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“Here? At Cisco’s? I’ve seen every dirty thing here a million—”
“Let’s let Shane and Ana geek out over computers,” he whispered loudly.
“Before you go.” I leaned in close so only Patrick could hear me over the music. “A baby? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“Well, I thought Molly was pregnant! And now she’s not. And you delivered me of the notion.” He grinned at me in a devilish way, which looked totally out of place on his kind face. “Get it?”
I groaned and shoved him lightly into Heidi. “Go.”
“Yeah, we should probably go say hi to Indiana, anyway. I heard he’s the one who actually put out the fire. Did you hear that, too?” Patrickasked Heidi loudly as he dragged her away. I shushed him loudly before I could stop myself. Taggart had seen me—Patrick needed to stay quiet. He ignored me, and I hid my face behind my hand as I settled onto the barstool next to Shane.
“Sorry about them,” I said.
He grinned. “They’re a delight. Would you like to meet the rest of the team? With the fire and the chaos, I don’t think we all had proper introductions.”
I swallowed. “Um, sure,” I said. “Sounds great.”
We walked down the bar a few seats, and Shane cleared his throat. “Everybody, this is Ana. She’s on Artemis, but I don’t think you’ve met her. That’s Bruce,” he said, pointing to a man in his forties who offered a friendly salute. “Over there is Allen, and there’s Evan, and that’s Mike. Obviously not everybody, but a good group.”
My eyes settled on Evan. He had on black jeans and a black T-shirt, and I realized, a little uncomfortably, that we were dressed exactly the same. I immediately wanted to change.
Evan squinted at me as if trying to place where he might have seen me before. “I didn’t know we had any girls on the team. What do you do exactly?”
I paused. There were only a few coders on the team, so the vaguer my answer, the better. Maybe I could ride the coffee intern thing. I already stood out as a female, and someone like Evan was just enough of a jerk to cause trouble. I gave him a bright smile and played the helpless girl card. I shrugged. “Whatever they tell me to.”
“Well, if you ever want to learn about programming, one of us guys would be glad to teach you sometime.”
Wonderful. I took a long drink from my margarita and counted to ten.Keep your mouth shut, I told myself.Don’t give them a reason to think you could create a secret identity that could put out a fire or jump out of a plane.
“So I guess everyone’s here except the golden boy,” Evan said, his voice a little slurred. He lifted his beer in a toast. “I guess he’s too busy kissing Melvin’s ass to show up and hang out with us little guys.”
I tensed and used all my will to keep my thoughts inside.
“You’re just jealous because Indiana doesn’thaveto kiss his ass to be the favorite,” Mike threw in.
“I put in my time, I’ve manned every sinking ship, and then some dude comes along and steals my spot. Fuck that.”
“Maybe you just called it—you’ve manned every sinking ship,” Mike said. “Maybe the Hammer wants to stay afloat this time.”
“Wouldn’t it be cool if Indiana found Noah’s ark?” Allen asked. His eyes didn’t seem to be focused. He burped. “I really hope he does. I betitfloats,” he said. “If it doesn’t, I bet he canmakeit float.”
“I think you have your Indianas and maybe also your arks confused,” Shane said.
“Who cares, so long asthisIndiana stays lost,” Evan said.
“We’ll probably see him at the brunch tomorrow,” Mike said. “I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
“Why do we have to go to that again?” Allen asked.
“Mandatory bonding. The bosses are even supposed to serve us, cosplaying as peons,” Evan said and rolled his eyes.
“Did you guys hear the Hammer is thinking about promoting Indiana to, like, head our team?” Mike asked.
Evan shook his head violently, nearly slipping off his barstool. “No, the rumor is we’llallbe unemployed unless he can get us that one account.”
My ears perked up. “What do you mean?”
Evan rolled his eyes. “So Melvin is on his way out, right? He needs a big get. He told the higher-ups that he could land this impossible account. They don’t usually send people from our team. But now he thinks he’s got some sort of ace in the hole, some James Bond hacker who can throw a football or whatever, so he convinced his bosses to let him try to land S.J. Sporting. S.J. wants to up their online presence to outsell Browne Sporting Goods. I guess Indiana likes to go spearfishing and cave diving and do triathlons and, I don’t fucking know, model underwear for Calvin Klein or some shit. So the Hammer thinks he and Indiana together can win over a sports CEO.”
