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“It’s my dad,” he says. “Listen,” he shakes his head. “I was supposed to take this big trip to visit Grandma in Scotland, but now I’ve got a second relative who is down for the count. I’m an only kid.”
“Okay,” I say quickly. I know he’s not going to talk to Ryan, which means I’ll need to be the one filling him in. That means I need to get as much information from Damien as possible before he gets on a plane to wherever he’s going. I follow Damien to the elevator. He’s not bringing anything with him. Not his laptop. Not his bag. Hell, he’s not even bringing his water bottle with him.
This is really serious.
“What are you doing?” Damien asks as he jabs the button for the elevator.
“Tell me anything I need to know,” I say. “What support you need. What you expect from me.” I breathe out a heavy sigh. “Basically, how can I avoid screwing up your entire job while you’re gone?”
“Look, Ryan is a finicky sort of man.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that he’s quite difficult to take care of sometimes.”
“I thought this role was just a receptionist position.”
He sighs. “It’s complicated.”
“Well, you have until we reach the lobby to fill me in.”
Damien smiles. “Then we’d better get started.”
8.
Ryan
Idon’t know why Damien rushed off, but I’ll find out soon enough. He’s never let me down, so he must have a good reason vanishing. I realize he’s gone when I try calling his desk and there’s no answer. A brief stroll to his desk reveals that he is, in fact, gone. His laptop is missing, along with his phone.
Okay, so he didn’t just run to the bathroom.
Cool.
I reach for the desk phone and dial the lobby desk.
“Shadowvale Industries.”
“Is Damien down there?” I cut to what I need. No bullshit, no how-are-you’s.
“No.”
“Was he?”
A pause. Then, “he left a minute ago. You can probably still catch him.”
