The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 15

Kat arrived at the Tillibenton headquarters, this time only taking a second-long pause in front of its automatic revolving doors (which spun a bit too quickly in her opinion). She entered the lobby, heading past the row of uniquely similar polished women at the silver desk and straight towards security.

This was to be one of her first missions for today: analyze the security process, try to get name brands on the metal detectors, x ray machine, and any other tech she might see, count the guards, and identify exactly what type of guns they were carrying and storing behind the desk at the security office. She'd told the other members of FES about the guns, Conner, Brent, and Andy being the most knowledgeable on the subject, and they'd trained her for what to look for and describe to them in order to identify how many rounds the magazine was capable of holding.

"Why would we need to know that?" Emma had asked, her trademark bravado damped slightly by hesitation.

"Emergency." Andy had replied tersely, moving on as Kat studied the clear discomfort behind her eyes.

Andy was worried about her, and if her worry didn't manifest as such aggressive preoccupation then Kat would almost be somewhat flattered. At first she'd been afraid that Andy didn't like her, afraid that the fact that she'd needed to be convinced with more than a little elbow grease to join FES meant Andy knew she wasn't as committed to the cause as she was. Her first night after initiation had helped, but even after the display of emotion and gratitude, Kat always worried that she was somehow a fraud in Andy's eyes, that Andy would see through her and lose respect for her.

She was a fraud, in a sense. Every other member of FES was there for environmental justice like she was, but they were invested much more heavily in the justice element than her. All of them had been wronged in some way, by the government, by large corporations, all for the sake of the continuance of profit at the cost of the planet. They were angry, they felt vindicated in their work.

Kat, on the other hand, sided much more with the environmental element. She'd suffered no ill, had hardly been wronged in a life that could easily be described as charmed. She'd always been happy, always had her family, and what she lacked, she didn't notice. She was a member of FES because she loved the planet, but more so because she felt she owed it. That feeling that she got, the outsideness, it was the reason she lived, she knew she'd be hard pressed to find a point to life without it. She lives for it, so it's only fair that she protects it too.

She didn't see it that way until Emma had convinced her, their after class liaison turning several hours long and spilling into dusk as the shadows stretched sleepily over the campus green. They'd talked about everything, Kat gushing about her childhood love for nature, Emma revealing the details of her rocky upbringing and how her time in FES changed her, and Kat even quietly detailing the sometimes overwhelming power of her anxiety.

She was already taken with her entirely, had never interacted with someone outside of her own mother with whom she'd had such a smooth, easy rapport, when Emma gestured her closer.

Emma had been standing throughout the entire conversation, still pinned to the tree, and Kat had spilt her plum and the rest of Emma's trail mix between the two of them while they chatted, the gesture of holding the fruit up to the young woman's lips no longer strangely intimate, but instead a cheerful expression of comradery.

Kat stood and neared her as she had earlier that afternoon, the previous encounter's fears entirely forgotten.

"What?" she'd asked in a near whisper despite the empty lawns and closed buildings around them.

"Check this out" Emma had whispered back, then unlocked the thick, keyless padlock with a twist of her fingers. Kat's eyes widened in shock.

"It's so we can pee," Emma had whispered, laughter leaking out of her voice.

Kat burst into laughter too, the absurdity of the seemingly impenetrable chain undone by the petite woman in front of her turning the giggles into peals of laughter until tears ran down both their faces.

"You don't," Kat gasped, holding her arms as she fought to catch her breath. "You don't lock it, just so you can pee?"

"Sometimes we really have to go!" Emma protested, renewing both of their laughter.

When it had died down and only the occasional giggle slipped from either of them Emma loosened the chain about her middle and slid down the trunk of the tree, groaning in relief.

"You have no idea how tight that thing is," she said once she reached a sitting position, letting her head fall back against the trunk and the chain pool and rest in her lap. 

"We really do need to be able to unlock the chains though." She lifted her hands, the pointer and index on each already primed for finger quotes. "We 'destroy' the keys in front of the news and administration so they have the impression it'll be harder than they think to get us out. When they know we can get ourselves out, that's when the threats start. We have to let them know that if the cops come we're not just being belligerent." She paused. "I mean, we are. But it's like a 'stop or I'll shoot' type thing, we have to make them believe we can't stop, or they'll shoot. Probably not literally," she went on hurriedly, the expression on Kat's face changing her focus. "Shoot like arrest us, maybe shoot like tear gas, or bean bags. It looks bad to shoot a bean bag at a completely helpless person who can't follow your directions but maybe would if they could, they won't do those kinds of things as quickly when they know how it'll look. It's why we choose places like this so often, a lotta people to film in case things go bad."

Kat was nodding somberly now, all traces of laughter gone from her face.

"It's hard but it's not," Emma continued as if reading her mind. "There's way more good than bad."

Kat had agreed to meet the other members of FES later that week, and despite the fact that several more meetings were required for her commitment, she had joined. While she may have felt like a fraud, ungenerous in her activism's attentions, she was the member who'd sacrificed the most, deferring her PhD acceptance to take up the proverbial green cross.

Kat didn't regret it, much to her enormous surprise. She expected her wishy-washiness, the indecisiveness that had plagued her since childhood to infect this deciduous as it did all other facets of her life, but no regret came. She found she hardly thought about the program that had once been her dream, that she felt more accomplished giving hungry people a way to eat and plucking soggy fast food wrappers from the river than she ever had in a classroom.