On a Wednesday afternoon in August, shortly after 01:07 PM, a disheveled young man in a shirt and tie hurriedly entered his cubicle and reached for his mouse, rapidly shifting it to change his status from away to online. Robert had been very fortunate to secure this internship at FIRSTLIGHT, and had been talked to before about taking long lunches; it would be a shame to lose this opportunity over something so trivial.
With a few clicks, Robert opened the team portal on his computer. His boss’s status was still set to away, which meant his own late return had likely gone unnoticed. He sometimes wondered if the higher ups looked at reports, but dismissed it as unlikely. There was already so much data to go over at this place, nobody wanted to bother with extra work just to police working hours, especially when that time could be better spent finding blankbodies.
Unfortunately, it was shaping up to be one of those days. Robert had stayed up late the night before working on a presentation, only to have the meeting rescheduled for the end of the week. He sighed and opened his dashboard, scrolling through various cities. The past year had seen odd surges of activity in San Antonio, New York, Seattle, and Chicago, all of which had been prioritized for additional surveillance. San Antonio was a surprising addition to the list — all known information had not indicated a sizable blankbody presence in that part of Texas. Robert flagged the footage from the watchposts which registered contact, and set them aside for further analysis.
He moved onto the lower priority cities. Local watchposts registered little out of the ordinary in Honolulu, Ashville, or Tallahassee. These places were known as Sheepfolds, cities where the Second Inquisition had eradicated the local vampire population by force. He continued, nearly scrolling past Las Vegas where Watchpost 183 saw a surge of activity with multiple new contacts. Robert stopped and opened the activity log, half expecting a malfunction. However, there was no mistaking: multiple new contacts in a city that was supposed to be a green zone. However, there was no mistaking what he was clearly seeing: signs that a new population of vampires had taken residence in the city.
The next few hours were a blur as Robert reviewed heaps of data, taking excerpts of footage, sensor readings, and other data points. Partway through a projection attempting to determine the city’s new blankbody population, he looked at the clock, which now read 7:53. Another long night was already underway. But this time, it might actually be worthwhile. With a few preliminary metrics established, Robert reached for his phone and dialed up his boss. He expected his internship was about to get a lot more secure.
