Demotion

"Ah, senior researcher Adam Garcia. Take a seat, will you?"

"Yes sir."

Adam managed to collect himself again and sat down.

"Do you know why I called you here in person?" asked the man wearing the mask.

Adam didn't respond as he was in thought.

"This is taking too long, I will tell you myself.

At this point you can probably figure out who I am, you didn't get to the senior researcher position for no reason. I called you here because you disappoint me."

The fear could be seen in Adams's face.

"If I may ask sir, how so...?"

"Let's start off with the request you granted, you didn't know shit about the anomaly and still approved it, I don't have to explain the security threat do I?"

"But it was just a mattress and he refused to participate in any interview if I didn't oblige..."

"Doesn't matter, you know borderline nothing about the anomaly, it is a massive risk. Up next is the interview and your sheer negligence. You know he is giving you half-assed answers or lies yet you just continue writing down the report instead of asking more questions, and then you have an outburst and suspend the interview?"

At this point Adam was terrified, he knew that this man in front of him was one of the overseers and the things he had to say about him weren't good in any way.

"I understand sir, I will make sure it never happens again."

The man wearing the jester mask tilted his head.

"Oh? Do you think we are done? I didn't come here in person for no reason, did I? You really don't understand how pissed I am. Let me explain for you, I personally handed this SCP case to you because you had a clean slate here at the foundation and you've been loyal, yet when I send my alpha-1 guards to observe you during the interview you flop. This SCP killed one of my intelligence agents that I hand trained, I expect it to be treated with top priority. A special task force was sent to capture him and they did their job well, I won't have you fuck everything up here because you think you can relax and be lazy, understand?"

Adam just kept nodding and hoping that he would be able to leave in one piece.

However, the next sentence O5-4 said did sting Adam.

"Adam Garcia, I am revoking your privilege as a senior researcher, you have proven to me that you are not yet capable of such responsibilities and will be demoted back to the researcher rank, you will be given one last chance to do your job and catalog the new SCP, one of my personal A-1 guards will oversee your progress. Now scram, I don't want to see your face again."

Adam nodded and quickly stood up before leaving the room.

He was holding back tears since he just got demoted and knew that there would practically be no way to rank up again unless an overseer does so.

If a department director or assistant director saw that he once was demoted by an overseer themself they would probably not dare to rank him back up again.

However, Adam also knew one thing.

That was if he cataloged the new SCP correctly and collected all the information on it that he would once again become a senior researcher.

__________________

In the meantime, Leo laid back down.

He had not been in containment for three days yet he was already extremely bored.

He knew that there was a realistic chance that he would be locked up for several months, it depended on when a chance would represent itself for him to escape.

At the same time, Leo didn't even know if one would come since he didn't know where he was.

He wondered if Noah would make a move himself to come and get him but quickly realized it wouldn't happen.

Noah would probably only learn where Leo would be contained in 2 to 3 weeks or something, there was a realistic chance that he wouldn't even know that Leo had been captured yet.

Not even MC&D would make a move to free Leo, so Noah would definitely not, he didn't even have 1/10th of the power that MC&D had.

One thought lingered in Leo's head, and he clung to it with all he had.

"I will escape."