I.C.E.'s Crisis

Jessie took a sip from her mug before starting. "Have you all hear about the news recently?" she asked them.

"The one that was talking about how all the recent bad things that have been happening to I.C.E. are because of a terrorist group?" Jean asked, recalling what Zack and Samantha had told her the other day during lunch.

"Hm, word really do get around fast doesn't it... But yes, it is that one," Jessie confirmed. She put the mug down and took the folder of documents from the desk again and skimmed through it. She picked out a neatly stapled pile of papers and slid it across the table to them.

"What's this?"

"Take a look at it."

Jean picked up the papers and looked at what was written on the first page in big bold texts. 'Incident Report.' Zack and Samatha scooched over closer to her so they could see as well. She flipped through the pages and saw several things that have been on the news recently and in the past. One of the pages was on the floater that crashed just the other day. As she flipped through the pages, she saw that the events were in order from newest to oldest.

The papers contained many things she remembered seeing on the news before. After finishing looking at all the pages, Jean put it down on the table which was picked back up by Zack. "Holy moly... All these things were done by the terrorists?" Zack flipped through the pages speedily, stopping on some of the specific ones that he was interested in.

"Most of them are. Some of them have yet to be confirmed but we included them because we suspect that it may be their work as well," Jessie said. She then goes on to explain, "Yeah, that's basically what I mean by I.C.E. already has even things to deal with. Any more and things might really fall apart."

"Have you not caught any of them?" Jean asked. With so many listed incidents, the terrorist group must be pretty big and some of them even date back to last year. You would expect I.C.E. to have caught at least one terrorist by now.

Jessie sighed and shook her head sadly. "We haven't caught any of them," she admitted to the three. "As crazy as it sounds, we weren't able to find a single lead to who the terrorists may be. It's been like this for far too long and many of the employees here are getting nervous. A few of them have already quit since they fear for their safety," she explained.

"Wow... and also, is this something you should be telling us?" Zack asked. This sounded like confidential information and yet Jessie was telling them all of it like it is nothing.

"We'll be making an announcement about it soon, so it doesn't really matter if I tell you all about it."

"You will?"

"Yeah, we can't keep quiet about it anymore. I mean, the public is already starting to think so as well. We can't exactly hide it any longer," she explained.

Jessie got up from her seat and made two trips to the counter to carry back the mugs of hot tea. The first time she brought back two cups and the second, one. She placed them in front of the three and let them choose which one they wanted. "Still a bit hot, but it should be drinkable. If not, blow on it a little bit," she told them. She took the stapled papers back from them and placed them back in her folder.

While the three were drinking the tea which was still very hot, Jessie continued their talk and said, "Anyway, the reason why I wanted to show you this is because there have been a lot of suspicious people walking around the I.C.E. building recently. We're currently trying to find two people: the one that repaired the elevator and the one that tinkered with the floater."

"Any chance they're the same person?" Zack asked.

"No, they're definitely two different people. We know at least that much."

There was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal a familiar face standing outside. "Jean?" Jean's father walked through the door into the lounge. He closed the door behind him and looked at who was in the room. "And Zack, Samantha, and Jessie too. You're all here as well."

"Oh, it's Jean's dad," Zack got up from his seat and walked over to give him a high-five. "How are you doing?" He asked him.

"Great, and you?"

"Doing good as well!"

"That's nice to hear. Well anyway, what are you all doing here?" Jean's dad asked, getting back on topic after getting sidetracked greeting Zack. "Especially you, shouldn't you be home resting?" he said while looking at Jean.

"Yeah, I kind of don't have my keys..." she explained to him. 'And also, I needed an adult to pick me up and stuff,' but she decided not to add that since she knew that he was busy and couldn't have come even if she called him.

"Wait, you don't have your keys? Did you lose them or something?"

"No, they're in my bag."

"Ah..." Jean's father reached into his pocket for something and threw it at Jean. She tried catching it but it ended up bouncing off her hand and over her, almost hitting her in the forehead. Luckily it bounced high enough that it wouldn't and landed on the table behind her with a jingle. It was her dad's keys.

"You're terrible at catching," Zack observed. "How did you manage to knock it up so high like that?"

Jean ignored Zack and took the keys and put them in her pocket. "Yeah, so just open the door for me later tonight when I come home," Jean's dad said. "And also, why didn't you call me instead of coming here if you didn't have the keys? I could have come down and given you mine, or you could have come to me."

"Because you're busy?"

*Sigh* "You know, I could always make time for you sweetheart. Well whatever, now that you're here, I guess you can hang out in this room. After all, no one really comes here except for Ms. Lock here, and me every once in a while if I'm extremely tired and need a break. Speaking of which, what do you think of this place? Is it your liking?" he asked while waving his hands around the room.

"Yeah, this place is pretty nice," Zack agreed. Samantha also nodded her head in agreement while Jean answered simply with a yes.

"By the way, what happened to the arcade machines here?" Jean asked. She noticed that most of the arcade machines which were supposed to be in the corner of the room were now missing. There were only two left. Originally, there were five.

"Wait, there are arcade machines here!?" Zack burst out in excitement.

"Yes, they're over there," Jessie pointed at the corner of the room where two box-shaped things were.

They were the reason why Jean decided to come to this room in the first place. It was something that she knew Zack would like. That and the fact that she was still tired and wanted some rest. Her plan was to come here and take a rest while Zack would messing around on the arcade machine and Samantha would be doing whatever it was that she would want to do here. She had known Samantha for years but still has no idea what kind of things she likes other than sport and exercising.

"The other three machines were moved downstairs, to some of the other floors. Don't know where exactly but they're still here in this building," Jean's father answered. "Hmm, I don't know what else to say. I should probably get back to work right about now. Alright, take care you three. Don't get into trouble or anything."

"Don't worry, we won't," Jean assured him. The only one that he needed to be concerned about was Zack. He was the most mischievous out of them and also the most likely to get in trouble. But even still, he wasn't the type to do so. Occasionally, he would get out of hand after seeing something cool or computer-related and start tinkering with it, but other than that, he was pretty well-behaved.

"Okay, I'll be leaving now. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me. Like really, just call me," he told Jean. After saying that, he said goodbye to everyone and left the lounge.

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