My dreams that night were darker than I expected. I suppose that I had to pay the price for the afternoon’s little games…”Yes you do little one, I warned you that you face two choices, serve me or watch all you love be taken from you” I awoke several times covered in perspiration and cold shakes but resolved not to give in to the shadows. Whatever happened to put me into this body was down to them and somehow I did not feel especially grateful to whatever they were, quite the reverse in fact…

Well, today’s the day… where do I work and what do I actually do? Well I had Clarice’s number, she must be my boss and an address of an office block in Town so I decided to call in and get started in the morning. Get a few pointers about what I did and deliver Dr Bain’s letter about me working part time and on light duties for the first few weeks. Breakfast was the low-cal option, cereal and yoghurt washed down with fruit tea. Funny, I had never been a breakfast girl but now it just seemed right. Putting a light makeup on, must try to look professional although with my luck I’m the typist.

A brief tram ride back into the centre saw me stood outside a rather nondescript office block near the Police Station. Looking at my letters I made my way toward the reception…

“Good morning, I’m Martine Edwards I believe I should be reporting here?”

An attractive blonde looked up at me, taking in my new appearance as she answered “Martine Edwards? Oh yes, we knew you’d been delayed starting so I’ll arrange for HR to send somebody down to collect you. You feeling OK now?”

“Well I’m on part time for a while until Dr Bain signs me off but I think getting back into the swing of things may be the best medicine yes?”

“You’re probably right, look please take a seat and HR will send one of their drones to assimilate you.” She grinned. I always remembered that joke myself…”Logic is futile, you will be assimilated”.

“Sure, I’ll wait over here OK?” I gave her a smile, she was trying to make me welcome and clearly was not the normal corporate drone you found at the door.

“Ms Edwards?” a middle aged woman, well-built but still reasonably attractive appeared at the far end of the reception near the lifts.
Standing I held out my hand ”Good morning, I’m Martine Edwards”

“Excellent, I hope you are much recovered. I’m Anne Sleaford, I am the assistant HR Manager and thought you should have a little more of the tour than perhaps a more junior member of our team. Now please come with me and we can get a tea and go through the basics of your new position before Clarice gets you into her clutches. Oh, she is not quite that bad, the reverse in fact. She will do anything to protect and take care of her team so you will be in good hands”.

She guided me towards the lift and we went up several floors, 8 or 9 I think. For some reason I have never really enjoyed lifts but there you have it and it was just a means to an end.

“Now Martine, this is my office and we just have the usual bumph to get through to regularise your position here.” She passed me a file with a number of empty spaces to sign, “Just sign the blanks, don’t worry these are just transferring you from London to this Office. You’ll need a new photo I/d and we can do that now. Just hold still and I’ll scan it through and you can collect your I/d in a few minutes. Now time for a quick brew and then I’ll take you to your new office. I don’t expect you to do more than two half days at first, remember Dr Bain will be reviewing your recovery and I doubt you’ll be too active in the field at first regardless of what Clarice wants.”

“Well that seems pretty much what I expected. I suppose I should be based here until I find my feet?”

“Yes, a reasonable plan although I have no doubt that someone of your skills will soon be out in the field where you belong dear” Anne passed a cup of tea to me and I took a long sip feeling the warmth of the tea spreading across my body.
Another woman, perhaps her assistant appeared with a small package for Anne. She took it with a smile of thanks and looked straight at me…

“Welcome to HMRC SPO Martine Edwards” (SPO — Senior Preventative Officer) with that, she shook my hand firmly and stood up. “Time to meet your team and your boss Martine”.

Guiding me along the corridors, Anne took me to a well lit office and guided me in. “This is where your team will be based. Most are out on investigation but will be back shortly. Your desk is right there, she pointed to a desk with a small wooden nameplate, “SPO M Edwards”

Taking a seat I began to log on to the PC terminal and checked some of the collected corporate bumph that collects whenever you take a holiday or sick leave. I acknowledged the usual HR stuff and moved the rest to a series of folders to read later… much later actually…alright, never if I could get away with it!

A loud series of noises brought me around from my reverie as I read my way through the e-mails and documents. Looking up I saw a collection of men and women walking into the office led by a smartly dressed middle aged woman with her dark hair pulled into a most severe bun.

“Who’s this then, the new typist? Wrong desk luv, typing is down the hall. That’s Marty Edwards desk!” a slightly older man, somewhat scruffily dressed looked down his nose at me “Oh and get the kettle on, tea milk and sugar for me luv”

Oh great I had a real life Neanderthal to deal with. Looking coldly at him I pointed to the nameplate and my new I/d lying next to it and raised an eyebrow.

“Right boys and girls, the perceptive will notice our new SPO has arrived. The skirt does not mean she comes from Scotland. Vince if you ever want to get that promotion you had best join the 21st Century or I’ll find a nice Excise post so far off the beaten track you won’t find it with a hunting dog and a Ouija board got that? Any other great observations from this elite team of investigators? No… good. Don’t fill in your arrest reports until I’ve decided what it was you actually did do. Andy,” she nodded to a shy but really rather attractive looking man of about my age with the deepest brown eyes don’t stare girl! Really, he’s a hunk isn’t he… “Two tea’s in my office, there’s people dying of thirst out here!” With that she walked past me and straight into a side office marked “ACPO C Adams”

“Right so you are the Marty Edwards we’ve been waiting for. Sorry about your getting shot but these things happen. Short version of events, you put in for a transfer to this team and moved up from London. You got shot, probably as a diversion from the intended target but we’ve no great evidence to do much with that. The scumbag that did it copped a plea deal, I’ve got suspicions about that but Andy took care of that little git.”

“What? How?”

“Want a garden gnome?” Clarice looked amusedly at me.

“Pardon?”

“Well not one of the ones that scum got found with obviously. Appears he had 200 gnomes all stuffed with Cocaine in his lockup. Possession with intent to supply and kept schtum at his interrogation claiming it was all a fit up. Yeah, somebody who shoots an agent is suddenly mr sweet and innocent. Jury didn’t fall for it so he walked onto the fifteen years he should have got for shooting one of my agents and a member of joe public.

“Wait, you mean….” I couldn’t believe it!

“I serve the Law but sometimes the Law needs a nudge. You are just what I need to deal with an interesting “issue”. There seems to be a new means of hiding cocaine for smuggling. A perfect means incapable of field detection and that means we could face a scale of smuggling that is simply frightening. About time Andy, we’re dying of thirst here.” She looked up as that nice looking young man Andy came in with two teas.

“Andy will be joining your team along with Rosie Harford and Vince “the missing link” Harris. He can be a bit of a misogynist but will always have your back and a better man in a fast search and entry I’ve yet to meet.”

“Hmm?” concentrate girl! I am concentrating! Hold the Front Page he is soooo hot! “Oh thanks” I took the tea and listened to Clarice’s advice while trying to calm down and really stop thinking about how his arms and lips were going to feel!

“Now you are on light duty so I’m not putting you in the field just yet so don’t try to do it all at once. I want you to go through the files for the moment and see what we’ve missed.”

“OK I can take care of that, anything else I need to know?”

“Unfortunately yes. We’ve been given an “observer” to check up on our efforts. It seems somehow Head Office has decided to send some backroom cowboy to make sure we don’t play fast and loose with the regs. We don’t of course but we’re stuck with him. Frankly I wouldn’t trust him out of my sight and to be honest he doesn’t look better in my sight. Watch your back Martine…” Clarice looked actually concerned at this but was it because her empire was under threat or something else? “His name is Chris Matthews, he has an office down the corridor allegedly but it seems to be “under refurbishment” and nobody appears to enter or leave.”

Strange, the name rang a bell… I knew someone of that name who appeared under the guise of trying to help me but trashed my career the moment it benefited him and left me holding the baby in the kangaroo court that followed…. No way! No way could he be the same one, it would be the day the Devil took a snowplough to work if it was the same man.

Tea over I returned to my desk to continue reading through the notes. I noted that Clarice had added two passwords to the documents but there was an additional level that displayed a very different file if only one password was entered. Frankly I was impressed! In some respects Andy was a little unimpressive, he was let down by an almost humorous lack of self-confidence but I knew I could work on that as he kept stuttering whenever he appeared next to me.

“OK Andy, look I don’t want to be rude but if you don’t hurry up and ask the question I’m going to drag it out of you, understand?”

“Y…yes ma’am I… I mean”

“My name is Martine, you can call me Marty if it makes you feel happier but in private OK?”

“Y…yes Martine it’s just I thought that you might like an introduction to the area, I mean you know what you are doing but I thought you might like to go… to”

“Go out for a meal? That sounds like a plan Andy. Did you have somewhere in mind? I think you are my immediate assistant so we should work closely together. What do you say?” I tried to bring him around to my way of thinking.

“You mean go for a meal?” he asked. I started to think he’d never actually been out but with eyes like that it was a lack of self-belief and I wanted to encourage him because I would be relying on his insight and instincts.

“Yes a meal would be lovely Andy. I’m sure you know a few nice intimate places?” Oh great I was flirting too… Hey he could be a real stud if he had a little more confidence and YOU spotted that Marty. Oh just what I needed, the spectral co-pilot wants to play too…

“Well Luigis gives us a rate and it’s pretty discrete too. Say I collect you about six?” He looked a little more hopeful.

“OK I’ll leave early and get changed, a girl should get into her glad rags for a date wouldn’t you say?” I smiled at him, losing myself in his eyes…

“A date?” he looked confused.

“Gentleman plus girl plus meal equals date silly!” I grinned at his discomfort but couldn’t bring myself to hurt Andy. I knew that whatever happened Andy would always be there for me. Hey am I batting for the opposition now? Oh… I am the opposition now, I grinned to myself...