The Smiths and Joneses (34 page)

              “Mr. Wolf, she's not a good puppy. We’re out here because Rebel was chewing on Mommy’s shoes. She got real angry, then Mommy stepped in a puddle Rebel did in Mommy’s bedroom. She told me to take my dog outside and teach her how to do her business out here. I don’t know what to do; I don’t know how to teach her.” Sissy starts crying, “Mr. Wolf, please help me, I don’t want to lose my puppy.”

              “Sissy, I’ll tell you what, there are pee pads that help teach your puppy where to go, do you have one?”

              “No, Mommy said she doesn’t want to stand in line to buy anything new for my puppy. If I want something, it has to wait until her normal shopping day or Daddy has to get it for me. I asked him, but he said he’s busy and doesn’t want to wait in line. Will you take me to the store?”

              “Sissy, we have a story to do today, how about I ask one of our crew to go to the store for you. Can you tell us where the pet store is?”

              Sissy stops crying; she starts jumping up and down; she puts Rebel down, and grabs Wolf’s leg hugging him “Oh thank you Mr. Wolf. You go to the food store; a pet store is in the back of the food store, you can’t miss it. It has pictures of animals on the windows. Usually the line at the food store goes to the back of the store, if it does, you’ll see the pet store. Do you really think you can get me the things to teach Rebel?”

              Wolf is hoping that most didn’t hear or pickup on Sissy’s comments about the line at the food store. It’s something he was told to avoid and try to hide. President Bloomberg told him the stores had been stocked, so there shouldn’t be any lines. Wolf walks to the broadcast bus asking if anyone could do him and Sissy a favor. When Joan with the broken arm says, “I will”, Wolf asks her to find a pet store and pickup some items to help house train Rebel.

              “Wolf, I’ll be happy to help.” Thinking it will make it easy to launch the drone.

              Joan takes one of the cars to the food store. She stops along the way to check a tire and release the small stealth drone. She’s expecting to see a long line of people waiting to enter the store, she’s surprised to see no line, in fact she sees people rushing out of the food store holding bags full of fresh food and canned items. She thinks, Anonymous must have screwed the pooch on this one, these people look normal enough. She can’t see the drone but knows it’s flying around recording the scene. She wonders how Anonymous could have been so confused. Walking into the store, she notices the shelves are full, as items are purchased, stock people quickly fill the space, so the shelves always look full. Joan quickly realizes it’s a scam. No wonder the shoppers are racing through the store buying everything in sight, they don’t know how long the inventory will last. Joan finds the puppy training items in the pet aisle, as she’s placing them in her cart; a woman rushes past her looking into Joan’s cart. “Is that all you’re buying? Is something wrong with you? This is the first time I can remember when the shelves are full. If I were you, I’d be filling your cart with everything you can carry. Who knows when this will happen again?”

              “Excuse me, are you saying this isn’t how the market usually looks?”

              The stranger looks at Joan and laughs, “You must be a visitor here, where are you from?”

              “Atlanta, Georgia. Why?”

              “Oh, my word, you’re from the USA? What are you doing here? What do you want? Are you spying on us? I have to go. I can’t be seen talking with you. I’m sorry to have bothered you.” The stranger rushes away from Joan. She stops to whisper to a friend pointing at Joan. The other women in the store all avoid Joan who makes her way to the cashier who tells her, “That’ll be $129.75, how would you like to pay for it?”

              “Do you take corporate visa cards?”

              “Where is it from?”

              “Wolf News Network.”

              “Oh, you’re one of the broadcast people doing the interview show with the Smiths aren’t you?”

              “Yes, Sissy got a new puppy and needs the supplies to train the pooch.”

              The women in the store start asking questions about the behind the scenes issues and a couple try to whisper questions about life in the USA. The cashier whispers, “Do you have product shortages in the USA as bad as we do?”

              Joan responds, “We usually don’t have any shortages.”

              One of the women in line laughs saying, “Now I know you’re from the USA, you, like all of them, lie right to our faces.”

              Joan responds, “I’m not lying, we don’t have shortages. Our stores usually end up giving away food.”

              “You have fresh milk and meat every day?”

              “Of course we do, don’t you?”

              One of the women says, “Don’t say anything. Remember what we were told and warned about USA spies being placed in the broadcast crew. They’re trying to get us to say something that can show us in a bad light. She’s most likely recording everything we say and do. Get the USA spy out of here. We don’t want her here.”

              A couple women also chant, “Get the spy out of our store, go spy on someone else, get out of here.” Some tried to get to Joan to push her out of the store when an officer with the LSA DepLIES walked into the store asking, “What’s going on here? It appears there’s a small riot starting. Need I remind you the penalty for rioting?”

              One of the women steps forward, “Officer, it’s not us; this woman at the front of the line is a spy from the USA. She’s trying to set us up and record us saying or doing something they can use against us. We were trying to get her to leave our store.”

              The officer approaches Joan, “Miss, papers?”

              “I have my VIP visitor badge in my pocket, my I get it?”

              “Yes, don’t move your other hand.”

              Handing the officer the red edged ID card, Joan says, “Is this OK? May I leave now?”

              Examining the ID card, the officer asks, “Why are you in this food store?”

              “Officer, Sissy, the young daughter of the Smith’s, got a new puppy, she needs some help training the puppy, I offered to get them for her. She sent me to a pet store. However, I thought I might get a better price here.”

              “You would have gotten the same price here or at the pet store. Prices are uniform no matter where you make a purchase in the LSA; it’s fairer and equal to all of our merchants. Did you try to record any of these women?”

              “No officer, I only wanted to purchase the items for Sissy that she needed and return to the Smiths to help at the broadcast.”

              “What’s your job on the program?”

              “I’m an assistant sound engineer.”

              One of the women can be heard saying, “Yeah, sure she’s an engineer. Since when are women, engineers? The best school openings are always given to men.”

              The officer looks at the woman speaking, saying, “I don’t think I heard anything, did I?”

              “No officer, I didn’t say anything.”

              “Ms., do you require a ride back to the Smiths?”

              “No thank you. I have one of the broadcast cars outside.”

              “I’ll escort you to your car. I wouldn’t want any harm to come to one of our VIPs.”

              When the two reach the car, they found the driver’s side window broken, everything that was on the seats are gone, as is the car’s radio. Joan stops saying, “Do you see this? Someone broke into my car. I had two briefcases in the back seat; there were tablet computers in those cases. There was also to smartphones and what happened to the car’s dash, where is the radio?”

              “Miss, you must be mistaken, we don’t have street crime here like you do in the USA. By the way, did I hear you say, you left valuable items on the seats in plain view?”

              “I left the briefcases on the back seat.”

              “Miss, weren’t you warned that leaving valuables in plain sight is a crime in the LSA? You’re placing temptation in front of people who, due to their poor upbringing and poor education, aren’t responsible for their own actions. The only crime committed here was you leaving items in plain sight. I’m going to have to take you with me to the station.”

              “Officer, wait a minute, I didn’t break into my own car. Someone broke in and stole our equipment, plus they damaged the car.”

              “Miss, the only reason your car was broken into was because you placed temptation in plain sight. Someone, or a small group, saw what you left in plain sight; they couldn’t resist the temptation you placed in front of them. This is your fault. Even if we locate those who broke into your car, they will be released. Now I have to ask you to come with me to the station.”

              “Don’t I get to make a call? I’d like to call Wolf or Sean to have them come help me.”

              “You will be given your phone call after you are booked. I’ll have another agent come and bring your car to the station as it’s now evidence for the people against you.”

              While the officer is speaking, two additional DepLIES cars pull into the parking lot, they have red and blue flashing lights on their roofs. Two officers’ exit the new cars, the most senior asks, “Probationary officer, what’s the problem here?”

              “Sir, this woman is a VIP visitor from the USA, she is part of the broadcast team at the Smith home. She came to the store to purchase some pet supplies. While she was in the store, she left items of temptation in plain view, something she has admitted to, which I have recorded. I was in the process of arresting her when you arrived.”

              “Let me look at the car in question.”

              After checking the car, the area around it and the damage to the dash he asks Joan, “Madam, were you warned not to place items of value and temptation in plain view?”

              “I might have been; I really don’t remember. I was just running a quick errand for Sissy. I didn’t intend to break any of your rules.”

              “May I please see your visitor pass?”

              “Here it is.”

              Reviewing the Joan’s ID, the senior officer tells the junior officer, “Probationary officer, you did very well in taking this outside of the store and pressing your silent backup alarm. I’ll handle this from this point. I’ll sign a release in your electronic notebook that I’ll be taking over the case. I’ll also report to the captain you were very observant and on top of the issue.” Handing the senior officer his electronic tablet, he turns around and heads back to his security spot in the store.

              The senior officer looks at Joan. “Miss, I’ll accompany you to the Smiths, my partner will follow us. I’ll explain to Wolf what happened. If he’s willing to take responsibility for you, no charges will be filed against you. I would suggest you follow all of our rules in the future.”

              “Officer, can we ask Sean to take responsibility for me? I’m attached to his team.”

              “Miss, I understand this. However, Wolf is a known entity among us, and Sean isn’t. I’m sure Wolf will understand and accept responsibility.”

              “What does that mean here?”

              “It means that he agrees to pay any fines you incur, he agrees to pay any costs incurred by those poor people who broke into the car, and he agrees to make sure you stay out of trouble while you’re in the LSA. If you get caught breaking any of our laws again, he will have to accompany you to court with you.”

              “I see. OK, when do we leave?”

              “Right now, you’re drawing attention that we don’t want.”

              Unknown to the DepLIES officers the stealth drone has been recording everything since Joan exited the store. The small drone follows the two cars to the Smith home.

              Pulling up in front of the Smith house, people on the street quickly leave the area, any time a DepLIES car or officer arrives, people want to be somewhere else. The officers escort Joan to the Smith’s front door. Jason opens the door, “Officer is there a problem?”

              “ID, please.”

              Jason hands his ID card to the officer, who asks Jason to press his thumb against his portable electronic ID tablet. Jason’s ID is confirmed. “Jason Smith, we’re bringing this woman back here, her ID says she is a VIP visitor assigned to a broadcast program taking place at your home. Do you recognize her?”

              “Officer, yes, she is one of the sound engineers.”

              “Thank you. Is Wolf here?”

              “I’ll get him for you.”

              Wolf is having a little makeup touchup performed when he’s alerted there’s a DepLIES officer asking for him. Wolf makes his way to the front door. “Officer, what can I do for you? Hi Joan, did you located the items for Rebel?”

              “Yes sir, however I ran into a little issue with the DepLIES.”

              “Officer, what happened?”

              “Your engineer here left valuables in plain sight on the backseat of the car; she also left the radio concealment cover open, so a couple of poor, uneducated people were tempted, they broke into her car taking what she left in front of them. It isn’t their fault. They were tempted by her crime.”