A group of three freshmen boys sit on picnic benches at Yela park for their weekly Sunday meetup. The park is full of people today, people run an bike the paved track that runs around the park. There's a small lake in the middle of park, some people swim, others relax on portable chairs.
Phillip, Leo, and Antonio sit in a shaded area under a tree. Leo and Antonio talk about how they all want the new hyperPhone, and how all the rich kids got it on opening day. Of course Phillip bought the 21st one sold.
Where's this boy at.
Maybe he's trying to flirt with Priya again. Hope he doesn't trip and break a wrist again. He's such a nerd.
Better be good, making us wait this long.
The group continues waiting, looking around at everyone around them. Phillip starts humming a pop song.
Oh there he is.
Phillip clears his throat.
Hey guys.
Hey nerd. Someone try and rob you again?
Yeah what took you so long?
I was printing something fo—
Who the hell prints anymore. You living in the 430's still? C'mon man, get with the ti—
Leo slams his hand on the table, surely bruising it, not nearly making as big as song as the metal tables they had out in the winter. He speaks sternly for the table to hear, but quite enough so he doesn't draw attention.
Listen guys. Remember the power outage last week?
Yeah? Who doesn't.
I me- anyways... we're going to solve who caused the power outage. The media refuses to share details, so let's go find out ourselves.
Alright I'll bite. When do we start?
Right now.
Leo hands everyone at the table three pictures. One of a carmel colored low rider. Another of a white service van. And another of black tire markings.
The pictures of the cars were shown on the 18th's news. The tire markings were taken the day after. My dad's a car mechanic, and he's taught me a few things. One being... a car of this model would never make tracks like that.
He gestures to the low rider and the black tire markings.
So you're saying the people in this van were responsible for the outage.
Righto. But that's not all. This city's smart. It's the damn capital of the country for Christ's sake. So I'm thinking, the only way the power could be cut for the entirety of South Newgle is if someone inside of the power plant cut the power.
You sound cute when you swear.
Shut up.
Good thinking boyo. So where do we start?
Let's go right to the source. It's a short walk from here. Power plant's open 24/7.
This is exciting.
Hey Ruben, why don't you talk to the people at the plant?
Wh— nah...
Don't be a chicken. Man up.
C'mon. Why me. Make Leo or someone.
If you don't we'll make you eat another cup of cinnamon.
Fine...
The power plant never usually gets citizens walking in and asking questions, but ever since the power outage, reporters across the country want in on the action.
The boys walk into the power plant, and swiftly head up to the desk where Stacy sits, with Antonio leading the group.
Hi... uhm... uh... we're a couple of boys from uh South High School, and uh. We were wondering if you could give us some details on what happened er, uh.... what and who caused the power outage.
I'll see what I can do for you.
She reaches underneath the desk and grabs a small radio, and pressed a button on it.
Jordan, Code 38.
It takes five minutes for the man to come, the boys sit in the lobby area, eating the free oranges they offer, and skimming the pile of magazines they have on the table.
Finally, Jordan, the controls supervisor of the plant steps through the employee door and greets the boys. All four of them rise from the chairs and couches in the room.
Hello boys. What brings you in today? A tour? Some free swag?
Well... uhm... we actually... uh...
Leo pushes Antonio aside.
Jeez you're so useless. We want to know who or what caused the power outage last week. We heard you fired one of your employees, and we were wondering if we could have more details.
Jordan smiles, already knowing the answer.
Hm. Let me think about it... yeahh no can do, buddy..
What?
Yeah... unfortunately, I'm unable to give that information out at that time, especially to some school boys. What are you guys anyways? Seventh? Eighth?
Ninth, thank you very much.
Eh, close enough.
So not even a name, I don't need the guy's whole autobiography.
Yeah... I really can't. Wait... let me rephrase that. I don't want to disclose that information. Good day boys.
He turns around on his heel and walks back into the employee doors. The boys walk out and walk back toward the park.
Nice one Leo. Where goes the investigation next?
I don't know. I was expecting a name or something.
Antonio, you absolutely rocked it out there. That couldn't of gone smoother.
Why don't you try next time?
The boys head their separate ways for the day, none of them knowing what to do. Phillip rides home with another one of his friends who got the newest sports car, Ruben walks with Leo to Leo's house, and Antonio walks.
He was so rude.
Who?
I don't know. Power plant guy. Jordan, I think that's his name.
Right? I got an idea though. I'm gonna need your help tonight.
Down in the cold basement of Leo's sits Ruben and Leo with a projector displaying a blank virtual whiteboard. The same kind they use in classrooms, only that classrooms no longer use projectors.
Alright. This is our suspect. Channel 4 News, Friday the 18th.
Leo swipes a video from his laptop to the projector and plays it.
Officials have found possible suspects of the recent outage. We have a 31 year old male, who works at the Newgle Nuclear Power Plant.
Cool. No other details?
Nope. But we know he's young and male.
Let's check the plant's website, I'm sure they have a small staff list or something.
Nope. They took it down when this whole thing happened. However, they were smart enough to remove it from their navigation, but they were stupid enough to leave it in their sitemap. Check this.
Leo shows the webpage's sitemap, a list of all the pages on the website that can be viewed. There sits a "/staff" entry.
There's our suspect list. Eliminate the females, we get this.
A wall of names and faces, along with their position in the power plant.
Alright. They had to be somewhat high ranking to even have the ability to shut off the power right?
Yes, not if the man had help though. It could be anyone of these. Let's first eliminate the people who look older than 50. Leaves us with five.
What was the model of van entered the lot that day?
A Lamota 7, either a 470 or 471 model.
Can you pull data from the traffic lights around the area on the day. Check if the same van appears. Leo...
Already on it.
This doesn't make sense. If incident reports and street cams are publicly available, then why wasn't the suspect busted already?
The street cams can't see behind the building. If the man wasn't arrested by now, then he must of hacked the cameras of the plant.
That would raise suspicion, if the cameras were blacked out, couldn't they just check who clocked in with their keycard at the time when it happened? Open and shut case.
What if he didn't clock in.
Nah. He defiantly did.
Where?
No high security area would be unprotected. They would have to scan their keycard over a scanner when they enter. Even the teachers at school need a key for the chemical closetat school for experiments.
You're right.
Then why wasn't he caught?
A minute passes with Leo scrubbing through the street cams of the week before. His eyes jump all over the screen, looking at every car. Ruben also watches on the projector.
Nothing.
Is there a license plate?
No.
VIN number?
Maybe.
Just enhance the footage of the night of the outage.
Wait... you're right.
Enhancing?
No. How could I be so stupid.
Leo scrubs through the timeline of the night of the outage. Finds the van.
Ruben, get a map of South Newgle.
On it.
I need you to route me where this van comes from.
Ruben throws a map up on screen.
I'm going to go backwards, so be ready. Van appears turning left in the back entrance of the power plant on 16th. Took a left on Eastern. Took a right on 15th. Took a right on Woodside. Took a left on 11th. Took a left on Baker. Right on 8th. Left on Central. Right on 5th.
Wait wh— 5th doesn't ex—
I'm joking. He took right on 6th from West. Past there, there's no street cams.
Got it.
A map of the city with a red line zig zagging through all the streets until it reaches the power plant at Eastern and 16th.
What a route.
And, the van had tinted windows, can't see in. However, check this out. See how the entire van is muddy?
Yeah?
Look at the side loading door handle.
Oh no. That means...
He had accomplices. Yes. I don't think this camera footage is going to help us. So let's do some backwards tracing.
Wait.
What.
Infrared.
Got it.
Leo pulls up the infrared feed of the cameras. Most modern surveillance cameras come equipped with it, and automatically start recording at night to assist with the actual feed. Leo scrubs through the timeline.
There.
An outline of a head and body.
That's not going to cut it.
You're right.
We're you wearing your nanoCam hat today?
Without a word, Leo grabs his baseball hat from his backpack, and plugs it into his laptop. Video feeds from a nanoCam, smaller than the tip of a pen, transfer to the digital whiteboard.
Leo finds the time where they walk into the power plant, and as soon as they are talking to Stacy, Leo pauses.
Bingo.
What's that.
That my friend. Appears to be the lunch schedule of the staff.
Written on a small whiteboard, about the size of a paper, lists the names of all the 13 employees, and the time of their lunch break.
And guess who's name is missing.
Leo brings up the page of the staff, and Ruben compares both of them.
Acros...
Acros Khan. So. Shall we begin?