The Cases of George Alpha #3 - Stolen Spirits

Missing Spirits

'What do you mean you can't bring him up?'

Henry, receptionist at Spirit Central, looked bewildered. 'I-I don't really know, I just tried to bring him up but it's not working.'

After an already difficult morning, mostly due to the fact that I had puzzled late into the night, accompanied by several more glasses of Ol'Finney, I was in no mood to start the day with spirit troubles.

'It's Leroy Barker, you sure you tried the right spirit?' I sighed.

'Of course I did, George. He came in yesterday evening, I processed him still before I headed home.'

'Well, try again?'

He frowned as he did, the click-clacking of the keyboard the only sound in the hall.

'No,' he shook his head, 'it's not working. It must be a computer glitch.'

'Okay,' I hesitated, 'why don't we try someone else then. Can you bring up Travis Barker, the guy in the spirit cell, same one I was here for yesterday.'

Henry nodded and started typing once more.

'That's weird,' he mumbled, 'that's not working either. But that doesn't make sense, spirit cells are a different system.'

'How so?'

'Travis Barker is in a spirit cell, but your first request was in the waiting room. It has happened before that there was a glitch with fetching spirits from the waiting room, but I can't remember when it happened to both systems at the same time.'

'So... what does that mean?'

'It means it's screwed,' he reacted frustrated. 'I'm sorry George, I'm going to have to call in support on this, I can't fix this myself.'

'Any idea how long it might take?'

He shrugged as he grabbed the horn of the phone. 'It usually takes a couple of hours when they have to fix something like this.'

I nodded, 'Can you please call the station as soon as the system is up and running again?'

'Will do,' Henry said while dialing support and waiting for the other side to pick up.