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He did smile this time, a full, normal smile. “I don’t know, there are people I’d hate to see far more than you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She hesitated briefly before extending her hand to him. “Maybe you aren’t so bad.”
He gave it a firm shake. “Take it easy, Carter.”
Julia waved at them and then the two of us walked away. We headed for the cab stand closest to the main terminal. “I never thought I would befriend this many criminals.” Julia shook her head. “My life is so complicated.”
I laughed, loudly, and she gave me a displeased look. I waved my hand at her and shook my head. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to laugh like that. I get it, I do. But it’s good to have friends in lots of different places. Even illegal ones.”
“Maybe,” she grudgingly admitted.
Now seemed like as good a time as any to bring up Sosa, even though I didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure I would want to know her answer, but I couldn’t put it off forever. “I have to ask you something.”
Julia gave me a curious look as she hailed a cab. “What is it?”
I wasn’t completely sure how to phrase the question. I scratched the back of my neck, searching for words. “I may have been a little too open with you with details about Sosa.”
Without hesitating, Julia gave my arm a gentle squeeze. She smiled softly. “Are you trying to ask me what I’m going to do with that information?”
It was awkward to ask, but I owed Sosa everything. I needed to protect him. The cab appeared, giving me a few moments to stall while we climbed inside. She punched in the address and the cab took off, lifting into the air.
“Yes.” I settled against the seat. “I know you’re a cop and he’s a criminal, but he is my family. He’s important to me.”
Julia watched me quietly, studying my face. I wondered if she was doing her deception detection thing. I didn’t care if she was. I didn’t have anything to hide from her. Eventually, she sighed and turned to look out the window. “I know he is. I don’t want to do anything to hurt you. My plan for this whole situation—from the moment I was kidnapped until now—is to forget everything. It’s not like I didn’t do anything illegal.”
Something in my chest relaxed. “You won’t use what I told you against him?”
Her eyes jumped back to mine, looking concerned. “No. Am I happy that your closest friend is Goliath? No, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything about it. I don’t want to be involved with anything regarding his business, but I’m not going to turn him in or give over any information about him.” She sighed again and rubbed her forehead. “I want to do the right thing, but I don’t know what the right thing is in this situation. I can’t deny that the world exists in shades of gray. I’m not a dirty cop. I’m not going to take bribes or actively help criminals, but I also can’t pretend that the law is perfect or that there aren’t good people out there who do bad things sometimes.”
I couldn’t help but lean over to give her a kiss. “Thank you.”
She smiled. “I want to be a person of integrity, but I’m starting to realize integrity means more than following the law. Integrity is being true to who I am, and I’m the kind of person who cares a lot more about people than I do about the law.” She pressed her lips together, sorting through her feelings. “I’m not saying there aren’t things I’ll take a hard stance on. If Sosa tries to hurt someone or does business in front of me, I can’t ignore it. But I have no desire to turn him in or to hurt you.”
“That’s more than enough for me.” And it would be enough for Sosa. He would be relieved to hear she wasn’t planning on becoming his enemy. He just needed to be on good behavior around her.
We lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive. It was short, taking maybe five minutes. I had never been to an IPF office, and I was curious about it. The Viridis IPF office didn’t look like much, though I could tell it had the most up-to-date security at all the entry points. Our cab was scanned and cleared long before we ever reached the ground. The building itself was large, made of brick, and had all kinds of vehicles parked in a side lot. I could see tactical vans, mobile laboratories, and hover rescue vehicles in addition to squad cars.
The cab landed and we climbed out. Julia had a huge grin on her face, and I could tell she was ready to see her family and coworkers again.
She led me to the big entrance doors, which swooshed open at our approach. Inside the main lobby were four different stations, and every other part of the building was closed off. It was all restricted access to the back where most of the actual police work happened. The information access station was on the far left, then the criminal processing desk, claims desk, and finally the internal access station. Julia went straight for the last one.
An enforcer sat behind the desk and gave us assessing looks as we approached. Julia simply pressed her palm to the scanner, and it beeped once. Her face appeared on a screen above her head, and the enforcer behind the desk nodded to her. She motioned for me to follow her to the door. I wondered briefly if I would need to scan my palm, but Julia already had the door open and was waiting for me.
I stepped through and blinked. There was an open room filled with short-walled cubicles. Voices buzzed in the air, and I could hear ringing phones farther towards the back. It looked like a call center of some sort. I felt stupid for not knowing a lot about how an IPF office was run, but there wasn’t time to contemplate my lack of knowledge since Julia went straight for the lift.
Once the doors closed, she pressed a button and we shot upwards. She shifted her weight back and forth, obviously antsy. I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Relax. We’re almost there.”
The doors opened to reveal a wide hallway running to the left and right, and one straight ahead as well. There were doors lining both sides. I assumed they led to offices or maybe they led to specific departments. This was completely different from the main floor, and I was already lost.
Julia glanced in both directions before turning to the left. She scanned numbers on the wall, obviously looking for something specific. People passed by, barely giving us more than a glance or nod. I stayed close to Julia, trying not to feel too uncomfortable. After the events of the last few days, I felt more like a criminal than I had in quite some time.
“Julia!”
My head snapped up to look at a teenage girl with black hair flying down the hallway. Julia grinned broadly and threw her arms around her. “Lex! I’m so glad to see you!”
I recognized the girl from the video call Julia had placed back when we left Cadium. I also spotted Jordan, her partner, a few paces behind Alexi, a huge grin splitting his face. I had to blink, though, because he was quite a bit taller than I had imagined. His legs were the longest parts of his body, making his stride lengthy.
“Jordan.” Julia released her sister long enough to wrap her arms around him. She was so short compared to him. I’m not even sure her head reached his armpit.
