Resuming her p the rge executive chair, Sarah poio one of the chairs that Ellie was standiween. “Have a seat, Agent.” She sighed, “You are aware that this try has ws forbidding what you did. You even swore to uphold those ws.” She looked at one of her ptop ss briefly. “When this all blew up, I took a few mio look into why a young and drive such as yourself would do such a boneheaded move.” She turhe ptop around and showed Ellie the picture she had pulled up.

  Feeling the strength esg her body, Ellie was relieved whe down and then came face to face with an e of the picture on her kit tertop. “My girlfriend..um..fiancé, I should say.” Ellie paused and looked down at her silver e band. “Angelie Kino.” Taking the time to pull her leather satchel from across her chest, Ellie pulled out the evidence bag with her girlfriend’s dog tags and pced it on Sarah’s desk. “I was the ohat found them, discarded close to some abandoned mine.”

  Ping the bridge of her nose and shaking her head, Sarah grumbled, “What a disaster, Agent Miller. I suppose you got the tags with the drooo? If memory serves me, then the privacy wall goes all the way to that mirance, which is sealed with a steel pte.” She looked at her defiant agent, “Assuming you didn’t try to break into that as well?”

  “No Ma’am.” Ellie quickly aowledged. “You have everything.” She waited a few uneasy silent minutes while her new boss typed on aop, “I, Ma’af I may, what now?”

  Finishing the small amount of typing on her desktop, Sarah sent the email she’d finished and then answered Ellie. “There is a small measure of luck.” She held up one finger, “First, I mao save your job and keep you out of prison.” She popped up another finger, “Two. I take the illegally gained evidence you have obtained and hand it over to Miss Tatum. Somehow she’s made an arra already with the govero not sue in trade for this…junk.”

  “But…” Ellie choked lightly and tried to reach for the dog tags, “These are a personal nature..”

  Tug a few strands of her red hair behind her ear, Sarah gred at her agent. “You should have thought of that before you broke han a dozen privacy ws and then paraded them in front of a call that was being video cast of an illegal interview.” Sarah popped her third finger up, “You have a new desk across from me, and a stack of folders. sider you on perma desk duty here and in the substation in Suffolk.” Sarah handed Agent Miller her service on. “You have this baow.”

  Meticulously pg the firearm ba her holster, Ellie then looked to her new boss again. “So what’s in the folders? I don’t even know the division I am part of now.”

  “There’s more.” The Deputy Director leaned ba her chair. “You are under my direct supervision for han y days, and in that time if there are any..let’s just call them anomalies, then you will be terminated.” She whispered, “More likely stu an old missile silo and fotten about.” Sarah opened a drawer to her desk and handed Ellie another badge. “You are part of Behavioral Sow. We are less a and more researbsp; Your y days will be following up oacks of interviews with inmates and using the questionnaires within those folders.”

  Taking a moment to ftten out the wrinkles in her suit, Ellie stood up and put her arms behind her back. “Ma’am, with your permission, I will go aarted. Thank you for the opportunity.”

  Giving Agent Miller a single nod, Deputy Director Powell pointed across from her office. “340-B. I will send you the address for the Suffolk substation in a few minutes.” She raised ohin red-brown eyebrow, “Wele to the team, Agent Miller. Dismissed.”

  Exiting the office, Ellie heard a few more typing strokes and could have sworn she heard the officer say the name ‘Jeremy’ under her breath as she closed the door behind her.

  -Demoted and nearly tossed into a bck gover pit. Nice move.-

  Pressing her new badge to the little access panel, Ellie breathed a sigh of relief when the light turned green and the door unlocked. She stepped into her small offid shook her head in disbelief. Walls covered in what she guessed to be lead based gray paint, broet that bubbled up from the floor and a basie desk that looked as though it would fall apart if anything more were pced on it.

  -I might as well be in prison.-

  Ellie told herself and looked at the locked door and the small windows that reminisced of being behind a set of iron bars. Shaking her head and thinking and picturing a small cot and toilet oher side of the office, Agent Miller pulled out her small rolling chair and sat down. Springs popped and the hydraulic level released then dumped Ellie squarely on her butt. “Fuck.” She yelled and kicked the broke across the room, where it banged against the heavy gss outlining the door. “Unbelievable.” Pig herself up from the floor, Ellie pulled the chair out of her office-cell and into the hallway. Expl for a couple minutes, she ma a metal and pstic stag chair into her offid finally settled down long enough to look at the junk cluttering her desk.

  Like Ellie romised, the ter of her desk had han two stacks of old mani folders that had scribbled names of various jails aentiaries that enpassed the area. Left of oack was an old metallic push button phoh a line of buttons that occasionally blinked a pale yellow. Frustrated, she picked up the phone and then smmed it ba her desk making a small iion. “I could kill someoh this stupid thing.” Ellie griped aloud and then looked tht. A ft s monitor with an apanying keyboard and mouse gave her the only e into the me, other than her own iPhone.

  Lost in absent-mihought while the lights on her phone blinked, Agent Miller wasted what she thought was the better part of thirty minutes before she picked up the first old yellow folder and blew off the light film of dust. Gng at the name on the folder, Ellie stared at the name ‘Lineage’ on a white sticker for a few seds and then out of curiosity g a few more folders that all had normal names such as ‘Smith, Walker, and Evans’ before once again looking at the folder in her hand.

  -It’s an anagram of Angelie.-

  Smiling to herself fetting the silly puzzle so quickly, she first tore the sticker away and opehe folder to find a long piece of yellow legal paper with a message scrawled hastily on the page.

  ‘Agent Miller,Tuck this folder into your leather satchel and go to the abawelve s eplex a few miles from here. Time is tight. sider renovations in your search.

  Be patient. If you are still alo 1300 hours, theurn to the offibsp; Destroy this letter before leaving.’

  Afraid to set off any arms, Agent Miller tore up the note and then stuffed the remains in her jacket pocket with the io get to another location before setting the tents on fire. Tossing the folder int as instructed, Ellie smiled and darted out of her office-cell and headed for the pce mentioned iter.