Countdown to Zero: Three – Enter, Chased By A Bear

TROUBLESHOOTER: Countdown to Zero by Andrea Speed Three – Enter, Chased By A Bear Z hated corporate espionage cases. She especially hated ones where she had to pretend to be a temp. Pretending to be a janitor was much more preferable, as no one in an office ever gave them a second glance. Office peons felt superior to the clean up crew, just like the CEO felt superior to all his workers. It was a nice little tree of ever grown contempt, from the janitors on the bottom to the corporate board at the very top, and everybody hated those above and below them in equal measure. At least it was the class system in action. The client assumed she’d go in as a temp, but she went ahead and pulled out the right colored jumpsuit and pretended to be on the janitorial...

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Countdown to Zero: Two – Optimistic

TROUBLESHOOTER: Countdown to Zero by Andrea Speed Two – Optimistic It was a weird looking bomb. Wasn’t it supposed to have some kind of explosive on it? Well, maybe it did; maybe those canisters were full of plastique or something. Maybe it wasn’t even a real bomb, just something that kind of looked like one. He dialed 911, glad that Canada had that too, and turned on the taps full blast, putting the plug in the sink. What the hell was he doing? Sometimes his mind was even a mystery to him. Even if he picked this guy up and managed not to accidentally kill him while doing so, they wouldn’t get far in the time they had left. And what about the other people in the apartment building? Not to mention all his stuff was downstairs, and he didn’t want to...

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Countdown to Zero: One – Bring on the Flying Monkeys

TROUBLESHOOTER: Countdown to Zero by Andrea Speed One – Bring on the Flying Monkeys He should have known something was wrong the instant he realized his neighbor was blasting Elton John. No one blasted Elton John. Maybe in the ‘70’s, but not nowadays. It was like blasting elevator music, or the “soft rock” they played in the dentist’s office – not only was it not done, it was just fundamentally wrong. Still, Shan basically ignored it as he let himself in his apartment and threw his gear on the couch. He flipped on the light and kicked the door shut as he took his small bag of groceries into his “kitchenette”, which actually seemed to share an awful lot of space with his living room. Not that it mattered; the place was small –...

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