Lucy listens for any sound in the building, something that might be coming from Isabella's apartment. The girl's roommate, Francisca, hasn't heard from her either. They have tried to track her down through Claude, but have no way of getting in touch with him; his email account is closed and no one has his new phone number. Francisca even called Isabella's parents, wondering if they had heard from her, but she didn't want to get them upset and played down her concern. Lucy can't imagine what a mother would be going through, knowing that her daughter has disappeared. Franny did discover that her parents were not aware of Claude's situation, as they gave her Claude's cancelled cell phone number. It is Friday morning. Isabella has not been at work since Tuesday. Lucy considers informing the police, but wonders if they might think that she is implicated in Isabella's disappearance.

She has a morning sector meeting, then hopes to do some digging before alerting anyone about Isabella's disappearance. Maybe she has hit it off with Angelo Lord, and is warming his bed this morning, or perhaps she is helping her brother move or something. There are a million things that are more likely and more probable than all the things she is trying not to think about.

Once at work, she tries Isabella's extension again. Nothing. She checks her messages. Nothing relating to Isabella. She searches the name "Measures" in the company database. There is a hit, a new result: Blue Pages. Measures, Claude. Termination Notices. It is a company release, signed by Angelo Lord, to be sent to all departments throughout Alpha Incorporated, for immediate release and publication. There are few other public reprimands as well, but Claude Measures is certainly the star of the show.

Lucy clicks on the image to enlarge it, takes one look at the photo, then picks up the phone and dials Pompey.

"Hey. Are you still playing altar boy for Priest, Bishop, whatever your buddy's name is?"

"Do you mean Mr. Fryer?"

"Ya, him, Friar Tuck."

"I haven't heard from him lately. Why?"

Lucy pauses for a moment before saying anything further. She doesn't know who to trust, and certainly has no clue who this Mr. Fryer is. But Pompey seems genuine. He did, after all, conspire with Fryer to doctor Claude's termination notice. "Well, I was wondering about the Blue Pages, the one featuring Claude Measures. I happened to notice a little change with it."

"Whatever do you mean?" Lucy can hear his feigned puzzlement over the phone.

"Well, I happen to know the man in the photo, the one who is supposed to be Claude. I know it isn't Bernardine either. His name was Ragozine. I worked with him once. A notorious pirate, he was. He is long gone though, fired years ago for selling Alpha company secrets. I heard he died in a car accident in Portland. What is going on, Pompey?"

"Oh, I am not cut out for this new position. I don't have it in me to see people lose their jobs. Bernardine didn't deserve to be fired, probably less reason for him to be axed than Claude. Bernardine was spreading his own kind of love around here, but in an artistic sense. Some feel that Alpha employees should not be making artistic statements on company time, and, well, using company resources to build sculptures for an art exhibit."

"So, you get to judge who stays and who goes?"

"No, I am just a paper pusher. But sometimes things get misfiled, you know. It is up to the bosses to catch the error." Pompey laughs, then explains, "no, here is what happened: I get together with Bernardine—super guy, by the way–to give him the heads up of what is coming down the pipe. I tell him to gather his shit and get out before security drags him through the foyer kicking and screaming. Not as though that would have bothered him. Anyway, we go out for a pint, and then a few more, and we hit it off like we are best buddies. So, both a little drunk, we decide that rather than publicly humiliating Measures and Bernardine, we use someone who is already dead, and serve his head to the almighty Mr. Lord. There is no way he would know this guy. He kinda looks like Claude Measures anyway."

"You are really meddling here. Are you not worried about getting caught?"

"Lucy, this is the first time that I have met someone at this company who I really like. I mean, we really hit it off. It is so hard to find a man who you connect with, especially at Alpha—it is so freaking hetero around here. We all know that Bernardine was really getting fired because he is a gay activist. It has nothing to do with his art. Anything I can do to keep one of us working, is a victory for our community. Plus, he is fucking gorgeous."

Lucy likes the way that he is so matter-of-fact about it. She doesn't really know Pompey, didn't know and certainly doesn't care if he is gay or not, but the casual way he talks about his sexual orientation is refreshing, as is the fact that he would risk his neck for the potential of love.

She chuckles to herself. In this company, it seems, everyone is so straight. Lucy knows how it is difficult for a woman to succeed in this business, but never really considered that there might be difficulties for a gay man, especially in a progressive Silicon Valley company. If there is any place in America that can be considered inclusive, it has got to be the Valley. But still, it is probably still easier for a gay man to get ahead than trying to establish a career as a women in the tech sector, where one connection, one past project, or one patent, is the difference between a lucrative career in the Valley, or accepting an entry level position. Show up to the interview as a woman of childbearing years, and all things being equal, you can bet the man has the advantage. Doesn't matter if he is straight or gay, as long as he can do the project without going on a mat leave.

When Lucy started at Alpha, she had to make some choices. Life-altering choices. Ones that all the work-life balance programs and progressive wellness initiatives didn't help. Those are great if you are already established in your career, or are being enticed to move from another company, but in her case—a young, smart, ambitious woman—it ended up being a choice between her career, or his.

She thinks of James, something that she had been doing less of these past few years. They haven't been in touch for almost ten years now, and she is proud of that, glad to have finally moved on. But it wasn't easy. James is four years younger than Lucy and, at the time, neither would have foreseen that anything would stand in the way of the two of them sharing a life together. While he was finishing his doctorate in Engineering at Berkeley, Lucy was already working for Alpha, making a name for herself as a competent and popular young team member. Bright things ahead for that young lady; they said, she is a real go-getter, was the word. Looking around her office at the end of the room, with its commanding view of the computer terminals and workstations of her team, she admits that she has done alright. But at what price?

James's research mattered. Still does. He is on the cutting edge of what so much of today's computer devices need to continue to get faster, smaller and cheaper. His labs at MIT continue to push the industry forward, and, from Alpha's point of view, help give them their competitive advantage. So, even though Lucy waited for James to finish his education, then his postgraduate work, they held off on getting married, delayed starting a family, even though Lucy put her own desire to be a mother aside, she, in the end, had to choose whether she would leave everything she had established here— her career, friendships, her adoptive family, her aging mother, her volunteer work at the community Public School—to become Mrs. James Tyrrell, wife of the Casper Duke Research Center Chair at MIT. His position was just too important and prestigious to turn down, everyone understood that. Well, except maybe Lucy. Alpha's famed progressive work-life balance program didn't have a solution for this dilemma: your man or your life. It isn't that she regrets the choice she made, she regrets that she had to make the choice at all.

"So, Lucy, pretty brilliant, don't you think?" Over the phone, Pompey's voice snaps her back to the present. She recaps the plot in her mind. So this is how it is going to play out: Ragozine has been substituted for Bernardine who has been substituted for Measures. Angelo Lord is supposed to believe that his justice has been served. But what about Isabella? Does she know that there has been this switch, and that her brother is still employed at Alpha, just laying low?

"I don't know. You might have gotten yourself involved in a real mess here. I think that there is some other stuff going on that neither you or I understand. This is pretty high-level, you know."

"Like Fryer. He seems to be directing this whole production."

"I know what you mean. I read that email where he told you about knowing that Vincent Duke is on his way back. He knows stuff, that is certain, but I wonder what his motivation is. He isn't acting like a normal Human Resources officer. Maybe I'll see if I can get a hold of him."

"I don't know Lucy, but I don't think we should be talking like this over the phone. This is Alpha's network after all."

Lucy considers this and knows Pompey is right. It is probably better to pull back, and just wait to see how this will unfold. That approach has served her well in the past. She can only imagine how her life would have been different had she agreed to marry James when she first started at Alpha.

She decides that she will remain in the wings and just wait for her cue. And that comes the minute she ends her call with Pompey. A meeting invitation pings onto her screen from the Assistant to Mr. Charles Escalus. Monday morning, 10:30. West Gate Building, East Hall. That is a holy shit meeting room, used by the top brass to present public statements of legendary proportions. She clicks on the message box for more details and to see who else is invited, but there is no list of the other attendees. Surely she can't be meeting personally with the company's Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. This is so far beyond her pay grade that it doesn't make sense to her. Then she notices that there is no box to accept the meeting invitation. It is already decided that she will be attending.