New Pine Bluff: Mountain Labs
A young couple has been talking in the filing office for quite the long while. The tall young man speaks about the important projects he has been guarding. The lady hangs on every word committing everything to memory. She giggles and asks questions about the dangers if the secret project was used incorrectly. Seeing that the ladies supervisor has caught them again, the young man writes something on a sheet of paper and gives it to the lady. She smiles and puts it away.
The new secretary has worked in the office for almost a month now. She’s been a very driven young lady. She’s filed exceptionally fast; all of her typed work was on time or early. Her only flaw is that she has gained the attention of about four of the young men that attended orientation with her. Seeing this as a problem Erna Qiu, her supervisor, decides to have a word with her.
The larger, much older, pale blue woman stood at her office entrance staring down the young man as he walked away. When he was finally gone she called to the secretary, “Jailene.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I need to speak with you.”
Jailene had a good idea what this was about. She had been seen talking with the young men fairly often. Often enough, the conversations were short but this guy had a bit more to say.
Jailene entered the office as politely as she knew how.
Erna however wanted this meeting to be the last they had on this topic. “Close the door,” she ordered. Once Jailene obeyed, Erna could say what was on her mind, “Jailene, you’ve done good work here. However, I’ve noticed that you have been speaking with the young men a bit more than you have been working lately. I understand your willingness to talk. We all enjoy attention, but if you could speak with them on your breaks it would not interrupt the work you need to finish.”
“I finish everything on time.”
“Yes but think of what more you could do if you focused solely on the tasks. When you are not on your breaks you are on our time. The guards protect vital items here. They need to focus on their tasks. You work on your tasks. Understand?”
Jailene stood staring at her supervisor with an expression of guilt but truly, she didn’t care. It was all she could do not to leap over the woman’s desk and rip her head off.
This facade was getting to her. She had to play the “employee of the month” but wasn’t sure how much longer she could take it. She didn’t care for being any kind of secretary. However, if her gang was going to make any kind of score here, she desperately needed to keep this job, for now.
The gang infiltrated the research lab without incident. Orientation was easy. Their jobs were easy. There was no shortage of valuable projects in this place.
The problem was communication. There were five of them at the research lab but they were all in different divisions. They needed to coordinate their efforts to make a good score. Handheld use could be easily tracked by their bosses. So, the only way they could communicate safely was by going through Jailene. With this new pressure, the amount she could talk to the gang was limited. It would take that much longer to coordinate anything that was worth their time.
Looking at Erna, Jailene managed to mutter out, “Yes ma’am,” as she bowed.
Jailene walked back to her desk and sat. Looking at the note Guy had wrote she memorized the combination to the door he was guarding. When she was certain she knew it, she shredded the paper and went back to filing.