Carmo practically jumped out of her skin when she heard her burner phone ring.
It was Douglas. She answered.
He spoke first. "Carmo?"
"What is it? Are you alright?" Carmo asked.
"Did I wake you up?" Douglas asked.
Carmo glanced down at the clock at the bottom of her laptop screen. It was just past five-thirty in the morning. "Well, not really. Just been sitting here eating a bagel and reading the news."
"Okay, okay, okay." Douglas's voice almost sounded manic.
"The hell are you up to?" Carmo asked.
"I'm going to make a surprise visit back to headquarters."
"Christ, Douglas. Let's think, okay? Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I'm gonna have to figure out what I'm going to do with that place sooner or later."
"Do you wanna talk about this?" Carmo asked. She needed to slow him down.
"Do you?" Douglas asked.
"Um, of course I do!" Carmo retorted. "This is important!"
"I'm literally walking to headquarters right now," said Douglas, a bit abruptly.
"Douglas. Oh my god. Are you serious? It's not even...Nobody's going to be up there. Nobody shows up until--" Carmo stopped, took a deep breath. "Okay. Listen to me."
"What?" Douglas asked.
"Come to my apartment. Don't go to headquarters. We need to talk about this," Carmo said. "Did you even tell Orion?"
"No, he's not up. That's why I was calling you, to ask you to tell him."
"Okay. Just-- just come over here, okay? I don't think it's a good idea for you to roll up into headquarters by yourself after you've been away for so long."
Douglas didn't say anything for a few seconds.
Carmo spoke again. "Hey. Are you coming over?"
"Yeah," said Douglas. "But I've got to hail a taxi first."
