Although Malinga demonstrated a degree of compassion, she was not renowned for her patience, but due to the mitigating circumstance and against her better judgement, she allowed Francesca the opportunity to sleep on her do-or-die offer. But as you might expect neither had slept that well and both were blurrily eyed, when they met for breakfast the next morning, it was a stoic meal during which both resisted any temptation to open a discussion on the white elephant, which was traipsing clumsily around the mess room. Being the senior Malinga took the opportunity to talk briefly about the facility they were in and its purpose. To Francesca's surprise, the furnishings were not significantly different to those she was assigned to on the lower decks, although she did note that there were fewer service staff and asked Malinga why, and wondered if it was it was purely a matter of perception.

She found Malinga quite candid, and she agreed with her keen-eyed observation, yes you are correct, there are significantly fewer service staff on this level, and for a particularly good reason, security is a priority and with every additional member of service staff, comes another risk. The original ratio was calculated by a simple algorithm that factored in staff needs v's risk to security and it produced what was thought a viable number. But the algorithm failed to make a sufficient account of personal moral indiscretions and it was soon discovered that we were incurring more leaks of vital information than predicted as a direct result of pillow talk and that it had risen to an unacceptable level.

Therefore, the Phys and Math heads had to go back to square one and reinvent the wheel, so to speak, the irony was that they loved their work, which resulted in them investing months of passionate work into their love child, it was eventually discovered that even with the copious derivations of gene therapy, it was proving impossible to eliminate the problem. So, eventually, a pragmatic process of selection was employed, so we began monitoring the behaviour of the staff and progressively eliminated the most promiscuous and those who were, in effect, caught with their pants down. That little bit of bar room humour relaxed the atmosphere a little, although Francesca still required clarification and reassurance regarding exactly what Malinga meant by elimination.

Having satisfied her that being eliminated meant no more than being reassigned, Malinga and Francesca were about to leave the mess when the call to stations alarm was sounded by Control, which usually meant that the Tech Facility was about to become the subject of an intense HQ-driven security audit. This was invariably something that was never rushed by HQ Security, for both personal and professional reasons, it was a case of Power v's Arrogance, a fight which neither could win. However, in general, for the Tech Team, this was just an inconvenient formality, but for Malinga and significant numbers of her key staff, it was a far more delicate time.

And right now, was the worse time to have a loose cannon, like Francesca in the mix, if she crossed paths with an auditor they could not prevent her from being interviewed, during which time she might decide to tell the truth about her presence in the high-security Tech Lab, which would be difficult to explain away. Malinga knew that her team would be monitoring the movements of every auditor who came within touching distance of her key staff, but they had to let the regular staff go about their business as usual and accept that the auditors would jump down hard on the tiniest security breach. This became part of their audit planning because they knew it never paid to be flawless, this only aroused unwanted suspicion, and it was better to allow the mindless an opportunity to gloat, albeit occasionally, it kept them in their place.

Malinga decided to stay in the Mess with Francesca and once the alarm stopped they made their way into the Main Mess which had remained busy even in the middle of an audit. This was a style completely alien to that employed by the clerical staff, they were more inclined to run and hide. Francesca decided she would like to discuss this and opened a conversation, which was very convenient for Malinga. First and foremost, it allowed her to warn Francisca not to mention that she was summoned here to discuss a personal flaw because whatever the outcome, its identification to HQ Security would most certainly not bode well for her, but she made a point of not asking her to lie and just left it up to her discretion, believing this way was more likely to engender a degree of mutual trust.

They sat in conversation, for what was becoming an exceptionally long time, but the time flew by, largely because it was full of fun and laughter, as they shared their funniest HQ Audits experiences. But even though they enjoyed their time together, they each shared the same growing concern, agreeing that this audit was taking far longer than the norm, which was growing more evident as there were increasing signs of unrest among the Tech staff.

Throughout the audit, Malinga had been kept up to date by her trusted cohorts who were sharing information as they passed in and out of the mess. This was being done in a manner that would have been expected by an auditor when quite by surprise one of them was intercepted by an overly officious auditor and frog-marched from the mess and taken to a private room for an interview. It was not the interview, which was uncommon, but how the Techy was so roughly, escorted away from the Mess, like a criminal. It seemed to Malinga that she was left with no recourse but to raise a protest, believing that her unchallenged acceptance of the auditor's outrageous behaviour would lead to further and maybe awkward questions. But as Tech Group Leader she knew it was a risk that she had to take, and knew it also came with the added problems that might arise from leaving the inexperienced Francesca in the Mess without a chaperone mid-audit.

Her worst thoughts were soon to become reality, and it was not long before the more curious Techy staff joined her at the table, they gathered like a pack of wolves, noses twitching as they sniffed a bit of intrigue, and the gathering wolf pack left her cohorts unsure what to do. It was one thing for Malinga to return which would have been perfectly normal, but for someone disassociated to do so, it would undoubtedly raise eyebrows at the table. The last thing they wanted was to have loose tongues wagging during the audit, which might say something that brought her to the attention of an attentive auditor. It was quite a dilemma and they decided that it would be wiser to watch over from a distance and approach later under the pretext that Malinga had sent them as she would be indisposed longer than she had expected.

However, they need not have worried for Francesca took the challenge of an informal interview by the curious Techies in her stride, and to their surprise, she soon had them eating out of her hands. As she casually engaged them with a friendly smile and took delight in explaining how she had been personally selected for induction into the Tech Trainee programme. Francesca somehow manages to make boasting an amenable asset, by shyly revealing how unexpectedly she had exceeded all expectations in her previous clerical induction role, and how the technical improvements she had proposed were well received, catching the attention of Malinga Anglia the Tech Head.

Malinga was striding down a long corridor with an air of authority, intent on crashing into the audit room unannounced and giving the auditor the same rough and unacceptable treatment her cohort had received at her hands. But before reaching the point of no return, she was grabbed by a strong arm which pulled her swiftly but gently into a darkened room, where for a few moments a hand covered her mouth until the door was kicked closed, by her abductor. For a moment, she tried to fight free but felt a surge of panic when finding she was held firmly in the arms of someone much stronger and familiar with the art of abduction. Then a polite but firm male voice spoke into her ear.

"Malinga, please believe me there's no need to be afraid, I'm only here to protect you from yourself, you must not bring undue attention to yourself, no matter the cost."

Her immediate response was to struggle again, which she soon realises is futile and ceases to struggle and he talks to her again.

"I am going to release you shortly, but first I will remove my hand from your mouth so that we can speak, please do not scream. If for no other reason than it will be pointless, this is one of the laboratory's acoustic rooms, and as you know, they will absorb all the screams your lungs can muster.

But before I do so, you need to know I am part of Operation Einstein."

With the sound of those words she noticeably relaxes, to the relief of her abductor, who knew from her reputation that she would not give in to him without a fight. Even with his genetically enhanced infra-red night vision, once freed from his grip she would be difficult to manage and bring back under control without causing her actual bodily harm.

"Malinga, I'm familiar with your wildcat reputation, in your records, it is mentioned in bold type, that you should be approached with great caution, which I have succeeded in doing so far."

She acknowledges his words with the tiniest twitch of her head which is the best she can manage, and in response, he removes the hand from her mouth and Malinga takes a deep breath, which he is more than aware could be the prelude to a ferocious counterattack and he was about to tell her this when she spoke.

"Junior, don't flatter yourself by telling me that you know I could be preparing for an attack, I know who you are soldier, it was me who created your file, including its weaknesses, now let go of me you dummy before I get pissed."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

He knew an order when he heard one.

Total Words: 1757

Rolling Total: 11666