The Meeting: Culture Glob

  Mal was the last one to reach the meeting room. There wasn't any table, just a collection of comfortable chairs. Laptops were actually perched on laps; books and papers stood in handy piles near people's feet. Mal missed having a table. He liked having something to prop his feet up on. He made do with the arm of Harmony's chair instead. She smiled shyly at him. The other operatives on Jerry's team -- Benny, Charles, Ginger, and Jerry himself -- were already there, along with the rest of Mal's team -- Justin, Rex, and Ronnie. Drachir, their sort of not-supervisor, was there too.
  Drachir waved what appeared to be a cell phone around the meeting room. "Okay. This room appears to be secure. We don't have to speak plainly for the duration of this meeting."
  "Good!" said Rex. "I hate that not-absolutely-not-total-not-fucking-not-shit."
  "Your opinion of standard Company procedure has been noted. Since about ten minutes after you were recruited, actually."
  "The plain-talk translator is active," said Ginger. "Rex will really hate any recording of this meeting made on Company equipment."
  "Thank you, Ginger," said Drachir. "As you should already know, the hottest topic this morning is the so-called anomaly supposedly sighted in the Library of Congress last night. Well, it appears that it was actually recorded by one of their security cameras."
  "Yeah," said Mal. "The video has already been uploaded to the Internet."
  "I trust you will apply your skills to making sure the Internet version is accurate."
  "Already on it," said Mal, tapping away at his notebook.
  "I thought we didn't have to talk like that," said Rex.
  "Old habit," said Drachir. "I haven't been talking like this for less than twenty years."
  "I haven't seen the video yet," said Benny.
  "Maybe you should spend less time investigating the .xxx sites," said Drachir. "Here, I'll put it on the big screen."
  The twelve-foot, high-definition, digital screen just made the crummy security-camera footage look even worse than it was. It showed a dimly-lit hallway, with crates of books and papers stacked sloppily against one wall, all the way down the hall. A small, round, floating, glowing thing came around the boxes and advanced toward the camera at a walking pace. No detail could be seen, just a glow.
  "Swamp gas," said Rex sourly. "That could be just a defect in the recording system."
  "No…" said Mal, tapping. The video on the screen changed, with some kind of light-amplification effect applied. "See, it's lighting up the wall next to it."
  "It could be friggin' Tinkerbell after you get done with it, Mal," said Rex.
  "This version's good," said Mal. As the glowing whatever approached, it appeared to rise toward the camera. Then it passed out of the bottom of the frame. The picture began to jump and distort. Washes of color, like oil on water, played across the image.
  "Mal, do you think that's some form of electronic intrusion?" asked Drachir.
  "Yeah, that's pretty classic. We've seen that kind of interference in other cases where They appeared to be involved."
  "The security camera's recording was tampered with," said Drachir. "The recording of the bogey was replaced by several minutes of empty hallway. We're looking at a backup recording that was relayed to a remote location. There appears to have been an effort to tamper with that, too, but the remote backup didn't have an erase function. This isn't the first time they've had trouble with the security cameras -- that's why they installed the backup system."
  "There seems to be a pattern," said Ginger. "In the past month we've had anomalous sightings at the university, too -- the library, the bookstore, and the museum."
  "Sounds like They've joined the culture club," said Benny.
  "The recent sightings have been in or near records of rare languages," said Harmony. "That may be significant."
  "Well, we can't be having an unknown entity loose in the Library of Congress where everyone can see it," said Drachir. "Jerry, I need your team to go to Washington and get the situation under control."
  "Okay," said Jerry. "Should I round up the usual suspects to go with me?"
  "Take Benny, Charles, and Ginger. Harmony, I'd like you to stay here and research cases prior to the last month -- see if They've shown an interest in rare languages before then," said Drachir.
  The named parties murmured their assent.
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