Rules of Fate

Chapter 7 - Odd events

'Update!' I cringed and glanced at Ethan for help, but he kept silent and looked out of the window leaving me to deal with Malcolm the hippie. Somehow despite his dress sense he didn't appear to be easy-going. In fact there wasn't a whiff of flower power around him. He was all business; all that was missing was the corporate suit. We were in the big office commanding a view over the city and I'd just been pulled in to see the big boss. Malcolm cleared his throat, clearly waiting.

I swallowed the humongous lump stuck in my throat and croaked out a reply. 'Uh, he hasn't really done anything.'

Malcolm raised an eyebrow in Ethan's direction. 'Is that all? Haven't you taught her to give an update yet?'

Ethan looked over at me with a slight smile, the first I'd seen in the past few weeks. 'Not really!'

Malcolm frowned at this show of affection and his eyes slid to me. 'I need details,' he almost barked at me.

Details? I raked my brain. As in what Scott had done? Right down to what he ate? I looked perplexed and it must have shown plainly on my face because Ethan stepped in.

'Like what the subject has done during the day, his activities, who he has met...' he clarified for my benefit.

I nodded with a thankful smile at him. 'In that case...' I proceeded to outline practically every minute I'd spent with Scott. I had a feeling I'd perhaps taken Ethan a little bit too literally judging from Malcolm's bored expression. But I continued doggedly, after all, he had asked, I reasoned. Secretly I was taking great pleasure in outlining my daily routine to the head of the department. I wanted him to realise how boring a regular Fatelist's life could be when following his orders to the letter. After listening to me for over half an hour Malcolm cut me off in mid-sentence by clearing his throat loudly.

I blinked in confusion as he said, 'I think we get the gist of the matter. Is this all that happened?' I nodded stiffly. 'So basically the subject hasn't done much.'

'I believe Sam did say that at the beginning,' Ethan piped up, a wicked glint in his green eyes. I got the impression he didn't like Malcolm any more than I did.

Malcolm sputtered slightly at this clearly sarcastic come-back but didn't retaliate. Instead he nodded gravely, exchanged a few more words with Ethan ignoring me pointedly before ending the meeting with a curt nod. I fled thankfully out of the spacious office, nearly tripping on the deep pile of the carpet, Ethan following at a more sedate pace, deceptively lazy. But I'd seen him move when needed, and man he could move!

Outside the office he patted my shoulder with a barely suppressed smile. 'Good going in there.'

'Really?' I wasn't so sure, after all, my impertinence might cost me later on.

'Just don't get too cocky,' he advised as he walked away.

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'Don't get too cocky', he had said.

How was that possible? Fatelists were cocky by nature, caution was never part of our natures willingly. Of course it helped to be cautious but Fate waited for no one as Professor Thain had constantly drummed into us at the Academy. Do or die or worse...get left behind with a mess.

Most low level Fatelists dealt with tying up loose ends and wore caution like a badge. I had had six months of it and hated every single minute. What was so great about cleaning up behind someone else anyway? The idea had been to teach us about being more careful about tying up any problems and not leaving them for the low-levellers to deal with. Of course the actual lesson we learnt was to do our jobs really well so that you didn't end up as a low-leveller yourself.