Lost Cargo ((Spader/Wills))

[Jennifer Spader 0]

"Afternoon, Lieutenant. Give me a minute...allow me to use my psychic powers and determine what this might be about."

 

Aegis Cargo Chief Rosalind Wills placed her fingers lightly to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut in mock concentration, then opened them abruptly and gave Spader a tired look. "I'm going to go with...there's stuff missing all over and you're coming to inquire about where it went."

 

"You're brilliant, Chief," Spader said dryly.

 

Wills snorted. "So I keep telling everyone but no one seems to listen. I've been getting all the reports in myself, but I don't know any more about what's going on than you do, except that all the work on my teams' end has been right on the money; if these things were lost, they were lost before they got to storage and distribution."

 

"Of course," Spader said calmly, spreading her hands in a diplomatic gesture. "I didn't come here to place blame. But I had a full compiled inventory of missing components and thought you might like a copy. A present, see?"

 

"Shoulda waited for my birthday," Wills quipped, but took the PADD Spader was offering her anyway and looked it over. "Eh...some of this is new beyond the reports I'd already seen," she added grudgingly after a moment's silence, before looking into Spader's off-kilter implant gaze with a rather exasperated expression. "I mean, seriously...who the hell steals PVC pipes...tricorders...a bunch of empty iso chips...atmo scrubbers? The resale value's terrible, and the only thing I could think to build that used all of this at once would be a particularly shiny scrap heap. It doesn't add up!"

 

Spader just *barely* managed to restrain a grin at the chief's affronted air, though she knew some amusement was apparent in her voice. "I can think of a number of reasons, Chief, basic stupidity being the primary one. But you're right, it's weird."

 

Wills rolled her eyes. "All respect, Lieutenant, you don't understand just how damn much trouble this sort of thing causes. Receiving, transporting, and delivering supplies isn't magic; there's a lot of good people working their tails off down here to make sure everything gets where it needs to be. This sort of chaos is hell on staff morale -- we're all doing our jobs properly and it still all goes to schut. Not to mention that having a bunch of SEC teams wandering around all the delivery areas tends to make my boys nervous." She paused, then offered Spader a slight shrug. "No offense."

 

"None taken. At any rate, my job isn't to apologize to you, Chief; just to keep you in the loop," Spader returned easily, quirking a faint grin at the older woman.

 

Wills grunted. "Right. I guess I'll take what I can get." She tucked the PADD under her arm and gave Spader a pointed look. "So who's behind all this?" A smirk spread across her face as she saw the Security lieutenant shift her weight just slightly, the motion a telling indication of an awkward subject.

 

"We...ah, don't quite know yet. We're working on it, trying to narrow it down," Spader answered, shaking her head slightly. "You'll know when we know, trust me. In the meantime...just see if you can cover the missing items as best you can, keep everything distributed equitably."

 

"I can't call tricorders out of thin air, Lieutenant," Wills said a little irritably, not interested in letting her downplay the situation. "I'll do what I can and you can be sure I'll keep the place running -- but if this shoplifting gets to be a habit on someone's part, or the amount lost starts to outweigh the buffer room for loss and damage built into the shipments we get...we may start to have a problem."

 

Spader grimaced. "Dabi's got a pretty good guard rotation set up; we're keeping an eye out and I don't mean to let anything else slip out. But I'd rather know who the hell's behind this."

 

Wills smiled faintly. "So would I. But I guess that's your ballpark, isn't it, Lieutenant?"

 

"Yep. I guess it is."