Chapter 5 Erryn
ERRYN
Iwoke at the first hint of sun streaming through my windows as I usually did, already compiling a mental list of what I needed to do while going through the motions of getting ready for my day on autopilot.
Showered and dressed in clothes I had laid out the night before, my bag waited on the dresser by the door as I glanced in the mirror to smooth back a wayward wisp of hair before heading toward the scent of coffee.
“Mornin’ Lox,” Helena said as I paused, frozen in the doorway.
The wooden spoon Claire had been using clattered to the counter as she jumped almost comically at the sight of me, checking her watch with a shocked expression.
“Oh!” she gasped, wiping her hands on her apron and hitting a few buttons on the silver coffee machine. “The time got away from me. Apologies, Erryn. I’ll have your coffee out in just a second.”
I waved off her panic with a swipe of my hand, murmuring it was okay while ignoring the amused look Helena was giving me from her corner, and headed back to the sanctum of the lounge. My skin prickled at the informality of having one of my agents sitting on my kitchen counter.
“Lounge lights on,” I said, waiting for the system to respond before slipping into my favorite chair by the windows and bringing up the latest headlines on my tablet.
I skimmed the news, barely registering what I was reading as a cup was set down next to me, and then a bowl of steaming porridge topped with fruit was thrust into my eyeline.
“What are you doing?” I asked as Helena waited, the bowl hovering in the air in front of me.
“Passing you your breakfast,” she said. “I would have thought it was self-explanatory.”
It was far too early to already be this irritated, and I leveled a glare at her as I picked up my coffee.
“We need to have that boundary discussion. And I don’t eat breakfast.”
“Claire mentioned that,” Helena said, setting the bowl down directly on top of my tablet before perching on the arm of the couch adjacent. “I have two companies that can update the security here and tighten up your existing tech.”
I bristled, the minimal caffeine in my system forcing me to white-knuckle my temper.
“I am perfectly capable of updating my own systems. You have pointed out where it needs improvement. I can do the rest.”
One of her dark brows quirked, and she tilted her head.
“If you authorize me to handle it, I can have it all installed by end of da—”
“Rossi,” I snapped. “This is unprofessional.”
“Maybe, but it’s effective,” she said, finger gunning me with a wink. “My methods have always been questioned. My results are not.”
Downing the rest of my coffee, I let the scalding liquid burn its way slowly down to my stomach before I trusted myself with a response.
“I will have my systems updated within the next twenty-four hours if for no other reason than it means the return of my privacy.”
Helena nodded and stood up.
“Excellent! I’ll check them when it’s done.”
I closed my eyes as she strode off, letting out a deep sigh. I needed this security breach fixed yesterday.
The drive to headquarters took twenty minutes, and I used them to review overnight briefings, my interface scrolling summaries across my screen as I filed them to address later. Infrastructure reports. Diplomatic noise. Internal memos flagged for attention but not urgency.
Helena sat opposite me, eyes on the darkened windows and one hand resting casually near her thigh.
She had no visible weapon, but that meant nothing, and I could feel her attention on me like a weight on my skin.
She noticed everything. It had been a long while since anyone had so brazenly studied me like she did, and I was surprised by how much it unnerved me.
The vehicle cleared the checkpoint to the underground parking lot, then pulled into my designated parking space in our self-made fortress, before making our way through the quiet corridors to my office.
I was always here first, besides Ben, and I was usually the last to leave. It was the price of power. You gave your soul to pay for it, and the Triarchy had owned mine for a long while now.
A steaming coffee sat waiting on my desk, the office already warm and the systems humming quietly in standby mode. I shrugged off my coat as I stepped inside and draped it over the back of the chair.
“Wake the system,” I said.
The consoles responded instantly, sleek black surfaces flickering to life one by one as the wall of screens brightened across the room, filling the quiet space with life.
“Authorize Loxley,” I added.
A brief chime answered me as the system recognized my voice and unlocked the deeper administrative layers, the interface shifting smoothly into the command architecture.
Helena drifted toward the far wall while I worked, taking up a position that gave her a clear line of sight to both the door and the windows behind me, her arms folded loosely across her chest as she quietly watched me.
Every few minutes, her gaze flicked across the screens, tracking the camera feeds I had pulled up, pausing briefly on the security grid covering the building before shifting back to the hallway cameras outside the office door.
Ben arrived a few hours later, breaking my focus. “You asked for external firms.”
I hummed my acknowledgment, turning my attention to the email he had just sent me.
“I’ve compiled a shortlist based on your criteria,” he said as I scrolled through the profiles. “All have government clearance. All have experience with systems of this scale, but I recommend Vanguard if you want to move fast on this.” He gave a pointed look at Helena’s back, and then at me.
I read through the list three times. Most were smaller corporations that could only provide system upgrades that we would manage internally.
Two managed the entire system, including tailored software and updated security hardware that would make my job significantly easier.
Expanding both profiles, I scanned their credentials.
Both were founded over a decade ago. Private.
Selective contracts. Both had a reputation for adaptive defense systems that could evolve faster than threats.
Their success rate was impressive, but AUREX Global seemed slightly more advanced than Vanguard.
“Pull Vanguard’s recent contracts,” I said, pulling up AUREX on my own database. “I recognize the name from somewhere.”
Ben did as I asked, moving next to me so I could see his screen.
Vanguard had worked with three sovereign governments, two corporate city-states, and one organization whose name had been redacted entirely, while AUREX focused on smaller private businesses.
Interesting.
Helena cleared her throat, and I eyed her over my screen.
“You know them?” I asked.
“Vanguard has popped up in relation to a few of our contracts, but not directly,” she said. “One in particular that I’m aware of was still in the process of switching over to their systems, and we were under the clock to complete our contract before it came into effect.”
“That sounds promising,” I murmured as I clicked through the last of the information before sighing under my breath.
I didn’t like how rushed this felt. It wasn’t how I did things, but I had two man-children sitting in Fort Triarchy and a babysitter who had boundary issues until I had this clusterfuck under control.
“AUREX Global,” I said to Ben. “Preliminary only. No system access until we see what they can offer.”
He hesitated. “Vanguard Tech has handled the bigger contracts…”
“I’m aware,” I said. “But something is still telling me AUREX. I want to see how they come to the table with what we need.”
He nodded and vanished, leaving me alone with Helena again, and I watched from behind my screen in mild amusement as she struggled to stay still.
I needed to find her something to do during the day that wasn’t a waste of a perfectly able agent.
Or get her a fidget toy. She cracked about an hour later, leaving her position by the door as I was distracted with researching a possible new contract, wandering over to my huge old oak bookshelf to look at the titles I had collected over the years, and didn’t miss the flash of green as she glanced at me after perusing the volumes.
I wondered which ones had caught her attention.
I had some of my most cherished books displayed on that shelf since I was here more often than at home.
The first edition of Orlando by Virginia Woolf?
Or maybe the Folio Society’s illustrated edition of the Fragments of Sappho, personally annotated by the translator, Anne Carson.
She was silent for a while, and I glanced up, curious to see which now held her attention, and froze at the sight of her holding the rebound volume of Fingersmith that Theo had gifted me for Christmas a couple of years ago.
Her scrawled handwriting on the inside cover was a damning statement of who we had been to each other.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” I murmured as she slipped a finger under the heavy leather-bound cover to open it.
“These all look very…” She trailed off, her attention on me.
Getting up, I wandered over to her, the urge to snatch the book out of her hands riding me hard as I raised a brow and waited for her to continue. She shifted on her feet, the silence stretching a moment too long.
“Very, what, Rossi?” I asked, enjoying how uncomfortable she suddenly looked. All that whirlwind energy suddenly stilled.
“Sapphic.”
I hummed, taking the book from her hands and returning it to the shelf.
“Ben is busy with AUREX, and I am in desperate need of caffeine.”
I had expected an argument, so when she simply nodded and turned on her heel to go, I couldn’t help the breath of a laugh that slipped past my lips.
I think I’d just flustered her.
Bless.