The Unseen Trilogy

by Stephanie Erickson

  I didn’t go to my apartment. Instead, I wandered a few blocks over to a café, wanting to get far enough from Agusto’s office to be out of range of any spies, but not too far. I ordered a cup of coffee and sat down with the form, reading it over. I tried to skip down to the meat of it, but even then I was bored with the legalese.

  David? I asked as I scanned the document.

  What, are you done already? Did you blow it?

  No! Why would you even ask me that? Total confidence in me, huh? I teased. I knew he was just anxious about how the mission was going, but I couldn’t let that one go.

  He didn’t answer me, and I knew he was waiting for some real information. So I got straight to it. The job is mine, if I sign this super long and boring confidentiality agreement.

  We expected that. Make a copy of it before you sign it, just in case you need to reference it later. But go ahead and sign it. After all, Joyce Nye doesn’t exist. She can’t be legally bound to anything. I’ve double and triple checked with the attorneys in our system. You’ll be fine. He may ask you about it though, so try to read it carefully and understand what it says.

  Will do. With that green light, I finished my coffee and studied the rest of the agreement.

  Turned out the confidentiality report was everything I expected. Basically I was selling my soul to Agusto and his company, and if I had a problem with that, my only option was to not sign the form. I didn’t have the luxury of having a problem with it, so I just signed it, trusting that David was right and the form was the least of my problems.

  I made a copy of the form at a local office and returned to the lion’s den just after lunch. The receptionist summoned the same guard, who silently ushered me through the various levels of the building and back to Agusto’s office.

  “You’re back quickly. You obviously didn’t have a lawyer read it over.” His tone was very judgmental, as if I’d already made a misstep.

  “Actually, I have a lawyer friend downtown. I went straight from here to her office. She advised me not to sign it. I believe her exact words were: ‘No job is worth it.’”

  He laughed. “Then why did you sign it?”

  “Because I want to work for the great Agusto Masterson. You’re trying to save the world after all.”

  He snorted, and it sounded almost like disgust, but I didn’t know him well enough to distinguish his moods yet.

  “All right, good. Once you’re settled in, take that form to human resources.” I nodded, and he kept talking. “I suppose now is as good a time as any for you to meet one of the most valuable members of my staff. Aside from me, she’s the one you’ll be working with most.”

  He turned around and pressed a call button on his phone. “Amanda, come in, won’t you? I’ve selected a new assistant.” He didn’t wait for her response before turning back around.

  Amanda. The name hit me like a semi. It couldn’t be her. It wouldn’t be her. Amanda was a common name.

  A door opened that I hadn’t noticed in my earlier inspection. It was seamlessly placed between two paintings and a guard. As it was on our side of the river, she didn’t have to cross over the rock as she approached us.

  My mouth went dry in an instant. She’ll recognize me. I should kill her before she has the chance. Either way, my whole cover is blown. Shit, what do I do? I didn’t chance a glance at the guards; in fact, I didn’t take my eyes off her. She was more smartly dressed than the last time we’d seen each other, but the joy seemed to have disappeared from her eyes. They were tired and sunken, her skin seemed to have taken on a sickly tone, and even her hair looked stringy and unhealthy. Something had happened to her, or maybe was happening to her still.

  A bony hand reached out to me, and I examined her rail-thin arm. She’d lost weight. “I’m Amanda Pierce. I’m the vice president of Agusto’s largest company AMHC.”

  I looked at her blankly, unable to make my mind process and respond. She was the vice president of his largest company. I remembered Davis saying something about a new VP being recently appointed, but I had never dreamed it would be her. This mission had just become a minefield for me, and I suddenly wished someone else had been chosen.

  “Well, Agusto, seems like you picked an intelligent one,” Amanda said. Clearly, whatever disappointments or setbacks she’d faced hadn’t affected her sarcasm and contempt for others.

  Agusto smiled at us, seemingly enjoying the verbal thrashing. “Amanda takes her job very seriously. She’s learned what’s at stake when you work for me. Soon, you will too.”

  Was that a threat? My mind was awhirl, and I was having trouble keeping up. I dreaded the moment I’d have to speak in front of her. Surely, she would recognize my voice. By some miracle, the Unseen’s disguise seemed to be good enough to fool a woman I’d lived with for eighteen years. But my voice would undoubtedly give the whole thing away.

  “Amanda will show you around today, and she’ll help you get your work phone set up so I can reach you easily. I’ll let you know when you are needed. Enjoy.” With that, he turned back around, leaving Amanda and me staring at his back, except she didn’t look for long. She turned and walked briskly away, leaving me to scurry to catch up to her.

  Her office was significantly smaller than Agusto’s. Long and narrow, it only had a few windows on the back wall, and it was much more sparsely decorated. The river disappeared beneath the wall between the rooms.

  “What happened to the river?” I asked, and then slammed my mouth shut, angry with myself for letting curiosity overcome my common sense. I hadn’t even tried to mask my voice or add an accent.

  Well, that’s done it. Pack your bags, you’re going home…if you’re lucky and she doesn’t have it out with you right here, right now.

  Curiosity clouded her expression, as if something nagged at the back of her mind. She ignored it, for the moment. “Agusto doesn’t come into my office, so the river doesn’t need to be in here.” Her tone was short, as if the answer was so obvious she couldn’t believe I’d wasted her time with the question.

  Taking a breath, I hoped I could gather some patience if I was to spend so much time with her in the coming weeks. I wasn’t mentally prepared to work so closely with someone I’d spent my life trying to escape, so it took some work to get my mind right.

  Her small desk near the windows faced out into the room, and the office was decorated with a few plants, a floor lamp in one corner, bookshelves lining one wall, and a plush chair. That was it. It was nice, but after seeing the grandeur that was Agusto’s office, it fell a little short for me. I almost felt bad for her, having that dichotomy rubbed in her face every time she went in there. It was like a constant message that she wasn’t as good as Agusto, and therefore wasn’t as deserving.

  “You will not have an office. You won’t need it. You will be much too busy and mobile for that. Everything you need will be kept in here, files and things of that nature. If you need access to a computer, there’s a lab downstairs you can use. Come with me, and I’ll show you.”

  We walked out and down the hall to the elevator. While we were there, she handed me a card. “That’s your keycard, so you can get back up to the executive level.”

  For the first time, I noticed there was a slot below the numbers on the elevator’s keypad. I had hadn’t noticed it on the way up, both times. Reasons I probably should’ve been paying attention instead of feeling out the guard’s mind.

  “I don’t have time to hold your hand and give you a tour of the entire building,” she said as the elevator came to a stop, “but I’m going to show you where you can find the things you’ll need most.” She led the way out, keeping such an intense pace, I had trouble keeping up with her. It was even worse than walking with Tracy through the airport on our first mission together. At least I’d been comfortable with Tracy.

  We didn’t go in any of the rooms, she simply gestured to them as we walked by. “There’s the computer lab. This is the cafeteria, although there are some good places to eat outside
this building too, if you can afford it.” She smiled sidelong at me, as if looking down her nose.

  I let the comment roll off me, trying to concentrate on absorbing everything she was saying, but the pace of the tour was too frantic. I knew I’d have to ask for directions when she wasn’t around.

  We walked to the end of the long hall and entered a huge, cold room, with machines stacked all the way to the ceiling for what seemed like hundreds of yards. “This is our IT department. They will issue you your work phone and all your security clearances. I’m going to leave you here for a few moments. Think you can manage?” I answered her condescending tone with a sweet smile. She responded by rolling her eyes and walking away in a huff.

  I exhaled when she was gone, releasing some of the tension I’d been feeling since her sudden appearance in Agusto’s office.

  Get a hold of yourself. You’ll give yourself away if you’re not careful. Take a breath. She hasn’t recognized you yet. Just step carefully and you should be fine…at least for long enough to get what you need and get out.

  Standing up a little straighter, I walked the short distance to the man sitting at the desk in the front corner of the room. Apparently, he was very involved in whatever task he was doing, because he didn’t look away from his computer as I approached.

  I cleared my throat, but that didn’t work either, so I resorted to speaking to him. “Um, I’m supposed to get my phone and security clearance from you?”

  “Name?” His eyes were still glued to the computer.

  “Joyce Nye.”

  “Card, please.” It was a statement, not a request.

  I handed over the keycard Amanda had given me, and he inserted it into a slot in his computer. “You’ll have limited access to most areas of the company, including servers and network access. Put your card in the slot next to the computer you’d like to use, and you’re set.” He removed the card and handed it back to me, finally making impatient eye contact.

  I grabbed the card from him, not wanting to occupy more of his time than was necessary. He went back to his computer, leaving me rather awkwardly standing there.

  “Um…the phone.”

  Reluctantly, he looked at me and audibly sighed. It pushed me over the edge. “Look, I know everyone in this company has a ridiculously high work ethic, and whatever you’re doing is a million times more important than dealing with me, but for right now, I’m your job. Take care of me, and I’ll be out of your hair a lot faster than if you keep on giving me attitude.”

  He rolled his eyes so hard I almost asked him what his brain looked like, but then he opened a drawer beneath him. Pulling out a very expensive smartphone, he started toggling from screen to screen. “I’ll let you set up your own password,” he finally said. “Your company email is on here, as well as Internet access. I’m setting up your clearance level now, and you should be good to go. Agusto’s number is already programmed into it. His is the only saved number, so it’s not hard to find.”

  As soon as he held the phone out to me, I took it from him. “Thank you.” I hoped I’d find at least one friendly person within Agusto’s company. But I wasn’t there to make friends. I was there to do a job. Making friends would probably just make that job harder.

  I should just adapt a cold personality, like everyone else here, I thought. It’d be safer.

  Amanda was walking toward the IT room at a breakneck speed just as I was leaving. “Good. You’re done. Let’s grab a coffee.”

  Again, I was thrown off. She wanted to do something social? She’d acted so annoyed with me, so why would she want to get coffee? Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe Agusto had asked her to do it. I sighed internally, deciding that maybe she just took pleasure in keeping the people around her off balance.

  We walked to a little cafe just around the corner from the office. “We have twenty minutes before I have to be at a meeting, and you should start learning your way around.”

  She’s telling me to hurry up and drink my coffee, I thought.

  We sat down at a small table near the window. She ordered black coffee. Didn’t even put any sugar in it. Very utilitarian, get the job done with as little frills as possible. I, on the other hand, liked frills, especially when it came to coffee, so I ordered the most sugary drink on the menu, completed with whipped cream and caramel sauce on top. She frowned as I sipped my drink, but I didn’t care. It was delicious.

  “Tell me about yourself. Where do you come from? What’s your background?”

  “I grew up in Colorado. I graduated from Stanford a few years ago, worked for Apple for a while, and now I’m here. Not a terribly interesting story.”

  “So, you’re ambitious. What made you leave Apple?”

  “I was ready for a change of scenery. Plus, California is so expensive.” I shrugged as I sipped my drink again.

  She frowned as she watched me. “Not the brightest choice, I would say.”

  “Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Not the safest choice? Maybe. Not the best choice for my career? Debatable. But it wasn’t stupid.”

  Her mouth hung open for a few beats, then she closed it and smiled. “I think I’m going to like you.”

  Relaxing a little, I ate my lunch in silence for a bit. Then she asked me another question.

  “You’re really from Colorado, huh? I had you pegged as a Florida girl. You sound just like someone I knew who grew up there.”

  My heart stopped for a moment, and I struggled not to show my distress outwardly. Keep drinking your coffee, swallow, and smile at her. Don’t give her a reason to suspect you, now that you’ve finally started to build a relationship.

  I just nodded as I sipped my drink, and after a moment, she glanced at her watch. “We’d better go. You’re on your own for the rest of the day. I’ll check in with you a little later. Where’s your phone?” I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her, grateful this suit had pockets at all, let alone ones big enough for a smartphone.

  She punched in her information with so much vehemence, I felt sorry for the phone. Tossing it back onto the table, she said, “There, now you have my number. Text me if you need anything.” She got up and gathered her things, then turned to look back at me. “Are you coming?”

  For a second, I’d thought she would give me a moment alone. But no, she stood there waiting for me, so I stood and followed her back across enemy lines.

  By the time we got back, there wasn’t much time left in the day, but I decided to spend it exploring the building, trying to learn where things were. The first floor was where the computer lab and cafeteria were located. The second floor mostly consisted of the offices of people who worked under the AMHC umbrella. I tried to introduce myself to a few of them, but they were all pretty cold. The third floor was the executive area. I didn’t know who else was up there, so I decided not to poke around. I didn’t feel the need to get fired on my first day.

  I carefully probed the people I passed to get a feel of what I was up against. It turned out to be a mixed bag of readers and non-readers, split almost evenly by my count. If Agusto’s company really was a Potestas’ hotbed, why weren’t they all readers?

  By five o’clock, I was feeling good about the building itself, but I hadn’t heard a peep from Agusto. Amanda finally texted me.

  How’s it going?

  Good! I think I’ve learned my way around.

  Good. What did you get done today?

  …I learned my way around. What else had she expected me to do? It wasn’t like anyone had assigned me any tasks.

  That’s it? I could feel her eyes rolling through the phone.

  That’s it. But I did it well.

  Well, good. See you in the morning. It was too hard to detect her tone via text. I could only hope I was still on her good side.

  Is it weird that Agusto hasn’t been in touch?

  No. He needs to trust you.

  How can he trust me if I never see him?

  Don’t be impatient. Pretty soon he’ll be texting
you more than you want. I’m done talking to you now.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at her response. I could practically hear the snark in her voice as I read the message.

  Relieved to be, well, relieved, I walked out of the building and headed back to my apartment. I kept my phone on, just in case either of them needed anything that night. I hoped I hadn’t squandered the only day I’d have alone by learning the layout of the building and scoping out the enemy. I could’ve gone deeper and potentially learned more, but I was trying to be discreet. And the guy I really needed to get to know wasn’t quite ready to let me into his circle.

  As I climbed the stairs to my apartment, exhaustion flooded me. I still needed to touch base with David and the others, but I was so tired. I’d been up long before sunrise, after getting very little sleep for the past two nights, and the stress of the day was wearing on me.

  Just as I put the key into the door, my phone buzzed.

  Bring me a Reuben. It was from Agusto. It didn’t say where he was, but I knew better than to question him. He was probably still at the office. If he wasn’t there, then I’d start asking. There was a risk I’d waste time, but they needed to know I was willing to figure stuff out on my own.

  Be there in 15 or less, I texted back. I’d really be S.O.L. if he wasn’t in his office, but it was best to dive in with both feet, right?

  Taking the key out of the door, I turned and ran back down the stairs, searching for the closest deli on my phone as I went. I ran to the shop, ordered a Reuben, some chips, and a drink to be safe, and hustled back to the office. I arrived outside the cherry double doors with two minutes to spare, but I was pretty sure my feet were bloodied from the experience.

  Because I was supposed to be there, I didn’t knock before entering. I walked into the room with confidence, maneuvered over the river without dropping his meal into the water, and stopped at his desk. Luckily for me, he was sitting there with his back to me, but I didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief for having guessed correctly.