Page 16 of Static/Cling

“He’s built up a lot of electricity.” Leif hovered a hand about an inch above Bjorn’s shoulder. An arch of power snapped between his palm and Bjorn. He gritted his teeth and drew his hand away, flexing his fingers, but hiding it from Bjorn when he glanced up.

“You okay?” the big, dumb—fucking hell, the kind—idiot asked.

“Of course.”

“Thanks for… that,” Kassian muttered.

“Did you manage to kill the file this time?” Sal asked.

“No.” That he couldn’t do more to the file than track it bugged Kassian. His first glimpse of what it contained, weeks ago, had quickly been hidden behind a shell of encryption that all his subsequent attempts to pierce bounced off of.

“What are we going to do?” Sal asked. “We can’t just leave it out there.”

“I’m working on it, Sal.”

“You’re the best coder we have.”

He peered at them. “I’m the only coder you have.”

“You know what I mean.” They blew their bangs out of their eyes. “April keeps asking if you’ve destroyed the file yet and I have to keep telling her?—”

“I know, Sal.”

“It isn’t just her. I’m hearing all kinds of chatter about a secret list. People are starting to believe it’s real.”

“It is real.”

“I know. Obviously. But they sort of want to pretend it’s just a rumour, only they’re sort of thinking it might not be just rumour. It’s starting to feel like when Dad disappeared. There were rumours then, too.”

“This isn’t like then, Sal,” Kassian promised. Though he couldn’t promise them that, he tried to sound sure anyway.

Roger made a wounded sort of sound in his throat, and both newbies looked confused and worried.

Thank the universe, Sal’s phone rang at that moment to distract everyone.

They spoke briefly, then hung up with a sigh. “Apparently, there are about three dozen file boxes in the lobby that have to come up here.”

“Why?” Kassian asked.

Sal’s gaze flicked to Bjorn.

Of course. If he was going to get up to speed, he was not going to do it by reading files on the computer. Shit.

“Come on,” Roger said. “We’ll help.”

He’d look like an asshole—okay, a bigger asshole—if he didn’t help them, so Kassian locked his computer and trudged down the stairs after Sal and Roger, leaving Leif to keep Bjorn company while the latter put his boots back on.

Bjorn stood aside to let Sal and Roger past him on the stairs, each carrying a box filled with files. Half a floor later, he passed Kassian going up with three boxes. The man was a fucking mountain.

Sighing, he jogged down the rest of the way, bracing himself to open the door at the bottom.

“Wait!” Leif called. “Let me.”

“I gotta get rid of it somehow,” Bjorn reminded him.

“Not on a metal door. It’ll hurt.”

He wasn’t wrong, so Bjorn waited, letting Leif open the door for him. He grabbed two of the boxes, then started back up. He wasn’t such an idiot he would compete with Kassian. He knew his limits.

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