A Set-up?

Elle looked about her, trying to find the lock box that contained the controls to the security system that was designed around ``The Lotus''. Her contractor had given her a bump key and she was told in the briefing that the oil painting was going to be heavily guarded not with physical human guards, but with electronic ones. She had said that it wouldn't be a problem and that she would be able to bypass it, but was quickly rebuffed by the contractor that it was sheer stupidity to think so, given the significance that ``The Lotus'' has.

Elle was told that the box that the bump key opened was the main panel of the security system, and that it was possible to deactivate all the relevant systems guarding ``The Lotus'' that way. The only missing piece of information was just where this box is located in the entire museum.

Elle had started with a straightforward strategy: start from where the painting was located and do a search in increasing radii. It hadn't been going well at all, considering that she had already spent the last half an hour looking for the box. She was glad that the cameras had already been disabled a week earlier, each replaced with a looped version of the ``all clear'' corridors and what-not. Thankfully, it was some other guy who specialised in surveillance systems.

Elle wondered to herself about the reasons why their elite ``hacker'' could disable camera sub-systems to replace footage and yet couldn't find where the system override box was?

Just as she was about to give up for the day, she espied a small power box that she hadn't noticed before, located inconspicuously next to a power supply socket. She walked up to it and started to wonder if it was such a good idea to follow her orders to the letter. The entire set of arrangement sounded like a good way to assign blame on to someone, and to pin that blame so hard that there was nothing he/she could do.

The old question reared itself again, and Elle crouched next to the power box, wondering which course of action was the best.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 2014-06-14 01:15:35)