Version 1.08.0

  Monday October 17th

  I stood outside Kate's apartment for a full five minutes before I worked up the courage to knock. It was a nice building. Nicer than mine, actually, with a little courtyard and a doorman who'd given me a skeptical look when I said I was here to see Kate Frank in 4B. She'd buzzed me up without asking who it was, which either meant she was expecting someone or she was too tired to care. Given the week she'd had, I was betting on the latter.

  I knocked. Waited. Heard footsteps, then a pause that I knew was her checking the peephole. The lock disengaged and the door opened reluctantly.

  Kate looked exhausted. Hair in a messy bun, no makeup, wearing sweatpants and an oversized Holloway Design t-shirt that had to be at least five years old. It was endearing that Kate’s comfort clothes were company merch. I felt a smile tick at the corners of my mouth.

  "Sam." Her voice was flat. Not angry, exactly. Just... tired.

  "Can I come in?"

  She stared at me for a long moment. I could see her weighing it, deciding whether she had the energy for whatever I was about to say. Finally, she stepped aside.

  "I was about to open some wine. You want some?"

  "Please."

  Her apartment was smaller than mine but felt more lived-in. Actual photos on the walls. A bookshelf stuffed with romance novels and self-help books. A cat eyeing me suspiciously from the back of the couch stretched and began grooming one paw.

  "Oh, hey Chaos."

  We settled on opposite ends of her couch, Chaos between us like a furry demilitarized zone. I took a long drink of wine and tried to figure out where to start.

  "I'm sorry," I said finally. "I should have told you what I was planning. I should have warned you. I was so focused on making Daniel pay that I didn't think about how it would affect you, and that was shitty, and I'm sorry."

  Kate didn't say anything. Just watched me over the rim of her glass.

  "I know you put yourself on the line for me," I continued. "The thing with Daniel, the pay stub, all of it. You took a real risk, and I repaid you by going around you and making everything worse. That wasn't fair."

  "No," Kate agreed. "It wasn't."

  "I just..." I stared into my wine. "I was so angry. They fired me, Kate. Seven years of my life, and they just threw me away because it was easier than actually investigating. And then Daniel got my job, and Greg and Rebecca were so smug about it, and I just wanted them to hurt the way I was hurting."

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  "And did it help?"

  I thought about the last few days. The hollow victory. The empty apartment. The code shimmering around me constantly now, a reminder that I was becoming something I didn't understand.

  "No," I admitted. "It didn't."

  Kate sighed. Set down her wine glass and pulled her knees up to her chest, looking younger than her thirty-two years.

  "It's been a nightmare, Sam. You have no idea."

  "Tell me."

  "Daniel's gone. Obviously. They escorted him out Friday afternoon, right after the Meridian disaster. Last I heard, he's lawyering up, claiming he was set up." She laughed bitterly. "Which, I mean, he was. Just not the way he thinks."

  "What about the company?"

  "That's where it gets fun." Kate reached for her wine again. "Greg and Rebecca are in full damage control mode. They threw Daniel under the bus so fast I'm surprised there weren't tire marks. But they're also... they're blaming your department, Sam. Saying there were security failures, lax oversight, that the whole thing happened because your team wasn't following proper protocols."

  I felt a cold twist in my stomach. "My team? I was the only senior designer. Everyone else was junior."

  "I know. But they need someone to blame, and you're not there to defend yourself, and Daniel's busy being a pariah, so..." She shrugged. "New security protocols everywhere. We have to change our passwords every week now. There's talk of monitoring software on all the computers. The environment today was so tense, no one wanted to be there but everyone was afraid of leaving.”

  "Kate, I'm so sorry."

  "It's not your fault. I mean, okay, it's kind of your fault. But Greg was always looking for an excuse to tighten control. This just gave them one." She took a long drink. "The worst part is, I think they're going to get away with it. Daniel takes the fall, you take the fall, and they come out looking like the responsible executives who cleaned up a mess. Unfortunately, this is why we needed to have planned better. It’s all going to be for nothing.”

  I thought about Greg's smug face in Conference Room B. The way he'd looked at me like I was already gone, already forgotten. The way Rebecca had smiled that fake sympathetic smile while she dismantled my career.

  Something hot and sharp twisted in my chest.

  No. I'd promised myself I was done. I was here to apologize, to fix things with Kate, to let the system work. Whatever that meant.

  "I'm going to let it go," I said, and I meant it. Mostly. "I did what I did, and it's done, and now I just need to move on. Find a new job. Start over."

  Kate studied my face for a long moment. "You mean that?"

  "I do. It's over," I said. "I promise. "

  Kate's shoulders relaxed slightly. She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Good, because I think we should start looking for somewhere new for us both. I missed you, you know. Even when I was furious with you, I missed you."

  "I missed you too."

  We finished the bottle of wine and ordered take out and watched terrible reality TV until midnight. When I finally left, Kate hugged me at the door, longer than usual.

  "Thank you for trusting me, Sam. No more secrets?”

  "I'll think about it.” I said pretending to think very hard. She whacked me on the shoulder and caused me to laugh.

  “Joking! Joking. Of course. No more secrets.”

  I walked home through the quiet streets, the code shimmering at the edges of my vision. I put my earbuds in and let the audiobook narrator's voice wash over me.

  "Aurora stared at the ruins of her childhood home, the ashes still warm beneath her feet. Allister stood behind her, breath hot on her neck. 'There's nothing left for you here,' he said. 'Come with me. Let me show you what you could become.'"

  I was going to let it go. I was going to move on. I was going to be a normal person with normal problems and a normal job search and a normal life. I really, truly believed that. For about three days.

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