“You wanted to see me, Mr. Buchanan?”

Chloe stepped into the office and forced a brave front, knowing from her boss’ tone on the call she had just received that whatever he had to talk about was serious.

Bill looked up from the printouts he had before him and nodded his head toward the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat.” He lifted his reading glasses from his face and placed them next to the picture of Karen and him on their two-month anniversary.

Nervous as ever, Chloe sat, smoothing the pleats in her skirt uselessly while studiously eluding his gaze. She knew now that whatever it was, it had to do with her and not some threat to the world. And if it had to do with her, not work, then that narrowed the possibilities greatly – so greatly, in fact, that she was now almost sure of the reason he had called her into his office in the first place.

Bill picked up on the avoidance easily and used the moment of vulnerability to get her off-guard. “What have you been up to these last four months?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play games with me, Chloe.” He thrust the papers in her direction and sat back in his leather desk chair. “I’ve been going through Milo’s status reports for some time now and certain things don’t add up. Your searches on the Etudes server don’t match with the tasks at hand. Your time logs for sequencing modules are at odds with the Etudes files and your go-between data is irrelevant to the modules.”

Staring at the floor, Chloe chewed furiously on the inside of her lower lip and decided that she’d been had. That lying about it anymore would only make things worse and she couldn’t afford that. Jack couldn’t afford that.

“I’ve been trying to find him,” she whispered.

Bill swallowed. She’d confirmed his suspicions, but he hadn’t thought it would be that easy to get it out of her. He folded his hands on his lap and pressed up with his toes, tilting himself back in his chair slightly. “And you didn’t think to cover your tracks a little better?”

“You’re the only one that has access to all of those reports, sir,” Chloe admitted, keeping her head down to evade the heavy stare she knew was boring into the top of her skull. “I didn’t think that you would review them that closely. The routes I would’ve used to erase the information would’ve taken longer and aroused more suspicion.”

“Chloe, why didn’t you bring me in on this?”

Chloe looked up at that, the shock registering clearly on her face. That was not what she had expected him to say.

Bill took the opportunity to explain himself. “Listen, I know that Jack and I don’t have the type of relationship that you do, that I haven’t known him as long as some of the people around here, but that doesn’t exclude the fact that what’s happening to him is wrong. My hands may be tied on the surface, but if there’s anything I can do, any strings I can pull or any calls I can make, I’ll do it.”

“But, Mr. Buchanan – I’m just an analyst. You’re the director. If we got caught doing what we’re doing, they’ll come down much harder on you. Your head’ll be on the proverbial chopping block.”

“Then we won’t get caught,” Bill offered resolutely. He knew that was a lame placation that didn’t provide much in the way of his motivation, but the offer still stood.

He cleared his throat and gestured to the worn manila folder that was sitting next to his keyboard. “I’ve read that file from front to back half a dozen times. I’m aware of the sacrifices he’s made for this country – it’s high-time that someone started making some sacrifices for him.”

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