11 h 56 PM

Both Tayla and Riana leave the archives library. Riana already looks embarrassed, as the director seems to be leaving quite the amount of space between both.

“Hum, if you don’t mind Miss Tayla, I didn’t wanna sound like a fool in front of your coworker…plural.”

“Right…” responds Tayla with a tinge of suspicion. “That man sure is strange, right? I never thought in the nine years I’ve known him that I’d see him walk with those ridiculous books in his hands”. That is the one time McKenzie smiles genuinely in this conversation.

“Well, I forgot my cellphone at home. Can you remind me what time it is?”

“Forgetting your cellphone. What a luxurious way to live. I couldn’t imagine what my work day would look like if I left it at home. The number of unanswered calls would be atrocious.”

Tayla gets her phone out of her pockets. Riana can’t tell what the director’s thoughts are, for she keeps looking forward, opposing the greenhead.

“It’s 11 h 56 PM. May 23rd. Tuesday.”

The tone of delivery is static, robotic even. Combined with the distance, Riana is starting to suspect the director is not exactly keen to have this conversation.

The sun shines bright, with no clouds in sight to tamper on the clear blue sky. In the distance, Riana and Tayla see the three cops as they prepare to get out of there. Seems their jobs we’re done for today. The director accelerates her steps towards them, to Riana’s surprise. The greenhead looks to see a dozen more employees coming. It’s like the current amount of staff was blocked by the police. The talkative cop sees the director arrive and grimaces.

“Gentlemen, thank you for your cooperation this morning”, begins Tayla. “I know I can be quite the obstacle to manage, but you must understand the importance of stolen archives to the government, I presume.”

Richard Young, the cop who’se been speaking for the trio this whole time, looks frustrated. The day hadn’t yet begun proper that this lady made him limp like an amputated dog around her rules, ordering a bunch of stuff and remembering rules no other citizens would ever keep up with to let some bizarre personnages go through. Further, Richard could sense that something was awry the second he stepped near that door, and he can only blame his intuition for the alarm bells that rang off.

All this to say, Tayla McKenzie is… strange. He can’t quite put it into words. It’s like they’ve met before on a level he couldn’t perceive. Thinking about it grosses him out. What would his wife think about that… But still, it’s this director who called specifically for him to show up. He knows he gave her his number, but not in which context. Him, Richard, a cop of four years after quitting an alcohol addiction that nearly cost him his marriage. Now sober, one of Thermosville’s best in the field and about to become a sergeant, he has a knack for deciphering things. When they start getting too complex, that’s when the crimson red flags pull up. Those flags are way high on the pole for Tayla McKenzie. He begins talking with that lack of trust, loud and clear.

“Good lord, at least your honest where you think it matters, Madame McKenzie. I gotta say though, I just got off the phone with my sergeant. I don’t get what’s the obsession with you and this overbudgeted dump of a library.

“Be careful with your next sentence, young man. I thought Thermosville would teach you better than this.”

Venom. The calm in her voice when she speaks like that only serves to push her dominant spirit on these three cops, with Richard eating back his own words. She sounds like a sneak ready to bite their Adam's apples.

“Look, all this to say… My sergeant wants to tell you. It’s been over three weeks since the last case of a mutant running amok, before he disappears without leaving a trace. Many others we’re successful in leaving Troposville”, bargains Richard.

Curiosity sparks in the eyes of the director. This news should come as a chock, yet lands like local newspaper story about puppies in a yard. Richard makes a quick hand gesture to his two protégés to get inside the car.

“We thought there was a subterrain base under the entire country of Atmos to evade suspicions incognito”, continues the talkative cop. “Yet we looked everywhere in the sewer  system of each city, to no avail. No signs of high clandestine activities. The sergeant thought it important to let you know that, at this stage, the culprit might have already left the country with your data.”

Riana observes this dynamic with worry. They are both intense, and it doesn’t feel like Tayla speaks with the cop for the first time. The director looks at him like someone, something, she studied with an interest that goes beyond the professional setting. Riana keeps her hands tied behind her back. she can’t help but feel animosity between the two, although she isn’t sure on what kind.

“Thank you for the information, Richard Young.”

The two cadets in the car, Richard leaves himself a bit of room for more personal questions.

“Why me? What did I do last time we met that gave you the hint to call me? And what did I do exactly to give you my phone number?”

Riana looks a bit spooked out when hearing this. A police officer is in the director’s contact without his knowledge and understanding of said knowledge? She can see Tayla is still calm in her dissection of this cop. Riana can spot a soft smirk.

“You are one of the best police officers of Thermosville, no? Someone as competent as you definitely has criminal info passed around in the black market.”

And that just shook Richard like his body got hit by a taser. Criminal information? That’s an incoming scandal. He can already imagine his whole department in shambles because their star pupil ran around doing terrible stuff… What terrible stuff is she talking about that could have possibly traversed to her? He doesn’t have time to think before Tayla moves closer to him… very close, less than an arm’s length away from one another.

“Mister Richard, there’s obviously more to your sergeant’s obsession that meets the eye. It must be because I have a good idea about this “subterrain system” of yours and where it’s located.”

Richard is half listening. His body is trembling, not out of fear, but out of something he completely did not except. Tayla stares at him with these soft yet deadly expressions, like a lion ready to munch on a gazelle. Her smirk is all for his display, as she broke the barriers of his intimacy without him even noticing. They are barely 20 centimeters apart. She lowers her tone, whispering near her ears.

“I suggest you keep your head up high and you look for the culprit. With my intel, I think the bad boy is still around town… and I think you want to keep your job.”

Her voice sounds oddly enticing to the cop, which contrasts with the absolute panic the rest of his body perceives. Tayla backs off, looking professional and demure, like she hasn’t just coerced a police officer into working himself out of defamation. She talks loud and clear again.

“We spoke enough. You know what I want. Do what you are tasked, and the answers you are really looking for…well, they might just be yours.”

On these words chalkfull of galantry, Tayla McKenzie gives a sign to Riana to follow her. The greenhead, overjoyed that this disaster of a conversation was over, joins Tayla’s side while awkwardly waving goodbye to Richard Young.

The cop is baffled. Tayla made sure no employees were watching to pull this outrageous stunt, yet let this random civilian bystand this whole debacle. Quiet anger. Richard goes back in the car and only says this to the cadets with fumes leaving his ears.

“Clearly this woman is hiding something. Plus, I got a feeling the higher ups are on the corruption as well. Boys, I want a file on this piece of filth, and a discrete one. We’re going ghost on this case.”