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Chapter 21
Nayome felt the first inkling that something was wrong when she spotted James waving her down at the front doors of the office building. Their office was on the sixth floor, so there was no reason for him to hang around down here on street level unless something had happened.
“Nayome, I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet with nervous energy.
“It’s not even eight yet, what’s going on?” Nayome asked, looking around nervously. Thanks to her conversation with Bal last night, she had woken up this morning already on edge. James’ odd behavior was only serving to feed her paranoia.
James held out one of the two take-out coffee cups he was holding and Nayome nodded thankfully as they headed inside and towards the elevators.
“Your most recent samples…did you end up running into anything interesting with them?” James asked, an eager light shining in his eyes that had dread creeping down Nayome’s spine.Shit, the mushrooms.
“I didn’t log anything unusual,” Nayome said slowly, being careful not to reveal much information, “I just started a prelim analysis on one sample last night—I left a note, did one of the tech’s mess with it? I left it scanning the data base last night.”
“No, no, nothing like that,” James said. “The analysis you were running must have jumped on the radar of something bigger. Your samples have been confiscated.”
“Excuse me…what? Confiscated?” Nayome asked, stopping dead in her tracks.
James turned in surprise when he realized she had stopped walking. He was almost buzzing with excitement. “Nayome, you must have hit something big with this one! This is a good thing.”
“Confiscated…how? What exactly does that mean?”
“There are some serious looking Agents upstairs waiting to ask you some questions,” James explained, a smile cracking across his face as he failed to contain his excitement for whatever was happening. “I think you really stumbled into something here, Nayome. This could be huge for your career, for the Institute.” James’ smile died down, a frown replacing it as he must have realized she wasn’t sharing his excitement.
Nayome was standing still, face drained of color. Her fear must have been written all over her face.
“Nayome.” James’ tone had gentled. “I should have called you, I just thought you would be excited. I can see how it might be a lot to take in first thing though, I kind of ambushed you…”
Nayome cleared her throat, took a sip of coffee, and plastered a huge fake smile on her face for James’ benefit. There was no reason for her, Nayome the boring, regularnon-magic wieldingscientist, to not be excited about this development. And she already knew she would have to talk to the Feds at some point.I can do this, Nayome told herself forcefully. “You’re right, of course. I’m just surprised.” Nayome let out a weak laugh. “Hey…can you give me a minute to freshen up? It’s not everyday you get interviewed by Federal Agents. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Of course, take your time.” James winked at her, and sauntered into the waiting elevator, a noticeable spring in his step.
This is bad, Nayome thought, making a beeline to the ground floor washrooms. Relieved to find it empty, she promptly shut herself in a stall and fished around her purse for her cell phone. Hands shaking, she had to take a moment to settle her nerves before she managed to pull up Bal’s contact page and dialed.
No answer.
She tried again, foot tapping an anxious rhythm on the speckled patterned tile floor.
Still no answer.Damn it.So much for him being able to help hereven from a distance.
She shot him off a quick text instead, letting him know some shit was about to hit the proverbial fan. He needed to know, since whatever happened here today may impact him and his people as well. Looking down at the message, she then proceeded to delete their conversation history. Maybe she was being paranoid, but there were literal Federal Agents waiting in her office.What has my life become?
Breathing out, Nayome shook herself, held out her hands in front of her and willed herself to steady them. When the shaking had been reduced to more of a tremor, she decided that was as good as it was going to get. The longer it took to make her way upstairs, the more suspicious she was going to look.
The few minutes it took to ride the elevator up to her office felt like a blur. Nayome had a curious numb feeling filling her body, a strange buzzing in her head, as she stepped out of the elevator and greeted Carol at the front desk. She waved casually to a few others as she worked her way through the bullpen towards her office, feeling like she was moving in slow motion, or through a dream.More like a nightmare.
She shrugged helplessly as she noticed Dani poking her head out of her office, giving Nayome a curious look, coupled with a tentative, questioning thumbs up. She wanted to scream at someone to help her, that this wasnota good thing. But she needed to remind herself to act like this attentionwasa good thing. She would act innocent and excited to have had something she was working on catch the attention of a government agency. That’s how she would have felt before Scotland, after all. If her hands were shaking, it was out of anticipation, not fear. Breathing in deep, Nayome shoved the panic and fear down as she approached her office, the door ajar. There was a man in full suit standing outside, just to the right of the door, and she could see another had taken a seat on one of her leather guest chairs in front of her mahogany desk.
James must have set them up with coffee, because the agent in her office was leaning back, leisurely sipping out of a mug with the CRINA logo plastered boldly across the length of it.
“Miss Miller?” The Agent at the door straightened as she approached.
“Yes,” Nayome heard herself say. She still felt foggy, like she was watching herself in the third person.Get a grip, Nayome.
He motioned her inside without another word, and Nayome glanced back in surprise as he shut the door behind her, closing her in with the Agent waiting in her office. He stood to greet her, setting his coffee down before one of his hands stretched out in greeting.
Feeling clammy, Nayome tried to covertly wipe her sweaty palm on her pants before reaching out to shake the Agent’s hand. Channeling the past version of herself, the version who had never met Bal, or been kidnapped in a magical forest…she looked directly in the Agent’s eyes and tried to look curious, and excited, to find out what he was doing here in her space. She had never been a good actor, and could only pray her nerves weren’t written all over her face.
“Miss Miller, I presume?” He asked as he grasped her hand, shaking it firmly before releasing her.
