Indexing: Reflections (Kindle Serials) (Indexing Series Book 2) Read Free

lit up as he turned to face me and my burden of sugary goodness. “Please tell me you got me a maple bar. I would kill for a maple bar right now.”
    “I got you a maple bar,” I confirmed. “Where’s Demi, she asked again, with slightly less patience?”
    “Not here yet,” said Andy. “She was taking the bus this morning, since her car’s still in the shop. She’s got at least five minutes before we all wind up fired for failure to report.” He stood and walked over to my desk, where he began investigating the contents of the donut box.
    “See? I’m not going to be responsible for things going horribly wrong. It’s going to be a group effort.” I picked out a plain cake donut and dropped into my desk chair. “You should all have more faith in me.”
    “We do, or we would have requested reassignment weeks ago,” said Andy. His voice was unexpectedly grave. I looked up, startled. He shrugged. “Me and Mike, we’re looking into adopting a kid. You know how expensive that is? How above reproach you gotta be before they’ll even consider your application? And that’s assuming you’re a straight couple. Black man married to a white man . . . the deck’s already stacked against us. I need to be the guy with the good, stable government job. Makes it more likely that the agency reviewing our application will go ‘whoa, better not discriminate against this one, we’ll get our asses sued.’”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think about that.”
    “It’s cool,” said Andy. “Just don’t think for a second that Jeff’s the only one who has your back. He may be the one who goes home with you, but during the workday, we’re all here for you as much as he is.”
    “That means a lot. Thank you.” I took a bite of my donut to keep from needing to say anything else. I was swallowing when there was a commotion from the mouth of the bullpen. I smiled without turning. “Demi’s here.”
    “I’m here!” called Demi, half a beat later. A skinny Latina rushed past me, dumping her things on her desk. A flute case protruded from the edge of her duffel bag. “Am I late? I’m not late. I have,” she checked her watch, “fifteen whole seconds!”
    “You do,” I agreed. “Have a donut.”
    “Oo, donuts,” said Demi. She moved to root through the box. I sat back in my chair, feeling a little better about our chances. The gang was all here. If we stuck together, we could survive anything.
    Demi Santos was our newest, youngest member. Like me, and Jeff, she was ATI active: she was a Pied Piper, and could accomplish almost anything with the right sheet music. She was also the strongest argument for taking the team away from me. Birdie Hubbard, our old dispatcher and unexpected enemy, had been able to use Demi’s story to turn her against us. Having a Pied Piper gunning for you wasn’t a fun experience. I don’t recommend it. Demi herself was a generous, thoughtful, compassionate girl, but once her narrative got involved, all bets were off.
    Snow White wasn’t such a sweet, delicate story either, once you started digging into the monomyth. It began with bluebirds and true love, but it ended in sacrifice and blood on the snow. I could do a lot of damage if I ever let my narrative take over. The Bureau would be within its rights to minimize that damage by pulling me away from the front lines. It was up to us to convince them that leaving me where I was would be a better idea.
    “Excuse me?” The voice was pleasant, female, and unfamiliar. I turned, already starting to rise. There was only one person I didn’t know who could reasonably be expected to be approaching my team today. Everyone else in the building was avoiding us like we’d contracted a bad case of the plague.
    The woman at the mouth of the bullpen was short, curvy, and dressed like the accountant of a pirate-themed restaurant. I’d never seen anyone combine a ruffled blouse with a pencil skirt and striped tights before. It worked