Page 67 of Coldwire
My ears are screeching with white noise when I nod. I don’t glance around further in search of other screens. I’m not sure what else I’ll see. Once I’ve read and comprehended direct instructions from my superior,I can’t act against it. Even if there’s something here, information I’m hungry for right within grasp. Blare has just as much admitted that they were present during my final posting. Each time I watch Miz touch her nose, fold her arms, grumble a complaint, it’s uncannily familiar. And Nik—Nik Grant, most of all, activates an instinct in me that I cannot understand. There’s a pull in my gut to pay attention to his every move, that tells me I ought to be looking for something specific, and I don’t knowwhat.
“You go ahead to wait on an elevator,” I say to Blare. “I can buy buns.” I stand. “Also, give me some money.”
18LIA
Kieren hauls me to my feet, still grinning when I pat the dust off my backside.
“Something funny?” I seethe.
“You are, Ward.” He looks around. “Find anything yet?”
“I didn’t get a chance to search.” No thanks to him and his incessant loud-mode messages. “I think we should rummage through possible hiding places and then call it a day. If he stored anything, it would more likely be downcountry.”
The office is sparse. The article printout is an anomaly—there’s no other decoration, save for an ornamental cat penholder on the desk, and I could argue that’s a necessity. Naturally, Kieren’s eyes gravitate toward the photo with Dad.
“Is that—”
“Yes,” I cut in. “I’ve already looked at the article it came from. Nothing useful for right now.”
Kieren pauses. His mouth opens, poised to speak, before he suddenly presses his lips together. I must have frowned in response, because a flash of alarm crosses his gaze when our eyes meet.
“What?” I ask. “Do you disagree?”
“No,” he says quickly. “I’ll check the shelves.”
He hurries into a crouch, running his hands along the lower brackets. I’m left blinking at his back. That was strange, but I can’t exactly pick an argument with him about it. It would sound bizarre to ask Kieren why he seemed afraid to ask me more questions. About Chung. About my dad.
I shake my head, redirecting my focus. Since Kieren’s on the shelves, I take the desk, turning on the screens. Chung’s profile is down. That’s probably something the data center did after he deleted their program and disappeared.
I kneel below the desk, peering at the items underneath. Two shoeboxes with different pairs of running shoes. I follow each of the wires to make sure they plug into the appropriate ports and confirm that there’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Kieren clicks his tongue when I poke my head out from underneath the desk.
“Did you find something?” I ask.
He turns around, a small box in his hands. “What’s this?”
A jewelry box, I’d guess. I’m frowning before I approach, both my hands splayed out eagerly for him to pass it over.
“It doesn’t open,” Kieren reports.
He sets the box in my hands. Itcouldbe a jewelry box, even if it’s on the smaller side, but then again, I’m not sure what that would be doing in Chung’s office. The surface is made of metal, only interrupted by two hinges along the razor-thin line that hints at where the box ends join.
I give it a tug. It doesn’t budge. I shift my fingers, squeezing from the sides instead, and the entire box pulses.
“Did you see that?”
“What?” Kieren asks. “You got it open?”
The box cracks open on my next attempt, its insides smooth and red and velvet, answering Kieren’s question and revealing a key. It’s no longer than my index finger, but the teeth are round rather than jagged, different lengths from end to end.
“This is so strange,” I mutter, picking up the key. “Why would—”
I almost clear the display intrusion out of sheer habit. It’s one of those auto-banners that the academy likes to send, the warnings if I’ve knocked into campus property or the countdowns if I’m too far away from class and it’s getting close to the bell. This banner, though, has movement. After my eyes scan it once, the pixels disintegrate.
Don’t say anything.
My throat constricts.
