Jessica had left the office late, deciding it was a nice night to walk to the meeting. It was only fifteen minutes away, maybe twenty in these boots. It was only after getting more than half way that she realised which part of town the EF met in. She suddenly became concerned that people might think she was a high class call girl, then realised there weren’t any high class call girls in this part of town. She quickened her pace anyway and tried to look as inconspicuous as she could, wearing relatively pricey clothes, in what was rumoured to be the closest there was to a slum in the city.
As she rounded a corner she almost fell into a stationary man staring at his phone, she just managed to suppress a yelp as she looked up, expecting to find an angry and possibly volatile addict looking down at her, then noticed it was actually Cheetah from the group. ‘Am I glad to see you, I thought you were about to sell me into a life of exploitation or something.’
A look of consternation crossed the face looking at her as if he hadn’t got the joke, Jessica said she had come straight from work, without remembering it wasn’t the best area of town for a woman to be in on her own. ‘Do you want me to walk the rest of the way with you?’
‘Please. Thanks.’ Although they had met a few times Jessica still wasn’t sure if Cheetah had no sense of humour or was just thinking about something else when talking to you, her gut told her it was probably a bit of both but she was glad of the company.
They proceeded along the side of the buildings, failing mortar and crumbling brickwork making up most of the structure of the walls. Jessica tried to engage her companion in small talk but he didn’t seem to be able to concentrate on any one line of thought for long before becoming distant again. After a couple more streets they headed past an opening, dark even with the streaming sunlight she had taken the walk to enjoy. ‘Ah, just the people!’ The voice was definitely from within the arch roofed tunnel leading between the buildings, but it was hard to see anything with the contrast between the bright street and the shadowy passage. ‘Please, come into my office.’ Her companion looked at her but didn’t say anything or show any signs of worry, ducking a little to fit down the alleyway. Jessica looked both ways down the street, figuring that at least her escort would bear the brunt of any kind of attack, before following.
As her eyes adjusted to the shadows she squinted a little to get used to the dimness, it turned out that the mystery man was Darwin, he was leaning against the wall of the buildings and tapping out a beat with his fingers against the bricks, as he waited for them to get close enough to hear what he had to say.
‘So pleased you could join me. As I said, I rather hoped that I would find the time to talk to both of you. You have some rather useful talents and I was hoping that you might be able to help me out.’ Jessica tried to look at Cheetah to see how he reacted, but could only see a profile in the blackness. ‘Don’t worry Miss Bryant, I just want to take advantage of your knowledge of computers. I’m okay with them but unlike you I’m not a formally qualified hacker.’
Jessica wondered how he knew her surname, dismissing it to better handle the situation at hand, and interrupted, ‘Actually if you want to be picky I’m an ethical hacker!’
‘Absolutely, as you say an ethical hacker. That’s good, because what I’m looking for is someone to help me erase some security logs which could affect the future of the planet. After all we’re here for the same things, aren’t we?’ It wasn’t a question. ‘Animals are important and we all want to protect them and, if anything, make the world a better place for them. To do that I need you to work your magic with that time machine, so the people in charge of it don’t find out we’re using it for our own means. Obviously we’ll be using it for the benefit of the planet, but I’m not sure they’ll understand that, so it would be better if we could keep it to ourselves.’
Jessica adjusted her footing and almost overbalanced, as one of her heels sunk into something which felt organic, on the ground. She didn’t look down to try and identify what it was, just put an arm out to steady herself against the wall opposite Darwin. ‘That doesn’t actually sound massively ethical to me, I think you’d be better finding someone else.’
‘But you are the perfect candidate Jessica. You have the skills, the knowledge and you also have a passion for the ecology of this planet. I really think, once you understand what we’ll be trying to do, you’ll feel happy to be a part of it.’
Jessica felt at a loss knowing the man only as Darwin, she wouldn’t acknowledge his anonymity by actually using his chosen name. ‘I have my doubts about that. I’m afraid that you can keep trying but you won’t change my mind. I must be going, I need to help Jonny set up.’ She turned to their co-conspirator,’ see you at the meeting.’ She didn’t look at Darwin as she stumbled out of the passageway, peering down to check that her boot wasn’t covered in anything untoward, then hurried on.
Darwin and Cheetah both watched her go, Darwin wasn’t really focussing but the other EF member was staring, at the bare part of her legs between the top of her boots and the bottom of her short skirt, until she disappeared from view. Turning back to face Darwin again, then waiting until the black eyes were once more focussed and alert the conversation continued, ‘What do you want me to do?’
***
Jonny accompanied Jessica all the way back to where she was parked, she was glad, both of the company and of being with someone she trusted after the incident with Darwin. She hadn’t mentioned this to Jonny as she didn’t want him to worry more than usual about her. She offered to drive him home but he said he had a couple of things to do in town.
The ride back helped her relax. She turned the radio up and tried to put the impromptu meeting with Darwin to the back of her mind, arriving home just as the sun set. Locking the car door she put a hand on the bonnet and lifted her foot up, just to check that the remains of any biological matter hadn’t adhered to the heel of her shiny boots. Thankfully they looked untarnished. She headed for the front door, reaching into her bag to search for the door key while whistling a song that had been playing.
As her index finger slipped through the hoop of the key ring somebody spoke, close to her ear. ‘Would you mind if I come in, only I’ve become a little cold out here while waiting for you?’ She nearly threw the keys across the garden, thankfully they slipped back into the bag as her arms moved of their own accord at the unexpected noise.
Jessica staggered sideways in surprise, turning so her back was against the white painted front door. Through glasses, slightly fogged up from the words spoken at such a proximity, she faced Darwin and tried to calm herself, concentrating on slowing her breathing so she could talk without her fear showing through. She had no worries about allowing the maniac inside her house, she suspected he didn’t see her as a woman so much as a resource which he could use to achieve his own goals, whatever they might be? ‘Sure thing, hang on, I just need to find my keys again.’ She fumbled in her handbag, thinking she would probably be better off with a slightly less gargantuan one if she wanted to find anything quickly. She drew them out and, after a couple of attempts, managed to get the key into the keyhole and turned it in the right direction.
She typed in the alarm code and calmly put her bag down behind the door, as Darwin entered, standing in the hall surveying the inside of her house as if he were considering its worth. She forced herself to be nice, after deciding that there was probably nothing to be gained from acting otherwise. ‘Would you like a drink?’ Darwin didn’t respond but walked into the sitting room and assessed it with a clinical precision, his black eyes mechanistically moving from item to item until he appeared to be happy that his inventory was complete. Jessica followed him through, not wanting to sit in case it made him feel more superior than he already considered himself to be.
Finally he looked straight at her, his eyes like holes into another universe. It was difficult not to stare straight at them without forgetting what you were meant to be saying. She wondered if that was part of the reason he had such power over people. He seemed to be waiting until his thoughts had assembled themselves into a sentence. ‘I’m not sure you gave my earlier proposition the consideration it should have warranted Miss Bryant. Perhaps now would be a good time for you to review the facts and, perhaps, think about the possible consequences of refusing to work with us.’
Jessica crossed her arms and stood upright, the heels made her a couple of inches taller than Darwin and she hoped this made her seem a bit more imposing than she felt. ‘First of all, could you tell me how you know my surname? When I’m convinced that nobody I know would have told you what it is. Secondly, how can I review the facts when I don’t have any of them? As you can understand, that goes for the consequences too.’ She stood her ground as Darwin walked towards her, a shiver went down her spine as he brushed past, making no attempt to alter his course.
He stood next to the bench, between the kitchen and living room. She turned to face him. ‘If you’d care to step over here I can reveal some of those details to you.’ He pulled an A5 envelope out of his jacket pocket and waited for Jessica to move, she did so and he gazed down for a second before looking into her green eyes. ‘In answer to your first question, I talked to our contact on the inside of the time machine project. It’s been discovered that of the many hypotheses put forward about time travel, the one which seems to hold up on experimentation suggests it’s not possible to change the time line sufficiently with any one action to alter the present. I’d like to test that hypothesis by making a number of changes throughout history, to see if it has any effect on our present environment and the state of the planet. Obviously we can put conditions back as they were if anything untoward occurs.’
He looked down at the envelope again, almost smiling, which was more unnerving than his usual scowl. ‘Now, in response to the other part of your question, hopefully that has given you enough of the facts to make a judgement. However, in case you are still in two minds perhaps these will help you come to a decision.’ He opened the envelope. As the pump of the fish tank was the only other sound in the room the noise of the seal coming unstuck was strangely disquieting. He pulled a small stack of photographic paper from within and looked at the top image, before placing the pile down on the worktop.
Jessica looked at the first picture, just as Darwin put his hand over it and took it away, saying it wasn’t meant to be with the others. Then he spread the remaining pictures out. There was no mistaking the fact that the picture he had withdrawn had been taken within the confines of Jessica’s house. Her look of shock was obvious, but Darwin made no further mention of it, she suspected he would deny what it was if pushed any further. She managed to tear her gaze away from the envelope, finally looking down at the other pictures which made her eyes widen, her heart beat faster and her stomach start to churn.
‘As you can see these pictures are of a personal nature. If they were released they could perhaps injure the pride, if not the social standing and career prospects of someone we are both close to. It might be a good time for me to take a seat. Give you a few moments to reflect on these details so you can come to a decision.’ He stepped away from the counter and left Jessica staring at the photographs.
She stayed still for some time, tentatively moving one of the pictures, followed by another and another. However she moved them it made no difference to the impact they were having on her. She was unsure whether to take it seriously or if it was just a really professional hacking together of a couple of unrelated pictures, but there were no tell-tale signs of alteration, and she knew the location well enough to know it was real. She turned and leant against the unforgiving marble surface, giving a big sigh before talking again. ‘Well, I guess I don’t have a lot of option but to say yes, I’ll help you. But only on the understanding that this stays between the two of us. You can’t tell anybody about this. Tell me where and when I have to be, I’ll do my best to erase the data.’
Darwin gave another of his unpleasant smiles, ‘It’s a bit of a shame really, I think they’re quite flattering, perhaps with some better lighting they could make some money. Oh, you can keep them by the way, I have plenty of copies.’ He stood up and started towards the door before putting a hand on the frame and turning back to face her, the scar on the side of his head seeming more obvious as his face was caught within a spotlight. ‘It could be worse you know! Don’t worry, I’ll see myself out.’ Jessica heard the front door close behind him, gathered the pictures into a bundle and, clutching them at arm’s length, slumped down in her favourite chair.
***
The details of the next jump were spread on the small desk in front of Peter. He realised he had been staring at them for ten minutes without taking in any of the information. He manoeuvred the uncomfortable seat around far enough to look through the bathroom door and watched Andrea brushing her teeth, oblivious of the fact he was staring. When she was done she put a glass under the stream of water, swilled some around her mouth and spat, finally she put both hands under the taps and vigorously rinsed her face. When she finished drying herself she noticed him. ‘What’s up mister?’
He looked down at the papers again. ‘I’m still not happy about this whole thing. It wouldn’t be so bad if I believed everyone was here for the same reasons.’ He placed his fist under his chin and continued to look at the document.
‘Masterson? He sounds fairly straight up to me. I wouldn’t have thought someone so stiff could bend the truth without snapping themselves in half.’ She sat on the bed near to her husband, placing a placating hand on his back.
‘I’m still not sure about Masterson, but I don’t feel comfortable with the others either. Celia and Mike seem okay, but I think they’re naïve if they don’t expect the technology to be misused. That guy Moulder isn’t right either, I think there’s more to him than meets the eye, I don’t like the way he’s so distant all the time. He seems a smart bloke and I don’t think he’s as socially inept as he’d like us to believe. And if there’s not something going on between Emily and Mike then I’m less metrosexual than I thought!’
Andrea raised an eyebrow at the last comment, checking out her husband’s two day stubble growth and unkempt appearance, ‘I’m pretty sure you’ve misunderstood that word! Anyhow, Michael and Celia seem in control to me, they may not have had a lot of dealings with the military before,’ she glanced away from the papers on the desk and they looked at each other for a moment, ‘unlike some people, but they seem to know how to control the information about their machine, I’m not sure anyone else could figure it out in any case. As I say, I don’t think Masterson wants access to the full workings of the thing. Yet, at least!’ Peter’s grey eyes dropped until they were staring vaguely at Andrea’s hand resting on his leg, ‘And maybe David is just quiet. Some people are you know.’ She smiled, but Peter missed it, ‘I think he might just be one of those people who aren’t big on, well, people.’
Peter appeared not to notice she hadn’t mentioned Emily and Michael’s relationship. She mentally crossed her fingers that he wouldn’t bring it up again. ‘I know, I know. It’s just that I can’t make myself comfortable with the idea that we won’t affect anything by stomping around, crushing insects and stuff. Personally I’d prefer it if we didn’t come back from a jump to find out everyone is dressed in kilts, or speaking Danish.’ He lay down on the bed, placing his head on her knee, she automatically started running her hands through his short hair and he relaxed, slightly.
Andrea shuffled across to get comfortable, ‘It’s not like you to worry about these things. I don’t think you need to be so bothered. I’m sure there won’t be problems if Celia says there won’t. She’s a smart girl that one.’ Peter rolled over so he was looking up at Andrea’s face, her sky coloured eyes looked concerned as she continued. ‘Anyway, imagine what you’ll be able to find out if we keep going. We might have some pretty snazzy technologies today, but don’t you think we might learn something if you could have a look at how the Romans built the aqueducts, or at the original Antikythera mechanism. They’ve still never really figured out how the Japanese swordsmiths made their weapons. If you see it for yourself you could bring some of the ideas back and make things better.’ She stopped for a while, seeing his consternation. ‘Alternatively you could make us super rich. Either way!’
He finally smiled. ‘All right, all right. You’ve persuaded me, but if anything goes wrong I’m not sticking around. I’d prefer it if you came with me but we’ll get to that when it happens.’ His hand moved, from where it was resting on his stomach to her waist. He pulled her down on to the bed, rolling over so he could look into her eyes. ‘If I’m going to help bring about the end of the known universe, I may as well have some fun while we’re still here.’ He reached out and turned off the light.
***
‘Could you tell us when you’re going to hit the button this time please, Doc’?’ Peter called from the back of the truck.
‘Will do. Is everyone ready?’ There were a host of positive sounds. ‘Okay then, in three. Two. One, and now.’
Because they got a countdown everyone had tensed themselves for the shock this time but as before, the transition to more than 1,600 years ago, was seamless. Because they were concentrating they all heard the distinct, barely audible, whisper as the air pressure changed from that of a halogen lit enclosed space to a sunny clearing in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle. Andrea spoke first. ‘Well that was a bit of an anti-climax. I expected at least some pretty sparkling colours or something.’
Michael turned to look at her. ‘If you want, I could turn the ceiling light off and on a couple of times.’ Andrea pulled a face at him as she unbuckled herself to collect the monitoring kit. The team were out of the vehicle and ready to go a lot faster this time, making impressed noises as they climbed down and looked across the enormous waterway before them. The Jump Truck was surrounded on the other three sides by densely packed rainforest. Although it wasn’t actually raining it was humid enough to make clothing feel sticky and uncomfortable.
Masterson scanned the surrounds and came to a decision. He nodded at Andrea, Emily and David, ‘I think you three should head along the bank of the river, it’s the most accessible area and hopefully will get you far enough away from the truck for it not to have any affect on your readings.’ Andrea looked at the other two, shrugged and swung her bag over her shoulder.
The others were about to follow her as Pete gave a cursory glance towards the truck. ‘The mechanics look fine to me, I’m going with them.’
Robert turned to face him and was about to argue, until he saw Andrea over Peter’s shoulder gesticulating to warn that it wouldn’t be a good idea. As the four of them tramped off through the damp sandy mud, towards the thin walkway created by the flowing water, Masterson quietly mouthed the words, ‘Bloody civilians.’ Then headed to the edge of the forest to check there were no hazards the pre-jump scanner hadn’t picked up.
As the others got far enough away to speak without being overheard Peter said, ‘The guy’s a tool! He was going to argue with me, I could tell.’ Emily smiled at Andrea who patted him on the shoulder, reminded him that he actually hadn’t argued and told him not to worry about it. He kept grumbling until after they reached a small clearing and started setting up tripods and checking for signs of life.
Peter wandered towards a particularly impressive tree and seemed to be studying it intently, Emily moved over and leant against an equally gnarly one. She waited a little while to see if he would acknowledge her before starting anyway, ‘What’s up, James?’
His eyes continued their minute investigation of the tree bark, he made a sort of grunting noise before actually producing any words. ‘I’m mildly surprised you don’t already know, what with Andrea’s penchant for secrets, and by that I mean her inability to keep anything to herself.’
Emily smirked. ‘Actually to tell you the truth, I do kind of know that you’re not super pleased with the idea of jumping, I can see why, but I don’t think there’ll be any problems. I’ve actually heard quite a lot of the details of how it all works, it seems quite safe.’
‘Yes, Andrea might possibly have revealed a little about your personal conversations too.’ At this he turned to look at her and Emily could feel her cheeks warming up and changing colour to match her dyed hair. ‘Don’t worry, she only tells me the bits she can’t keep to herself.’ He grinned showing his slightly uneven teeth, Emily couldn’t help but laugh. Pete looked over at his wife, who was currently prodding a stick into a hole in a fallen tree stump to see what would come out. ‘She’s fantastic but she doesn’t see the danger in things like I do. I mean, look at her!’ Emily’s eyes followed his, to where Andrea was now putting her hand in the hole and exploring with her fingers. ‘That’s part of the reason she dresses so inappropriately too.’ He looked down at his own dark, vaguely military trousers and plain blue polo shirt. ‘She can’t get her head round the practicalities of everyday life, let alone taking a trip to the Amazon 1,600 years ago.’
Emily looked again and realised Andrea was in wellington boots, fair enough, but was then wearing a light coloured skirt, ending at the top of the boots and dragging on the ground every time she crouched down to look at anything, which was a large part of her remit. Her blouse was one of those billowing, see-through ones with a tank top underneath. There was already a dark ring of muck around the sleeve she had forced into the tree stump, but she seemed oblivious to this. ‘It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t ruin so many clothes. We have to go shopping a lot but it keeps her happy, so I try not to complain.’
‘Get chivalrous Mr James,’ Andrea called from the centre of the clearing. Peter excused himself, going to help her dismantle the small pile of equipment she had been using. Emily continued leaning against the tree, suddenly realising that David was absent. Andrea and Peter were bickering but seemed happy enough, so Emily detached herself from the undergrowth, moving to stand next to the riverbank. She looked along the waterline, which afforded a relatively uninterrupted view, but he wasn’t anywhere obvious. She was just about to turn and call back to the others when his ungainly limbs emerged from the vegetation close by.
He stepped tentatively through the muddy sand and stood next to her. ‘Impressive, isn’t it?’ She agreed and was about to ask where he’d been when, uncharacteristically, he continued talking. ‘Sorry I didn’t say I was going, I was sure I heard the call of a Crowned Chat-Tyrant.’ He saw the blank look on her face, ‘It’s a bird. The song sounded identical to the ones I’ve heard when we come from. I figured that couldn’t be right so I had to see if I could spot it,’ he waved a small pair of binoculars hanging around his neck. ‘There wasn’t time to tell anyone. I’ll just help the others finish packing up.’
He left Emily staring after him, wondering what kind of person would head off through impenetrable forestry 6,000 miles and 1,600 years from home. Then she remembered it was David and stopped worrying. The sun was hot and she was slightly regretting wearing the waterproof coat. She had thought this might be a good idea what with being in a rainforest, but the plastic of the coat was pressing bits of blouse against her body. Wherever it touched she could feel the dampness of her own skin. She looked down and saw that her trousers, not her smartest but serviceable if she had an impromptu business appointment, didn’t seem to be tropical climate proof either. They were covered in all kinds of sticky seeds and would need a thorough decontamination once they got back. Thankfully she had a decent pair of hiking boots, although even they were having trouble coping with the abrasive mud of this place. She decided that she might need to take a shopping trip herself when she was next able and she smiled at the thought that she might be able to have Michael come along. As the others walked past Andrea turned towards her. ‘Are you coming?’ Emily climbed across a tree stump to catch up with them.
At the truck Robert was pacing back and forth, looking out across the expanse of water and occasionally checking his watch. Michael and Celia were leaning against the heavy metal bumper, exchanging thoughts on the Jump Box’s performance so far and what improvements could be made. Masterson turned one hundred and eighty degrees to see Emily emerge noisily from the concealment of a corridor of mangroves and a mass of vines, hanging down from trees which fringed the rainforest. ‘Hurry it up, we’ve been waiting for you.’
Peter helped Andrea, then Emily, over a slippery looking fallen tree, jumping over after them. ‘You haven’t actually been waiting that long, it’s just that you weren’t spending time shifting a huge rock away from the truck’s back axle this time.’ He swung his bag through the back door of the truck, climbing in after it.
Andrea placed her bag down gently and turned back to Masterson. ‘We didn’t have any problems this time, he’s just grumpy ‘cause of the self-inflicted trip into the big outdoors. He’ll get over it!’ With that she put a foot on the rear step of the Cougar and grabbed a hand, which had emerged to help her in.
Emily didn’t climb in immediately, standing next to Robert until the others had embarked, she waited until he acknowledged her. ‘Just one thing Masterson,’ Robert turned to look her in the face, ‘Moulder disappeared after he’d finished his work, I don’t think Pete or Andrea noticed, they were packing up. He wasn’t away long, he told me he’d heard a distinctive bird call and wanted to see if he could see it. You said you wanted to know about anything unusual and I thought this might qualify!’ She turned and climbed in herself. Robert scanned around once then made an unceremonious ascent into the driver side door. A few moments later, where there had been the conspicuously manufactured straight lines of a vehicle, there was only thin air.
***
Jessica’s office was surprisingly tidy for an IT security manager. The odd piece of paper was strewn around on the inbuilt desk which ran from one side of the small room to the other, the dark and stained solid wood table top giving away the history of the oblong room. She had discovered some time ago that it used to be a chemistry lab, which explained both the lighter section of desk at one end, a replacement for a sink which used to take up about a third of the room, and the smell.
Instead of Bunsen burners and flasks of fizzy or steaming coloured liquids there were now computers, of varying shapes and sizes along the length of the wall. Each machine seemed to be busy doing something, apart from the one directly in front of her. She was staring intently at the screen, as if looking for something particular. The only thing on it at the moment was a search box with a flashing cursor. After a few moments she took her chin out of her hands and stopped resting her arms on her knees, noticing how red the skin under her tights had become where she had kept her elbows for too long, and started typing.
At first she was simply searching for names, mostly those of the group members she knew from the EF, this returned a number of results. Social network profiles, addresses, phone numbers, the usual kinds of thing. She didn’t really need to search for these people. She had carried out similar lookups each time a new member had joined, finding out if there were any reason to doubt their credentials. After a while she got to Jonny’s details, obviously he was a little more interesting…from an investigative point of view at least. He had been caught up in a number of incidents where there had been police or forces involvement, so after a bit of poking about she turned up news articles and links to less than appropriate organisations. She smiled at herself, thinking that anyone else looking at his details would think he was some kind of terrorist, rather than the rather soft, well-meaning and above all harmless individual that was actually the case. Then her smile faded as she remembered Darwin’s visit and her eyes became slightly moist. After rubbing the end of her nose she put her hands over them, being careful not to press too hard in case she got the dampness mixed up with her makeup and made a mess of her face.
She moved on. “Darwin” itself was obviously not going to come up with any meaningful results, although she tried a couple of variations such as “Darwin + pseudonym” and “Darwin + activism“, but nothing remotely relevant appeared. Her elbows automatically returned to her knees, resting on the same red patches of thigh which tingled slightly from the bone against bone contact, only separated by the layer of muscle in her legs. After a pause she grabbed a sandwich from her lunch box and gazed at the screen while she ate. Leaving the sandwich hanging out of her mouth, she moved her hands again typing in “Alan Scott”, which came back with over a million results, so she looked at the list of Alan Scotts in the surrounding counties, which at least cut the list down to around two hundred. She slowly read down, looking for any which weren’t so geographically removed as to be pointless, finally coming up with a list of fifteen. Going through the details of each one she carried out the odd “whois” query on websites and delved into their social postings, to try and weed out the false positives.
After twenty minutes of searching the list looked sadly short, the final Alan Scott also failed to be who she was looking for and Jessica was left looking at a list of men she didn’t know. Andy poked his head round the door. Andy was a slightly too keen manager, who occasionally found a reason to come into try and make his employees lives more fulfilling. ‘Hey Jess, have you thought about joining us for a trip to the pub this afternoon, you remember its Kevin’s leaving drinks.’ Andy was the only person she knew who failed to listen to her when she told him to call her Jessica, she liked her name and it grated every time she heard the shortened version.
It took a moment to disentangle her thoughts from the web of search expressions she had been running through and look at the shiny headed man, who beamed with self-importance. ‘Is Kevin leaving? I’d totally forgotten.’ Kevin was one of the dinosaurs from the server team, who seemed to have spent his whole career moaning about how things were better in the old days, or making inappropriate remarks about Jessica’s mode of attire. ‘Actually I’m afraid I’m wrapped up in something important Andy, I’ll see if I can make it over later on.’ She turned back to the computer screen and started typing again, in an attempt to let him know the conversation was over.
‘Okay Jess, see you later then.’ He also had the unpleasant habit of using your name at the start of every sentence, just to make it clear he was talking at you. Jessica continued staring straight forward, in the vain hope that he’d get the hint. After ten seconds or so he seemed to and she heard him conversing with someone in the corridor outside, by the sound of it another manager, as they were talking, quite openly, about reorganising the department. She drifted back into full concentration and tried another couple of searches for anyone matching Darwin’s details, before sighing and returning to some work which actually pertained to her job.