Page 133 of CHOICE Lover
“Not until we piece together their motivations. I want to gather more evidence and determine if there’s a larger group involved. If we let them think they’re succeeding, they’re more likely to become lax and slip up,” Wanda says.
He clutches his knees, squeezing. “I don’t like this. I feel like I should be there when she’s released.”
“We’ve told them you’ve hired a crisis de-escalation service to manage the transfer,” Wanda says.
He frowns. “Electra is going to think I just threw money at the problem.”
“So are they. That is a key part of our plan,” Wanda calmly explains.
“Fuck,” he says, tugging at his hair.
After fifteen minutes go by with no word from Oro1, Sable says, “Res6, sit down. Your pacing is making me antsy. Better yet, go get us more coffee.”
Wordlessly, Wanda holds out her reusable mug. He takes it, groaning. He knows what they’re doing. Every time his nerves get the better of him, they send him for refreshments. He glances at the clock one last time before he takes the cup. 07:33. The last thing he wants to dois run into anyone, and his staff should start arriving at the office soon. He pokes his head out the door, looking both ways.
“Hey there, stranger!” Chryl shouts from down the hall.
He groans, jumping back inside the door and slamming it shut.
Sable stares at the door as if there’s a monster behind it. “What the fuck?”
“Be quiet and maybe she’ll go away,” he says.
Three loud knocks sound on the door, and then Chryl’s turning the handle. He presses his hand against it to hold it closed. “Go away!”
With surprising strength, Chryl pushes the door open. She takes one look at the three of them and then at the bright red digital clock, and bursts into tears. “Oh holy mother Zephyr! What’s happened?! Please tell me the world isn’t ending!”
She throws herself into Res6’s chest, sobbing. Then when she looks up, her red eyes landing on his, she must note his panicked expression because she cries louder, “Oh God, is it Electra?!”
Theoh God, he’s guessing she learned from Electra. He pats her back. “I thought you didn’t like her.”
“Can’t a girl change her mind? She stood up for me about my FrogBlog, and I’ve been following her journey since before she was famous. It’s always the young ones that end so tragically. Just when their light is beginning to shine,” she laments.
Thankfully, Sable steps in, pulling Chryl away. “Electra is fine. We’re just having a bit of a situation.” Sable stills. She must be getting a message because her body language changes. “He’s got it done! The files are on the way.”
“What files?!” Chryl cries.
“Got them. It’s six packages in total,” Wanda says. “I’m removing the real files we were going to use just in case. Uploading the fake ones now.”
“07:43,” he says for good measure.
Chryl wipes her tears. “What files?”
Wanda adds files to the upload link. Once the sixth file is selected they wait. The upload time is six minutes.
“How long will the scrubbing take?” he asks.
“Should be quicker,” Sable says. “3 minutes tops.”
“How on earth would a physician know that?” he asks.
Sable shrugs. “I’m trying to reassure you. That seems like something a friend would do.”
“07:49,” he says, ignoring that she apparently thinks it still counts if you’re making things up.
The upload process finishes, and another window pops up.Scrub time 3 minutes.
“See, I told you!” Sable says.
