Page 87 of The Refusal

“Press? Have we done anything to keep it within his company, put out anything to employees?”

“Okay. Okay. I hadn’t thought about it actually. I’ll chat to Janus straightaway.”

“Get some PR people briefed, and I’ll see you in about …”—I look at my watch; how fast could I get there?—“… less than an hour.”

47

Janus

“How did they get in?”

“Don’t know yet,” Fabian growls, his forearms resting on the stark white of the desk, skin tight under the tattoos, fidgeting with his ring. I lay a hand on his arm.

“It’s not your fault,” I say, but he shakes his head at me, lips thinning, face like a late-summer storm before the thunder breaks, dark clouds pressing in. I glance around at the heads leaning into screens, hands skating over keyboards. Two guys are discussing something in muted voices at a desk at the end of the row. No one is smiling.

“Working through all the possible entry points is taking too much time. After you guys shut down Hong Kong, they must have gone looking for other holes in the system like rats running through sewers. But where?” he says. “Fuck!” His hand slaps down hard on the surface right beside where I am standing over him.

My phone buzzes in my hand and it’s a picture of Jo, fast asleep on a sofa in Hong Kong, hair all over the place, mouth slightly open in sleep and—I thought at the time—all mine. My stomach contracts painfully.

“Jo?” I hold the phone to my ear. Some of her calm logic right now would be amazing. I draw in a deep breath for what feels like the first time today and squint at the wall. “Are you still in Korea?”

A pause settles over me like she’s wondering how I knew.

“I’m back. I’m on my way in. James rang me. I’m so sorry—”

“Don’t worry about it,” I cut her off. I’m not sure what she’s apologizing for; I’m the one who lost their temper. My voice drops low. “I’m sorry, too. I … I’m glad you called me.”

She’s in Jo professional mode; I can hear it in her voice. Fuck. I bury my free hand into my pocket, hunching over.

“Will I be able to get into the building?” she says.

“How far away are you?”

“About five minutes.”

“I’ll let the doorman know.”

“See you soon,” she says.

“Jo?” I pause, remembering Fabian’s words—that it wouldn’t take one thing to win her; one apology, one sacrifice. “I’m looking forward to seeing you.”

Her long sigh whispers over my ear like a secret. “Me too, Janus,” she says, and the line goes dead.

I pull back and stare at my phone, head down, a slow smile spreading over my lips. That’s good, right? If she’d met my comment with silence, all bets would have been off. I turn back to Fab, take in his still-hunched position and glance over his shoulder at the screen.

“Jo’s on her way in,” I say quietly.

But he doesn’t hear me. He’s muttering under his breath, something about making the fuckers pay. My hands hover over his shoulders briefly. I’ve seen him on edge like this before. Damn.

He loops some code through a test, and the blinking cursor after it’s run is an insult: nothing. Fab curses and puts his head in his hands. I lean back looking over the top of the guys working at the bank of screens. “I’m heading down to meet Jo,” I say loudly to no one in particular.

Matt raises his hand over his screen. James looks up and nods, and I nod back at him. He’s been so methodical, so organized in sorting this problem. At least half of Jo’s team is in here now checking for breaches and locking down whatever they can, while he and Fabian work on trying to find the hacker’s entry point. I head toward the door as he heads over to Fabian, sliding into the chair next to him and talking calmly to him as he touches his arm: Fabian straightens a bit in his seat. Good.

Heading down to reception, I examine myself in the stainless-steel wall of the elevator: not too bad. When I exit, an impending storm has made the space dark and the marble floor is washed with gray. I nod at the security guard behind the desk holding the fort on a Sunday, and he straightens: We must be ruining his quiet day.

‘All right, Mr. Phillips?’ he says.

‘Yeah, Jock, thanks. We’re working on some stuff today so there’ll be a few people in and out.’

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