Veronica was still smirking victoriously when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“So, he give you his number after seeing that flattering picture of you in the paper?” Turning around she found Buffy following the boy down the hall with his eyes. “You know, he sure uses a lot of ‘product’ for an animal rights fanatic…” she trailed off critically before turning a small smile on Veronica.
“Friday noon.” She sighed, crossing her arms quasi nervously – hoping it came off as a more begrudged vibe. “Here as asked.” After her talk with Mac, she hoped she was not as obvious to this stranger as she’d been to one of her best friends.
Buffy put her hands into her jacket pockets and jerked her head in the direction of the security office door behind them. Following she found that Buffy hadn’t lied; the place was empty. There were a few desks, a white-board, and a number of paper cups that had once held coffee strewn on every other surface with varying levels of emptiness. Veronica didn’t hide her sneer.
“Friday’s payday. The checks get printed in the morning and most of these guys like to grab ‘em while the ink’s still wet…”
“And you don’t?”
“Auto deposit.” Buffy came to a stop in the middle of the room and Veronica noticed her nose wrinkle a bit. “I mean don’t get me wrong, a crisp fifty-dollar bill has more appeal than a roll of moist, vertically-folded singles, but…” Buffy shook her head as she snatched an abandoned cup, squashed it in her small fist and chucked it perfectly into the bin at the far side of the room. “God this place is disgusting.” She shook her head, “Sorry about the mess. We had a meeting in here a few days ago to learn about the new regulations on room-raiding.”
“A few days ago?” she asked slowly. Buffy frowned.
“Let’s just say - I’m definitely the Officer Ursula Hansen of this outfit.” Veronica chuckled. “We’re in a passive-aggressive deadlock, but if this goes on much longer I’m going to put ground-up Imodium in the sugar bowl.”
Walking to the far end of the office, Buffy grabbed the knob to the only other door. “Come on, let’s step in here.” Veronica planted her feet and glared.
“A closet?” Veronica accused. Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Look, I know I read you wrong and apparently no matter how hard I try I can't pass for a believable lesbian, but I am not subjecting myself to any more gay-based mockery.” She glanced around “What - is the rest of security hiding, just waiting for my ass to get trapped in there?”
“Veronica!” Buffy shouted suddenly, opening the door wider and waving for her to enter. The younger woman saw now that while it was dark, there was a slight glowing coming from inside. Walking through, what she saw was a nest of six small TVs stacked in pairs on a card table that looked like it was about to buckle under the weight. Buffy closed the door behind them and walked to the folding chair across from the screens; apparently having already forgotten Veronica’s paranoid out-burst.
“Now the places with video security are… well, to be honest? The lamest. Not protecting the on-campus super computer, not in the labs where raw chemicals are kept, but where the checks are for the most part.” She leaned back and pointed to a particular monitor. On it she saw several of Hearst’s finest lined up in the narrow isles between cubicles in the Business office. “There is also a camera in the guest parking lot,” she said pointing to one on the end, “That was installed not because of the rapist but because a board member got the rims stolen off his car last spring.”
“And Audio?” Veronica clarified, leaning on the desk, trying to see if one of the security officers on the screen was really trying to fondle his nightstick in a flirtatious way while chatting up an intern.
“None. And no video at all dating back more than three days.”
“Three days? Seriously?” Buffy shrugged, slightly impassive.
“They say if someone’s got something serious to complain about, they’re gonna do it loud and fast so what’s the point.” Veronica tilted her head to the side as she nodded…. She had to admit, they did kind of have a point.
“And the rest?” The P.I. asked. Buffy leaned forward, her elbows on the desk and sighed as though this was a strenuous task.
“Any place one’d find a cash register. The book store, the Cafeteria, the Library – ”
“Uh, come again?” Veronica balked, putting a hand on the back of Buffy’s chair, cocking her hip to the side. Her expression was one of pure annoyance and disbelief. Buffy shrugged, a glimmer of a smile just visible in the glow of the monitors.
“You have a register in there.”
“It only has twenty-two dollars in it!” The young woman was becoming indignant. “Never mind the argument I could make about the growing obsoleteness of text materials in the digital age – but everyone with late fees pay on their Hearst Student Card!” Buffy managed to hold in a laugh at this, but her shoulders still shook a little in the repressing of it. Suddenly the glare was turned from the specific glowing monitor to the woman across from it in the dark room.
“Up until you made it abundantly clear that we were little more than Hearst’s three-hundred dollar toilet seats, people used to actually want this job – dispatch duty?” Veronica’s eyebrows met in confusion. This just made Buffy’s grin grow. “It happened last fall term too, checking out the cute new Cafeteria workers; scoping the Federal Work Study freshman…” she said the last part in sarcastic mockery of her co-workers, but couldn’t keep the disgust out of her voice long enough to finish the sentence.
Veronica stared at her, face noncommittal.
“Don’t over-think, and try to take it as a compliment. What else can you really do?”
“Oh, there’s plenty I can do – ”
“Narrow the plane of focus, please – don’t shoot the messenger.” Veronica gave a brief snort of sarcastic laughter, but her smile was genuine. “I looked into what little else I could remember you asking me from the other day. We have a fairly clean remaining staff – I say remaining for reasons obvious,” she smiled then leaned back in the folding chair, looking up at the standing young woman, “I think they hired someone for background checks after Hearst had their little Casino Royal, probably trying to cover there asses.”
“Little late.” She muttered. Buffy just shrugged,
“The American mentality is generally a reactionary one. But all that aside? The rest is just Key Cards and Codes. Those get stored in that Super Computer and copies sent to the Security provider - and they only relinquish the results at the Head of Security's request or at the 'behest' of the employer."
“That’s all? Easy. Two minutes, and he’ll be behesting anything I want.”
“There’s a catch though,” Buffy began, her face hesitant, “I looked into the school’s ground plans over in the Architecture and Design studios… The area you’re looking into? They’re all key guarded… anyone who had keys, access to said keys or even friends of people who had access to keys?” she trailed off delicately. Veronica groaned, realizing that the scope of investigation would grow ten-fold.
“What about in O’Dell’s case?” she asked, resigned. Buffy winced, sympathetically. “What?”
“I was talking about both.”
“Frak.” Buffy chuckled at hearing the word again. “It’s from a TV show, long story – ”
“Battlestar, I know.” Buffy smirked, and Veronica found herself blushing at being caught. “Willow loves the Sci-Fi channel, and since Fridays are the one night I don’t have classes? I’m usually home just in time to eat dinner with her on the couch and watch before going out and trying to find her a woman.” Buffy groaned. “Wow, my life sounds sad now that I say it out loud.” Veronica smirked as she pushed her hair back behind her ears.
“Okay, serious question this time,” Buffy began, “What did that Hipster want from you? Out in the hall?”
“I’d thought you’d been listening in,” Veronica sat perched on the edge of the desk that held the computers, the old tin table creaking slightly. “Doin’ it all for the Monkey. I believe you code-named it the 28 Dayes Later case? Still waiting on the Zombies, by the way… Anyways - We tricked Argent to prove our allegiance to the cause. They took the bait, so Mac and I have to meet them later for our official conscription.” Buffy got up and sat next to her on the desk. The table creaked ominously this time; they shared a look in an anxious silence as they both seemed to wait for the legs of the desk to buckle and give out. When almost a minute passed and nothing happened they started laughing.
“Well, therein lies that age-old Under Cover question – how deep are you willing to go for a case?” Buffy joked, her voice getting low and smoky, “And Mars – if they make you do something else of the rule-breaky-variety? Let me know? Or if there really are zombies. I do work dispatch, you know… I could divert resources, redact alarms, hell I’ll come to collect you if the rest doesn’t work – ”
“Wow, you could come in handy.” Veronica muttered, as though she’d just thought of it.
“Hey, you burn down the Chem. Labs? You’re on your own. You steal more lab rats, call me.”
...
As Mac and she left the gentle trap that Darla and Bronson had laid for them, Veronica’s mind was racing. Canada Canada Canada… What says Canada, she wondered?
“Veronica what were you thinking?” Mac groaned, worrying the strap of her bag in tight fists, “We didn’t even ask Parker! And it’s not like we can keep all the other obnoxious people from our suite out of our room and just let them in! That would be even worse when you add in the ‘creepy’ factor!” she rambled, talking more to herself than her companion who waved off her arguments with far too much ease.
“Please! Parker wanted part in this party from the beginning. She won’t mind. Besides, that little social butterfly? Her wings dun’healed – ready to head back into the wild, wild western front of Man Hunting.” Mac just raised an eyebrow, though she was still not done freaking out at Veronica’s invitation of the young Mr. Pope to her dorm room.
“We’ll figure it out, make it intellectual. Social commentary - like not changing anything in order to symbolize Bush’s great push for the Greater North American Nation. Play some music that’s a couple years out of date and put up some pictures of Northern wildlife… If that doesn’t grab that Mammal hugger’s attention, I honestly don’t know what will.”
More glaring.