He grinned. “Julius,” he said and closed the door.
The Uber pulled away. Trusting Julius, I didn’t bother looking back to see this Sam guy who was tailing me. He’d be there. It made me feel a little more secure, knowing I wasn’t all alone.
Blessedly, the driver wasn’ttalkative, and I managed to zone out for the ride.
“We here,” the driver said in thickly accented English.
“Thank you.” I got out and texted Julius to let him know I’d arrived.
I gazed up at the building. It had only been about a week since I’d last been here, but it felt like I’d been on vacation for weeks. Stepping inside, I let my shoulders relax. This place was my second home. It gave me a little relief to be somewhere familiar.
“Good morning, Cameron,” the security guard at the entrance desk said with a smile. “How was your little getaway? Brent said you were out of town for some R-and-R.”
I suppressed my sigh of relief. Brent hadn’t told everyone what had happened. Ollie had pulled strings to keep most of the info classified, and my editor was the only one who had any clue about what had happened.
“It was… uh, it was great,” I said, scanning my ID card to get in.
“Good to hear. Getting an early start, I see.”
“Got to catch up,” I said. “Have a good one.”
Hurrying down the hall to the bank of elevators, I glanced at the time on my phone. Still several hours until the hearing. I had plenty of time.
The newsroom was fairly quiet when I stepped off the elevator, but then again, the news never slept. Several people were already at their desks. Brent called out to me as I walked across the room toward my cubicle.
“Cam?” He came hurrying out of his office and moved toward me, a look of concern on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to check on some research. Brianna and Richard were looking into something for me,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t pry too much.
“Oh, so that’s what they were doing in the archive room yesterday. I saw they’d put a bunch of files there with a post-it that had your name on it.”
A sizzle of excitement ran up my spine.Hadthey found something?
“Great,” I said. “I’ll head there now. I have an appointment in a couple of hours that I can’t be late for.”
Brent’s frown deepened. “Are you sure everything is all right? I mean, after what happened? I’d think it was better if you were home resting rather than running around here. Your job is safe,” he added, putting a hand on my shoulder. “There’s no need for you to do this. I’m not going to cut you loose. Especially not when this is all out of your control.”
Brent could be a hard-ass sometimes, but he was always kind and fair to me. That was ararething in the news world. Most editors were cutthroat savages. Part of me wondered how Brent had managed to get so far with his personality, but I was grateful he had.
“Thanks, Brent,” I said. “Seriously. I’m gonna go see what they found for me, then head straight home. Sound good?”
He made an irritated sound in his throat but nodded. “All right. But you should get some rest. I’m heading out for coffee. If you need anything else, I’ll be back in twenty or thirty minutes.” He pointed at me. “But you better be out of here by the time I get back. When I say you need rest, I mean it.”
“Thank you.” I patted his shoulder and hurried off to the archive room.
The room, a holdover from the time before the electronification ofeverything, held a bunch of old newspapers—physical copies and microfiches. Though, even this room had begun to change with the times. A bank of three computers sat at the back of the room where we could work on big stories without the chaos and prying eyes of the main newsroom. It was only used sporadically, and there was a rumor it would be renovated into a new break room, complete with a coffee bar and a staffed barista. All the papers and microfilm would be stored in the basement.
A pile of folders sat on the desk at the back, my name scrawled in pen across a sticky note on top. The file folders were stuffed with printouts of old newspaper clippings, along with several stacks of handwritten and printed notes on various stories that never came to fruition. Greedy for information, I began leafing through everything.
“I wish it didn’t have to be like this.”
A yelp of surprise burst from my lips, and I spun, knocking the pile of papers from the desk. Rick stood behind me, arms crossed over his broad chest.
“How… what? Rick?” The words came stammering from my mouth, confusion short-circuiting my mind.
“This isn’t how I wanted this to happen,” he said, shaking his head sadly. He looked less manic and crazy now, but there was still a strange gleam in his that made him look unhinged.
My phone was in my right hand. Somehow, in my shock and confusion, I managed to turn on the audio recording app I had in my shortcuts. Rick was still shaking his head, staring at the floor with remorse, and didn’t see me do it. I held the phone behind my back, out of sight, and backed away until my butt came into contact with the desk behind me.
