Snippet #1950930

Karl balanced her self in the leather swivel chair a few seconds just after she got an intercom call direct from the Director's secretary. She sucked in some air and exhaled out loudly- whoever said that taking deep breaths can release tension is one big liar. It didn't help Karl at all. In fact, it was like her heart beat had doubled this time. She cleared her throat and looked at her reflection in the small vanity mirror she kept on her desk. Good thing the office in Lyons provided cubicles for each agent's privacy or people would have nicknamed her Mirror Mirror on the Wall with her habit of checking her reflection like every 10 minutes or so.

Karl couldn't help but be vain- she wasn't like this during high school. She's one of those late bloomers who never got a date until she left college. Her boobs decided to show up late while her curves came in much later. She was in a very awkward stage of long legs and toned muscles during her whole high school life as well as half of her college life. So invitations to prom and movie dates were non existent.

She decided to finally stand up and face the world- well okay, just her boss. But he is in fact the controller of her world since she got assigned to Interpol. All she wanted was to become an FBI Agent but somehow the whole universe disagreed and placed her into becoming an Interpol Agent. Good call for most people but not for Karl- she suffers from separation anxiety and is missing her whole family back in New Jersey big time.

With shaking hands and cold sweat, she closed her cubicle door behind her and walked towards the Director's office. The soles of her shoes created a squeaky and annoying sound that filled her ears together with the tapping of the keyboards and awkward silences coming from busy individuals in the headquarters.

Turning left down the hallway then right towards the lift, she pressed the floor of her destination and waited. She exited and turned left and now faced Director Littman's office door. She knocked and was greeted by her secretary who was probably the same age as the head. "Bonjour, Deerechtow Leetmahn wheel be meehting you in a shor whayl. Please tehk a seat. wood you like zome tea perhaps?" Pauline, as they usually called her, smiled at her as if it was the greatest day in her life and asked her to take a seat with a thick French accent. Karl nodded at her and took a seat at the leather chair that served as the waiting area. "Non, je vous remercie. Je vais attendre pour le directeur ici.*" She tried to respond with her best knowledge of French (having to take a few crash courses of the language and continuing learning it by heart since her assignment to France.)

Paulinne's billion dollar watt smile had once again registered in her face as her golden locks bounced with her due to excitement, "Ooh la la. Votre français est en train de sonner authentique. Bon travail!**"

Karl smiled back and somehow her tension eased up. "Well having to argue with a french boyfriend- now ex and living alone and France does that to a lot of people." She explained as if it was the most natural thing to do.

"Well, I think yew arr doing fantastique! Comment pouvez-vous dire "merveilleux" en anglais?***" Pauline raised her left eyebrow and wondered out loudly. It made Karl smile and respond, "It's wonderful babe, wonderful. And merci, you always know how to make me smile."

"Aheerrrrmmm...." a deep baritone voice was then heard from the intercom. Littman must have over heard their conversation. "Pauline, please send in Agent Lowre in my office. Merci."

Pauline gave her a sly smile and shrugged before saying, "Oui, Directeur Littman." She released the intercom button and stood. Karl nodded and took another deep breath, she smiled back at Pauline and cleared her throat. The secretary opened the door for her and she whispered a small thanks as she entered.

She always had the greatest fascination on how the director's office was kept clean and pristine. Just then Littman spoke and disturbed her thoughts. "Have a seat Agent Lowre," Director Littman whirled his chair to face Karl and went through some papers as he laid a manila envelope in front of her. She took a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk and decided to take the envelope. The man nodded her, and as a confirmation that she can open the envelope she did and let the contents slide on her other hand.

"These are files and information about the rampant dog-napping of a few of EU member states' K9 units. At first, it wasn't as alarming since animals have the tendency of running away but over the months since it started, some countries have reported an alarming number of missing K9 units. Something that even us Interpol needs to take seriously." As the Director explained the case, Karl went through the files and read some highlighted portions. Some countries have reported around 30 missing units already while some even reached a point of 42 dogs. "Do you know what that means Agent Lowre?"

Karl wanted to say something but somehow her mouth remained close. "I, well- ermm..." She startled as words started rushing out of her mouth all at the same time.

"Well what?" The Director's stern voice boomed. "What Agent Lowre?" He let both of his elbows rest on top of his table and let his hands clamp one another as he purged Karl with questions.

"I- This- ehermmm," She cleared her throat and analyzed her thoughts once again.
"Water?" The man asked with a straight cold expression then pressed his intercom to ask Pauline for two glasses and faced her once again.
This time she got her ideas arranged and spoke with confidence, "This case is actually very alarming even from the start. K9 units are trained for months, sometimes even years, to only accept orders from the officers assigned to them. And unlike ordinary domesticated pets, they don't just run away from their masters. Especially when these officers has a standard operating procedure to make sure that their K9s are kept in a strict schedule, eating time and even when bringing them back to their quarters. K9s are in fact the equivalent of security officials." Pauline came in after a soft knock, laid the glassed of water in front of them and excused herself out all in a minute.

Karl continued after she took a sip of the sweet water, "And according to some of these information, there were no signs of breaking in as well as traces that might lead to solving the case. Which might highly mean that there is a great syndicate operating behind this case. Most probably it's about the money but something bigger lies behind the case. But to catch the big fish, we need to get ourselves a slice of the fingerlings first."

"Very good Agent Lowre, which is why I'm assigning this as your very first solo project." He shrugged, stood up, buttoned his suit and face the magnificent view from his window by lowering a part of the blinds.

"What?!" Karl's mouth was left hanging, as if it was the most absurd idea she have ever heard in her career. "Wh- wha- why me? I mean thank you if you think I'm starting to learn but-" She was then cut short by the Director's words.

"Don't you trust my judging? Are you saying you are not ready or are you trying to tell me you are too good to take a case that involves mutts?" He was still peaking from between the window blinds as he spoke to her. And from her seat, Karl wanted to grab the nearest paper weight and smash the window with it. Was he really serious with his question? How is she suppose to take this case seriously when he won't even take her seriously? Was the view from his office much interesting than to actually tell her the reason on why she was the chosen one?

Chosen one? Who the fuck am I? Harry Potter?! Karl violently and silently asked her self. This assignment is a sign of mediocrity for crying out loud.

Just then the man grabbed his phone and his bag and announced, "Well I'll see you in a week. I'll be off to Geneva in a while for a conference about a drug ring. I expect a good report in my desk by then. Keep me updated by email- don't expect me to reply since I will be very busy but I'll make sure to read them." Then the door slammed behind him. Leaving Karl in a state of shock and frustration.

She let all her inhibition loose as she let her limbs fall on her sides, her head tilted as she kept the hot tears from flowing down her eyes. Sometimes life can be just so unfair- she wondered if all of these are happening to her because she didn't attend church every Sunday like her grand mother made her promise to do? Or was it because she fed her cat and dog fast food? Or that she lavishly spend money on bags instead of her future?

She loves animals so much, God knows she does. But assigned to a series of kidnapped K9? What was she supposed to do? Ask people if they've seen this German Sheppard or this Belgian Malinois and so on?

She composed herself and was about to wipe away the tears from her face when she realized she forgot her handkerchief at her desk "Auggh... What a wonderful way to top things off." She sniffed and wiped her face dry with back of her hand, she then patted the area below her eyes to ease the puffiness and took a series of deep breaths. And when Karl finally composed herself, she grabbed the manila envelope and plastered a fake smile in her face.

She opened the door and was greeted by Pauline's heart warming smile, she smiled back and nodded and proceeded back to her cubicle. And as soon as she got back in her office, she locked her door, played a soft jazz music (intently to drown away the sound of her sobs) and she threw the envelope on her table and buried her face in her hands. She let all the tears flow this time. All the frustrations in her life streamed down her face, the moments when she felt all alone, the months that she has been away from her family and home town. She hugged herself and wallowed in misery for hours that she had to wear her eyeglasses when she had to leave the head quarters.


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The next day, Karolina woke up to a pounding headache, an empty bottle of white wine (and another one that rolled in the corner) in her hand and sleeping in her couch with her dog and cat, Goldilocks (a golden retriever) and Speedy (a very large three colored- short haired Tabby cat). Apparently she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday. Loki (what she prefers calling Goldilocks because of her naughty antics) scrambled out of the sofa as Karl tried to stand up while Speedy yawned like she couldn't care at all. "Oh thanks for keeping me company guys. You are the best," She sarcastically spoke to her pets as she lazily dragged herself to clean her living room. After dumping everything in the garbage chute, she made herself some quick breakfast and drowned herself with cold water and Advil to ease her throbbing headache. She then found herself enjoying a hot shower as she lathered her hair with thick shampoo. The steam escaped her bathroom as she belted out some lyrics from Aretha Franklin and the BeeGees. All along, her phone had been going off in her purse. A call from the head quarters about an incident.

And soon enough, as soon as she got out of the shower, she checked her phone and found 5 missed calls from Pauline and she could only utter to herself two words, "Oh shit!"
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Karolina came rushing in Winfield Gloucester Hospital somewhere in Britain as she took the earliest flight out of Lyons. She showed her badge and identification, soon she was guided to a private ward that nursed the person she needed to talk to to. According to the information that Pauline had emailed her, his name was Agent Rizali. Two agents who were probably on duty to look after the hospitalized agent waited outside the suite, they asked for her identification and letter of endorsement before letting the nurse knocked at the private suite, once the nurse signaled her she nodded at the two men outside and proceeded.

Inside, they were greeted by a familiar bloke with a folder file in hand. Director Eanuig, he spoke and acknowledged her presence, "Ah! Agent Lowre, I was informed you would be coming- but I thought you were supposed to be here hours ago?" He asked.

Karl kept a serious yet blank face as she saluted the Director. He saluted back and dropped his hand as he motioned for her to take a seat. "I'll be fine Director. I'm sorry I got delayed by a few hours, I had some personal emergency to attend to this morning. So I presume that this is agent Rizali?" She moved her gazed towards the Asian looking guy who was laid on the hospital bed.

Karl wasn't really lying when she said she had some personal emergency, she was in fact (as she suspects) suffering from a great home sickness and career frustration that she had to spend hours under the shower to ease her hang over.

"Feeling a bit under the weather eh?" Somehow Karl knew that the man had noticed her puffed eyes. "Well, Agent Rizali this Agent Lowre from the Intelligence Analysis division. I think her department wanted to know something more about the incident." He introduced her to the man who just got saved. She offered him a handshake and nodded.

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*No, thank you. I'll just wait for Director here.
**Ooh la la. Your French is starting to sound authentic. Good job!
***How do you say "wonderful" in English?