Karen looked up at the roll of fabric, and back at the pair. “Camouflage technology?”
Pierce, Janet, and Robert all grimaced in unison. Pierce spoke first. “Yeessss. Um… “ He pointed behind his head, directly at the cameraman. “Mr, uhh... Wait. Did I ever get your name, sir?”
The cameraman shook his head, looking back and forth between the pointing finger and the lens in the ceiling.. “It’s easier for me to blend into the background and do my job if I stay nameless.” Pierce tilted his head slightly at that, and his eyes grew the unfocused look that Karen now understood to mean that he was watching the cameraman from multiple angles at once.
“Yes, well, I’m going to need you to back up and delete the recording of the last couple of minutes. Now.”
Karen and the cameraman started speaking in unison.
“Now hold up man, “
“Mr. Hawkins, that’s a bit far”
Pierce stuck his hands up. “Not my call. This is a military contracted project that we are working on. You’re not allowed to know it exists, and you wouldn’t have if SOMEONE IN R AND D DIDN’T KEEP PLAYING PRANKS WITH IT”
He raised his voice to the air in general, as if talking to someone hidden in the room. Karen looked around in confusion. Janet came to her rescue, explaining. “He activated an intercom, that aside just got blasted in my office and the research floor in R and D.” She looked back to Pierce. “I apologize Mr. Hawkins, I’ll talk to the team.”
Robert cleared his throat. “I appreciate it Dr. Fuller, but that should be Dr. Crichton’s job. I can speak to him about it.”
Janet looked away, abashed. “It’s not Dr., and you know it Wav, uh, Mr. Jewelham. And Bob’s probably the one who put it here to begin with.”
“Not Dr. YET, and only on a technicality.” Pierce butted in. “Give it a year, the new project won’t screw you over. And that’s Robert’s point. It's not a good idea for you to give your technical boss a dressing down.”
Karen made a couple of quick notes in her book as Janet nodded, looking her up and down. Her eye took in body language that suggested she and Pierce were very comfortable in each other’s presence when not in front of others, a similarity of stance and expression. Janet’s long classic lab coat was covered with small stains and burns, her black wavy hair tied up in a bun. Her face was tightened in shame, red just starting to color her light brown cheeks.
“Anyway,” Pierce continued, “We were giving Ms. Larsen here the tour. She’s with ABT news.”
Janet turned her gaze from Pierce to Karen, the ashamed expression twisting to one of annoyance as she pushed her safety glasses up onto the bridge of the nose. Karen raised an eyebrow as Janet took a step to move between her and Pierce, her body posture signaling defense of the man. “Oh. Is it the anniversary again already? Trying for that human interest, oh, even in tragedy, look at what blooms, line?”
Karen held up her hands, notepad dangling from finger tips. “Whoa, whoa! I legitimately am here to report on a flourishing local company and what it’s done for the community. I’m not here for propaganda, and even if I was,” She nodded towards Pierce, “He already derailed it in a way that the editorial staff are going to be hard pressed to handle.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Janet continued to glare. Pierce put a finger on her elbow for attention. “Janet, she’s okay. She seems to be genuinely trying for a business piece, not bullshit, and we’re obliging. Actually, that's a great idea. After we’re done here, why don’t you two talk about the Fourth Feather Scholarship program? Since community involvement is a big part of the piece she’s doing?”
Karen perked up. “That would be great! You’re… you run the scholarship program? You… well, you look more like the lab type than administration.”
Janet laughed while touching a small hole in the arm of her labcoat. “Absolutely correct, I am the ‘lab type’! No, I don’t run it in any way. I’m one of the first year recipients.”
Karen found her smile pushing through more as she looked Janet in the eyes. They seemed oddly familiar for a moment, but she pushed the thought away. “Even better! Yes, I’d love to get a half hour of your time later, if that’s possible?”
Pierce spoke up again. “You can take her to lunch Janet! Company business, expense it!”
Karen noticed that Pierce’s gaze was again wandering off, while he was addressing Janet directly, his head was pointed in the opposite direction. Janet, not even pausing to glance at Pierce first, looked straight up at one of the ceiling lumps, smiling.
“Hindsight? You want me to bring back your usual?”
Pierce nodded, smiling. “Yes please. And a reuben with coleslaw for Robert.”
“Will do!” Janet looked back to Karen. “I have a few things to finish up, paperwork to do, I’ll see you in the lobby when you’re done?”
Karen nodded once, simultaneously excited for an extra angle on the story that hadn’t been planned, and annoyed at being railroaded so obviously and yet effectively. Pierce motioned down the hallway and they continued on, Janet’s footsteps quickly fading behind them. As the group passed the point in the hallway where the screen had been, Karen looked up, eyes following the line of the metal bar that seemed seamlessly glued to the ceiling above.
A couple more turns led them to a wider hallway, a slow ramp of polished concrete with steel panels lining the walls, scars and stains on all surfaces.
“And here, Ms. Larsen, is the largest segment of the company, both in terms of employees and sheer physical size.” Pierce waved towards a pair of double doors, several feet wide each, stretching nearly twice her own height. The doors slid away from each other as they approached. Karen cocked her head, listening to the sudden whoosh sound that came with the movement of the doors, then realized that Pierce himself was making the noise with his mouth. She glanced at him, and he looked away, but this time she caught the motion and light up ring above, and changed the aim of her eyes to stare straight in the lens that was watching her.
He gave a half hearted laugh. “Sorry, you caught me. Some people say ‘open sesame’, I make the Star Trek door noise.”
She nodded with a grin, starting to say something, when she looked past the doors, her words catching in her throat.
They moved past the doors into what appeared to have once been an airplane hanger. Several large white vans were parked in various places, and the majority of the space was taken up with stacks of crates, workbenches, and drones. Dozens of active drones. Rolling, flying, hovering, they filled the space, jumpsuited workers with controllers putting them through their paces. As her eyes were drawn up, she saw a collection of rings and poles that appeared to be an obstacle course and above that, from the apex of the roof several stories up hung a small blimp, festooned with LEDs that shone down red now and again as it wavered in its mooring.