“Thank you,” the bitter sound of the wind forced its way through the mountains.
Malina’s heels crutched in the snow as she made her way out of the car and towards the entrance gate. There were no more than six people who rode along with her, and two of them were from her India branch, which she oversaw.
The others were people of differing backgrounds and purposes in which she’d known very little about. Most of her traveling hours were spent flipping through the information that was given to her on the new scientific facility. So, no she did not have time for introductions.
“Well secured,” Jon pulled a small journal from his back pocket. Standing shoulder to shoulder with her, he jotted something down.
“You know what that means,” Malina eyed a familiar figure only feet away.
“Secrets,” Jon prompted, swishing his pen in the air before shoving it in his jacket.
“Welcome!”.
As the traveling group made their way to the front of the gate to be greeted, Malina eyed the small research team before them. “I am Remiah Washington the lead scientist and developer at The Core. And we are honored to have you all here.”
Shortly smirking to herself, she identified Dylan Lars, who was whispering something in another colleague’s ear.
It was a small world after all.
“Today is a very important day, not only for my team and I, but also for the entire country. Every hour we get closer and closer to the answers this world seeks. So, please follow me and we will begin the tour.”
“What did I miss?” Kellan seemingly popped out of nowhere, with Malina’s glasses placed on his noise. Malina opened her mouth to scold him, but he piped back with the moxie of a rebellious teen, while casually flipping through the information pack.
“You left them in the car. Finders keepers,”
“Where the hell have you been? You disappeared for months,” Kellan’s brow went up.
“You noticed?” his eyes instantly found hers, then narrowed on a happily grinning Jon.
“Jon Wiess,” he greeted, sticking out his gloved hand. “I can’t believe your actually alive.” he marveled.
“Me too,” Malina aimed for his face, but missed him by a mere dodge and quick turn. Before she knew it, Kellan was on the opposite side of her, shaking Jon’s alternate grasp, and walking backwards.
“I’m always very pleased to meet the other people that put up with her.”
“May I ask what you’re currently working on?” Jon, busily fascinated by his very presence, ignored the comment
“Perhaps his manners,” Malina pulled ahead, leaving the two behind in her tracks.
Kellan spun around, smirking towards the snow, with a lingering glance on her back. “Micro technology, artificial intelligence?” Jon pushed the conversation on.
“Nothing that serious,” Kellan brought his stare back to the older man. “I took a few months off.”
“Science is a time tasking career.” He retrieved his notepad. “I should know. I spent three years in Peru just studying the life cycle of the Inca tern,”
“Beautiful bird,” Kellan pressed Malina’s glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “Although, I seem to have bad relations with most scientist.” He commented, finally noticing Dylan.
Jon chuckled softly. “Oh, well I hope you like me,”
“You had me at Inca tern.” He murmured “Will you excuse me?” and before Jon could press on with the endless questions, Kellan was off trekking in the snow ahead, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
“Did you know he was here?” Malina watched Kellan’s body language change completely from playful to solemn.
“It makes since,” she hugged herself. “He is one of the top scientist in the world.”
“That’s only because he has money. And he sleeps around,” cold air soothed from his lips, as if he was taking a long breath from a cigarette. “Remiah Washington’s got a daughter about our age. I’m sure he’s explained plenty of theories to her.”
“I don’t need visuals,” Malina shot. “It’s none of our business anyway.”
With a swipe, Kellan removed her glasses from his face, then placed them on her head. “Keep them warm for me,” he called over his shoulder.
Like he would get them back. Huffing noisily, she pressed them on her nose.
“Dylan Lars,” Kellan coed once he finally caught up. “Big step up,”
“How are you?” Dylan stuck out his hand for a friendly shake, but Kellan kept his own, warmly in his pockets.
“There’s a group of people that finalized this place to run.” He started. “I'm a part of overseeing that everything here goes along with the laws of basic human rights. And as usual, every single vote matters.” He looked ahead as they were closing in on the first building, “So if one vote is pulled, this entire shit house goes under inspection.”
“What are you getting at?” Dylan’s friendly manner had been dropped. It became a struggle not to grit his teeth.
“I know what you did with Miss. Greene.” He said casually. “I wasn’t a big fan.”
Dylan laughed under his breath. “It never was any of your business,”
“You’re not wrong,” stopping the motion of their stroll, Kellan placed his hand on Dylan’s chest.
Eventually the entire group caught up. Most of them, either speaking amongst themselves or swiping through the informative papers, didn’t even notice the twisted tension between the two.
Well, everyone except Malina.
As soon as everyone disappeared behind the glass doors Kellan stood back as if to look at a disorientated painting. “This has nothing to do with Ashley. This is about Nikki.” he scoffed. “How many ways can you find to fuck a single person over?”
” Weren’t you sleeping with Ashley while she was dating my brother?” he recalled, straitening his lab coat.
“I’m not here to play who-done- it. I own my mistakes.” Kellan moved to open the door. “Stay the fuck away from Nikki if you want to keep your job.”
“I hope you enjoy the tour.” Dylan proclaimed.
“Me too. ” Kellan retorted. 'After you,"