She shook her head as she looked at herp. “For now, I will indicate in my report that you aren’t suitable for training. That’s not as rare as you’d think. This will satisfy the Security Ministry who are such a pain in the ass for us seers.” They shared a smile. “You’re very fortunate that you are able to suppress the perception of your seer sight. With the levels you have, if it was always on your sanity would be at risk.”
They stood and Katrina pulled Marisa into a warm embrace. “Good luck, Marisa!”
“Thank you!” Marisa had tears pooling in hershes from relief and the intensepassion this woman was showing her. She followed the woman to the door and locked up once she was out.
She’d been so worried at theplications the Hidden Races Council was going to impose on her life and now that was no longer an issue. She’dpletely lucked out with the woman assigned to be her teacher.
She nced at the clock. She had time to get to work only a little bitte.
Stanley was sitting in Sigrid’s office looking at his new passport. He was even more impressed because he’d never applied for one.
“This is going to work?” he asked hesitantly.
Sigrid looked up at him from her desk with a slight smile on her lips. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it?”
“Oh… I don’t know. Because I never officially applied for one. Because I don’t have any personal documentation like a birth record I could have supplied to get a real passport. Because I have no one who could vouch for knowing me long enough to qualify as a guarantor? Pick any one of those or all of them.”
She smiled at him broadly. “It’s as real as any passport issued directly from the US passport office. Obtaining a registered and epted passport is just part of the service the Hidden Races have to offer. You aren’t unique in not having documentation.”N?vel(D)rama.Org''s content.
She looked at him fidgeting in his chair. “Do you have a suitcase?”
He shook his head with a frown.
“What’s wrong, Stanley?” she said looking him in the eye.
He tried to look away but she was giving him an open and earnest expression. “I’m scared! I’ve never flown anywhere before. I’ve never been away from the States. I don’t speak thenguage! I’m going to bepletely dependent on Cam.” He looked down at his hands. “I have to say something very embarrassing… humiliating in front of a bunch of strangers.”
Sigrid sighed. It hurt her to see Stanley go through this. To lie to pay for someone else’s mistakes. Just the thought made her skin crawl. She couldn’t do it. “You know we have no right to ask you to do this Stanley. It isn’t fair. I understand he is worth a lot of money but-”
“No. I’m going to do it. I said I would. But… that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it,” he said with a sigh. He pushed himself to his feet. “I don’t even know if I should be sending the furniture back… to where it came from… which I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I’m starting to get used to sleeping on the sleep mat on the floor. It’s veryfortable.”
She smiled at him.
“Thanks for the passport. I’ll pick up a small suitcase on the way home. I have to get back to it. So many more servers to get installed. Another reason I wish I wasn’t going,” he grumbled as he left her office.
He took the elevator down to the main floor and visited the security office. Mr. Duncan was out on the floor doing rounds as therge wall of CRT monitors was being reced by the new higher resolution t panel monitors. The workers had all of the old monitors removed and the support rack for the new screens was being bolted securely to the wall. Each of the mounts would have abeled set of cables identifying which screen it was. These would be plugged into the back of the new, high resolution t panel disys and the other ends would be connected to the video bus of the new control system waiting to be installed. The operators would be able to switch the new monitors to any camera in the building, group the disys, or use the entire array as one big monitor.
The workers were doing a good job so he went back to his office upstairs to check on the three servers he had running a burn-in script. He feltfortable working on three servers at a time. Any more and he felt the process went slower. They were looking good so he checked the backup software server and it hadpleted validating the firstplete backup. He started the restore to the recement server and watched that for a short period to ensure it was working. He was delighted with the throughput on the new servers and their fast storage. The restore would take significantly less time to perform than the backup from the old storage.
Speaking of the old storage, he began the differential backup to pick up any additions, changes and deletions since theplete backup. He set it to run over the next three days so when he got back from Japan… Shit. That thought derailed him every time.
He would restore the backed-up data to the new storage when he got back and put the database server and storage into production immediately. The start of the change-over. The other servers would rapidly be rolled out over the following two weeks.
He would be beyond the date they’d asked for but there really wasn’t a faster way to do this with only one person controlling the server builds and deployments. And he was losing all this valuable time flying around the world.
He was watching the progress of the data restore when he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Marisa’s concerned expression. He hadn’t seen her this morning so she must have just arrived.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I called out to you several times and I saw you staring off into space. Are you ok?” she asked.
“Sorry, my mind was miles away. Over 6, 700 to be honest,” he sighed.
“You’re worried about the trip? Ms. Vimor told me all about it. I am very sorry you were put into this situation,” she sighed.
Stanley took her hand and held it in his. “I feel better when I hold your hand. Can youe with us?” he said with a slight smile.
“I wish I could but my boss gave me this big list of steps I have to follow on a rigid time schedule to keep the instations on track. He’s a real ve driver!” she said with a grin.
Stanley smiled up at her and nodded. He kissed her hand and released it when he realized what he’d done. He looked around but they were alone.
She smirked and waved her finger at him, hiding the fact that she was tingling madly from his kiss. “Ms. Vimor called to say you should head home soon to pack. She will pick you up tonight to take you to the airport. It’s a private jet with a discrete bedroom to… let your hair down and get some sleep.”
That eased one of his worries. “Thanks. Ok. I guess I’m off then.” He stood up and she suddenly pulled him into a hug. God, she felt good in his arms!
She released him and slipped away. He watched her leave then gathered the stuff he’d need for the trip. He locked his office on the way out but Marisa was not at her desk. He headed home.
On the way he picked up a suitcase and a new toiletry bag to carry his grooming stuff.
He got inside his apartment andid out his interview suit on the sleeping pad. He arranged which clothes he would bring and included a few spare pairs of underwear and socks. He folded everything neatly and packed it in his new suitcase. He put his toiletry items in the bag and packed it away too. He zipped it closed and wheeled it out to the hallway when his doorbell rang. He went to the door and looked out the peephole. It was Sandy!
He opened the door and she smiled cautiously at him. “Hi!” she began.
“Hello! How are you doing?” he responded.
“I’m fine. May Ie in for a minute?” she asked.
“Oh, sorry! Of course,e in.” Stanley said and moved aside.
She walked in and spotted the suitcase in the hall and paused for a second and walked into the living room to sit on the couch.
She ran her hands over the surface as she smiled. “I really like your furniture.”
“Yeah, it’s grown on me too. I don’t know if I’ll be keeping it though. It turns out it was a wedding present from Yuko’s father. For a wedding I never agreed to or even knew about until it was toote.
“Are you going somece?” she asked pointing to the suitcase.
“Yeah, I’m flying to Japan to clear up this whole mess so I can get back to a more normal life,” he sighed.
She nodded and smiled at him. “My friends all really like you. Even Roger who is suspicious of everyone. But you fixed his phone and he got to experience a stun grenade so he was pretty excited when you left. He said he’d like to experience a stun grenade again. That man has never been quite right in his head.”
Stanley just smiled and shook his head in amusement.
Sandy’s expression became serious. “I just came by to let you know that you are always wee to visit and hang out with us. You seemed a little nervous about upsetting usst time and you should know, none of us were upset. Surprised, yes, but not upset.
“Thanks! I’d like that! Maybe when I get back we can make ns for another movie night.”
Sandy burst into a grin and Stanley couldn’t help but smile back. His cell pinged with a text and he nced at it.
“Oh! I’m sorry, my lift to the airport is here.” He hammered out a quick response and put his cell away as they stood. They made their way out of his apartment and he locked up. Sandy smiled at him as they walked to the elevator.