won’t tell you anything more’.
She turned to the computer beside her with a fluid swivel of her chair. “I assume you’re here for a reason.”
“Ah, yeah,” Jacob said, digging into his suit jacket to find his identification and show it to her. “I’m here to see Director Harrison.”
The secretary looked it over and nodded. “Here you are, Agent Ryder…”
He waited as she tapped away with a speed that he couldn’t help but be impressed by. Jacob still wasn’t sure what agency the DDI technically worked for, just one more thing that wasn’t allowed to filter down through the ranks. If he were to guess, it was probably a joint effort between the other alphabet agencies and was therefore kept as quiet as possible. It wouldn’t have been much of a secret agency if every rank and file CIA spook or FBI agent knew about the DDI. He still wasn’t sure how the DDI did their job without someone noticing, but he’d never come across any real issues with the other much more visible agencies whenever he’d been called in.
“Jacob Ryder, Null class, here to see the director at eight sharp,” she continued, nodding. “Right on time, agent. If you head to the elevator, it’ll take you where you need to go.”
He took his identification back and gave her a murmured thanks. She gave him a smile and turned her attention back to the computer. The doors of the elevator slid open smoothly for him, and he stepped inside without hesitation. A moment after the door’s slid shut, the cab hummed, and he felt it descend.
Jacob checked himself over, using the shiny surface of the elevator wall to make sure everything was in its right place. He was probably going to need to get his suits let out again, the sleeves were getting a little tight on him. Having spent the better part of the past couple of months on medical leave, Jacob had spent a great deal of time at the gym. He still wasn’t sure what lifting more weights was going to do if he found himself squaring up against another pissed off telekinetic, but it had certainly made him feel better.
Absentmindedly, he ran his hand over his head, remembering he’d shaved the shock of red hair down to his former military standard. As the elevator doors slid open, he pulled the cuffs of his shirt and jacket down over his wrists, covering the barest glimpse of the tattoos that traced from his shoulders to just before his wrists. It was about as professional as he was going to get.
He stepped out of the elevator into the hallway.
If the strange presence surrounding the building was blatantly disturbing, the stark white, narrow hall leading down to a set of doors was subtly so. He wasn’t sure if the agency just didn’t care about presenting a more welcoming presence or if they honestly liked having people unnerved as they had to walk down the empty hall. It certainly left him with the impression that he was walking to his own execution.
He stopped before the doors, raising his hand to knock, and stopped when a voice from within hailed him inside. His brow raised, but he gripped the handle, pushed down, and opened the door. It led into an office that was an odd mixture of the starkness of the hallway and yet somehow personal at the same time. There were the same white stone floors and walls, though the floor was covered by a large rug with an intricate pattern of interweaving reds, browns, and oranges. The walls were hung with pictures of the director in various places, alone or with other people. A couple of tall bookshelves were built into one of the walls, though Jacob couldn’t make out the titles of any books. To top it off, a large screen hung from ceiling to floor on the wall behind the director’s desk, showing a vibrant garden of flowers in full bloom with insects and birds flitting around and going about their business.
The director was far younger than Jacob expected. She sat behind her desk, clean save for the tablet in front of her and a stack of papers to her left. Director Harrison was in her mid-thirties, if not perhaps a little younger, and when she stood, she was over a foot shorter than Jacob. Yet even then, she managed to evince authority as she looked him over with a pair of what he considered to be the most