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Freddy: headed to charlottesville. Message me when youre up
Then he forced himself to push Sabrina, his insane family, and Renner’s weirdness from his mind as he leaned his seat back and closed his eyes.
Chapter 4: Sabrina
As soon as the sun was high enough to illuminate her house, Sabrina gave up trying to sleep on her too small loveseat and went hunting for clean clothes. One look at her bedroom was all it took to give up that dream. The best she could hope for was salvaging a dress or something equally awful from the closet where she only hung the clothes she hated. All her favorites were in the drawers now crushed into splinters.
Nothing would change without action, and her sleep pants and t-shirt were good enough for now. She had an assortment of hair ties lying around her computers, because no one with hair pasttheir armpits should ever be without a way to restrain it. She twisted the whole night-black mess up into a knot on top of her head and wrapped an elastic around it. Bursts of red spit out in streaks here and there, but that was why she kept such a vibrant color hidden beneath the black surface. She loved knowing that people saw her picture, or met her face-to-face, and assumed she wasnormalonly for her to turn around and swish her hair and reveal how much more interesting she was beneath the surface. Hair under control, Sabrina shifted her focus to coffee and pulled the bedroom door shut behind her to hide the mess she’d sort through later.
Suck it up, Buttercup.Man, would it be nice to talk to her mom. She’d have great advice for doing what needed to be done so life could go on. Sabrina added finding a phone to her mental list of priorities for the day and headed for the kitchen. Maybe she could get to her fridge and dig out the last of her good cheese. It wouldn’t fix anything, but it would taste good. Sabrina would never be interested in drugs or alcohol, but her addiction to good cheese rivaled her need for coffee.
Except she couldn’t get to the kitchen through the branches and leaves weaving a web of defense against anyone who might dare to wish for a mug and stealing away the last of her cheese. Fuck. Sabrina closed her eyes and took a minute to breathe. She could sit down and cry, or scream and rant, but it wouldn’t give her cheese, coffee, clothes, or her phone.
But her camping gear would, and it was in the shed out back on the opposite side of the house from the tree. Thankfully, her shoes were all stashed on the side of the mudroom that survived. Of all the stupid things, her raincoat hung there too. The mental image of her striding into Walmart in sneakers, soft sleep pants, a tank top, and a fire-engine-red raincoat that matched her hidden hair color kept her spirits high throughout her search for supplies in the shed.
Once she’d boiled water on her camp stove, Sabrina carried her mug of coffee back into what was left of her house and sat at her desk. Clicking on the monitor, she groaned at her thoughtless habits and rituals.
Being able to share what happened with her friends in the chat forum she frequented would be lovely, but without power or her phone, there was no way to connect with them. Even more ironic, they’d just been talking through imaginary plans should an EMP ever take out all electronics. While many of the people she engaged with were full-blown conspiracy theorists, Sabrina found their extreme views helped her maintain her own perspective.
Working with defense contractors made it easy to ignore ethical quandaries surrounding their work, and Sabrina never wanted to be associated with something like the Manhattan Project. When she’d seen the video feed of their software-driven bots swarming around the ISS, her mind replayed it in reverse as the bots tore apart the only habitat keeping the astronauts alive. There would be no video footage from beneath the ocean, but she knew their software could be used to incapacitate a submarine with the same world-altering efficiency they just used to save the Chinese sailors.
Chatting with Truthyeller, NerdyBird, and TechGuru forced her to seriously consider the damage TI’s technology could do, but it wasn’t just that. They gave her the freedom to argue both sides and chase ideas without consequence. No one could ever know that an employee of Taylor Industries was considering the negative consequences of their work, so she buried her identity under the deepest online cloaking she’d ever developed.
Right now, surrounded by the destruction of everything she’d worked for, she longed for that anonymity. If she could login, disappear into the persona of User_42, she could remove herself from the situation and assess it clearly. It was how she’d comeup with the argument that helped convince Patrick to introduce security tokens. Speaking of which, Sabrina looked around her desk and wondered where she’d left the damned thing.
They were a wonderful step in the right direction for TI security, but they were brand new. Sabrina needed to decide on a place to keep hers instead of setting it down wherever. Looking around her desk, she didn’t see it behind her monitor or beside her keyboard. She’d promised Freddy today’s updates would be delivered on time, even though he was stuck in Seattle.
She’d need to take the token with her to work at headquarters today if she wanted to keep that promise. Grabbing her coffee, she checked around her love seat, TV, and gaming console. Nothing. Sabrina hung her head and wondered what else she would discover the tree had taken from her. Replacing that tiny device would cost more than anything else she owned, but asking Patrick, or worse Greg, to have the company cover it felt like a bigger hit of failure than she could handle.
What the hell would she say, “Hi, I know I just helped convince you to upgrade to this expensive new security option, but I fucked up and left mine in a random place in my house and a tree destroyed it, so I was wondering if you could shell out the cash to buy me a new one”? Yeah, no. That was a hard pass. She would deal with getting a new phone, calling her insurance, and writing the updates for now. Sabrina would sort out replacing her security token later.
At least she was confident Patrick would let her crash in one of the upstairs guest rooms at HQ. She might have to remind him and Holly to keep their clothes on, but with the nearest hotel being more than thirty minutes away, Sabrina didn’t have a ton of options. She’d stayed there for a few weeks when she first started working for Taylor Industries, and it had been fine.
Mrs. Taylor, who insisted everyone call her Katrina, had asked about her favorite meals and ensured the kitchen and pantrywere stocked with things she liked. She’d also changed Sabrina’s sheets and swapped out towels twice a week. Of course, to Katrina it was only reasonable for her to do all of Sabrina’s laundry at the same time. Just remembering the argument when Sabrina tried to explain that she didn’t like other people touching her private stuff made her cringe and wonder how fast she could get into a new place.
She downed the last of her coffee and considered making more.
Chapter 5: Freddy
“Thanks for the ride,” Freddy waved to Justin as he climbed into his own car and checked his phone for the millionth time. It was almost seven. Sabrina should be awake by now, so why hadn’t Freddy heard from her.
He glared down at their message thread and imagined using the Force to will a new message into appearing.
Freddy: pulling into charlottesville now
Freddy: you ok?
Freddy: call or message me
Freddy: at my car
Freddy: r u ok?
He debated sending more messages but didn’t want to make an ass of himself. She’d probably lost power, and her phone had died. No big deal. Freddy thumped his head against the steering wheel and debated how crazy it would look if he drove straight to her place.
He plugged her address into his GPS. Fuck it. Checking on a friend wasn’t unreasonable, especially if it turned out she had power and hot water while his place was dark.
For the next ninety minutes, he alternated between watching for cops, watching his speedometer, and watching the estimated time of arrival on his phone slowly click backward. He told himself he needed to use her shower. He assured the universe that he should help with their work for the day. He did not let himself consider things that might have gone wrong, leaving her hurt and unable to call for help, or worse.
