The Officer entered the ident code to his secure system, then he uploaded the stored half of the key signature for the personal comm’s unit of the operative. They had become increasingly concerned at the lack of response to enquiries for a report on the attack at the spaceport and subsequent clearing of evidence. The concern was exacerbated by the loss of two vehicles and a strike team from their own internal security teams. The comms unit connected but once again it was an automated service, it dictated the same message, the main reception unit was currently unavailable or manually switched off.
It was inconceivable that it was unavailable it had to be manually switched off. There was nowhere in this system that wasn’t available or in signal range of the equipment the Officer had at their disposal. That had to mean that the comms unit was physically set to not receive. It was plausible that they were in some situation where that was a requirement. But this was the first time the Officer had experienced it from this particular organic which again heightened their unease.
The Officer checked to make sure that the payments had passed through the system to ensure that this wasn’t the reason for the lack of communication. The payments had been transferred, they could even be safely erased from internal logs.
The Officer clicked their tongue against the roof of their mouth, an unconscious habit when they were thinking. Then suddenly they sat upright and checked local news, reviews and social channels about the asset’s club. Maybe there was a special event on that was drawing all the asset’s attention. That could be the reason though it was a flimsy one. If so, they really needed to learn to put ‘away from comms’ messages in place to deal with such matters.
The Officer fired up a few dozen holographic displays. As the data started to scroll, much of it with immersive video feed, they felt their world slip a little from underneath them and they sat down heavily into the chair. It wasn’t possible. Their mind reeled as they watched the news. The club had been attacked, there were many injured but no details of any deaths yet just the suggestion that there might be. The Officer shook their head and scanned through the news articles, trying to avoid the masses of speculation, what they needed right now was just the facts not theories.
They noted the Judicial case number that was scrolling across the screen for more information and passed it immediately to the data retrieval division. They wanted more information than what the media were providing. They even wanted more information than what Judicial channels would provide. They made a note to data retrieval to use outside sources to gain as much information as possible, in whichever way was possible. But there was to be no illegal activity from inside this building.
At some point the Officer would have to make a report about this situation. They were hoping that their contact, the asset, was not compromised, that would be inconvenient. They made sure to erase all data held locally about their relationship and activities just in case. They must make sure every element was sanitised. However, they would not be able to cleanse the deep database as that took special notice. They would have to contact a superior to make that possible.
