My grandfather stood quickly from his chair and made his way to the door. He opened it and called the nearest officer over, giving him a message for the chief of police.
“Tell him I’ll be busy for the rest of the afternoon, so we’ll have to reschedule our meeting.”
The officer nodded, casting a quick glance at me before he walked off to pass on the message.
“You had a meeting scheduled?” I inquired, as my grandfather closed the office door.
“Yes, but it’s nothing that can’t wait for another day.” He huffed as he sat back down behind the desk. “Now where do you think we should start?”
“Well we should probably take a look at the real database first, so that when we do find the fake we have something to compare it to,” I began. My grandfather thought about that for a moment before nodding his head.
“That seems reasonable.” He said as he scribbled down a note to himself. “And rather easy now that I’m in the database again. I’ll have to take a look at that later.”
He paused, and opened a desk drawer, and pulled out a list of names.
“In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you could stay out of trouble.” He said as he folded the list, tucking it into his pocket before he stood. “That means no clue hunting as your alter ego.” He gave me a sharp look. “It’s best if you don’t go out as him, at least till we figure out a new patrol route that will help you stay clear of the automated officers.”
“Then how am I to help?” I frowned as I pushed myself from my chair.
“I don’t know. Maybe you could start brainstorming ideas as to all the places where a false database could be uploaded into the system?”
My grandfather removed his coat and hat from the hook they had been hanging, and slid them on.
“I’ll get on that then.” I said as I walked to the door and opened it for him. He stepped through, and I followed shortly after, closing it behind me.
“Where are you headed?” I asked after a moment.
“Well somebody’s got to get ahead of all this.” He huffed as we walked down the hall. “I might as well start interviewing everyone who was at the docks last night, to see if they noticed anything off.”
“Something like an extra officer?” I questioned. My grandfather answered with a nod.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.” He said as he waved to Liz, before turning to me. “You should go out for a bit while you're downtown. I’m sure this will be the last bit of free time you’ll have for a while so you might as well enjoy it.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Keith shut me down with a look. I sighed and stuffed my hands in my pockets as he walked off without another word. What was I to do now?
I was about to start to head home when my hand brushed against something in my pocket. I pulled it out, not knowing what it was and then remembered. It was the business card that that reporter had given me.
Well, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I might as well.
~~~~~~~~~~
I sighed, and leaned back in my seat. The traffic in town today was absolutely horrid, and I had hardly moved more than a foot during the last few minutes. I grumbled to myself as another loud honk echoed out from behind me.
“Screw this.”
I quickly pulled out of traffic, and parked in the closest spot I could find. Climbing out of my car, I slammed the door behind me, locking it before I made my way down the street.
The walk to the Fromour Cities journalism center was a lot longer than I thought it would be. Not only did I almost get lost a couple of times, locating the building was almost impossible as I had mostly only navigated through town by rooftop before now.
Eventually though, I found myself standing in the lobby, business card in hand. I approached the front desk, and cleared my throat.
“Can I help you?” The receptionist asked, looking up from her computer.
“Uh, yeah,” I replied. “I was told that Riley Atro wanted to interview me.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Uh, I don’t think so.” I frowned, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
“Just give me a minute, and I’ll see what Riley has to say.” The receptionist dialed a number on the phone beside her.
I took a step back, taking in my surroundings. The lobby was rather plain, with a few potted plants lining the walls. There was a framed copy of a news edit behind the reception desk. I took a closer look, and saw that it was for the day Box-man made his first appearance.
“Riley is busy at the moment,” The receptionist said, hanging up the phone. “But if you’d wait just one more minute I’m sure they’ll finish up whatever they’re doing. There’s a waiting section over there.”
I sighed as I went and took a seat. I pulled out my phone and started looking through the files from earlier. MIght as well work while I’m waiting, I thought to myself as I leaned back in my chair.
“What are you working on?” A familiar voice asked.
I looked up to find the girl from earlier standing in front of me.
“Riley Atro?” I questioned.
“The one and only,” She grinned. “Your Brian Turhe, correct?”
“That’s me. I’m here for the interview you mentioned earlier.” I told her, as I stood from my seat.
“Right, yeah.” She replied. “Why don’t we get out of here, and find a nice cafe to have your interview at? I could use some lunch.”
“Uh, sure. I don’t see why not.” I followed Riley out of the lobby and back onto the street. She began walking down the sidewalk.
“So, uh, where are we going?” I inquired, as I pushed past incoming traffic to keep up with her.
“You know that cafe on the corner of Main and King?” Riley questioned.
“Um, no?”
“Then you might want to keep up.”
“What do you-”
Before I could even finish the question, she took off down the street. I sprinted after, struggling at first because I was unprepared, but thanks to the fact that I hadn’t decided to wear a suit, I was able to move a lot more freely, which in turn, allowed me to run a lot faster.
She must have not expected me to catch up as quickly because when she looked back and found me only ten feet behind her she almost lost focus and tripped. She regained her footing and started pushing herself to run faster, slowly starting to inch ahead and away from me.
So it was going to be a race then.
As she pulled ahead I took in my surroundings and suddenly realized where we were, and where we were going. So, as she took a corner around a building I decided to take a different route. Grabbing a hold of the fire escape and almost ripping my arm off, I spun myself into an alley and started to pick up the same momentum I’d use as Box-Man.
It didn’t take me long to dash through the back alleys and emerge across from the place Riley had mentioned. Right as I stopped in front of the cafe, she burst around the corner with a look of triumph on her face, probably thinking she had lost me. Then she noticed me standing in front of the cafe and actually lost her footing this time, almost tumbling into me as I mangled to stop her from hitting the ground.
“You’re,” she said, while catching her breath,” a lot more athletic than I thought. How’d you even get ahead of me?”
“I took a shortcut.”
"Huh."
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