Chapter 22 Restoring Control

Chapter 22 Restoring Control
Gabriel had just stepped into Zina's office when Andrea arrived, beside her was Lucia, and behind them were two women in leather jackets and jean trousers.

As they made their way through the cubicles towards Zina's office, they attracted the attention of everyone around. Even the codes displayed on their computers seemed to lose their attraction. While such a view would normally be eye candy for viewers, this was Arclight. Everyone with a job thriving in this city was an expert at staying out of trouble.

As she walked towards the office, Andrea noticed the display on the screens and her pupils dilated. Her gaze traveled to Gabriel, who stood watching them approach through the glass wall, and she let out a breath of relief at seeing him okay.

But then, she narrowed her eyes as she noticed something. While she checked him out, Gabriel avoided her gaze. He looked down, then at Lucia, but he would not look her in the eye. His normal nonchalance was gone, and in its place seemed to be some insecurity.

"Gabriel" she called as she walked through the door into the office.

A smile threatened on her lips and her eyes narrowed pleasantly. Gabriel drew a breath and suddenly pulled her into a hug.

Andrea was surprised but she held him for a minute. Her pleased expression changed to one of bafflement and she sniffed twice at him.

"You were with a woman?" she asked as he pulled away, slightly angry that she had been worried for nothing. But more than anger was burning curiosity.

She glanced at Lucia, who nodded in understanding and led the two rough-looking women out of the office.

"What happened?" she asked curiously.

Gabriel looked away from her again but she kept her gaze trained on him.
"Gabriel" she called gently, her tone softer now as she stood a step towards him.

"It's me," she said.
"...and you"

Gabriel's eyes seemed to brighten and he raised his head to look at her. Andrea slowly reached up her right hand and gently pressed on his temple. Gabriel closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again, the familiar chill was back.

"Thank you," Gabriel smiled gently at her, and she simply nodded in reply.

"My codes got scrambled," he explained.

"Were you trying out something?" Andrea asked, needing more context.

"No, a memory fragment popped up out of nowhere" He replied and walked towards the sofa. Andrea followed and sat across from him.

"Why are you here?" Gabriel suddenly asked, raising his head as he remembered something.

Without a word, Andrea tapped twice at her temple.

"Oh," Gabriel's eyes widened slightly.
"I'm sorry" he apologized softly.

"No harm" Andrea replied.

They fell silent for a spell, and she looked up, her eyes slowly roamed around the office, and a smile appeared on her face.

"I'd almost forgotten what this office looked like" she muttered.
"Adam hated it"

"I think about him every time I walk in through those doors," a voice came from behind her, and Gabriel looked up to see Zina standing there.

Andrea remained collected and kept her gaze straight ahead.

"I should go," she said softly and gently tapped on Gabriel's arm. Rising, she walked out of the office without so much as a glance at Zina.

Watching Andrea head out with Lucia and her gang girls, Zina had a thoughtful expression.

"How much do you trust her?" she asked.

"Loyalty is both her greatest strength and weakness" Gabriel replied.

Zina wore a thoughtful expression then turned to him. At the thought of what she was about to ask, her cheeks reddened slightly. Then she noticed Gabriel glance imperceptibly at her chest and her eyes widened in horror.

"Something wrong?" Gabriel asked innocently moving his gaze up to her face.

"You-" Zina found herself caught. She didn't know how to ask what she wanted to ask or how to broach the subject of the video.

"Our systems might have been infiltrated a moment ago, can you please take a look?" she asked. Fearing that Gabriel would have questions on why her engineers couldn't fix it, she inwardly prepared a bunch of lies only to see him shrug and walk past her to her desk.

Lowering himself on it, he familiarly turned the chair and reached underneath to adjust the height. As he adjusted the angle of her desktop, Zina watched with her lips parted.

"I'll be right back" she suddenly said and rushed out.

Taking the stairs and practically running all the way down, she reached the lobby just in time to see Andrea about to go through the doors.

"Andrea" she called and collected herself as her eyes roamed cautiously around to see if anyone had seen her ruffled appearance.

Andrea stopped and turned around to face her. Lucia and the other two women took a few steps back to allow them room to talk.

The world around them seemed to fade as the two women stood facing each other.

"You knew more about Adam than I did; did he have any cousins or siblings?"
Zina asked straightforwardly.

Andrea's expression remained unchanged and she stared at Zina for a few seconds.

"Is this about Gabriel?" she asked and Zina squinted slightly in response.

"So there is something between the two of them?" she asked.

"No." Andrea surprisingly replied with a note of finality and turned around to leave.

"Wait" Zina called again, this time anxiously grabbing at Andrea's arm.

Andrea avoided her grip but paused and turned around once more.

Zina subtly glanced around at observers then straightened and asked in a low tone.

"Please tell me you are not doing all this to mess with my mind," she sounded almost begging.

Andrea seemed shocked and genuinely touched this time.

"Why do you always think the worst of me?" she asked with a squint, her expression utterly baffled as she looked at Zina.

"Why would I bother myself with you?" She asked again, though this time her low tone seemed to be more inquisitive at herself in self-reflection than at Zina.

Turning around, she left promptly while Zina watched her go. Andrea's words had touched her deeply.

"Do I really always think the worse of you?" Zina muttered to herself. As her mind replayed every interaction she had ever had with Andrea, she realized it was indeed so.

The first time she met Andrea, she noticed a powerful self-confidence and will that she developed a dislike for her. And her relationship with Adam only served to unsettle her further. All of this became worse when she would ask Adam about her and get blown off. Even investigations into Andrea's past proved fruitless.

Returning to her office in deep thought, she stood at the door and watched Gabriel working on her desktop. Adam had always made those identical adjustments to the seat and desktop. After his death, she had tried to put the desktop at just the right angle but every time she failed. Yet someone, Gabriel did it like it was second nature.

"Hey, Gabriel," she called and lowered herself into the seat in front of the desk.

"Did you know Adam?" she asked, no longer wanting to harbor questions in her heart or do shady background investigations.

"I didn't, but I do. Better than most" Gabriel replied without missing a beat as if he had always been waiting for her to ask.

"Are you related to him?" she asked again.

Gabriel looked up at her through the top of the desktop, but his fingers did not stop typing.

"No," he replied, but his gaze remained on her.

"What is this?" Gabriel suddenly asked and lowered his head. Attracted to the desktop screen, he was captivated by the video of Zina stripping.

"What are you doing?" Zina asked, her voice a sharp shrill as she rushed around the table to stop the video.

"You can't pause it, it has to play out," Gabriel said, looking at her as she frantically tapped everywhere on the keyboard to remove the video.

"Then stop looking at it," she eventually gave up, and her embarrassed fury redirected at Gabriel.

Gabriel smiled softly and nodded. Only he knew that the pictures and videos on her desktop were only a reflection of his memories. They were displayed on her desktop and no one else's because this office, the desktop, and everything in it actually belonged to Adam.

It took Gabriel some time to wipe away all of his traces from Zina's system as well as all the other systems in the office.
But while thorough, he was not fast enough.

Miles, sitting in a small office with documents littered everywhere on the desk and all around him, softly chewed on the end of his pen with a thoughtful expression on his face as he worked. Suddenly, his phone screen lit up and he picked it.

On it was a picture of one of the desktops in Sentient Technologies as well as a report on what had just happened there.

Smiling, he forwarded the message and hurried out of the office.
Hurrying into a lab, he approached a middle-aged woman who was busily working on a system.

"Did you get my message?" he asked excitedly.

"I did" the woman nodded gently, her expression much more controlled.

"And?" Miles urged.

"I haven't the slightest clue what it is," she replied as she worked.

"Give me a few days and I might be able to decipher it"

Miles smiled and nodded to himself as he watched her work, his mind traveling a mile a minute.