Opposites Distract 6: Bumpy Start

~ Edgar ~

Phase Energy’s research complex was nestled in rural countryside a half-hour's drive from Raleigh. Twenty minutes after he’d watched strip malls and housing developments turn into farm fields and forest, Edgar’s car exited a dense stretch of pine and emerged into scenic rolling hills. The collection of white industrial buildings in the distance seemed almost out of place.

He turned in at the entrance and drove toward what looked like a metal stockade. Thick square poles completely encircled the facility in a tightly-spaced row, their tops flared out to deter climbers. It was more friendly-looking than chainlink and twice as secure. Cameras and motion detectors were conspicuously visible, but there would be hidden ones too. Decent perimeter security.

Edgar waved his brand new Phase Energy ID at a sensor next to the gate. According to the laminated card he was Ed Parks, a lab tech and the newest member of the Hydro Cyclic design team. He’d been assured the arrangements had gone through, but he couldn’t help holding his breath until a green light blinked on. The automated gate rolled open. He drove his car—a nondescript sedan rented by the agency—up the wide cement drive.

At first he had wondered why a tidal research company was located in the middle of the state, but the dossier he’d been sent at dawn explained it: the so-called “Research Triangle” of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill supplied Phase Energy with its scientists and technicians. There was a separate coastal property for testing, but the design and prototype construction was being done where the brainpower lived.

That’s me, he thought with forced cheer, just one more brain to be dumped into the tank. 

Edgar parked in the large employee lot and checked his phone. Ten minutes early. He surreptitiously craned around, watching the other employees slam their car doors and amble towards the bright slab of the main building. Liv wasn’t among them. Wait…was that what he was really doing? Trying to glimpse his partner?

Setting his teeth in irritation, he got out.

It had been like this since last night. He couldn't go two minutes without images of Liv invading his head. He’d always admired her as an agent, but this sort of…appreciation…was new. Somehow, over the course of their interactions yesterday, Liv Doyle had gotten under his skin until he felt like an infatuated teen. It was pathetic.

Eye on the prize, Edgar.

He straightened his lab coat and ran his hand across his face in an effort to wipe away the intrusive thoughts. Grabbing the satchel that held his lunch, his new employee packet, and a well-disguised stash of illicit spy tech, Edgar adjusted his stride to “enthusiastic new hire” and started walking.

His restored focus lasted as far as the executive parking lot.

He didn’t stumble, but there was a noticeable stutter in his step when he spied the magnificent creature stepping out of a BMW X4 luxury coupé in one of the reserved spaces. “Give me a break,” he muttered, not sure who he was pleading to.

Liv’s dark brown hair had been straightened and trimmed into a lustrous chin-length bob that projected control and confidence. Her outfit, a black pencil skirt and starched white button-up, only enhanced the impression. The thin briefcase in one hand looked sharp enough to slice. Her other hand gripped a cross-body purse strap the way a soldier might hold a weapon sling. Liv’s fake glasses—power frames in a vivid blue to match her eyes—were the perfect final touch. She looked like a cross between a corporate shark and a femme fatale librarian.

It was the hottest thing he’d ever seen.

Edgar drifted about ten feet further before her raised eyebrows made it clear he’d been caught ogling. Oops. He whipped his head back. Now he was nearly on top of someone—a short, stocky man with unkempt hair and a lab coat. It was Frederick Haymer. He was about to collide with the head engineer of the Hydro Cyclic project.

A dangerous idea bloomed. Sometimes one of the best ways to gain insight about a person was to subject them to a little unexpected stress. 

Could it be fate?

With only heartbeats to decide, Edgar chose to be bold. Admittedly, his courage might have been aided by the presence of a certain female onlooker.

Keeping his speed unchanged, he allowed himself to bump Haymer. Nothing too hard, just an “accidental” shoulder check he would apologize for.

“Sorr—” was as far as he got before the other man violently startled and jerked away from him. Edgar watched in horror as a massive binder slipped out from under Haymer’s arm and cartwheeled onto the pavement, sending papers and charts shooting across the sidewalk.

It seemed Dr. Haymer was already maxed-out in the stress department. 

Double oops.

“My flash drive!”

A glint of sunlight off the USB connector helped Edgar spot the unassuming plastic dongle. He quickly moved to scoop it up.

“No!” Dr. Haymer, still recovering his balance, staggered over. Edgar jumped back with his hands spread non-threateningly as the heavyset man assumed a protective stance, standing over the drive like the Colossus of Rhodes. He bent down and quickly snatched it off the cement. His face was flushed and there was violence in his eyes as he shoved the memory stick into his lab coat.

“Who are you?” he hissed.

Edgar swallowed. His risky ploy was feeling more risky by the second. “Ed Parks. I’m a new lab tech.”

Haymer gazed heavenward, his face a rictus of suffering. He seemed to be beseeching the universe to stop punishing him.

Liv was still standing at the edge of the VIP lot, watching. No one was paying her any attention, but that could change if she intervened. Likely she was deciding whether her presence would help or hinder the situation. He felt an unwanted flash of annoyance. His stress test might be having…consequences, but it wasn’t a catastrophe. Not yet.

He made a barely visible shooing gesture with his fingers.

Her jaw hardened. A few more seconds passed before she turned and power walked towards the main building without looking back. Edgar’s instinctive appreciation of her rear working that dress was ended by a painful jab in his shoulder.

“You,” Haymer snarled, “are my new lab tech—or you were supposed to be.” Pinned by his wild-eyed stare, Edgar almost missed someone else approaching the scattered pages. “They finally granted my request for more help,” Haymer was saying, “and then decided to send you. I was told you were an ‘excellent candidate,’ but I don’t see one reason why I shouldn’t kick your—”

“Sir!” Edgar pointed over his boss’s shoulder.

Haymer whipped around to see a woman in dark green coveralls take a knee and start piling the disorganized pages. “Don’t touch those!” he practically shrieked. The woman flinched back, her eyes wide. She had a kindly face beneath graying blond bangs, and Edgar’s memory supplied the name: Wilma Harris. Custodial staff. Haymer stormed over to the woman and snatched the rumpled stack from her hands, sending a few stray pages back to the sidewalk. He glared at Edgar over his shoulder. “Well? Help!”

The woman wrung her hands and backed away while Edgar scrambled over to assist his team lead in picking up the charts and grit-covered notes. They worked in silence. Once the papers had been roughly assembled into the same orientation, Haymer collected the stack and pushed them back into the binder.

“I normally give new staff a week to get acclimated.” He shoved the binder under his arm in an act of sublimated violence. “You have one day to prove your worth, Mr. Parks.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We have an ongoing security crisis here. Were you told about it?”

Edgar shook his head. “No, sir.”

“Do not handle anything you haven't been assigned. Only log into work stations you are told to log into. And under no circumstances do you let anyone from outside this project access data. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Maintain security,” he grumped, then added another shoulder poke for good measure. Edgar decided not to mention that keeping one’s organizational papers unbound seemed like a major security flaw. Instead, he watched Haymer stomp away. 

Okay, so the stress test hadn't gone great, but he had learned some interesting things about the man. His yelling and harping about security had felt genuine—if unhinged.

Fred Haymer was dedicated. He was also difficult, irritable, and likely outburst-prone even before his project had gone sideways. There were bound to be disgruntled staff among the members of his team, and resentment was fertile ground for the selling of secrets.

Mulling the possibilities, Edgar re-slung his satchel and headed inside. It was a good thing he’d spent a few hours acquainting himself with the statistical analysis software used by the Hydro Cyclic team.

He had no doubt Dr. Haymer would be giving “Ed Parks” a stress test of his own.