'Moan moan moan, that's all he ever does is ramble on!' Olan thought to herself as her debriefing with the Lieutenant from the Assessor's Office threatened to be heard by several passersby.
Her head was pounding from the constant resonance and volume level in the office. Did he realize how loud he could actually be? A brief image of him as Napolean flitted across her mind before she brushed the thought aside, it would be too dangerous to be caught laughing at him now. She tried as hard as she could to keep her mind on the subject at hand but the intrusive manner of Calley's expressiveness kept her from getting the thought of him as the 'Little General' out of her mind.
"Dr. Chang, perhaps you'd like to explain to me how the only two suspects managed to escape from the Iso-lab?" Calley yelled as he paced Lieutenant Ehrenthal's empty office.
Olan just didn't get James Calley. By his record, he appeared to be a good man. On several occasions, he had done everything in his powers to protect people who had been victimized in some way by the Consortium, whether it was genetic experiments or fake Rekall experiences leading to brain washing. Yet, at work, he was the ultimate hard ass. Olan smiled faintly at her own joke quickly catching herself when Calley turned on her suddenly. Apparently, she hadn't caught herself quickly enough.
"You find this situation amusing Dr. Chang?" He snapped.
"Not at all, Lieutenant Calley. I was just thinking of how happy you'd be to know that I placed internal tracking devices on both perps when I did their medical work-up. Unfortunately, I was unable to give you the good news until recently." Olan said, a hint of sarcasm cutting through the thick air of Ehrenthal's office. She had him and they both knew it.
Glowering, Calley stared at Olan as though beside himself. Suddenly, he calmed down his face the usual emotionless mask. Walking over to the couch where Olan was seated, he towered over her intimidatingly despite his height. Slowly, he folded his arms, a hint of the musculature beneath his suit showing through the sleeves of his jacket as his arms flexed.
"Very well, Dr. Chang. Perhaps you'd like to show me the tracker so we could apprehend them?" Calley said, more subdued.
Just then, Olan looked up into his face, in shock that he was actually speaking calmly despite her obvious insubordination. Her eyes met the rare gentle gaze that was the reflection of his career record. Olan saw how he was capable of all the good deeds she had read about him when she watched the brief flash of compassion move across his face before it was once again replaced by the icy shell.
All hint of sarcasm lost from her mind, Olan stood and was shocked to watch Calley open the office door for her. As they walked through the halls of the CPB towards the Lab, she suddenly felt a nervousness she had never felt before in Calley's vicinity. Catching a brief glance at the man accompanying her, she watched as he swallowed hard before he sensed her eyes on him. Olan had another close call as his eyes turned to look at her. Quickly finding something to occupy her mind from his eyes boring into her, she pulled out her code card and swiped it through the slot of the e-lock.
A loud buzz followed her efforts.
"Damn it!" she swore softly, her Texas accent drawing out the words in a sensual manner.
Swiping again, she used more colorful language as she got the same results. Hitting the e-lock with her hand, she shook her hand in painful silence as the futility of hitting the lock brought a red hue to her face. Olan was just about to use the full arsenal of her self defense classes on the lock when she felt a hand gently restraining her.
"Allow me, Dr. Chang. These new locks take some getting used to." Calley said as he brought out some sort of device.
Running it over the lock swipe, the doors air compression lock released and with a loud chime, the door slowly swung open. "After you, Doctor." He offered politely.
"Thank you Lieutenant," Olan said appreciatively. She was still very suspicious of this strange change in behavior patterns Calley was exhibiting. They normally fought like cats and dogs, either openly or covertly with well-placed sarcasm. Olan didn't get this sudden niceness and was suspicious of his gentlemanly conduct. Olan entered the office with Calley trailing, not far behind.
"The tracking system can be incorporated into GPS and sat-link in your cruiser if you'd like to trail them, just set it to frequency 115." She said as Calley looked at the small screen on the device. Two blips on the monitor moved as one as they headed to Tier 31. He smiled appreciatively as he turned to walk out of the lab. Olan's face a mirror of shock that he even smiled in such a manner. Shaking the odd series of preceding events from her mind, she went back to work and before long, was totally focused on her job. The thought of Calley's strange behavior didn't come back to her until near the end of the day.
"Finishing up a little work?" Olan heard the familiar voice of Lieutenant Ehrenthal coming from the door. She turned and smiled as the CPB's commander walked into the office to chat. "So, I hear Calley talked with you earlier today?" He asked as he looked at a few multi-colored samples, comparing their color and reading the labels to see what was in them. She smiled when he slowly shied away from one marked 'Ionian Measles'.
"Yeah, that was an interesting experience," Olan said sagely.
"How so? Everything is alright, isn't it?" The Lieutenant asked, a bit concerned as he watched the range of emotions cross the face of the woman he considered a good friend. Olan stopped typing on her computer console and ran her hands through her hair as she tried to make sense of the situation earlier in the day.
"I don't know, it was strange. Calley was being nice to me." She said slowly, trying to digest the thought.
"Is that a bad thing to be nice to someone Olan?" Ehrenthal asked grinning at the thought that someone being nice should cause such a reaction.
