The closer we approached Tommack, the more imposing of a figure he became. Arms bulged as he worked, shoulders broad and expansive. Sharon showed no fear as she strolled toward him, but I nearly stopped in my tracks when he straightened at our advance. He was tall for a Vegan, nearly six-foot, and had an underbite that jutted his chin out, giving him an English bulldog vibe. He was, in a word, intimidating.

He glanced at Sharon before turning his attention to me. I reflexively swallowed and tried not to break out in a sweat.

"Well, now, look what we have here," he said, running his eyes up and down me. I could see the hunger in them. "You must be the new hires."

"Yes, Sir," Sharon said. "We were told to report to you."

He ignored her and continued to stare at me and polish the railing, but his movements changed in a subtle way that screamed, I want to fuck you, more than it said, Get the metal clean. Especially since that particular section was already gleaming. I futzed with my hat and remembered to let Sharon do the talking.

"Sir?" she prodded. "Our assignments? How can we be of assistance today?"

He gave me one last lingering glance before swinging his gaze to her, finally stopping what he was doing. "Let me guess. You've just returned from off-world, and your little friend here is shy and doesn't talk much."

"Yes, Sir. That's about the gist of it."

He looked at me and licked his lips. "That's okay. I don't need them to talk much anyway."

Sharon looked from him to me and back before blurting, "Sir? That's my husband you are talking to."

He chuckled, low and guttural. "You're husband, huh? Well, that's just the most disappointing news I've had all morning." His scrutiny of me didn't change.

Sharon shifted her weight, taking more of a defensive stance as a precaution. "Perhaps, Sir, but the fact remains that he's taken."

I felt trapped by his gaze, my heart hammering at the feeling of being prey. I wasn't sure if I was relieved that Sharon was sticking up for me or embarrassed that she had to protect me. Either way, it was all I could do to try and stay loose and keep my face emotionless.

He shot me a wry grin and a wink, then chuckled, holding up his hands as if in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll back off." He pointed to a nearby collection of yellow and blue buckets. "You'll clean bathroom mirrors today, starting at the top floor and working your way down. Grab a bucket and hit the service elevator. I'll let them know you're coming."

More than happy to put some distance between him and me, I turned to the buckets and grabbed a blue one. I started toward the area where he'd pointed for the elevator.

"Hey!" he called out. "Where are you going?"

I turned slowly. "To the top floor? To clean mirrors?"

He scowled. "Not with the toilet cleaning bucket, you're not. You do know how to clean mirrors, right? Get the yellow bucket."

I switched them fast. Sharon and I headed to the elevator before we could garner any more attention. I felt his eyes bore into my backside. Is this what women feel like? My new-found perspective was contemplative.

We didn't have to wait long for the elevator. When the doors finally shut, I exhaled.

Sharon chuckled. "It's not fun, is it?"

I flushed red and stared at the ceiling as she outright laughed. "Sweet baby Jesus, I thought he was going to demand favors or something," I protested.

She elbowed me. "Yeah, but you'd have taken one for the Team, right?"

I rolled my shoulders and was quiet. I wasn't sure what I would have done, to be honest. The mission was paramount, but how much was too much? As an agent, I wasn't above using everything I had to get the job done, but it was different when it was my choice.

She chuckled again and fell silent. We rode to the top without stopping. We were in a back hall with more pipes when the doors opened. There was only one way to go—forward through the door marked as a high-security area.

"You don't think this is the hub, do you?" I whispered. "Surely, it can't be this easy?"

"I'm betting not. But I get the feeling we're a lot closer than we were a few minutes ago. Come on, let's check things out."

I opened the door for her, and she strolled confidently through as if she owned the place. I admired her grit under pressure. I was glad we'd cast me as the shy husband because, as unsure as I was feeling, I was certainly not giving off the same I-belong-here vibe she was.

The hallway was lined with doors, each shut, stretching both left and right. At the end of the hall on the right was a door with some sort of security pad.

We were stopped immediately by a guard on patrol. "Who are you, and what are you doing on this floor?"

Sharon gave him our fake names. "We were sent my Tammock to clean the bathroom mirrors." We handed him our IDs, which he studied long enough for my stomach to flip flop and my pulse to race.

I held up the cleaning bucket. "Can you tell us where the bathroom is? This is our first day, and we don't know our way around."

He scowled but handed our IDs back. He pointed down the hall. "The office bathroom is down at the end." He turned and pointed back up the other way. "There's a bathroom in the hub, but you'll need security passes to get in."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Yeah, so admin didn't give us any passes. Where do we go to get those?"

He crossed his arms. "Do I look like your mother? Talk to Tommack. If he wanted you in there, he should have gotten you the right shit."

She held up a hand. "Hey, no need to be like that. We'll check into it." She turned toward the bathroom and waved me to follow. The guard watched us go.

Once inside, she whispered, "There are cameras everywhere. We can't just take out the guard. We need those passes, or at least passes that will get us in."

"I'd rather not deal with Tommack again," I told her. I pulled out a rag and began wiping the mirror, at least pretending to clean.

She pulled out a can of some kind of cleaner. "Me either. I think we should—"

The door to the bathroom opened, and the security guard made his way in. Sharon and I looked at each other in the mirror for a split second before she pivoted and thunked him upside the head with the can.

He went down fast. I hauled him into the only stall while she stripped him of his badge and weapon.

"How long do you think he'll be out?"

She eyed him. "Not long enough." She yanked off his shoes and pulled at his socks, stuffing one in his mouth. His tie became the gag that held it in place. I didn't quite catch what she did with his belt, but he was securely bound and attached to the plumbing when she finished.

"Let's hope no one misses him for a while," she said, slipping the slim weapon into her pocket and handing me the badge. "Think that badge will get us past the door at the other end?"

"Only one way to find out."

I palmed the badge and collected the bucket. I breathed a sigh of relief that the hallway was empty, the doors lining it remaining shut. We calmly walked to the security door and stopped so that I could study the system.

The picture instructions on it explained exactly what to do. I placed the ID on the flat surface, picture side down. After a moment, it beeped, and the door's locking mechanism disengaged. I wondered how long we had before the system realized that the badge belonged to neither of us.

We stepped into a vestibule area. I knew the drill; the inner door would not open until the outer door was closed. I felt every second tick by as we waited until. After what felt like an eternity, the inner door unlocked.

I expected to step into a typical computer room with a row of terminals. Instead, we saw a server room with one terminal set up in front of a wall of screens. The screens faced the door so that the operator faced away. It was one of the least secure ways to arrange the room.

~

I rolled my eyes at Alex as he attempted, for the fourth time, to boot the gaming system. He'd gotten it for himself as an early Christmas present when they went on sale and, as the resident IT person in his life, I was expected to 'help' set it up.

'Help' was a subjective word. I thought it meant he wanted me to set it up for him, which I was willing to do. He, on the other hand, thought it meant me watching him attempt to do it while giving instructions he promptly ignored.

"Alex, I think we have an ID-10-T error here."

He scowled at the TV. "Where? I don't see where it says that. What kind of error is that?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I knew he wasn't going to get the joke. "When you write ID-10-T, it looks like the word 'IDIOT,' Alex."

"Are you calling me an idiot?"

"Yes. Yes, I am. You're not following the instructions. It won't work until you do. It's not like the lawn mower engine that you can tinker with. It's software that is either going to work or not. You need to initialize the system first."

"Fine. I'll do exactly what you tell me," he declared.

"Basically, you turn it on and let it do its thing without interrupting it with all those 'special codes' you were trying to do with the controller. Let's see if the thing even works first, right? Then we can try to hack it. So, turn it off, then turn it back on."

He cycled the switch and sat back. We watched the TV display as the boot screens loaded.

"So, what's up with that IT problem you're on?" He asked.

"You mean the security build?" I ran my hand through my hair. "They don't see the vulnerability they're leaving behind. I've tried to tell them, but either the higher-ups aren't listening, or they're dumbasses for thinking someone won't find it."

He chuckled. "ID-10-T error?"

"Fucking bigger than life. To get my mind off it, I started to look at the physical layout of the system. Even bigger issues there. I don't even know where to begin."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, like having the main server in the front of the room. You know, the one with the emergency access point? The one that a physical hacker would need to find to get into the system? They're putting it right in front of the door."

Alex's eyebrows knit together. "Yeah? So? I don't get it."

"Right up front, Alex, in plain sight. They might as well label the thing 'Hacking Access Port Here.' Then, they put the actual terminal deep in the room."

"Oh, so a person isn't shielding the most sensitive parts of the server. I get it now."

"Yeah. It's a piss poor design from a security standpoint. I'm going to point some things out tomorrow."

The display for inputting the system's codes popped up on the screen. Alex leaned forward for the controller, but I was faster. I grabbed it and began to enter the key. He chuckled and sat back.

"You're good at your job. They'd be stupid not to listen."

"I can only hope they will. It is surprising how often things like this get overlooked, though. I'm glad they finally decided to have a security-minded person on the design team."

"Sounds like they needed it."

"They really did."

~