Page 85 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
I hadn’t realized such a list existed, and I needed to stop her from checking it. “Do you know who Ms.Crenshaw is?” I inquired, keeping my voice light but allowing my smile to fade.
Skye blinked once. “Of course.”
“Great. Do you want me to call her right now and let her know that you’ve prevented two essential employees and a key consultant from entering the building during a Level 5 emergency?” Skye opened her mouth to reply and I added in a slightly harder tone, “Do you really think the CEOforgotto put our names on the list?”
“I—”
“You know what? I’m going to call her.” I pulled my phone from my pocket.
“That won’t be necessary,” the receptionist assured me, her cool facade cracking ever so slightly. “If Ms.Crenshaw arranged things herself, then of course you can enter.” She touched something next to her keyboard. “I’ve unlocked the elevators, and I’ll issue Dr.Davis a temporary ID so that she’s not incinerated.”
Amira made a strangled sound behind me.
Taking the temporary ID from Skye, I murmured, “Wonderful. You have a great evening.” I rapped my knuckles on the desk in a brisk farewell before turning toward the elevators, the others’footsteps following me as we crossed the lobby. I could feel the receptionist watching, and it took real effort not to run.
Lex muttered, “Wow, you’ve really mastered the ‘condescending prick’ part of being an executive assistant.”
I gave them a look as I passed the ID badge to Amira. “It worked, didn’t it? I doubt she’ll dare to check with Ms.Crenshaw. Everyone is a little on edge after all those people died yesterday.”
“Wait a minute,” Amira started to say, “what—?”
I interrupted hastily, “Oh look, here’s the elevator!”
Lex had suggested that we squirrel ourselves away in the Repository, since it was filled with obscure nooks and crannies where no one would notice us. When we arrived, we found it eerily empty, our echoing footsteps the only noise. Amira kept stopping every two or three paces to stare around in amazement, goggling at the massive atrium rising overhead. “This shouldn’t be possible,” she said in a hushed voice as she looked up at the vaulted ceiling. Then she punched me in the arm, hard. “I can’t believe you kept all this from me!”
“Ow,” I complained. “Why is everyone punching me today?”
“I work in here,” Lex pointed out casually, and puffed out their chest a little when Amira looked at them with an admiring gaze.
“It must be amazing.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” Lex agreed. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were preening under her scrutiny. Then, clearing their throat, they added, “We should get moving. The safest place to camp out is the Obsolete section. No one ever goes there.”
It took us almost fifteen minutes of walking to reach the highest level of the Repository and then back through a seemingly endless series of bookshelves. The air grew mustier as we went along, and I noticed a thin film of dust coating the books and scrolls we passed.Lex changed course a couple of times until we reached a corner where two towering walls of bookshelves met. A couple of grimy, neglected tables sat nearby.
“Okay.” Lex wriggled out from under their backpack and the tablet inside, then set it down with a sigh. “We should be good. I don’t think anyone has been back here in years.” They ran a finger along the cracked spine of a book and left a clear swath in the thick layer of dust.
“You said this is the Obsolete section?” Amira asked as she drifted closer to a shelf and tilted her head to read the titles there.
“Yeah. It’s where we store the materials no one wants or needs anymore. Everything here has been debunked or supplanted or revealed to be fake.”
“So why do you keep this stuff if it’s useless?” I asked as I set my messenger bag on the beige carpet.
“We don’tdestroy books, Colin,” Lex said in a scandalized tone.
Shrugging, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the seal. “Remember this? You said it’s what Management used to focus Their binding. Could you use it to do the same thing?”
Lex turned it over in their fingers, squinting at the sigils incised on its surface. “I’d forgotten you had this, but yeah, this should be super useful.”
I beamed.
“So I’m on translation duty,” Lex went on, “and Amira is taking care of the math. What are you going to do?”
Placing my hands on my hips, I stared dramatically into the middle distance. “I have an idea so crazy it might just work.” Pausing for effect, I then proclaimed, “I intend to masterthe most powerful of arcane arts!”
Lex sighed. “What?”
I relaxed my dramatic pose. “Look, I don’t want to brag, but in college I got my elven wizard Sepharius the Splendiferous to level twenty inCastles & Chimeras. So I think I know a little something about magic.”
