"You must be insane!"
Meyer didn't enjoy his work but someone had to do it.
The alternative wasn't pleasant.
The only people that worked for E.A.G.L.E. that he ever knew to retire were the ones who got paid well enough to leave the planet and buy a farm, somewhere warm and cosy.
The floating cities weren't safe nor the land beneath them either on the wild areas or in the many places that the humans colonies had rooted so deep that they seemed to have been there for ever, the danger of being attack by the rebel natives or pirates - or E.A.G.L.E. agents collecting taxes or following some directive no one could phantom to imagine. The Nest, has the planet had been called for generations now, was a basket full of snakes.
"I'm sorry for upsetting you, agent Meyer but the item in question is safely guarded where it should be."
"Don't push that crap on me! It's CORPORAL Meyer!
Also, if that was true I wouldn't have been sent here!"
Meyer, the beer bellied with the a thick blond moustache, agent of the law (which you might remember from chapter one), had some really unpleasant days since his last visit to the Big Crash. He had been treated like an errand boy ever since that night.
A few hours a go, the word got to his District that things had gone sour in some strange military operation at the Devil's Doors.
Dead agents, explosions and some building burned to the ground.
That and the broadcast of those... things, eating some woman dressed in a tight purple suit with a cape. Even the dumbest and mind numbed addicts and criminals in Heaven must have realized both things were connected.
Even Meyer got it and he knew has much as the average Joe on the street.
Then he suddenly gets a holodisk, something big enough to fit his palm and flat and light like a sheet of paper.
"Investigator nr 34, Corporal A. D. Meyer." The holographic message started, has it projected E.A.G.L.E.s logo. "Report from stolen object from facility Vault Five, near the 7th Division's range of action. Report immediately to locale and evaluate situation."
It turned it self of, the disk and that was all.
The 7th Division's head quarters was a mess, he didn't even looked at who dropped the thing on his desk has he tried to fill yet another paper, another report to file, useless has to how the bombs that went of in his district were placed, yet not detected.
Meyer was a small fry, yet someone had to do the work.
His Corporal title meant nothing, from a fat and lazy man feeling his years on him from the crime fighting department. Everyone had fancy military titles, even people that never held a gun in their lives.
So here he was at Vault Five, talking to some ridiculous scarecrow of a bureaucrat, with big eyes deeply sunk into his face, some how ranked as a "Lieutenant" who kept INSISTING that nothing had been stolen.
For the third time, Meyer, took another deep breath, his face red as a potato and he held this "Lieutenant" by the collar of his stupid little uniform and said in the lowest tone he could manage, in the little man's face.
"I have had. The worst days. EVER.
I have been working like a damn mine slave and if you don't tell me what I want I swear to all the Gods in this forsaken s**t hole of a planet I will beat you to a pulp."
"B-b-b-but I..!"
"WHEN" Meyer interrupted "When, I am done with you, you will spend your life savings to get some doctor to put your face back together!!
Now, talk to me!"
The little man tried to make a composed face, though it was becoming hard to breathe with Meyers grip, still strong.
"Agen- Corporal! I can't help you!"
Meyer got his left fist ready to fly down on the Lieutenant's face.
"I swear, please no! THE REPORT WAS FAKE!" the man shouted in panic as he tried to shield his face.
Meyer stopped his fist only some inches away from that stupid face.
He threw the man to the ground, his two back of beat agents laughing loudly at the scene has some of the employees at Vault Five simply did their best to ignore this situation, typing their data on their computers or running back and forth from the office and down into the vault, then back up.
Meyer crouched near the man.
"Talk."
"I - gasp- I was the first to notice the - gasp- the red sign, alerting something was a miss. I went down with a handful of security guards, quickly heading for the vault's section from with the automatic alarm message had been sent."
The man was too shaken to stand up, Meyer helped him up with a strong pull.
"When we got there we searched everything but nothing was missing. I rechecked the inventory list thrice but by that time the message had been send to the department and agents were called to verify the occurrence."
"So, nothing is gone and you wasted everyone's time because you're a slow worm."
"Please don't hurt me." the man whined in a hurry.
"I swear on my wife and children, it's all there."
Meyer grunted.
Why was he sent here?
Small, worthless and pitiful.
Perhaps Meyer and this man had something in common.
He sighed.
"Show me the way."
*****
"This is it" the little man said.
He was holding a metallic cube way to close to Meyer's face.
"That old thing? Who would steal that?"
Meyer picked it up, turning it around, trying to figure out what used could a shiny metal box have. It was rusted, or at least looked very old.
"What IS this?"
The "Lieutenant worm", has Meyer called him mentally, quickly checked a digital board, looking for an answer.
"It doesn't say," he said, sparing Meyer a pitiful look has if he expected more verbal and physical abuse. "It's classified, according to the file but it might be the person that sent it here didn't knew what it was.
I used to work on the research department at... I used to work for it.
Sometimes they come across things, no one seems to know what they are so when they are done with them, they pack those things and send them to Vaults, usually here, in Heaven to keep them close but safe."
"Mh. Sounds about right."
The cube felt light and it wasn't a box like Meyer imagined.
At least, it didn't seem to have a lock, or anything close to being a lid.
"You checked the video to see if someone was here, unauthorized?"
The man blinked his stupid eyes.
"I.. I didn't think it was necessary. Everything's in order.
Corporal."
Meyer got a good hold on the thing with both his hands.
Then he broke it in half.
The worm screamed, his face almost comical in his panic.
Meyers "boys" probably looked has stupid and scared, standing next to him and trying to understand what just happened.
"This thing is made of plastic." Meyer started saying.
There was a piece of paper inside the cube, curled into a ball.
"I used to play with one of this when I was a little kid. It's a 3D puzzle."
The Lieutenant felled to his knees.
"You got fooled by a kid's toy covered with metalized paint.
Hand me all the recordings from the time of the theft up to this date from all over the vault and the office above."
The man was catatonic.
"Snap out of it!" Meyer slapped him hard with the back of his hand.
"I don't want your death on my conscience so I won't report this back to HQ.
Get up, get my what I told you to get me and then I'll leave.
From now on do your work better."
Lieutenant stupid got up, nodded a weak yes and limped away, Meyer and his two goons close behind.
"What does the paper say, Corporal?"
"It's an invite for trouble." Meyer said has he unrolled the paper.
It only showed a logo.
His week just got shittier.
