Page 78 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
She looked from one of us to the other. “Stop the disappearances? Does that mean someone out there knows what’s happening?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“And they need my help?”
Mutely, I nodded.
A line appeared between her eyebrows, the furrow that indicated she was deep in thought. “And you know this because…?”
I exhaled slowly. “Because I don’t work for a bank.”
No one moved for a long time. Expressions flickered across Amira’s face—worry, confusion, hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me before now?” she finally asked.
“There’s a lot we’re not allowed to say,” Lex told her.
Amira looked down at the brochure in her hand, but I could tell she was thinking. “You said they need mathematical expertise. I’m not a pure mathematician, though. I’m a physicist.”
“You’re literally the smartest person on the Eastern Seaboard,” I told her. “Maybe in the entire country. We both know it’s only a matter of time before they give you a Nobel. You can handle this.”
Eventually, she nodded. “Okay. I’m sick to death of sitting in this apartment, doing nothing. If I can help, I will. But then you andI are going to have a long talk about keeping secrets, Colin Harris. Is that clear?”
It was a relief tofinally tell Amira something closer to the truth. By unspoken agreement, however, Lex and I mentioned nothing about Abominations or ancient rituals or anything specific about Dark Enterprises. That was going to be a tough conversation, and we wanted to put it off as long as possible.
The three of us squashed onto the sofa and Lex spun some vaguely plausible narrative about what was happening in the city. “There’s an anomaly pulling people into…somewhere else. We think we have a way to stop it, but it’s going to require higher-order geometry that’s way beyond us.”
“An anomaly,” Amira repeated. “Do you know what caused it?”
“That’s a long story,” I said hurriedly. “Right now, we just need to stop it.”
Lex adjusted their glasses as they looked at Amira. “To contain the anomaly, we need to design a multidimensional space beyond standard spacetime. More specifically, we need to represent that space at a near-intuitive level.”
“Meaning what?” she asked with a bemused shake of her head.
Fussing with their mohawk, Lex cleared their throat. With another person, I would have said they were flustered, but this was Lex. They were never flustered—they flustered others. “You’d have to describe a space like that in terms that anyone can grasp. A blueprint, kind of, or a mental road map. Something they could follow to conceptualize the geometry in their own mind.”
I was impressed. Lex hadn’t sworn once in the whole time they’d been here. In fact, they sounded oddly formal. And they were lookingat Amira again, whose mouth had curved into a smile as she looked back. My eyes narrowed. What in the Sam Hill was going on?
“It’s a strange request,” she murmured. “I do like a challenge, though.” Then she shook her head again. “I’m aware of higher-dimensional geometry, but I’m hardly an expert. There are mathematicians out there who could do this better than me.”
“They’re not here,” I pointed out. “And I know you can do this.”
She was quiet for a moment, watching me. “This is all very weird. You know that, right? Countless thousands of people have vanished, and then I find out you work for a company that can stop it.” Her brow furrowed. “Is that why you’ve still been going to work rather than staying home?”
“Yup,” I said. “Absolutely.”
“And why is it just you two working on this? Where are your colleagues? Your bosses?”
Oh boy. We were about to start down a very slippery slope of inconvenient questions. Lex and I exchanged glances, but before either of us could think up a reply, my phone vibrated in my pocket and a gnarly guitar riff emerged from Lex’s. We’d both received an email.
From:Executive Board
To:General Employee List
Subject:Restricted Building Access
In an effort to deal with the ongoing Level 5 event, the board will be conducting an important and highly sensitive ritual on company premises. Due to the potential for catastrophicattrition, all nonessential personnel are hereby restricted from the New York office as well as adjoining realms of existence. (For a definition of “nonessential personnel,” please consult your employee handbook.)
Security personnel are now at threat conditionRED. Report immediately to stations onsite.
