Earth Awakens (The First Formic War 3)

He reached back, gently took her arms from around his waist, and put her at arm's length. "This is not a good day to call in sick, Des."

"Why not?"

He gestured to the vid screen. "Formic reinforcements landed in China. They've killed millions more people."

She put a hand to her mouth. "That's awful." She looked back at him. "But--"

"What does that have to do with us?"

She nodded.

Was she really that naive? Were the numbers so big that they lost all meaning to her?

He didn't want to mention the drones. He wasn't sure what she knew. "I need to see my father immediately," said Lem.

"Of course. Yes. That makes sense."

They left the building at different times. Lem first went home to shower and change. There were several messages from Benyawe. She was furious. Where was he? They had lost contact with Victor and Imala. Radio, biometrics, everything. The drones had attacked. Why?

Ask my father, Lem thought.

There were messages from Simona as well. Urgent ones. He was to call her. He ignored those as well.

He returned to his skimmer and left the city, heading out toward Father's office at company headquarters. He brought the skimmer down on the landing pad, and it descended below the surface. A moment later in the docking bay, the bots grabbed the skimmer and slid it into one of the parking tubes. When Lem got out, he was surprised to find Simona waiting for him, holopad held tight to her chest, lips pressed together in a hard line.

"Who was the lucky girl this time?" she said.

He gave her his warmest smile. "Simona, shouldn't you be getting coffee for my father? I'll take one as well. Sugar. Cream. Oh and a shoulder massage."

"I called your apartment last night. I called the warehouse. I called your wrist pad."

"That's a lot of calling. I hope you didn't overexert your fingertips."

"You didn't answer or return my holos."

Lem adjusted his cufflinks "I was indisposed."

"Indisposed or inverted?"

He looked perplexed. "Are you calling me a vampire, Simona, or was that supposed to be vulgar?"

She brushed it aside, tapped at her holopad. "Forget it. I don't want to know."

"Really? You seem quite interested to be uninterested."

She gave him a "spare me" look. "Discovering your perverse exploits is the last thing on my mind, Lem."

"So it is on your mind somewhere. I'm flattered."

She hugged her holopad again and sighed. "Perhaps you haven't noticed we have a crisis on our hands here."

Lem tapped his cheek with his index finger, pretending to be deep in thought. "Crisis, crisis, hmm, nothing's ringing a bell. Oh wait, do you mean that my father singlehandedly flushed the company down the toilet by doing exactly what I told him not to? Or is there some other crisis I haven't heard about?"

She rolled her eyes and turned away. "Just get in the shuttle."

He noticed the shuttle then, parked off to the side of the terminal. One of Father's security men opened the back door, and Simona climbed inside. Lem followed her in and sat beside her. They took off a moment later, zipping through the vehicular traffic tunnels, which meant they obviously weren't going to Father's office.

Lem took in the interior of the shuttle and bounced a little in the posh seats. "Since when do I get the executive treatment? Maybe you've forgotten I've been demoted. I thought these digs were for people my father liked?"