Tia hesitated, glancing up and down the hallway while I sat in the interview room. It took a second before she entered. I had arrived early to beat the rush of employees and slip into the building unseen. For the last hour, I waited here, counting down the minutes until she arrived. The note on her desk made it clear she needed to appear for her interview. I might have added a thinly veiled threat about her job if she tried to run.
“Have a seat,” I said with a calm, steady voice.
The door shut with a bang. She did her damnedest to be a problem, pulling the metal chair back from the table slowly enough that it filled the room with a screech. I had gone over the paperwork, and the evidence against her hadreached the point where the trial would only be a formality. I didn’t flinch as she took her seat.
“Why am I here?”
I had studied Booker’s process enough to learn a thing or two about how to interrogate. Never react, and never let the interviewee control the conversation. Instead of answering, I kept my hands folded, staring into her turquoise eyes. I wanted to ask if they were contacts or good genetics. It’s a question that Drew would have asked.
Drew hadn’t come to work this morning.
From the moment I left the house, I forced my powers into overdrive. I had seen Orion at work and how fast he could grab security camera footage. They were too numerous to black out the glass of each one. Instead, I camouflaged myself using shifting angular patterns. It’d throw off his facial recognition and give me the ability to hide in plain sight. On the subway, I picked the busiest car, altering my appearance until nobody would recognize me. Now, nobody in the world knew I sat here… withher.
She stood. “If you’re not?—
“Sit.” It wasn’t a suggestion. “Now.”
I wanted to solve Synergy’s corporate espionage. It’d garner accolades from Ricardo, and hopefully that goodwill would spill over to Arthur and Secret Identities. With the reality I faced, I wanted to win the gratitude of my friends, hopefully offsetting the damage I had caused.However, I couldn’t ignore the tattoo in her photo. Trident had outed me, and they were going to pay.
“I’m going to give you a chance to confess.”
She laughed. “Confess? To what?”
Twelve seconds. I glanced at the clock on the wall, the second hand ticking each time it moved. It required restraint not to reach over the table and grab her by the collar of her blouse. Lifting her into the air might have felt satisfying, but from our few interactions, I suspected brute force wouldn’t lead anywhere. I hoped it wouldn’t require crossing the point of no return. If she gave me what I wanted, we could avoid a scene.
“I stole her troll.” Ten seconds. “I snuck in after?—”
“I don’t care.” Since she arrived, I had remained perfectly still. For her benefit, my hands remained clasped over the manila folder. “You think I care about your feud with Janet?”
“Then what?—”
“Cypher.”
Her eyes narrowed. I tried to mimic Booker, taking in every subtle movement. It wasn’t much different from close-quarter combat. I spotted the tensing muscles, the tightening of the jaw, and even her eyes going wide. Spotting her reaction wasn’t the problem. Without his experience, I couldn’t interpret the body language.
“I—”
“Wanted to make a buck?”
“No.”
“Revenge?”
“What the hell?”
“I’m waiting.”
“You’ve got some nerve.”
“What I’ve got—” I glanced at the folder. “—is evidence.”
“Of what?” Fast to anger. I filed it away as a potential tactic. “Fucking Cypher?”
I fought to keep my composure. My job was to spot corporate thieves. Everywhere I turned, I found potential suspects. I would have never guessed she had a logical answer, especially one so plausible. Or was that part of the cover-up?
“Redford.”
“That man’s tongue…”
