Glitches

Chapter 30 - A nasty little thing

Sam was always making sure to touch me as Ralph led us to the meeting, his hand either brushing against mine or his arm gently bumping into my shoulder.

The meeting room was buzzing with voices from the people in it, most of them complete strangers. I pursed my lips together, my eyes frantically searching the room for familiar faces.

I spotted Mirandas blue hair in the crowd. She was sitting on a wooden box with Nick in front of it between her legs. I quickly made my way to her, being one with the mass of people.

"Took you long enough," she said as I sat down on an empty spot on the box beside her.

"Shh, he's about to begin," Nick whispered, not looking at us.

Sam had found a spot right behind me on a pipe along the wall. Someone cleared their throat and the room went completely silent. I could see Paul on top a platform. Everyone's eyes were on him and I wondered for a brief moment, how he didn't seem nervous at all with all those people looking up to him.

"Do I have everyone's attention?" he asked, but he continued before anyone could answer.

"Great. You probably already know this, but RTI have gotten access to our system, and most of our data is now in their hands."

The room filled with confused and worried voices. People asking questions or talking with another.

Paul hushed the room, slowly making the voices die down.

"I know this suck, but we're going to figure it out."

"How did this happen?" someone asked from the crowd.

"I think it happened through one of the androids that we logged on our system. Someone in RTI must've placed a virus in it."

I gulped a feeling of guilt slowly forming in my chest. I was just thankful that Paul hadn't pointed me out.

"I'm gonna keep this meeting short," Paul began again.

"That means, no questions unless they're really fucking great."

His eyes scanned the crowd, nodding slightly to himself.

"Alright. Because of this incident we can't stay here. I'll give you two options. Either, you stay here. Continue with your life like every other normal brit. You will no longer work for me. I fire you. I will of course make sure to delete every data that will link you to me and my organisation."

He paused for a moment.

"The other option is to move to Scotland. I'll make you a fake passport of course. You will get a completely new name, address and life. You have all been great to work with and I completely understand if a lot of you choose the first option. I know that a lot of you have friends and family here, and I'm not forcing you to anything. We're going in a few days, so make sure to inform Ralph or me if you're staying or not before tonight."

The room was dead silent. I could hear my own breathing. The sound was deafening through the quiet room, and it felt like everyone could hear it. I could see that everyone was thinking hard, too caught up in their own debating to ask any questions.

Paul sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose to clear his thoughts.

"Any questions?"

A few people raised their hands, but their questions weren't very important, and Paul quickly answered them all. When there were no more questions left, he let out a deep breath, nodding.

"Alright the meeting is over, Max, Nick, Stephanie, Miranda, Sam and William, meet me upstairs."

The room slowly got less crowded as people walked out of the door, mumbling to one another. Some of them patted Ralph on the shoulder on the way out, saying something to him, before disappearing with the others.