Past, Present and Future - The Devereaux Case Files Book 6

Chapter 9

Seth still wasn't sure what he had discovered in Reed's old case file, but Gideon knew nothing about it. They had talked about it for hours, during both the new recruits training and after work over a beer. Not even Sammy could understand what the reference 'Area 12' meant and he knew a lot about the agency that neither Seth or Gideon knew. He had spent six months working in various offices as a lackey until Murray had recruited him to his team and he had seen a lot in that time. But Area 12 meant nothing to any of them. It was frustrating since Seth knew that it was important. He sat in his office, going over more schedules for the recruits and again, gave up to gaze at Reed's old case file.

"Case no. 239 - result: successful.

Once again Reed and Rudy went off track. Their mission was to investigate a member of Area 12 after complaints of information going missing from the archive room. Reed was sent in as a new recruit to the department while Rudy went undercover as janitorial staff. He always did prefer the dirty work. I'm a little worried that he enjoys going undercover so much because he can get away with murder. I'll need to keep my eye on him and make sure he doesn't teach Reed too much. The kid is far too cocky as it is.

Needless to say that the minute Reed went undercover as a new recruit, things fell apart. He stuck his nose in where it didn't belong and discovered a lot more than an agent stealing documents. Apparently the paperwork is shoddy, the agent in question is simply inept and the whole department needs an overhaul. He's just created sixteen months worth of readjustments to the department in two days of undercover work. No arrests need be made.

Suggestion for the future - separate Reed and Rudy. Put Reed on solo work. He is not a team player."

Seth knew Murray well enough to know that he hadn't understated anything in the document. He really did hate Reed because he was too much like Rudy, who he already thought was a loose canon. It seemed he had seen the writing on the wall far before anyone else had. It made Seth wonder though, what was Area 12 and why would a reshuffle of document handling require sixteen months? That was a long time for archiving information that a team of three agents could handle in a matter of a few weeks. And he knew. Seth had been known as the paperwork guy for years now. It was his thing. So what was really going on? What had Reed discovered that was so important and what was Area 12? And where?

Seth turned to his desk laptop and brought up an ordinary Google page, searched the name Waynflete agency and then added Area 12 after-wards The minute he clicked 'enter' his screen went black. Seth frowned to himself for a moment and gave his screen a bang on the side, in case a wire had come loose again. His training department was always getting shoddy technology for their work; the high tech stuff was kept for the recruits and their training. But nothing happened.

He tried typing in the computer code needed to restart the computer. He decided to be safe and reset his computer to an hour before his search and it restarted just fine. The computer itself must have been working perfectly well. So he tried again, this time logging into the agency website and typing Area 12 into the search engine. This time, the search reported no findings and Seth sat there, in his seat, staring at the screen, confused more than ever. If Area 12 existed within the agency, which it did because Reed and Rudy had been there and Murray had written about it, then why didn't it show up on the database? Why did a simple search not return any findings when he had paper proof that it existed?

Seth was so confused that he decided not to bother thinking about it for a moment. He would come back to it once he had time to process what he had just discovered. But in the meantime, he had schedules to put together and plenty else to be getting up to that didn't involve delving into things that were, really, none of his business. Sammy was busy training the recruits, putting them through their paces again when he walked into the gym to escape his office. Gideon was sitting in the corner at a desk, doing more evaluations. He was ticking off the sheets he had drawn up for that purpose, grading everyone on their abilities and their performance.