CHAPTER EIGHT
Tuesday arrives, which means a return to my normal routine, albeit an earlier start. It’s six in the morning as Echo and I arrive at the office building. He was thrilled to pieces spending yesterday with Kyle and Shotzie, his new favorite. Kyle worked with them yesterday to make sure they understood the new situation and get them acclimated to each other. I’ll pick up Shotzie and take her home with me after work today, Kyle wanted just a little more time with her. He says that puppies and kittens need repetition and reinforcement until an idea takes hold. Older animals are better at retaining information. The worst feeling is doing something to an animal and not being able to explain what’s going on, so I’m fine with Kyle taking extra time. His ability to communicate with animals as a fauna PsySapient is fantastic and I appreciate having someone animals can understand.
I start catching up on work after settling into the office. For the next two hours, I send emails and confirmations regarding our portion of the ‘Psycept Shindig’. Annabeth and I have a meeting at nine to compare notes. First up, though, is a quick call to see how the first day of the Psycept Police Division retraining went.
“Welcome gentlemen. I don’t want to keep you long as I know you’re focused on running a division less a few key people. Mark, first impressions of materials and equipment?”
“Morning, Gray. You’re too energetic for eight o’clock. Room setup worked well. We had enough room on the side for the buffet and tables for dining. The materials went well. Since the presentation slides are online and easily accessible, I anticipated only a third of them taking a printed packet. Well, everyone wanted a hardcopy, so I raided the packets for the next two weeks to accommodate everyone. O’ke is helping me print packets for everyone the next two weeks, sorry, Sheriff.”
“I understand, Mark. For some reason, many people who are normally fine with electronic copies suddenly need to have a hardcopy if given that option. Other than that, how was the mood in the room? Were they bored, or did it retain their interest? Also, thanks for arranging for the food and beverage service for these three weeks as well as hotel accommodations for Kaliska and Hototo.”
The GT hotels aren’t like hotels in the US. They are guest lodgings in certain areas of the city set aside for visitors. It’s expected that if you are traveling to another region or conservatorship, you are an invited guest and it is the host’s responsibility to see to your accommodations, either at their own lodging or arranging for a guest dwelling. The GT calls them hotels to keep the concept separate from a guest room or guest cottage at a private dwelling.
“No problem, Sheriff. I wasn’t in the room for the whole day, just there an hour or so in the morning to help with breakfast and make sure equipment and materials were okay. I returned for lunchtime and again at the end of the day to help gather stuff. The morning seemed to go well, Trainer Kaliska divided the room into three teams and had a trivia competition that kept the room excited. When I came to help set up lunch, she was talking about the new way the division will be structured. However, the questions were answered by Sully and Lt. Setimika, which I think works out. Like a neutral party to deliver the overview and your bosses to answer specifics. At the end of the day, the retrainees left the room talking amongst themselves. They seemed favorable to the upcoming changes and said the training day wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be.”
“High praise, indeed. Bet they’ll over the moon about today. Everyone gets as excited about protocol and procedure stuff as I do, right? How was this morning, Mark? Anything to add about today’s or tomorrow’s retraining?”
“This morning seemed fine, but I was in there for less than an hour and obviously out by eight. I haven’t been contacted about anything yet, so I assume all’s going well, Gray.”
“For today, we have Director Lowell speaking at the PCSS part. He has a presentation he wants to give about what they do and all they offer. He’ll also talk about the civilian Psycepts cases that need police escort. There are some changes coming from that. Now it will require both a detective and an officer to escort for police cases or two officers to escort on civilian cases.”
“Sounds good, Sheriff. I’m rarely asked to leave the conservatorship since I handle transportable objects, but I’m glad security is being increased. Anything else?”
“Tomorrow will be bare bones in commanders, almost everyone will be in class. It will just be me and Tamez in the bullpen and my schedule is cleared for me to focus on the Psycept Police Division. Also, remember, Chief Yanaba will be in attendance tomorrow. And Gray, it’s confirmed that Friday afternoon is the meeting with Chief Quanah. It’ll be in person but held at our police headquarters and not on the military base. Mark is handling the details, correct?”
“Yes sir. I’ll send out the invite today by lunch, hopefully. I am just waiting a few hours until I get a complete list of the attendees from the military plus the new Psycept residents that will be coming to provide a statement. If I don’t get it by noon, I’ll just send out a placeholder meeting with details to come. O’ke is making the arrangements for any outside visitors from headquarters or other conservatorships.”
“Okay, I’ve just blocked off my Friday afternoon for the meeting with Chief Quanah. Thanks for the head’s up. Who else are you
