"...and that's all the APD's been able to find out," Lisafinished lamely as they strolled through one of the plazassurrounding GENOM Tower. It was easily the warmest day in weeks,with the bright sun bringing the ambient temperature far enoughabove freezing that the seemingly-eternal slush was turning intoquickly-moving meltwater. Still, just because it was abovefreezing didn't mean she couldn't snuggle; she had wrappedherself around Doug's arm and leaned her head against hisshoulder. He'd eaten her chocolates as his dessert, carefully,deliberately, and pronounced them exquisite; the heady feelingthat gave her almost outweighed her embarassment at having failedhim in finding out anything from Daley.Thinking about how little she had to offer him in the way ofleads, she grimaced privately. While even the lack ofinformation might mean something useful to Doug, it still didn'tmake her feel any better about coming back to him with,essentially, nothing."Hm." She risked a glance up at him. She still couldn't quite get used to the change in his appearance. Even though he hadn't changed the color of his hair or the mustache -- which after nearly two weeks probably wasn't fake any more -- he had shed the vaguely disreputable air he'd possessed when they'd met in Eriko's a few nights earlier. Instead, even though he was dressed casually for a GENOM employee, he radiated an aura that said, "I'm a respectable young executive." Knowing he couldn't be using his powers to do it, Lisa was forced to conclude it really was just a matter of how he carried and presented himself. That kind of skill would be *very* useful to an investigative reporter, and she made a mental note to see where and how she might be able to learn it."I think your contact's right, Lisa," Doug said, shaking her outof her distraction. "It's likely GENOM. I should probably sayanother GENOM faction -- the whole corp is rife with littlepowerplays and rivalries between divisions and departments." Hechuckled. "Hell. I half-expect to hear any day now that arunning gun-battle has broken out between the fifteenth- andsixteenth-floor janitorial staffs over who gets the really *good*soap."Lisa laughed in spite of herself. "You know it'd be easy toclean up afterwards," she offered with a grin.He laughed, too, the first time he'd done so in her presence in awhile. "Which is good, because there'd be no one left with theproper skills for the job."
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
