The Military Exchange

The uniformed guard at the security check looks up and notices the busty officer approach. The tall short haired blonde male manages to pull his gaze to her face long enough to hear her name and purpose for being here. Wielding a goofy grin at the side of his face, the guard nods and comments, “ah, here to meet up with the Captain? That’s cool, let me check you in. From his waist he pulls up a small handheld device and holds it up in front of him. A scan shifts down and up her body, verifying her identity and performing basic security scans. With a nod, he confirms, “everything looks good. Let me inform the captain you’re here.” His hand comes to his shoulder where he taps a button and speaks, “please inform Capt. Garcia that his recruit is here.” Returning his verbal attention to Nikki, he informs, “he should be here in a minute. So… are you new to the force? I haven’t seen you around?” Others in the building attempt to casually eavesdrop on the conversation as Nikki would easily be the most interesting thing to arrive all day.

It wouldn’t take long for the Captain to arrive and possibly interrupt the security guard. The stout decorated officer, slightly shorter than the guard approaches from behind him at the security gate and speaks, “ignore this joker… he’s married anyways.” The guard protests lightly as the Captain continues, “I got a shit load of work, so let’s get you signed in and assigned a weapon.” He would motion for her to follow him into the secured area to head towards the weapon cage while asking, “how you doin? Feel good about starting active duty patrols? Nervous any?”

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(WC goes to Nikki)

“Hell,” he starts off, “I’m surprised you’re here. You look like you belong in a magazine or a movie, not a squad car. We get women here and there, but a majority of the force is male. The streets are pretty bad in areas like the Lower Commons, but I guess you live in the city, you should already know that. As if it isn’t bad enough, we got these damn corporate bureaucrats getting in the way with what… their private security forces and random bullshit.”

As he speaks and allows Nikki to respond, they move into a short corridor past uniform officers moving to and from different offices. They make it through another section where the weapon’s cage is. A security guard reclines with his feet up on the counter of his security desk while reading a virtual magazine hologram from his phone. His finger scrolls down the holographic display going over the sports score for the previous night. Looking to the side, he sees the visual monitor of the security cam and then looks up realizing one of the captains was on the way. His legs come down as he straightens up in his seat and lowers image of the periodical.

“Hey Capt. Garcia,” the guard greets from behind the changed area. His gaze shifts past the capt to the young lady who was with him. The Captain counter greets, “You jackin off back there?” Garcia turns towards Nikki and informs, “we’ve got a rookie here to pick up her gun. Give me the sign off for it.” The guard nods and pulls his eyes from Nikki long enough to pull down a transcription pad. He makes a few taps on the Ipad looking device and gets to Nikki’s assignment. He slides the device con the counter under the transaction slot in the cage so that she could access it. “Sign off here, please,” he comments to her, “and I’ll get your weapon for you.”

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“No problem, Ms. Nikki,” the guard smiles as he accepts her John Hancock on the device, “I’ll get that for you right away.” There is a slight smile on his lips as he turns and goes to pick up the weapon for her; something about the virgin remark tickled his fancy. The captain’s gaze is on the guard until the question is asked. With a nod, he folds his arms at his waist and comments, “Yeah, a green cadet like you will probably want to get some range time in. East city has an open range called the City Metro Range. That’s a good place to practice shooting your basic firearms. They’ve got pretty good instructors there as well. Elgoog set up some new state of the art virtual training rooms back in the HQ. It’s got more real life scenarios utilizing Realm. It’s good for getting in experience. It’s real enough to make you wet you pants. The things they can do with computers these days... But don’t worry, basic training is built in your schedule. We won’t throw you at the streets without any training. Which reminds me, I’ve got to introduce you to your partner…” The captain reaches down for what appeared to be a phone device at his waist and turns to the side. The guard returns with a small box. He places it on the counter and slides it through the slot in the cage to Nikki. The top is partially open and he invites, “go ahead and check it out. You know… if you bring it back every once and a while, I’ll clean it out for you. I’m pretty good at it.” He rests his elbows on the counter with a firm gaze on the young lady.

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“Heh, that right?” the Captain references her statement, “kids are supposed to be good with technology…” His voice is more of a murmur as he starts going through the phone looking for the information on the partner. The guard keeps his gaze on Nikki, but it comes up to her face as she points the gun at him. He smiles and lifts both hands in a ‘don’t shoot’ manner. He lowers his hands and answers, “it holds 8 rounds. The clips come out of your pay, unfortunately, but hey… if you visit me enough, maybe I’ll give you one on the house.” In the background, the Captain comments as an aside slightly distracted manner, “that’s called stealing. We lock people up for it.” He continues to click various locations on the face of his phone. The guard assures that he was only kidding. There is a slight chuckle at the academy teacher reference “…yeah, that’s funny. Ah, here we go… I’ll send the data for your partner to your phone and your data to his at the same time. I think this sync button does that….” The captain looks up, “you should be getting it soon. I got places to be, so you should be good to go here. You start training tomorrow, acquaint yourself with your partner and your reports are due in to me after every patrol. I don’t like to read a lot, so keep them short. Any questions?”

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I give the captain a easy shake of my head as I bow my head and thanks for the help before I would grab the box for the gun and wave the guard goodbye before returning back to the entrance. Placing the box in the car, I would lean against the hood as I would withdraw my cellphone, looking over the information on my new partner. From the small profile picture I could tell that he was handsome and from the profile he seemed as a good guy. “Mark Simmons” I would speak in a low voice. I would taste on it and repeat it a few times as I continued to read his profile. He had pretty decent grades from the academy, single, lived just a few blocks away from my apartment. I look up for a short second as I laugh at a little thought that appeared in my mind before shaking it off quickly after. Having a relationship to your partner was not the best thing, especially if something was to happen or one would argue or break up. It would only create more troublesome situations than beneficial ones. But as a friend with benefits? Maybe? I thought as I would place the cell back into the bra as I would just lean back towards the hood of the car, letting my eyes close as I let my face turn towards the sun, taking in its rays and heat. wc: 1299 pc: 5 texp: 1

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