Chapter Three- Revenge in a Filing Cabinent

Zoë's father takes her into work with him to try and get to care about her future but instead she finds exactly what she needs to get revenge on Ansley

CHAPTER 3- REVENGE IN A FILING CABINENT

 

 

 

 

Waking up at 5:30am was not as easy as Zoë expected. After a quick breakfast, Zoë and her father started the one hour drive to Washington DC. Zoë could have fallen asleep during the ride over but her dad wouldn't let her. He said that she needed to be "alert and awake" to fully experience the life of someone who works for the IUOS.

"Plus you should have went to bed earlier," he added.

Even at seven in the morning there was traffic galore in Washington. It rained the entire ride there. Zoë just sat in the passenger seat, groggy and half asleep, watching the city go by in a foggy haze and hoping the rain would not turn into a storm until …

"We're here!" Her father said pulling into a small parking lot next to a large indiscreet brick building. "Welcome to the Washington DC HQ of the IUOS!"

"This is it?" Zoë was disappointed. Her TSU campus was much more impressive.

"The IUOS is a secret agency, it's supposed to look unnoticeable. Plus it's much bigger inside. Trust me." Jeff said and a rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. Zoë cringed. “And Zoë, try and tone down the sarcasm.”

“The school counselor said I should try using humor as constructive way of coping with my feelings instead of vandalism.” Zoë said.  Jeff just shook his head and they walked inside.

He was right. Once they got through the security at the front door they entered a giant white marble lobby filled with men and women in suits while the field agents wore street clothes or tight black jumpsuits. Some people even were walking around with their spy dogs. Zoë's father greeted many of the people in the lobby saying things like, "I'm doing fine Bill. You know, just showing my daughter the ropes."

On the left wall of the lobby there were rows of circular clear elevators. Everyone had to wait in line for one to open up. Once on the elevator Jeff whispered to Zoë, "Since I no longer do field work, we're on the upper floors with all the offices."

The seventh floor where's Zoë's father worked was a maze of offices and cubicles. Her father's desk was near a huge widow that over looked the street below. Zoë watched the people walk up and down the street through the storm, completely unaware that they were walking by a secret agency HQ. She wouldn't have known if her dad had not told her.

“Zoë, why don't you explore the office a little bit? Look around, ask people questions, just tell them you're my daughter. They'll help you out."

Zoë had planned on just reading her summer reading book for school, but wandering the halls of the IUOS sounded more fun. At least until she got in trouble, which Zoë assumed she eventually would. Zoë went to the ninth floor's break room where she scanned the fridge for something she could take without being noticed.

"Hey you must be Jeff's daughter? Zoë right?" A man called out from behind her. He seemed young and bright and wore a tailored blue suit.

"How did you know my name?" Zoë asked.

"Your dad told me to come find you, since he's too busy today to give you a tour. I assumed you'd be the only teenage girl in the office. Plus I read the back of your shirt." The man said smiling. Zoë remembered that she wore her old cheerleading t-shirt that had her last name printed across the back.  Zoë laughed, she never knew how to talk to people. 

"Hey Jeff! I found her! I'm going to show her around the building!" Jeff's co-worker called down the hall way.

"Thanks Doug!" Zoë heard her dad's voice say from down the hall.

"So follow me, I'm Mr. Mosby, but you can call me Doug. I just stopped doing field work and joined the office staff last month. I'm still not used to all the office work, that’s why your dad thought I would be good for showing you around, I get bored during the day."

“I can see how this place could get boring,” Zoë said scanning the rows of gray cubicles.

"I actually went to school with one of your relatives. Your Aunt Ansley was in my class, she was amazing. Really nice too, everyone liked her. Too bad about what happened," Doug said. Zoë, who originally thought Doug was pretty cool, rolled her eyes.

Doug gave her a brief tour around all the upper floors of the building. The 6th floor was the business offices, and the 5th floor was the accounting and finance department. On the 4th floor was public relations. At the 3rd floor were the conference rooms and on the 2nd floor was the home to the offices of the most important people in the IUOS.

"We can't see too much in that floor," said Doug as they looked around the second floor lobby. “All the really important agency decisions happen here, down that hall is even the director's office."

"The director of the entire IUOS?" Zoë asked. The head director led the entire IUOS. He is so secretive most agents never see him, only his officials and top agents know who he is and they are sworn to secrecy. Zoë's grandparents had met him in their day, and so did Uncle Aaron. Ansley probably met him too, since she was so perfect, but she would never be sure

"That's the one. He's not here much, he always touring around the other HQs, he can't just stay here, there are tons of HQs around the world he needs to visit."

On the first floor was the lobby and the IUOS HQ cafeteria. The large bright cafeteria was starting to fill up with workers because it was almost eleven thirty.  Doug and Zoë did not stay in the cafeteria long because Doug said that they were going to meet her father there later. They walked back over to the elevators and Doug hit the buttons that brought the elevator down to the basement levels.

"I know looking at all those offices must have been pretty boring, but below ground is where all the action happens. That's why I saved it for last." Doug said smiling.

"What's down here?" Zoë asked as the elevator slipped below ground.

"Below ground is where the field agent offices are. It’s where the agents who go out and do the missions work. It's in the basement cause all the stuff they do is really top secret. I miss coming down here. It's really fun."

            “I can’t really see how any sort of offices could be fun but I guess I’ll just go with you on this one,” Zoë said. The 1st floor below ground was full of offices that seemed like all the others at first but after taking a closer look Zoë saw these offices were different. All the agents were much younger and most of them wore casual clothes or spy suits. In the office cubes the agents filled out mission reports, watched surveillance videos and studied maps and files about the locations of their new missions. A lot of the desks were empty, Doug said it was because those agents were on mission work outside the office.

"This is where the field agents work. God I miss this place," Doug said.

After walking through a sea of offices Doug led her to a full view window that showed a full fitness gym and locker room. There were treadmills, weights and all kinds of other fitness equipment. There was even a kick boxing ring and sand bags to punch and a large rock wall. There were many people scattered throughout the gym doing various exercises and work outs.

"When agents are not doing field missions they are required to work out and exercise at least five hours a week so they will stay in shape for missions. All IUOS HQs have a gym and everyone who works here can use it." Doug said.

"Why do they have the boxing ring?"

"So they agents can practice fighting, in case it ever comes up in their missions they need to fight, but the IUOS agents try to avoid starting fights while on missions. It causes unnecessary attention, but it's still a skill agents have to know."

They continued to walk past and Zoë saw one of the people in the boxing ring get punched in the face and fall to the mat. They went back to the elevator and Doug pushed the elevator button down once more. The elevator shifted.

"There are only two more floors of this IUOS. The lowest floor is just the mail room and that isn’t impressive so we're not going to stop there, but the floor below this one is pretty neat. You'll see. "

“Considering that the Field Agent offices weren’t a total drag I’ll take your word on this one Doug.” Zoë said as the elevator went to a final halt. Doug and Zoë stepped outside into a small gray lobby. It was not the other office lobbies that had been bright and fancy, this was gray a bleak. It was almost empty except for a bored woman sitting behind the front desk.

"This is the coolest room in the IUOS?" Zoë asked.

"I think so. This is the archives department, it has every agents file that has ever worked at the Washington DC HQ and all the missions they had worked on. It has everything."

            The lady let them through the double doors behind them and they entered the room of filing cabinets. Rows and rows and walls filled to the ceiling with filing cabinets. People walked around organizing files and some sat behind a computer. They all waved at Doug and then went to work.

"The IUOS has always been an old fashioned agency, we are only just now importing all our files onto computers, but it's still best to have a hard copy."

"There are so many." Zoë marveled.

"Yup. I bet all of your family's files are here, since the Parkers have worked at this HQ forever. Your grandparents, Jeff, Aaron, Ansley…" Doug went on and on until another worker stopped to ask him a question. Before Doug answered him he turned to Zoë and said.

"I'll be back in a minute, just don't touch anything okay. We'd all get in trouble."

 Zoë strolled through the endless rows of filing cabinets thinking about how many files would be in here. Working down here was probably the worst job in the IUOS you could get. Zoë imagined she'd end of with this job when she graduated the TSU, if she graduated the TSU, assuming that she didn't get kicked out before graduation. If she had to work here she would be stuck down in the basement all day sorting through the files of all the successful agents and they'd all be saying how disappointed they were that the next generation of Parkers turned out to be such a failure. Her grandparents file, her father's, Uncle Aaron's, and Ansley's.

Suddenly an idea struck Zoë and she began dashing through the maze of cabinets. As the labels on each cabinet sped past her she read the labels on them. MA...MC... ME...MI, she was getting closer. Zoë skidded to a halt as she found the P section. Despite her direct orders from Doug she began opening the first few cabinets. “Packer Joseph, Packman Lois," Zoë mumbled to herself as she flipped through the rows and rows of manila envelopes filled to the brim with different pages of paper.

The idea was genius, Zoë thought. She would find Ansley's file and look through it to find some dirt on her, then she could prove to the world that Ansley wasn't this perfect agent everyone thought. Zoë would get the file, find what she was looking for and write in down in the notebook she packed in her bag, then she'd put the file back. No one would notice.  Then she could show the world what she found and everyone couldn't compare her to Ansley anymore. When her martial art technique in class wasn't perfect the teachers couldn't say "well I remember how you Aunt Ansley did it! Such a wonderful agent!" or when she was in trouble they teachers couldn't say "well Ansley was always such a good student. She was never late to class and she never forgot her homework!" There had to be at least one detention note or something in her file. Doug did say it had everything about an agent in it. Finally she found the Parkers section, and like Doug said it had everyone in her family. Since Ansley's first name began with an A it was at the front of the list and Zoë carefully slipped the file out, marking the place where the file had been so she could put it back in the right spot.

Ansley's file was packed full of many papers and folders and it would take Zoë hours to sort through. She heard footsteps coming from behind one of the rows of cabinets, someone was coming! Zoë had no time to look at anything, in a panic she opened the file and papers sprawled all over the floor. The footsteps were getting closer. Zoë couldn't get caught, Doug said it himself that they'd all get in trouble if she touched anything. Zoë would definitely get kicked out of TSU for this, her dad would probably lose his job for bringing her here, and Doug too since he brought her down to the Archives Department! Zoë gathered up the papers and put them back in the manila folder, she stood up to put it back in the cabinet but as she stood up she knocked the cabinet shut.  The worker's pace quickened in Zoë's direction and without thinking Zoë took the file and shoved it in her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. The worker approached her.

"Hey miss, the man who brought you down here is looking for you, something about you guys meeting your dad for lunch."

"Oh…uh...um thanks, sir." Zoë said as she walked past him and back to the front of the file room.

"There you are!" Doug said smiling as Zoë reached the front of the room. "Ready for lunch?"

"Um…uh...lunch…" Zoë was still shaking. "Lunch! Oh yeah, that sounds good."

"Great! Your dad just messaged me, after lunch you guys are going to head home.”

"Oh…great."

As they walked through the Archives department Zoë felt as though the secretary starred her down as she walked through the lobby toward the elevators. "She must know," Zoë thought as the stepped into the elevator. The elevator shot up to the above ground floors.

"So what did you think of the office? It's a lot bigger than it seems from the street huh?" Doug asked. Zoë nodded. She was terrified. She couldn't go straight home after lunch. She had to return the file. Zoë couldn't just ask her dad to take her down to the archives department. What would he think?

"So did Doug give you a good tour?"

Zoë stared down at her plate as she ate her greasy slice of pizza from the IUOS cafeteria. Another rumbled of thunder shook the cafeteria.

"Zoë, are you listening to me?" Her father asked from across the table. Doug sat next to him eating a sandwich pretending not to notice.

"Oh yeah! It was good." Zoë said. She didn't want to sound too enthusiastic or her dad would know something was up. In all honesty, Zoë did have a good time at the IUOS. It was the file hiding in her backpack and the lightening outside that was making her uneasy.

"Really? Did Doug show you the field agent room? I had many good times in there." Jeff said. Doug nodded. Zoë knew he missed it there. Her dad didn't spend as much time as a field agents as normal IUOS workers. He left his job as a field agent to work as a lawyer for the IUOS when Ansley went missing. He didn't want anything to happen to him that would take him away from Zoë and her mom. The file in her backpack felt five times heavier.

As her father and Doug got into a long conversation about their days as a field agent, Zoë excused herself and went to the bathroom. Alone in the stall Zoë took the folder out of her bag and stared at it. Lightening cracked outside and the bathroom lights flickered. Part of her was scared of the file that she wasn't even supposed to have, but part of her was also curious. Curious about what it said inside and all the secrets it held. Yes, the file scared her, but Zoë knew that it would be the only way to find out the truth about Ansley and to save herself. She could get her revenge on Ansley for disappearing and ruining her family. Zoë’s original plan was to hide the file in bathroom somewhere so by the time the IUOS found it they wouldn't suspect her. Their files would be digital by then so the old fashioned file wouldn't matter to them anymore. That was the original plan, but Zoë slid the file back into the safety of her bag.