David was nervous at breakfast, and Mom picked it up when she came in from work.

“You got a little close to the fire, didn’t you,” she said. David looked up at her and frowned. “No, I’m…”

Mom stared at him, then stuck out her hand. “Hello.”

“Um, what?”

“I just thought I’d introduce myself. Daphne Wallis. Mother of David Wallis for 17 years and ten years as an EMT. I sort of have experience reading you in specific and people in general.”

David shook his head. “Okay, I’m just… If that collapse had happened a few minutes later…”

“A lot of people could be dead. Including you.” Mom sat down, and David couldn’t help but notice how tired she looked. Tired and worried. “And we had no clue that there was a void directly under the school.”

Because there wasn’t. But I can’t tell you that.

Which was kind of a problem. Usually David could talk to Mom about most everything. Not this.

“We all like to think we’ll live forever,” Mom said quietly. “Finding out, the hard way, that it isn’t true… Well, it’s hard.” She glanced over to the wall where his father’s picture was. “Which means,” she said in a brighter voice, “that you need to remember that you can talk about it.

“Yeah.” David nodded. But I can’t. He shook his head. “I need to pick Mari up. Just because the school blew up doesn’t mean we can take a day off.”

Mom stared at him, then nodded. “It might be good for you. Take a day doing a mundane job. But if you start feeling like you need to take time off…”

“Don’t worry,” David said. “I’ll let you know.”

“Good.” Mom waved at him. “Well, I’m off to bed now.” She shook her head. “I am going to be so incredibly happy when the new trainees can take over for me. I miss being up when the sun is up.”

“Right,” David said. “Sleep well.”

“Drive safe.”

“I have to,” David pointed out. “I’m having to provide an example of being a mature adult to Mari.”

“Oh, God, we’re doomed,” Mom said. “Say high to the movie fanatic for me.”

“I will.” David grinned. Movie fanatic. Well, Mom knew Mari, and that included Mari’s ‘movie festivals’ that she’d held since she was ten.

When David opened the door, the hot California air hit him like a blowtorch. Nobody was out, and if it was this hot in the morning…

I really hope we don’t have to do a lot today. Even ignoring the disaster at the school, it was just too damned hot to go running around.

He pulled the cover off of his car and got in, starting the engine and setting the AC to “frostbite,” before he pulled out onto the residential street.

“Now to get Mari and then to work.” David shook his head. Work. That seemed weird. Granted, not as weird as stopping things from another dimension, but still weird.

Mari’s home was only a few blocks from David’s, close enough to walk or bike when they were little. But David frowned as he saw Mari standing outside her house, looking up the block where David was coming from.

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Why isn’t she in the house. It’s not like—David had barely stopped when Mari pulled the door open and hopped in.

“Go!” She said. “Hurry!”

David blinked, but nodded, pulling out onto the empty road. “What… Are we running away from something?”

“Mom’s overprotective nature!” Mari said. “I barely got her to agree that I needed to go to work today because she’s been thinking about what-ifs, and what might have been if we ha”—she bit her lip—”been where the explosion happened.”

“Like we were,” David said, keeping his eyes on the road.

“But they don’t know that,” Mari said, sounding subdued. “If they did…”

“Goodbye, internship.”

“Goodbye being allowed outside,” Mari muttered. “It—it wasn’t that close.” She stared down at her lap for a moment. “So!” Mari looked up. “What do you think we’ll be doing today?”

“Dunno.” David shook his head. “Maybe finding more breach—hold on…” He stared at the building. The garage doors were open, and the garage was full. There were more cars up and down the street.

“Okay, not exactly the kinda show you expect from a secret conspiracy,” Mari said.

David started looking for a parking place. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”

“Yeah.”

----------------------------------------

Mari was out of the car almost before David had the ending stopped. “C’mon!” She said. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”

“Stop bouncing in place,” David replied. “You might put a crack in the pavement.”

“I…” Mary made certain that she was standing still. “I would like tot know what is going on, sooner rather than later.”

“Right.” David joined her on the sidewalk. “Well, let’s find out.”

When they got in, Mari frowned. There was… A secretary sitting at the front desk? They never had a secretary. And there were people running around. Some of them were looking at Mari and David.

“May I help you?” the secretary asked.

Wow. Frigid much?

“Yeah, I’m David, and this is Mari—we’re the interns.” David smiled.

The woman didn’t return it. “Right. The interns that Mr. Ortiz and Ms. Grayson hired. Without full authorization.” She stared at the two. “Please sit down, and I’ll have someone escort you to their office.”

“I… okay,” David said. Mari wanted to say something else, but she followed David over to the chairs by the entrance.

“Did we do something wrong?” Mari asked.

“I… Don’t think so. I mean, Wilma and Antonio didn’t say anything about it…”

“Michael will escort you to the office,” The secretary, who still hadn’t offered her name said, gesturing at a man who looked to be only a few years older than David.

“Right…”

“Okay, let’s go,” Michael said, and boy, he sounded annoyed.

Let’s see what you could do if the earth exploded underneath you… Mari thought. Probably scream like a little… well. Probably scream.

They walked through the office, and now it looked like an office. They were brought to the third floor, where formerly empty rooms now had people working at desks or walking back and forth. Finally, Mari and David found themselves sitting in front of the largest office in the building, a young secretary ignoring them as she typed out something or other.

Finally, her intercom rang.

“You can go in now,” she told them.

Mari frowned. She’d never even told them who they were working for.

Inside, Antonio and Wilma were sitting by the desk and a… big guy was looking out the window. He was 6’6 if he was a foot, his skin dark against the California sunlight. He turned and nodded at them. “Sit, sit, I am Alamini Otieno, the supervisor of West Coast operations.”

“Hi,” David said. “David Wallis.”

“Mari Miller,” Mari said. “Why is everyone so annoyed at us?” She asked.

“Mari,”

“Well, they are.”

“Not at you, but at the situation you represent,” Mr. Otieno said. “One of our primary duties is keeping civilians out of the line of fire. A requirement that Antonio and Wilma, through no fault of their own, were unable to abide by.”

“But they didn’t have any more help, and we were handy.” Mari gestured at the windows. “And the only times we were in danger where win the ‘Other Firm’ did something…”

“And when the school exploded.”

“I wasn’t going to bring that up, David,” Mari hissed.

“And when the school exploded, you were in a great deal of danger,” Mr. Otieno said. “And while we offer many excellent opportunities for interns, fully funding their funeral expenses is not high on our list of priorities. At the time, it was assumed that this region would be more or less like all the others. High aetheric levels would be rare, large breaches would be rear, and realized AE’s would be extremely rare. That did not prove to be the case. For that reason, and through no fault of your own…” Mt. Otieno sighed. “You will be working to check and service already existing sensors, or working here at duties to be determined later.”

“We’re… fired?” Mari finally said.

“Reassigned.” Mr. Otieno said. “To safer duties.”

Translation: we’re totally fired.