Page 23 of Static/Cling

He turned his attention back to his task. He had to reconfigure his sniffer to look like something else, get back in, and find that file before it landed on the wrong person’s desk and put them all in jeopardy.

At one point, Leif came by, took away his coffee cup, but brought it back filled again with steaming liquid. Later, he left a bottle of water and a sandwich, neatly cut into bite-sized pieces speared with individual toothpicks that he could easily eat with one hand.

The office lights hummed overhead. Voices drifted in and out of his periphery.

Bjorn and Roger left for a time, but came back with more boxes, though Kassian didn’t stop to see what kind of boxes.

Leif brought him more coffee and a fruit salad.

The metal filing cabinet rattled every now and then.

Once in a while, the lights flickered. Each time that happened, he held his breath, but the wiring held, and the computers didn’t go out again.

Suit or no suit, he should probably get better-insulated wiring installed.

For an intense hour or two late in the afternoon, Sal’s terse tones snapped orders into their headset, and a flurry of activity told him whoever they were talking to might need backup.

Roger was gearing up to go out, but that, too, faded into the background, and eventually, petered out without him going anywhere.

Finally, his sniffer was ready, the path he wanted to set it on scoped out, and he let it loose. Either it would find the file again,or it would lead anyone who spotted it on a merry chase through enough phishing, pirating, and porn sites they would need a lot of brain bleach and a complete reformat to get over the trip.

Lesson learned. He was not going to get caught out again, and potentially lead anyone right back here.

He sat back in his chair, groaning at the kink in his neck, but satisfied.

“What did you find out?”

The voice made him jump, as soft as it was.

“Sorry.” Leif set a hand on his shoulder, and another cup of hot coffee appeared on the desk next to Kassian’s mouse pad.

He turned to face him, sadly dislodging his gentle touch, but picking up the coffee and bringing it to his lips with a sigh. The guy made amazing coffee. “Nothing yet.” Behind the small man, the windows were dark, the sun having long ago gone down.

He saw no sign of Roger or Sal. Probably Roger had left hours ago, and Sal might be taking a nap on the old couch in the back of the storage room. With nothing going on, they both tended to keep sketchy hours. Always, somehow, at their desks when it mattered, but otherwise, they tended to wander off unexpectedly and without word as to where they were going. Not that Kassian had ever seen Sal leave the office other than in the middle of the day. He supposed at night, they waited for everyone else to go so they could lock up.

“So, what is it?” Leif asked, bringing his attention back.

“What is what?”

“Whatever you’re trying to track down.”

“How do you know that’s what I’m doing?”

“I saw glimpses of the code you were working on.” He waved at the empty fruit salad bowl. “While I made deliveries.” He indicated the coffee cup Kassian was sipping gratefully from.

Kassian grunted. “You know coding?”

“Took electrical engineering in college. Thought I was going to design programs for mining machines and shit, so I learned a lot of different coding languages.” He shrugged. “Guess that’s not what I’m supposed to do.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“Not more than Bjorn.”

“So you worked hard to learn how to do something, then gave it up before you even tried it out to babysit.”

Leif glowered at him. “What are you chasing?”

Kassian nodded to himself. That had been an asshole thing to say. Why he couldn’t manage to keep that shit behind his teeth… he huffed. “It’s a list.”

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