He looked over to her, clearly confused.
"With the rewiring," she said and sighed.
He scowled at her.
"The main room," he said gruffly. "I'll take you there, and you can decide."
She looked into his amber eyes and sighed. It was going to be a very long day.
* * *
Apollo sat in a chair across the room from her in the somewhat cramped office. They had been in there all morning, and instead of the great progress he had hoped for, he'd had to listen to her grumble and curse for the last hour. The words that woman used. It was enough to make him cringe at times.
His ears perked up when he heard Titus coming down the hall. Trying not to disturb her work, Apollo carefully moved into the hall.
Despite his irritation with the situation, Titus was still a leader that he wanted to have around and respected.
"How's it going?" Titus said and peeked in the room.
"Fine," he said tightly as she cursed again.
Titus frowned. "Doesn't sound like it's fine. She giving you trouble?"
Apollo shook his head. "It's not that," he said. He didn't really know what to say or what she was doing. For the last hour, she had typed in a few things into the central system and then glanced over at a sheet. Then cursed.
He started to shrug but stopped when she was suddenly standing near them. It wasn't often that someone could get the drop on them. In fact, there was only one group that had been able to. That very reality made him tense.
Val leaned in toward the two men.
"Did you guys fuck with this stuff?" she asked.
Apollo cringed inwardly. Again with the cursing.
Titus frowned and stepped into the room, unfazed by her word choice.
"No," Titus said, making his way to the central computer. "Why?"
She sighed from behind the leader as he tried to make heads or tails of what he was seeing. Val dropped to the floor and lay on her back as she messed with a few wires. Suddenly, the computer monitor started to crackle.
"You hear that?" she asked. Her voice was muffled from the desk.
"I don't understand," Titus said and turned to Apollo for help.
"Isn't it supposed to make that sound?" Apollo asked. He looked over to Titus, who shrugged.
She gave a laugh as she rolled out from under the table. Val stared at him with such a smug expression that, for once, he really wished he did know a thing or two about this stuff.
"No," she said and turned back to the screen. "There's something with the system that's just not right."
Titus sighed and leaned back. "Well, what would that be?"
Val scrunched up her face and crossed her arms over her chest. Apollo could feel the sweat start to form on the back of his neck as he watched her prepare for battle.
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be talking to you about it. I'd be fixing it," she said. Her voice was all business as she stared down Titus.
He raised his brow. Apollo was pretty sure the only person who dared talk to Titus like that was Kate, and he was pretty sure that was only because she was bonded with him.
"Not another one," Titus mumbled. Apollo nearly snorted at the comment. "Look, what does this mean for getting things set up?"
Val looked back at the screen and absently tried to tuck her too short hair behind her ear. It looked like a habit from when she might have had longer hair.
"It could be nothing," she said as she scrolled through all the symbols on the page.
It all seemed like gibberish to Apollo. This wasn't really his thing. In the end, Marius would have been much better suited to deal with all this. This situation was just one more burn to go with everything else poured on Apollo lately.
When Val turned around, he was surprised to see her looking so unsure.
"How sure are you that your systems haven't been hacked?"
The men stood stunned. They weren't. How could they be? Nothing had been set up by them, and if it had been, they wouldn't have needed a foul-mouthed outsider.
A dark look passed over Titus. They should have been used to this by now, and yet each time was like another burn. Fresh and hot on the skin.
"And were we?" Titus asked.
Val looked to Apollo as if he might have the answers.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "This isn't like we would normally see with a hack. I just can't really put my finger on it."
Apollo pressed his lips together. Maybe she didn't know what she was doing after all.
"Maybe we should bring in someone else," he said and turned to Titus.
He ignored the huff that came from her.