CODES

N I N E T E E N

"Are you ready for the meeting?" Laura asked as I walked over to the counter. I extended my hand for my daily tablet, but she had nothing to give me. She blinked instead. "Didn't you hear me? The meeting. Don't tell me you forgot, Roger."

My hand remained extended. Just as she'd done to me—blinking in disbelief—I did the same to her. Folding my hands back into my palm, I pushed a fist into my pocket and chuckled nervously. "Of course, I know about it."

I lied.

I'd forgotten all about the meeting with Prime. I knew it was supposed to happen soon, but I didn't think it was today. My calendar didn't register the date for another month or so... "Shit," I whispered.

"Hm?" Laura batted her long lashes. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Laughing, I scratched my head and looked towards the entrance for a distraction. Because not only had I forgotten about the meeting, I forgot what month we were in, the day. Diving back and forth into my memories really left me out of touch from reality.

"Well, he's waiting for you and—oh, hey!" Laura waved excitedly at Xerses as he walked into the lobby. He glanced back at the front steps, rather than forward, but he turned back and locked eyes with me, he seemed confused.

I glanced back at Laura who continued to try to get his attention. "Are you ready for the meeting, X?" she called out.

I turned back just as Xerses walked through the automatic doors. He lifted his backpack strap higher on his shoulder, eyes on me. I wasn't going to wave like Laura did. While I was happy to see him, I was confused.

How did he get here so fast? Weren't we just on the phone?

"Hey." He stood in front of me, wiping his head. He glanced at Laura with a small smile. "Prime preparing the meeting?"

"Mhm." Laura nodded happily as she turned to her laptop. Then her smile faded. "Um..."

Both Xerses and I looked at her. "What?" we said.

Biting her lip, she glanced at us. "Looks like the meeting was bumped up an hour ago."

Xerses pressed his hand against the counter. "To when?"

She looked at us with timid eyes. Slowly, she moved her hand to her mouth and bit her nail. The blue numbers shimmered over the iris of her eyes.

I pressed my hand on the counter, too. "Laura, when?"

"Um," she frowned, "now."

Xerses and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, before pushing away from the front counter and hurrying over towards the elevator. Behind us, Laura, cried out, "I'm sorry, I missed it!"

I side-stepped between a small crowd. Xerses did, too. We looked at each other as I slapped my hand against the elevator's call button. "You didn't tell me the meeting was today, X," I whispered.

He blinked at me. "I thought you knew."

The doors chimed, and a quiet robotic voice greeted us as we stepped inside. I shook my head. "X, I don't even know what day it is."

"Shit," he hissed.

As the doors closed and he selected our floor, I leaned forward to look at him. "And how'd you get here so fast? Didn't we just talk? You were in bed, just getting up, you—"

"Rog." Xerses frowned as the elevator started to move. "That was an hour ago."

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All of the time I spent with Xerses—the experiments, the testing, uploading sealed files back into my memory—didn't help me. It broke me. I was worse. Time was still irrelevant. Especially if I couldn't keep up with it.