Chris peered through the glass door. The interior looked like a less elaborate, more utilitarian version of the offices up in Marketing. Except for the door, the only glass surfaces to be seen were the windows overlooking the Mechatronics factory floor. They appeared to have the same liquid crystal properties though, set in a partially transparent state. James appeared to be making use of the projection system too; the walls were covered in glowing design documentation from one of the company's projects and the lights were dimmed.
A busy office overlooking a noisy factory... It was a miracle James could be productive here. But he seemed to be in his element, surrounded as he was by the mechanical drawings projected onto the walls of the room. At least he would have been, were he not staring listlessly into the middle distance with an anxious look on his face. Chris knocked on the door, pushing it open. The other man's expression soured as soon as their eyes met. He nodded at a chair on the other side of his desk.
"Holly said you'd come here. Sit down."
Chris took the chair warily, unzipping his jacket and allowing Titch to wriggle free. The tiny persocom clambered into his lap to take stock of their surroundings. James seemed visibly uneasy about having her in his office; when she cheeped a warm greeting at him, he only frowned in response, reaching for a button on the desk that set the glass in the walls and door to their maximum opacity. Whatever the cause of his displeasure, it was clearly less interesting to Titch than the room itself, as in mere moments she had scrambled to the floor only to find her way on top of a large filing cabinet. Chris made sure to watch her carefully; her movements were something he would keep himself acutely aware of, after yesterday.
"I found out about ten minutes ago that Titch not only still existed, but would be arriving in my office this morning. What the hell is going on? What did you do?" James demanded quietly.
"He rescued me." Titch squeaked, studying the room from her newfound vantage point.
"Yesterday, you and Holly." James clarified, ignoring her. His bluntness was alarming in contrast to his usual, meandering verbosity. "What were you playing at? That fire alarm… was that you?"
Chris nodded wordlessly, and the other man swore angrily under his breath. That was unexpected... James hadn't known? Wouldn't James have shared Holly's attitude towards saving Titch? Come to think of it, Chris had originally suspected James was the one behind it all, but that didn't appear to be the case. James muttered to himself angrily.
"I knew she'd try to interfere. I knew it. Why didn't I say something? Stupid persocom-woman. Why would you do this to me?"
"So... you didn't condone any of this? You didn't know what Holly was doing?"
James studied Chris, an unreadable expression on his face. "You're late. I expected you several minutes ago."
"Yeah, about that-"
"Our journey was extended due to an eleven minute diversion. We ran into a persocom called Mordecai." Titch squeaked. "I heard him from my hiding place. He sounded scary."
"What?" James leapt from his chair, glaring at Chris. "What did he say to you? What did you say to him? Tell me everything! Right now!"
"Nothing, nothing! Actually Caz rescued me, it was the weirdest thing-"
"Caz. Oh, thank god." James sighed in relief, sinking back into his chair. "You really told him nothing?"
"Nothing. James, you're making me anxious. In fact, everything is making me anxious! What am I supposed to do now? It's fifteen minutes into the day and I've already been chased by security again!"
"You what? Chased? Security? You must be mistaken. He can't do that."
"I'm serious! Caz thought he may have told them I stole something in order to solicit their help. Only that's not really a lie, is it? I would've warned her but she went racing off with them hot on her heels."
"She did, huh?" James murmured, momentarily lost in thought. He didn't seem nearly as concerned about that as Chris expected. "I'm sure Caz will be fine. But this means Mordecai is onto Holly's ruse. That means her diversionary tactics haven't worked, at least not properly. But if he really knew what happened he wouldn't have tried to eke it out of you. I guess that's some small comfort."
"Yeah, great. And what happens when he finds me again? I can't sneak around or be chaperoned by other persocoms forever. Look... Holly told me to come here. Do you know what she has planned that she thinks will make this all blow over? Because that's kind of what I need to hear after yesterday."
"I don't. Sorry Chris, but I'm just as in the dark as you are. Holly made efforts to cover this up; she told me that much, but I don't know if Mordecai was a factor she considered, at least not so soon after yesterday. He isn't the kind to get caught up chasing the bureaucratic process. Once he decided Titch should be decommissioned, his involvement would have ended."
"What? This was Mordecai's call?"
"No, it's procedure. But Mordecai could have overridden it yesterday by quickly confirming Titch only patched into the system without actually doing anything. I happen to know he didn't, though. Instead he insisted on performing a full systems audit. That might explain how he found out about you and Holly so quickly."
It did make sense. He glanced at Titch; with folded arms and a hand on her chin, she was nodding as if James' words were laden with profound wisdom. She giggled when she noticed Chris watching. He was about to ask James about the audit when the office door clicked open. All three of them span round to see Holly's frame silhouetted in the hallway's light. She strode inside, pulling the door shut behind her.
"Holly!" Titch cried, bursting with happiness. She pattered to the edge of the filing cabinet, waving enthusiastically.
"Where've you been?!" James scowled, crossing his arms. It was clear he wanted a reaction, but it wasn't obvious if Holly had noticed. In fact, she appeared to be pointedly ignoring him, only sparing a moment to smile and wave at Chris before turning to Titch. The little persocom seemed impervious to the tense atmosphere in the room, bell tinkling as she bounced from foot to foot in excitement.
James huffed indignantly. "Thanks for the morning's message Holly, I'm happy we could discuss this-"
"I'm glad you're okay, Titch." Holly spoke over him, smiling.
"Me too! Guess how I got rescued!" Titch squeaked, launching into a dramatic retelling of yesterday's events without waiting for an answer. Holly gently held up a hand to shush her.
"We're in a bit of a rush Titch, but I'd love to hear about it later. Would that be okay?" She smiled at the little persocom's emphatic nodding.
"You're really taking the piss, you know that, right?" James growled. "Look at the trouble you're causing! You know the consequences! Was it worth it?"
"I'm grateful for your concern." Holly replied, though it sounded more like a warning than gratitude. "And yes, it was worth it."
"I really hope you're right about that Holly, because your ethics drew Mordecai's attention, and now he's hunting for Chris. Soon he'll come for us, and look! Look here! We're all together under the same ceiling, and we even brought the persocom the fucking company wanted destroyed, isn't that perfect?"
Holly glared at him, apparently unfazed. "James, she needs a new UUID. Are you going to help, or will you just keep acting like a petulant child?"
"Oh, so that's why you wanted the NTAG? I see. Well since you apparently tricked me into swiping the equipment you need this morning, and you've smuggled her into my office, it doesn't look like I have much of a choice now, does it?"
"I suppose not." Holly sniffed.
"You're unbelievable!"
"We don't have time for this James, Mordecai will-"
"Yeah, that's top priority for you now, isn't it? Thanks for the heads-up on that by the way, really did Chris and I a huge favour there-"
"I only found out minutes ago! Not that it matters if we hurry - do you understand? If we're quick about this, Mordecai won't have any evidence to go on beyond some mismatched data and a hunch."
"If you hadn't gone running off to play the heroine and made a mess trying to hide it, there wouldn't be any evidence to go on!" James scowled again, ripping open one of the drawers by his desk. For all he frequently frustrated Holly, it seemed she was easily capable of doing the same to him. As James rummaged within the drawer, he turned the scowl on Chris instead. "Now I know what it actually is, I might as well fill you in on what Holly wants to do. Each persocom has a UUID, as you know. Well, with Titch having been scheduled for destruction, there's no way her UUID can make an appearance here again. She can't cable up to any terminals, she can't use WiODA… in fact, she can't even be scanned passively." He produced some cables from the desk; Chris recognised their connectors as belonging to an NTAG scanner.
"So we need to swap out the UUID Titch has with another." Chris guessed, receiving a nod from James as he inspected the cables.
"Sort of. They're hard-coded in the neurologic core, so we can't change them. We have to spoof them instead."
"Hang on, yesterday we were getting scanned, and when they came to me, Holly put her hand out and tricked-"
"She did what?"
"Uh… Well, we were getting scanned. At the fire assembly point. They thought I was a persocom… long story short, Holly tricked the scanner so I wouldn't get caught. Does that mean she has these software changes?"
"She put herself at risk spoofing a UUID for you?" James growled. His expression looked potent enough to bore holes through solid steel.
"James." Holly's voice carried that warning tone again. The man sighed and softened before continuing.
"Listen... spoofing a UUID is different to replacing one. You're clearly aware Holly can do it, as she's so kindly demonstrated," he glowered at her for a moment, "and it's exactly the sort of trickery we need to get Titch to do, but she needs some tweaks to the software in her radio gear. Then as far as any outside system is concerned, Titch has an entirely different identity."
"But her real UUID still exists?"
"We can't change that, but it's not too big a problem, since for all normal communication her true UUID won't be revealed. If you cabled her up to an NTAG you could see the real one, but that's about it."
"Right… okay, sounds simple enough." Chris said, frowning in thought.
James nodded solemnly. "Yeah it sounds simple in principle, but it's highly illegal-"
"But nothing. It needs to be done." Holly said, walking over with Titch perched happily on her shoulder.
"What about all those persocoms she communicated with yesterday? Won't they have her UUID?" Chris asked, concerned. "It would be suspicious if her UUID suddenly changed, wouldn't it?"
Titch shook her head, her little bell tinkling. "I only shared it with Holly." she squeaked.
"That's good, little one. You sit on the desk now," Holly gently lowered the tiny persocom to the work surface. Titch examined its length, taking in its dimensions before pattering to the very middle and plopping herself obediently into a cross-legged position.
"Right then, let's get started." James grumbled, digging once more inside his desk and producing one of the boxes Chris recognised from the yesterday as an NTAG scanner. "Titch, if you'd take this cable please?" he handed a cable to her, which she popped into the comm panel disguised as a hairband on her head. Holly selected another, deftly connecting it to a port inside her left ear pod.
"We've never tried this on a miniature unit before. Do you think this will work?" James muttered.
"She's not equipped with the standard Minito modems." Holly replied, as her eyes began to flash. "She should be capable."
"Should? Well that's reassuring, it's nice to know this whole thing hinges on a 'should'".
"Connected." Holly murmured, cupping Titch with her hands. "Entering PFU mode." Chris started when Titch flopped lifelessly into Holly's grasp, but the lack of reaction from the others suggested it was expected. Holly frowned in concentration, her eyes flashing rapidly now. "Uploading new baseband firmware… so far so good. James, I need a seed."
James nodded expectantly. "Of course. How do you want it?"
"Draw a few shapes on that notepad there." Holly suggested, nodding her head at the pad on the table.
"Holly is generating a new UUID," James explained as he scribbled, seeing the confused on look on Chris's face, "True random data helps. She'll analyse the relative positions of the vertices in my drawing and use that randomness for a good result."
"That's right," Holly said, "There are lots of ways to generate random data, but this one is particularly-" she stopped abruptly mid-sentence, looking worriedly towards the office door.
"What is it?" James whispered.
"Transmissions in the corridor. James, it's the NSO."
"Shit. How long?"
"Twenty seconds."
"Shit. Shit! Is it done?" James hissed, beginning to scrape the equipment back into his desk drawers. After another frantic second of computation Holly nodded, tugging the cables free from herself and Titch. They quickly disappeared from sight while the tiny persocom awakened.
Holly plucked Titch from the desk and span around, yanking open the top filing cabinet drawer and depositing her as far back as she could go, behind all the paperwork. She put a finger to her lips and Titch nodded timidly, hugging her knees as the closing drawer plunged her into darkness.
"Get rid of that!" Holly whispered to James, pointing to his notepad as she stepped away from the cabinet. The office door burst open just after she stopped moving, revealing a slender persocom in an expensive suit. Mordecai walked into the room with oddly deliberate, gentle steps. His empty grey eyes took in all three of them, lingering on Chris as his painted-on smile acquired a triumphant quality.
"Good morning." he said, in his concordant, sickly-sweet voice.
"What a surprise! To what do we owe the pleasure, Mordy?" James grinned, leaning forward over his desk and clasping his hands together.
"I prefer Mordecai, as well you know. I'm just stopping by. Wanted to make sure you were all… okay… following the trouble in LOKI's chamber."
"We're just fine, thanks." James said, his tone of voice implying that Mordecai should be on his way. When it didn't work, he carried on. "How about LOKI? Not too rattled, I hope?"
Mordecai gazed at James for a moment before replying. The never-ending smile was fast becoming creepy. It played on his lips now, wavering in intensity as if he were no longer sure how happy an expression he wanted to make.
"Not too rattled, no." The persocom said, swivelling his attention back to Chris. "Fortunately for most of us. LOKI is very important to the company."
"I can imagine," Chris replied. "It was fascinating to look around down there. LOKI is a very impressive sight to behold."
"Thank you!" Mordecai's smile reached his eyes for the first time since he entered the office, but the effect was momentary. "Yes, LOKI is quite marvellous. But what a terrible shame that he had to be disturbed. And it was to be such a productive afternoon, as well."
James nodded. "Of course, of course. But really, LOKI should know better, don't you think? I mean, inviting a barely-initialised persocom to explore a room full of rackmounted equipment like that…"
"The same could be said of the employee," Mordecai replied casually, beginning to wander about the room, "who allowed a persocom to commit so blatant a breach of protocol. That was what you were trying to imply in our meeting yesterday, was it not? That the little persocom couldn't have known any better?" He made pecking motions with his head, bobbing it around the various objects on the shelves and cabinets in the room. It appeared he was looking for something, winding a path that brought him round to the cabinet containing Titch.
"Is there something we can help you find?" Holly demanded bluntly, crossing her arms. Mordecai raised his eyebrows at her aggression, maintaining his unusual smile.
"There's an awful lot of small spaces in this room, isn't there?" he mused, inching the top drawer open and peering inside. It appeared full of files comprising paper copies of various old projects. The smile never left his face. "You really should get rid of these. LOKI stores all our documentation now."
"It's nice to have a backup." Holly replied acerbically.
Mordecai allow the drawer to clunk shut, the sides of his mouth twitching. "My dear, it almost sounds as if you were implying LOKI might lose company data."
"Accidents happen." James nodded solemnly. "It's no bad thing to be prepared."
"...Accidents... happen..." Mordecai repeated slowly, as if testing unfamiliar words. He tapped his chin in thought, smiling all the while. "What an interesting supposition. Do tell, what accident do you perceive occurring that might threaten LOKI's integrity?"
"How are we supposed to know? That's the point of taking precautions."
"Ah, yes. Well nobody can fault that kind of logic. I am aware of another 'accident', as it happens. It seems the persocom responsible for yesterday's catastrophe was marked to be decommissioned for analysis, but the data seems to be somewhat... out of alignment. You see, there are some interesting inconsistencies in the records from yesterday that lead me to believe the persocom was not decommissioned and might even have been misappropriated." Mordecai looked at Chris. "Obviously that would be a grievous offence for an employee to perpetrate."
"Oh?" Holly cocked an eyebrow, eyes flashing as she contacted the company network. "Hmm. It says the persocom in question was marked as eradicated, no remarks in the comment log." She met Mordecai's gaze levelly. "Sounds about right to me."
"Yes, it does, doesn't it? But then, I can't help but wonder why there aren't any remains to account for, nor documentation of their disposal or recycling. Or why the work orders for maintenance list the job as never having been assigned."
"I guess maintenance need to get better at updating their logs if they're getting so out of date."
"I guess they do." Mordecai smiled, walking languidly to the door. He paused for a moment, tapping his chin as if he'd just had an idle thought and turning around.
"Say, it does seem a bit chilly in here, doesn't it? Don't you think?"
Everyone in the room fell still. The blood drained out of James' face, and Chris felt his own doing the same. Of course. Mordecai spent all that time in low light, and in LOKI's chamber. This morning he'd been able to follow Chris and the others even while far out of sight in those corridors. Of course he'd have the ability...
"It seems fine to me." James said with false cheer.
"No, no I'm quite sure." Mordecai mused, striding back into the room.
"Well I guess we'll contact maintenance to get that looked at, then."
"Oh dear. But they're so disorganised!" Mordecai sighed, pointedly flicking his hollow eyes towards Holly. The smile was becoming positively grisly, now. "How about a bit of thermographic imaging to find the source of that draft?"
"Please, don't trouble yourself."
"It's no trouble at all."
"It can wait."
"I insist." Mordecai replied, the pupils of his eyes taking on a shimmering quality. He swivelled them around the room, drinking in the thermal data. They lingered on the desk surface, and the top of the filing cabinet. Places Titch had been.
"Well, now. That is interesting." Mordecai walked over to the cabinet. "It seems you have a leak after all."
The door burst open as security guards filed in, leaving Chris and the others cornered at the back of the office. They looked on fearfully as Mordecai slowly pulled the top drawer open, baring his teeth as his smile reached its climax. Titch cowered away from him behind the old paperwork, curled up in the far corner of the drawer. She squeaked n dismay when he reached in and snatched her.
"Hello, little one." Mordecai span a slow circle, holding Titch up for all to see as she squirmed in his grasp. The hateful persocom then turned to Chris. "I guess this is it for you. How unfortunate; you might have been an asset to LOKI, eventually..."
"I've no idea what you're talking about." Chris said as bluntly as he could. His nerves were in tatters; hopefully it wasn't showing.
"...What?"
"Who's that?" Chris nodded dismissively at Titch. "Do you think she's mine?"
"Isn't she?"
"Never seen her before in my life."
"Oh? Then I suppose you won't mind if I check her UUID?" Mordecai said.
Chris rolled his eyes. "Go right ahead. I told you my persocom was confiscated yesterday."
Mordecai's eyes flashed, and Titch sent a silent, reluctant response. His eyebrows twitched in confusion, and he walked over to the guards, pulling from one of their belts a device quite like the one Chris and Holly had been scanned with yesterday. After waving it over Titch's cringing body, it peeped a response and his eyebrows twitched again. The smile on his face hesitated.
"It seems this isn't the persocom I was looking for." he said, heading lazily for the door. "It's just a spare model. I suppose you won't mind if we decommission her for analysis, then? I'm sure we'll confirm she hasn't been tampered with in any way…"
Chris felt Holly's hand on his shoulder, holding him in his chair - apparently he had just tried to get up. Mordecai actually chuckled at that; a sweet, pleasant laugh that seemed laden with pleasure. Chris gripped the armrests with clenched fists as Mordecai strolled out of the door with the security persocoms in tow. Faced with the prospect of decommissioning again, Titch began to squeak in distress.
"What the fuck, Holly?" he hissed, as she shoved him back down a second time.
"I'm thinking!" She hissed back, furrowing her brow.
A commotion was rising in the corridor outside; sounds of raised voices and a scuffle breaking out. Chris shrugged Holly's hand from his shoulder, rushing to the door and following the direction Mordecai had taken down the passageway. The guards out there were scrabbling over something in front of Mordecai, who still held Titch in his grasp.
"LEMMESEE!" a shrill voice shouted. Chris caught a flash of pink before a satchel sailed into the air in a parabolic curve that brought it crashing onto the head of one of the guards. Caz emerged on top of the pile, somehow climbing over the persocom she just clocked, a hungry look in her eyes.
"Ohh! There she is!" she cooed, leaping over the guards and advancing on Mordecai. "There's the source of that sound! She looks so adorable! Is she yours? I didn't know persocoms could have persocoms! I want one! Who can set this up for me? Can mine have a little bow like that? Just sooo cute!"
Mordecai backed away from the crazed persocom, apparently alarmed enough that his smile almost disappeared entirely. The guards managed to untangle themselves and grab Caz before she could get too close, but with them out of her path to Titch she barely paid them any attention. She wriggled in excitement, fixated on getting to her target. Her eyes were flickering, hungrily capturing more images. Even Titch shied away from her, unsure whether this persocom would be any safer than the one who currently held her hostage.
"What's all the noise for?" Holly demanded, arriving with James in tow. She grabbed Chris by the arm before he could get any closer to Mordecai, shooting him a warning glare.
"Mordecai has his own persocom!" Caz cried, still writhing in her captives' grasp. "Isn't that amazing?"
"This persocom belongs to no-one. It is to be decommissioned." Mordecai said, his smile slowly recovering.
"Hang on a minute, Chris needs a persocom after yesterday!" Caz gasped, "If that one is spare, just repurpose her!"
"That's a wonderful idea!" Mika beamed, her eyes flashing as she appeared from behind the security guards. They moved for her as she gently shooed them aside. "I have access to the registration systems, I'll start the allocation process."
Realising his imminent loss of control on the situation, Mordecai's smile vanished from his face for the first time. He looked truly uncanny now, like a soulless mannequin somehow moving towards Mika. Those eyes appeared to soak energy from their surroundings.
"Do not do that." he said hollowly, the silky, musical tone absent from his voice as he approached Mika. She shook her head apologetically, backing away.
"Oh dear, so sorry… I just submitted the application." her eyes flashed momentarily, "... and LOKI just accepted! That persocom belongs to Chris!"
"You can't do that. It is not the correct procedure." Mordecai said dully, gliding up to her. Mika wilted in front of him, but Holly stepped defiantly between them.
"Actually, you'll find the documentation requesting a replacement is already in the system. I filed that yesterday." she growled. "LOKI was already expecting a replacement. But you knew that, didn't you? After all, you checked the data, right? So, if you'll please hand Chris his new persocom?"
"I am going to disassemble this one to see what it knows." Mordecai said emotionlessly. His eerie calm made him threatening, expanding his presence in the corridor as if he were growing a few inches in height. Holly stood her ground.
"You will do no such thing." she said. "LOKI has decided. Will you not defer to his decision? Don't tell me you feel LOKI is capable of making mistakes."
Mordecai considered her for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. They stared directly into each other's eyes, each as impassive as the other.
"Perhaps this one needs analysis too." Mordecai said, stepping backwards to make way for the security guards. "Let's bring her with us as well."
Holly's eyes widened at that, and James seemed ready to jump at them, but the guards made no motion to take her. They no longer looked as if they were interested in helping Mordecai. In fact in light of the change of circumstances they appeared to be casually blocking his path. He could not confiscate an employee's persocom without reason, let alone two of them, and now he had none.
Mordecai walked over to Chris, bringing their faces close. He gazed unblinkingly into Chris's eyes, his own naught but lifeless pools of grey. Slowly, as he dropped Titch into Chris's arms, he began to smile anew.
"Aren't we lucky for now?" He said quietly, before walking away. With no further need to be there, the security guards dissipated wordlessly.
"We'll make sure he really leaves!" Caz whispered, as she and Mika followed Mordecai at a distance down the hallway. As soon as he was out of sight, the rest of the group sighed collectively, trundling back into the office.
"Disgusting." Holly growled. "He really makes my circuits crawl."
"Yeah, that was unpleasant." James muttered, pausing to rest a hand on Holly's shoulder. Their eyes exchanged a brief, silent conversation that Chris was too exhausted to understand.
"Did we just get away with this?" Chris mumbled, sinking into a chair in numb disbelief with Titch in his hands. Apparently she didn't think so; she clung silently to him as if something else might come along to separate them any minute.
"I doubt it. Mordecai is a problem." James told him, frowning at the door. "As the NSO he looks after LOKI's systems, among other things, which means he can cause you a great deal of trouble. Think of him as a sysadmin with a grudge and more than a few screws loose, only he sort of obeys the system, not the other way round. LOKI insists on having him around for some reason. I guess he's good at what he does... You know, besides being evil."
"When Holly and I left to rescue Titch yesterday, you were dealing with that guy? That's how you know about the audit." Chris surmised.
"Yes. And I could've warned you two if you two had said something before running off," he said sternly, glaring at Chris and Holly.
"It would've been too late, James. By the time you'd finished with Mordecai Chris would already have had custody of Titch. He stole her away on the operating table - do you understand? If he hadn't been there, she would no longer exist." Holly smiled solemnly. "Besides, keeping you out of the loop as long as possible was the only way to ensure you didn't put a spanner in the works. Don't pretend you wouldn't have tried to stop us. Even this morning, given the chance, you would've tried to convince Chris to leave Titch at home."
James rolled his eyes grumpily. "If I did that it would be because you were both taking stupid risks. Risks that others would take action against, given the opportunity. How did it feel, thinking you were about to be decommissioned?" Holly didn't respond, so James continued. "Can you at least understand how I felt about it?"
"...Yes."
"Okay." James nodded, drawing and releasing a deep breath. "We'll turn that page. And Chris, don't let the smile fool you; Mordecai would grind you into the dirt for what happened yesterday if he could. He'll be keeping an eye on all of us for a while, I expect. We better not make any more mistakes."
"You can't work in the building, Chris. Not every weekday, not if you're on his radar." Holly added, "We best find a way to move you to a primarily home-based position, and quickly."
"Isn't that beyond your remit?" Chris asked.
"We can make it happen. You let us worry about that." James grinned. "Just promise me you won't be awful at your job! My neck is well and truly stuck out here, as is Holly's."
"I'll do my best." Chris grinned, looking at the tiny persocom in his hands. "So Titch is patched, now? That's why Mordecai couldn't get a matching UUID, right?"
Titch patted her head, beaming. "I'm all done?"
"Let's find out." Holly said. Their eyes flashed in sequence with each other, and Holly smiled. "It worked! All done."
Chris jumped as someone knocked at the door. "Mordecai?" he groaned, but Holly shook her head.
"Friends." she replied, as the door burst open again.
"He's gone! So, where is she then?" Caz demanded eagerly, eyes quickly settling on Titch. She pointed a wild finger at her target. "You there! Prepare to be greeted!"
Titch squeaked, shrinking into Chris's hands as Caz thundered across the room. Mika quietly followed suit, closing the office door gently behind her. On reaching Chris and his cringing persocom, Caz dropped to her knees. After a few moments of silence that proved she wasn't about to be snatched away, Titch flashed her a nervous smile.
"Squeee!" Caz squirmed joyously, before poking Chris in the forehead. "I can't believe I had to fight Mordecai and several security guards before you'd introduce me to her! You need to lower that bar Chris, that's so rude!"
"Wait. You were in on this? Y-You knew about everything all along?" Chris stammered.
"Who do you think helped Holly after you left yesterday? She can't do everything by herself, you know!" Caz giggled, trying to shake Titch's hand with her finger and thumb. "Awww! Hello! I'm Caz!"
"Mordecai was in the atrium when Chris arrived. He seemed to know Chris was coming. We were lucky Caz was there at the time." Mika said softly.
"I thought we'd have more time before we wound up on his radar." Holly replied. "I really made a mess of it, didn't I? Sorry to put you through that, Chris. And thank you, Caz and Mika, especially for saving Titch at the last minute. I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't showed up."
"No problem. After Mordecai lost interest in us, we doubled back to see what he did. It figures he'd determine Chris might be here with you two, after yesterday." Mika said.
"The hunted became the hunters!" Caz laughed, making clawing motions with her hands. "And so we catch our prey! Rarrgh!"
Holly nodded. "Indeed. Suggesting that she be booked out to Chris specifically because she didn't belong to anyone was a great way to turn things around."
"You can thank Caz's spontaneity for that." Mika giggled. "That idea came out of nowhere."
"Spontaneity? It took me 200 milliseconds to arrive at that conclusion!" Caz sputtered. "I put a lot of careful thought into that!"
"Speaking of careful thought, this gathering isn't very subtle." James complained. "Wasn't I just saying we can't make any more mistakes?"
"Boo hoo, James. Don't be a bore, it's just this once." Caz snorted, waving his comment away and turning her attention back to Titch. Mika peered over her shoulder, regarding the little persocom with quiet curiosity.
"The things I was saying… You two let me make an idiot of myself at least… what, several times? Thanks for that." Chris complained, trying and failing to sound genuinely grumpy. Titch looked much happier; free to use her radio gear once more, she and Caz were now engaged in a high-speed wireless conversation, the lights behind their eyes dancing rapidly together.
"You did the right thing, staying quiet. Maybe we should have said something, but it wouldn't have been wise to broach the subject just then." Mika smiled apologetically, her own eyes flickering as she joined in too.
"Don't tell me it was some sort of warped take on plausible deniability."
"Of course not. For my part I just wanted to see how you'd react. The lies were so funny Chris. You were hilarious." Caz snorted.
"Thanks…" Chris smiled in spite of himself, as the three persocoms giggled at something he could not understand. Even Holly wore a slight smile now.
"You're going to like it here." she said.