Page 64 of Static/Cling

“Um,” Sal said.

Leif huffed. “We’ll talk about Kassian.”

“Can we get him back first?” Sal asked softly. “Maybe before you guys divvy him up like a side of beef?”

“Don’t worry, Sal,” Leif said as he stepped away from Bjorn enough to crouch and prise up the grate with a heavy squeal of metal. “Bjorn and I are very sharsies.”

“We need to stop talking about this,” they muttered. “I’m seriously not paid enough.”

Leif snickered as the world slotted into a more comfortable shape around him.

Bjorn maybe wasn’t so proud of the fact he’d very much needed the affirmation that he wasn’t the only one of the two of them who’d been reevaluating things.

He also wasn’t super keen to admit he let Leif go down the stairs first because it was dark down there.

“Sal?” he asked.

“Yes, sweetie?”

It warmed him a bit to hear the endearment. He’d only ever heard them use it towards Roger. “So, how long and dark is this tunnel?”

“It’s a bit of a network.”

“Shit.” He shivered, wishing he’d brought some long sleeves not lined with power-dampening bullshit. He hated spiders and spiderwebs.

“Deep breaths,” they said in his ear. “I won’t keep you down there long. You’re going to take your first left, and at the end of that corridor, there will be a door to a stairwell. You’ll go all the way up.”

“Then what?” Leif asked.

“You’re at the back of the building. You’ll have to get to the front.”

“Maybe we should do that down here?” Leif asked. “Less chance getting caught?”

“No. This branch of things doesn’t get a lot of use, but other parts do, and you won’t have as many options for ducking out of sight down there. The top floor is all cubicles and office space, but not a lot of people in the back part of the building, where you’ll be.”

“How would you know that?” Leif asked.

“I have sources.”

“Rufus?” Bjorn guessed.

“I would never want to have to tell Kassian his brother was involved.”

Which wasn’t the same as saying Rufus wasn’t involved. Only that Sal wouldn’t want to tell Kassian he was.

Leif made no response to that sleight-of-hand wording, so Bjorn didn’t either.

“Wait,” Bjorn said after a minute. “Did you turn Kassian’s ear off?”

“Can’t risk it interfering with whatever technology dear old General George has him working with.”

“So you cut him off?”

Sal said nothing for a long time. Did Kassian even know he’d been cut off? Did he think they’d all abandoned him?

“Guys?”

“Sal,” Leif said, and there was a bit of chill in Leif’s voice.

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