#4
“I swear this is the last time.” I mumbled to myself as I left the Cheng’s restaurant for the fourth time this week, unaware of the flash drive.
To be honest, I was a little miffed at Steve for nearly getting me killed. But thanks to him, I don’t have to starve. So, there is that.
I continued my walk back to the apartment with my leftovers swinging from my arm, and Steve sticking close to my side. The Cheng’s had also been nice enough to give Steve their scraps for the day. I think they kind of felt bad for him choosing a loser like me as his companion. But for some reason, this dog never left my side. I will never understand why he chose me, or why he insisted on staying with me, but today, I was particularly glad he had.
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The Accidental Encounter
Out of nowhere, this short guy rammed into me, nearly busting his glasses. He grabbed onto my shoulders for balance and took a few desperate breaths.
“Are you ok?” I asked him.
He looked at me in shock, then tossed me to the side and ran past. Not two minutes later, these three “official” looking guys ran past. Taking no note of the guy sitting in his own leftovers next to the sidewalk.
Steve whimpered as he looked at the dripping bag underneath me.
“Oh, nice to see the food is your main concern.” I taunted.
Steve quickly turned his gaze to me and licked my arm.
“I don’t blame ya, pup.” I said.
With that I carefully stood up, and set the leftovers in my sink when I got back to the apartment. I then sifted through the bag to see if I could salvage anything from the squished leftovers. As I picked through the wantons and fried rice, I noticed something that didn’t quite look like food. I pulled it out, and realized it was a little black flash drive. Steve whimpered and cocked his head at me.
“Did you put that there?” I jeered.
Steve barked back and I wiped off the flash drive. Now, most people would have gone straight to their computer to look at the flash drive, however, food was my priority, so first, I got the food all situated in the fridge, cleaned the sink, plugged in my laptop because I forgot to last night, then stood at the counter and looked at the flash drive.
The Flash Drive
These random drawings, schematics, and legal pages were all arranged in neat little files with notes and random little symbols.
I tried to figure out what this stuff was for about ten minutes before I looked at Steve and asked “You got any ideas?”
He ignored me, and kept chewing on his stick. Then, it hit me.
“It was that guy! This must be his. He must’ve dropped it in my leftovers when he ran into me!” I yelled.
Steve was unimpressed.
I pulled out the flash drive and saw that on the back it read “Property of The Garlan Corporation”.
I had no idea what the corporation was, but I knew where it was.
“Hey Steve, wanna go for a walk?” I asked.
That finally got his attention, or so I thought. Apparently it was just then he had noticed the stains on my pants and began licking the leftover remnants.
“Ok. Change first, then go.” I said.
I took out the flash drive and set it on the counter with the rest of my office supplies, then ran to my bedroom to change.
Home Of The Flash Drive
Well, there it was. The shining skyscraper protruding from the center of the city. The busy streets outside mimicked that of the chaos going on inside the building. People rushed to desks, in and out of elevators, and slid in and out of doors.
Walking straight to the front desk, I saw a panicked receptionist who asked “What do you want?”
“Um, I found a flash drive, that I think might belong to one of your employees?” I spoke without a shred of confidence.
The lady glared at me, and slowly put her phone down.
“If this is a bad time, I can always-“
“No!” She interrupted. “Just, wait here. I’ll call my supervisor.”
I nodded and sat in the corner of the room with Steve. I was really glad he was with me, because being in that building with all of those papers and important documents, I thought for sure I was going to break something on accident. Steve kept close to me though, and kept me grounded.
Finally, a sharply dressed man entered the room in a perfect, professional manner.
“You must be the man with the flash drive.” He greeted.
I jumped to my feet and nervously shook his hand.
“Um, yes. I think I ran into one of your employees and he dropped this in my leftovers.” I said as I showed him the flash drive.
His eyes twitched and a grin crept into the corners of his mouth. This was the most awkward silence I had ever been in.
“Um, do you want me to come back another time?” I finally asked.
He snapped out of his gleeful trance and said “Oh no, that’s not necessary, please, come with me.”
He wrapped his arm around me and guided me to the elevator. Steve followed closely behind.
The Garlan Corporation
“You see, we’ve been looking for that flash drive.” He began as we went up. “A disgruntled employee stole information from us, and was going to sell it to our rivals. We honestly thought we were going to have to design a whole new line of air fresheners.”
“Wait, that’s what was on the flash drive?” I asked.
He turned to me and asked coldly “You looked at it?”
“I did, but I couldn’t make any sense of it. It just looked like gibberish to me.”
He smiled as the door opened on the 12th level, and said “To most people it would. But to us here at the Garlan Corporation, it means quite alot. How can we thank you?”
As he finished his sentence, we entered his office and he sat down putting the flash drive in his desk drawer.
“Oh no, that’s fine, I just didn’t want it getting lost.” I insisted.
“No please, such a good deed requires a reward. Would a check be alright?”
“Honestly a job would be nice.” I joked.
He put a hand to his chin and squinted at me.
“Done! Can you start tomorrow?”
I stared at him dumbfounded.
“Um, y-yes. Yes! I’ll be here. What exactly do you want me to do?”
“We’ll get to that tomorrow. Just come on in and we’ll put you to work.”
I thanked the man, and he had one of the other workers show me out of the building.
The Terrified Owner Of The Flash Drive
“Steve! I got a job!” I burst out as we exited the building.
He barked with excitement and jumped around me.
“And at this place, who knows how much I could make! We’ll be able to go out every night. No, we can keep the apartment! No, we can get a better apartment! One that has spare keys for when I inevitably lose them!”
Steve and I bounced with excitement. Then, a hand grabbed my mouth from behind, and drug me into an alley.
That’s It!
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