on the door. He was sleeping on his table. He probably had to stay at work overnight. He did seem quite out of it when I talked with him before.

I sighed and walked in, closing the door quietly. I dropped the papers on the coffee table and I got to Meiko. I patted his head with my fingertips to see if he was going to wake up by that. Nothing. I picked up some hard paper cover and I was ready to hit his head this time with it.

"Can't you do that again?" His sleepy voice startled me. He was awake. And I was ready to hit him hard, already in the position to get the biggest impact on his head!

"Hm?" He lifted his head and looked at me with sleepy eyes. I was still there frozen in the ready position to hit. I quickly changed my body posture and cleared my throat.

"I brought the papers as you asked," I reported, trying to hide my uneasiness, hoping he wouldn’t find out what I was about to do a while ago.

"Good. The paper for you to sign should be somewhere in that heap." He showed me the huge pile of papers on the coffee table near the sitting area, where I added the papers a while ago. As if I didn't have enough paperwork so far, I also had to go through his papers and find the one and only paper I had to sign. He can’t be serious! This freaking guy! Why am I even friends with him?! I glanced at him with contempt in my eyes. He was rubbing his face, trying to wake himself up. He even took a few sips of the coffee...

"Do your job yourself." I sulked. I didn’t want to go through so many papers!

“If you didn’t get suspended, it would have been easier for me…” He yawned. I kept staring at him. I didn’t say a word.

"Fine, I'll print it again," Meiko took to his computer while saying that, finding the file he needed to print out and to make me sign it.

"Any news on how things are going with the investigation?" I came back and sat down on the chair.

"Not really. It's hard to determine a couple of things even with the intel we have..." I heard Meiko mumbling from behind the screen while the paper was printing under the desk. Meiko handed me the paper and I signed it right away, ready to leave. My report was done for the day.

"Alth, wait."

"Yeah, what?" I turned back to face him.

"Where was it..." He rubbed the left side of his face trying to find something on his desk. "Oh, here..." 

Meiko handed me a couple of papers stapled together and told me to read them. I snatched them from his hand and came to sit down in his purple armchair and started reading through it.

TRANSFER OF EMPLOYEE

Omita Spiros

Personal specifications:

Female, 19 years old, born: AREA 22.

Specialization: handguns, close combat, endurance

Occupation: To be decided (TBD)

REQUEST FOR TRAINING

Omita Spiros

Supervisor: Althea Serapheim

Personal specifications:

Female, 25 years old, born: AREA 67

Specialization: sniper, survival, 

Occupation: civil, DETECTIVE: Central Register Point employment

OFFICIAL APPROVAL

Concerned parties: Omita Spiros - Althea Serapheim

Item: Training assignment of Omita Spiros by Althea Serapheim

Duration: Unlimited

Specification of item: Exams within 5 months after receiving REQUEST FOR TRAINING form.

Other: Team assignment under Althea Serapheim, supervisor: Althea Serapheim

With this set of documents, the Central Register Military Headquarters hereby pronounce the aforementioned information as agreed on by all the parties.

Signed:

Rafail Dimosthenis                            major general

Meiko Shim                                         lieutenant colonel

Isaac Kostas                                       captain of unit 8

"Wait, so I have to teach a youngling?" I raised my eyes from the documents and looked at Meiko, who was still half asleep behind his computer screen, trying to read some new information probably sent by the intranet. He looked at me, visibly annoyed with his eyes nearly half-closed.

"Is that even a question, second lieutenant Serapheim?" He wasn’t in a good mood at all!

"Yes, it is. Training is done by older and more higher-up people and definitely not in different occupations! And on top of that, I'm still suspended from all my duties!" I started protesting, raising my voice at him. I was gripping the papers tightly.

"Did you see who signed it?" He sighed, put his head into his hands, elbows rested on his desk, and looked at me.

"Major general." I peeped.

"Right. And what does that mean?"

"That I have to pack my bags and go pick her up." My voice was nearly gone.

"No need, it was a high-priority document, she will be waiting in the lobby." He lifted his eyebrows while still looking at me: "What are you waiting for?!”