Hornet's Nest Ch. 06

"So fucking secret," Tyler agreed.

We weren't allowed beyond the first level of the labs. The rest was off limits. David tried hard to persuade, but Tyler wouldn't budge.

"Kid, everything is need-to-know basis. You're not running amok down there."

Tyler eventually rose from his chair, slinging his lab coat over his shirt and jeans, glasses hooked into the front pocket. Fucking finally. He led us through to the ground floor and I felt like a child, controlling my walking speed so I didn't race ahead. He keyed open a door, then we took a flight of stairs down. The next thing we faced was a solid metal blockade.

Fucking fingerprint scans. Tyler thumbed his way through it and we moved along a corridor to another, identical door. It led to an open area with more doors leading off, and a lift. We took that down.

The labs were a contrast to the peaceful offices above - high-ceiling, hard floor rooms, where every sound seemed to carry and echo. It was far more populated.

Tyler pointed some things out to me as we passed, and we went through another door to another room, bright with artificial lighting.

"And here are the fucking interns," Tyler said.

A group of five were pissing around, making noise. They were a bit older than myself and David, but couldn't have been beyond their early twenties. One guy was clinging to a wheely chair while the others shoved him across the floor. They spotted Tyler stalking over and instead of stopping, shoved their friend towards him.

Tyler caught the chair and shoved it back. It caught on the edge of a desk with a ringing crack of plastic. The guy tumbled off onto the floor, punctuated by howls of laughter.

"As fucking productive as always," Tyler said.

The intern grinned and got to his feet. "Sorry, Mister Sörensen."

"They're fourth years from the local university," Tyler continued, giving me a glance. "Get dumped on us every spring." The group stood to attention, as if proving they could be perfectly behaved and presentable. Was I that worth impressing?

"Yes, sir," the chair guy confirmed.

"And what days are you here?"

"Mondays and Wednesdays, sir."

"Worst days of the week," Tyler agreed.

There was an eruption of more chuckling, from all of them.

"This is my nephew," Tyler said, gesturing to David. "And this is, erm, what are you? Like my niece-in-law?"

"Err," I replied, unhelpfully.

"Yeah, she doesn't talk," Tyler said, and there was more chuckling.

"I talk if I have something to say," I quipped, and he grinned, encouraging me to banter with him.

"Oh really?"

David snorted. "If she's not talking to you it means you're boring, Tyler."

Tyler's eyebrows shot up and there were more intern snickers. "This kid," he jabbed a thumb at David, "Keane's son. Can you tell?"

It devolved into slightly duller 'family' talk, and even Tyler didn't seem to want to have that conversation. His clowning demeanour switched to authority. He saw them set to a task, before leading us away to continue with the 'tour'.

"They really think you and Mum are brother and sister, huh?" David asked.

"You'd be surprised how many people think it, kid. But it doesn't go well with the idea that Lia and Darren are cousins."

"Oh, wow," I said.

"You sicko, Tyler," David agreed.

Tyler yelped with laughter, passing through into a corridor. He walked right into a tall, but mousy woman, an ungainly collision of lab coats. She tutted at him, but brightened the moment she looked past him at David.

"Oh, it's little Zack!"

She threw her arms around him and David cringed.

"Hi, Jenny."

She moved to me and offered a handshake before even being introduced.

"This is Violet, my girlfriend," David said while she vigorously shook my hand.

"Hi," I offered.

She looked back to David. "How's uni?"

"Well, erm-"

"Can't you ask some other time?" Tyler interrupted.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you so busy?"

"Well what the fuck have you been doing all morning? Go and sort the interns."

She tutted again, but scuttled off.

The first level of the labs was disappointingly small, and we'd seen it all too quickly. It was Jenny who used her fingerprints to get us back to the surface, as Tyler disappeared down to the lower levels to actually do some work. We stopped off at Amelia's office in that building to say hello. She gave a beaming smile, but was on the phone, so we didn't stay.

With the excitement of the labs over, David filled in the gaps by showing me whatever he had left out. At midday we went to the complex's canteen for lunch. David picked a specific table, and by then I knew to follow his lead. Zack appeared shortly after and joined us, then Darren, then Amelia. Tyler never showed up. Darren briefly checked his watch, before leaving to take some food down to him in the labs. How cute.

Our table gradually became crowded. David was a magnet for attention. All these middle-aged people wandered over like he was some celebrity, asking him about his life, about university, and about me.

We talked about how we'd met in physics, which apparently made a delightful conversation and everybody approved of it. We didn't go into too much detail, but we did mention the staring match we'd had across the classroom before David finally got the guts to approach me. And I pointed out that when I'd sat next to him before that, he'd ignored me, which had him reddening at the ears and Amelia cackling with laughter.

The way I was treated was... new. As if these people didn't see me as some dirty, druggy teenager. As if they presumed I came from a well-off background because of my university position. And perhaps the most fascinating was how they treated me as though, because I was taking physics, I was clearly an intellectual individual.

I think it sank in and gave me a confidence boost.

You know what? I was pretty smart. I'd worked damn hard and turned a lost cause of my school situation around. I'd gotten into university all by myself. And so far, my university grades were pretty damn good.

At some point I had to shake off this idea that I was an under-achiever.

I thought these business people would just be snobby, or something, but they radiated with refreshing attitudes. One man started off into a spiel about 'setting your sights on the horizon and working towards it whatever the cost'. David gave a playful roll of his eyes as if it was all something he'd heard before, but I found myself listening quite closely.

In the environments I'd grown up in, all anyone did was trash talk their lot in life. All they seemed to do was find some way to undermine society, some way to cheat people to survive, as if it was their vengeance. They were bitter, and spiteful. Some might have had good reason to be that way, but those attitudes were so ingrained into me that hearing something so optimistic was unusual.

All the ideas that I thought were crazy weren't so unattainable. I could do this. And apparently by the smiles he gave me, David thought I could, too.

"I think lunch hour ended fifteen minutes ago," Zack said, which drew chuckles from the circle of people around our table.

"Don't fire me, sir."

Zack always looked so calm and comfortable, confident in himself and his surroundings, like his voice carried the weight of the world. The only one who didn't give a shit was Amelia. She leant over and grabbed his face in her hands, smooching him like talking about the successes of their son had filled her with a burst of affection she couldn't contain. For the briefest second he looked smitten by it, before his usual demeanour returned.

"Mum, please," David said.

More chuckles. So many cheerful people. I guess they had life good, didn't they?

"Come with me," Zack said to us. "I have a job for you."

"Oh God."

We followed him back to his office, where he gave David more keys and some instructions. "Delivery's due in ten minutes, better hurry."

"Ugh," was David's enthusiastic reply.

We spent over an hour in one of the carparks near the labs, overseeing the unloading of a lorry into some storage annex. David got so bored with it - not really caring for the banter between the workers or their leisurely pace - that he ended up helping with the lifting and carrying of boxes.

Somewhere around 14:30 his phone rang - Amelia asking if we wanted to take her car to pick up Hanna from school. So we went up to her office to collect the keys, then back out to the carpark to locate her Civic. David chuckled something about his mum having such short legs while he pushed the seat back.

We were stopped as we approached a gate to leave the grounds. Perhaps because the man recognised the car, but not the driver. David wound down the window, quite unoffended, and showed that ID card he'd had in his pocket for the first time.

"Sorry, Keane," the guard said with a respectful nod of his head.

I wondered why David needed the ID, why they couldn't simply recognise his identical features to Zack. Then again, they couldn't be judging everyone who came in and out by black hair and tawny skin.

I watched him driving during a short silence, staring at the profile of his face until it made him uncomfortable. He looked at me, looked away, then glanced again, before cracking up.

"What?"

I had a pang of nostalgia. It reminded me of those early days in physics. He was so damn adorable.

"Nothing," I replied. "I don't know. Just you."

"Just me? What about me?"

"Dunno."

His left hand left the wheel to squeeze my thigh.

There was more to it, but I couldn't put my feelings into words. I felt a contradictory mix of being normal, and special at the same time.

I'd just spent another day where people were intrigued by my existence, instead of seeing me as some dirt beneath their shoe.

*

We went back to the complex many more times, as Amelia found plenty of jobs for us to do. Sometimes we worked in a pair, sometimes we were split up.

I found myself alone in the labs, where Tyler directed me to a mess of wires and gave me a box of twist ties.

"Organise them all by colour."

"Oh my God."

He patted me on the head. "Have fun."

David was right - he was a prick. So why was it impossible to hate him?

Zack dumped three heavy binders full of papers in my arms, and sent me to deliver them to a conference room somewhere. I was baffled.

"Why isn't this all on a memory stick?"

"We have some old farts here," he replied, with a hand on my shoulder to direct me towards the door. "And they still prefer paper."

Finding that conference room was a mission in of itself. I think I located it because I clued in that I was looking for a grey-haired person within.

Amelia took me with her to a room, so I could act as clerk to a meeting. It wasn't a formal meeting that actually required one, or there was no way I could have been qualified, it was simply to provide the experience for me. I felt like she was my uni professor as I handed her the typed report at the end. She complimented me, though. All that note-taking at university was good for something.

Perhaps what got me most nervous was when I was sent to Darren, alone, because David was sent to Zack. Amelia ushered me off in a rush.

"Hectic day," she said. "He will appreciate any help, trust me."

I had trouble separating Darren from his business persona. He always seemed busy, pre-occupied, with this lingering aura that said he'd be angry, very fast, if you wasted his time. It's not like he'd ever treated me in an unfriendly manner. It's not like I hadn't seen him laugh or smile. I'm not sure what my problem was. Maybe I just reacted badly to anyone who radiated authority.

I knocked on his office door somewhere around mid-morning, and the deep voice called for me to come in.

"Err, I'm supposed to be your assistant for the day," I said.

He chuckled and beckoned for me to come closer, then gestured to a chair opposite his desk.

If Zack's office was tidy, Darren's was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Things just looked as though they'd been put in random places and forgotten about, until it grew daringly close to clutter.

"I hope you won't be offended if I have you doing menial jobs," he said.

"Of course. What do you want, coffee?"

He chuckled again, looked at his computer screen, and rubbed his brow. "I wish I could say it's not always this chaotic, but this is normal."

I hadn't noticed anything wrong, anywhere, despite what Amelia had also said. "There's chaos?"

"If there's one thing you should learn about the business world, Violet, it's that nobody actually knows what they're doing. They just pretend they do."

"Including you?"

That might've been a bit ballsy, but he looked right into my eyes with one of his smiles. "Especially me."

His fingers pattered on his keyboard and I watched the movement, the silver and gold colours on his left hand, before turning my attention to the room. There wasn't a single personal thing within - no photos of family, no ornaments or decorations. Just a bland work space.

"Coffee would be nice," he said into the awkward silence.

I quickly got to my feet. "Okay." It was only once I'd reached the nearby kitchen facilities that I realised I had no idea how he liked it.

"How does boss like coffee," I texted David.

"Black, 2 sugars," he replied, thankfully fast.

"Cheers."

"He won't talk unless you ask things," he replied again, as if he just knew there would be absolutely no flowing conversation in that office.

"Like what," I thumbed while I searched for the sugar.

"He likes cars and he likes Tyler. Easy."

"Ok Mr expert."

I knew next to nothing about cars, and I was sure if I tried to ask questions about their marriage I'd say something offensive. Darren was on the phone anyway when I got back to his office. It ended shortly after and he took the mug from me with a cocked brow.

"I didn't tell you how to make it."

"I asked David."

"Initiative. Fantastic. You're smarter than half the people I deal with on a regular basis." His eyes smiled at me over the rim of the mug as he took a sip. "Incompetence," he said. "Everywhere."

"Including you?"

He nearly spat out his second sip and the chuckle was one of those bouncing ones. "Sadly."

Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought.

His phone rang again, then the office phone, then his work phone a third time. He got fed up with whoever it was, telling them to call back when they 'actually knew'. He had just sat down and was starting to say something to me when the door burst open and Zack came in, David in tow.

David headed straight over to me, slinging his arm around my shoulders and pecking my cheek, while his father and uncle engaged in an immediate discussion over whatever was going on that day.

Within a minute it was clear they didn't agree with one another. Their voices bounced back and forth, then began cutting off each other's sentences. Darren got up from his seat, getting more and more animated until he was waving his arms around. As soon as he was off, Zack became just as physically imposing.

It turned into quite heated bickering, where Zack called Darren a 'stubborn pillock', and Darren told Zack that his mathematics were 'diabolical'. I bit my lip and looked at David, but he only grinned back.

It stopped almost as abruptly as it started. Both looked like they were about to say something more, but didn't. Zack pinched the bridge of his nose and Darren's arms crossed.

David gave them a mocking applause. "Diplomacy."

Zack guffawed and his gaze shot around. "Shut your mouth, son."

"You know I'm right," Darren said.

"No, I haven't said that yet."

"Take your time."

Zack scoffed. "You know how much goes down the drain if this falls through?"

"Diddums."

I finally snickered and looked at the floor. Darren's sophisticated insults were quite something. Zack promptly left, taking David with him, and Darren returned to his seat, completely unfazed by the little spat.

I hesitated before I spoke this time. I wasn't sure how far this man's humour went.

"... Are you sure you two aren't married instead?"

His eyebrows rose, but he smiled at me. "There's no arguing with Zack. There's waiting until Zack realises he might be wrong."

"And Tyler's any easier?"

"Usually. I'm allowed more creative methods to shut him up."

I nearly choked on an eruption of laughter I tried to suppress. Holy shit.

His smile got bigger. "Get your mind out the gutter."

"You said it, not me!"

I think, sometimes, people give you a simple look, that says 'I like you'. Darren just gave me that look. I was feeling a little more confident. With everything, overall.

I was released for lunch hour, which I only spent with David as the rest of the family was occupied with these phantom events and angsty phonecalls. "What exactly is going on?" I asked him.

David shrugged. "Some business partnership. It's international. It's a big deal."

"Right. What country?"

"'Murica."

Darren was on the phone again when I returned to his office. I just let myself in and leant against the desk while he paced in circles. Even if his voice was professional and proper, he had a constant smile on his face, with jittery and excited movements. When he hung up I expected him to fist pump the air while yelling 'Yes!', or something.

No, he was still a bit too British for that.

"Right, I have to dash," he said, retrieving his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

"Err," I replied.

"You can watch the phone for me," he continued, gesturing to the one on the desk.

"What do I do?"

"Give your name, apologise that I'm in a meeting, and ask if they'd like to leave a message."

"... Okay."

He headed for the door, checked his pockets, realised he'd forgotten something, and went back for the desk. "Don't worry, I doubt anyone will leave a message. If someone actually wants a hold of me they call my work phone. And if they're really cheeky, they call my private one." Stuffing something into his pocket, he took his leave. "Catch you later."

I was left alone in his office. I tried to fight my nosey urges, but couldn't. Oh God, I needed to explore. I had just reached the other side of the room when the phone rang, already. Shit.

"Darren," a gruff and completely informal voice said, before I had a chance to compose what I needed to say. Fucking hell, I couldn't tell if it was David or Zack.

"Err," I stammered in my typical fashion.

It was David's familiar tone of laugh. "He's got you watching the phone?"

"Yeah, he just went out."

"Oh. Dad, Darren's fucked off somewhere."

"For fuck sake," Zack's voice growled in the background.

"Vi, when did he leave?"

"Literally a minute ago."

"Dad, you can still catch him." There were more background noises, and David chuckled again. "I'll come keep you company," he said to me.

I resumed my 'exploring', and perhaps by dumb luck was by the window to witness a comical sight - Zack sprinting across the carpark below, throwing himself in front of a black car that was pulling out. It braked sharply, Zack slammed his hands on the bonnet a few times, and Darren's head and shoulders poked out the window with more bickering and arm waving. Then Zack went around and clambered into the passenger side, and both drove off.

David came in while I had my nose in a drawer of files.

"Oh my fucking God." He grabbed the hood of my hoodie, pulled me away, and shoved me down into Darren's chair.

"What?"

"This is like a company CEO, you know? And you're snooping around his office like a damn burglar."

I grinned. "Half the stuff is locked anyways."

"Yeah, and I'm not telling you where he keeps the keys."

*

Wesley got the job, much to everyone's surprise and delight. And not only that, he passed his theory exam without having to retake. The practical was a breeze. He was doing well for himself.