The Second Sphere

Two hours later, as I made my way to the office, jostling along with the movement of the train, little flecks of memory began to fall. By the time I reached the Laslow Building, I’d done a day’s worth of analysis, picking through the corpse of the previous night. I put a hand in my pocket to search for my Love drive and realized that it still sat on the table next to my bed. That was a damned shame, because with each moment that passed, I felt fingers tighten around my throat.

“Morning, Mr. Cox,” Hildie said as I went past her. Going through the motions of normalcy wouldn’t be easy.

As I stomped through the pit where our analysts worked, I felt eyes on me, little beady probing eyes that belonged to people who’d heard everything that happened the previous night. The good thing was that they were too afraid to ask any questions or inquire about how I was. I just wanted to barricade myself in my office.

There was a message waiting for me on the link-up.

“Orion, this is Quincy.” Like I didn’t recognize him. “I’d like to have you in my office later this morning to see if I can be of help with what happened last night. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Maybe he would offer a shoulder to cry on.

“What are you doing here?” Bryant asked as he stepped into my office. His jaw pushed forward. His blue tie was askew and his shirtsleeves were up, which meant he likely hadn’t gotten any Source time either.

“The Source made me a new man,” I said.

“You’re lying,” he said. Maybe my boss knew me better than I thought he did.

“I’m good.” Bryant’s gaze hardened. “I’m pretty good,” I said. “I’ll make it.”

Bryant told me that Rosie called and asked for another week off.

“What’d you say?” I asked.

“I told her to take it.” He paused and let his eyes run over me. “Seeing you? I think that was a mistake.”

“I’ll be okay,” I said.

Bryant shifted his weight. “I hope so,” he said.

“Any luck on figuring out what happened last night?” I asked.

“They’ve got Newberry’s chip down at the lab. Have to wait for their tests.”

“How’s Malinda?”

“I think she spent a lot of time with the shrinks last night,” he said. “They managed to take a statement from her sometime this morning. Nelson just told me that she was getting some Source time upstairs.”

“Poor kid,” I said.

“Yeah, well.” Bryant said. “You were right, there wasn’t any record of what happened.” He scratched his head. “Oh, another piece of good news,” he said. “Olga Dahlgren will be joining us at some point.”

“When?” I asked.

“She managed to get herself a military flight as soon as she got the news.”

“So, I suppose--”

“She’s going to want some answers,” he said.

“And those are?”

Bryant didn’t bother pretending like he had any.

“Well, I’ve got the chip that you were talking about.” Bryant took the amber case from his pocket and set it on the desk. “You said you wanted to be the first to see the contents. I’ve held onto it all night. Didn’t allow it into the evidence file that was created at the scene, but we’ll need to get that done soon.”

For the first time in a while, I felt that Bryant was on my side. “Thanks for doing that,” I said. “I’ll take a look at it.”

“I’ve got to get back out to the floor,” Bryant said. He hesitated for a moment. “You find anything important, you come get me. Okay?”

“Sure, boss,” I said.

Bryant patted my shoulder and offered a sympathetic smile. “If you need a break, just let me know.”

“Thanks, boss.”