I planned on taking the day off, I mean after several days of reviewing reports I really needed it. Need it or not, there was something that kept bothering me, like an itch just inside your ear where you can't reach it.
I kept trying not to think about it, but the more I tried not to, the more I was drawn to it. You know me and puzzles.
Fortunately, Case knows me well enough that after about an hour of my furtive looks towards my office he simply shook his head.
"Go," he told me. "But when I come to get you for dinner, don't bite my head off."
It's times like that I remember just why I love him.
I started with the 3x5's pinned to the wall, finally packing up the set that had led us to Amazonia. There was so much information but no way of figuring out what was bothering me. In the end I ended up flipping back to the beginning of this journal, hopefully it will help me find what I'm missing.
I've made it into May but it's taking some serious time. Man, I talk a lot.
I started working my way through the fire reports today. It's slow going. Maybe it's because I'm used to dealing with medical more than fire but it's all part of the service and part of the numbers I have to crunch.
The CEO called to remind me that he'll need the reviews on his desk by the thirteenth so he can go over it and still have time to ask me any questions before his meeting that Friday.
It's not that much time for the kind of number crunching I'd like to do. I can speed up the process by reading in the electronic files and scanning in the paper ones into the computer.
Once there I can use the mapping software to display and group the information by incident type, response time etc. It's just going to take a day or two to set up the map and get things straight.
Piece of cake… No, I did not just say that. Really!
This morning as I was taking my morning shower I had that feeling you get when you realize you either ate something you really shouldn't have or you'd been missing something very important and it's about time you notice.
Somewhere between transcribing notes and scanning records yesterday and the results of having just re-read my journal it came to me. First: why would someone try and sabotage the mapping system used by EMS/Fire/Rescue/Police? The second thought: one of the chips was still out there.
Sure, something like that can cause lots of havoc, but it doesn't take long to reset everything. Admittedly, if I hadn't found it the hard way, there would have been a lot more chaos before the resetting but still…
It took me a few minutes to realize that because we'd found it so quickly and dealt with it… it never made the news. It never even made an interoffice memo, except for one from IT to be sure and update.
Now I'm wondering about it. Maybe instead of using the mapping software… I'll tabulate this the old fashioned way.
I had almost convinced myself that I was just refusing to let go, refusing to relax and accept that it was over. And then I found an anomaly, several anomalies in fact.
I had manually mapped everything and then on a lark I scanned in the records and used the mapping software. When I did, three incidents vanished.
Case has the Marshal's office looking into it and is alerting LoneStar.
I'm not sure if I feel better about this or oh so much worse.
Is it too late to go back to Amazonia?
Sometimes I really wish I could leave well enough alone: at the very least I'd get a lot more sleep.
As it is I've got the deep sinking feeling that we've realized something's wrong a tad too late. We've been so busy worrying about direct threats to the family we forgot about nice general threats to Seattle.
I keep trying to tell myself it's going to be all right but judging by the expressions on 95% of my family I'm probably asking too much.
Jonathan's asked for my journal so I've dubbed him a copy. Maybe he'll see something I've missed
Well, Jonathan spent the better part of the day conducting meetings from his bedroom. He's talked with Case, with Nathan and Matthew, Philip… I'm pretty sure he'd have met with the lodge if he could have figured a way to fit them all in the room. It would seem a lot has changed since yesterday.
I did manage to get Nathan to fill me in, as much as he could. It's still nebulous, but the missing three rituals seem to change everything.
I'm not 100% sure, but I still have to have these reports deliverable by Monday. No matter what, there are always going to be pencils to push I guess.
It would seem that the three missing incidents were enough to throw our calculations so far off that we honestly don't know what's going to happen next. More disconcerting is the level of deviousness and forethought that has gone into the setup and covering it up.
I should have seen it sooner and now we have to start back at the beginning, re-tabulating everything and reanalyzing the data, the actual data this time. On the bright side, working on the reports for the CEO means I'm in the right place at the right time-at least for getting the report out in time.
Right now we have to figure out the where and the when, not to mention the what. At least 'why' is easy, that is if power hungry psychosis counts as a reason.
Copyright 2010 M.T. Decker