Amber & Ice

Chapter 9: I don't trust you

When Athena opened her mouth to protest he slammed his hand across it, putting his other one to his lips and making a shushing motion.

Shocked, Athena remained silent.

The footsteps grew louder as whoever it was passed right by the room. They paused just beyond it, where Dyo had been standing and went inside.

Dyo released Athena and ran his hands through his hair. "Damn it!" he cursed, glaring at the wall opposite them.

The room's automatic lighting had turned on when they entered and Athena looked around with interest. They were in some kind of control room. A giant screen took up the entire wall to their left, displaying brightly coloured charts and comments from the feed. All of the information was linked to a previous quick vote, on the use of Hyde Park for an open air concert that summer. Athena had voted in favour of it only yesterday, since that month's pop vote band were going to be playing.

"This is a voting complex!" Athena hissed at Dyo quietly. "What are we doing here?"

"Well I'm not doing what I would have been doing if you weren't here!" Luckily he didn't ask her what she was doing here - he was angry enough already and she didn't really want to admit that she had been following him.

Instead, he got to his feet and looked around. "We need to get out of here, now."

Athena got to her feet too and reached her hand towards the door. Her shoulder was throbbing from where Dyo had grabbed it so fiercely.

"What are you doing?" he hissed back at her. "You can't go out there!"

"Why not?" Athena put a hand to her hip. What was going on? "Dyo, why were you here? You're not supposed to be, are you?"

"The less you know the better," he replied, moving further into the room. Tucked away in the right of the room was another door. "Come on, we'll take this way out. We can't let anyone see us leave."

Athena huffed, but she followed him anyway; she didn't fancy getting caught in the corridor on her own, with no idea where she was and no excuse for being there.

The next room was exactly like the last, just with different voting details on the wall. It had two doors again: one which presumably led back to the corridor they had entered from. The second door was opposite it and would lead them in a new direction. Dyo opened it cautiously and peered through the gap.

"Okay, it's clear. Come on." He slipped through the door and Athena followed, still scowling. They passed more numbered doors on either side and had just made it past a corridor filled with cardboard boxes when the sound of footsteps returned. This time it was Athena who grabbed for Dyo, dragging him into the corridor and shoving him behind the boxes. There was less space than Athena had anticipated and she found herself pushed so close against him that she could feel his heart hammering in his chest. Her hands gripped his shoulders.

There was an agonising pause while the steps slowed further down the corridor. Why weren't they carrying on?

"Hey, Gus?" the speaker was male. We had only heard one set of footsteps, so he must have been speaking into his glasses.

"Yes, Cerb, what's the problem?"

"I'm not sure. It might be nothing, but there's a door open in corridor K."

"One of the Tellers must have left it open. I wouldn't worry. Thanks for calling it in though - I'll mention to them that they need to be more careful."

The footsteps resumed and Athena felt Dyo's breath hot against her ear. "You left the door open? Seriously? Are you trying to get us caught?"

"Maybe it would be easier if I knew what we were trying to not get caught doing!"