I'm about to check Elijah's file when I hear the sound of water rushing through pipes in the walls.
"Fuck."
They got it unclogged.
When I shut the drawer, it slams hard, making the one below it pop open.
I freeze, hoping no one heard. The slip of paper in the drawer catches my eye. The file that contains it is wide, the ones behind it pushed back as if this one was recently touched.
I lift the single page from the file and see some kind of form I don't recognize. It takes me a second of skimming the poorly photocopied document to realize it's a shipping manifest. One that is stamped as having been processed yesterday, with an official shipping date set for a couple days from now.
That's the day I'm supposed to be leaving.
Ambrose gave me the confirmed flight times this morning.
In the box that's meant to contain a description of the goods being exported, it simply says 'fragile items'.
There's another loudbang,but this time it's followed by the sound of footsteps headed in this direction from upstairs.
"Miss Aurora?" Santiago calls, and I launch into action.
I slip the file back where it was, shut the drawer, lock it, and whirl back to the desk.
"Fuck," I breathe when I see that the flash drive is still blinking. I don't know what happens if I pull it out too soon.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
"Santiago?" Ambrose's voice calls from the other end of the house. "What's going on?"
What the fuck?
He's early. He'ssoearly.
He's never fucking back before four in the afternoon from his stupid fucking meetings.
I only hesitate a second before deciding I can't risk leaving the drive here, and I have to pray that whatever it did manage to get will be enough information.
The drive is hot in my hand as I rip it from the tower and close and lock the cabinet, but I can hear Santiago's feet on the stairs and Ambrose coming down the hall, and there's no more time.
I toss the keys in the drawer, replace the false bottom, and basically throw all the objects back in before shutting it and racing through to the adjoining library.
Half a second after I have the office doors shut, I grab the first book I see from the library shelves, throw myself onto the low sofa, and crack it open.
The words on the page blur as I fight to breathe through my nose and Santiago and Ambrose converge right in front of where I'm sitting in the grand foyer at the base of the staircase.
"There was an issue with the plumbing," Santiago explains, looking surprised to see me a few meters away. "Oh, Miss Aurora, I was looking for you."
"What do you mean an issue with the plumbing?" Ambrose snaps.
Santiago raises his hands in a placating gesture I know too well. "The problem is fixed," he says to Ambrose, and then gives me an imploring, pleading look. "But we'll have to ask Miss Aurora to be more…cautious with the,um, delicate products."
As I lower the book, I make a pained face and hope the redness they see in my cheeks is fully explainable from my 'error'.
"Oops," I say, swallowing past the dry lump in my throat. "Sorry."
Ambrose's eyes widen, and he clears his throat, looking away quickly as if the very mention of myunmentionablesis too much. And that works out for me, so…
"Next time you call me to tell me there's a problem," Ambrose says in a low tone that betrays a level of frustration I haven't heard from him before. "Make sure it's one you can't solvewithoutmy presence."
