15 - Alone

“Maybe I should try to contact Lydia,” Jia attempted to say again. He hadn’t heard her the first time when he had been slamming his fingers on the express elevator button three times in a row. “But I don’t have her contact information, so if I could get that from you -”

“You don’t have to do anything,” he interrupted. “Just stand by the door and make sure to turn away anyone who’s looking for me until the meeting is over.” The doors slid open with a hiss, and before they had even fully withdrawn, Atlas was already standing inside the elevator carriage and in the middle of turning around. “Quickly,” he snapped.

Jia nearly jumped at the biting impatience in his voice, but with the quick reflexes of someone well accustomed to responding to the barked orders of unreasonable superiors, she scurried inside to join him just before the doors closed behind her. With a hum, the cab began to descend.

Lydia had warned her against this