Chapter Three - A Promotion?
There was something wrong with Patrick. Hugo had watched the video of the doctor’s tests and he didn’t act right. He was 32 years old and he acted like CJ. When he’d asked Mr. Hansen about it, he’d diagnosed Mr. Smith as a sociopath. And they were still going to employee him. It made Hugo nervous. He would try and stay away from Patrick as much as possible.
Since there wasn’t another recruitment assignment coming up, Hugo had started reading. He and CJ explored the building and Hugo gathered recommended reading lists from Mr. Hansen and Dr. McFadden in the areas of Psychology and Genetics. He’d never really been a big reader, but it was neat being able to remember everything. He could actually recall the stuff he was reading and apply it. Psychology was obvious; it made it easier for him to see what people weren’t telling him. Although reading about it came with its own set of problems. He couldn’t seem to stop analyzing every sentence, and every gesture of anyone he interacted with. Genetics was a hunch. If that was where these abilities lay, he wanted to be able to understand it too.
Hugo had started talking to the staff, getting to know the people that worked there, but he still couldn’t find the exploding man, and he was too afraid to ask anyone directly. Maybe there was a basement level he couldn’t access? He started looking for one. All he had to tell CJ was that he wondered if there might be hidden areas in the building and she was more than willing to help him in the search. The elevators were his best bet because some of the floors required badge access that he didn’t have, and he had no idea how to get one short of stealing, and he knew for sure he’d get caught.
Hugo stared at the little badge panel in the elevator. He’d just left CJ in the test labs and was heading outside to smoke. The doors opened on the fourth floor and Dr. McFadden got on with one of the technicians Hugo hadn’t talked to yet, in tow. Dr McFadden’s eyes were narrow, her lips pursed together. She barely acknowledged Hugo’s presence with a curt ‘good afternoon.’ Hugo stayed quite in the back of the elevator, hands in his pockets.
“What do you think you were doing, Sam?”
The technician was fidgeting and sweating; staring pleadingly at the doctor. “I don’t know, it was an accident. It was just supposed to be the sedative!”
“An accident?” The denial just seemed to fuel the doctor’s rage. She wasn’t shouting, her voice was even and calm, but sometimes that was much worse. “You injected Ted’s food with raw gasoline. How can you confuse benzodiazepine and gasoline exactly?”
“I-I don’t know. I picked it up in the pharmacy! I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was given, I promise.”
“But there is no gasoline in the pharmacy, Sam. I checked. You brought that in yourself.”
“But-”
“You know what? Save your excuses for Mr. Gideon. I’m sure he’d love to hear how you jeopardized Ted’s safety because of an accident.”
“But…” the doors to the elevator slid open on the ground floor and reluctantly Hugo slid out between them, apologizing as he did. Neither scientist even noticed. Hugo continued out of the building to smoke even though he really wanted to follow them up to Mr. Gideon’s office, but it’s not like Sandra would have let him listen in on the conversation.
Ted? Hugo had met a couple Ted’s so far, but neither of them had any abilities, so they didn’t require any treatments, let alone intravenous sedatives. There were a few people with abilities staying at Gideon Enterprises that weren’t exactly employees of the company but were working with the lab assistants. Hugo had met a few of them as well, and none of them were named Ted. So there was a Ted who needed sedatives, and the doctor knew him. Maybe she would be willing to talk to him.
Hugo took a step back towards the doorway but then had to jump backwards as lightning shot up out of the ground, then fizzled into CJ.
“Guess what we found out!” She nearly yelled. She was bouncing on her toes and grinning widely. The few seconds it took for Hugo to recover from the shock and open his mouth to answer took too long, “I can totally go through stuff! I mean, I gotta be careful about wires and things because I fry electronics if I go through them, but I am now officially the best spy ever!”
Hugo’s smile was genuine, “That’s awesome CJ!”
“And you know what? I’ve already found a secret room! It’s a giant concrete thingy with a dude in it, but I didn’t talk to the dude because he was asleep. It’s pretty far below the lab that they let me break stuff in.”
“What did the guy look like?”
“A dude? Brown hair, scruffy, um…yeah!”
“Good job, CJ.”
The girl glowed, literally. It was almost like she was getting ready to turn to lightning again, but just hadn’t quite gotten to it.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go, Sam.” They looked over to find Mr. Gideon escorting the technician out of the building, an arm amicably around the man’s shoulders. “It really is a shame, but we can’t have you endangering the lives of our patients now can we?”
Sam nodded in response. He looked close to tears. “I’m so sorry sir, I don’t know what happened. Really I don’t.” Mr. Gideon pat the man on the back. He was still smiling, but it was full of regret; he was genuinely upset about firing this guy.
“It’s ok, Sam. We’ll send someone over to discuss the severance package with you once you’ve had some time to consider your actions, alright?” Sam nodded. “Ok, thank you for your time, Sam, please don’t be upset about this. These things happen.”
“Thank you Mr. Gideon.” They shook hands and then Mr. Gideon waved and headed back into the building. Sam walked to the parking lot.
Let it go Hugo. This is absolutely none of your business. Just figure out if you can talk to Dr. McFadden about Ted and leave it at that. You do not need to find out what this guy was doing, “CJ, can you tail people?”
From her expression alone, he would have guessed that CJ had just won a million dollars. “You bet I can. They wouldn’t even know that I was there.”
“Great. Can you follow that guy,” Hugo inclined his head towards the technician that was just sliding into his car, “and let me know when he gets home. I want to talk to him.”
“Aye aye, Captain!” CJ saluted and then sparked, jolting into the ground. Oh god, what had he done?
He needed an excuse to talk to the guy. It had to be one that would allow him to discuss how he got fired, but he didn’t exactly know anything about the severance package. An exit interview? He’d never had one himself, but he knew at fancier companies you usually got one, at least if you voluntarily terminated employment. He needed a clipboard.
The Sound of Wind Page 16
