NINJAGO: Corrupted

16 - Amateur Adventurers

"I thought you said the Police closed the case," Eleanor said to her friend. They stood in the alleyway right next to the Police Station.

"Yeah, I know - Why else would we have put on these disguises?" Ari looked at Eleanor with a mischievous face. Both of them were dressed in very convincing police uniform, hoping it would be good enough to not land them in a cell.

"Ari, there is no way we'll pass as cops. We don't even have key-cards or passwords or-" 

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong! My uncle just so happens to work here - he's the guy who sent the cops to the news studio yesterday when the ninja were there." 

Ari pulled out her uncle's card from her purse. 

"So you stole your uncle's identity card?" Eleanor asked with a disapproving glare. 

"Stole it? No! I just - borrowed it. Without asking. Besides, it's to find our friends!" 

Eleanor shook her head but decided to go with it. She adjusted her uniform and asked, "Okay, just go through the plan one more time - who are we focusing on first?" 

"I'm pretty sure the ninja are already trying to find Jupiter, so we might as well try find Hector." She started. "So, we go inside the station, get onto one of their computers and use that to find Hector's phone." 

Eleanor processed Ari's seemingly disorganised plan. "But they already tried tracking his phone. They didn't find it, remember?" The blonde girl challenged. 

"Yes, but that was before they updated their systems. My uncle was talking about it with my dad. A few weeks ago, the entire station's tech got upgraded, so now it's got a bunch of new features, including being compatible with tracking newer Borg phones."  Ari explained. 

"Wow, I didn't know you knew that much about tech!" Eleanor was surprised. 

"Are you kidding? I don't know what that means - I just heard my uncle talking about it. But if you remember, Hector did get the newest Borg phone a week before he disappeared, so of course the computers at the station were too outdated to find it!" 

"Okay, I understand. Now let's stop standing around and get in there." Eleanor put on her fake cop hat and followed Ari in through the Police Station's doors. There was a synthetic scent to the inside of the building, accompanying it's pristine white interior. The two teenagers calmly made there way to the double doors behind the front desk, avoiding eye-contact with the real cops. 

"This is so stupid, what are we doing..." Eleanor panicked as she followed her friend. 

"Calm down, I'm pretty sure the computer room is somewhere--"

"Hey!" 

A male voice yelled from the double doors behind them. Hearts pounding, they turned around to see a young policeman looking at them. 

"Shsh, I'll do the talking..." Ari mumbled to Eleanor. She cleared her throat and attempted to make her best police-woman voice. 

"Err...Hello there...fellow...officer....What's seems to be the prob?" 

Eleanor covered her face in embarrassment. 

"Where are you two going?" The man asked plainly. 

Ari hesitated - she looked at her friend, who just shrugged back. 

"We were...just heading to the computer room. We got something we needed to check out. Minor case. No big deal." She smiled nervously. The man at the doors glared at the fake cops for a few seconds. 

"Ohh, I see. Well, I just needed to let people know that Jeremy's on an external placement - People have been looking for him all day. Poor guy. Always busy. Anyway, have a good one, ladies." The man waved and left behind the double doors.

The two girls exhaled with relief. 

"Dude, that was close!" Eleanor sighed. "Thank goodness for Jeremy, am I right?" 

"Ha, yeah - whoever the hell he is. Let's get to the computers before someone else talks to us." They rushed to the door and scanned the card onto the card reader. 

Inside the room, multiple desktops were lined up, with very few people using them. Eleanor sat down at one computer near the back. 

"Quick, what's your uncle's password?" Eleanor asked, her hands hovering over the keyboard. 

Ari shook her head, trying to think. "Uh..try 'password'." Eleanor typed it in and the computer promptly unlocked. She swiftly got onto the programme that allowed her to track phones. Ari stood by Eleanor's chair, keeping watch that no cops would walk past. 

"Hurry, El. Even I'm getting nervous now - We've been here too long.." 

"Okay, I got something." Eleanor affirmed. She hit the print button and almost instantly, a paper emerged from the printer beside them. 

"Woah, they really did upgrade their tech." Eleanor said. "Okay, check this out, Ari: I did multiple tries of tracking his phone, and they all seem to cluster around here - far away, outside Ninjago City." She pointed onto the paper. "I did a track of him across a few days, but after that, they just disappear."

"So he disappeared from here, then disappears again? What's with this guy?" Ari muttered. She stood up straight again and quickly pulled out her phone.

"Who are you texting?" Eleanor spun around on her chair. 

"My mom. You better text your parents too." The red-head responded, eyes still on her phone. 

"What? Why? What do I tell her?" 

"That we're going on a road trip. Come on, I packed stuff in my car in case this happened." 

So the two girls rushed out of the station and prepared to head off to the desert.