Marlene was sitting, basically twiddling her thumbs. She'd been assigned to this station straight from the academy, had been told they had a vacancy for her. She was good, she knew she was good. Her crime coefficient was generally in single figures, although a glance at the monitor at her work-station showed it to be currently thirteen. Mostly because she was bored. The Bureau said it had need of her and she'd pent the last two weeks rearranging the filing system and making coffee. "I could have got a job at Starbux to do this," she muttered and her coefficient went up to 14. She took a deep breath and concentrated on the rather pleasing fact that she was being paid to sit and do nothing. The number dropped back to 10.<br/><br/>"SWITT!" The shout made her leap to her feet.<br/><br/>"Sir?" She looked expectantly at the large man in the uniform of a Senior Agent and the name "Gently" on his name tag.<br/><br/>"Job for you. Come..."<br/><br/><i>Clearly a man of few words</i>, Marlene thought to herself as she followed the senior agent down to the garage. She was silent too.<i>They probably want me to wash the vehicles...<br/>
</i><br/>"Here," Gently handed her a plastikey, a rectangle of plastic the size of an old-style credit card. "That's your vehicle. Destination is programmed in, you report to special agent Jameson on arrival. Academy said you're good. Best dog handler they've seen in years. HAH! We'll see."<br/><br/>Marlene nodded and turned headed to the indicated vehicle. It unlocked and started up as she approached.<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"Good Morning agent Switt"</span>the car greeted her. It was still hard for her not to reply, but she'd been laughed at whenever she'd been polite to the dumb computers that ran the vehicles. Now the AI that controlled the city traffic, that, she was told, she should be polite to. The car told her it's preprogrammed destination even as it locked the doors and sped out of the garage, up the ramp and into traffic, the other vehicles automatically making space for it. Something the car said made her stop and re-evaluate, ask it to repeat.<br/><br/>"Wait, say that again?"<br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"I am your permanently assigned vehicle when you are on solo assignment. If you loose the plastikey, you are to report this immediately, however I will open for you on detection. Provided you are not under duress." </span><br/><br/><i>Permanently assigned vehicle.</i>And, she noticed, one with a dog-carrier in the front.<i>Cool! </i>The car pulled up at Alexandra Park, and the door opened.<br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"I notice you are unarmed. Please do not make this mistake again or I shall have to report it. Please replace my emergency side-arm at your earliest opportunity."</span><br/><br/>"Oh... Er, thanks..." It was an oversight. Her weapon was in her desk drawer, because she hadn't expected to need it. She took the pulse-gun the car offered her and strapped it to her hip. Affectionately known as a pea-shooter, the P-gun fired a pulse of electricity at it's target., and could be set to non-lethal or lethal levels. Marlene scrambled from the car heading towards the obvious crime scene, passing a blank-faced woman with lots of long brown hair heading the other way. Her monitor tinged softly and she gave the woman a hard glance, then noticed the ID. This was a hunting dog. No surprise that her crime coefficient was way up there. Marlene turned her attention back to the tall man with the unruly afro who looked to be in charge. He was in plane clothes, but there was no doubt who he was, because all the uniformed agents were deferring to him. Marlene was in uniform too, because she hadn't been told not to be.<br/><br/>She walked up beside him and coughed politely. "Special Agent Jameson? Agent Marlene Switt reporting as ordered?" She glanced back to where the dog was longing against the side of a car parked in front of hers, apparently breaking at least three penal codes one of which could easily involve a controlled substance. "Is that<i>your</i>hunter, sir?"