End Game

Rain on the roof

Tim hand-to-handed his way down the rope. It wasn't until he had both feet on firm ground that he noticed him – Husk, reclining in a desk chair. Stark naked and smoking a cigarette. Looking rather pleased with himself. Also somewhat sticky.

Pleased with himself, but not with the new arrival. His expression turned to a scowl. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Behind him, Tim heard a scuffing sound as Min too touched ground. She must have realized they were not alone but had chosen to continue her descent, to face the consequences together. 'Stupid,' thought Tim, experiencing a rush of gratitude. Taking courage from her example, aware that the fact of their arrival was beyond apology or explanation, Tim decided there was nothing to lose from the direct approach.

"You want to know what we were doing here? We're doing our job. You hired us to find out how two 'ordinary people' would respond to your Next Big Thing. Well, I can tell you now. Our reaction is that we're suspicious as hell."

Min may have been aware of a voice below her – she clearly hadn't been prepared for Husk's state of undress. She turned her face away with an expression of distaste that may have been just that, though it could equally have been suppressed amusement.

No sooner had these three players taken their places when the door to the office opened and in walked Emmy-Lee. Perhaps she too had been alerted by the sound of voices. In any case she had draped a jacket across her shoulders. She advanced across the room with a quiet dignity that belied the fact that she had nothing on underneath, crouching down to collect her underwear from the floor, bending at the knees withballetic elegance.

Tim had stopped speaking while this sequence of events unfolded, feeling that nothing he could say would add to the eloquence of silent action. It wasn't until Emmy-Lee was retreating back toward the office that he resumed his accusation.

"Suspicion," he reiterated, "that only got worse when we found out you have a virologist on the team. What the hell is that all about?"

Husk drew on his cigarette, slowly exhaled a stream of smoke. "I have nothing to hide," he said, spreading his arms in an expansive gesture that caused Min to look up for a moment before once more averting her gaze. The balance of her expression shifted slightly in the direction of distaste.

"Nor," Husk continued, "do I have any obligation to explain myself to you."

"Not me personally," Tim conceded. "But me collectively. Me the ordinary people that you expect to buy into whatever this is. We're going to take some convincing."

"You two really are a great source of trouble." Husk sighed. "I can see now that I made a mistake with Emmy-Lee, letting her get away with what she did to my roof. It left you two thinking you could try something equally impertinent." He shook his head. "She made the hole, and you just had to crawl through it, both physically and metaphorically."

"You two do seem to have made up," Min offered, her eyes still directed toward the back of the building.

Husk stubbed out his cigarette. "You still haven't answered my original question. What did you possibly hope to achieve by this outlandish mode of entry?"

Tim made one last attempt at a calculated response, but try as he might could not come up with any alternative to the bare-faced truth. He'd never been very good at math.

"We wanted to find out what we have been dragged into. Most of all, we wanted to see what a virologist might be doing behind a locked door."

Husk nodded again, acknowledging the pertinence of the question. From behind him came the sound of the office door opening. Husk ignored it. Tim, too, paid it no attention at first, assuming it to be Emmy-Lee returning, now fully clothed.