[@Ithradine]

[color=orange]Detective Chen was having a very satisfactory day. He had been sitting in his office without being bothered for two hours now. The fact that he had disconnected his office phone may have had something to do with it. He had used the time alone to sort his In-tray. He had basically glanced at all the paperwork, stamped some seals, and moved them to his Out-tray. There. His In-tray was completely empty but for a nagging piece of paper. He tried to ignore it as he pondered on what else he could do till it was time to go home.

When you have been a detective for thirteen years without going up or down, you learn to enjoy these mini-victories. Chen had lost all ambition somewhere along the way, and now came to work only to collect the paycheck. His superiors would have loved to see him take an early retirement, but the department was already so under-staffed they couldn't afford to. But the trade-off was that Chen was now assigned to all the cases that no one else wanted. In his floor, a 'Chen case' is a name people give to such files.

One such file was sitting there on the in-tray. A rumour about a possible suspect in last month's Equalist attack that had claimed 200 lives. There were no dearths of leads and rumours in such a case. But this particular lead was particularly terrible. A baggy old lady living near the Spirit wilds claimed that she saw a goat-headed man run away from the scene of the blast while breathing blue fire through his nostrils. The lead was automatically a 'Chen lead'. The more hotshot detectives were busy pursuing real suspects, sniffing out real terrorist cells within the city. But the Chief had decreed that every lead must be chased down. Chen really had no choice.

He continued ignoring it when, suddenly, the secretary burst in unannounced. She wasn't his secretary, technically. She handled the entire floor's secretarial work. But still she could show more respect, he thought angrily as the woman glanced at him disdainfully.

"There's some guy over there, looking for a job?" She was one of those young women who always ended every sentence with an interrogative question mark. "Very persistent. Think you could handle something like that?"

"What do you mean if I can- Of course. Send him in. And please, try knocking next time," he called after her.

"Sure. Wouldn't want to wake you up," she quipped as she went to fetch the man. Chen shook his head in resignation, metal bent the door shut and waited for this latest brand of fool who seemed to want a job in the most dangerous place to work. Idiots get born every minute, Chen thought.[/color]