"Putain, if you would wait for a few moments, there is something that I need to take care of." Jasmine said, coming to a stop.
Her colleague looked confused momentarily, until he saw the direction she was looking.
Off to their left was one of the many restrooms throughout the building.
"Couldn’t you wait just a little bit? I’m sure you would prefer using the facility in your own room rather than a public one. Plus, I’d like to finish up with the captain’s orders already. There are other things I need to do today."
"Actually, I would like to freshen up before arriving at my quarters." Jasmine responded, doing her best to not gag as she attempted to make it seem like she was interested in her fellow sergeant.
Fortunately, even her bad acting was enough to shift his mindset from his orders to his preferred pastime. Particularly because it was Jasmine. Someone he had been trying to get with for years without any success.
"Okay, take all the time you need. I doubt the captain will notice if we’re gone for a bit longer."
As Jasmine retreated into the women’s restroom, Reus had a particularly unsettling grin on his face. It was clear he was thinking about only one thing thanks to only the slightest implication.
"Ugh, just having to pretend even a little makes me feel sick. Hopefully this works out."
The moment she was safely inside a private stall that was soundproofed, Jasmine pulled out her terminal and made a call to her closest friend.
"Come on. Pick up already, Brooke."
A few moments later, the line was connected, and a groggy voice came from the other side.
"Jasmine, why are you calling me while I’m trying to sleep? You know that I’ve been working nights for the last month since my supervisor caught me watching surveillance footage of people tripping or spilling things on themselves. What’s the problem with getting some laughs out of someone’s minor misfortune anyway." Brooke said while yawning loudly.
"I know, but this is important. I need you to go to my quarters and copy the information from a few external drives. And do it without leaving a trace if you can."
Hearing the seriousness in her friend’s voice, Brooke fully woke up. Like Jasmine, she worked for the Alliance Police, though she was an analyst, not an officer.
"How long do I have?" Brooke asked, already getting up and putting on some clothes since she had been sleeping in her underwear.
"A few minutes at most. Plus, you can’t be caught inside. Putain is escorting me to retrieve the drives under the captain’s orders."
"Wait! You’re going rogue?
"Yes. The captain is willing to roll over and let someone who is innocent take the fall for something he they didn’t do. Even if it’s against orders, I’m not going to let that happen."
Jasmine then swiftly explained the entire situation to her friend.
"Sounds like you’re really serious about this. Never thought I’d see the day you went against orders." Brooke said with a slight chuckle.
She was no stranger to breaking minor rules. That’s what had gotten her into her current trouble. And while she normally would not do something quite so serious, she was willing to do so for her best friend.
"If we get fired for this, you’d better help me fine a new job."
"Don’t worry, we won’t get caught. I’m counting on your exceptional technological skills to keep anyone from finding out."
"Great. Thanks for saddling me with all the work." Brooke said sarcastically.
"Hey, I’ve got my own struggles to deal with. I’m going to have to distract Putain to give as much time as I can."
"Well, just don’t do anything you’ll regret."
With that, Brooke ended the call and left her own quarters and rushed to Jasmine’s.
Sitting alone in the restroom, Jasmine racked her mind with ways to stall Putain.
There was one obvious method that he would almost certainly be more than willing to jump on, but she had no intention of doing so. There were some lines she was not willing to cross even for her own sense of justice.
Obviously, she could simply continue staying in the bathroom, but there was the possibility that Reus might get fed up with waiting and get another female officer to accompany him to her quarters. The captain obviously wanted this evidence and would be willing to go around her to get it if she was clearly trying to get in the way.
This predicament almost made her wish that her residence was off base, though, if it was, then she never would have been able to bring evidence home with her. The only reason she could get away with it was because her room was still technically inside the building.
Once she had spent what she figured was the longest acceptable time in the restroom, Jasmine exited the facility to find an annoyed looking Putain still waiting for her.
Thankfully, she had made sure to apply a bit more makeup and put her hair up to make it seem like she had been, "freshening up" as she had initially said.
This served as a decent enough distraction, and she could feel her colleague looking her up and down.
"Well, shall we get back to it." Putain said in an insinuating manner.
"Yes, let’s go and retrieve those drives."
Walking as slowly as she could without arousing suspicion, Jasmine led the way to her quarters.
Along the way, whenever they crossed paths with anyone, she would make sure to stop for a few moments to greet and speak with them. These little interactions only lasted a dozen seconds at most, but every little bit of time she could give Brooke mattered.
Eventually, they turned the corner of the hallway where Jasmine’s room was located.
Yet, their timing was extraordinarily poor.
Brooke was just exiting the room, a suspiciously bulky bag filled with technical equipment over her shoulders.
Having rounded the corner first, Jasmine quickly thought of a way to prevent Putain from seeing Brooke. If he did, there was no doubt he would become suspicious and the data she had copied would be confiscated.
The first thing that came to her mind was to pretend to drop her terminal.
She then bent down in a truly awkward way that made a certain part of her body more prominent.
Luckily, her distraction worked wonders. Putain’s eyes were glued to her backside. Giving Brooke enough time to sneak out without being seen.
Of course, she was still in the middle of a long hallway, but she simply turned around and made it look like she was simply walking this way to reach some other destination.
"Oh, Brooke. What are you doing here?" Jasmine said, trying to make it sound as if seeing her here was completely unexpected.
"I just woke up and was feeling a bit hungry. So, I’m heading for the commissary to get a little snack."
"That actually sounds nice. If you don’t mind waiting for me, I’d like to go with you."
The two girls happily made plans as if it was a coincidence that they had just crossed each other’s paths.
All the while, Putain’s lips twisted into a frown when he realized any chance of something happening between him and Jasmine was no longer possible. Not that it ever actually had been.
After that, Jasmine swiftly collected the data drive and handed it over.
Once he had checked its contents to make sure that this was what Captain Varnas was looking for, and that there were no apparent signs it had been copied, he turned around and made his way back to his superior.
"You sure it’s alright to not go with him?" Brooke asked.
"Yeah, the captain just wants those drives. It won’t matter if I’m there or not." Jasmine replied.
With the information pertaining to Avery’s case secured, the two of them headed to the commissary as planned. No point in possibly arousing suspicions. There was no need to do anything right at the moment.
For the next few days, both Jasmine and Brooke went about their days without any break in their routine.
Then finally, when they had some time off together, they traveled far from the police station they worked at, to a small hideaway of a local band of criminals that had recently been abandoned after they were arrested.
"Looks like their systems are still up and running. I can upload the information here and make it impossible to be traced back to us." Brooke said confidently. "But are you sure you want to do this? There won’t be going back once it’s out there."
While no concrete evidence would link Jasmine to the leaked data, there was little doubt she would be suspected.
Still, after coming this far, backing down was hardly an option. If she did, facts were going to be twisted to suit Storren Corp.’s desires. She was confident that they would be willing to see thousands of people rotting in prison under false charges if it saw the SCXD-011 returned to them.
"Yeah, go ahead and do it. Once the evidence is spread online, it will serve as absolute proof that Avery Asteria couldn’t have been involved. I gave my word that I’d see the law upheld, and if this is the only way to do so, then so be it." Jasmine said, wearing a determined expression.
Seeing how serious her friend was, Brooke uploaded the information to a few popular sites connected to Yuson II’s internet. Before long, it would spread and become impossible to be completely erased. There would be no way to believably manufacture evidence against Avery now.