Absolute Zero (4 page)

Close up, she was even more attractive, he noticed as he continued to examine the woman across the table. The fluorescent lighting, while not flattering to most, caused her unusual blue/green eyes to sparkle. It was the strangest thing – how could something so cute and inviting be so cold and aloof? Maybe she was shy.
Maybe she was just socially awkward?

Many of the scientists in his acquaintance were introverts but this creature before him was clearly uncomfortable around people. It was almost fun to goad her. Little sparks of annoyance would erupt before she would tamp it back down to bland.

“So, did you move here with your family?” he questioned. A quick perusal of her hands netted the absence of a ring. Of course some women didn’t wear a ring…

He watched as she bit her lip and began fidgeting before curling her fingers into fists on the table. She must have realized what she was doing because almost immediately, she relaxed them again. She blew out a small breath.

“No.”

“No, what? No family or they didn’t move out here with you?” he asked, almost expecting some kind of verbal slashing.

“Why do you care?” she blurted the question before clamping her lips shut once more.

“Just being friendly. If you’re here alone, I thought maybe I could show you around the town, help you settle in,” he replied casually.

“Thanks, but no,” she replied tersely. It was just the response he expected.

“Really? Well, that’s too bad, Anne. It’s a lovely town and…”

“See the screen? It’s Page 8 of the Handbook,” she interrupted. “The Fraternization Policy. You might want to pay attention to this part,” she muttered with eyes glaring back at him.

A laugh erupted unchecked from his mouth causing her brow to furrow.

“Oh, Anne. Aren’t you something?” he finally stated, shaking his head.

Go away.

She didn’t respond. She was seriously considering excusing herself from the room. It was too small and getting smaller by the second, at least in her mind. The walls were closing in; her lungs were becoming squeezed. The pressure building within her brain was starting to become unbearable.

Her hands gripped the side of the table, ready to push the chair back before the woman wandered in again. She looked much calmer than she did when she left. She probably went somewhere to collect herself, maybe give herself a mental pep talk in order to deal with the annoying man seated across the table.

Who was he?
Why did he show up late to his own orientation? When he walked in, he did so unapologetically. Maybe he worked here already? But if he worked here, why was he sitting in this extremely boring and unnecessary training session?
Why do I even care? She’s back.  Ignore him and concentrate on her.

“All right, sorry about that. Where were we?” she stated in a perfectly cool voice.

“No fraternization.” Anne piped up before shooting a sideways glance at him. He shot one back, although his eyebrows were raised in amusement.

“Sir?” An attractive young woman poked her head in through the open door, her eyes fastening on him immediately.

He looked from Anne to the new arrival.

“Cyril Hendrick from Probst Labs is on line 3 for you. He says you’re expecting his call,” she stated in an almost sheepish voice.

“Hmm…” he muttered to himself as he looked at the woman. She immediately averted her eyes toward the floor.

“Well, Anne, you enjoy the rest of your orientation, eh?” he stated as he pushed away from the table and stood. “It was nice to meet you.” He extended his hand across the table for her to shake, apparently. She reached her own hand out after an awkward hesitation.

“The pleasure was
ALL
mine, right?” he stated with a smirk as his warm hand clasped and surrounded hers, applying a slight squeeze before he let go. His eyes were still on her even as he backed away toward the door.

She opened her mouth to respond before quickly shutting it.
What do you say to that?

He gave a slight nod toward the woman at the front of the room before disappearing around the corner.

Anne’s eyes shifted toward the woman as a strange sound could be heard from her general direction. She blew out a rather noisy breath and was staring down at her computer.

“I am so sorry about that. He’s
never
done that before.” She stated before her gaze locked with Anne’s.

“Who
is
he?” Anne asked.

The woman’s eyes widened. “You don’t know?”

Anne shook her head and shrugged.

“
That
was Ian McClellan.” She stated simply before Anne’s stomach decided to drop.

“Shit. I mean…shoot.” Anne quickly amended under her breath.

“He never comes here anymore, he hasn’t been in this facility for almost a year and then he shows up out of the blue. He makes us all a bit…nervous.” The woman confided as she clicked her mouse button and the next page showed up on the screen.

“Did I make a complete fool of myself?” The woman asked as her green eyes locked with Anne’s. She honestly looked scared.

“Umm…no?”
Don’t lie
. “Well, sort of…” Anne said before giving a slight shrug of her shoulders.

“Oh god. What did he say to you? Did he say anything about me? Did he say why he came in here?” she asked.

“No.”
He just asked prying questions, I made reference to the fact that he was an ape, basically threw the ‘no fraternization’ policy in his face
… “No, he just asked me some questions, that’s all. Nothing about you.”
Oh, except that part when I told him you lost your mind.
She kept that to herself. Her hands were fidgeting under the table nervously.

“All right. Ok. Well, I’m sorry about all that. I guess we should continue, huh?”

Actually, I’d rather not
. “Sure,” she stated instead.

*****

“And this is your desk. See? You’ll be right next to the Lab, which is nice.”

She stood and stared down at the desk devoid of anything other than a laptop docking station and two monitors.

“Let’s go get your key card and we’ll make a stop in IT. Your computer is ready to pick up…” she stated as Anne followed her from the room.

A man was walking in from the hall at the same time; almost bumping into the woman whose name was actually Terri. Terri the Tour Guide. Sometime during the rest of the orientation, she became more human, less robot. After her embarrassing performance in front of Ian the Inquisitive, (as Anne had dubbed him in her head), her presentation became a bit warmer and somewhat more personal - as if they shared some kind of new bond between them. They didn’t really share a bond, just the fact that they both basically made asses of themselves in front of the owner of the company that they both worked for.

“Excuse me! Oh, hey Terr,” the man stated warmly before backing away.

“Hi, Ryan. This is Anne, she’s new to the Department. Ryan is one of your peers,” she stated toward Anne. “I’m sure you guys will be working together on projects,” she said before shifting to the side and allowing Ryan’s outstretched hand to clasp Anne’s for a shake.

“Nice to meet you, Anne. What project are you working on?” he asked with a warm smile. He was almost as short as she was, slightly overweight, completely bald but his face was so kind-looking; she found her own lips responding with a small smile.

“I…I have no idea,” she answered honestly.

“Well, we’ll help you get settled in. There’s an awful lot going on right now, we can really use the help. What’s your specialty?” he asked before leaning on the door jamb.

“Behavioral medicine,” she answered automatically.

“Hmm…we haven’t really…”

“Ryan? You guys can talk later, OK? She’s on a schedule, here,” Terri piped up, her tone was friendly, though. It was clear Ryan wasn’t offended in the least.

“Sure. First day, I get that. Hey – Happy Hour tonight, don’t forget,” he stated toward Terri before shifting his eyes. “Anne? It was nice to meet you, maybe we’ll talk later. Why don’t you come to Happy Hour, huh?”

“Oh, ah…I don’t…know, I…” she stammered, not quite sure how to respond.

Her arm was grasped lightly by Terri. Anne stiffened immediately but willed her body to relax as she was lead from the room.

“Come on, we’ll be here all day with this one,” she stated in a teasing tone. When they were a few steps into the hall, Anne gently removed her arm from Terri’s grasp as Ryan’s voice followed them.

“See you tonight!” he called out jovially.

Terri gave a slight wave as they walked down the hall, stopping before a wall of windows before turning toward Anne.

“This is the Lab,” she stated as Anne eagerly walked toward it and peered in. It was huge, pristine, white on white, full of men and women in lab coats working at each of the oddly shaped counters placed in precisely angled rows down the length of the room. Equipment was visible on most of the counters and for the first time during the day, she was actually excited to peruse the room and its’ contents more closely. Not the inhabitants, though. There were quite a few people working in close confines but they seemed to be keeping to themselves at their own respective counters. That was good. The lab in San Diego was crowded but everyone seemed to be absorbed in their own work. Hopefully this was the same scenario.

“I’ll bring you back down after lunch,” Terri stated to Anne’s disappointment. She walked past the glass door and continued down the long, starkly white hall. “Besides, I don’t have access to the Lab. They’re very strict about who has access to what around here,” she added. Anne took one more longing look through the windows before reluctantly turning and catching up with Terri.

They passed a few open offices, a large conference room, and several more offices before another room loomed before them at the end of the hall. Through the windows on both sides she could clearly see gym equipment and for the second time that day, she was actually excited.

“This is the gym. Dr. McClellan is a big believer that regular exercise stimulates brain activity, he encourages everyone to use the gym before work or during lunch hours,” she said.

Anne scanned the rather well appointed but unoccupied gym.

“It’s almost lunch time, a few people use the facilities but most people around here are more interested in actually
eating
.” She moved in a bit closer to Anne causing her to move back a fraction. “To be honest, he’s the only one who really uses it. It gets a bit more use when he’s actually in town, but when he’s not? It’s usually empty,” she confided in a low voice.

“I’ll use it. What are the hours?” Anne asked.

“Well, it depends. Your keycard gives you access, the main office opens at 6 am, but the gym can be accessed from the outside. So, I guess if you have the right access, you could get in whatever time you want. You just can’t access the office portion until 6.”

“How do I get access to the gym?” she asked, taking in the multitude of equipment.

“We can see about getting your keycard set up for that. What time would you want access?” she asked.

“24 hours. Sometimes as early as 3? I…don’t sleep…much,” she stated without looking at the other woman.

Silence. It caused Anne’s eyes to shift to Terri.

“Ohhhkay…really? 3 am?” She had the strangest expression on her face.

“Yeah, although most of the time it would be around 4 am,” she said.

“Umm…well, we can ask, I guess. 4 am?” Terri looked pained for some reason. Either she was worried about asking or worried about Anne’s sleep patterns. Either way, she didn’t look comfortable.

“Ms. Bennett?” Clicking footsteps accompanied a new female voice that caused Anne to turn from the gym window. The same young woman that appeared in the conference room earlier that morning approached. She looked a bit harried but she quickly plastered a smile on her face as she neared the other women.

“Ms. Bennett, Dr. McClellan would like to see you,” she stated.

Anne tried to keep the automatic frown from her face. Terri couldn’t, she noticed as she chanced a quick glace over to her. In fact, some sort of look passed from the young woman to Terri. Widened eyes mixed with a slight look of concern before they both schooled their faces back to some sort of pleasant countenance.

“Well…Ok, I guess…I had lunch brought in for you. Just go to the Conference Room after you’re done. We’ll go to IT this afternoon OK?” Terri said.

If I’m still employed
… “Sure,” Anne answered instead.

*****

“Go ahead.” The younger woman led her to the door and quickly sidestepped to allow her to stand directly in front of the knob.

Anne watched as she wandered to her desk and grabbed her purse from one of the drawers.

Her eyes went back to the knob and quickly flitted back to the woman. She was rooting through her purse before the jingle of keys could be heard.

Shouldn’t she announce me? Shouldn’t she at least knock on the door and poke her head in to tell him I’m here?