Chapter 195

The three of you followed Garrison out of the conference room and down the hall, though not in the direction of his office. Instead, he led you toward the elevators. He thumbed the Up button and then waited.

You wanted to say something. ‘Thank you’ was at the top of your mind, followed by several dozen other things. But you also didn’t want to sound ... you weren’t even sure how to describe it. ‘Weak’ wasn’t right, but it felt close. Maybe ‘guilty?’ But that wasn’t right either. So you kept your mouth shut and decided to let Garrison take the lead, and Gemma and Sabrina seemed to be doing the same.

After an agonizing half-minute the elevator finally opened and all four of you piled in, and Garrison hit the button for the next floor up. It probably would have ended up being faster to take the stairs.

“If I might, sir,” Gemma said, breaking the silence. “Where are we headed?”

Garrison, for the first time since you’d entered his office that morning, broke a soft half-smile. “Couldn’t hold it in anymore, Gemma?”

“I was about to crack if she didn’t,” Sabrina said with a smile.

“John?” Garrison asked.

“I am zen. I am centred,” you said. “I am curious as hell.”

He snorted a little and shook his head. “We’re heading to IT,” he said as the elevator opened again one floor up. You’d only been to IT once since starting, to collect your company laptop and get your credentials sorted. Gemma and Sabrina had been up here more. There were some Partners who had offices up on this floor, making use of the corner rooms, and some First Year associates in a bullpen who didn’t rate high enough to be on the Coffee Run lists or pawning off work to you. Most of the floor was dominated by a big conference room that doubled as a legal library for the firm, along with the IT office and a small gym tucked away for senior associates and Partners to use.

You followed Garrison through the winding hallways, past the First Year bullpen which seemed to be a flurry of activity while one of the other partners seemed to be dictating something to them. Then you reached the glassed-in IT area with its bank of servers. Garrison walked right in, knocking offhandedly on the glass door as he entered. “Jacobs,” he said.

“Sir,” Jacobs turned from where he seemed to have been working on a computer that looked like it had been torn apart at the seams. He had been standing with his back to the door at a standing desk, and when he saw Garrison and the rest of you he looked ... you weren’t sure. It was a weird mash of emotions.

“We need to do a quick search of the internal databases,” Garrison said.

“Sure,” Jacobs nodded, moving over to the other standing desk where his main rig seemed to be set up. “Legal records, or-?”

“Emails. Internal emails,” Garrison said.

Jacobs hesitated, then slowly turned with a raised eyebrow. “Sir? Isn’t that...”