14

I would’ve given anything for clocks to stop. Since they didn’t, when my shift was over, I went back to the restroom, waiting for the other techs to leave so nobody I knew would see me go to the upper floors. I couldn’t help the black hole of angry helplessness welling in my belly as I took the stairs in the corner. No matter what happened next at the third floor, it wouldn’t be good for me. And there was nothing I could do about it.

The stiff lady behind the front desk seemed to remember me. The moment I walked out of the stairwell, she glanced at the masked guard a few steps away.

“Conference room twelve,” she said to him, and forgot about me to turn to her computer.

We walked past a couple of suits on the way down the hall. They were heading in the opposite direction, surely leaving for the day. The way they looked at me reflected how unusual my presence so close to the sanctum was.

Just like the first time, the guard knocked, stuck his head in for a heartbeat and pulled the door o