Shilo sat as calmly as she could in the limo, a guard either side of her. The last time she had been in this position was a year ago, when Rotti Largo had wished to speak to her on the eve of the Genetic Opera. She had long given up the idea of struggling. It did her no good, and she doubted she would get any of the respect required for survival by thrashing out. Shilo did not wonder what had happened to any of the others in the alleyway. She didn't think of Amber. She didn't think of the Graverobber. It didn't do her any good either to think of anyone at this time.

It did not take very long at all for Shilo to be forced into her office. Although it was late at night, it seemed that it was best for her to start at the very main room from where she could roam through the rest of the building. Anywhere but the exits, she assumed.

There was very little for Shilo to do. She was still getting to grips with the Admin tasks set before her, and she rathered that she would not have to trouble herself with them. It seemed Amber had taken care of much before she had left. Shilo very nearly thanked the air before her as if Amber were there. She then thought firstly that it was only air in front of her, not a person, and secondly that even if Amber were there, she would not wish to thank her for anything in the world.

Morning came, and so did night. This happened several times before Shilo could at all begin to comprehend the job she had been thrust into. Every evening she cursed Rotti Largo, and every morning she wondered more and more what had happened to the previous owner of GeneCo. Of course, no one knew. If anyone did, they certainly did not work directly for her. For a while it did not bother, but soon enough a natural paranoia that she had inherited from birth began to control her thoughts. Before long, she believed that Amber's whereabouts were being hidden from her.

Shilo was right in the respects that there were those who knew of Amber's whereabouts. The police section of GeneCo had arrested her on the night Shilo had been taken, although Shilo did not know it. They did not believe it was really something she specifically needed to know. Soon enough, though, her questions were answered. If she were truthful to herself, she was not at all surprised that Amber had ended up in jail so soon after the job loss. It was slightly more shocking that she hadn't been arrested before. Then again, Shilo doubted that as the owner of GeneCo, Amber would have gotten in trouble for anything she did.

No one dared to wait on Shilo for the next day, as they all knew she would wish to visit the new prisoner. They did not quite know why they feared Shilo seeing Amber, but a superstition spread across the building that something bad for business would happen if the meeting were to take part. Of course, this was why they did not go near her. If she were to catch one of them and request to be taken down to the prison cells, then they would be obliged to take her.

So, Shilo became more and more determined.

She didn't need to be crafty at all, she found. Not that she could have done so if needed. Being truthful to herself, she knew that the only reason she hadn't been taken in before was pure luck. Yet luck seemed to be on her side, despite everything she had been through- she had decided thoroughly that fate and luck were utterly different things, and more often than not would lead a person in two completely different directions, luck being the path she preferred to choose.

And so, in the late evening of a late Thursday evening, Shilo wandered through the hallways around the GeneCo building, waiting for someone to accidentally cross her path. She was almost amused by the look of shock on the secretary's face that eventually found her. The woman stumbled backwards, as if she could easily run from the fact that she were not invisible, but relented and stood wearily in front of Shilo.

"Miss Wallace," she stammered, clutching the folders she carried to her chest and curtseying oddly.

"You wouldn't mind helping me, now, would you?" Shilo said sweetly, laughing inwardly as the woman thrust her tongue into her cheek painfully, wincing at the request.

"Anything, miss," she replied reluctantly.

"Then I should like you to take me down to Amber Sweet," Shilo ordered, her tone still polite, though she saw no point in it. The secretary pushed her glasses up her nose and with a sigh, nodded. With that, Shilo followed her down the hallways, further down into the building. When she had been living with her late father, Shilo did not expect that there was anything else in the GeneCo building apart from dull offices. As things are in life, she was very wrong. As they went further down, the dark red carpets turned to flat stone, and the walls turned from a light cream wallpaper to dark rock. If she were childish, she would have thought that she were in a children's fairy story.

The secretary pointed Shilo down towards the end of the hall, her face as still as she could make it. Shilo assumed this was an indication that she was to walk by herself. Not that she minded. Perhaps this conversation would be much more difficult if someone were hovering over her shoulder.

The hallway was not as long as she expected. Only a minute later, she found Amber's cell. Shilo was ignored by the woman who sat sullenly on the wooden bench in the cell for a while, but cleared her throat pointedly, causing Amber to look up, alarmed.

"What are you doing here?" Amber asked, quite rudely in Shilo's opinion.

"I might ask you the same thing. No one's told me."

"Drug dealing," she replied simply. Well, she had no reason to be ashamed, it wasn't much of a secret.

"And I'm here to speak to you."

"What about?"

"Your job position." Amber pulled a face, rather bitterly and confused.

"Where have you been?" she asked uncouthly. "Your job position, remember?"

"Not for long," Shilo said.

"My father made sure it would be."

"Rotti Largo obviously didn't count on you."

"He counted on me warming the seat for you," Amber said. "That's it."

"He didn't count on you being able to get yourself back into the seat, though."

"Well, he was right then." Amber looked around pointedly at the room. "Drug abuse. Drug dealing. I'm not getting out of here any time soon."

"You don't think very much of yourself, do you?"

"So you came to taunt me and then insult me?"

"No. I came to tell you to think of a way out."

"If you haven't noticed," she began, tapping the wall with her fist and banging her foot on the floor, "it's concrete floors, stone walls. There aren't any windows in here. I'm not getting out."

"I don't mean digging yourself out, or climbing out. I mean thinking your way out."

"I thought you were sane enough. Guess I was wrong."

"I'm just as sane as you are," Shilo said.

"Well, I must have gone mad then."

"You've got a brilliant mind, I'm sure," Shilo told her. "No one can be that ditsy."

"And you're telling me that's not an insult?"

"I'm telling you to think. I know you're crafty enough to do it. I was told what you did to cover my dad's death. Of course, I didn't think that much of it, but it was clever. I'd never have come up with it."

"Then obviously you don't think very much."

"Which is why I'm asking you to do it." Amber scowled at the girl before speaking again.

"Why would I want to help you?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because you're the reason everything in my life went wrong," she spat. "My dad liked you better than he liked his own kids. Our mother left to have you and leave us for your stupid father. You've twisted that stupid Graverobber's mind so I'm repellent to him."

"That's none of my business. None at all."

"It's your fault," Amber stated, determined.

"So you know why you don't want to help me," Shilo verified. "But I know the very reason you want to help me."

"Why would I want to help you?"

"To get out of here." Amber thought, then nodded.

"Go on."

"If I get out of here, you're the only person they have left to carry on in GeneCo. So get me out, and you'll go too."

"It was far too much work," Amber muttered.

"So you've miraculously rehabilitated yourself from Zydrate?"

"I-" Amber cut herself of, her mouth opening and closing as if the words could not leave her. She closed her lips quickly, folding her arms. "Fine," she continued. "I'll think of something."

"I'll come down again tomorrow, then."

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh