she'd been even four years older, but left him feeling a little uncomfortable in the current situation. She kept explaining everything, a running stream of consciousness monologue, but one that held a lot of information, so Brian made a point of trying to pay attention.
"First floor is the snob department. It's where Prime and the first team all live. They have the best food, so if you want a treat, sneak in there. It isn't really their private facility, so don't let them tell you differently. The next three floors are boring, administrative stuff and where they keep the president and senators when they come to visit, if they don't want to just stay in town.
"Floor five is my stop. Where all the cool people - team two - are. Room seven by the way, in case you ever want to visit..." She pressed against him tightly for a moment. "After that are the three hospital floors, then your floor, nine. Team three lives there. They're... all right. A little different, but not bad for the most part. Just watch out for Christian, she'll totally nark you out. She can't help reading our minds, but she'll report it if you want to sneak out or something."
Lancaster put a single hand on the girl's shoulders as she growled, thinking of some past wrong Brian guessed. She recovered herself in about five seconds and took a breath.
"After that the next three floors are all boring again. Labs and technical junk that no one really cares about and some of the living spaces for non-operatives that work here. Fourteen and fifteen are the gyms. You probably won't need fifteen, unless you can shoot lasers from your feet or something you haven't mentioned? Otherwise just stick to fourteen with all the normal folk like me that run and lift weights to work out, not destroy small planets. Well... I have a work out on fifteen sometimes too, but that's just the obstacle course and some of the machines, the really cool stuff...Carl, the trainer there? He's the best. He'll let you try anything if you want."
They reached five then and Bridget reminded him that she was in room seven and made him repeat it twice, much to everyone else's amusement. She would have gone for more, but he assured her he really didn't forget numbers. It was pretty much the truth even. That left him in the elevator with Lancaster and Doc Tull, who got off when the door opened on the ninth floor.
The doctor shook his hand cradling his right in both of hers, and told him that they'd probably meet later in the week, if it could safely be arranged. Soon regardless. Then she walked through a door about fifteen feet from the elevator. Lancaster asked him to wait there and walked quickly down the hall himself, going past the door to a glass front room about thirty yards down on the left. It had glass, but it wasn't clear, so heavily frosted that it couldn't be seen through at all. All about image then? Give an open office feeling without really being visible at all? Sneaky.
He looked at the carpet, a mottled blue, the tight kind that hotels liked to use because it lasted so long. The walls were a nice cream-colored wallpaper which made the whole place look expensive, a faint pattern to the paper, raised just a tiny bit it looked like to him. Hard to tell without touching it, but rubbing the walls seemed pushy somehow.
Brian just waited instead.
After a few moments something jostled his left arm a bit and he looked over, not seeing anything there at all. Then felt it again as soon as he looked away. Something had a hold on his arm, just above the elbow. He reached over with his right hand and felt as best he could, fingers clumsy, discovering it seemed to be a hand.
A soft voice came to him, almost silent in a weird way, "Can you hear me?"
It sounded really far away, like someone calling out across a big open field. It had a hollow feeling to it, and he wasn't absolutely certain he'd really heard it at all. Given the nature of the place, Brian figured he may as well answer. He doubted
"First floor is the snob department. It's where Prime and the first team all live. They have the best food, so if you want a treat, sneak in there. It isn't really their private facility, so don't let them tell you differently. The next three floors are boring, administrative stuff and where they keep the president and senators when they come to visit, if they don't want to just stay in town.
"Floor five is my stop. Where all the cool people - team two - are. Room seven by the way, in case you ever want to visit..." She pressed against him tightly for a moment. "After that are the three hospital floors, then your floor, nine. Team three lives there. They're... all right. A little different, but not bad for the most part. Just watch out for Christian, she'll totally nark you out. She can't help reading our minds, but she'll report it if you want to sneak out or something."
Lancaster put a single hand on the girl's shoulders as she growled, thinking of some past wrong Brian guessed. She recovered herself in about five seconds and took a breath.
"After that the next three floors are all boring again. Labs and technical junk that no one really cares about and some of the living spaces for non-operatives that work here. Fourteen and fifteen are the gyms. You probably won't need fifteen, unless you can shoot lasers from your feet or something you haven't mentioned? Otherwise just stick to fourteen with all the normal folk like me that run and lift weights to work out, not destroy small planets. Well... I have a work out on fifteen sometimes too, but that's just the obstacle course and some of the machines, the really cool stuff...Carl, the trainer there? He's the best. He'll let you try anything if you want."
They reached five then and Bridget reminded him that she was in room seven and made him repeat it twice, much to everyone else's amusement. She would have gone for more, but he assured her he really didn't forget numbers. It was pretty much the truth even. That left him in the elevator with Lancaster and Doc Tull, who got off when the door opened on the ninth floor.
The doctor shook his hand cradling his right in both of hers, and told him that they'd probably meet later in the week, if it could safely be arranged. Soon regardless. Then she walked through a door about fifteen feet from the elevator. Lancaster asked him to wait there and walked quickly down the hall himself, going past the door to a glass front room about thirty yards down on the left. It had glass, but it wasn't clear, so heavily frosted that it couldn't be seen through at all. All about image then? Give an open office feeling without really being visible at all? Sneaky.
He looked at the carpet, a mottled blue, the tight kind that hotels liked to use because it lasted so long. The walls were a nice cream-colored wallpaper which made the whole place look expensive, a faint pattern to the paper, raised just a tiny bit it looked like to him. Hard to tell without touching it, but rubbing the walls seemed pushy somehow.
Brian just waited instead.
After a few moments something jostled his left arm a bit and he looked over, not seeing anything there at all. Then felt it again as soon as he looked away. Something had a hold on his arm, just above the elbow. He reached over with his right hand and felt as best he could, fingers clumsy, discovering it seemed to be a hand.
A soft voice came to him, almost silent in a weird way, "Can you hear me?"
It sounded really far away, like someone calling out across a big open field. It had a hollow feeling to it, and he wasn't absolutely certain he'd really heard it at all. Given the nature of the place, Brian figured he may as well answer. He doubted