Chapter Four - Getting to Know the Founders
After the first two days Hugo realized he didn’t actually have to read each file in the database right away. If he got a good look at them he could review them later in his head while he was doing pretty much anything else; he’d spend an hour combing through files and then would go for a smoke or a walk, or watch CJ destroy whatever the techs could throw at her in the labs.
Christian had jumped at the opportunity to add CJ to his team, and as they tested her abilities, she was learning some neat tricks; ways to incapacitate people without really hurting them. Hugo’s review of the database was giving her plenty of time to get in some training with Christian, and it kept her occupied. She was really excited about the prospect of being a bodyguard, not that Hugo thought he’d ever need one. Regardless, he was glad it would be her.
He’d completely forgotten about Ted until his file came up with a reference to another missing file. At this point there were 14 reference files in all that seemed to be completely missing from the database. Hugo decided to wait till he’d scoured the entire thing before bringing it up with Mr. Hansen, and he was almost done, probably just another half-day worth of work and he would have covered the entire database; however, he still needed to process a lot of the files to let Mr. Hansen know if there were any holes. So far, beyond the reference files, he hadn’t found any. The Vice President of Human Resources was very thorough.
Hugo pushed away from the desk and logged off; it was break time. He rubbed his eyes and emerged into the brightly lit hallway in search of coffee. The cafeteria, overseen by Mr. Gideon’s personal chef, was actually really nice. The coffee there was excellent, if a little lacking in caramel sauce. The cafeteria was pretty deserted, so Hugo checked his watch. It was almost 5:30. Crap it was late. He’d give it one more hour and then go home.
He poured a cup of coffee from the thermos clearly labeled caffeinated and dumped in cream and sugar, watching the cream swirl in the dark liquid. In the back of his mind he was going over more of the employee files. Nothing particularly interesting, most of the employees were non-powered scientists working in research. A lot of them were well respected in their fields; a few, like Dr. McFadden and the head of R&D, were among the top in the world. He was still trying to work out why they would hire a doctor whose specialty was degenerative diseases, but maybe the expansion of abilities worked that way, and she’d be able to provide some insight that they’d been lacking; a disturbing number of the original employees were deceased.
In a small corner of Hugo’s mind, he heard the soft clicking of heels, but didn’t acknowledge the sound until it was accompanied by a softly applied question. He looked up from the examination of his coffee, a little startled. “Huh?”
It was Dr. McFadden, staring at him with her eyebrows raised, a small smile on her lips. “Is the coffee alright? You were staring very intently at it.”
“Um, no…yeah. I was just thinking. It’s fine,” Hugo quickly moved out of the way of the row of coffee dispensers and condiments, “Sorry, I was in the way.”
The doctor shook her head, “No, don’t worry about it.” She began the careful and methodical preparation of her beverage, giving it due concentration.
Hugo fidgeted with the tiny straw he’d been using to stir in the sugar. Should he open his mouth again? This really would be an excellent time to ask her about Ted. Maybe she could tell him about the missing reference files. Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to talk about it. Mr. Hansen hadn’t said he couldn’t, and she obviously already knew about Ted. “Um…”
The doctor brought her attention back to him, “Yes?”
“Ted.” Ok, follow that up with a question, “You’re looking after Ted, right?”
She looked a little surprised at the question, but quickly recovered. Was he not supposed to know about Ted? “Ah, yes. Trying to anyway.”
“What’s wrong with him? I mean, I’ve seen his file, but I don’t understand a lot of it.”
“Oh well, you see, his ability to produce fire seems to have expanded beyond his conscious ability to contain it. There was a very rapid growth period over a year and a half ago and since then a lot of the manipulation has become subconscious, triggered by stress responses. As you’ve probably seen from the file, he’s already exploded twice, once in their old office in Chicago, and again three weeks ago in Seattle.”
Hugo nodded, “Yeah, I saw that, but I didn’t see any indication how he’d gotten out of the facility in the first place.”
Crysta shook her head, her expression containing a spark of irritation for a moment, “No one seems to know how that happened. He exploded, blowing a hole in his original room in this building, and when the smoke cleared, he was gone. He’d been missing for a full week before he showed up in my hospital.”
“Why did you join the company?”
The doctor laughed a little and took a cautious sip from her cup. “Well, I think they only offered me the position when I wouldn’t give up my patient without a fight. They were trying to move a man with what I originally thought was a very high fever. I wouldn’t let them go, so they took me with them. Once Ted was in his new room they explained about people with abilities and how some tended to degrade over time, and offered me a job. It was a chance to help people who weren’t getting all the medical attention they deserved because they were trying to keep their powers hidden.”
“Does it weird you out that people can do stuff that you can’t?”
The doctor laughed a little, shaking her head, “Of course not. I think it’s extraordinary, but I understand why you’d want to be cautious about sharing your abilities with the world. A lot of things could go wrong.” There was something about her expression, the way she looked slightly away and towards the ground, her hands tightening around the insulated paper cup that telegraphed something Hugo didn’t understand. He wanted to ask her, but couldn’t find the right question.
“I’m sorry I’m quizzing you. I’m sure you’d like to get back to work. Thanks for talking to me.”
The doctor’s bright smile returned., “Of course. Any time.”
Hugo dipped his head a bit and watched as she clicked her way out of the cafeteria. Then he sat down at one of the benches and stared at his coffee some more, occasionally sampling it as he added this new information to Ted’s file in his head. He wondered if he could get clearance to see Ted, ask him how he’d gotten in that little container on the pier. Someone had probably asked him already, and he’d probably told them he had no idea. His relocation certainly hadn’t seemed voluntary, but who could have moved him without burning themselves, or was able to predict when Ted would explode?
Someone who would put gasoline in his food. Hugo took his coffee to the security center. It probably wasn’t a good idea to talk to Christian, and an especially bad idea to bring up Sam and his unauthorized exit interview again, but he wanted to know what Christian had seen in the pharmacy, so he poked his head into the large, multi-monitor work area. There were a few of the security technicians in there, but no Christian. One turned at the sound of the door opening.
“Can I help you?”
“Uh,” Hugo resisted the urge to immediately backpedal out of the room, but couldn’t get himself to move further than the doorway, “I was looking for Christian, but maybe you can help me. I, um… I’m updating the employee database for Mr. Hansen and I needed some information about a former employee, Sam Hutchens. It’s about his exit interview. He says he doesn’t remember who was in the pharmacy at 12:00pm last Wednesday. Have you reviewed the footage from then?”
The technician looked at his buddy for support, who shrugged unhelpfully, and then turned back to Hugo, “Yeah, no one went in there during that time. We have footage of Sam heading to the cafeteria, but he was never in the pharmacy. Talked to a couple people in the halls on the way to the kitchen, but we interviewed all of them and didn’t come up with anything. He must have brought the vile in to work with him.”
“Yeah, why?”
Hugo rushed his response, “No reason. Thanks for your help, bye.” He backed out of the room before the security team members could say anything else and quickly closed the door. Crap crap crap. He did not like where his brain was going. Mr. Gideon wouldn’t poison his own employees, would he? According to his file he was obsessively worried about people liking him, he wouldn’t harm them. Maybe? Hugo quickly found himself outside on the front lawn, staring up at the building again. Would Mr. Gideon intentionally harm his employees? But then wouldn’t that mean Sam had been working with him? That didn’t seem likely, the guy had been really bewildered about what had happened. If he’d given Ted the gasoline he hadn’t done it on purpose. So Mr. Gideon had somehow tricked him, said something to him in the hallway and given him the vile. But why? Would the gasoline do anything besides poison Ted? Could it somehow work as an accelerant and make him explode again? Was Mr. Gideon trying to blow something up? It would have been terribly easy for him to transport Ted to that container with his portaling ability if he’d been around for the explosion. He wouldn’t have had to touch him or anything. But why?
Hugo dropped heavily onto a bench, staring up at the sky. His coffee was cold.
He really wanted to find Reference File #1. Mr. Gideon’s file.
The Sound of Wind Page 21
