Monday, December 28, 2009

Watching Through the Peephole

A response to RJ Clarken's "Monday Manhandling" in Flashy Fiction.

"Williams, we have another one," said Boss Perry over the intercom.

Williams switched to the LittleBrother application and scrolled down the active monitors until he found the row that blinked red. "Got it, boss."

"This one's coming from that farmhouse down in Paso Robles --"

"The one where the sensors drop out just a few hours after activation?" asked Williams.

"You got it. If you get anything definitive -- scratch that, if you see anything even a tiny bit unusual, give me a call even if I'm in a meeting."

"Okay, boss."

Williams maximized the video coming from the sensor placed his hands behind his head and leaned back with his feet rested on his desk. This one sure was a squeaker. He could see the healthy pink gums and only moderately yellow teeth working over the sensor's protective covering. William suspected he would have gone mad if the sensor had been hooked up for audio, but instead he just watched the silent video feed. Of course, there might be a clue if they got audio as well. Williams made a note to submit his idea of audio feeds into the corporate suggestion box. It wasn't a great idea, but you couldn't tell what ideas BizDev might decide to use and Williams could score some points with Sylvia if he got the bonus.

Frazzlbap!

The video feed went dead black. Williams replayed the video segment. One second there was teeth gnashing and the next blackness.

Williams double-clicked Boss Perry's icon in the chat application. "Hey boss, the feed's dead."

"Already?"

"Yeah, it took less than fifteen minutes."

"Was it defective?"

"I double-checked the post-manufacture inspections but can't find any flaws or other leads that might indicate a weakness."

"Anything else?"

"Not really. Didn't even get a good view of the subject, just some brown and black fur. But boss, it looks like a small breed."

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