The Border: The Complete Series Read Online Free PDF

into the cold night air.
    “Huh,” the stranger muttered, looking back down at his glass and then holding it up to examine a crack on the side. “Well, I swear that wasn't there a minute ago.”
    A moment later, Mel came up from the cellar, a little out of breath.
    “Bathroom again?” she asked as soon as she saw the empty stool where Joe had been a few seconds ago.
    “He left,” the stranger replied with a shrug. “Just got up and tottered out.”
    “Why?”
    “Beats me.” He took another swig of beer. “The guy just upped and left. I hope I didn't say anything that upset him, but... I don't think I did. I guess he's just got a lot on his mind tonight, huh?”
    ***
    “Screw you,” Katie hissed, before cutting the call and shoving her phone into her pocket. Sighing, she took a moment to compose herself, before making her way across the parking lot and peering at the intercom next to the door.
    She took a deep breath.
    “You can do this,” she whispered to herself, before looking up at the side of the office building. There was a camera above, which she assumed was watching her every move.
    Another deep breath.
    Finally, she hit a button on the intercom.
    “Hello?” she said, trying to sound confident and self-assured.
    She waited, and a moment later she had to step back as a barrage of distorted, static-filled noise hissed out of the intercom's speaker. A few seconds later, the noise stopped.
    “Um...” She leaned closer and hit the button again. “Hi. I don't know if you can hear me, but my name is Katie Hopkins. I'm here for the interview.” She paused. “Um... About the modeling gig? We spoke by email.”
    Letting go of the button, she waited again.
    Suddenly there was another blast of noise, so loud this time that she almost put her fingers in her ears. Taking another step back, she glanced over her shoulder, looking across the dark street, and considered just turning and going home. Sure, she needed the money, but if -
    Hearing a buzzing sound, she looked toward the door. She reached out and pulled the handle, and sure enough the whole thing swung open, and a moment later the buzzing sound stopped.
    “You want me to come inside?” she asked, looking at the intercom. She waited for a reply, before glancing up at the camera again. She'd spent all day hoping that Mel would come through and get her a job at the bar, so that she wouldn't have to resort to this , but now she had no other choice. Fighting the urge to turn and run, she slipped into the cold, over-lit lobby and let the door swung shut behind her.
    She waited.
    Silence.
    “Hello?” she called out.
    No reply.
    Stepping forward, she reached the bottom of a small set of steps and made her way up to a small waiting room with two elevators on one side and a couple of old leather sofas on the other. She wandered over to a small table between the sofas and picked up a magazine from the pile. Flicking through the pages for a moment, she realized it was a film magazine from a decade earlier. Looking around, she tried to calm the growing sense of unease in the pit of her stomach, but she was starting to think that maybe Stacy had been right when, earlier in the evening, she'd suggested that the whole “interview” was actually some kind of set-up.
    A moment later, she heard a door opening and then closing in the distance, and then footsteps approaching along a nearby corridor. She dropped the magazine and turned, just in time to see a middle-aged man step into view with a clipboard in his hands.
    “Are you Kelly?” he asked.
    “Katie.”
    “Sorry, Katie.” He looked down at the clipboard for a moment, before glancing back at her. “Yeah, Katie. You're here about the modeling job?”
    She nodded.
    “Cool. My office is this way.”
    Turning, he began to head back the way he'd come.
    “Well...” Pausing, Katie finally realized she had to make a decision. She glanced at the door, before starting to hurry after the guy, figuring that she