“Hey Erin, I’m good, you?” Tyson’s winning smile was bright and cheerful as he leaned on the side of her cubicle entrance, causing them to tilt ever so slightly until the network of cubes caught his weight.

The Plot hadn’t crept up over her to warn her of his approach. Erin shook her head with a shrug, overly expressive as if it might be a talisman. She wasn’t shivering in terror, which was a pretty good start. 

Before today they’d barely shared a glance and a nod. What could he want with her?

“Uh, good you know. Just trying to reconcile the latest build for the Seer project.” Not that Tyson actually cared about work. “What’s up? If you’re looking for Janette, I haven't seen her today.” A moment's pause and Erin couldn’t keep from babbling, “I think she’s on vacation, actually.” She had snooped on Janette’s work calendar, because the Plot liked to cause trouble for people near her.

She told herself to remain calm. Short and quick. He just wants simple answers, and then he will go away. Erin prayed he was just trying to find Janette.

It was his job to schmooze with other companies and bid on work contracts for the company, selling Divinilogic’s suite of accounting and database tools. Erin mainly did some software improvements for large organizations. Designing and supporting interfaces, applications, and back-ends for nationwide corporations, so that the customer can do whatever their corporation does, better and easier.

She had nothing to do with Tyson beyond sharing the name ‘Divinilogic’ on their paychecks. Except for Janette. 

“Oh, I know. She's out of town visiting her parents for the week. I was looking for you, actually.”

She turned to face him a little more completely. She didn’t want to seem rude. It could be worse than terrified. “Uh huh. So, how can I help you? I- didn’t know you were on the same contract.”

He smiled. “Nah, I’m not. No need to worry. It is actually about Janey. Her birthday is coming up and I’m not sure what kind of jewelry she likes.”

“Ahh,” she said. She considered the question and ignored his pet name.

Her friend Janette was in project management and supervised a large group responsible for Divinilogic’s government contracts. Erin and Janette had become friends before Janette’s promotion to manager five years ago. They’d stopped being friends, more or less, when she started dating Tyson.

She doubted there was anyone else in the office that knew Janette used to collect steampunk jewelry. Or she had, when she still had agency.

Erin, not forgetting who was before her, offered to Tyson, “Well, she actually really enjoys bracelets and earrings. Her grandmother passed away when she was a kid and left Janette with a whole box of vintage-looking brass and copper jewelry that she loved. I know her favorite stone is topaz, or at least it was... We haven’t been able to hang out in the past few months. She’s been busy.” Erin gave him a look like she blamed him, but managed to make it seem good-natured rather than accusatory. If she couldn’t shut up, better to be on his good side.

He laughed; a deep sound, velvety and warm. She knew it was supposed to be charismatic, but it was hard to feel anything genuine with someone who invaded her world to play hero. His grin didn’t vanish as he answered, “Oh, I don’t think that was all me. She has been trying to keep up with the deadlines that the D.O.D. have been giving her to modernize their system.”

“Oh, I know. I just worry about her. She did get into trouble with that gang a couple weeks ago, in that kidnap and ransom thing. Thankfully The Cavalry saved her, you know?”

Tyson quirked his head, expression unreadable, and Erin thought she was finished. Dead and gone or, at the very least, going to be permanently Puppeted, like Janette. Her body started to buzz electric, but she swallowed and tried to ignore the sensation. She was astonished it took this long.

“Janey’s tough, you know? I saw it on the news too. I tried calling the police, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. Once the Cavalry arrived, I knew she would be fine.”

She didn’t let the cold, snide anger show on her face as she said, “Yeah, for sure.”

“Have you not seen her since then?” Tyson asked, the question not quite following the same tack as before.

She was caught between lying or telling the truth. Scrambling, she settled on saying, “I’ve seen her around the office and such, but we’ve both been so busy. Work, ya know?”

He seemed more troubled by this than he need be. “It’s not right that she stopped spending time with her closest friend. She mentions you a lot.” She was taken aback by that statement. Janette still remembered her? And talked about her?

His statement galled her in more than one way, and her old panic was turning into fierce annoyance. He said friend, singular. Janette used to have lots of friends, before Tyson came around.

The electric buzz seemed to strengthen as if anticipating some reaction that might break the fourth wall. The Plot was reacting to nothing, just annoying her. She wasn’t going to break the illusion of the story that the Protagonists lived by. She just exchanged a few more platitudes that meant nothing with Tyson before he checked his watch. 

“Brass, copper, topaz - right? Thanks, Erin. I appreciate it. It was good talking to you. Maybe we can all spend some time together after the spring rush of work.”

“Sure, that’d be cool. Nice to see you.” She said, smiling wanly at her lie. It was a struggle to keep her grin from becoming sanguine. 

She found herself watching his retreating form down the hallway between cubes. The fake cheer and camaraderie she forced were gone - as well as the electric buzz.

As much as she’d like to hang her head and catch her breath, Erin couldn’t just shut down now. Not yet. She opened a new text document and began typing furiously everything she could remember about the short conversation so she could go back through it later and make sure she was internally consistent in the future. She had gotten maybe a third of what she wanted down, when another shadow fell over her desk. Automatically, she minimized the transcript and checked who it was. Not Tyson again, surely.