Vacant Read Online Free PDF Page B

keep them apart, but otherwise everything was normal.
    Cherabino was on the ground floor, unexpectedly, deep circles under her eyes. She spoke with one of the secretaries, the one who handled human resource forms.
    How are you?
I asked her quietly as I approached. She didn’t look good.
    She flinched and looked up in my direction. “Adam.”
    The secretary, an older woman with a twin sweater-set, looked between us with full attention, just ready to collect the latest gossip. Since I’d been sitting in the pool here, they thought they knew everything about me, but were always looking for more information. The straightforwardness of that motivation was surprisingly calming, at least on the days when I wasn’t feeling self-conscious.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” I asked Cherabino, ignoring the audience.
    I saw her close down, her face taking on the blank cop look. “I can’t talk,” she said in that tone that brooked no argument. Her mind was also pulled in, closed, with a sense of urgency.
    I waited, concerned.
    â€œI’m sorry, but I really can’t talk right now,” she said. She thought that it would be a few hours before she got enough sorted out that she could come find me. Her head hurt, the beginnings of a migraine.
    I realized she had deliberately opened up enough for me to read her so that I’d accept her answer. That was a big moment of trust for her.
    â€œSure,” I said, much to the disappointment of the secretary, who was trying to figure out what extreme thing had happened between us. I turned and went back to my almost-desk. But I watched Cherabino, in Mindspace, for the next ten minutes, until she went back up the elevator and I made myself let her mind go.
    I sat at my borrowed desk in the secretaries’ pool for another fifteen minutes or more, staring at the phone, trying to decide whether I could handle going home on my own right now or whether I needed to call Swartz. I wanted my drug. Nearly four years clean, and I wanted my drug desperately in that moment.
    I felt Cherabino’s headache moving across the Link into my head, and I was exhausted. And lonely. And worried. Talking to Swartz might be a good idea before I did something stupid.
    The phone on the desk rang.
    â€œYes?” I answered.
    â€œThis is your watcher, Edgar Stone,” came a man’s voice on the other end of the line. Great. Stone worked for the Guild, and while he wasn’t a bad guy, among other things itwas now his job to make sure I paid back my debt on time. That made me not like him.
    I sat back in the chair and rubbed my eyes. Looked like the secretaries would get some gossip this morning after all. “Your timing is terrible.”
    â€œI’ve called you three times. Don’t you check your messages?”
    â€œI’ve been busy.”
    â€œListen, I’m sorry to tell you, but the Council has changed their mind about the terms of your debt.”
    I blinked ahead. “What? I don’t think they can do that.”
    â€œYou haven’t been working your hours consistently. I warned you that could be an issue.”
    I’d worked out a system to pay back the Guild with labor over time. “I just did that mental hospital job for you.”
    â€œThat was three weeks ago. You’re supposed to put in hours every week.”
    â€œThat was over a week all at once. What had to be several thousand ROCs’ worth of labor, even with my Structure training out of date. Don’t I get some leeway? On average, I’m still on track.”
    There was silence over the line for a moment. “Adam, you have to understand that the Guild isn’t as lenient with subordinate telepaths as it is with its members. I understand that you haven’t dealt with us in a number of years. I’ve tried to work with you. But this can’t go on.”
    â€œI paid half of the debt in cash when we arranged for the medic to visit