desk 30

Place - desk 30, BPN hall.
Clerk - Sally White (SCL 9)

'Look at them all, just look at them, the hordes, the masses, the operatives. Slayer's gift to us all. Standing there looking as if they thought they owned the world; and what do they own? Nothing not even their own lives, but then do any of us? Slayer keeps as safe, Slayer keeps us. Does he have to keep so many of us though? surely he could manage with less operatives. What would our lives be like without those swaggering, posturing, glaring, weapons carrying idiots?'

Buzz went Sally's headset, "Ms White you're not meeting your quota for the hour, please correct this deficiency immediately. Mr Slayer needs these operatives on their missions not in the BPN hall." The voice of Mr Jameson the supervisor sounded harsh in Sally's ear, but then it was her third reminder of the morning.

The day dragged on with reminders from the supervisor every hour. Janine popped her head around the cubicle at lunch time, "are you coming for lunch?"
"No I need to work through today as I just can't keep up with the pace" Sally replied, Janine shook her head in disgust " you really should you know, after all we're on a triple shift today"
"I know but I just can't seem to stay focused, I'm so tired" she rubbed her eyes hoping that would clear them.
" You know what you should try........." Janine rummaged through her bag and pulled out what looked like a packet of sweets, "...... here you are, 'Woozyhitters', guaranteed to get you through the day and with no side effects. They're new on the market, you should get some tonight." "Thanks, I'll give anything a go at the moment, I need these triple shifts as my rent has just gone up again." Sally took one of the 'Woozyhitters' it tasted like boiled cabbage.

The rest of the day passed more smoothly with only a couple of reminders from Mr Jameson, until the last BPN to be issued. It was a red and was assigned to a squad fresh from Meny.

'Why do I always get them at the end of the day' Sally thought, ' they've been taught the drill but they still seem to think I have all the answers.'

"Come on guys you're needed out there, you've got your gear, you've got all the information available, stop stalling and go" the squad seemed to glare even more at her exasperated tone but at a signal from one they moved off.

"Finally, it's home time and I bet I've missed my transport," Sally logged out and prepared to hand over her station to Mark, "had a bad day Sal?" he asked as she stamped around, "Ha you could say that but it's over and I'm not due back here for ten whole hours thank goodness." A smile of relief appeared on her face, " Hang on a minute Sal don't you live in apartment building 2018?" said Mark as he looked at the screen, "Yeah I do why?" Sally was startled now, "well you've just sent that squad there on a red to apartment 25b" he replied. "Oh no that's next door to mine, I've gotta get out of here Mathius is there." Sally ran from the cubicle and through the masses of staff leaving via her exit, she jumped into the first transit to run and hoped it wouldn't be slow today of all days.

Next day.

"Everything all right Sally?" asked Janine, "yes everything's fine and you were right the 'Woozyhitters' certainly do their job, I picked some up on my way in" replied Sally.

"Hi Mark, everything clear on the board?" a frazzled looking Mark just grunted. Sally let Mark log off and started to settle herself down for the shift. "Oh Sal I nearly forgot was everything all right at home?" he asked, "yeah just; a neighbour went mad and carved up his flat mates, luckily my squad got there before he could get into any of the other apartments. They were taking him out when I got there." Sally smiled "must have had fun going on the number of bags they were taking for disposal. Mathius was just sat there looking at the television, and preparing his next list of toys he wants. I'll see you tomorrow okay, I'd better get started."

The day seemed to whiz by, although the number of 'Whoozyhitters' consumed were quite high. Mr Jameson came by and spoke to Sally in person "well done Ms White, you've exceeded your quote by 25% today, please keep that up, after all we need our operatives where they're needed."

'Yes' thought Sally, 'we do. Mr Slayer certainly knows what we need, he keeps us safe, all praise Mr Slayer.'

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