Franky points nervously to the right, "That Half-Orc dumped his Mountain Dew on my keyboard and now the Abe Lincoln avatar I was designing for Civilization VIII is corrupted".
The red haired woman with the eye patch marches toward Franky like a stern schoolmarm, "Franky, your little side project is NOT something to bother The Old Man with"!
Franky blurts, "I'm sorry Mrs. Ivanova, but I DISAGREE! It's not like I can contact Leonard Nimoy from beyond the grave and ask him to redub his voice track for me. Thanks to Forrest Gump over there Abe now sounds like Max Headroom"!!!
Eddie interrupts,
"Franky, I have a backup Nimoy file. I'll send it to you later dude. Request a new CPU and keyboard and get back to monitoring sector 7 communications, which at least is something you do better than monitoring my babies while I was out of the office".
Franky says sheepishly,
"Uh, sir, sorry about that sir. I got so wrapped up in that avatar I um, I forgot to check on them. I haven't taken a break in days. Which, um...reminds me...I DID notice something. Maybe its nothing, but it seems like since you got back there's been a strange glitch in my algorithm to check for unusual pings. Seemed random at first, but I am beginning to think we are being spied on internally".
"Are you sure"? Eddie asks.
Mrs, Ivanova cuts in, "Franky, you've been so caught up in that game component there's no way your analysis is accurate . The same thing that pooched your Abe Lincoln pooched your scan. Get that computer fixed, go to the mess hall and eat something and then take a six hour rest break. That's an order"!!
Looking like a cat that has just gone through a third bath for the day, Franky gets up from his desk, loads his computer on a cart and heads for the gaming supplies room. Mrs. Ivanova stops him cold, "FRANKY!!! No detours! I want you to get that CPU replaced first"!
Franky turns his cart away from the gaming room and even more slowly heads in the direction of the computing storage area as commanded.
Mrs. Ivanova walks back over to Eddie and the two of them have a quiet conversation. After a few minutes the conversation sounds terse. Clearly the team is listening with interest while attempting to look busy doing various work tasks. Finally, Eddie says in a louder tone, "Okay, Donna. I will go crash for a few hours, just stop freaking out".
Eddie gives us a look that tells us to follow him so my wife and I step outside when Eddie leaves and we follow him down the hall at his usual break-neck pace. Eddie looks to us and says," I knew there was a hustle going on. What Franky found jives with what happened in my room. Somebody is messing with the team. Not on my watch bro! Here's what I want you to do. Um, you never told me your names and the Casper twins doesn't sound right at all".
I introduce myself as "Archer" and say, "This is my wife Mrs. Archer. You would do well to address her properly if you like keeping all of your hair". Mrs. Archer smiles at Eddie with a devilish grin and a rapid swish of her Katana.
Eddie says, "So Archer, you take the barracks and the hospital ward. Mrs. Archer you keep an eye on CNC. Somebody knows something. Since they can't see you, I can use you two to do a little of my own spying and there aint no algorithm that can spot you! Now, I really am going to hit the sack for a few..."
A few guards pass Eddie in the hall with a salute stopping Eddie in mid-speech. Eddie gives us leave to go with a wave of the hand and he walks back to his room at a brisk pace.
Life looks over to me and says, "Well this isn't exactly the plan I was thinking of, but we ARE working with the living now. For now let's go with Eddie's instructions, although I don't know that I trust him completely either. We do have the advantage of never needing to sleep. If there is a spy, that person will make a mistake due to fatigue or simply because we can hide in plain sight and they can't".
Before I can agree with my wife, Mrs. Donna Ivanova and one of the geeks from CNC walk in our direction. The geek is Franky. We can hear the conversation even from the far end of the hall due to our heightened senses. Ivanova says, "I think you owe The Old Man an apology for your poor behavior in CNC and for forgetting to water his precious marijuana plants. Head to the greenhouse and request six new plants for him. You have it on my authority to do so. I am worried about the commander. They DID things to him when he got captured. His brother is a vegetable. We need to make sure he really is The Old Man that we left out on the battlefield. And Franky, be discreet. If the Old Man thinks you are spying on him, you will be designing Abe Lincoln on an Etch-a-Sketch instead of a military grade CPU".
Franky salutes and says, "Yes marm. I won't mess this up".
Mrs. Ivanova smiles at Franky,
"I know you won't Franky, you are one of our brightest stars."