Page 85 of The Night Before Christmas
James sighed. ‘Come with me.’
Penguin Man opened a door at the top of the stairs, revealing a bank of computer screens in front of a huge black desk. Yet another thing in James’ house that resembled a movie set. In one corner stood a large Ficus in a black and silver plant pot andthere was an expensive-looking black leather chaise longue in front of the window.
Hattie could do with one of those.
‘Well, this is a very fancy office,’ said Felicity, immediately heading over to test the chaise longue. ‘It’s the sort of office James Bond would probably have, I imagine. You know, if he was real.’
‘Okay, so the whole James Bond thing… it’s not a million miles away.’
‘It’s not?’
‘Not a million miles. But don’t get too excited, remember?’
‘I promise.’
Too late.
James paused.
‘Are you going to tell me then, or what?’
‘I work for GCHQ,’ said James, with a shrug of surrender.
‘You are a spy! I knew it!’
‘Ha, no, sadly, nothing as exciting as that. I’m a software engineer. I work in their cyber security division. And that’s pretty much all I can tell you.’
‘Official Secrets Act?’ said Felicity, leaning back against the upright section of the chaise in what she hoped was a knowing manner. Bex had worked for the Cabinet Office in London for a while, and she’d had to jump through all kinds of security hoops.
Bloody Bex.
James nodded. ‘That’s just the start of it.’
‘Wow. It’s like the geekiest job ever. No wonder you were a bit secretive about it.’
‘Was I? I like to think I was being mysterious.’
Felicity raised an eyebrow. He was a civil servant, essentially. All the computer screens made her think of24with Jack Bauer even though she knew he wasn’t that kind of government agent. Disappointingly.
And then a thought struck her. A somewhat worrying thought.
‘James,’ she said slowly.
‘Yes?’
‘I hate to mention Adam after, well, the day we’ve had.’ James raised an eyebrow at that. ‘But when you said he came to your office…?’
‘Okay, I fibbed. He didn’t come to my office. How could he? Unless he’s a spy too, of course.’
Felicity laughed a little nervously. Not only had he omitted to mention this Olivia person he’d been seeing, but now he’d lied to her. For the first time that she was aware of, anyway. It wasn’t a good feeling.
‘So, I know I’m going to regret asking this question…?’
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that he came to the office, but I didn’t want to worry you.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Felicity, palms prickling.
James sighed and dropped down onto the chaise beside her.
