The killer detective

6 - The invitation

"Damn, that was tough," Isaac announced at the end of jogging as I crossed my legs. Benuard handed me the rifle.

"Ben, sit down." I waved my hand at him tiredly and kept breathing heavily. He hesitated for a while if he should listen to me or Isaac, who wandered off to probably smoke. Or to just not be there when the inspection comes, for he would need to deal with too many documents and explanations and reports. Ben was still nervously standing there, shifting his eyes all around us.

"Sergeant major Benuard Reed, sit down this instant! Order!" I raised my voice using my current lung capacity between few heavy breaths. He sat down in front of me into the same pose and put his palms on his knees. I looked at him with all seriousness I could muster up while being sweaty after such a long run.

"Do you seriously not know about anything?" I tried talking to him. If he had managed to remember something, it wouldn't be such a hassle later on when the inspection comes. Whenever there was an issue with the system, which happened around once or twice in five years, it was a big issue to deal with. Not only for the people in lower ranks involved but also for the authorities. These incidents were never recorded, only a few people knew about them and always quietly warned everyone around them to be careful. We were in deep s**t right now. The officer, who was responsible for training us, always told us to be wary of making mistakes that would have to do with breaching the security of equipment or system itself. 

"How would I know? I changed the shift yesterday evening at 8 pm, been in the storage since then!" Ben seemed distressed. Well, can't blame him for raising his voice at me right now. I would be scared shitless now as well...

"I know you tend to sleep on your night duties..." I announced to see if he would react somehow. But nothing. I was looking at him while trying to analyze every single detail in his body language. He frowned. Nothing else. No uncontrollable twitching, no scratching his nose or touching his ears.

"I didn't sleep this time. I only slept since 4 am exchanges in the staff room. You can even check the logs that I've gotten my meal from the vending machine right inside!" He was looking pretty serious.

"Ok, ok. Don't blame you. Might have been just a bug in the system. It will get solved soon. Let's get going." I got up and patted his shoulder. Weird things happened all the time. Probably someone just had picked up the rifle and the central didn't manage to check it out of the system. Many people were taking their holidays around this time of the year, so they were pretty much understaffed to handle everything perfectly.

My phone rang in the pocket. Ben was already walking towards his place to unpack the things and have a warm shower. I wasn't allowed, apparently. I had to pick up the phone and answer before the 4th ring. If I didn't, hell would break loose.

"Lieutenant Althea," I announced into the phone, seeing it wasn't work-related. The number was from the base.

"Position, lieutenant?" The guy asked me without even saying who he was. Pretty cocky, seriously. He should at least say hello...

"In front of equipment storage number...18." I turned around to see the old number, which was slowly peeling off together with the rust. This base had one of the best security systems and checks, yet they still didn't care much about the state of the buildings nor storehouses. I wouldn't be surprised if one day the roof would fall onto someone's head. Or if a hole appeared in one of the walls after a heavier rain.

"We are sending a vehicle, stay at the spot." End of call. He could have at least say goodbye. I should file a complaint to the superiors. They shouldn't be handling the calls like this. What was his position anyway? He didn't even say his name! I put the phone back in my pocket and sighed. The call meant I had to wait here with all my gear for a pretty long time until the transportation arrived. I sat down on the ground again next to my huge bag. I hugged it with my arm, pretending it was a friend and I put my arm around his or her shoulders, and I waited.

But it didn't take so long for the four-wheeled smaller army car to appear. It was heading towards me. Annoyed, I took my time to slowly get up. They interrupted my talk with the backpack friend! It took a while until the car stopped in front of me.  A guy came out of it, stood in front of it, and saluted me. I was staring at him, trying to intimidate him, but he didn't budge an inch. He didn't even flinch. A newbie, maybe? The older ones would always say something! I giggled inside of my head but kept an annoying face to intimidate him.

"Yeah, yeah, get my equipment and put it in the back." I went towards the front door for my seat and sat down, as he was loading the trunk with my equipment. Then he sat next to me and started driving back to headquarters. He wasn't saying anything, I wasn't interested in talking. So I stared out of the window and he was concentrating on the road ahead of us. Just what is that serious they would actually need to send a car to pick me up? Or did they soften up and thought that sending a car would make me feel better after such a hard day?

______________

"Thanks. I'll take the equipment myself." I squeezed his shoulder as he wanted to take my bag and stuff with him. I couldn't risk losing any of those things. Losing even one button would make me have to fill in quite a few papers! Not to mention I would have to write explanatory reports and fill even more questionnaires and whatnot if any of the real equipment got lost. Going through so many papers would be A) waste of time, B) waste of time, C) annoying. 

At least he helped me get the bag on my back and then I marched inside the glassy building through the big front entrance. The headquarters were the glossiest building in the whole guarded military area in Area 28. The whole compound was a couple of hundreds of square kilometers. One of the biggest in the whole System. But the difference between the storage area and the offices was just too huge. They cared more about the paperwork than the equipment itself.

No one would have thought that this building, giving its looks, was actually a place for military purposes. It looked more like a very expensive high-end business building in the middle of shabby military buildings, storages, roads, and whatnots.

"Lieutenant Althea, group 368, second in command," I said at the reception desk. The girl there started going through a huge paperback directory sitting on the table below the desk. I seriously had no idea why they just couldn't keep these things in some kind of an electronic device, which didn't have to be connected to any network. Would take way less time than it did now. A tablet would just do the job pretty well.

"Oh, yes. License?" She looked at me and reached out with her right hand anticipating me to give her my license. I looked at her hand and then at her, questioning her with my eyes.

"Do I look like I need to give you one?" I put the bag with a loud bang on the floor. I leaned against the reception desk. First, they send a car for me, knowing who I am, and here they ask for my license? This is just f****d up. They should start working more effectively! 

"This is headquarters, everyone has to identify themselves. It's the rules. License." She told me in a strict and clacky voice. She had no idea. She was up for a stare-down battle. There was no rule saying that I had to show her my license. But at the same time, if I didn't, it looked like she wouldn't let me inside of the building. And then it would be her problem, not mine. She would get in trouble.

I sighed and put my hand on the top of my bag. I stared right back into her eyes waiting to see, who will win this. She was the first one to take a deep breath to start talking. I was already exhausted from the long flight, dealing with many thoughts in my head and having to run a couple of kilometers. Isaac's exercises drained the last bits of my energy. I had nothing left to deal with her.

"Oh, look who's here!" I heard a familiar annoying voice calling from the corridor leading to the elevator and offices. A guy in a suit came out, not a military uniform. 

Just at the right time. I turned around to see this hyper guy coming to me. He saved me a lot of energy, which I would have to put into arguing with her to let me in. I should be thankful, but... I took a proper look at him once again. I hated the guts of this guy. He was serving in the civil part like me, but he never made it look like he was part of the army. He always talked about himself as a man doing business. Doing things just for profit. Giving me secret orders whenever I went for missions to carry out, just like this time. His point count was definitely one of the highest out of all people I knew. So many points, who knew what he was spending them on... Definitely expensive suits and weird neckties. Wish I had that many points. I wouldn't have to work my ass off every single day! 

"Hey, Alth! How did the mission turn out? Didn't you miss me? Look, I even changed my tie to make a good impression on you after a couple of days we haven't seen each other!" Boasting. He then hanged himself around my shoulders. I let all the air out of me. This was annoying.

"Don't you want to put your tie even closer to my eyes, so I can admire it even more?" I looked directly at his face, which was just a few centimeters from mine. I took a deep breath.

"Move!" I shouted at him. He moved away and disgustingly started wiping his face with a handkerchief.

"That was rather harsh." He complained like a little child. You get what you sow, my friend! 

"You know better than that. If you wanna talk and get the reports, then get me up there." I pointed with my head towards the elevators.

"Michelle, I know you haven't been working here for a long time, but you should finally remember that people that are above fifth in command do not have a license they could show to just anyone. You better have a look at the rules once again." He started mildly talking with the woman, who didn't want to let me in. She blushed, nodded her head, and apologized to him. He just smiled. I could see hearts appearing in her eyes, just looking at him. I rolled up my eyes. What does she see with this seriously annoying brat? He complains like a little kid, doesn't do his work properly... Is it... MONEY?! She likes his money? Whoa... And there I thought that gold diggers actually stopped existing!

"Aight, let's go?" He turned to me and lifted his eyebrows: "Need help with the bag?"

"I can manage, it would get your suit dirty, Meiko. Or you have a spare in your office?" I took the bag and followed him towards the elevators.

"Well, that depends. Would you want to see me changing in front of you?" He mischievously asked me.

"Not in a million years, dream on." I brushed his stupid question off.