This is a super-short story I wrote as part of a creation challenge. It’s dumb, but at least I made something, I guess. It’s not linked to anywhere except that one IG post. Here it is:
“I want to understand exactly what happened, Jones, and I want to know right now!” Avery was pissed. Had someone not pulled the fire alarm, he still didn’t know who, then the explosion that ripped through the northeast tower block of civilian sector twelve would’ve killed hundreds, perhaps thousands.
“You have as much information as I do,” Jones replied without much assurance. Avery was sure he was hiding something, but he didn’t know what, and more importantly, he didn’t know why.
“Cut the shit, Jones, it’s a miracle this isn’t a massive casualty incident, and you know how I feel about miracles.”
“You don’t believe in them.”
“Exactly! I’m missing something, and I think you know what it is. Now, spill it!”
“Hey, I don’t answer to you. It sounds as if you’re accusing me of something, but I’m not sure what…of helping save people?!”
Avery quickly turned from the screen he was watching the cleanup crews on, saw Jones wasn’t going to give in easily, and cooled his tone, “Look, Jones, I’m not saying it was wrong. I’m saying that if The Bureau catches wind of the circumstances of this it’ll be out of my hands. You’ve heard the rumors about those creepy bastards, well I bet they’re all true! Now tell me, what happened? What do you know? This is your monitoring station, you were here when it happened.”
“Like I said, I’d stepped out on a break. I’d only been gone like ten minutes. Just about the time I got back inside, boom, everything goes sideways.”
“Well, I hope for your sake, the security cameras turn up something other than you strolling back up the street.”
Jones sat down, leaned back, and gave everyone in the room the impression that the conversation was over whether Avery liked it or not. Avery stormed out of the room and headed toward his car. Once he got inside, he punched the steering wheel, and screamed, “fuck!” This was not looking good. Why was Jones so relaxed about this? Something major had happened on his watch and the point was he wasn’t watching.
“Please refrain from striking the vehicle,” the overly-calm on board computer chimed.
“Fuck you!”
“That’s an unproductive way to interact with non-sentient equipment, “ came a calm voice from the back seat. A seat Avery could swear was empty when he got in.
Avery whipped his head around and already had his laser pistol half aimed at the back seat interloper, “Jesus fucking Christ, what the fu-“
“Calm yourself, Mr. Avery, your weapon has been deactivated and you are in no danger.”
Avery had his weapon still trained on the figure, but he could tell from the sound of his weapon and from the change in status light color picked up in his peripheral vision that the weapon had indeed been deactivated. “Why do you fuckers always do shit like this? You know, this is the kind of shit that makes people not like The Bureau, right?”
“Our apologies, Mr. Avery, we couldn’t risk being seen, but it was critical I speak with you right away. It’s about your man Jones.”
“He’s inside, he better be filling out the most detailed incident report of his life. Go talk to him if you need information, he was on duty at the time.”
“Yes, we know, Mr. Avery, unfortunately that wouldn’t do any good, you see if I went to speak to him, then he’d know I was going to speak with him, and that’s just a risk I can’t take without more information.”
Avery’s brained froze. “You want to put the words of that sentence in the right order and say it again?”
The Bureau agent sighed. “Mr. Avery, you’ve heard of precogs?”
Avery had, and believed in them about as much as miracles. “You mean people with precognition, the ability to see the future? You think Jones is one? Come on, they’re not really real. That shit is just another boogie man to keep people in line, right?”
“They are very real, Mr. Avery, and yes, we believe your Mr. Jones is one. I’m not sure how much you’ve heard, but their ability to see the future is limited to interaction.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that if I never meet Mr. Jones, he can’t have precognitive ‘visions’ involving me.”
“Okay, but I interact with him all the time and I’m talking to you.”
“That isn’t how it works, Mr. Avery. You see, if you were to talk to him about me at some point in the future, then he’d know about me. However, if you were to do what I’m about to ask you without ever mentioning me, he’d be none the wiser.”
“What is it you want me t-,” Avery was cut off by an electronic chirping alarm coming from the figure.
“I’m afraid it’s past time for that, Mr. Avery. Mr. Jones will be apprehended shortly for trying to flee the city thanks to a warning from you about our intentions.”
“Now wait a minute, look here, I haven’t done anything, I wouldn’t do anything. I don’t want any trouble with The Bure-”
There wasn’t a sound when the agent fired his weapon as much as there was a distinct silence of Avery’s words being cut off before he was vaporized. There wasn’t a flash of light when the agent went back to his office. He was in the back seat one moment, and gone the next, without any trace.
Avery and Jones’ disappearance would be the topic for conversation at work for less than a week. Just two more of a growing list that every knew to ignore. No one would know why or how, but there would persist a rumor of advanced warning of the explosion incident for years to come. It would be quiet office lore.