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474 - Jennifer Park (III)
Sora arrived at ten, in a black suit that was plainly doing a job.She came out of the elevator with a tablet under her arm and a look that cleared a path. People moved out of her way without noticing they had done it. Jennifer had watched this for as long as she had worked here and never once got tired of it."Jennifer.""Ms. Chen. You have the board at ten.""Move it.""It's the board.""Then they'll be flattered." Sora's gaze slid to Jake, who had stood at Jennifer's desk for ten minutes pretending to read a memo. "Put me down as strategic alignment.""I've been putting you down as strategic alignment since Monday.""Good. Keep going.""Sora," Jake muttered."What? It's accurate.""Chairman," Sora purred."Ms. Chen.""You told me you had five minutes.""I told you I had five minutes for coffee.""Then bring the coffee." She hooked a finger through his tie and tugged. "To my office."Jake went. He didn't put up a fight, and he didn't pretend to. As he passed, Sora leaned in and murm
473 - Jennifer Park (II)
"Nothing. Forget it." She waved it off, a bit too fast. "I'm just saying that if the building is going to hum, I'd like a heads up so I can buy better earplugs."He looked at her for a second longer than he needed to. He didn't push."I'll buy you lunch and explain the long version," he offered."The long version?""It's very long.""I'm holding you to lunch.""Please do."She opened the drawer, moved the first aid kit, and took out the spiral notebook. On the cover, in marker, in slightly younger handwriting, were four words.THEORIES ABOUT J. (CONFIDENTIAL)Jake leaned on the desk. "That's a bad sign.""That's a great sign. You've been in it for months." She cleared her throat. "The first seven are from your first week. They get more specific after that. Theory one. Bodyguard. Based on the parking garage video, where you threw a car, and I took notes.""That's a fair theory.""Theory two. Witness protection.""Also fair.""Theory three. Ms. Chen's secret boyfriend." She glanced up.
472 - Jennifer Park (I)
Jennifer Park got to the top floor at twenty past six, which made her the first person in the building who wasn't a night guard, a security camera or Tommy.The hum was already there.It had been there since Tuesday morning, a low note she felt in her back teeth before she heard it with her ears.'I checked the vents,' she thought, hanging up her coat. 'I checked the lights. I asked facilities, and facilities said it was within normal parameters, which is facilities for "we don't know either."'Nobody else mentioned it. Four people had walked past her desk on Tuesday humming it, and every one of them looked startled when they noticed.'Not my business.'She had a routine, and the routine had survived a lot. She turned on the lights floor by floor, watered the ficus by the elevator since nobody else remembered it was alive, and refilled the mint bowl for visitors who stepped out of the elevator looking scared.Tommy's trays had beaten her to it. A foil-covered tray sat on her desk with
471 - Tommy's Story (II)
Tommy dug his phone out of his apron and turned it face up on the table. The lock screen showed a small girl in a tooth-gap grin, holding up a stuffed unicorn with one black eye and one crooked blue button."That's Emma. That's the new eye. Sarah sewed it on. It doesn't match, and Emma says that's the point.""That is the best thing I've seen all week.""Right? Lucas calls me Uncle Tommy the Wall. I told him once I was the wall between him and the monsters. He took it seriously. He checks under the bed for me.""Who knows you go?""Harrison's detail drives me. Nobody else.""Why not?"Tommy took his time with that one. He set the phone face down."Telling somebody means handing them a piece of it. I'm the guy who got carried out of that house in the back of an SUV." He shook his head slowly. "I figured if I couldn't stop being the bait, I could be the wall. Somebody carries, somebody gets carried. I decided I'd
470 - Tommy's Story (I)
He sat. She dug a carton of eggs out of the fridge and cracked three into a dry pan."You're gonna want butter," Tommy offered."I'm gonna want you to stop talking.""It's going to stick.""Then it sticks."It stuck. She went at it with a spatula and her tongue between her teeth, and the eggs came apart into something between scrambled and geology. She slid the wreckage onto a plate and handed him a fork.He took a bite and chewed for a long, brave moment."It's terrible.""I know.""There's shell in it.""That's calcium.""Dara, it's a whole piece. It's crunching back at me.""Eat around it."He ate around it. She dragged a stool over, sat across from him, and propped her chin on her fist."Okay. Sundays.""Church.""You're not religious.""I'm spiritual.""Tommy.""The gym.""You've never been in a gym.""I go in spirit.""Where do you actually go?""It's a surprise.""For who?""Me." He pointed the fork at her. "Eat some of this. It's your cooking, you should be proud.""I'm eating
469 - All About Tommy
Tommy knocked once on the door at the end of the third floor corridor and waited.Nobody had told him to wait. He figured people opened doors nicer when they got a second to decide to."It's unlocked," Victoria called.The suite had been a perfectly good guest room until yesterday. Now it had no minibar, no phone, and a camera in the corner that Rael swore was a smoke detector.Victoria sat by the window with her coat folded on her knees. Her bag sat zipped by the door, handle up, in case anybody changed their mind about her.Tommy set the tray on the little table."Soup," he announced."I can see that." She did not touch the spoon. "Mr. Owen, Harrison has a cafeteria.""Closes at eight.""We both know that is not the reason.""It's a little bit the reason.""It is not even a little bit." She looked at him over the bowl. Up close she was smaller than the stories, silver at the temples, in a cardigan that had cost real money once. "I knew your name before I knew your face. It was in a
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