The Shamus Austin Shopping Complex

Jacky convinced herself the coast was clear in the break room before making her way in. She knew what she was doing was for the sake of progress in their mission, but she felt ridiculous sneaking around. Jacky had always lived a pretty straight-laced, by-the-books lifestyle, and even now she couldn't help but wonder if they weren't being silly for not simply bringing this to the proper authorities.

Then again, it wasn't really them being silly, it was their employer. She could understand a desire for personal privacy, but surely there was someone she could confide in among the mall's security staff? As soon as she thought this, however, the image of Rude leading Jocelyn off re-entered her mind. She swallowed back a gag reflex that was either guilt or disgust. "I hope Jocelyn's going to be okay... I can't help but feel like they could put any garment in front of her with 'Visiting Security' written on a nametag and convince her to wear it."

As recompense, Jacky figured she needed to make herself as useful as possible... of course, she had only come in here because she was trying to hide, but maybe there was some piece of useful info to be gleaned? "I wouldn't be lucky enough to find it tucked away in some corner or hidden under some papers, of course..." Not that she had any desire to get caught rifling through papers, in the first place.

That thought made Jacky jump a bit, then try as hard as possible to shake that jitter off and appear calm. "Cameras. For all I know, someone's seen me standing around staring at the mall security schedule, and now wandering through the back rooms... N-not that I've done anything wrong! I'm just trying to find info while protecting the privacy of my client..."

The operator remained frozen in place for a moment, spending quite a while "adjusting her glasses" while actually scanning around the room for cameras and trying to decide how to proceed. She still felt it was likely that the security monitor was a Navi or program... and here was a PET in the security quarters, in the mall's colors. She tried to remember if she'd seen whether Rude had a PET or not... could it be his? And if it was, surely it wasn't the one containing the program or Navi responsible for monitoring cameras? Would they really leave something like that unmonitored- "No, wait. Calm down and think straight, Jacky. They aren't leaving it unmonitored. If there was such a program, it could probably monitor itself and raise a silent alarm in case of danger.

"But... if that's the case, wouldn't it be doing so right now? No, I already have evidence that the monitor isn't doing its job completely. Perhaps... it's just lazy? Or... deactivated for some other reason." Jacky frowned, feeling her opinion of the mall security slipping farther. "Well, no matter. There's no law against interacting with someone else's Navi. Engaging... in conversation..."

In spite of her self-reassurance, Jacky felt her nerves tightening up as she approached the PET. Her first goal would be to see if it was turned on. If there was a Navi she could talk with, she would engage it with a timid "Hello?" as a greeting. If not... she would have to decide whether or not it was worth it to turn the thing on and try to collect more information. She also checked it out for any further identifying marks.

Rude had been waiting patiently to see if the ditzy lady would actually go for his rush-job outfit. It had only taken a minute to whip up, with some of the sporting bits and pieces he'd had in the office, and the spare sheets of letter transfers, so his nerves notably lurched when Jocelyn answered back with a problem.

Luckily for him, though, she was content to keep talking and explaining her situation in some detail, without needing his answer right away, and this gave Rude enough time to think, madly, for away to retrieve the situation. He was briefly distracted by the way she described her underwear in such detail, but that did give him an idea, at last.

"Ah, you're absolutely right! I can see why Rodney values you so much. I hadn't considered the possible clash. Thankyou for pointing it out!" He made a thoughtful sound, as though pondering the problem, when in reality he was pondering what he could follow up with. "We do have official Shamus-Austin underclothes, for those occasions where they must co-ordinate with staff outfits, of course, but they're all made to order by employee, you see, so I don't have any to lend you. Of course I couldn't ask a visiting officer to just go without, that won't do..." He said, as though it would be perfectly ok for him to require an actual employee to go commando in the name of preventing fashion clashes, just not a visitor. The man was about at his limit for professional-seeming surety, and wondered exactly what he was going to do, to get the woman comfortable enough to come outside again. The whole matter, talking about official underwear, of all things, was really a level of surreal he wasn't used to, but in the name of his lower-brain, he pushed on.

"Ah, I think I know how to help you out! We get the official uniforms from one of the shops in-house, you see. I don't have any on hand, but I can run down quickly and get you some. If you just pass me out your own, so I can match sizes, I'll be able to get you a set that suits very quickly." He decided not to press his luck too far and added, as an after thought. "Ah, I guess if you know your exact measurements, and you'd feel more comfortable just giving me them, I can work from that too. It won't take long. If you'd feel safer, you can flip the lock on the door while I'm gone!"


Back in the land of sanity, well, probable sanity at least, Jacky was busy trying to align her own conscience and moral code with a bit of healthy mission-oriented snooping. It was unfortunate how accurate her worries for Jocelyn's fashion-future were, but for the time being, her memory might be successfully relaying the fact that Rude himself had not seemed to have been actively bearing a PET when he'd met them earlier, and given that he seemed to be the only person up here, this one was probably his.

Though it took her a little while to work up both the courage, and the self-convincing reasoning, Jacky's eventual examining of the PET would reveal that it was indeed on and wirelessly active, monitoring a navi by the designation of WallFly, who was reading as jacked in to the shopping complex's independent closed-circuit security net.

The display showed her a navi that looked like he was built out of all the excess gears and screws and springs and washers one tends to find at the bottom of a very old toolbox. His body was mostly humanoid, despite having that throw-together clockwork look, but he also had a far more complex and delicate looking pair of gossamer fly wings flickering slowly off the back of his shoulders, and his head looked essentially like a digital cam-corder stuck onto the articulated metal shaft that formed his neck.

He was seated in what looked like a small simple chamber, with view-screens all a round him on every side, spinning slowly on an old fashioned office chair and looking about as bored as a mecha-camera-fly could look. He stopped the chair spinning and looked towards the PET screen when Jacky spoke.

"Whassat then? Well, finally saying hello, huh? 'Bout time. See you got Rude off with the juggy one, how'd you talk her into degrading herself like that anyhow?" His voice had an almost stereotypical mob-toady sound to it, but he didn't seem to mind the sound of it, and kept talking quite quickly. "But that was all o you could come talk to old WallFly, eh? Keep telling Rude not to leave it lying around, but he likes to be alone for some things. Hah, like he thinks I don't see everything anyway. Eyes of the mall I am. Nothing I don't see! So, what can I do for a pretty, pretty lady like you, huh? You're better on the lens than Rude, that's for sure. Stay, chat some!" If there was any question that this navi had been feeling bored, and would welcome someone to talk to, that concept was surely dispelled by the time he paused to let Jacky get another word in.

The girl on the other side of the door from Rude reacted with unmasked relief when Rude revealed that her concerns were valid and he had alternative measures in mind. "You're very welcome and I'm glad you aren't taking it personally. Yes, I'm afraid I wouldn't want to go without," she agreed, thinking to herself that, besides just the problems inherent to walking around without undies, she wasn't entirely sure it was possible for her to make her upper body decent with just the sporting event marker she'd been provided as a shirt. "If it will help you, I will happily provide both. That way, we can be absolutely sure we get the optimal pair. I don't want to skimp on any of my duties as an officer while I'm visiting here! We all have an obligation to work together to give the customers the best possible experience every day, or at least I think so."

Slowly, Jocelyn stripped off both garments; although the camera could currently only see her from the back, a good view of her bottom was now visible with only a narrow cloth to cover it. If she turned around, one would be able to confirm whether or not the vest really was capable of holding it all in, but she didn't give the watcher that luxury. "As for measurements, they're thirty-six 'F' at the bust, twenty-four at the waist, and thirty-six at the hips. I believe my navi's are quite similar, but I don't know that I've ever heard from her personally. She must measure frequently, though, as she is very much a lover of tailoring." That was probably more information than she needed to offer, as, if Sleuth ever got caught by crooked authorities on the net, it would give him an easy way to tell whose navi Sleuth was.

Jocelyn's ungloved hands extended back out past the door, offering up two garments: a risque pair of pleasantly colored blue panties, as described, and a similarly patterned bra. The size of the bra was fairly alarming, really driving home what her tight, official shirt had been hiding earlier. Once he'd taken them, she'd close the door back and lock it, as he'd instructed... not because she was so much worried about someone barging in, but rather, just because he'd mentioned she might want to do so. "Thank you again... I know it's a bit of a pain. Let's just keep the smiling faces of the visitors to your shopping center in mind!" she reminded Rude, as if he needed another reason to be happy. If he was a hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool pervert, he'd probably enjoy having the lived-in panties there in his hand, but even if he wasn't, they made for some erotic material just by the suggestion of what Jocelyn ought to look like in them.

The situation had certainly become ironic: Jocelyn had left out on a mission to find the missing massager without informing anyone of what it was, yet in the process, had now created a situation where Jocelyn's underwear was going to be shown off to anyone who happened to be passing by when Rude went shopping, assuming he was actually going there.

Jacky's eyes widened as she realized that she was indeed going to be finding herself face-to-face with a Navi... a security Navi, if her hunches were true. She gulped back her nerves and tried to remain casual, donning her wide-frowned expression that actually made her appear frustrated.

She looked over the Navi and his surroundings with equal interest. For only a brief moment, Jacky had assumed the Navi was part of the surroundings and not a humanoid at all. A bit more staring gave her the proper picture. "It looks like my guess was on the money," she thought to herself. Even without being told, there was no way a Navi in a room like that could not be involved with security.

That said, Wallfly had a relatively creative appearance, at least in Jacky's opinion. She had been nearly certain Rude would have gotten himself a Navi that would act as a bit better eye candy for himself. Then again, Jacky had never made a Navi, so she really had no idea what considerations normally went into it. "Hello?" she ventured, breaking the ice.

The Navi began assailing her with a quick torrent of speech. Jacky supposed that could be worse: she'd half been expecting some blaring alarm to issue from the PET, or for some iron gate to slide over the door behind her. It didn't help that Wallfly's design was a little bit eery. His tone was actually conversational, however, so Jacky was able to cast a bit of her apprehension aside and focus on what responses she could afford to give.

The operator listened with her same pensive frown, almost raising her finger to interject when Wallfly suggested she had been the one who put Jocelyn up to Rude's antics. She thought better of it, though, and remained quiet. "So this seems to be the one I was looking for... I get the sense that he must be somewhat egotistical, and... somewhat bored," she concluded. She interpreted his compliments more as the general flattery that one does to get someone to stay and talk, rather than a genuine opinion or flirtatiousness.

Jacky was forced to assume that, unless she could prove otherwise, Wallfly did see everything that happened in the mall... but maybe he didn't have an audio feed? She thought it might be wise to test that. And besides, she did have something she wanted to clear up. "Wallfly," she began, a bit tentatively. She didn't speak the names of Navis all that often, and she found it a bit awkward to address them that way... like calling somebody by their first name with no title when you weren't properly introduced or acquainted. "Did you hear me tell Ms. Jocelyn to go through with that? I assure you, that was no idea of mine."

After pausing briefly for an answer, Jacky decided to go ahead and properly introduce herself. After all, there wasn't any problem with that... she wasn't doing anything to be ashamed of, or anything illegal... In any case, it would make the conversation much more smooth.

"My name is Jacqueline Newman, but you can call me Jacky. Everyone does," she added, quashing any idea that the gesture was intended to grant him some preference. "I'm very interested in what you do here. Would it be fair to assume you monitor the security cameras here? And do you do so independently, without any help?" There was a bit of genuine admiration in Jacky's voice with this question, as she was always interested in the capacity of Navis to make human processes more efficient. As she thought of that, she thought she would ask something that might be a bit more important. "If so, that's very impressive! Do you monitor them all at once, or one at a time?"

Jacky was particularly curious to know if Wallfly was currently detecting one of the mall's cameras were covered. She decided to try and press on that more. "...Do you see anything that interests you right now?" she asked, unintentionally slowing that question down simply because of its importance. As she asked, she leaned in a bit closer to the device unconsciously, as though doing so would allow her to peek around at some of the screens Wallfly was monitoring.

Most of Jocelyn's contentedly oblivious reassurance washed over Rude and barely registered to the brain that he probably needed to be using. Mostly, what he was noticing, was that they were still warm. With the door locked and closed, Jocelyn would only hear his reassurance that he would be back swiftly, and not see him dart away to his office quickly, or hear the deep, nasal inhalation that followed.

So caught up was the man that it was a full thirty seconds before he crossed the small hall again, and headed swiftly down the stairs, to make a bee-line for the in-house department store at the north end of the mall. He was present-minded enough to be able to read the measurements on the garments, even if he hadn't properly heard Jocelyn give them, but even so, it was still going to take the man a few minutes to get there, acquire an appropriately coloured set of undergarments, and return.

On the bright side, Rude seemed to have utterly forgotten that a second person had come up the stairs, and remained blissfully unaware of Jacky's presence in the break room; he certainly didn't come to collect his PET before stepping out, and that left the arguably sanest individual on site to continue her questioning.

A sharp girl, Jacky narrowed in quickly on the signs that the camera-navi didn't actually have an audio feed to go with his monitoring of the security bubbles. At her first question, he chuckled and started to answer before she was finished.

"Oh yeah, of course I..." He trailed away mid-boast when Jacky continued, revealing that she'd had no part in Jocelyn's seemingly magnetic attraction to exploitation. "Er... that is, uh, no, no I just thought you must have. Ah, we don't get no audio from the nodes, just video, ma'am." After a second he seemed to shake off being caught out and remember that, however better on his camera lens the lady in front of him was compared to his normal operator, she still wasn't supposed to be here.

"Hey, why am I sorry. What're you even doing up here, Missy? I saw the pair of you come in, then lug that stupid contraption up the stairs with you... are you both batty?" Jacky got around to introducing herself properly, then plunged into her questions; apparently the statement that she was quite interested and curious about his work was enough to tickle WallFly's eagerness to talk up his job, because he set aside her need of permission long enough to answer.

"You bet I do, Jacky-love. Every camera in the mall is an eye for yours truly. Two-hundred and forty six nodes, all reporting live to this guy's brain. Nothing gets past me!" He spun around on his chair once, stretching his oddly-composed limbs out wide with a visible spinning and ratcheting of cogs and gears, and his wings flickered a few times. Her next question brought the lens of his camera-face back to her, and it twisted, zooming in. One could easily interpret the action as the navi's equivalent of raising his eyebrows, if he'd had any.

"Interesting you say. Well, there's that couple down in the lower east lady's room at it again. Hah, and there's some flat-chested jail-bait tryin' on some lingerie in the Bullseye change rooms and working herself over while she looks in the mirror, haha.... Ah, er... but," he seemed to remember that he wasn't talking to Rude about two sentences too late. "That's... probably not what you were meaning by interesting, was it?" His lens shuttered for a moment, and it was easy to imagine a look of embarrassment being associated with the action. "Em, let's see, Interesting, interesting... Not really, if you aren't after the sort of pervy stuff Rude likes to watch. He still hasn't fixed number eighty-two. It's been dark since yesterday. He said he was going to check it. Lazy git."

If she looked closer, Jacky would, indeed, be able to see that the view screens surrounding WallFly on all sides did show live camera feeds, though most looked pretty normal. If she was looking for it, she might be able to pick out the one camera that was showing a more or less black screen; likely the covered camera in Damson's office.

Eventually, Rude returned, heavy boots coming back up the stairs two or three at a time to cover his long strides. He had acquired a set of racy lingerie that had a good deal of embroidery and fanciness around the seams, but was plain about the main panels, and was, unlike Jocelyn's offered garments, a colour matching pale yellow to the Austin's scheme. They were no more sheer or transparent than the set Jocelyn had handed out to him, but it was ever so slightly more obvious on the broader stretches of unadorned thin fabric. The cut, certainly, was a far better match to the 'outfit' Rude had given her to wear; the waist of the underwear would rest more or less perfectly beneath the band of the loincloth, and no parts of the bra's strapping or back catch would show beneath the top... but Jocelyn's own noteworthy assets were still going to prevent the undergarments from being completely hidden. Good thing they matched better now. Rude knocked lightly on the door and called out. Provided Jocelyn hadn't forgotten how to work a lock, and opened the door enough for him to hand them through, he would happily pass the new underwear to her.

"Thank you, Mister Rude. I know it's a bit nasty handling someone else's underwear, but I thank you... Hello?" Jocelyn asked, slowly realizing that the man she was talking about had left the other side of the door already. "Mister Rude? Have you already left?" she inquired, unlocking and opening the door just a peek so that one of her pretty eyes appeared between the frame and the cracked door. He'd already left by the time she looked out, so she simply closed the door back quietly and waited, somewhat nervously, as she stood around with no underwear on, garbed only in the immodest security outfit. Frowning, she held her arms away from her body with her fingers curled, allowing her breasts to heave down to their full, unimpeded weight. Predictably, the top wasn't up to the task of covering what needed to be covered, and wouldn't be, unless she kept them squeezed together constantly; as it was, both sides spilled out. "Oh dear..." she murmured, attempting to tuck them back inside the harness.

There was a fair period of time where Jocelyn had nothing to do but try to manipulate that into some sort of usable upper body covering, while Jacky underwent the much more respectable and useful task of gathering information on the security system, as well as Rude's responsibility to repair the camera in Damson's back room. Jacky might very well be thinking about how Wallfly's attitude towards Rude seemed to support the idea that the security team was just too lazy to fix the system, rather than actively using the information to allow a criminal into Damson's personal things. Rude did, after all, seem a lot more interested in being a pervert than he did making money, and there were easier, more effective means of satisfying his perversion afforded to him on a regular basis, so stealing a personal massager wouldn't make much sense for him.

Speaking of easy, effective means of satisfying Rude's perversion, Jocelyn's face lit up as she realized that the security chief had returned; she was still peering her eye through the crack in the door. Just a bit less caution and he might get a look at her breasts hanging, but she, unfortunately, wasn't quite that ditzy. Before he had time to contemplate that it might be a fun idea to pretend he'd forgotten she was just about naked in there and force open the door, she gleefully accepted the under-garments and shut the door back. "Perfect! Thank you again," she exclaimed, stepping immediately into the thin, yellow panties. She still didn't like the color much, but she had to admit that they served her current outfit a lot better than her blue ones had. The top needed to go on next, but to get it on, she had to first remove the harness... or, no, actually, she didn't. The latter garment was so thin and useless that she really only needed to push it up off her bust for a moment and hook on her bra. "There. That's a respectable uniform!" Jocelyn affirmed, although there was unlikely a person in the world nor on the net who would agree with that statement (besides those with a vested interest in maintaining the illusion that such things were fine to wear in public).

Finally allowing Rude the just desserts he'd been waiting on for so long, Jocelyn unlocked the door and, with a surprising lack of modesty, stepped out, turned to close it behind her. She had apparently been effectively brainwashed into believing that, granted that it had been given to her by a security officer, was adorned with the words "security," and was coordinated not to be offensive to the eyes (unless one found a girl's jiggly parts being exposed particularly offensive), her outfit was proper to let others see. In reality, nothing more than the bare essentials were covered; the top vest did so little that she may as well be wearing just her bra, since it frequently got scrunched out of place between her unbelievably sized breasts. Looking at the back wasn't much less indecent, as the narrow cloth on the back, combined with her complete lack of footwear, left only one single point unexposed: the line between her buttocks. Even from the side, the outfit was terribly erotic.

"Does it look alright? I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to wear gloves, socks, or shoes with it... I like to keep my gloves on, when I can, but I understand if that doesn't fit with your protocol," she inquired, watching his face eagerly. She kept her bare hands crossed on the lap of her belt-cloth, holding it down with a polite, discrete gesture. Ironically, that was really the part of her that was currently the most modestly covered. "Well, assuming this is fine, shall we jump straight into our chat about security and recent happenings? I'm eager to see if I can learn anything that I might apply to my own work at the Gloria Scott!" she began, clapping her hands together in front of her chest with a single, neat gesture. Unlike in Sleuth's case, Jocelyn was being pretty genuine about her claim that she wanted to learn anything that might be useful given the parallel between the two shopping malls. "Unless there's anything else I need to do in order to fit in here at the Shamus Austin Shopping Center first? I wouldn't want to neglect any of your regulations! Malls- and shopping centers- each have their own sets of rules and regulations that ought to be treated with the utmost respect! I'm well aware of that fact," she announced confidently, eager to show what a good security officer she was so that the experience would reflect positively on the Gloria Scott. If anything, Rude was either thinking about how lucky Rodney was to be the chief of security there, or he was wondering how the mall got any actual "security" functions accomplished when Jocelyn was one of their officers.

"Is that so...?" Jocelyn said contemplatively, as much to herself as in response to Wallfly. The fact that the mall security was only receiving visual data and not audio data was a big bullet point. With the camera covered, and with no audio data, it was possible Wallfly and Rude really wouldn't have any idea she and Jocelyn were here in any capacity that related to Damson... or at least, if they were called out on it later, it would be easier to cover up. Jacky didn't want to think about that outcome in the middle of talking to the living manifestation of the mall's security system, and thus tried to put her mind back in the conversation.

Jacky had been asked what she and Jocelyn were doing there, and furthermore, it appeared she was being lumped in with Jocelyn's decision to carry her segway everywhere. "Regrettable," she thought to herself, but that wasn't really what was important. "I simply wandering around to satisfy my own curiosity. You see, I'm interested in the sort of work Jocelyn does, but... mmm, as you've seen how it is, I simply thought it might be more efficient to learn from this mall's security, rather than that of Gloria Scott. If I haven't already said so, it seems this mall is very lucky to have such an... effective caretaker as yourself."

In reality, Jacky thought that was a bit of a stretch: yes, it looked as though Wallfly had the capacity to be effective, but it sounded as though his basic routine more or less consisted of making reports to Rude of all the fun channels he could tune in to.

Jacky shook her head slowly to indicate that no, Rude's usual daytime channels were not what she was interested in. That said, Jacky, like any ordinary citizen first confronted with them, couldn't help but wonder about the possibilities of having an entire mall security system to watch over. She imagined it was the type of thing that got old fast, but nonetheless... Any interest she had in investigating that, however, faded when she realized that the info she wanted about the covered camera was being presented to her directly.

"Not to criticize... after all, you've done your part, and the rest would be on Rude... but isn't it a serious issue to have a camera out of commission? Do you have access to enough camera feeds online adjacent to the down camera to get a clear picture of traffic in its whereabouts? This is simply my own curiosity, but have you been keeping a closer eye on the surrounding feeds since that camera has been offline? It's a bit scary to think that someone might be trying to get in while the cameras were offline." Jacky thought that either through a straight answer or through reluctance to answer, she might soon have an idea as to whether or not the mall security could be culprits from this response.

There was, of course, the distinct possibility that this particular inquiry might be met with something along the lines of "Yes, and now that you mention it, what were you and your friend doing walking into Damson's earlier today?", but if she ended up needing to provide a cover for that, she thought she could do so. On that note, she thought it was probably best she kept this feeling more like a conversation or interview than an interrogation. "Ah, I'm sorry if I've been monopolizing the conversation. If there's anything you want from me or need to know about me, please, go ahead."

Whatever Jocelyn did when she was mostly naked and alone in the meeting room was between her and the flies on the wall... and likely one in particular, which may have been why Rude wasn't too fussed about trying to immediately catch an easy eyeful directly. By the time Jocelyn stepped out to show off her new outfit to him, Rude stood back, disguising the way all the blood was draining from his brain into other places with a measured, thoughtful up and down look.

There was a lot for him to take in and make sure he approved of, so he took an extra couple of moments visually 'checking' that everything was in order. Eventually he nodded, feigning calm, though he was lucky that his pants were heavy-duty enough to not show any signs of the effect Jocelyn's excuse for an outfit was having on him. the flimsy loin-cloth bit was really no protection at all, the top was doing even less of a job, against a far harder task, and mostly he was still trying to get over his almost dream-like disbelief that the woman seemed somehow ok with all of this.

"Alright, I think you look just fine like that now. Much more suitable." In all honesty, the security head couldn't care two whits about whether she wore gloves or shoes, but he did his best to play into the signs she'd given him already. "Ah, it's no problem if you'd like to keep your gloves or shoes on, so long as they don't clash, of course." Really? How had Rodney trained her to this in the first place, where fashion co-ordination ranked more highly than personal modesty to her. And more importantly, how could he instil this same guiding ideal into his own female staff members?

His eyes had a hard time not darting down to her chest as she spoke, every small movement of her form leading to other small but noteworthy movements in turn. Even so, he picked up most of what she was asking and nodded.

"Right, ah, yes, you're decent and properly respectable now," Ha! "Everything well within guidelines," Except of course, her overflowing chest remaining within the guidelines of the flimsy she was now wearing without a fuss. "So, what was it you were wanting to ask about first, wile you're visiting us, then?" In truth, rude was struggling to keep himself looking professional and not highly turned on by all of this. It was an effort, certainly, and if he spent a lot longer around Jocelyn and her naive jiggling, it was a battle he'd probably lose eventually.


Back in the realms of mostly sanity, the real detective work continued. As she chatted back, Jacky's casual comments about his capability and efficiency seemed to stroke WallFly's ego considerably, and as long as she remained praising of him, he continued to forget that she hadn't much business being there.

"Thankyou for saying, Jacky-love, and right you are, too. This place is lucky that I'm here keeping track of everything. The rest of the security does their job just great, but Rude... a layabout if ever there was one. Just likes to sit around and watch whatever feed is the raciest, most of the time. The git." He seemed quite fond of that particular derogatory, at least in as far as applying it to his operator.

When she picked up on his comment about the dark camera, WallFly waved a hand nonchalantly.
"Ah, if it were actually damaged or something, I'd be more worried. It's just dark, like someone's covered it or something. It's aback office cam too, so, you know, it happens. sometimes folk cover those up when they want some privacy. Usually they uncover 'em again afterwards, but maybe she forgot? I told Rude to go check it out, and he said he would. For such a young lady, the hair girl is a bit dull, so I doubt it was for anything racy." For a moment he paused, then sat upright, many of his gears and springs twisting suddenly.

"Hang a tic. He did go and check it out. Last night, after the cleaners had gone through, just before we shut everything down. So why didn't he fix it then? Oh I bet he spins that line about not changing a shop without speaking to the holder first. Lazy git. Like getting up on a chair to pull a cloth off is such a big deal. Huh. Yeah, see, look...." the view on the PET changed suddenly to display a single camera feed, with a time stamp indicating it was from the night before. The camera view point showed a stretch of the hall in the hair and beauty section of the mall, and the shop front of How-do-you-Doo? was clear to see, as well as a little way into the shop. It wound at high speed for a moment or two, then played normally to show Rude, in his uniform but clearly off the clock now, with the top button undone and a large personal shoulder bag over one shoulder, walk along to the shop front in question. He stopped at the closed roller, rifled in his pocket for a very bulky set of security master keys, and opened it up, then entered the shop.

When he disappeared into the back off camera, WallFly's voice cut over.
"Bit of a blind spot at the back of the shop. From outside, we can see most of the way in, and then we can see clearly from the office bubble as well, but with the back one covered, it's blind from there on." Rude was off camera for maybe a minute's worth of time, before he came back out again, closed and re-locked the roller door, and moved off camera towards the car park exit. WallFly seemed strangely happy to be sharing some of his monitoring work for something other than perving, for once, so when Jacky asked bout how well he'd been watching the other surrounding feeds since it darkened, the screen flicked back to the navi as he nodded and perked up.

"Wasn't paying too much attention directly, all the time it was out, of course, but nothing unusual caught my eye. Damson had quite a few folk swing by her shop yesterday, I think. I can bring up the footage for you, if you like?" Since she wanted to see if the navi himself wanted anything, he chuckled, though it sounded a little bit closer to a lens calibration, than laughter. "How about, while I do that, you tell me how you hooked up with Juggs over there, and why she's so keen on strutting about in her undies just because Rude's telling her to?"

"Fantastic! Let me grab them while we chat, then!" Jocelyn responded to the Shamus-Austin security officer, skittering back into the room she'd just come out of while Rude continued talking. She took a moment, behind the door, to slip back on her gloves, step into her long stockings, and slip back on her shoes. It wasn't that she was totally against going barefoot, but she had to admit, she thought the gloves and the shoes gave it the outfit a nice, authoritative touch, which ought to be a part of any officer's considerations when choosing an appropriate uniform. "Don't worry, they're neutral colors like white and black. I don't think they'll pose any problem," she chuckled, then stepped back out. His focus probably hadn't been on her bare hands or feet anyways, so it wasn't much of a loss.

The visiting officer gave another big smile as Rude commended her for taking the time to get into proper attire. Her smile turned from confident and full of purpose to blank and spacey as Rude reminded her that she had, indeed, come to ask him some questions, not model the latest fashions. Somewhere in the midst of all of her introductions and concern over her wardrobe, she'd forgotten what all she planned to ask him in the first place... although, truth be told, her questions weren't going to be useful compared to what Jacky or Sleuth (or maybe even Hyde) were asking about in. To ask any kind of meaningful question, she'd really need some sort of guidance. Having none, she tried to brainstorm the kinds of things that she'd like to know. "Oh! Are there other security officers around today? I wouldn't mind meeting them," she asked, although that certainly couldn't be what she'd actually come here to ask. "I'm curious to see what your female officers ordinarily tend to wear for their uniforms. I know at the Gloria Scott, the few other women we've employed on the security force usually don't dress quite so fantastically as I do, but then, I'm told my role on the force is inherently a good bit different from that of the others."

Jocelyn pressed one gloved finger to her chin thoughtfully, trying to come up with questions that might help out with the mission. "Oh, that's right! I remember hearing that a hidden source of corruption might be buried somewhere deep within the security force. Now that I know Rude's one of the good ones, I should see if he can tell me anything about the bad ones," she incorrectly surmised. "Mister Rude, another thing about your other officers... Do you have any 'bad eggs?'" she asked, projecting a sickeningly sweet air of genuine, child-like innocence. "Anyone who might be making a bad name for your force? During my time here at your mall, I heard the most upsetting rumor that might be some... less-than-model officers on both my own force and yours. Perhaps someone taking advantage of their status as an enforcer of mall- er, shopping center- security! Does anyone come to mind?" she asked, moving in closer so that they could whisper to each other with apparently no modesty on account of her outfit. One of her hands, with its dainty, laced glove, came up to cup the side of her mouth as she continued. "This is just my thinking, but I see it as my responsibility to make sure that all of the men on the force stand tall, firm, and ready for action at all times!"

Jacky listened intently to every word Wallfly spoke, her mouth drawing tighter and her eyebrows peaking more sharply behind her thick frames. It sounded like she'd hit the motherload, so to speak, in terms of information that was potentially relevant to their mission. The operator crossed her fingers, hoping her good lucky would continue.

The evidence towards Rude (or at least his lack of character) seemed to be piling up. As their culprit appeared to be getting more and more clear, Jacky found herself growing apprehensive. The video footage she was watching seemed like great proof, but there was a problem: it had all been recorded by the Navi of the guy it fingered. Wallfly appeared to have some disparaging remarks about Rude, but still, an operator was an operator. If he knew he was providing footage that would potentially get his operator locked up, Wallfly might go on the defensive, conveniently "losing footage" and pressing the questions about what exactly Jacky and Jocelyn were up to.

That said, she needed information before she needed proof, in the first place. It sounded like Wallfly had more footage worth seeing, especially before she went burning any bridges. "I'd be very interested, thank you, Wallfly. About Jocelyn and myself..."

The operator frowned her same tight frown, but with a bit of color in her cheeks now. As she remembered her first encounter with Jocelyn, she tried to think how much she was really comfortable telling a complete stranger, even one she needed to be as square as possible with. "Jocelyn and I just met yesterday. Truth be told, I'm shadowing her a bit as she visits this mall. Again, I'm interested in learning about the profession. My understanding is she comes from money, and from a sheltered upbringing... as a result, she is terribly naive. It's my understanding that her supervisor regularly exploits that same gullibility at her actual place of employment, although I don't know the extent. Is there anything else?" The operator was still flushing a bit in spite of herself, desperately hoping the Navi wouldn't pry into it. She wasn't good at dodging the truth in the first place, and trying to cover the dual trouble spots of her true purpose with Jocelyn and her true first encounter with Jocelyn was difficult for her.

Authoritative was one word a person might use to describe the effect that the addition of gloves, stockings and shoes had on Jocelyn's rather poor excuse for an outfit. Peculiar, and confusing were two more. Either way, Rude wasn't about to push it, and it was fairly safe to say that there was very definitely one member of the security force that Jocelyn was helping to stand firm, tall and ready for action, even if, mercifully, it wasn't visibly so within the confines of his heavy uniform pants.

Having asked her about what questions she actually wanted answered, however, Rude began to regret it at once, and began silently wracking his brains for a way to prevent undue commentary from giving the game away if he did walk her around to see anyone else. The moment of silence let Jocelyn continue her line of thought aloud, adding a few more questions to the matter, though they didn't exactly help things. The mention that there were other women over at the Gloria, and that the dizzy lady was already prepared and pre-reassured over the differences between her wardrobe and what sane people wore, was some what reassuring, if another layer of astonishing, but it didn't solve the question of what he was going to do about his own officers blowing the game. Who was on shift today anyway? Relief followed a moment later as his mind came up with the days on-shift employees. Tess only worked every other day, and Jane was on maternity leave, which meant... an all male staff on the roster today.

While this mental exchange was going on, Jocelyn had arrived at her more cautious question, though the way she leaned in brought a sudden hike to Rude's heart-rate and his composure at having this arguably un-clad woman in front of him, threatening to jiggle free at any moment, nearly cracked. He swallowed and tried to hide his suddenly flustered features under one of thought. It only worked partially.

"Ah, um.. bad eggs? I don't think..." Deprived of blood as it was, his brain wasn't thinking much. "That is, sometimes one of the guys might take a little longer on his lunch break than he should, but no, I don't think there's anyone who's really up to no good. Not here, certainly. Not that I've found." The hypocrisy in the air was almost tangible, to those who might be looking on from the outside. "Ah, but that really is a commendable stance to take, of course! Always must keep both eyes open, and keep the, uh, integrity of our position and duty in mind. Indeed!" This was much trickier than ogling girls in the change-room and spying on couples going at it where they thought no-one would catch them. He hoped WallFly was getting all of this though, it would make for good viewing later.

"As for the other officers, well, we've got a minder on each entrance, just to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing is amiss, but we've only got two female officers on staff, and neither of them are on shift today, I'm sorry to say." He paused to rub the back of his neck. The part of his mind still capable of planning was worrying about what he could do if she decided she still wanted to meet some of the other officers, but something of a plan was beginning to form, just in case.


While Rude tried to stretch his time with Jocelyn's bountiful bounciness, Jacky was reviewing the evidence that was making him look worse and worse. Unfortunately, just as it was starting to look like they had an easy solve on their hands, she gave the navi the go-ahead to show her the rest of that day's footage.

While she talked to Wallfly about her knowledge of Jocelyn, the navi ran the tape through the more interesting moments of the day outside How-Do-You-Doo? To begin with, the display split-screened, showing both the outside and office camera, and it started fairly ordinarily. Damson arrived a short while before opening time, picking up the nondescript brown paper-wrapped box that had been delivered to her store address, and rushing inside. When she arrived at the back office, the woman had set the parcel down, cast one eye up at the camera, then pulled a cloth from her desk drawer; the same cloth they'd both seen earlier, still covering the camera. Sure enough, she climbed up swiftly to drape it over the lens, and black the office view completely. At that point, the screen split reverted to just showing the exterior camera feed.

The recording began to fast forward, showing several customers come in and out, until it slowed down again at a time around mid-morning, where it showed Damson herself come out of the store with a long-strap purse over one shoulder and close the roller door, locking it. The tap fast-forwarded about ten minutes, then showed another woman approaching the closed store-front.

She was about average height, and had wild red hair that was restrained firmly by a broad-brimmed straw sun hat. Why she was wearing it indoors was anyone's guess. She was also wearing a yellow t-shirt and denim overalls, though any more detail than that was hard to pick out. With her, the woman was carrying a box marked with the brand of the mall's coffee and pastry shop, which would, potential, have been large enough to fit damson's package inside of, if one tried. The box also had a drink holder with two tall coffee cups settled into it on top.

Setting her box down, the woman bent to one corner of the roller door, and made a small shaking action of some kind, which led to the lock jumping, and the screen rolling upwards smoothly. The mystery intruder reclaimed her own box and disappeared off camera into the back of the store. She was gone for about two minutes, before reappearing, still carrying the box, although she held it by one open flap, as though it was empty, and one of the two coffee cups in her other hand. Annoyingly, it was impossible to see if the box was, in fact, empty, of if she was just holding it that way; the other flaps were closed over, and gave nothing away in either direction.

The tape began to scroll forward again once the woman was off camera. Damson returned from her morning errands and continued working until she came out again, around lunch time, and once again locked the door. This time when she left she was carrying a half-crumpled coffee cup, and a few rolled up scraps of paper that bore the same pastry-shop logo as the other woman's box, all of which she dropped in the public bin nearby as she passed.

Fast forward about fifteen minutes, and another unknown woman jogged to the entrance of Damson's shop. This one was also of roughly average height, but she had short brown hair, in a pixie cut, and was wearing running sweats and a headband. There was a large hiker's back-pack on her back, and as she glanced in through the roller and looked around, it turned out that she, too, knew the trick for jumping the roller door's lock. she disappeared into the back of the shop, and was gone four about four minutes, before coming out again and clicking the door 'locked' again. One had to wonder why, if everyone in the mall knew how to jump it.

At fast speed again ,the tape progressed through the early afternoon, with Damson returning and working her trade, until mid-afternoon when she closed up for the third time, presumably to go and mind Janette's shop, as she said she had done. She had barely been gone five minutes, however, when a taller woman showed up outside the closed door, and paced a few times, looking worried. This lady had black shoulder-length hair that was perfectly straight, and was wearing denim trousers and a knit-wool jumper that had 'Cats forever' picked out on it, with a cleverly knitted kitty behind it. She was carrying a shopping bag labelled as one of the malls country clothing outlets in the crook for her elbow, but seemed to have forgotten about it, more or less.

After a few more seconds of pacing, the woman went to the door and bent down, just as the other two had. it took her a little longer to get the trick to work, but sure enough the roller soon sprang up and allowed her access. She was out of sight for a couple of minutes at most, then returned, looking no less worried than she had before, and closed the roller again, before heading away.

Fast forwarding again, the afternoon progressed uninterestingly, until around closing time, when the cat-jumper woman showed up again to talk to Damson near the front of the store. They packed up together when the last customer was gone, and locked up. About fifteen minutes after that, the cleaner passed by, doing the floors of each shop in turn as she went. She had her own set of master keys to unlock the security rollers on her belt... and neglected to use them even once as she went down the line, employing each shop's trick to simply jump the catches. It took about ten minutes for the cleaner to finish with Damson's shop, though she was visible for most of it, save a couple when she was around the back. She wheeled the mysteriously kitted out cleaner's trolley with her as she went, and it did disappear from camera briefly as well, while she cleaned the back office floors.

Once the cleaner was gone, the tape sped up again until it arrived back at the point where Rude himself had gone by, which was where WallFly finally stopped the playback.

"Told you, Jacky-love. Lots of visitors for Damson yesterday." He chuckled to himself, pleased with being able to show off his recording capabilities to someone who might possibly appreciate them. He also demonstrated a passable ability to multi-task as well, spinning in his chair and laughing to himself about about Jacky's own story, and her brief, if telling, time with Jocelyn.

"You ask me, naive doesn't cover the half of it with that woman. You seen what Rude's got her wearing now? And you say she's wearing it just because she's sheltered and doesn't know better? That's priceless, Jacky-love, absolute gold that is! So tell me... you're following dopey to see what her average day is like... for research, am I right, haha! So then, what's got her and her magnificent rack coming over here in the first place then?" It wasn't so much that he was prying or pressing at her, or suspicious in any way; it just seemed as though the navi was genuinely curious, and enjoying having someone to chat to who wasn't interest just in finding whatever camera would make him hardest. Even so, he wasn't politely waiting to give Jacky much time to digest all she'd just looked through.

Jocelyn realized now that Rude was becoming visibly disturbed by her line of questioning. "He may have some friends on the force that he's concerned have gone astray, bending to the temptations of misusing their power. It's up to me to help out!" she affirmed to herself, not catching that Rude was probably chiefly worried she was accusing him of something. From Rude's words, though, it sounded as all of the officers were good enough at their jobs. Why was he so nervous, then? "That's good to hear... They say 'no news is good news,' and if neither of us have caught any of our peers engaged in any unsavory activity, that sets my heart at ease," she sighed happily, pressing her hands together neatly at the consistently distracting swells of her chest. "But if something has come to your mind, please share it with me." She felt a little bad doubting him again, but she was pretty sure Sleuth would do something like that in this case. Sleuth would certainly be tough and firm, asking the hard questions, just like she was doing now. A bit of professional pride was evident on Jocelyn's face now, as she looked especially fired up for no reason in particular that Rude would be able to discern.

It sounded like Rude's team had either some size issues, diversity issues, or both, but, then again, so did the Gloria Scott. Regardless, Jocelyn noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the report to begin with. "No, let's not inconvenience them. I am acting in the best interests of mall security everywhere, of course, so I wouldn't want to occupy too many of you. On that note, thank you for devoting so much time to me! I don't suppose I could shadow you for a bit, could I?" she asked, giving him her most winning smile (a gesture totally unnecessary when her other charms would suffice). "As we've mentioned, I'm not a head of security like you are, and I have to admit, Rodney doesn't let me observe his duties very frequently beyond our usual morning routine together. I'd love to know what sort of responsibilities you have. If I may be so bold, I may even be able to help you out! Two heads are better than one, after all."

Jocelyn had already exhausted all of her useful questions now, so she was back to priority numero uno in her mall cop life: the betterment of mall security (now amended to "mall security and shopping center security everywhere"). Given Rude's nervous behavior, his wandering hands, his apparent constant discomfort in his crotchal region based on how he was standing, Jocelyn could only conclude that something was weighing heavily on his mind. Now that she'd established he was a good cop, she saw it as her duty to make sure he received the help he needed, even if that help was just someone to talk to... or stare at. He seemed pretty keen on staring.

Jacky watched the screen with interest. Her studious nature had given her a key eye for important details, and she soaked them all in. She considered the most important task at the moment was to be able to retell what she'd seen in full descriptive detail. She wouldn't be able to craft many theories now, but she figured Sleuth might be able to later.

Although she didn't have much time to work on her own conclusions, she did have one that came immediately to mind: right now, she had approximately five suspects. Three of them had come in with apparent reasons: Rude had a camera to repair, red-head had evidently brought breakfast, and cleaning lady was... well, cleaning. That left the hiker and the cat lady. The tape didn't reveal clear reasons they might have unlocked Damson's shutter and entered, and in her mind, that cast them under the most suspicion.

That was all the consideration Wallfly was giving her breathing room for. Jacky nodded again in genuine appreciation. "Yes, Wallfly, I can see now that you would have had quite a clear view of any suspicious elements in spite of the covered camera. Most impressive... although, I certainly hope you can get the help you need in upkeeping your entire system," she finished, removing her glasses and rubbing at her tired eyes momentarily.

The operator frowned more severely and snapped the specs back to her face when Wallfly mentioned the outfit Jocelyn was wearing. "No, what? She's wearing something different? I should have kept an eye on her after all..." Jacky grimaced and ran a hand down her face. "Jocelyn's here, as I understand it, trying to compare notes with the staff of this mall in an effort to improve her own. Perhaps there's some other business, I'm not quite sure... Anyway, I thank you earnestly, Wallfly, but it sounds like I... probably need to run damage control and make sure the Jocelyn situation doesn't get any more embarrassing."

Truth be told, that was probably easier said than done. If Jacky approached Jocelyn and Rude and tried to make the case that Jocelyn was being deceived, Jacky imagined that (based on past experience) Rude might very well be able to use his authority to argue his case persuasively. Of course, the medical student knew that logic, goodness, and righteousness were all on her side were she to enter such a debate, but frankly, she could be muscled out of a conversation with relative ease. Furthermore, getting next to Jocelyn when she was in the midst of such things seemed like a recipe for disaster, in any case. Jacky really didn't want to get tied up in that...

The operator drew out her PET, thinking she might instead use the time to see how the investigation of the Navis was going, only to find Hyde with a belt in her mouth being slapped on the behind by her partner. Her breath catching in her throat, Jacky did her best to calmly slide the PET back to her waist, pretending she was just checking the time or something. She definitely didn't want Wallfly getting nosy on that avenue of conversation. "You've been a tremendous help. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

As the marvellous set of breasts that were distractingly connected to a woman continued to question him, Rude started to wonder if perhaps she wasn't as silly as she looked. He was having a hard time finding a suitable way to answer her that wouldn't arouse suspicion. If Rude had know how excessively too much credit he was giving Jocelyn, he probably would have relaxed, but as it was, he wavered. She seemed convinced he was guilty of something, but what could he say that wouldn't upset her?

Her remark about shadowing added a new layer of worry to the problem: Sure, he'd love to have her flouncing around within eye-rake of him for as long as he could get it, but he couldn't exactly say 'of course, come watch me watch cameras for people doing the nasty!' What could he do? Where could he take her? While these thoughts were rampaging through his mind, Rude had shifted without really noticing. He stood with his arms folded, clearly in deep thought, though the downward tilt of his head meant he was, by complete coincidence, of course, looking right at Jocelyn's barely restrained goods. As he pondered what he could do that would look like convincing work, a thought struck him, and he brightened, looking up again.

"I suppose that would be alright, just for today. There is some work I'm needed to attend to, which I was about to get done just before you arrived." Not the biggest lie he'd ever told, certainly, but he wasn't counting. "My navi monitors the security cameras, but he often needs me to do the physical checks on them, or fix one that stops reporting faithfully. If you'd like to accompany while I sort out just such an issue, you'd be welcome. Don't worry about helping out; I'm sure just having you around will act as motivation and inspiration, not just for me, but for any of the other employees we see along the way!" The question that tickled in the back of his mind begged for asking, but he shoved it away for now. What exactly was this 'morning routine' that she had mentioned. It had to be something juicy, according to his mind, but he couldn't think of away to ask while still playing cool, like all this madness was somehow normal. He managed a grin for her, and thankfully directed his eyes to hers while he did, for once.

"If you'll just wait here a moment while I fix up my office, then we can head down and check it out!" Provided she offered no objection, Rude would slip quickly into his side office, neaten a few papers, put a few things away, pause to take a few calming breaths, and grab his keys off the desk, though he didn't expect to need the, then return to her, closing the door behind him.

He made no move to retrieve his PET, and despite the conversation stepping over points about Jocelyn's arrival, he still seemed to have more or less forgotten that a second body had shown up with Jocelyn in the first place. In fairness to Rude though, the busty security woman in a borderline state of undress was, more or less, taking up this entire thought process for the time being.

----

Nearby yet still mercifully out of mind, in the break room, Jacky processed the new evidence they'd been given while juggling the bored and curious navi that had provided it. He was spinning in his chair again, stretching and flickering his wings absently, to much twisting and clicking of parts.

"Nah, Jacky-love. got my job to be doin', after all. Though if you could give Rude a boot up the bum about checking that camera for me, that'd be a great help to everyone. Lazy git." A moment alter he realised that the question probably meant she was leaving, and he sat up in his chair again, looking up towards the screen.

"You going now? Sure you don't want me to run you the tape on your friend getting changed into her new duds? Might save you a shock when you see her next. Shame you're going though. Don't get out much, myself. You should visit again some time. Most interesting chat I've had in months. I don't even care that you ain't supposed to be here, or that Rude ought to be kicking the pair of you out on your ears... If it beats my boredom, I'm hooked, right?" So, it wasn't that he was distracted from their subtle trespass, but rather that he was curious and bored enough to let it slide. That might be reassuring, or it might be worrying, depending on Jacky's perspective. The navi continued, talking a little quicker now.

"You an' Juggs were talking to the hair lady earlier too, and now you're talking about 'suspicious activity'. Sounds juicy, Jacky-love, and I'm itchin' to know the score. Tell you what... I'll keep an eye on you both, and I won't say nothin' to Rude about you two getting up to whatever you're getting up to... but promise me you'll come back and share the story with me once you're done, right? Please Jacky-love?" The things boredom might lead a navi to... apparently included wilful assistance in their secrecy, if Jacky decided to trust the peculiar navi on the matter.

Jocelyn held her fingers in front of her mouth, gasping in a dainty gesture of surprise; the modesty and subtlety of the gesture was completely undermined by the upward flapping of her boobs that accompanied it. "Oh dear... I hope I haven't taken you from your work for too long," she murmured, apologizing for having monopolized so much of Rude's time, not to mention the attention of his eyes. She also picked up an interesting tidbit: Rude apparently directly operated the navi in charge of watching cameras. Of course, she was a little late acquiring that tidbit, as Jacky had already received it moments earlier. "By all means, I would be happy to accompany you! You know, Rodney often says something just like that when I ask about my duties. I guess you two are really on the same wavelength, hm? That must be what it takes to be a chief of security at a mall or shopping complex," she mused.

Rude's shadow for the morning crossed her hands upon her thinly-clothed lap and waited while he left to organize his things. Only now did she spare a thought for Jacky, wondering what her partner had gotten up to. "I certainly hope that Jacky hasn't wasted too much time digging into Rude's activities... It's bound to be a dead end. I wish I could have warned her," she thought with a mild feeling of regret. That also reminded her that she ought to fetch her own PET, so she took the time to detach the device from where it was mounted in her segway's plate. Sleuth appeared to be doing something strange with Hyde, the navi doctor who had instructed her on how to handle burn injuries earlier, but Jocelyn didn't have much more time to think about that before Rude returned. "Lead the way! I'll follow," she encouraged him, having little more to contribute at this point. She wasn't batting an eye at the overt ridiculousness of walking around a public area in such an outfit. "Should we take the segway? It can fit two, in a pinch! We'd need to carry it downstairs first, but with the two of us, it would go easily!" The stability of Jocelyn's beloved scoot-about was suspect enough, but it looked like two people would have to really get into friendly distance, standing either one behind the other or facing each other on either side, to ride it. One could only hope it wouldn't topple with two people on it. Rude would really need to ask himself if he was willing to look as ridiculous as Jocelyn herself did or if he was going to let his pride take one for the team in order to enjoy the rare opportunity Jocelyn had presented him.

Jacky didn't issue a promise one way or another to remind Rude about the camera. Of course, she didn't really want Rude knowing that she had been involved with checking cameras in any way. "If I get the chance," she responded, noncommittally. "And about Jocelyn, I really think I'd better see it in person."

The operator tensed up as she realized Wallfly clearly hadn't been all in-the-dark about her true purpose for being in the mall. He clearly didn't have all the details, but enough that he'd have had reason to blow the whistle if he wanted to. In that regard, she supposed she had to thank both her own luck and Wallfly's relaxed demeanor. Keeping her lips stiff, Jacky nodded slowly. "I can't say where the day is going to take me, but I do know that I owe you one. If I have the opportunity, I'll fill you in on more interesting bits later. Until then, take care." The operator's voice conveyed genuine appreciation, even if she was a bit too tense to smile. Having said what she felt she needed to, Jacky turned back towards the hall.

Cautiously, the medical student made her way forward and listened. Much to her surprise, it appeared as though the two were still in the hall... She took a risk in peering around the corner, then stifled a gasp as she got an eyeful of what Jocelyn was wearing. She had to stop herself from simply running forward and trying to put herself between her partner and Rude for Jocelyn's own good. At the last moment, she thought to herself that it might be better to remain unseen for a while longer. She remained quiet and, as much as she was loath to do so, checked her PET. Maybe she would have a chance soon to update Sleuth and Hyde on their progress...

As soon as he returned from closing up his office, Rude waved of her concern for wasting his time with a friendly grin before he was faced with the predicament of having to remember the existence of Jocelyn's quite foolish contraption. He considered it for a moment. One way or another, it needed to be removed from the staff area, so it had to go down anyway. He'd deal with whether or not he was prepared to risk looking as much a fool as she did, in exchange for some closer contact, once it was down.

"That may be a good idea. We'll see how it goes once we get it down the stairs though. Here, I'll get the heavier end..." Working the segway back down the stairs was a little easier than it had been getting it up, certainly. Gravity helped, and Rude was notably stronger in the arms than Jacky had been, though the loin-cloth part of Jocelyn's new outfit did show a remarkable affinity for catching and tugging up to the side at regular intervals.

By the time they got it all the way back down the stairs and straightened up, Rude had already decided that, regardless of whatever else went on, if Jocelyn was going to insist upon bringing it up the stairs upon return to the offices, then she wasn't returning to the offices, ever. He didn't vocalise this, but instead inspected the machine to make sure nothing had been bumped or disturbed; all was well. He still seemed uncertain about taking a lift on it with her, but in the name 'accidental' contact with Jocelyn's delightfully squishable parts, he nodded.

"Hrmm... Not sure we could manage two side-by side. Ah, I have an idea." He looked to the contraption again, then back to Jocelyn. "You're the one qualified to drive it, so, if you take the normal driving position, but stand right forward as far as you can, then I can stand up behind you. I'll just reach around to hold onto the ends of the handles, then we'll both be riding in the recommended position, and you'll still be able to pilot it safely." The fact that this would leave the security officer pressed up against Jocelyn in a rather suggestive manner, simply in the process of holding on, went unmentioned. As did the fact that their destination was only really a short distance; if Jocelyn herself had no objections, Rude would guide her Segway piloting skills towards Damson's own shop, where she had been not long ago. Unknowingly, Rude had hit upon rectifying the coverage of Damson's back camera as the best thing he could do to retain Jocelyn's jiggly services.


Back upstairs, Jacky remained out of sight and out of mind, until the pair had made their way back downstairs; Rude's preoccupation with Jocelyn had proven sufficient to stop him from recalling Jacky, even as he'd taken her positioning in carting the Segway back downstairs. This meant that she was now the only person upstairs in the staff area, and effectively had a much freer hand; her options from before remained, but without the risk of detection; rude hadn't actually locked his office door, simply closed it. She was also just as free to head down at her leisure and begin questioning shop owners, if she wanted to, or pursue Jocelyn, now that they weren't in a restricted area any more. The world, or at least the Shamus Austin, was her oyster.

WallFly, at least, seemed content that she needed to move on, though if she was feeling particularly daring, and wanted the company, she cold probably swipe the PET he was linked to. Her own navi was apparently not in a talking mood... though that was a fact that, by this point, had to be positively terrifying for everyone except Hyde herself.

Jocelyn nodded along, allowing Rude to help her with the machine. "Thank you very much! It was a bit of a hassle to get it up here, but hopefully it will go down more easily," she chuckled, no longer having to grunt due to the full weight of the machine. As it turned out, it was a good thing he was doing most of the lifting, since keeping the belt at her waist, and really the wider front cloth itself, in place turned out to be somewhat difficult, requiring constant use of at least one hand. She made no comment about that, not wishing to seem ungrateful for the help, nor for his going through the trouble of procuring her a visiting security officer's uniform. As she assisted, however, she made a mental reminder not to let Rude see her navi. Sleuth might be communicating with Damson and/or her navi at the moment, in which case, Rude couldn't be allowed to see them together. Otherwise, he might piece together that she was actually in the mall on a mission to help Damson recover something embarrassing, a fact which Jocelyn had sworn not to reveal. Jocelyn would willingly reveal many things, but that secret was not one of them.

She showed no signs of suspicion as the head of security voiced his desire to ride behind her on the segway, seeming, rather, pleased that he was going to take her up on the offer. "Splendid! Is this your first time riding one? If so, you're going to see why I love mine so! Rodney has really spoiled me with it... However!" she interrupted, placing her hands over his suddenly. "Both of us holding the handles at once would actually be a bit unwieldy, I think... speaking as a long-time segway enthusiast," she explained, not wanting to over-step her boundaries, but hoping to educate Rude on one of the few subjects which she thought herself knowledgeable on. "Instead, I would recommend you hold on to me to steady yourself, like a motorcycle rider sitting on back. Don't worry about us looking too friendly; we're both dressed as mall security, so I'm sure everyone will understand that it is all strictly professional! I'd recommend wrapping your arms at my waist, or perhaps grasping my shoulders?" she offered. Those were probably plenty appealing options, although there were likely a few other choice places Rude would like to hang onto himself. "The balance is so fantastic, I think you'll find that you're in no danger of falling regardless! It's a modern marvel."

Once Rude saddled up, however he might prefer to, Jocelyn would guide the segway to their location, doing an admirable job both of staying on task and of ignoring (or remaining oblivious to) what surely must be at least a few suspicious glances from other mall-goers, shop-tenders, or possibly even staff or security. Internally, she was remembering her mission... she had to be certain not to reveal that she was currently employed to Damson. Of course, it was plenty likely that Damson was going to faint or die after seeing the way she was dressed, with Rude pressed into the groove of her back, but she hadn't considered that possibility. "I believe this is the place: How-Do-You-Doo! I've spoken a bit with the shop owner here, not about anything important, though," she mentioned, speaking quickly to try to leave that topic as soon as possible. "I wonder if she's still around? Regardless, I'm sure you'll be able to fix the camera."

Heedless of however Rude might be enjoying his position, Jocelyn rode into How-Do-You-Doo on her segway, just as she had earlier, minus a few rational layers of clothing. "Miss Damson? Are you there? Mister Rude is here to check your camera!" she announced, hoping to make her intent clear so that Damson wouldn't think she was bringing mall security into the investigation, as she'd begged them not to. "Er, Miss Damson was a bit upset when I brought my ride into her office earlier, to be honest. We'd better leave it out here," Jocelyn admitted, giving Rude an apologetic smile over her shoulder. "I'm putting it in lock-down mode now so no-one tries to roll off with it," she explained, quickly inputting a password, which caused the wheels to lock up and the screen interface on its main panel to go blank. Of course, even with that, there was seemingly nothing preventing someone from simply walking off with it, besides the fact that it was a bit unwieldy. While waiting for Damson, ever diligent about ensuring the integrity of things that didn't matter at all, Jocelyn squatted to check that the wheels were effectively locked. This would, potentially, have one upsetting outcome: depending on how closely Rude was pressed against her, and how at-attention he'd been made already, there was a very good chance that the back cloth at least, if not the lame waist-belt itself, would get caught on that aggravated part of his male anatomy.

Jacky gulped and fidgeted, trying to decide if she needed to step in on her acquaintance's behalf or not. On one hand, protecting Jocelyn from herself now seemed to be an imperative, a call to human decency and the reign of order over chaos. On the other hand, she did not have the sense that her mission for Damson was going without hitches, and to avoid being given the premature boot by their client, she thought it would be very useful if they could go ahead and make some headway. She had a list of good suspects, but in her mind, Rude was still one of them.

As she watched the two lug Jocelyn's segway down the staircase, she thought to herself, "I'm really not going to get a better chance than this." But, even though she thought she'd made a good impression on Wallfly, would she still be permitted to just wander into the office of the head of security? She was internally debating whether she could get away with it...

"No," she finally decided, clenching her fists at her sides. "Doing this safely and efficiently is what I owe Jocelyn and Damson. I need to finish up here in order to rescue my partner. Therefore, I must take the most direct path..."

The operator frowned, shaking her head and working up her nerves. She took a few quick breaths, then turned and walked back into the office with Wallfly's PET. "Wallfly!" she called a bit loudly, as though there was some way he could come to her from the table. Of course, since that wasn't the case, she closed the distance to the PET herself. "I've decided... I think I can trust you. Furthermore, I don't have any reason to hide my intentions. I'll be happy to let you in on all of the details of why I'm here, and it isn't anything dangerous or crooked. I'll tell you if you can promise me two things."

"One," she started, holding up an indicative finger, "You must not tell Rude any of what I am about to reveal to you. Don't worry: I think when I explain the situation it will become immediately clear why not."

"Two," she continued, holding up another finger, "You must promise not to alert any security as I enter Rude's office and do a search for a particular item. I don't intend to take anything or cover any cameras, so you will have full witness to my actions. I'm willing to meet any other demands you have at that time, as well."

The operator braced one arm with the other crossed beneath her chest, raising one hand to her face to push up her glasses. "The true reason I'm here is a mission with the clear and explicit clause that I must not let any mall regulars, tenants, or staff know of its nature. Again, this is not with any devious intent to catch anyone unaware: it is a request for anonymity. If I can trust you, I'll be happy to take you along, meet your requests, and give you whatever other information you desire. If you cannot guarantee it, I will simply leave... And, of course, you can feel free to sound the alarm if you doubt my intentions."

Jacky's voice was steady, but Wallfly might see on his monitor that her knees were knocking, almost looking like they were going to buckle. The operator's glasses hid it well, but her eyes were also wide with nervous intensity. She kept telling herself she wasn't doing anything wrong, but this level of subterfuge was nerve-wracking for her. She just hoped Wallfly wouldn't take long with his answer.

Sometimes Rude might wonder at himself, and the things he was prepared to do, or the level of foolishness her was prepared to accept, in the name of coping a feel... but then he'd remind himself that he was getting the chance to essentially hip-grind the rump of an excessively buxom bombshell who was too ditzy to know any better, and everything would seem worth it again.

In this particular case, he was more than happy to get corrected by Jocelyn, stepping up behind her and looping his hands about her waist. In the name of proper riding safety, his fingers slipped quite firmly around her hips, and for no other reason that the cramped amount of space on the device, of course, his position behind her more or less pressed the various curves of her body very directly against his. There would be no disguising the effect this position was having on the man; a certain very solid pressure was held back only partially by his pants and the thinness of the cloth protecting her rump did even less to mitigate its pressing against her. Any small jostle or slight imbalance would, naturally, lead to an equivalent press or thrust, or a well-timed slip of his hands to curl around her hips in an inward motion, but Rude himself continued to give directions, such as they were, and act as though there was noting suspicious about this activity at all, right up until they reached the store.

As he stepped off the Segway, having reached their destination, his foot 'slipped' ever so slightly, and the man seemed to lose his balance just enough that his hand jumped upwards in a flail, to ground themselves in a very supporting lift and grab on her chest while he caught his balance again. It lasted only for a second, and then Rude had righted himself and stepped away, calmly thanking Jocelyn for her skilled piloting of the motorised craft.

As the more preceptive might have suspected, Damson was first shocked, then worried, then just plain and simply overcome by a morbid disbelief at what she saw arriving in front of her store. she stared, and didn't manage to shake herself out of this for many long seconds, until Jocelyn had called out her apparent cover story. This made the woman double take, and blink a few more times. Jocelyn had seen the camera; she knew it wasn't broken or damaged. what on earth was going on here? Apart from thinly veiled indecent behaviour...

Rude himself strode forward to grin and tip an invisible had towards Damson and murmured to her about how her camera was reporting blackness, and he needed to inspect it. The other woman reacted somewhat in a daze as she nodded, not really fathoming how anything could possibly have led to this scenario. She actually did her best not to look at the scantily clad Jocelyn; apparently her mall cop cosplay hadn't been fetishised enough, and she was now going full tease on the world, and Damson just didn't know how to respond to that. While the barely dressed woman was making sure her ride was secure, Damson led Rude back into the store, explaining in something of a daze that she'd merely covered it briefly, and had forgotten to take the cloth off.

She showed him, then whisked the little drape off the lens, laughing nervously, but perhaps fortunately for her, Rude was more distracted by his current situation to really question the matter too hard. He did have to run the basic diagnostics though, so he climbed up on a chair to do so quickly. While he did so, Damson rushed back out to the front of the store, taking Jocelyn by the arm and whispering at her in an alarmed hiss. It was quiet enough that there was no chance of Rude hearing, but she was clearly distress.

"What is this? What's going on? What in the world are you wearing!?" And, the most important unasked question to go with those, was there any way Jocelyn could really explain that would make sense to the poor lady?

----

Returning to the world of sanity, Jacky allowed her companion to make the sacrifice of busty distraction and continued some more serious detective work. fortunately for her, she was correct in assuming that Rude's navi had a real weak point for secrets and gossip, and when she returned with the promise of more juicy tidbits, the clockwork navi sat up straight on his chair and paid very close attention. His lens zoomed right in as he looked at her, and though it was hard to read expression on a navi whose head was basically a cam-corder, it was clear he was very eager to listen to the beans spilling.

Even before her explanation, he nodded easily to the first demand; as much as they were navi and operator, the two seemed to share the perfect balance of disdain for one another that Rude wasn't overly interested in WallFly so long as he did his job and also fed his perving habit, and WalFly was quite thoroughly disparaging of Rude's poor work ethic and crude tastes. All in all, he was happy not to tell the guy a word, if it meant getting some more gossip.

the second one gave him slight pause, but only for a moment or two. he put one hand to the back of his 'head' and seemed to waver for a moment.

"Ahh... Look, Jacky-love... I can let you wander about and poke your nose into things, sure, but I've still got my job to do... so if you go taking anything you aren't supposed to, I'm still going to have to ring it in. So, uhh, just don't take anything, ok?" Which was what she was already promising, of course, but apparently he wanted to make it clear that if he saw her stealing, he was still going to alert security, even if he didn't want to. At last, though, he nodded to her.

"Alright, so long as you don't try to nick anything, you've got my eyes on your side, Jacky-love, so long as you promise to dish me the full story about what you and Breasts McBrainless are doin' here. normally, I'd say you should leave me here, 'cause as much as rude ain't likely to check back on me, there's always a chance, and if he find the PET not where he left it, well... not much I can help you with then, Jack-love... but as long as your friend is keeping him, uhh... busy... should be safe enough. I've not been out and about proper in a real long time..." He paused to thin for an extra moment or two, then nodded. "You got yourself a deal... So... come on..." Her spun a round on the chair, kneeled up on it and leaned on the back facing up at her through the PET screen, looking for all the world like an over-excited pet. "Details, details!!"

WallFly was eager to hear the full dish on her case, but he'd also given her permission to actually take his PET, if she felt daring and trusted Jocelyn to keep Rude from discovering the lack, so she could even chat to him while she searched the office, if that was what she wanted to do.