Chapter 2: New Mission (no thanks)

40 4 0
                                    

A thin manila folder sails across the office to land precariously at the edge of a well-worn desk. It's a miracle that it stays put, but the scant few pages within won't be difficult to get back in order if it falls.

"You can't seriously expect me to shift focus to a new mission. I'm already neck deep in another!" Shinsou strides into the office and pushes the door closed behind him with the heel of his boot. (He wants to kick it shut, but he'll be polite. For now.) He furrows his brow, tucks clenched fists into the deep pockets of his jacket, and glares down at his boss. "Splitting my attention between two targets is a dangerous-"

"Don't think too hard about it. It's nothing more than a low-priority side-task while we wait for the Commission to get their asses moving on our intel." His boss glances up at him briefly, pushing glasses up the bridge of a crooked nose. "We're looking at a month, minimum, before we are granted the requested assets, and another to get everything set in motion."

His boss sighs and rubs his temple, turning his attention to the case outline board along one wall. He points at two separate cards and rapidly flicks his hand with barely contained irritation. "If it goes how I expect it will, we won't be able to wrap this case and get these guys for another three months, which means there won't be any major actionable items for you until then."

Fuck, Shinsou thinks, briefly tempted to march right back out of the office and leave for a patrol, where thirty minutes of effort would likely net him more results than the months ahead of them where they can do nothing more than wait on a lumbering bureaucracy.

He pauses for a moment and stares his boss down. "So you think handing out extra missions will be a good way to spend my time."

His boss shrugs. "It's not a difficult case, yet. We have one lead on a potential target of interest."

"A whole three pages on this low-priority case. I feel blessed."

"It should be easy enough. We're just looking for more leads on some falsified credentials."

Shinsou slides into the chair across from his boss and props a foot up on the edge of the desk. He cocks his head at an angle and eyes the man across from him with a slight frown. "I can't fathom what makes someone using a fake ID so special that our agency should be looking into it. This seems more like something the police should be investigating."

His boss sighs and eyes the file at the edge of the desk. "Did you even read the three pages before you barged in here to complain?"

He had not, but he isn't about to admit it. Plus, he reasons to himself, the written details normally included on an initial mission briefing rarely contain everything I might need to know.

"If this is so easy," he says, peering down at a small cut on his fingertip, "then you can give one of the agency newbies the assignment."

His boss looks at him with sharp surprise, both eyebrows lifting high to disappear underneath unkempt black bangs. "Are you really so willing to sit on your ass and twiddle your thumbs until our big case is ready to roll?"

Shinsou drops his foot to the floor with a scowl. "Of course not! I still have patrols to deal with. I won't just be sitting around."

His boss heaves a hefty sigh and leans forward to lace his fingers on his desk. "Not every job we assign is going to be difficult or worthy of headline news. Regardless of your skill set, sometimes you're going to have to deal with the easy stuff." He waves one hand dismissively and leans back in his chair. "Consider it a mini-vacation before the tough stuff starts rolling in."

"I won't actually be on vacation," Shinsou points out with a frown.

His boss continues with a shrug. "If you can't find anything worth reporting, it's probably not the end of the world. My boss is a little nervous about the potential ramifications of this case, and I'm hoping for a few extra details to set some minds at ease."

the cute guy next door (might be a villain) // ShinZukuWhere stories live. Discover now