Untouched The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,22

of his pocket. “Yeah...I’m with her now, we’re getting some breakfast. Sure, we’ll see you in five.” He finished his call and looked at me. “You’re done, right?”

“What?” I didn’t understand what he was asking until I looked down and saw my half-full plate. I hadn’t taken a bite in several minutes. “Oh, yeah, I’m done.”

“That was Ariadne. She wants us at Headquarters to talk about the warehouse.”

“Okay.” I stood, taking my tray with me to the nearest garbage can and dumping it in. I felt uneven; my head hurt a little, my heart hurt a lot, and I was once again suffering under the realization that my life had been so upended from what I was familiar with that I didn’t know what I wanted.

I mean, even if he wanted me, I couldn’t touch him, right?

Chapter 7

Ariadne’s office was right next to Old Man Winter’s in the Headquarters building. His was cold and Spartan, and I expected the same from her based on her wardrobe. When Zack knocked on the door and she called for us to enter, I was surprised.

Her office had the same view of the grounds as Old Man Winter’s, but that was where the similarities ended. Whereas he had a desk that looked like it was made of a massive piece of natural stone stacked on top of two others, hers was a warm cherrywood, with a workstation and hutch against the left wall and a more formal desk between her and the two visitor chairs. There were pictures scattered around the office of Ariadne with other people, ones that looked a little like her—a man and a woman who were older, another that looked like her sister, and a few of her with her sister and some kids.

“Dear God,” she said as I came into the room. “Are you all right?”

“I’m as fine as I’ve been since I’ve gotten here.”

She beckoned for us to have a seat. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’ll take a whiskey on the rocks,” I said without blinking.

She froze. “I have soft drinks...”

“Bummer,” I said. “What’d you want to see us about?”

“About the encounters at the warehouse, and uh...” she blinked and shook her head. “Something else.”

“Great,” I said without enthusiasm. “Let’s start with the ‘something else’ that you don’t really want to talk about and work our way back to the warehouse.”

“Fine.” She tried to smile but it was so fake that it fell apart after about two seconds. “We have a forensics lab that can analyze the personal items from your mother that you found in the warehouse.”

“I’m not hearing the ‘something else.’” I leaned back in her chair with exaggerated casualness.

“Very well.” She rested her hands on the desk between us, folding them, for some reason bringing to my mind the idea that she must have been a goody-goody in school. “I’ve been ordered not to have them analyzed unless you agree to see our on-site psychologist.”

“Beg pardon?” My tone carried more frozen bite than the worst wind I’d experienced thus far.

“The Director would like you to see our counselor,” she said. “Understanding you’ve been through something of a ringer lately—”

“He wants me to submit to headshrinking?” My eyes were so narrow that I was surprised I could see anything out of them. “If he thinks I’m gonna do that, I submit to you that his head has been in the icebox for too damned long.”

One of Ariadne’s eyelids fluttered at my remark as she suppressed whatever her first response would have been. “He thinks,” she said, pacing herself, “and I agree with him, that you’ve been under a great deal of stress and strain—”

“Most of which seems to be the fault of your Directorate.”

“—and we are concerned with your long term health, mental as well as physical,” she finished without stopping to answer my accusation. “We are willing to help you in the search for your mother, but we feel that you’ve been through a high level of trauma in the last few weeks, more than is healthy for anyone,” she held up a hand and I restrained my sarcastic response, “let alone someone as young as yourself. This is not a negotiation. If you want our help, see our counselor.” Her hands went back to being folded on her desk as she awaited my response.

I caught movement from Zack out of the corner of my eye. “It’s not a bad idea.” I turned to look at him, and I’m pretty sure my glare