Page 84 of Static/Cling

Then he realized it wasn’t Kassian.

The man outside the elevator scowled at him, looking first confused, then surprised, then hella annoyed.

“Who the hell are you?” he barked.

“I—Rufus? Are you Rufus?”

The man grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the elevator, hauling him at a quick pace down the hall towards the back of the building. Only the fact Bjorn had slipped his shirt back on saved Rufus from being zapped by the static Bjorn had deliberately built up on the way down.

The guy couldn’t know what might happen, but it still pissed Bjorn off to be manhandled like that. The danger to him, the facthe could accidentally hurt someone Kassian cared about, put him further on edge because it wouldn’t have been his fault, even though it happened because of him.

He tried to pull free, but the grip was unbreakable.

The man was huge, and while he looked like Kassian, his features were harder, his frown lines more developed, and his shoulders even wider than Kassian’s.

When they reached a room with a windowless door, he pushed it open, shoved Bjorn inside and followed closely. The door closed with an ominous click behind them.

“Who are you?” he whispered in a loud, angry buzz.

“Why are you here?” Bjorn countered, instead of answering.

“I work here.”

Bjorn stared hard at him.

“You’re here for my brother,” he said at last.

“So you are Rufus?”

“Are you here for my little brother?” he asked again.

“Little?” Bjorn snorted.

“Are you?”

Bjorn crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you?”

Rufus pursed his lips, studying Bjorn. His decision, when he finally made it, narrowed his eyes and made his frown deeper, but he sighed. “The longer I can hold the ruse, the better.”

“What ruse?”

“As long as the general thinks I’m on his side, I have access to Kassian. The minute he knows I’m not, at the very least, I won’t be able to help him. More likely, I’ll be dead.”

“Shit.” It made sense. He had a million questions about why Rufus had joined the military if he wasn’t on the general’s— and presumably, therefore, the army’s—side, but they would have to wait. “So we have to get you out too.”

“What?” That seemed to take Rufus off guard and he backed out of Bjorn’s space.

“I have no idea, at this point, what side you’re on, or what plan you may have had, or if we screwed it up. I don’t have the time to care right now. But if you think Kassian’s going to just let you die, then his brains obviously don’t run in the family.”

Rufus shook his head. “You don’t know him.”

But Leif had said Kassian was okay. Better than okay, and he would know. Bjorn had faith in his instincts, so it was probably Rufus who didn’t know his brother. Right now, however, was not the time to educate him. “Where is he?” he asked instead.

Rufus shook his head. “You won’t get to him.” He started to pace. A gold chain on his wrist began a slow spin, as if on its own, and Bjorn wondered if Rufus knew he was doing it.

“I have to,” he said. “I’m not leaving him behind.”

“You’re one person. What makes you think you can get him out alone?”

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