“But it was you, darling.”
Chapter 10
Earthquake or Not?
CRISTAL’S PULSE WAS RACING, her lungs gasping for air. “Was it me?” she asked herself.
She felt as though she had just finished doing the 100-mile sprint of her life. It seemed hilarious now that she was far away from the old lady. Imagine being frightened of a little defenseless granny. Harry would probably tell her to get her head checked if she told him what just happened. Deep down inside, the fear was like lead weighing down her gut. She had to get to Harry to get some answers.
She pushed her way past the people on the street and ran across the intersection. Some GN staff were standing in clusters all around the designated safe areas. She saw members from her team gathering at the end of the street. She weaved her way through the crowd, searching for Harry. She could hear comments as she walked past.
“It’s the climate change that did this,” a lady from the accounting department said.
“I bet you it had something to do with terrorists,” another said.
“It was scary. I thought we were going to die,” a man from the helpdesk support team told a fellow team member.
As she came closer, the sound of their voices filled her head. The sound was rising as if someone had cranked up the volume full blast. She needed to calm down and take control of herself.
Get out of my head! She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing.
It was working. The voices were fading, except for one. Harry’s.
“Cristal, is everything okay?”
She opened her eyes to find Harry staring at her intensely. A wave of relief swept through her body until she noticed Joanna beside him, clutching onto Harry’s arm as if she were holding onto him for dear life.
Cristal wanted answers but not to the expense of having Joanna listening in.
“Harry, we need to talk.”
Harry must have noticed Cristal’s anxiety. He glanced down and pulled his arm from Joanna’s vice-like grip. Joanna put on a show by glaring at him, crossing her arms and pouting.
What a spoiled brat, Cristal thought.
“They’re doing a head count,” he said, switching back to Cristal.
“Good to know,” Cristal replied.
“Can you take me home?” Joanna asked, tugging at Harry’s arm. Harry shook his arm free, the expression on his face reflecting his irritation.
“Are you listening to me?” she whined.
He responded but his gaze never left Cristal’s face.
“Joanna, calm down. After they give us the all-clear signal, we have to go back in.”
“You’re the manager! You can let us go home, if you wanted to,” she said.
Cristal gritted her teeth. Patience with Joanna was not her strongest quality.
“Get a hold of yourself, Joanna,” she finally snapped. “At least you’re okay, so stop acting like such a bitch.”
“Okay? I’m NOT okay,” Joanna blurted out. She waved her arms to emphasize her point. “None of this is okay!”
“Do you realize what happened today?” Cristal asked, her anger rising.
“No, duh. We had an earthquake,” Joanna replied, rolling her eyes. “Right, Harry?”
Joanna turned to him with her hands on her hips.
“Tell us. Was that an earthquake?”
Harry gave her a dirty look.
“This is not the time or the place,” he said quietly.
Out of the corner of Cristal’s eye she saw a tall guy standing beside her. She looked up and was surprised to see Kerim. How did he get through the traffic jam?
“Alleys, side streets and sidewalks,” Kerim said.
It wasn’t the answer that made her queasy. It was the fact that Kerim knew exactly what she had been thinking.
The sound of a horn blast coming from the building filled the air, indicating that it was safe to enter the building. Kerim and Harry were standing toe to toe.
“Yeah, Harry, tell us if that was an earthquake,” Kerim said.
“This is not the time nor the place,” Harry repeated, narrowing his eyes.
He motioned to Cristal to go with him towards the building.
“See you at six tonight, Kerim,” he said.
Cristal would’ve followed Harry. Technically he was her manager at GN although, her working there was only a cover to hack into the GN networks. But then again, Harry was the leader of the Truth Seekers and normally she never questioned his commands when it came to fulfilling their mission. Debating with herself, she found herself with a dilemma. Do I go back to work with Harry and spend the next few hours acting as if nothing happened?
Then she did something out of character.
She tucked her arm in Kerim’s and pulled herself closer to him, causing Harry’s eyebrows to shoot up.