"Hello?"

"Hey sir, uh, are you awake?" the voice on the phone asked timidly. Recognition slowly kicked in: it was the temp that we had working the phones on the night shift.

"Yeah," my voice was dry, cracking. Keep it cool, I thought. "Just trouble sleeping." Be smooth. "What's going on... Roger was it?"

"Uh, yes, yes sir. Sorry to wake - or bother you at such an hour. There's been... an event, and the Midshift Supervisor thinks that you should come down here." He was too new and too INexperienced for me to glean anything from his tone, anything could have been going on down there.

I suppressed my frustration, "I'll be right there."

Three deep breathes. I took a moment in the hallway mirror to straighten my tie, and the small red inverted cross pin on my lapel. Take your time, it'll seem odd if you show up so quickly.

It took every ounce of willpower to not run to the car.

The office was mayhem, as I knew it would be. The look of shock on my face as I came through the door should have been convincing, I had been practicing it in my bathroom mirror.

Our small waiting area just inside the front door was packed, wall to wall. It was standing room only, standing room only! Our only magazines (Highlights with all the "spot the differences" circled already) were scattered and lost on the floor, the ugly uncomfortable chairs and the small amount of standing room around them were packed with stuffy looking old white men. They were bickering with each other ceaselessly, creating a background din of conversation routinely pierced by the constant ringing of the reception phone.

There wasn't a chance in town that Roger would get that phone under control, especially with all of our clients complaining about the wait time.

I glided past reception and through the glass wall adorned with the department and office motto "Seven That Are An Abomination to Him: A Lying Tongue. -Proverbs 6:16-19." The processing room was abuzz and I drank in the sound of fingers on keyboards, staplers, and the laser printer spitting out forms like there was no tomorrow. They had called everyone in, it seemed. Every desk was filled and most had a second processor aiding, a clipboard at his or her side.

When the door to my office shut behind me, the sound was gone, but the flurry of action was obvious through the glass wall. I suppressed the smile that was fighting its way to my face, stay cool, stay focused. Three deep breathes.

My eyes snapped open at the sound of my door opening and the roar of glorious work poured in momentarily. I was presented with my Deputy Director, his tie askew, hair disheveled and a mess of papers grasped in one hand.

"Director," he blurted out, followed by at least thirty inaudible syllables.

"John, please, sit" I said calmly, "take a deep breath and tell me what the here is going on."

John obliged, his body sank in the chair immediately, he was obviously exhausted. He took three deep breathes and started over. "We didn't want to have to call you in, but we've got such a huge workload that we needed your approval to fast track a lot of the HE-666 forms up to central. We can't wait for distributed processing to approve them, we've got too much of a demand right now. We definitely don't have the funding from Misplaced Souls to put them in housing, unless you allocate it."

Oh the bureaucracy of hell.

"John, got it. I trust you've got everything under control. Put whatever you need on my desk and I'll make sure it gets done. But John, you haven't even told me what's happened."

"Perhaps WE can discuss it with you, Director?" an unfamiliar voice that took me by surprise. I hadn't heard the door open. Two suits were standing to my left. White ties, their lapels weren't pinned with a cross (inverted or otherwise). I swore inwardly, I hadn't expected them to show up so quickly.

"John, can you give us a minute?" I asked the chair where my deputy had been sitting.

I turned to my visitors, "What brings internal affairs down here?" They were already sitting.

"Seems a bit busy down here, quite the tragedy." One said to me. I couldn't tell if he had a smug look on his nondescript face. "An earthquake on the east coast, during that important speech. Who would have thought so many politicians would be in the same room together? Or that the roof would cave in?"

"So that's what happened?" I asked, I had practiced this line, but I had expected to deliver it to John, not IA. Their eyes took in every nuance of my countenance, every waiver in my speech.

"Yes. Don't you think it's odd? Especially with your office's numbers being so low recently? Performance reviews are coming up, aren't they?"

I hadn't considered that they'd have an in into the inner workings of the town, this wasn't good. "No sir, I'm as surprised as you guys are, and please, let me know if there's anything I can do to aid in your investigation."

"Director, please. I'm sorry but you've misunderstood us. This is not an investigation, my previous banter was merely for your comfort. We are here to take you in." Now he was smug, I didn't even try to hide the look of surprise on my face. "Your angelic co-conspirator confessed to everything the moment we showed up. An impressive scheme, and an interesting bit of bipartisanship we haven't had the pleasure of seen in quite a long time."

Angels, I knew he had a vested interest in getting rid of some politicians, but I had forgotten that they were terrible liars. Ironic I suppose; I, of all people should have thought of that.

This is my first contribution to WP. I've always wanted to get into writing but getting words on paper is hard. I figure it's never a bad time to start! Thanks for reading and I always welcome CC.