Octonauts: assembling

4

1 week later, Irwin's POV 

'Thank god my friend that lives 10 minutes from the police station.' I thought, dropping off my luggage in the guest room, for the rest of the week I'm staying over until I have to go down to Mexico, I'm not looking forward to that as I walked out the door. 

Once I got out of the apartment I made my way to the precinct, 15 minutes later I swung the door open and walked over to the receptionist's desk, a wolf shifter working on the computer, looking up she smiled" I'm here looking for chief Barney." I said" we don't call him that anymore! We call him Barnacles, when he gets on a case he's stuck on it until it's over!" An officer yelled from his office.

the receptionist laughed a little" he's right, he's in the cafeteria hanging out with a few of his college buddies." She said," thanks for that, oh and by the way, you might want to have someone be promoted to chief in the next 5 years." I said," ok, sure." She said cocking her head a little in confusion before calling someone to direct me to the cafeteria.

a few minutes later we got into the cafeteria, the officer turned heel to leave me alone with the police chief who's animatedly talking with his friends rather loudly, walking over to the group they didn't notice me at first" hey, can I talk to James Barney?" I loudly asked over the group, they stopped looking up to me.

" I know you, you were the guy that assessed the train wreck of a crew that crashed the octopod a month after it set off, Irwin Inkling is it?" The guy sitting in front of me asked as the snow blonde man looked up to me" just so you know, the guys that lead the project should be in jail for sabotage and attempted murder, I'm James." He said" I know, that's why I put it to the co-executor of the project so it doesn't happen again, now I'm here to offer a position in the new crew, do you want to be the captain of the crew? I know it should probably be going to a naval captain with experience underwater but the reason they chose you is that you're more down to earth calling them their name and not rank, this isn't military, you accept?" I explained.

James' friends looked over to the chief while his eyes widened" that's an honor, he's driven boats so driving a sub should be easy." His friend sitting in the top right chair said" there are buttons and dials I don't know how to use or I'll just crash the thing." James said" we've considered that we'll be giving everyone lessons in the next 2 years before setting off in 2050. I'll let you think about the position, just give me a call." I said and started to walk away.

"Hey wait, Inkling. I'm in, I'll take the position, someone has to have a level head when a storm happens." He said I smiled" you're right about that, I'll send you an email in the next month and a plane ticket to San Diego." I said," hey before you go, want to try your hand at wrestling a polar bear shifter?" James asked, I spluttered.

"Are you insane? I'm 61 and you're like half my age, I'm food to you that's not even in the polar bear diet, no thank you." I said, he laughed" didn't think so but I did arrest a few criminals that were dumbo octopus and their cunning like every other octopus shifter." James said, I hummed" good to know but I have to decline your offer." I said turning heel and walked out shaking my head.