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“It hasn’t come up yet.”
“There’s a break room just behind the room where you did your paperwork, and if you don’t have anything scheduled during lunch tomorrow, I’ll take you and the other new people down to the cafeteria so you can find your way around.”
“Okay, thanks. That’ll be great,” I said.
“You probably don’t need quite as much handholding as the others, since you came from a magical company. We’re having to orient them to magic at the same time as they’re learning about us.”
“I think that’s going to happen no matter where you are when you learn about it,” I said. “This place has some unique policies, but MSI was weird in its own way. Here, you can hardly tell magic is involved most of the time. There, they go out of their way to be as magical as possible.” Come to think of it, I’d hardly seen any traces of magic here. A nonmagical person could visit these offices without having any idea that there was magic involved, other than the windows whose views didn’t make any sense.
Evelyn smiled, and for a moment I had the vague sense that she reminded me of someone. I couldn’t quite place it, though. Maybe she just had one of those faces. “I’m sure you’ll be a big help to the others, which is another reason I wanted us to all have lunch together tomorrow.”
“I’d be glad to help with the Magic 101 briefing,” I said, though I did have to wonder if that would be a good idea, considering we were all apparently competing for the same job. My mission would stall out if I wasn’t chosen, so should I help the competition? On the other hand, even if I didn’t help, there was no guarantee I’d win, and if I’d made friends, maybe I could still get some info.
After I shut down the computer, I joined the flow of black-clad people out of the offices and to the changing rooms. The one with my name on it opened at the touch of my palm. I decided I might as well take advantage of the shower, since having decent hot water and pressure and no roommate waiting for the bathroom was a real luxury. After the shower, I got into my own clothes, hit the button to call for the car, and settled down to wait. As many people as I’d seen, I wondered how they could possibly manage to drive everyone to and from work. Or did everyone get the same treatment? Would that only last until I was fully trusted? Did rank-and-file employees have to ride a bus with blacked-out windows, like a school bus of evil?
The light flashed, and I headed out for the elevator to catch my ride home. I hoped Marcia was home first again because I needed to talk to her about Rod right away. I’d been with Roger all afternoon, and I hadn’t seen him do anything to signal anyone else, so there was a chance I might be able to warn Rod before he was approached. I knew that without a warning, Rod would turn them down. Then again, that would make it seem more genuine when he accepted later. They didn’t seem to stop at the first no.
Actually, I didn’t wait for Marcia to come home. I shoved my office phone into my purse and shoved that under my bed, then shut my bedroom door and went out into the living room to use the apartment phone to call Marcia’s cell. “I need to talk to Rod about something,” I said. “Why don’t you have him come over for dinner?”
“Okay,” she said. “Is this about that thing you were talking about yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll take care of it. We’ll bring takeout. Are Gemma and Philip there?”
“Gemma left a note that she was out.”
It was fortunate that our apartment was at the rear of the building so I couldn’t stand at the window, watching for them. I worried that the Collegium would be monitoring me and the comings and goings at my apartment. Or was that inflating my own importance? Did they really care all that much what I did, or did they trust that their security measures were good enough to keep me from doing them any damage? Figuring that this was too important to take any chances, I turned on the TV so that my work phone would be even less likely to pick up any sound from our conversation. While I waited, I wrote down the names and other details I remembered from the documents I’d reviewed that day.
I just about leapt on Marcia and Rod when they arrived, I was so keyed up. “Has anyone approached you with any suspicious-sounding offers?” I asked Rod before he’d quite made it through the doorway.
“I’m doing great, Katie. Thanks for asking,” he said, grinning. “And how’s your new job going?”
“Since you’re able to be that flippant about it, I’m going to assume that no, they haven’t approached you.”
Looking a little more concerned, he asked, “What’s going on?”
“No, don’t!” I shouted at Marcia, who’d picked up the
TV remote. More softly, I added, “Just in case. They made me take a work phone home with me, and I’m afraid it could be a listening device. It’s under my bed, but I’m not taking any chances.” To Rod, I said, “The first thing my boss asked me was if I thought you were likely to be open to being recruited. Like we guessed, your predecessor was either Collegium or on their payroll, and they seem to want to make sure to get more of their people hired on. So you’ll probably be approached soon.”
“This is getting pretty serious, isn’t it?” Marcia asked as we gathered around the dining table and Rod unpacked to-go containers.
“It was always serious,” I said.
“So, should I turn them down or take them up on it?” Rod asked.
“You should probably turn them down at first. Make them work for it. But then it might help to at least pretend to play along with them. We might learn more.”
“And we’d know exactly who in the company was Collegium. I’d have to hire some of them to make it look real, but at least we’d know.”
“And maybe it wouldn’t set off alarm bells if I stayed in touch with you.”
He handed me a plate and the container of rice. “That’s our Katie, getting something for us on her first day undercover.”
“I’d say it’s technically my second day, because just going on the interview counted as intelligence gathering,” I said, dishing rice onto my plate.
More soberly, he said, “So it is worthwhile, you think?”
