Find It Inc.

Chapter 9

“Paperwork?” asks Jo reluctantly, finally, the silence was giving me an earache.

“Complicated paperwork.” replies Boss J with a wide smile (not her normal wide, creepy, smile but the half, wide, fake smile). Caz and Frankie have already started working on their assignments and Jo was the last one to get hers. While the former two promise adventure, mystery and something to sink their teeth into and burn out their bodies and brains, Jo got ‘paperwork’. Jo’s face is that of someone who knows she got the short end of the pencil and is not at all pleased about it; actually she is rather insulted.

“Paperwork?” Jo repeats in the hopes that they are joking and will change their minds and give her the proper assignment. “Yes,” says Boss J, “it will not be a simple task since it can be so easy to create misdirecting paper trails. You will have the work cut out for you.” Jo thinks for a bit and glances up at Frankie floating by with an ‘A-student smile while writing the final exam’ expression on her face as she mutters something about finding a young ghost to talk to her. Jo then glances over to her right hand side with Caz lying on the floor with a spread out gigantic map in front of her trying to figure out routes to take and traps to avoid. Plus there are some doodles on the frame of the map when Caz, obliviously, got distracted by herself. Jo casts her glance back at Boss J who is still half smiling at her with Boss K behind the chair trying to look as if this assignment is the best one ever. It really is not.

“So… to confirm,” started Jo, “You want me to go undercover at a company and look through their books?” the two Bosses nodded, “to find out where the missing money disappeared to because the owner of the company is convinced that someone is stealing from them but they cannot figure out who?” the Bosses nod again, “And the reason that we were hired is that the company has already tried other companies that specialize in this type of thing but there was no result?” the Bosses nod and Caz pipes in with: “And we’re cheap.” Jo acknowledged this ‘pipe in’ while Boss J and Boss K awkwardly look at which other. “The owner thinks that hiring outside of the box would be better and you two,” Jo points at Boss J and Boss K, “think that I am the ‘most outside of the box thinking person’ here?” The Bosses nod somewhat pleased with the way they have described something that offered them quite limited information compared to the previous two assignments. While Caz and Frankie got photographs, maps, reading materials, etc. everything one would need to prepare to go on an adventure; Frankie got a one page letter explaining what she just said out loud. She will need to go to their offices to do the research and check the books because the company is not allowed to send anything out of their building even if it is a mere copy.

Jo sits back in her chair staring at the two in front of her. They stare back. “You get to start tomorrow since there is no planning on your part.” explains Boss K hoping to break up the silence. “Is this because I can die?”

This question from Jo causes a metaphorical rife in the room which causes Frankie to stop float and look at the conversation that is happening below her. Caz sits up from her map and looks into the center of the room as if it just existed and came to life. “Nooooo, no, nope” were the false words that came from Boss K’s mouth. “Yes” interrupted Boss J, “we though you could not do Caz’s one because it was too dangerous and Frankie is the only ghost here that can speak to other ghosts.” Jo grins, “what if I become a ghost?” Boss K is taken aback by this thought while Boss J does not even swift, “Don’t joke. We think you can pull it off well and we need you to do it. This is not a request but an order, we are your employers and we do as we say.”

“What? Are we quoting other people’s words now?” Boss J does not answer and this makes Jo sigh, “Aye, aye captains.” expresses Jo while making a salute with her hand, “so I shall be on my merry way tomorrow. Which means…” Jo stands up from her chair, “home time for me?” Boss K nods. Jo takes her file that is on the desk and makes her way to the door of Boss J’s office. She pauses to wave at everyone and wishes Caz and Frankie luck on their assignment as they do the same to her. Jo leaves.

Boss K turns to Boss J and asks “what is up with Jo today? From the T thing to this?”

“I blame T” says Caz, “you always blame T” replies Frankie who goes back to her work and floats around. “T is a trigger for Jo and this is just the result of that trigger,” the words softly flow out of Boss J’s mouth as if she is half speaking to herself while being in a trance, “T did something… to Jo, but no one, including themselves most likely, have no idea what it was.” All the people with in the room look at each other and then back at Boss J seems to snap out of her trance-like state and the wide, creepy, smile forms on her face again as if gets up to leave her office. At her door she turns to the others:

“This is going to be a good run, I can feel it”

With that she is off. Where does she go? No one knows but she always comes back to lock up.

***

Jo is on the bus on the way to her new assignment, she may as well as get a jump straight and do it today instead of tomorrow. Hopefully finish quicker. Maybe she could take a short vacation after this is done or go help the other two hunters with their tasks. She trances her fingers tips over the logo of the company: ‘SoilCoal’ and see that this is official paper that came from the official office and therefore this is official business for an official company. She wonders why she was given so little information compared to the others? I mean, she does understand the company’s policy but it is a touch weird in her mind’s eye. The bus turns the corner to the last station it stops at for this route. Jo gets off the bus with the rest of the passengers, some fly off while other turn into werewolves or other creatures mostly likely to make the rest of their journey but foot or wing.

Jo stands in front of the building with a sign saying ‘SoilCoal’ on the top of it. She thinks this may be the place but she could be wrong there are not enough clues for her to be certain. Any woo since there is no time but today she enters the building. A woman with vulture-looking features but has kind eyes looks at Jo at the reception. The name on her tag is Cindy and Jo greets her as such which brings a glow in her black eyes. Cindy tells Jo to go straight up to the top floor where the owner, Darryl, is waiting for her. Jo nods her head and heads for the lift.

The interior of the building is a modern design with framed posters of what the company does for a living as well as newspaper articles or printed sheets from the internet detailing their success so far. They are responsible for the mining of coal as well as the placement of soil. Jo grabs a booklet detailing what the company does and thinks it is a bit odd that this was not included in her file. She steps into the glass lift and while the lift is going up Jo reads through the booklet. It has the basic information: when is started, by whom, all those things but the one note that interested her was the: why? Not coal mining she figures that but soil?

Well the booklet goes on to explain that not all the soil on the Earth can be used for farming and the purpose of ‘SoilCoal’ is to find farmable soil and transport to places that do not have any. The company needs to make sure that certain soils go with the certain climates otherwise it will be a waste of time and resources. How places take longer to get soil than others and sometimes the soil can (for lack of a better term) run out. This is how they stay in business. Plus they also offer training coursed to new farmers so they know what to do and there are refresher course for old farmers so they can be reminded of what to do as well as to keep up to date with the newest farm tech.

The door of the lift open and Jo steps into the office of Darryl. He is sitting behind his desk with his gray hair in between is fingers and the top of his bold head facing towards the door. He does not even look up and Jo gets the sense of panic that is radiating from him. She gently knocks on the lift door which causes Darryl to jump up and half run to her with his hand out to shake hers.

“Welcome, welcome, my dear, Jo is it?”

Jo nods.

“Welcome, yes, thank you, please have a seat”, he pulls up a chair for her as a round, soft face gentleman would. He offers her a cup of tea or coffee which is respectable declined. Darryl takes a seat and fills her in on why she is here. He explains that his grandfather started the company and Darryl took over from him (his real father went out of the picture because buying milk takes a lifetime and Darryl was raised by his grandfather but he did not tell this to Jo, but you get to know it) so he feels as if he has to keep it going for his children who are almost finished with University. Darryl oversees everything that goes on in the company and he notices that the books have not been adding up to the receipts and the pay that has come in for the jobs done. He sees that this has been happening for three years and he does not want his child to deal it so he must do it. He has done everything he could think of, he even fired people who he hired three years ago but the problem continued so he hired them back since it did not make a difference.

Jo asks him if he has any rival who are willing to take him and he answers with ‘no’ because he thinks the other companies are too busy with their workload to worry about him. Jo makes a mental note to check them out and asks Darryl to give her all the information of everyone who is, has, was meant to, and was interviewed to, to work here. Darryl thinks this is a good idea and he gives her a ‘card’ that has all the passwords, user logins, employee profiles etc. on it. The card is designed in a way that it only works when Jo places it on the heel of her foot to turn it on and it only will stay on if it is in her hands. If she puts it down it goes off and it takes like five minutes to turn on again which is a long time to hold a card to your heel. Jo is beginning to see that she may actually like this assignment with these characters in it.