Chapter Forty-Six
Jordy was officially having the shittiest day ever. And she was going to blame it all on Katie Cooper, because why not? Dumb, shady beeyatch wasn’t where she was supposed to be last night, and Jordy’s body was still having the trembles from whatever Cadmus had done to her. It had hurt so badly that Jordy still flinched at the thought of it, even though there were no visible signs of it on her.
And to top it all off, Puma was hauling her in to find out what had happened with the video footage. Gabe had looked positively gleeful relaying that message to her, when she first checked back into the Faire at the beginning of her shift. It wasn’t a good look for the normally placid Ops guy.
Yet she had an even bigger worry about Puma’s message. It meant somehow, that what she had done with the footage had been discovered. But how?
Jordy’s slouch was more pronounced than usual, either an aftereffect of what Cadmus had done, or trepidation that she was entering into the lion’s den, as she shuffled into the canvas marquee tent that served as the HQ for Ops during the warmer months.
It was a spacious, airy tent, and filled with lockboxes crammed with supplies that were in constant demand throughout the day, or a simple area with refreshments and water for the Ops crew to hang out and catch a breather in between putting out fires, or recharge their phones with the various outlets connected to the solar power panels. Which meant a constant flow of people. Which meant several people there right now, who quickly looked away when they saw Jordy, before scattering. As if her being called in for possibly being chewed out was something they might accidentally catch.
She was in deep shit.
She had been rehearsing what to say. That the footage was like that when she got it? That she had no idea how all the alterations had happened? It would have to depend on whatever Puma said. She’d have to be quick on her feet, but she’d always been good like that.
You got this,she chanted to herself.You got this.
But when she saw Puma’s dark head, her stomach plummeted, even though his back was to her.
The head of Ops was sitting at a desk in an ergonomic chair, peering intently at a laptop screen. At Jordy’s approach, he closed it shut, so she couldn’t even see what he had been looking at.
Cadmus’ spell had temporarily disarmed Puma’s common sense, made his brain mushy. It had made him promote a completely unqualified, inexperienced young girl to a position of authority and trust. However, Jordy wasn’t sure how long that effect would last – and now it seemed to have worn off.
He turned his chair to her, planting his long legs firmly on either side and resting his elbows on his thighs. Even crouched like that, his face impassive, he was overwhelming in his authority.
Jordy’s stomach, having plummeted, was now doing flips like a fish on the floor of a boat, before being tossed back in. To be fed to sharks.
And then he spoke. Unlike Cadmus, Puma rarely raised his voice. Somehow that was even more menacing. His tone was even, measured.
“Honor is important to me, and Simon’s trust in me translates to my trust in my crew. You were handed security footage for a matter that was extremely sensitive, and of high priority. But Simon ran the footage into a program that showed it had been clearly altered, with sections missing. Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
Puma fixed his dark, almost inky black eyes on her, and Jordy had the sensation that he could look deep within her soul. Whatever she had left of it, anyway.
She was shaking inside, and tried to steady her breathing. To sound convincing. She’d have to lie like the fate of the world depended on it. And not let him see her sweat.
“I didn’t notice anything missing from the footage when I got it.” She couldn’t keep the sullen tone from her voice. “So I’m sorry if I didn’t catch that.”
Puma narrowed his eyes, slightly. And said nothing. The silence stretched between them, as every single one of Jordy’s sweat glands decided to say Hiya. But she knew this tactic he was using. She fought the urge to babble, which would be a dead giveaway of her culpability. It was a game of chicken that she had to win.
Finally Puma broke the silence. “Okay.” He looked troubled, and slightly dazed, as he said it, as if he were fighting to clear his head. There must have been some residual effects to the spell left, because he never should have bought that lie so easily.
Jordy had to keep herself from exhaling loudly, letting the breath ease out slowly instead. But Puma wasn’t done.
“I’m taking you off active rotation for now,” he said in that scary, quiet voice. “Until Simon and I get this cleared up, you’ll be reassigned to regular-access ops duties. So I’m going to have to ask you for the keys back.”
Her fingers were trembling as she took out the set of metal keys that she had proudly carried, a smaller version of Puma’s own. She handed them over to the Ops head, as the reality of the demotion sank in.
He took them and turned his broad back, clearly dismissing her. Jordy turned to leave, and now all the people who had been looking away were now giving her side glances and murmuring to each other. A few stifled laughs. The people that she had been sneering at before, were snickering at her now instead.
She wanted so badly to say something back, to even flash them the finger. Both of them. Grow an extra hand so she could give them that finger too. Her eyes grew blurry with unshed tears. But she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction, so she held them back and kept walking, chin held high. Besides, Puma was just a few feet away. She didn’t need to have him decide to fire her outright, instead of this polite suspension and demotion, rolled into one.
Jordy needed to do something, anything, otherwise she would break down in an embarrassing display of weeping. But mostly she needed to silence that little voice inside — the snide jeering that maybeshewas the one.Shewas really the loser with a capital L that she claimed everyone else was. That her cute little display of superiority was just masking the fact that deep down, she actually was a steaming sack of shit putting up a front. Exactly as her dad had shouted at her, right before he disowned her.
Shut up. Don’t go into that spiral of self-pity.Jordy was outside of the tent now, and out on the Fairegrounds where the majority of people didn’t know, or more importantly, didn’t care about what just went down for her.
Time for some action. Hey, now that Jordy was off active rotation, how about going to find out definitively what her old roommate was up to. And this time get accurate information for Cadmus, right from the horse’s mouth.
Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Figure out a way to stick it to that Shady McShade, because now that she knew what Cadmus was capable of, she wanted to share the joy.
