The Debrief
The director stubbed out his cigar, and looked upon his subordinates with intense disdain. "I don't feel like I need to say why you're here," he growled.
"No, sir." Diaz folded her hands behind her back, standing at attention. It was an old habit from her days before the Agency. "What happened in Juncos could not have been prevented."
"Do you have any idea the kind of damage this incident has caused?"
"The explosion was contained underground, to our knowledge," said Hernandez. "We've seen blasts like this before. That deep below the surface shouldn't have registered more than a 3.0 Richter."
"I'm not talking about the collateral damage, Agent. I'm talking about reputations, and progress. The RCPA does not destroy research and evidence." Director Molinero flipped open the large, hard-bound tome on his desk - a copy of the RCPA's guidelines and procedures handbook, custom printed and bound at large-scale, to be as imposing as possible - and jabbed a finger on one passage, two-thirds of the way through. "Diaz, pop quiz. In the event that a Person of Interest to the Agency is suspected to be destroying research and evidence, an Agent's priority is to..."
"...preserve the evidence," answered Diaz, flatly.
"And why did that not happen, in Juncos? If the facility is, indeed, owned by the UAC like your report claims, you know their disposal procedures."
"Yeah. Nuke and pave, everything must go. Emphasis on the nuke part."
"The fallout from the Juncos facility blast will render that entire underground uninhabitable for five years. By then, it will be too late. The UAC could have replicated that research ten times over, by then." Molinero shut the book on his desk with a thud that resonated through the desk's metal framework. He always did prefer metal desks for that reason.
Hernandez spoke up, raising a hand. "What about my photos, and that solid-state drive?"
"What the hell do you want, a medal? You took pictures of some signs, and a door! I wanted something damning! I wanted something we could use to send the UAC straight to hell!"
"But the drive--"
"Erased itself as soon as we had the thing plugged in for imaging," Molinero finished.
Diaz huffed indignantly. "I did warn them, in the report, that the drive could have suicided."
"The UAC are very good at what they do," said the director. "And what they do, is wreck everything that's theirs, at the first sign that any secrets could slip out. You know this. I know this. Somebody within the corporation probably also triggered the self-destruct as soon as they realized you two were down there. Did either of you make any effort to stop the sequence?"
The agents looked at each other with worried expressions; Diaz spoke first. "With as little time as we had to escape with our lives, sir, that was not foremost on our minds."
Molinero rested his hands on the desk and tapped a finger. He made a little huffing grunt. Even he would have acknowledged that he'd rather lose a lead than lose two skilled agents. "Perhaps what went wrong in Juncos was not a question of priority, but a question of procedure. At the very least, Cortes agrees with most of your report. But warning signs? Airlock doors?" He shot a glance at Hernandez, who just barely concealed a flinch. "The next time I send either of you to collect evidence, you better Goddamn well get me something better than a door!"
The pair did nothing but nod.
"For now, though, your next assignment won't be anything like that. I'm distancing you from the Juncos case for the time being. Go get some rest. I'll send you your orders tomorrow morning." He leaned forward in his high-backed leather chair. "Don't expect them to be anywhere as glamorous. You're dismissed."
