Adrenaline Pumping

Chapter 2: "Teacher's pet"

The next morning, Patrick packed a few of his possessions and clothes into his suitcase and proceeded to leave his apartment. It was a decent place, but he was glad to get away from it for a while. Anyway, a change of atmosphere for a week or two couldn't do any bad.

He loaded the Peugeot and drove away, but before heading to his sister's, there were a few things he needed to do first. 

Traffic in Brooklyn was heavy at that time of day, so it took a good half-an-hour to get to the office. His usual routine included getting to work earlier, but today was different.

The elevator dinged as he reached his destination on the seventh floor. The room was filled with buzz and activity. People scuttled about, others typed away noisily at their computers, and the telephones didn't stop ringing.

He made his way to his cubicle, on the far side of the room, without any interaction with his colleagues.

His briefcase landed with a thud on his desk.

"Oh hey there." said a man sitting opposite Patrick's cubicle, in a small one of his own.

"Hello, Reece."

"Never seen you arrive this late before. Your alarm not go off?" Reece asked, pushing  his Ray-Bans up the bridge of his nose.

"What? No! I'm about to go live with my sister for a while, remember?"

"Umm, no, I have no recollection of you telling me that."

"Ok, there's the slightest chance I didn't mention it to you. Well, now you know. Hey, have I ever told you get a haircut? I can't exactly say you're rocking the John Lennon look."

He then started collecting a couple of things from the drawer underneath his desk.

"Uh-huh, my hair looks fine, thanks. But hey, when are you coming back? You can't just leave!"

"I can leave." Patrick corrected him, waving a piece of paper in his hand "I've got a permit, and anyway, I've got some paperwork to catch up with, so I'll be doing that from home... well, my sister's home. I'll be busy enough!"

"Why though?"

"Ugh, are you serious? Alan Chamberlain, OEE,... ring a bell? It's all over the news! You're a journalist!"

"Yeah, I wrote an article about it myself, but-" Reece stopped and suddenly looked as if he'd just made the discovery of the century "You're his brother-in-law!"

Patrick rolled his eyes. "Took you long enough, eh? By the way, you're overweight."

He closed the drawer and walked away again, heading toward his boss's office, as his partner scowled.

"Unnecessary comment. Oh, so Elaine Chamberlain is your sister... See ya, bro!" he called after Patrick, making an emphasis on the last word.

"Call me that again and I will make sure you get fired. Bloody intern." growled Patrick.

Patrick then knocked on the door of the big office in the corner of the room, which had a plaque saying "Tamara Sunday" on it, and barely waiting for an answer let himself in, slightly smiling at Reece's constant urge to be annoying.

His smile faded when he saw who was inside.

"Speak of the devil, here he is."

Apart from the woman behind the desk, there was another man, standing with his back to the left wall.

Patrick snorted. "The only devil here is you, Pliny."

"I'm more of a saint, actually. Eighteen pieces I've written this week. And long ones, too! What about you, Darren? Three?"