This building was laid out in a circle of sorts, and he adjusted his eyes off the visible spectrum to follow her path through the walls.
She tapped at her terminal, then cursed under her breath, giving it a punch before shaking out her hand. Then she was lifting and moving items on the work surface as she searched for something.
He followed her, curious about her purpose.
A gasp of satisfaction left her lips when she found an item. She glanced over her shoulder, like she could see thermal signatures through walls like him, though he knew she could not.
Perhaps The Four had been wrong about that.
But her eyes went to the door of the living area, not where he walked through the kitchen.
She tapped at the terminal, her hands shaky. A softbeep, beeping carried through the building between the rumbles of thunder outside.
His glasses lay where he had dropped them in front of the window. One of his directives had been to conceal his eyes, that humans would react badly to them. They had been right.
He left the accessory where he’d abandoned it and stopped at the edge of the doorway leading to the lab, hesitant to reveal himself when she appeared to be… distressed.
The word appeared to him in his mind, a description of the emotion she had been sending toward him ever since she found him standing by the window.
“Come on, come on,” she muttered, casting another quick glance in his direction.
Her fingers traveled over the slick surface of the terminal, and morebeepsintermixed with the rolling thunder.
His gaze went to her left hand, and he adjusted his sight again when he noticed a thin film covering her skin. Its heat signature denoted an active piece of technology.
He knew what it was, a PALM device that connected an individual to the main grid this solar system used for their data collection and sharing of information.
She stopped pressing buttons, braced her hands on the edge of the terminal, and hung her head.
An unfamiliar emotion swept toward him, one that tightened his chest. It tasted sour in his mind, but a description did not immediately emerge.
He took another step forward, then stopped when she inhaled a deep breath and cast another glance in his direction.
She pushed away from the terminal and scurried to the door that led to the hallway. Her feet stopped when the door slid open with a swish. She poked her head out, then back in again.
Her shoulders relaxed a fraction before she scurried toward the decontamination zone.
Refocusing on the terminal she had accessed, he walked through the short hallway to the lab, past the greenhouse doors to pause where she had stood.
He adjusted his eyes to the visible spectrum. The panel was lit up in sections, one red light flashing beside a CORE insignia.
He pressed his hands flat against the terminal, allowing his essence to flow freely through his skin and into the technology. She had been trying to send a communication, but it did not look like it had worked.
But one last message had made it through, beginning with:Hurricane of unprecedented strength.
There was much more to learn from this system, even cut off from the larger grid. Years of research and personal data on the people who worked here, including Doctor Wynn Lambdin.
A surge ofcuriosityburst through him, an urge to learn as much as he could about her, but his attention shifted away from the terminal when he heard a thump and a rustle beneath the sounds of the storm.
He called his essence back into himself and turned. With a slight adjustment of his eyes, he found her thermal signature, the flutter of her pulse, and her soft breaths.
She bent at the waist, her hands shaking as she pulled the protective suit up her legs. Then her arms went through each of the sleeves. She fastened the front closures until secure and took a deep breath.
He tilted his head, considering her actions. Why would she prefer to leave the safety of the building to venture into lethal weather?
He did not like the sensation of not understanding. Logic should influence decisions.
As the seconds ticked by, he could only conclude that Doctor Wynn Lambdin did not share the philosophy.
