“Who’s doing the talking?”
Marine shook her head. “I’m no good at that stuff. At people stuff.”
“You seem to do fine around me.”
“I know you.”
“Or do you?” I struck a mysterious pose. She shoved me. “No good? Come on, it twitched a little bit, right? Pulsated, maybe even?” I feigned a defeated sigh. “Fine, fine. You’re going to have to give me the card though. And the backpack.”
“Right. Yeah.” She handed them both over.
A guy with glasses, a tucked in shirt, and tan pants was walking toward the door at a steep angle. He was ahead of us a good ways, so it wasn’t ideal but we started walking toward the side entrance. He was going to get there before us but we couldn’t afford to seem to be in a rush. Talking loudly was about the best way to get a tailgate out of this guy.
“So anyway, the interview process is a breeze.” I started rambling at Marine. “Pretty basic, honestly. I mean, you already did all the pre-checks, right? So it’s not like they’re going to interrogate you.” I laughed loudly. Not even a glance from that fucking guy. I wanted to pick up my pace a little bit but Marine would have trouble seeming casual if I took bigger strides.
The door was open. Shit. We were nowhere near close enough. Pretty sure I saw headphone cables at the last minute. So much for chatter. It didn’t matter. We were way too far to catch the door even if I ran. The card was our only hope. I had a lot of reservations about it. If it didn’t work, Vircore likely logged camera output on failed swipes. Either way, I’d wanted to wait until we were inside to fail. More options that way.
“I’m scanning the card, Marine. No other way around it. I don’t want to loiter long enough for security to clock us.”
“Okay.” Her voice wavered. She was nervous. Don’t think I’d ever seen that side of her.
Truth be told, I was also nervous, to understate it almost entirely. The undabbed pizza from the morning was really doing me no favors either. My ass was a dam full of regrets. Still, it was a sturdily constructed dam at least.
I slapped the card flat against the scanner and nothing happened. Clenching became necessary. I flipped the card and the scanner made a soft buzz, vibrating just the least bit. A second passed and it beeped, the light going from yellow to blue. Not sure why they went with those colors, but they were pleasant. A nice change of pace. Much less judgmental than red and green.
The door clicked and I pulled it open. We came into a short hallway. Not what I’d expected. Hesitating might be odd if someone was watching. I kept reminding myself. This was a social game now. I had to know where I was going. Happy and confident that I belonged here. We came to the end of a hallway and I’d intended to just keep walking but a stern voice barked at me.
“Hold up.”
I looked. What was very clearly a security guard sat behind a short desk. He looked more like a SWAT team member than anything. Tactical vest, full of pockets. Had a hat with Vircore’s logo on it. He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Don’t know your face. You new?”
I laughed. “No. I wish. She might be.” I rolled my head toward Marine. “I work on fourteen.”
He looked over at Marine and back to me. “So you just decided to start coming through the side entrance?”
This was entirely more thorough than I’d hoped our conversation would be. “Decided? More like get the privilege. Been saving for a private car for like four years. Usually take the bus or the autopools. Lot of freaks on those things, man.”
He chuckled in agreement.
“But yeah, I normally come in up front with uh…” I rolled my head back, feigning a bad memory.
“Glenn?” People did love to be helpful.
“That’s him. Oh, jeez, I didn’t even think about it. Is she going to need a guest badge? Oh man, do we have to go all the way to reception?” I looked at Marine. “She’s interviewing and…”
He seemed to consider that for a minute, looking around his desk for badges, I guess. “She gonna stay with you?”
“Yeah.” I held up two fingers. “Honest injun.”
He chuckled again. “Don’t think we’re allowed to say that anymore.” A pause as he looked at Marine and then to me, smiling at him like a goofy moron. “Alright, you keep her close. It’s your ass more than mine if she wanders off.”
“Thanks, man.” I held out a hand. “I’m Jayden.” Worst name I could think of.
He stood, gripping my hand. “Charles. Call me Chuck.”
I cocked my head. “Oh? Good name. Strong. I’m jealous. Thanks again, man.”
“Don’t mention it.” He put his hands to his hips, happy to have helped us out. He smiled at Marine. “Good luck with your interview.”
“She’ll do fine,” I said, putting a hand on Marine’s shoulder. “I really sold her to the boss. Isn’t that right, Janey?”
“Well, good luck all the same… Janey?”
“Just Jane,” Marine offered, the first words out of her mouth. They were shy and meek but steady enough to pass for a girl on an interview. “Thank you so much.”
I turned and we started walking away. “See you on the way home, Chuck!”
He raised a hand to see us off and we moved into the office proper. Mantraps, not exactly clean,
