chapter 3 part 4
Edward drove through the chicanes that lead to the gatehouse and showed his security pass to the Guard, amused as always at having to show a pass with your ID on to someone you were on first name terms with. He drove through the gate and barrier system and parked the car in his bay and headed into his office.
At his desk at a weekend was an all too frequent requirement of his job, but he always enjoyed the peace and quiet a mostly empty weekend office bought. No heels clicking in corridors, no trilling phones or whirring photocopiers. No muted voices or assistants destroying moments of concentration with their eagerness to help. His part of the complex was empty, no distractions or disturbances, although he knew he would have to explain why he was here to the Colonel, but that was for the future. For now, there were no major alerts on and the office was thus empty, and he now had some important research to do. The events of the past few days, and particularly this morning were not things that happened naturally in his experience. He didn’t forget people, and once he had seen a face he did not, ever, fail to recall it and the precise details of each previous time he had seen it. Geraldine was something and someone outside his box. He had never been in the position of needing to vet someone from his personal life before and he almost hoped that he could turn something up that would take her out of his box and put her in someone else’s. That would enable different people to meet her for their date on Tuesday and would ease the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. A feeling, he was sure, that was more to do with the distaste of applying the morals and principals of his work to someone who may turn out to be no more than a member of the public, albeit a beautiful one. Clearing the screen saver and entering his logon details and password he bought up the Known Persons Database and input the few details that he had of Geraldine.
Edward drove through the chicanes that lead to the gatehouse and showed his security pass to the Guard, amused as always at having to show a pass with your ID on to someone you were on first name terms with. He drove through the gate and barrier system and parked the car in his bay and headed into his office.
At his desk at a weekend was an all too frequent requirement of his job, but he always enjoyed the peace and quiet a mostly empty weekend office bought. No heels clicking in corridors, no trilling phones or whirring photocopiers. No muted voices or assistants destroying moments of concentration with their eagerness to help. His part of the complex was empty, no distractions or disturbances, although he knew he would have to explain why he was here to the Colonel, but that was for the future. For now, there were no major alerts on and the office was thus empty, and he now had some important research to do. The events of the past few days, and particularly this morning were not things that happened naturally in his experience. He didn’t forget people, and once he had seen a face he did not, ever, fail to recall it and the precise details of each previous time he had seen it. Geraldine was something and someone outside his box. He had never been in the position of needing to vet someone from his personal life before and he almost hoped that he could turn something up that would take her out of his box and put her in someone else’s. That would enable different people to meet her for their date on Tuesday and would ease the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. A feeling, he was sure, that was more to do with the distaste of applying the morals and principals of his work to someone who may turn out to be no more than a member of the public, albeit a beautiful one. Clearing the screen saver and entering his logon details and password he bought up the Known Persons Database and input the few details that he had of Geraldine.