James shook his head at her. “If you’re looking for my brother, he’ll be around sooner or later.”
He’s coming back. Just hang on.
Gemma left the mess hall, moving in the direction of the security booth. She ignored the ward lines on the floor. She didn’t let the picture window in the rec room distract her. It wasn’t until a tall blond man dressed in black showed up out of nowhere that she was knocked off course.
He wasn’t there a moment ago. It was like he’d materialized in the shadows.
Shadow. Three-dimensional volume in a two-dimensional form. Its length is proportional to the cotangent of sun’s angle relative to the horizon. The shadow. An unconscious collection of man’s unknown aspects. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
Gemma didn’t know how much time passed before she could bring her attention back to the present. Minutes or hours, either was equally likely.
Charlie was snapping her fingers in front of Gemma’s face. “Finally,” she said with a groan. “Your guy is here. He walked right past you an hour ago.”
He’s here.
Gemma’s hand shot out, grabbing Charlie’s arm. Her friend knew what she wanted and started leading her down the hall. They ended up outside of the chief of staff’s office.
“Dammit, they were right here before. But you took so long to come out of it this time.”
Gemma stared down at the lines on the hallway floor. Blue. Red. Yellow. Green.
Green. Wavelength 49—no!
Green like his eyes.
Focus!
Charlie stood facing her, alternately peering up and down the hallway. “They have to be around here somewhere. Fuck!”
Two things happened at the same time. Well, two things besides the literally billions of other things that were happening in that part of time and space. The door opened behind Charlie, and the girl slammed her hand over her mouth, then dropped it to say, “I cursed! Please don’t tell my mom!”
There was a polite cough from behind her and Charlie winced, her facing turning red. Slowly, she rotated around, then rolled her eyes when she saw the new doctor smiling at her. “Oh great,” she groaned. “It had to be you who heard me.”
The doctor towered over her, his dark skin contrasting with the brightness of his teeth. “Think I’m going to tattle on you?” he said.
Charlie’s eyes narrowed. “You do and I’ll kick your ass.”
Gemma’s mind couldn’t help itself from doing the math. One demented young woman scarcely over five feet tall and weighing a hundred and twenty-two pounds versus a six-foot-five giant with broad shoulders, powerful arms, and a familiarity with human anatomy. There was no doubting the outcome of that matchup.
The doctor stepped closer. “Oh yeah?” He looked her up and down, smirking. “You and what army?”
Charlie shook her fist at him. “You don’t intimidate me. And if you don’t stop picking on my brother, I’m going to take you down when you least expect it.”
Gemma registered the slight widening of his eyes. The intake of breath. The ripple that went through him. All signs were so subtle that Charlie didn’t notice them. But Gemma couldn’t help but take it all in.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked after a moment.
“None of your beeswax!” Charlie said, grabbing Gemma’s hands. “We were just leaving.”
The doctor leaned against the doorframe. “If you’re looking for James and his brother, they’re in therapy.”
“No one said we were looking for them,” Charlie replied.
“You think he’s cute, don’t you?” The bald man’s expression was neutral, but Gemma caught the faintest hint of something else. His pitch was off, his muscles a tad too stiff. The doctor cared about her answer.
“Which one?” Charlie asked sweetly, then laughed. “They’re both way cuter than you’ll ever be. Come on, Gemma. Let’s go.”
Leading her down the hall, Charlie peered back over her shoulder. “Loser says what.”
