“You’re kidding,” Romira said, eyes wide as saucers. “You have to live here, right in HQ?”
I nodded, then shrugged. I was as much at a loss for words as anyone. When I made it back to my apartment that night, I got another transmission from Thea. She had settled down by then, telling me that I could spend one last night at the apartment, but that I was to report promptly to the office the following morning, and to take my valuables with me.
“And several changes of clothes,” she said. “Enough to last you an indefinite period.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant by that exactly, which was why I was standing in the kitchenette with a duffle bag full of clothes and toiletries. Truthfully I didn’t own very much. Having to start my life over showed me that humans actually didn’t need a whole lot to survive. All I really had were T-shirts, jeans, socks, some underwear, a couple of jackets, and a few pairs of sneakers.
Everything I needed was in that bag. Well, save my consoles, television, and desktop computer, but Thea said that she had some people working on moving those over as well. I was a hundred percent sure this special treatment was going to make me extra popular at work.
“I’m surprised she even let me stay another night, if I’m honest,” I told Romira. She scratched the side of her nose at that, turning away. I tilted my head. “What?”
“Well,” she started. “Did she mention that you were going to be safe?”
“She did.” In fact, Thea said that she was going to have a couple of Hounds keep watch over me for the night. I didn’t notice anyone around my apartment at all, but that was why they were so good at their jobs. I did pick up smatterings of conversation in the morning, though, as well as someone resentfully muttering “golden boy” in my general direction. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t make out the source of the voice. Some Hounds were just that sneaky.
I told Romira as much. “She said she’d have some people keep watch over me.”
She cleared her throat. “She wasn’t any more specific than that?” I wasn’t sure if it was just the light in the break room, but it sort of looked like she was reddening.
Then it dawned on me. “Wait. She asked you to watch me, too?”
Romira smiled wolfishly. I felt my ears burning. What was I doing the night before? Did Thea regularly have me monitored? As if to allay my doubts, Romira put her hand on mine.
“No, I didn’t watch you shower. And no, this isn’t a habit. She was worried about you, so she called me and asked me to keep watch. It’s never very specific when I see things anyway. I just have this general idea of where you are, and whether or not you’re safe, same as how I found your body – I mean, when I found you in the morgue. I don’t actually see you physically, just your energy signature.” She trailed her eyes up and down my body, a smile lingering on her lips. “Which is a shame.”
My ears were on fire. “You stop that,” I said, chuckling, embarrassed, but okay, maybe flattered by the attention. “But thanks for watching over me.”
Romira held my gaze a little too long for comfort. “My pleasure,” she said, her words thick with exaggerated huskiness. I forced myself to laugh, my voice tinged with nervousness. She shoved a cup of coffee in my hands – she was so good at playing this game that I hadn’t even noticed she was fixing me one – and started shooing me out of the kitchenette. “You come back and visit when you’re all settled. And show me this room of yours when you’re ready. Now I’m all curious about what the HQ dorms look like.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” I said, winking.
Romira tossed her hair and winked back. I knew it was a harmless gesture on her part, but it still had my stomach puddling on the floor.
As if I even knew where my room was located. Who knew they even had residential suites in the Lorica? The place was full of surprises. But I hadn’t made it six feet out of the kitchenette when I bumped into Thea herself. I held onto my coffee like it was a cup full of hot lava, carefully eyeing the perennial whiteness of her pantsuit, aware that I was already on her bad side.
But if Thea was annoyed with me, it didn’t show, or she was making a fine effort of concealing it. “Graves,” she said, nodding in greeting, the way she always did in the morning. “Good to see you in one piece. Have you set up in your new quarters yet?”
“Not just,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not even sure where to look.”
Thea cocked her head. “Walk with me. I’m pretty sure they emailed me the location earlier.”
I followed her in silence, duffle bag in hand, feeling for all the world like a kid on the verge of receiving his punishment. Was this really all so ne
cessary? I’d survived the night, after all. Couldn’t they just, I don’t know, put me under surveillance?
But then the thought of the Lorica expending extra Hounds and Eyes made that idea more and more ridiculous the closer we got to Thea’s office. Any solid basis I might have had for making a compelling argument against moving into HQ started to crumble.
Thea swung her office door open with one hand and went straight to her computer – stark white and pristine, just like the rest of her office. She jiggled her mouse, tapped at her keyboard, then nodded.
“There it is. Far end of the east wing, room 17B.”
My confusion must have shown, because I mostly just stood there and blinked. “Huh. Didn’t even know there was a 17B.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Come to think of it, I didn’t know the Lorica made room for people to even live here in the first place.”
Thea shrugged. “The Lorica – and by that I mean the building itself – makes allowances for whatever we need. Sometimes people need extra protection, or we need to put them under surveillance. Somehow the Lorica makes room for that.”
I wondered if I was being brought in merely for protection, or for surveillance as well. I decided it was best not to ask. But that didn’t mean that the stupid side of me was done talking or thinking. Without considering it, I blurted out my earlier thoughts.
“But is this even necessary? I mean, those guys were scared off. I’m pretty sure they’re not coming back for me, not that they even know where to look.”