Kaiserliche Polizei Rheinland Message Dump

[Kaiserliche Polizei Rheinlands]

Inspekteur Putzkanner stood on the upper level of the Message Dump Coordination Centre (MDCC). He could hear the hundreds of men and women in the room, typing at their computers to organise the constant stream of reports that flooded into the database. Their job was to sort, file and maintain the security of the database.

The cubicles were identical, but Putzkanner could see the individual marks left in them. Pictures, mostly of family members. Posters, most with jokes involving Monday's or cats. He had seen a very funny one once, when walking down the empty hall. He couldn't remember it now though. And thousands of other nick-knacks that lay all over the place, like toys that had been abandoned by children.

Putzkanner remembered when he once worked in the MDCC, but only for a short time. He knew how it was run, and he hoped those who sat the computers also knew. It could determine the state of the entire organisation.