100 theme challenge 57. I'M IN.

57. I'm in!

He loved his job.
Not many loved him, but he didn't care. That was part of the wonderful thing about his job.
The more people hated him, the better his motivation to write was!
Plus, even those who hated him couldn't escape the fact that he was good at what he did, very good!

And this new assignment would be the cherry on the top of his career.

Jones was a journalist, a good one.
His stories were always gripping and his way of writing got people biting the nails, made people love or hate who he wanted and made his boss very happy.
It also made his co-workers very jealous.
So they always tried to give him lousy assignments and lame stories.
He turned them all to gold.
This one wouldn't be different.

They mocked him when he took the job, trying to find out what the newest thing at Aperture was, since Aperture was yesterday's news.
Black Mesa was where the good news came from, they made the headlines.
Aperture was floating somewhere between the coupons and the funny pages.
So it would be impossible to make a headline out of this job.

Impossible… but not for him.

He would make it work.
It would be his greatest article ever.
He was certain, and the reason for that was: He couldn't get in.

Oh, he tried all right.
He tried to just walk in like he owned the place, a method that worked quite well in most cases, but not this time.
A security guard sent him away, claiming this was a scientist-only area.
That was nonsense, he had been in there for many times before, only a few times on invitation, and seen the place.
It was huge.
That's why he was so sure he could get in, it was impossible to guard a place this big without letting some spots slip.

But those spots were hard to find.
All fences were electrified and all doors locked or guarded. And almost all the building was underground.
But a little setback like this wouldn't stop him, no sir.
There had to be a way in.

Jones was just thinking of short-circuit a fence when his phone rang.
He looked at the screen and rolled his eyes.
It was that loser of a redactor.
One of the many people that disliked him, and vice versa.

"Yes?"
He wasted not one word too much on that guy.
"How are you going on the story? It's getting late."
"I'm almost in."
"Almost in? You mean to say you're not even inside yet? What's going on Jonesey, too hard of a job for ya?"
Jones ended the call.
He would show him, he would show them all.
Short-circuiting the fence it was.

He almost electrocuted himself, but he was able to shut down the electricity on the fence and get a step closer.
Unfortunately an alarm started to wail, his actions were noticed right away so he had to act fast.
Like a speeding bullet he ran towards a shed, almost hit the side as hard as said bullet, and tried the door.
It was unlocked.

Inside the shed there were only gardening supplies, but that was quite all right.
Quickly Jones dressed up in an old overall, a slight size too small, and grabbed a rake.
He snuck out of the shed, waited until all the security left the, already repaired, fence and started to *rake* some imaginary leaves.
It wouldn't take long for him to…

"Hey! What are you doing here?"
Jones almost jumped.
Instead, sly as he was, he turned with a lazy smile and said: "What can I do ya for mistah?"
"Why are you working here? Didn't you get the memo? Nobody is supposed to come to work today except the scientists and security."
"I didn't know. But these leaves aren't gonna rake themselves."
"Not my problem sir, you got to go home, get those leaves tomorrow."
"Will do sir. I'll get rid of the rake and go home."

Jones turned and slowly trudged back to the shed.
The security guard didn't bother to watch him leave but went back on his rounds.

"So, everybody has a day off eh? Something is cooking inside, and I'm going to find out what."
He didn't turned back to the shed but waited untill he was out of sight of the guard and ran for the nearest door.
It was unlocked!

Feeling very pleased with himself he moved through the hallway behind the door, hoping to find a way towards the action.
This turned out to be a bit harder than expected since the building was enormous and there were no signs on the walls or anything.
Apparently everybody that worked here was supposed to know the way by heart or get lost all day!
He was almost afraid he was lost forever when he heard steps.
Someone was approaching!
Quickly he jumped inside an office and softly closed it.
Wonderful, someone that was going somewhere.
He would wait until the person passed by and then follow him or her to the place where the news was.
Where the highlight of his career waited for him.
Nothing could stop him now.

And then his phone rang, loudly!

The footsteps stopped and came back.
"Hello?'
Now what?
He was NOT going to be thrown out now, not when he was so close to his goal.
Never!
Without thinking much he grabbed a chair and held it over his head.
The moment the door opened he threw it as hard as he could.
The man that entered the door was flinged across the hallway, ended up against the wall and didn't move anymore.
Jones quickly checked the man but he was only knocked out, nothing more than a fat lip and a bump on the head.
He grabbed the bearded man at the arms and dragged him into the office, leaving a trail of pills that fell out of the man's pockets, stole his lab coat and started to run in the direction the scientist was heading.
It wasn't long before he saw more people.

Nobody paid any attention to him; he was blending in perfectly with the stupid lab coat.
He got a little cocky even and started to talk to the other people, using the names he could read off their nametags.

"Crazy day today huh Raymond."
"Crazy? Insane! The boss got us all running around like idiots for his big project. And now we're at the final stage it's been a madhouse. I didn't sleep for a week!"
"Yeah, me too. You think this project of his will get Aperture back on his feet?"
"He sure seems to believe so. But I think he might be right. After all, this is big. Black mesa can go sell ice-cream or cotton candy after this to make any profit."

Jones smiled wide.
His gut was right again, this was the big hit, and he had front-row seats.
A buzz in his pocket told him someone sent him a message on the phone.
He checked and saw it was the redactor again, probable the same person that called him at that impossible moment.
"Is there any progress?" it said.
Jones smiled.
"I'm in!" he texted back.

"Stop fiddling with your phone man, we're almost late." said Raymond.
"We don't want to miss the moment they wake GLaDOS up, now do we!