bChapter /bb33 /b

Valencia

He looked shocked to see her name and, in his haste to receive the call, dropped his spoon.

He then stared at the spoon for a millisecond, as if he could see that mad woman’s face imprinted on it..

“Thomas!” I called him and he blinked as if realized I was still around. Or he had just forgotten all about the date and now was surprised to see me seated in front of bhim/bb. /b

“Your phone is ringing.” I reminded him.

“Huh

He looked down at the phone, then at bme/bb, /band then at the phone again.

Then he immediately tried to hide the screen from me and got up from the seat.

“Sorry, I’ll have to take this call”

Why could he not talk to our boss in front of me? We worked in the same department, after all.

I opened my mouth to respond, but he had already excused himself and went to the side.

Why was that old woman calling him on a Sunday afternoon? And why did he have her mobile number?

Something was fishy. For the first time, I was d I had decided toe here because now I found something interesting

Well, partially.

I still had to find out what was truly going on. I looked around but there were no wait staff or other guests.

And Thomas looked back at me once, hands cupping his phone to further drown his voice.

Maybe he had not noticed that I had seen our boss name sh on the screen. I gave him a smile when he looked at me and pretended to continue eating.

Then still keeping up with my act of eating, I scooted to the edge of the seat and sneaked as close to him as possible.

Luckily, I could hear him clearly enough to understand what he was saying,

“Mrs. Briggs, byes/bb, /bwhat can I do for you?” he asked, voice tight.

Even from where I sat, I recognized the shrill voice that came through his phone.

“Where the hell are you? I asked you for the report at ten and it’s two p.m. already!”

Thomas flinched like a guilty schoolboy caught skipping ss. “I’m sorry, I got upied with something urgent,” he hastily repliedb, /bhis voice growing even more flustered.

She wasn’t having it.

“What is more urgent than work?” she snapped. “Have you forgotten what’s on the line? If she slips away this time, the Board of

13/09 Satb, /b23 bAug/b: El

Directors are going to skin us alive,”

I sat up straighter.

bWho /bwas she talking about? And why were the Board of Directors getting involved?

There hadn’t been any official announcementstely about any new changes to the Bureau. And even if there was, only a handful of upper–level officials would be aware of something as ssified as that.

And I also knew that old woman was nowhere high on the corporatedder,

Mrs. Briggs wasn’t supposed to be one of them.

She was middle–management at best–strict, loud, and all bark–but nowhere near the inner circle. What I found to be even stranger was her sharing that with Thomas, a second–year associate who was known more for forgetting his login password than for handling high–stakes intelligence.

Why would she trust Thomas with such information?

I recalled how she had tried to bully me into submission band /binto being her right hand. She had gone on a sick leave for weeks so why was she calling Thomas?

Had she realized she needed ba /bnew right hand and picked him?

Yes, it had to be Thomas. He easily got bullied and was kind of meek.

My curiosity spiked. I leaned back slightly in my chair, positioning myself to better overhear him.

“You promised me you’d give me regr updates,” she continued. “And if this time you fuck up-

This time? Had she given him a chance already?

Thomas cut in quickly, “I know, I know. I’ll give you a detailed report tonight. I swear.”

There was a pause on the other end, then her voice dropped lower. “Tonight might be toote. You’re not the only one who wants a piece of the pie, Thomas. And if he finds out you were involved in the… incident involving the Dawn pack, something I might just casually mention over our weekly call, you’ll be lucky to keep your job.”

My blood ran cold.

Dawn Pack? I tried to recall if I had read that name anywhere in the files.

It wasn’t in any files we associates had seen. And the Bureau didn’t use casualnguage like b“/bincident” unless something had gone seriously wrong.

But more importantly, I didn’t believe a Director would have tea with a mere office head. That would be a break of hierarchy.

She was just bullying him into doing all her work for him. I figured that out pretty easily. Or did she really have something on him to ckmail him?

“I told you, I had ced the tracker in her bag, I don’t know where it went, Thomas whispered, his voice cracking slightly. ” wouldn’t have-”

Tracker?

13:09 Sat, 23 Aug

I froze. My fingers stiffened around the ss.

She barreled on, ignoring his protests. “I don’t care. Just make sure your name stays off the audit trail. Do whatever you need to. We can’t afford scrutiny. I don’t tolerate loose ends. I barely escaped a departmental enquiry.”

Loose ends

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my expression neutral as Thomas turned to nce back at me. He looked like he was about to pass out.

“You’re in the field today, right? Just make sure she doesn’t get too nosy

My stomach turned.

In the field today.

Was she talking about me? And had Thomas ced a tracker in my bag?

When?

Thomas hung up a secondter and wiped his palms on his jeans. He tried for a smile as he rejoined me at the table, but his eyes gave him away.

“Sorry about that. Just work,” he said, voice a little too bright. “You know how Mrs. Briggs can be.”

“Yeah,” I said, returning the smile just as tightly. “She seems… persistent for someone who is on a sick leave.”

Heughed, but it was shaky. Then he knocked over the salt shaker while reaching for his napkin.

He decided topletely steer the conversation in a different direction.

-So, um, I hope Sophia didn’t make this weird. I know as

asking you out through her was kind ofme-

“It’s fine,” I said smoothly, watching him closely now. “It’s just lunch.”

And it was. A casual lunch with a co–worker who apparently had ties to trackers, high–level promotions, and a hidden ‘incident the Bureau had never disclosed.

He gave a relieved little nad and tried to further distract me from whatever had just gone down, hoping I had not heard anything. “Sophia told me how she took you shopping. Did you like it?”

“Definitely,” I said with a smile I no longer meant. “More exciting than I expected.”

He nodded, eyes flicking around the cafe like he was checking for hidden microphones. Maybe he thought I hadn’t heard a thing. Maybe he thought I was still just the girl from work Sophia had nudged toward him out of boredom.

But I wasn’t bored.

I was suspicious.

And no amount of idental charm or, bumbling smiles would hide the fact that Thomas knew something.

My gaze flitted back to his hand that he brought up to start eating as if we had never been interrupted.

13:09

23 Aug

That band aid was still there.

I

And I was reminded about the break–inst night. About the injury on the intruder’s hand,

Was it a weird coincidence?