~The Shy and The Stubborn~ (the santa clause)

Chapter 10: secret spies

Given that the writing department was at the furthest, quietest edge of the factory, the elves within were completely oblivious the situation at hand. They continued to diligently work on their tasks, blissfully unaware of the chaos and darkness that had befallen their colleagues, and of course, their beloved Justice. 

It was quiet, as usual when they were all in the midst of their tasks, even when they were usually a rowdy bunch they knew when to calm down for work. Though, in the silence, accompanied only by the clicking of typewriters or the sound of pens dancing across papers, they heard someone approaching. It was fast, and coming toward them. They all looked between each other, and before anyone could say anything, someone burst through the door. 

It was Curtis, and he looked very distressed, quick to shut the door behind himself and lock it. As he heaved his breaths, trying to catch them once more, someone finally said something.

"What the hell, dude?? Ever heard of knocking??" Max asked, irritated that he had just interrupted her work and brought her out of her zone - a hard place to get into. 
"I'm sorry, but this is urgent!!" He apologized, all frantic and flustered as he walked a little further into the room. 
"What's going on, Curtis?" Tobi asked, rising from his chair and walking on over to the smaller elf. 
"Long story short, Santa had to go back to his home country to look after his kid who was misbehaving. I replaced him with a toy version to keep things running along smoothly, and he's gone crazy and is trying to replace all the toys with coal and ruining Christmas!!" Curtis explained, and though his elaboration was rushed, they got the gist of what he was trying to say.  
"Well, why'd you come here? Where's Bernard?" Tobi asked, confused as to why this was becoming their problem. 
"That's the problem. Toy Santa's nutcracker soldiers took him and Justice away, and they're being held somewhere, but I don't know where."

Everyone's interest and concern piqued up when he mentioned this. Not for Bernard, obviously. Their precious little baby Justice was in trouble. 

"What?! Well we have to find her then, don't we?!" Maxine jumped up, her voice angered and distressed as she, too, approached Curtis. 

"I have to go to Illinois to get the real Santa to come back here. You guys are the only ones in this factory that the toy doesn't know about yet, which means that you're the only ones who can save them, given you're not caught," Curtis told them, looking between them. "The toy doesn't even know about this department, and you've gotta keep it that way."
"So, what. We've gotta go on some secret spy mission?" Kory asked, a slight scoff in his voice as she spun his chair around to face the group.
"Well, yeah, pretty much," Curtis shrugged, and so did Kory at that.
"Seems legit to me," Kory said nonchalantly, "let's go save our little half-pint."

All of them gathered around the table which centered the room, Tobi having pulled the fire emergency escape map off of the wall and placing it down so they could figure out their plan. 

"Alright, so, from what Curtis has told us so far, the toy Santa and his soldiers are predominantly occupying these areas," Tobi began, pointing to the main factory hall as well as a few of the surrounding areas. "And Justice and Bernard likely won't be near there anyways, so there's no point in touching that area. We can narrow it down to three areas: the barn, the storage, and the mail room. Those are the most likely places we'll find them."

He pointed to one area. 

"We'll split up. Max and Kory here,"

He pointed to the next.

"Iris and Cindy here,"

And then the last.

"And I'll take the barn."