Chapter 92: LYRA’S COMPANY
KEISHA’S POV
My phone rang twice before she answered.
Lyra’s voice came through breathless and slightly unsteady but I felt my whole chest loosen at the sound of it. "I’m okay." She said before I could get a word out. "I’m okay, Keisha."
Oh goddess.
I pressed my hand over my mouth for a second.
"I stepped out." She continued. "Twenty minutes before it started. I was getting coffee from the place across the road and I heard it and I turned around and—" She stopped. "I’m okay. I promise I’m okay."
"You didn’t pick up." I croaked and my voice came out steadier than I expected given that my hands were not entirely steady at all.
"I was giving a statement to the police." She said. "I didn’t have my phone on me. I’m sorry. I should have—"
"Don’t apologise." I cut her off. "Don’t you dare apologise."
Nadia had her hand on my arm and I hadn’t noticed her move.
"Are you hurt?" I asked. "Anywhere. Are you hurt?"
"No." Lyra said. "I wasn’t in the building. I was across the road with my coffee watching it and I couldn’t—" Her voice wavered slightly and then steadied. "There are people who weren’t as lucky. Some of my colleagues—" She stopped again.
I sat down on the kitchen chair. "Where are you now?" I said.
"Still at the scene." She said. "They want statements from everyone who works there. It’s going to be a few more hours." A pause followed. "Keisha, I’m really okay. I just need you to know that."
"I know." I nodded. "I hear you."
"You don’t sound like you believe me." She said.
"I believe you." I whispered. "I’m still scared."
She was quiet for a moment. "I know." She said softly. "I know you are."
We talked for another ten minutes. She told me what she knew— the fire had started in the lower floor, spread fast, the building was old and the fire systems hadn’t been adequate. She talked about her colleagues and I let her talk and didn’t interrupt because that was what she needed right now.
When she said she had to go, I didn’t want to let her. "Call me later." I begged. "Tonight. When you’re home."
"I will." She assured me.
"Lyra." I muttered. "I’m serious."
"I’ll call." She said. "I promise."
Then, she hung up.
I sat at the kitchen table with my phone in both hands and stared at it.
Nadia sat across from me and didn’t say anything for a while.
Eventually I looked up, tears in my eyes. "She’s okay." I whispered.
"I know." Nadia said. "I heard."
"She stepped out for coffee." I looked away, blinking tears away. "Twenty minutes before."
"I know." Nadia said again quietly.
I pressed my hands flat on the table. "Life is genuinely insane." I said.
"It really is." Nadia agreed.
We sat there for a moment and then Nadia picked up her phone and kept scrolling. Then Nadia made a sound.
Not the shocked one from before. This one sounded like a huff of annoyance. She turned the phone toward me and I read the headline.
Riven had bought Mara a new car to celebrate the pregnancy.
There was a whole article about it. Photographs of the car. A quote from Riven about welcoming new beginnings.
I looked at it for a long moment. Then I looked at Nadia. "Someone’s building is on fire." I said. "People died today. And someone else is getting a new car for being pregnant."
"Life." Nadia started.
"Is genuinely insane." I finished.
She nodded.
****************
Monday morning came and the office felt different.
It felt weird. Mrs Velaris’s office door was open and empty and someone had already moved the plant she kept on the windowsill which felt wrong in a way I couldn’t fully articulate.
The new superior’s name was Mr Hale.
He came in at eight forty five exactly, stood at the front of the room and waited for everyone to settle.
"Good morning." He looked around the room. "I’m going to keep this brief because I think long speeches on the first day are a waste of everyone’s time." He started. "I’ve read every file in this office over the weekend. I know what you do and broadly how you do it and I have some thoughts about where things can be improved." He paused. "I’m not going to implement everything at once. Change for the sake of change is as useless as doing nothing. But there are some things I want to establish from the start so we’re all clear."
The room was completely quiet.
"First." He said. "Documentation standards. The current filing system has three different conventions running simultaneously depending on which team member handled the original log. That ends today. I’ll circulate a unified standard by the end of the day and I want everything going forward to follow it." He looked around. "Not most things. Everything."
Peter opened his mouth slightly and closed it.
"Second." Mr Hale continued. "Communication between teams. Right now inter-pack correspondence and internal pack records are being handled in separate silos with no consistent cross referencing. That’s how things get missed." He paused. "I want a weekly cross reference meeting. Short. Twenty minutes maximum. Just enough to catch anything that’s fallen through the gap."
Sera looked at me sideways but I kept my eyes forward.
"Third." He said. "I’m going to be bringing in additional staff over the next few weeks. The team is under resourced for the volume of work you’re handling and that’s not sustainable." He looked around the room again. "I’ll need three people to handle the interview process. You’ll be evaluating candidates on technical competence and team fit. I’ll make the final calls but I want people who actually work here involved in the selection." He scanned the room. "Keisha."
I looked up.
Huh?
"You." He said. "And I’ll choose the other two after I’ve had a chance to observe the team this week." He looked at the room generally. "Any questions?"
A brief silence followed but no one said anything.
"Good." He nodded. "Let’s get to work."
He went to his office and closed the door and the room exhaled as one.
"He’s intense." Evelyn said under her breath from across the room.
"He’s efficient though. Must be nice." I shrugged.
"Same thing." She said.
"Not really." I turned to her.
"For people who aren’t efficient." She said. "It feels the same."
I almost smiled before I turned back to my screen.
The day moved fast. Mr Hale’s unified documentation standard arrived at eleven and it was actually good, way cleaner than what we had been doing, logical sequencing, nothing unnecessarily complicated. I implemented it immediately on the logs I was working on and it took about twenty minutes to adjust to but then felt natural.
The cross reference meeting was scheduled for Wednesday morning.
By the time I left the office, my bag was heavier than usual with two files I was taking home to review before the interview process began and my head was full.
I got home, dropped my bag and called to the general direction of the sitting room, "Nadia."
"Kitchen." She called back.
I went to the kitchen and found her sitting at the table on her phone with a glass of water.
"How was the new boss?" She asked.
"Efficient." I shrugged as I opened the fridge.
"Intense?" She asked.
"That too." I admitted. "He assigned me to the interview panel."
"Already?" She looked confused.
"Already." I nodded as I found leftover pasta from two days ago, looked at it and decided it would do. "He read every file over the weekend apparently."
"Every file? That’s impressive."
"Every one." I nodded. "Before his first day."
Nadia looked thoughtful. "I respect that." She muttered.
"So do I." I said. I put the pasta on to reheat and leaned against the counter. "We’re hiring new people. Several of them."
"How many?" She asked.
"Not sure yet." I said. "The team is under resourced apparently. Which—" I paused. "Is accurate. We’ve all been running at capacity for months."
Nadia was quiet for a moment. She turned her water glass in her hands, then she looked up. "I want to apply." She suddenly said.
I stared at her. "What?"
"For one of the positions." She said. "I want to apply."
"Nadia." I said.
"I’m serious." She rolled her eyes. "Don’t do that face."
"What face?" I said.
"I’m serious, Keisha. My dad said I don’t have a job of my own and he was right and I’ve been thinking about it and—" She held my gaze. "I want to apply properly. Not because of who my father is. On my own merit."
I looked at her. "Are you actually serious?"
"Completely." She said.
I turned back to the pasta, stirred it and thought about it.
"You know I’m on the interview panel like I said." I said.
"I know." She nodded.
"Which means I’d be interviewing you." I said.
"I know." She said. "I want to be treated like everyone else. No special consideration."
I looked at her over my shoulder.
She was watching me with her chin slightly up and her jaw set.
"Okay." I shrugged.
She blinked. "Okay?"
"Apply." I said. "If you want to apply, apply." I turned back to the stove. "But I mean it about the special consideration."
"I know you do." She smiled. "That’s why I want to interview with you."
I said nothing.
She was going to be either the easiest or the most complicated interview I had ever done.
Probably both simultaneously.