“I mean as of today, I’ll be looking into converting the building and forming my own company. UACT deals with corruption from the highest individual to the smallest business. They isolate the disease and then clean it up, cutting away every poisoned link, but there’s more than just corruption eating at Harrison. There are the drugs, forced prostitution, and skin trade. There’s money laundering,children going missing, organ trafficking. The whole city is rotten, and Harrison isn’t the only one. I want to do more. I always have, and now I have an idea of how to go about it.”
“So, this decision isn’t based on a random question I asked this morning after seeing you naked for the first time?”
“No. Well, maybe you spurred it into an idea.”
“Just give yourself time to think it through before making any big moves.”
“I still have to catch Franz and finish what I’ve started with Dax and UACT. It’s a long-term plan. I promise.” He presses the call button for the elevator. The trundling whirr and clack of gears echoes down the shaft as the elevator descends to meet us. There’s something in the not knowing, in the expectation of what I’ll find upstairs, that has the hairs across my body tingling and my tummy flip-flopping. Why here? Does he just want to show me his plans, or is there something else going on? He said the word date. Is it wrong to expect more?
As I’ve come to expect with all things Dax and Aiden, the lift isn’t the old rickety car I expect. Instead, there’s a state-of-the-art keypad inside which Aiden uses to type a different series of numbers from the door code, then the elevator begins to gently rise.
“Okay, so either you want me to know how to get into this place or you really don’t care how obviously you are inputting those codes,” I warn. I’m sure he was going slow on purpose.
“You caught both?”
“Of course, you’re not exactly being clandestine about it.”
“Ah, but can you remember both?” he asks.
“Pretty sure. 67510 for outside and 5454921 for inside.”
“Very good. Is your memory always that accurate, or will you forget this in a day or two?” His question is so eager, I can tell he’s wanted to ask for a while now. His observation skills are incredible if he’s figured me out.
I choose to answer honestly. “I’ll recall it if I need to. If thedetail is minor or unimportant, it might take a trigger or visual reminder to call the information back. Otherwise, I usually remember everything I need to.”
“You know that’s not how everyone is, right?”
I scoff. “People aren’t goldfish, Aiden.”
“Yeah, but not everyone holds onto everything, as I suspect you do.”
And there it is. He’s figured me out. “You think I have a photographic memory? You wouldn’t be the first person to think that.”
“Eidetic, photographic, or perhaps even hyperthymesic. I wouldn’t mind putting it to the test one of these days. Wait, if I’m not the first, have you already been tested?”
I nod, recalling the student teacher who spotted I didn’t have a textbook in class, but could recall the chapter she’d asked me to read because I’d skimmed my partner’s book.
“Ages ago, at school they made me do something with flashcards, but I heard nothing back about it or I guess my mum didn’t? It wasn’t like I’d received any training, or a diagnosis, or even an acknowledgement of it other than that one time. I just assumed everyone could recall the way I could. It was only later that I understood I was different and, by then, standing out was a mistake for lots of reasons, so I kept my head down.”
“What a waste.”
Waste? I guess, someone like me having such an ability is a waste, but I’ve been using it to get me through classes. One day this waste would become a lawyer. To me, that wasn’t a waste at all.
I shrug. “Test away. It sounds fun unless you’re hoping to hook me up to creepy devices, then maybe not.”
He snorts. “You don’t trust me to tie you up, Tiger?”
“You’d be surprised with how much I trust you.I know I am.”I mutter the last part under my breath; the sound is covered by the ding of us arriving on the top floor. The elevator opens ontothe biggest loft apartment that I’ve ever seen. There’s a nagging familiarity to it, and as soon as I see the kitchen cabinets, it registers why. Dax’s apartment in the compound is based on this, or vice versa.
“Tell me what’s going through your mind. You went from awestruck, to confused, to resigned in the space of thirty seconds. I’m intrigued.”
“It’s similar to the compound,” I answer bluntly.
“I should have realised you’d put it together. You were quicker than I thought, though. Yeah, this place used to be Dax’s. I bought it from him a year ago.” Though his response sounds straightforward, there’s something cagey about the way he says it. Like there’s more he isn’t sure he should say. It’s not hard to put together, though. Dax would never have had the money to own a building before Trevainne. We both know he was a Vale street-kid. Which means this place was oncehers. Celeste’s. Not that the previous owners have any bearing on Aiden and his decisions. I let it go for now.
“So, this is your place? Your apartment?”
“Sure is. The building too, obviously, but I live up here when I’m not bedding down in the compound or the dorms. Sometimes you just need to step away from the madness and responsibility once in a blue moon and remember you’re a person too. We don’t exist within the confines of our job or mission.”
