There's such a thing as a bad Status-Warden.

Alice held out her arm for the Status-Warden to confirm the Green 68 it was showing. The Status-Warden took a moment to look at the reading before telling Alice, “Performance Reviews are mandated for under Green 75’s.”

“I know, Sir,” Alice said back terrified. She had heard stories of girls disappearing if they hadn’t passed their Performance Reviews.

The Status-Warden took a moment to look through the information that came up for Alice before asking, “you missed a day this month. What was that for?”

Before Alice could answer though, the other Status-Warden she thought was Brian cut in on their discussion having finished with the rest of his line. “Let go. Were already later than we should be.” Scanning Alice’s Colour-Bracelet with his own Status-Port, the warden tapped something in and pressed a command. “Green 68. Performance Review. 36th floor. Now.”

The two Status-Wardens walked off towards the elevator together. If only that other bastard had butted out and left her alone with the first Status-Warden she might be alright now. Instead, she had to submit to a Performance Review. The thought filled her with terror and dread. She had heard stories of girls disappearing if they hadn’t passed their Performance Reviews.

Alice waited until the two men were gone before she pressed the button to call the elevator back to the 30th floor. She hadn’t wanted to be stuck in an elevator with the two of them. She had heard other ReInformation Worker whisper when they should have been working of Status-Wardens forcing themselves on girls when there was no one around. Reproductive Deviancy was meant to be punished by immediate voiding of all Social Credits but Alice had never heard of that happening to a Status-Warden. They controlled the Department of ReInformation and their word was the law.

In the elevator on the way up Alice tried to calm herself down. Every time the numbers ticked over for a new floor, she found herself getting more and more afraid. By the time the door winced open against the steel frames, Alice was positively shaking. The 36th floor was almost entirely empty and entirely black. No windows allowed a since ray of light to shine inside. In the distance of the big open room that opened out from the elevator, Alice could make out a raised podium where three people were sitting along with a single work station in front of them. It reminded Alice of the pre-war pictures she had seen of courts and their judges. Back when they had needed courts. There was no need for them now thanks to The Social Credit System.

Alice shuffled tentatively towards the podium and the three men. As she got closer she could see from their upper bodies that they were high ranking Status-Marshals. She’d only ever seen one on her very first day at the Department of ReInformation. Never three. To have all three gathered together in one made Alice want to quake in horror and drop to her feet in supplication.

“Alice Lange.”

Alice jumped in fright when one of the Status-Marshals spoke her name.

“Begin your performance review,” he commanded holding out a hand to indicate she should sit down at the work station in front of her.

Alice sat down and started to read the documents on the work station. They were all sort of different reports. Casualty reports, news articles, letters written to friends and family, scientific papers, Labour records. Things she had never had to work on before. Documents Alice was certain she had reinformed today. Alice wasn’t sure if she should be extra vigilant with her reinformation work or more caution. Did they want her to put even lower truths to the numbers she normally would alter or should she do as she had normally done? Alice knew that her superiors were generally happy with the reinformation she produced when she showed up on time, so she kept the truth in the normal range she usually did. Each time she submitted a report for review the three Status-Marshals would examine it on their own work stations in front of them. Not once passing comment of what she had done.

The Performance Review lasted hours with no end in sight. More and more documents kept coming. Alice started to think that she was seeing reports she had already seen before in the review. She didn’t know if she should leave them as they were or give them new reinformation anyway. She corrected them to an even greater truth anyway.

When it seemed as her eyes were getting heavy from the work and she was more exhausted than she could ever remember being, a very strange article came up in front of her. It was a Department of Citizen Care report of an explosion that had happened inside a ReInformation Building. The report listed the cause as terrorism and the casualty figure of nearly three thousand. Alice went to lower the number to 80 but something stopped her. She wasn’t sure if she had imagined it, her eyes had started to play tricks on her but she thought one of the Status-Marshals had lent forward to take a closer look at her. It was the first time she thought they had even more since the Performance Review started.

Alice stopped what she was doing to the numbers in the report and instead did something she had never done before. She didn’t know what possessed her to do it only that she could but Alice dragged the report to the trash icon on her work station. Deleting it as if it had never existed in the first place.

The Performance Review continued from then on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Alice completed the reinformation of two more items before the Status-Marshal said to stop.

“Performance Review completed. Social Credits reinstated. Do not report for your next Labour. Begin assignment to the 34th floor at the following Labour hence.”

“You can do that? Give me a Labour off?” Alice asked. She had never heard of such a thing she was so surprised that she found she could talk to the Status-Marshals without fear.

“We’re Marshals. We can do anything we want.”

Alice’s fear quickly returned.

Stepping out of the Department of ReInformation building, Alice found that her Social Credits had indeed been reinstated. 20 for the day she had missed Labour along with two lots of 5 for the times she was late. A further 30 was added for completing the Performance Review successfully Alice assumed. Her Colour-Bracelet pulsed green for a moment before her new Social Credits were displayed. It was higher than she had been in months!