novelxo Chapter 11
Morgan pov.
"I'm not approving this." I tell the Commander, looking at the map of the sectors on the wall. I can feel Sinclair's glare at me, but I refuse to look at her. I have a million and one things to do and dealing with an expansion of the Glaze isn't very high on my list. "I have no idea why this expansion is even needed." I turn my chair and look to Sinclair, who doesn't hold my gaze for long.
"We all need to be on the same page for this to work." The Commander sighs, moving the boundaries further away from Gloss, giving me a raised eyebrow.
"No, you move your Space station so Sinclair can get her damn expansion. That's the only way I'm approving any expansion. I still don't know why the Glaze needs an expansion." The Commander looks at Sinclair and then at Rames and I narrow my eyes at them. "What? What the actual fuck is going on here?" Cade Morris's eyes shine in amusement when he looks at me, he's one of the managers who haven't approved this death mission and I'm guessing he's just as in the dark as I am here. The only difference is that he won't put up the fight. I'll do it for all of us.
"It's on a need-to-know basis." Sinclair insists and I nod, switching off my tablet and getting up from my chair.
"Then you can kindly fuck off. There is no way in hell I'm approving an expansion that's going to propel us into a full-on war with Sector four." I turn to the Commander who raises an eyebrow at me. "You decide. You either move your Space station whenever the new AS21 production is done, tell me why this expansion is needed, or you fire me. Oh, and you better make sure the safeguarding goes according to the book. Put in the damn fail safe." I walk out of the conference room, exhausted from having been fighting about the same damn thing all morning.
As I pass the break room, I dip in to make myself some coffee, grabbing a drought while I program the machine. Rain didn't make pancakes this morning, not even a piece of toast. No rolls yesterday with the steak. The wolf must have something against bread. As I'm enjoying the first silence of the day it gets interrupted by Amanda clacking in with her sky-high heels. While I don't have a problem with the shoes she's wearing I do have a problem with her. The woman can gossip like it's an internationally acclaimed sport. Always is everyone's business and never minding her own.
"Morgan, how nice to see you." I nod, giving her a smile since my mouth is still full of food. "So, I saw you at the trading grounds a couple of nights ago." I swallow my food but say nothing to her, removing my coffee from the machine. "Margot told me you bought a wolf."
"I bought him out of his contract. I didn't buy a slave." Although the marking on his back says differently. I need to set the appointment to get that damn thing removed.
"Oh, okay." She turns her head to the side and just stares at me for a few seconds. "Just, don't make the mistake I made of keeping him cooped up. Wolves need supplements and to roam free. Give him a pass to go outside every few days." I have to try very hard not to keep my jaw from falling. I never thought I'd see the day Amanda's gossiping would help me, but strange things have been happening, so I guess this is fitting.
"Yeah, thanks for telling me." She nods and an awkward silence falls over us. "Well, have a nice day." I wave at her, getting another doughnut on the way out and head back to my office.
"You do know they're going to force the expansion." Cade tells me, pushing himself away from where he was leaning next to my office wall. I roll my eyes and scan my watch over the lock, allowing him to enter before me.
"They can expand the Glaze all they want but I'm not doing the safety codes for an expansion I didn't approve. Sinclair can get Rames to do it and I'll sit back and watch the shitshow unfold." Cade falls down on the couch, grabbing a hand-full of jellybeans as he goes down.
"You have some balls, talking to the Commander that way." I sit down at my desk, bringing up the codes for Gliss I was working on last night, after Rain dropped a bombshell on me. The question bothered me more than it should have and the news of him deciding to stay shouldn't have made me as happy as it did.
"I'm not afraid of him. The worst he can do is have me killed and we both know he won't do that." Not with the mistakes I've helped him fix. Things I've covered up for him that no man should know about.
"What are you afraid of?" I shrug my shoulder and project the codes on the wall. Cade stares at it for a few seconds before looking at me with wide eyes. "How did you get them to agree to the identification band?"
"I can be very persuasive. It's still in working. I'm sending the demo to Xavier tomorrow." The vampire is much easier to work with than Luca, who's still avoiding my calls, and I do not want to portal to Gloss if I don't have to. "Impressive. You did what even Sinclair couldn't. How are you not the Department head?" I remove the projection, deleting redundant code and then close the section.
"I don't have the patience for politics." Knowing this peace we have now is fleeting makes me even less inclined to ever take on Sinclair's role. Then again, maybe our peace wouldn't have been in danger if I just took the damn offer a year ago. "Patience can be taught." Cade gets up from the couch and walks towards the door. "Either way, I'll support whatever choice you make." He winks at me before opening a portal and disappearing through it. I stare at the space he was just in before opening the codes for Teranian and pulling up the portal, reading through them until I find the glitch. I open a portal myself and stare at the perimeters, satisfied when the bend in the sidewall is gone.
Remembering Amanda's words, I pull up my dark web account. Searching for Rain's supplements only to come up with hundreds of options. Bing narrows it down to the top five and I order the entire line, wanting to know which one will work better for Rain. A notice from Space security comes through and I sigh, opening a portal and stepping through onto the station. For a brief second, I consider going to find Torren but an attendant notices me and leads me to the security section for the AS21 and I chuckle to myself. The Commander sure has a great sense of humor.