Undetectable (Great Minds Thriller) (19 page)

He didn’t bother trying the 20th floor this time. Kevin knew there was nothing up there but a new dentist’s office and an overly conversational receptionist, so he stepped into the elevator and pushed the button marked 14. He didn’t like the thought of being in that empty, ghost-cubicle place again, but he wanted to find that cleaning lady from the day before.

She had been there three months ago, when all of this had started. She knew him. Maybe she could help.

He stepped out of the elevator and onto the 14th floor, and for the second time he was startled by the spooky feel of the place. It was as if there had been a fire drill, and then for some reason everyone had spontaneously decided not to come back into the building. Studying the office more carefully now, he saw that the work areas, while colorless and abandoned-looking, were not actually cleaned out. They were definitely
clean
– there were no obvious collections of dust or litter anywhere – but the cubicles were by no means empty. They had chairs and lamps. And most of them still had workstations: computer screens and phones, all of which looked hooked up and ready to go. The 14th floor seemed almost functional, which added to the eerie quality of the place. It had everything a normal business would have.

Except for the people
, he reminded himself.
The workers with their coffee cups and their family portraits on the desk or tacked up on the cubicle wall, their lazy chatter over the partitions, their banter and their never-ending quest to waste time.

People.

With a rising sense of dread and wonder, Kevin realized that he was not really looking at an office. This was nothing but a temporary space. A mockup.

The testing center didn’t go out of business. They were never in business to begin with.

“What do you need?”

Kevin might have jumped, but his capacity for being scared had reached some kind of maximum level. He was numb with fear. He turned around calmly, took a second to register the woman standing there, and then he spoke without thinking. “A good night’s sleep.”

The woman studied him suspiciously. She was not the same one from the day before, Kevin saw. But she did have cleaning supplies. And she was pushing the same kind of big yellow cleaning cart. After another moment, her expression changed slowly from caution to concern. “You okay?”

“Sure.” Kevin tried to let some of the tension go out of him. And then he tried to refocus. The situation hadn’t changed, and he still had questions to ask. “Where’s the other lady?”

The woman shrugged. “I started today. They fired the other company. Everybody’s new.”

Kevin’s was instantly on-guard again. This was too much like the doormen in his building. “Why?”

“They were more expensive, maybe. Who knows?”

Kevin sighed. This was maddening. He tried another approach, waving at the vast area behind him. “Why are you cleaning this place? Why is
anyone
? They were in here yesterday already. It looks completely clean. It looked clean before they even started.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. Kevin thought she was going to rebuke him for something, but then she tilted her head to the side. She looked puzzled. “Your vocabulary is excellent, but your accent is
strange
,” she said finally. Then she reconsidered. “No, not strange. It’s just terrible.” She pointed at him. “You sound like a bad movie.”

Kevin stared at her for a few seconds, struggling to understand.

Oh, Spanish. Holy shit.

He tried to respond, but now he was aware of the strange sounds on his tongue, and his own thoughts were getting in the way. He switched back to English.

“Sorry,” he said. “I just learned.”

That’s better.

But now the woman was giving him an odd, disappointed look. A look that said she had not meant to offend him about his accent, but there was no reason to throw down a complete linguistic roadblock. “No hablo Ingles,” she said.

Her words seemed to flip a switch, and Kevin didn’t try to flip it back. The words came out slowly – and now he could hear for himself how flat, how terribly
American
he sounded – but at least he was communicating.

“I’m working on it.”

She smiled at him again, the relief clear on her face. “It’s fine. I can understand you.”

“Why do you clean here?”

“Why not? Somebody pays the bills, and they pay them in advance.” She gestured to the long rows of empty cubicles. “My boss told me to come up here and clean, so that’s what I’m doing. Who cares if it’s clean already? Easier for me, right?”

“Do you know when they’ll be back?”

“Back? What are you talking about? This is my first day here, remember?”

Kevin nodded, suddenly aware again of how tired he was. He turned and stared out once more at the countless rows, everything so quiet and bare. There was nothing to learn here. The woman from yesterday was gone, probably fired by the same people who had fired all the doormen in his apartment building. The same people who had taken him up to the 20th floor, who had gotten him his current job, his cell phone, maybe even his apartment.

But for God’s sake, why?

He was running out of people to talk to. The last three months of his life were starting to look like a tiny island lost in the Pacific, one he would never be able to find.

“They probably just want to keep it set up,” the woman added.

Kevin turned back to her. “For what?”

“No idea. But something big, right? A place like this, the whole floor, and it’s all hooked up and spic and span. So if you want to get something going right away – some job’s got to get done, or somebody important is coming by – then you can set this office up. Just get the people in and you’re on.”

Right
, Kevin thought, and he could feel the panic rising in him again.
Just get the people in. And then wait for someone like Kevin Brooks to stroll through the door. Kevin Brooks, who you somehow knew would be coming.

It was a ridiculous thought, and he pushed it out of his head. But he didn’t feel any better. His heart was racing now.

Something you have to do.

“Please be quiet,” he whispered.

Get ready.

“I can speak Spanish!” he shouted, and the woman jumped. He projected his voice out into the empty office, as though trying to inspire a hoard of overworked employees. “That’s not enough? That’s not
ready
?”

No. Get ready.

He turned and headed back to the elevator, waving his hands around his head as though escaping from blackflies. “Thanks,” he called to the cleaning woman. “I won’t bother you again.”

She gave him a no-problem wave. He was an unpredictable
gringo
– all that shouting –  and his accent was painful, but at least he had learned the language. “Work on your ‘r’ sound,” she suggested to him as he left. “Like this.”

Kevin stepped onto the elevator, and he tried to imitate her. He put his tongue on the roof of his mouth and did his best to make it roll. The doors closed, and he could see her wince and shake her head.

“Still awful,” she called to him from beyond the doors.

What My Big Man Can Do

Kevin ran back to his apartment. It was over two miles and he was wearing his work shoes, but he still covered the distance at a near sprint. He leapt through intersections, dodging taxis and trucks as he dashed uptown. He wasn’t sure why he was running, but the sense of urgency in him had built to an unbearable level. He was supposed to be doing things, preparing for things, and the need to work or study or learn or
something
was overwhelming.

I can make it stop.

True. When he had been writing his lesson plans the night before
…
a
nd then earlier today, when he had been reading the Spanish book –
absorbing
it was a more fitting description – he had felt
good.
Not only peaceful, but almost disconnected.

Almost sleeping.

Only 8 minutes’ worth, but much better than nothing
.

Once in his apartment, Kevin went straight back to the living room. He threw his suit coat on a chair, rolled up his sleeves, and stepped up to the bookcase.

“Andrew!”

“Right here.”

Kevin didn’t bother turning around. He peered up at the shelves, scanning book titles. Really, this bookcase was too big for the apartment.
But décor was not his concern, and
h
e realized he was already breathing easier; even the prospect of learning something new was helping the panic subside. “I need something dense,” he said, and he glanced back at Andrew, who was still waiting in the doorway. “Come over and help me look.”

They spread out to either end of the bookcase, both of them scanning, craning their necks, hands going to their chins. Kevin wanted something
difficult
. Something harder than a Spanish textbook.

And maybe I can put away more than 8 minutes this time
, he thought.

“We’re looking for
a book
that would take a year to read
.
”

Andrew stepped closer to the bookcase. “Here’s the one,” he said. He tapped a book in front of him, and Kevin came over to look.

“Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Chapters 1-39,” Kevin read out loud. He turned to Andrew and
grinned
. “Now we’re talking.”

Andrew did not seem to share his employer’s enthusiasm. He frowned at the book and then glanced uncertainly at Kevin. “Surely there’s something in the fiction section,” he suggested. “Something with characters, something with
plot.
”

Kevin ignored him. He pulled the
book
out of the case, marveling at its weight. “Feels like an encyclopedia,” he said.

“I’m sure,” Andrew said, and gave the
volume
another sideways look. He drew air through his teeth, as though sympathizing with any college student who had ever been forced to churn through such a text. “It must be over a thousand pages.”

Kevin nodded happi
ly. “Sixteen hundred and change
.” He hefted it onto his shoulder like a sack of grain. “I’ll be in the study.”