Snarl Read Online Free Page B

You and Theo can come down and work them together. Okay?”
    “Okay,” muttered Kate. She didn’t actually agree – wasn’t time of the essence? – but she wasn’t ready to start querying Olbeck’s orders. Not quite yet.
    There was a knock on the door and a tall, bald man walked in, introducing himself as Terry Champion, Head of Security. Thickset and muscular, with one of those protruding bellies which makes the owner look eight months pregnant, Champion was nevertheless helpful and forthcoming. Ex-army, Kate surmised. She wondered why it was that security guards and chiefs were always bald? She went off into a mini-reverie whilst Olbeck asked the questions, fantasising that an excess of testosterone was responsible for both their choice of occupation and their hair loss, before bringing herself back to reality with a start.
    “Oh yes, lots of threats, tons really,” Champion was saying breezily. “We X-ray all the post as a matter of course.”
    “Any letter bombs or anything like that? Suspicious packages?”
    Champi on rubbed his chin. “Nothing that bad, to be fair. Occasional package of dog shit, but we take that in our stride.”
    “Not very pleasant,” Kate said, feeling she should contribute something.
    Champion looked at her with an ex pression she couldn’t decipher. “No,” he agreed. “But better dog shit than a car bomb, eh?”
     
    “Not much you can say to that,” Kate said to Olbeck, as they drove back to the office. He chuckled.
    “I need to brush back up on my interviewing skills, I think,” she continued gloomily.
    “You’re just out of practice. You’ll get the hang of it again.”
    “I know.”
    “It’s your first day back, woman. Take it easy.”
    Kate sat on her hand to stop it reaching around to her back. “I know,” she said, again.
    Olbeck glanced over at her and then patted her on the knee. “Chin up,” he said, and Kate tried to smile.
     
    Kate was just shutting down her computer, feeling more tired than she had in months, when her mobile rang. Andrew’s name flashed from the screen. As always, there was a quick flash of something, a feeling she couldn’t quite pin down and didn’t exactly want to. Was it anticipation? Annoyance? No, that was too strong. It wasn’t comfortable, though, and Kate didn’t like that. She didn’t want to think about her visceral reaction to her first sight of Anderton today and how different it was to the reaction she had to her boyfriend calling her.
    She answered the phone.
    “How’s the first day back going?”
    As soon as she heard his voice, Kate felt better. S he relaxed back into her chair. “I’m surviving. That’s about all I can say.”
    “You must be buggered.”
    “I am.”
    “That’s a shame.” He hesitated for a moment. “I was hoping to take you out to dinner. But if you’re really tired…”
    Kate considered. She was hungry and she knew Andrew would pay – he insisted on it. But he also had a penchant for fine dining and very formal restaurants, with white linen tablecloths and attentive waiter service, and Kate just didn’t have the energy for it today.
    “Why don’t you come over to mine?” she suggested. “We’ll get a takeaway and chill out on the sofa.”
    “Really?” He sounded eager and, for a moment, she felt a flash of irritation. This time, it was easy to interpret. Just as quickly, she felt guilty. What was wrong with her?
    “Definitely,” she said, making her tone extra warm. “I’d like to see you.”
    Kate switched her computer off, stood up and pulled her coat on. She had the sudden absurd impulse to walk around everyone’s desks, saying goodbye to each person individually. Of course, she wouldn’t do that but… it was still too strange, too new for her to be able to just walk out, throwing a casual ‘goodnight’ over her shoulder. She wondered how she was going to get home. Olbeck was out, Theo had already left and she hadn’t driven herself. Bus it was, then, or