“Gwen” He called out, stepping to the doorway.
There was no immediate response, but a few moments later he heard the sound of movement from down the hall and Inspector Dougal appeared with a tray in her hands.
“Awake I see,” She smiled wryly at him, walking up the hall. “I figured you might like some coffee to start your morning.”
Anselm nodded, taking the cup from the tray gratefully.
“Not my preferred source of caffeine, actually, but it’ll do.” He told her, glancing down the hall. “What time is it I forgot to check.”
“Midmorning,” She frowned, shaking her head. “The morning shift should have come on at the switchboard, but there’s no one here.”
“No one” Anselm raised an eyebrow as he sipped his coffee.
That was odd, he had to admit. A police station, no matter how calm, was never left unwatched.
“No one,” Gwen repeated with a scowl, “That strictly against regs too. The automated emergency response line will redirect calls to the duty officers, but there still should be someone at the front desk.”
Anselm frowned, “Something scheduled for today”
She shook her head, “Nah. We’ve got a major event coming, but that’s not for two days.”
“What’s that”
“The Anniversary of the activation of the Tower,” She answered, shrugging. “It’s the biggest day of the year around here. We usually have an `all hands on deck’ for that day, only one man here in the station, everyone else is on duty around the city.”
Gwen shook her head, setting down her coffee and headed back down the hall. Anselm followed her, questions starting to rise in his mind. The police force had come back clear in his check through the CIA and Interpol databases, but of course that would only have identified terrorists with previous records. There was every chance that there were others that weren’t on anyone’s lists as of yet.
Gwen led him to the squad room, and stopped by one of the terminals in front of a wall screen. The ubiquitous wall size screens were nearly invisible until activated, but this one was already online and showing a top down view of the city with the huge greenhouse and tower at its center.
“That’s odd,” Gwen murmured, “Everyone is in the Tower Facility.”
“Everyone” Anselm asked, his stomach dropping.
“The other officers,” She corrected herself, and Anselm relaxed somewhat. “Most of them anyway. Some of the deputies and a couple officers are around the facility, at the monorail and road access points.”
“Can you get a view of them”
“Yeah, hang on.” She said, tapping in a command.
The screen abruptly shifted, showing a view of one of the monorail access points where a crowd was gathered, waiting for the next car.
“What’s going on out there” Anselm asked sharply, his heart quickening.
She shook her head, “I don’t know.”
“Where are they all going”
She tapped in another command, bringing up the monorail command system and showed the overhead schematics of the lines. After a moment she let out a long, shocked breath.
“Oh.” She shook her head, “They’re going into the greenhouse.”
“What! Why!”
“I don’t know!”
“Stop them!” Anselm blurted.
“How! I don’t have controller access! This is just used to view the car movements!” She snapped, twisting a smaller screen over to where she could look at it.
“Well call someone who does!”
“I’m trying that!” She growled, “Now shut up a second and let me do my job!”
Anselm shut up, watching as she tried to open an outside line, only to have the computer on the other side refuse her. After a minute and three tries, she slapped her hand down on the desk and growled in frustration.
“Damn it! There’s no answer.”
“Where’s the control center”
“Inside the tower facility.” She gritted out, shaking her head. “Most of the administration is inside, Anselm. The Police only moved outside a little over a year ago, before that we were semi-officially under the auspice of the power company as a `security force’.”
“So, what you’re basically telling me, is that the entire command and control system for the city’s infrastructure is probably under the command and control of Abdallah Amir,” Anselm said sarcastically.
“Well it’s not like we planned it that way!”
“He did, I’m sure,” Anselm said dryly, shaking his head. “Alright, something’s going on, and I’m guessing that it’s not a good thing. How’s he getting everyone into the tower anyway”
“I think I know,” Gwen said grimly, pointing to a wall screen tuned to the local webcast channel.
Anselm straightened up and walked over, watching as the announcement looped and began playing again. “Free drinks and food, come celebrate the pre-anniversary party at the Tower Gardens Oh Christ.I don’t believe this crap.”
“We have to warn people!”
“How,” Anselm asked tiredly, shaking his head. “You want to run through the streets yelling like idiots in the movies”
“Actually I was thinking about maybe posting an official warning,” Gwen replied sarcastically. “As a police officer I have that authority, you know.”
“You do, or your Captain does”
“Well.” Gwen hesitated.
“I thought so.” Anselm shook his head, “Why don’t you try to contact him again.”
“Right.” Gwen nodded, “I’ll try.”
“While you’re doing that,” Anselm said, “I’m going to check on my research. Something tells me it’s about to become very important information.”
“You do that,” Gwen said absently, already activating the Captain’s contact line.
Anselm left her to it, not expecting her to accomplish anything, and went back to her office where his programs were still running.
He was pretty certain that things were well on their way to the crapper, though he’d be damned if he could see what could be done to stop it.
“Alright, come on folks! There’s no rush here, the next car is coming right along in a minute.” Inspector `Pete’ growled, shaking his head as he waved a few people back, then nudged one of the deputies working with him, “Man, this is nuts. Why couldn’t they wait a couple days, we had all the arrangements made. This would have been a breeze.”
The deputy, one of the part time men that rarely got called up, just grunted in response as he roughly pushed a man back from the platform.
“Hey!” Pete yelled, coming over. “Just give em a warning damn it! They’re not rioters for crying out loud, mate!”
The deputy actually looked mutinous for a second, and Pete had to match his glare for glare, but he finally nodded and backed down, grumpily telling the next group to get into line.
Thank the maker that this crowd should thin out pretty quick, Pete thought, shaking his head. This yo-yo is trying me nerves.
Aloud he just waved to the next person, smiling as he ushered the woman and her children onto the monorail car.
“The fair ground, right Ma’am” He asked, nodding to the children.
“That’s right,” She nodded.
“This is the car for you lot, then.” He winked in an exaggerated way to the kids, his white teeth and eyes contrasting heavily to his black skin, and they giggled in response.
“Thanks.”
“Have a good one, miss!” He waved as the door shut and the monorail car took off.
The next car was coming into the slot as he turned to the deputy, and nudged him again. “That’s how you handle this lot, mate. Now come on, give me a hand here.”
The man just grumbled again in response, and Pete sighed, glancing to his wrist watch as he began to mentally count down the hours to when he’d be able to pay a visit to the free food and drink himself.