Mister Burke's Request

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 3, Post Number 57

-Shirotsume, Mister Burke's Residence, the third floor, early afternoon-

"Ah, hello Miss Winchester! I am so glad that you are here!" Mister Burke greeted Diana, who had just arrived at his home about ten minutes ago instead of in hours thanks to her recently discovered teleport spell. Diana was wearing her casual outfit with a backpack. She had left Saint Sinner Valentine, her personal iLac, and Ami at home because today she would be running a courier errand for Mister Burke, her longtime client who was the closest thing she had to a favorite client. Her mission was to take a special item to Capital Crocus and give it to Catherine Corvinus, the raven-haired computer specialist that the huntress had first met on her last mission to Fulci. Mister Burke had not told her what that item was in the job notice, presumably in the name of secrecy.

"I understand that you require my services for a courier mission?" Diana asked Mister Burke. The blond man nodded and pointed towards a small black case sitting on the right side of the desk next to the computer monitor.

"Yes, Miss Winchester. You see, I have asked Miss Corvinus to help me with a... matter pertaining to the rash of malfunctioning aircraft the company I work for has experienced lately. She has agreed to help, but I did not want her coming here to get what I am sending her. Instead you will be taking it to her." Mister Burke told Diana a little more about her mission while still not telling her what she was carrying.

"My superiors ordered me to find a trustworthy courier and you were at the top of the list. They readily approved of my hiring you thanks to that last job you did for us. Rescuing the air crews of those downed cargo planes has done a lot to raise your stock in their eyes." Mister Burke added that the huntress was fast becoming his go-to person for any sensitive work. He then looked towards the black case.

"Inside that case is a digital copy of the reports pertaining to the cargo planes that went down in Silent Glaciers, Fat Monsterland, and Forgotten Deserts. I am having you carry them to Miss Corvinus so that she can examine them to see if they were doctored in any way. My superiors are concerned that a mole may have doctored the reports to hide the real cause behind the crashes, so that is why we are having a trusted outsider examine them." Mister Burke finally told Diana what she would be taking to Capital Crocus. Diana recalled that Mister Burke was conducting an investigation into the crashes and that both he and his superiors had reason to suspect that a mole working for the competition had infiltrated the company and was working to destroy it from the inside. The air crews from the Fat Monsterland and Forgotten Deserts crashes had been tested for substance abuse and both crews had come up clean. They were also crews with over twenty years of experience, so pilot error could be safely ruled out.

"Is there anything else you would like for me to do while I am in Capital Crocus? Would you like me to stay with Miss Corvinus until the analysis is complete?" Diana asked Mister Burke. He nodded.

"Yes, Miss Winchester. As soon as Miss Corvinus tells you her findings, I would like for you to come back and report them to me." He replied.

"Very well then." Diana replied. She picked up the case that was given to her and prepared to leave the building, then teleport to the outskirts of Capital Crocus and go to Catherine's house. If the huntress had her way this job was going to be a quick delivery and a simple and uneventful wait for the results.

"Before I leave for Capital Crocus, is there anything else I need to know?" Diana asked her employer.

"Just the usual notices about confidentiality and the penalties for breaking them. Good luck, Miss Winchester!" Mister Burke bade Diana good luck before the blonde departed for Capital Crocus with the case in hand. She left Mister Burke's residence and walked outside, then put the case in her backpack so that only she and her client would know that she was carrying something important. She did not need to draw unnecessary attention to herself during this job.

-Capital Crocus outskirts, five minutes later-

Diana reappeared on the outskirts of Capital Crocus after using her teleport spell to cover the distance between Shirotsume and Capital Crocus. No one seemed to pay her any attention, which was a good thing. Diana did not like being the center of attention and worked best when the spotlight was not on her.

Diana walked calmly towards the city and recalled Catherine's address, which was 1946 Babbage Road. It would take the huntress awhile to get there, but since she had saved a lot of time by teleporting to the outskirts of Capital Crocus, for once time was something she had plenty of. Maintaining a calm and steady walking pace that did not draw attention to her, Diana soon entered the city and seamlessly merged with the foot traffic going deeper into the heart of the metropolis.

-1946 Babbage Road, forty minutes later-

It had taken awhile to get to Catherine's house because of the sheer number of people on foot, but since she had saved so much time by teleporting, Diana was not particularly upset about that delay. She walked up to Catherine's door and gently pressed the doorbell. Nothing. Maybe Catherine had been asleep, but it was afternoon. Chances were that she was in the middle of a gaming binge or in the middle of an intensive repair job.

Diana rang the doorbell again. Still no response. Diana hoped that Catherine was just asleep or busy and that no harm had come to her. Diana waited another two minutes before pressing the doorbell a third time and hoped that this time Catherine would hear it and answer the door.

[Post Word Count: 1,017]
[Total Word Count: 1,017/5,000]

Diana calmly waited outside the door for Catherine to open the door or at least make some sound, but the huntress did not hear anything to indicate that the young woman had heard her. It had been almost five minutes since Diana had gotten here. The blonde was starting to get a little concerned that the mole in Mister Burke's company had tracked down Catherine and had her kidnapped or killed. Diana's concerns were starting to grow when she heard shouting and footsteps coming from within the apartment. The blonde's concern only grew when she looked towards the door and noticed a shadow under it.

Had she just interrupted an attempt on Catherine's life?

Diana looked around and saw that no one was paying any attention to her. She raised her right hand to her side and was about to bring out her Suppressed Handgun and try to get in when the door unlocked and opened. Diana raised her hand in greeting as Catherine spotted her.

"Oh, hey Diana! I wasn't expecting you here!" Catherine cheerfully greeted Diana. It appeared to Diana that Catherine was wearing a large t-shirt and very little else, if anything. Unperturbed, the blonde waved hello like nothing was amiss.

"Come on in!" Catherine said. Diana walked in and Catherine shut the door behind her.

-Inside Catherine's house-

"Sorry about the mess. I wasn't expecting company." Catherine apologized for the mess in her living room. There were empty pizza boxes on the coffee table along with some pizza crust crumbs and boxes of computer components occupying the leather couch. The kitchen was presumably not much better. Catherine walked ahead and went for the refrigerator.

"So, what brings you here?" Catherine asked Diana as the raven rummaged in the refrigerator for a canned drink. The blonde looked around and noticed that the kitchen counter was loaded with empty drink cans, some of them having rings of spilled soda sitting underneath them. Considering how ants were attracted to sugar, it was a wonder that an army of ants had not marched off with any of the cans or otherwise invaded the kitchen.

"Mister Burke has sent me here with something he wants you to analyze." Diana replied in a matter-of-fact voice. Catherine continued to rummage through the refrigerator and leaned into it, exposing short black gym shorts that were hidden by the shirttail of the large t-shirt. Considering what she could have seen, Diana was very thankful that her hostess was wearing short black gym shorts underneath the t-shirt.

"Oh really? Mister Burke sent this?" Catherine asked as she slowly extricated herself from the depths of the refrigerator. After twenty seconds she had pulled herself out and was standing upright again. Diana took her backpack off, opened it up, fished out the small black case, and handed it to Catherine.

"In this case is a digital copy of some accident reports. Mister Burke would like you to analyze them and see if they were doctored in any way. No one else can know about them besides you and me." Diana explained what she had just handed to Catherine. The raven set the can of Strawberry Slam on one of the few empty spaces on her counter and opened up the case. She reached in with her left hand and pulled out a flash drive.

"OK, I'll get on this right away. Mister Burke's a cool guy who always pays on time, so I can bump this up on my priority list." Catherine said. She handed Diana the empty case and took the can of Strawberry Slam into her right hand, then made a beeline for her room while Diana followed wordlessly behind her.

-In Catherine's room-

The raven's bed was piled with a mix of computer parts and clothing that had not yet been put away. Catherine sat down in front of the computer, put the flash drive into the USB port, and quickly brought up the accident reports. She grabbed her wireless mouse with blue lights and turned it on, then began to read over the reports with a critical eye. Diana stayed in the doorway and watched Catherine go about her work.

"Hmmm... everything seems normal so far." Catherine commented. Diana was not sure if the computer specialist could really work with the huntress standing nearby, so the blonde decided to go elsewhere for awhile. Catherine was sure to call Diana if the former needed her... not that Diana anticipated that. Diana had nowhere near the computer expertise that the raven did, so the blonde's real value was as a courier for Mister Burke.

Diana stood out in the hallway listening out for Catherine on the off chance that the raven needed help and marveled at the latter's soda can collection on the counter. Diana was halfway tempted to begin rinsing them out and washing off the counter before an army of ants invaded Catherine's house and occupied the kitchen. The blonde was not sure how the raven could let her house get this bad, but the blonde did not have much room to throw stones. Her room back home was not the image of perfect order, but in her defense Diana did not spend very much time in it because she was almost always doing one job or another.

"Yep. Everything's perfectly normal. I read through the first document pertaining to the crash in Fat Monsterland and everything's just fine." Catherine gave a status update from her room. Diana was not sure if Mister Burke would be pleased to hear that, but if Catherine did not find anything out of the ordinary then she did not find anything out of the ordinary. Either the two cargo plane crashes were just unfortunate accidents or whoever doctored the reports did a very good job of covering their tracks. While the first report might be clean, there could be something off about the second report. At any rate Diana would wait here until Catherine's analysis was complete.

"If it is OK with you, I would like to go sit in the living room while you analyze the reports." Diana said to Catherine.

"Sure thing, Diana! Just clear a place off the couch if you can! You can stack the boxes on the floor if you need to!" Catherine gave her permission for Diana to sit in the living room instead of standing in the doorway and hovering over the raven. Having been given permission by her hostess, Diana would go to the living room and have a seat.

"Thanks." Diana thanked Catherine for her generosity and walked into the living room to clear off a place on the couch so that she could sit down.

[Post Word Count: 1,117]
[Total Word Count: 2,134/5,000]

-In the living room-

Diana walked over to the couch and began to gently move the computer component boxes off of the couch, choosing to neatly stack them to the right of the couch. Diana started with a medium-sized rectangular box that once housed a computer fan, then moved onto a tall square box that once housed a computer tower. With the computer tower box serving as the foundation of the box tower, Diana began to move and stack other boxes on top of it until the couch was clear. Now Diana had plenty of space in which to sit.

The blonde had just taken a seat in the middle of the couch when she heard Catherine say something that was of interest.

"Hmmm... nothing yet." Catherine said aloud to no one in particular. Diana would stay out of the way and let the computer specialist work without interference. She would only go into Catherine's room when there was something to be seen. Diana's gaze turned to the empty pizza boxes sitting on the glass coffee table in front of her and decided to ask a question.

"Catherine, are all of the pizza boxes on your coffee table empty?" Diana asked Catherine while eyeing a stack of pizza boxes that was four high. if the raven did not mind, the blonde was going to throw them away so that the living room looked a tiny bit cleaner. It was also something to do to keep her from hovering over Catherine while the latter worked.

"I think they are, Diana. Just make sure that they're empty before you throw them away! If they're not empty put them in the oven for me!" Catherine replied with instructions on what to do if a pizza box was not empty. Having been given permission to do a little cleaning, Diana leaned across and picked up the first pizza box she could reach, carefully opening it in case ants or something else had gotten inside of the box.

Aside from some crumbs and cheese stuck to the bottom, it was empty.

Diana stood up and carried the box to the trash can, then placed it on its side and left the lid open because there were at least three more boxes that needed to be disposed of. Diana returned to the coffee table and opened the second box on the stack.

It was in exactly the same condition as the first.

Diana took it to the trash and overheard Catherine speak to herself.

"Something's off about this report from the Forgotten Deserts incident. I don't know what, though." Catherine said to herself. A drumming sound started to come from her room, implying that the raven was drumming her fingertips on the desk as she looked for more inconsistencies. Diana walked back over to the coffee table and opened up the third box.

Aside from some crumbs it was empty.

Diana picked it up and walked to the trash can, gently putting it inside along with the first two boxes. Now she would go pick up the fourth box in the stack. Diana walked back to the coffee table and opened up the fourth and final box. The huntress recoiled when she looked inside.

This one still had half a pepperoni and sausage pizza inside. It looked OK, but Diana was not taking any chances.

"Catherine, this box has half a pizza inside of it. It looks OK, but I am not going to do anything with it until you tell me what to do." Diana called out to her hostess.

"Um, hang on a moment, Diana. This Forgotten Deserts incident report's really, really off." Catherine announced. Diana forgot all about the pizza box and walked towards Catherine's room to find out more about the Forgotten Deserts report.

-Inside Catherine's room-

Diana walked into the room and saw Catherine leaning towards the monitor on her crowded desk, which was loaded with soda cans, paper plates that had grease stains on them, empty potato chip bags, and other assorted food items. Catherine noticed the blonde come into the room and pointed towards the report. Diana saw two images on the screen.

"This one's definitely been altered. There's no doubt." Catherine declared, pointing towards the image on the right half of the screen.

"On the left's the digital copy that Mister Burke provided. On the right is the copy that I've analyzed with some special software. Where you see highlighter yellow is where I've found parts of the report that have been altered." Catherine informed Diana of what exactly was on the screen so that the blonde would understand what she was being told. Diana leaned in above Catherine's right shoulder and saw what the raven was talking about.

"It looks like most of the doctoring was done on the part about the aircraft engines. It says that the wreck was recovered by a specialist recovery team and brought back to a company hangar. If you look on the left at the report copy, it says that everything was fine and that the crash was a result of flying birds being sucked into Engines 2 and 3. If you look at the copy I've analyzed, you'll see that there was no mention of birds anywhere. I'm thinking that sabotage brought down the plane over Forgotten Deserts." Catherine said to Diana. What Catherine said lined up with what Mister Burke had told her before she had left Shirotsume. The toxicology reports on the crews of both planes had come back clean and both crews had twenty years of experience, so pilot error was not a factor. In the absence of any other evidence it was very likely that sabotage was to blame.

"Interesting." Diana commented laconically. She stood up straight and stepped away from Catherine's desk to let the latter continue her work.

"I'll run over the document again just to be sure. I'll let you know if anything else comes up." Catherine promised Diana. Diana nodded and left the room to go sit down in the living room. She had that last pizza box to go put in storage in the oven, but that could wait. Right now she was more preoccupied with trying to figure out who stood to gain from sabotaging the cargo plane.

Mister Burke suspected that there was a mole hidden among the employees of the company he worked for, but he did not know exactly where they were. The mole could be anywhere. They could be an aircraft mechanic, they could be an office worker, they could even be a higher-up in the company's hierarchy. Diana was not sure who it was, but she was just a hired helper, not part of the company. She was sure that Mister Burke would work to clean house once she returned with Catherine's findings on the accident reports.

[Post Word Count: 1,142]
[Total Word Count: 3,276/5,000]

-Catherine's house, two hours later-

Diana had waited on Catherine's report on the documents for so long that she had almost fallen asleep on the recently cleared couch. It was out of character for the huntress, but she had spent a lot of time wondering if Lucia had really come back to life or if someone was just playing a ghastly prank on her by stealing her sister's body and hiding it somewhere. That question had cost Diana quite a bit of sleep lately, but she did not dare show any of her employers that because if word got around that she was lazy she could face a loss of confidence in her abilities. That loss of confidence would lead to a downward spiral that would result in a loss of reputation and income for her. Diana sat back up and hoped that Catherine had not spotted her almost dozing off.

"Hey Diana, are you still with me?" Catherine asked as she walked into the room. Diana turned to face her and nodded. Catherine had not seen Diana in an uncharacteristic moment of laziness... the huntress was silently relieved. She grabbed her backpack that had been sitting by the right side of the couch in front of the stack of computer part boxes she had created earlier and slung it on her right shoulder.

"Great. Listen, I went over both documents with a fine-tooth comb. My judgment on the first one stands... it's legit. The second one, though... it's been doctored. I found nothing new in it, but I kept the orange highlighter in the copy that I scanned with the software. It's been put on the same flash drive but it's been labeled DOCTORED VERSION so that Mister Burke can tell between the copy he had you bring to me and the phony." Catherine informed Diana of the legitimacy of both documents. According to the raven, the Fat Monsterland crash was an unfortunate accident, but the Forgotten Deserts crash might have been the work of sabotage. Mister Burke was certain to be interested in that information.

"Here, take the flash drive you brought to me. I put it back in its original case for you. Take it back to Mister Burke and let him know what I told you. He'll be interested in what you say and what I highlighted for him on the special version of the accident report I made." Catherine commanded Diana. Diana stood up, straightened out her clothing, then took the case from the raven and took her backpack off. Diana placed the case into her backpack and zipped it closed.

"Thank you, Catherine. I will give this to him as soon as possible." Diana informed Catherine. The raven gave her a thumbs-up.

"I'll let you get going on that, Diana. Whenever you get a chance and you're in the neighborhood, you should drop by sometime when you're not busy. We can go to Boomslang again!" Catherine said to her as Diana walked briskly for the door with the cargo in her backpack. Diana stopped at the door and turned around to face her hostess.

"I may do that some time in the future. Thank you." Diana thanked Catherine for the invitation and opened the door, then stepped outside. She gently shut it behind her and calmly walked away from the raven's house. Diana had a lot of distance to cover before she reached Shirotsume.

-Shirotsume, Mister Burke's residence, eight hours later-

Diana had walked the entire way to Shirotsume because she did not have the opportunity to teleport without anyone seeing her use the spell. She wanted to keep her teleport ability a secret for as long as she could. If it meant walking, then so be it. Diana had reached Shirotsume without incident and was now standing at the entrance to the living room of Mister Burke's residence.

"Ah, Miss Winchester! Welcome back!" Mister Burke warmly greeted her after setting down a cup of green tea.

"I have returned with what you are after." Diana said to him. Mister Burke gave a small smile.

"We shall go to my meeting room then. I would like to discuss this in privacy." He said. He stood up and took his tea cup with him. Diana let him lead the way to the third floor meeting room so that they could discuss the accident reports in privacy.

-In the meeting room, the third floor-

Mister Burke let Diana go into the room first, then shut the door behind the huntress. He walked over to the desk with the computer and Diana took off her backpack. She opened it and pulled out the case with the flash drive on it, then walked over to the desk and handed it to the client.

"I take it that Miss Corvinus analyzed both documents?" Mister Burke asked before opening the case and pulling out the flash drive.

"Yes, sir." Diana answered. He placed the flash drive into his computer and immediately brought the original copy of the Fat Monsterland incident report onto the screen.

"I see that Miss Corvinus has not indicated that anything was amiss with this report." Mister Burke said. Diana nodded.

"She looked it over twice and she told me that there was nothing out of the ordinary about it." Diana replied. Mister Burke then brought up the original Forgotten Deserts accident report. He then did a split screen and brought up the version in which Catherine had highlighted the discrepancies in the report.

"I see that Miss Corvinus has prepared a special version for me. I take it that she pointed out which parts of the report were altered from the original?" Mister Burke asked Diana.

"Yes, sir. In her opinion the Fat Monsterland report is legitimate. However, as you can see, she has discovered that the Forgotten Deserts report was altered." Diana informed him. Mister Burke read over the version Catherine had prepared and compared it to the original on the left. The blond man frowned.

"I see." Mister Burke said tersely. He was obviously unhappy about what he was reading and that displeasure was seeping into his voice. Diana had never seen him so unhappy before. The room entered a tense silence for several minutes as Mister Burke finished reading the document. He then looked up from his computer station.

"I will need to bring this matter to the attention of my superiors immediately. Please leave the room. You may use my guest room if you wish." Mister Burke requested. Diana nodded.

"Of course." Diana calmly replied. She then saw herself out of the room so that Mister Burke could conduct his business in peace. She would go to the guest room and rest awhile until Mister Burke called for her or showed up in person.

[Post Word Count: 1,132]
[Total Word Count: 4,408/5,000]

-In the guest room, the second floor-

Diana waited patiently in the guest room for her host to come back and tell her whether her job was finished or he had another errand for her to run. She would wait patiently for him because Mister Burke was one of her best clients. He always offered steady work, he never lied to her about the purpose of any of it, and he always paid on time. Those three things made Mister Burke worth his weight in gold.

Diana sat on the edge of the bed and was tempted to lie down for awhile, but she could not get away with that here like she could at Catherine's house. She needed to keep up the professional image so that her host would keep offering her work. Diana remained seated and upright as she waited for Mister Burke to return from the conference call with his superiors. Diana tried to keep her thoughts focused on the present, but she could not help but to think about her sister Lucia.

If Lucia's body being stolen was someone's ghastly idea of a joke, why did they take just her body? Why did they leave the other Winchesters in the crypt?

Diana had run over those questions multiple times and she could not come up with satisfactory answers for either of them. She had ruled out "Raven Squad" because if they wanted to hurt her they would have just staged an ambush at one of any number of isolated places in Earthland. She had also ruled out The Shadow Collective because like with "Raven Squad" they would not bother with desecrating the Winchester family crypt to get back at her... instead they would send agents to try and kill her. Then Diana thought about it a bit.

What if The Shadow Collective had stolen Lucia's body to lure Diana out and get her to return to Bellum so that they would know that she was still alive?

Diana doubted it. Neither she nor Madeleine had spotted any tool marks on the crypt door nor the sarcophagus that Lucia had been buried in. The Shadow Collective would not have bothered with such niceties if it meant luring out their primary target. If they had really wanted to get Diana's attention they would have trashed the place and thrown the bodies of the Winchesters onto the crypt floor.

Diana thought of it from that angle and still could not figure out why Lucia's body was missing. Diana's thoughts on the subject were interrupted by the door to the guest room opening and Mister Burke himself entering the room. His face wore the same pleasant expression that he normally wore when speaking with her.

"I spoke with my superiors about what Miss Corvinus found in the Forgotten Deserts accident report. There will be an internal investigation. In the meantime, I would like for you to know this. There will be more work for you in the future, Miss Winchester." Mister Burke informed Diana. Diana was pleased to hear that. Any time Mister Burke hired her it would be interesting work for which she would be well-compensated.

"Until we find the mole, I would like for you to keep everything you read on the reports secret." Mister Burke requested. Diana nodded. She knew the value of keeping her mouth shut.

"Of course." Diana replied. She had not earned this kind of high-paying work by blabbing every secret she had learned to the nearest person or by posting it on social media for the world to see. Keeping her mouth shut was part of why Diana had lived this long. The other part was eliminating or evading any enemies who went after her.

"In the meantime, I thank you for your help on this matter. Again you lived up to the expectations I had for you. I will have more work for you in the future, so do be careful out there. Until we meet again, farewell." Mister Burke thanked her for her help today and repeated that in the future he would have more work for the huntress. Diana nodded.

"Of course. I will do my best." Diana said. Mister Burke then walked over to her, handed her a bag of Jewels, and left the room. Diana put the bag of Jewels away in her backpack, straightened out the bed on which she had sat, and left Mister Burke's residence to get started on the road to home. Once she got home she would go to sleep for the night and wake up the next day to look for another job. She would definitely keep an eye out for any future job opportunities from Mister Burke.

[Post Word Count: 786]
[Total Word Count: 5,194/5,000]