Neon Lights

47

When Callisto walked into work the next day, he hadn't expected to see Rye, pacing right outside of his lab. Slowing down his steps, he tracked his eyes on his friend, noting the furrowed eyebrows and lips tugged downward into a frown on that face. It was only when Rye met his gaze did the man stop walking, turning his body to fully face him.

Immediately, Callisto tensed his shoulders.

Rye didn't often look like this. Worry was clear in his eyes and Callisto wasn't sure what to do with that.

"What?" was all he could muster when Rye continued to stare at him.

That seemed to be enough to snap his friend out of whatever thoughts he was in. With a small shake of his head, Rye took a step closer to him. From this close now, Callisto could see how big his pupils were and cheeks flushing. Something clearly was wrong and the longer he didn't say anything, the more anxious Callisto was becoming.

"Did you hear?" Rye said, voice low when he finally stood close enough, head leaning forward a little.

"Hear what?" Callisto tried to go through his head of any recent news but nothing popped up. With a dry throat, he said, "Is something wrong?"

Rye searched his face before he raised his hand and placed it on his shoulder, squeezing it. Callisto took note the tight grip he had on his body. "Callisto, I received new orders today from the higher ups. I'm apparently to be in this experiment group working with the Fournier?"

Callisto's eyes widened. "What?"

"And they said I was chosen in recommendation from you?"

"Hold on." Callisto furrowed his eyebrows, trying to process the words. "I didn't recommend you. I barely..." He barely could get a word in during that meeting with Jean and Angelo.

What was going on?

"This is insane," Rye said, dropping his touch from Callisto's shoulder to run his fingers through his own hair. "The Fournier?"

Callisto didn't know what to say to that. This isn't something they experienced before. Big projects like these weren't usually their jurisdiction. Whatever the higher up wanted them to do, they would and whatever results from their experiments would then be their responsibility to convey in a report and send it to the higher ups. This was the first time Callisto was brought into a situation like this... and Rye seemed to be feeling the same way judging by how tight his shoulders were and his wild eyes.

"When did you get this news?" Callisto asked as he moved to pull his phone from his jacket pockets. Shouldn't he have been informed as well?

Just as the thought crossed his mind, his screen lit up with an unread email popup notification. With a swipe of his fingers across the screen, the email opened up and in there revealed the details of his new assignment. The name of his teammates were listed at the bottom of the email and Rye's name was on it.

Anxiety bubbled in him and for a second, he felt this unease washing over him.

Another foot into an unfamiliar territory, here he went again.

"This is crazy," Rye said.

"Yeah," Callisto said slowly. He then lifted his gaze from his screen to look at his friend. "But... I didn't recommend you, Rye."

Rye pressed his lips together for a second before he sighed. "I know. This isn't my area of expertise. It's about Trignon and that's your area. But for the Fourniers? Why them of all people?"

"Don't like them?" Callisto said, pocketing his phone into his jackets. Rye furrowed his eyebrows and for a moment, something flashed in those eyes. They coloured them in a shade darker than what Callisto was used to from his friend.

"Who would?" Rye muttered under his breath but just loud enough for Callisto to hear.

He raised his eyebrows at that. Callisto wasn't always following the news and while he knew how powerful the Fourniers were, he had fallen off in following any political news about this city. A wash of bitterness overtook him for a brief second at that. Perhaps that was why he was so clueless about the inner workings of his own city and Luna's disappearance.

"Did they do something..." Callisto said, letting that sentence stray into silence.

"There's been too many things they've done," Rye said. "Whatever the case may be, working with— for them is nothing but bad news."

"How bad?" Callisto was curious, if nothing else, he knew that Rye should be wary of them. Angelo was a bucket full of surprise, in some of the worst ways possible. The unhinged madness that would brighten those eyes whenever he would look at Callisto did nothing but to make him fear for his own life. Jean, while he didn't seem to be as scary as Angelo, they came from the same family tree.

Perhaps Jean was someone who would bide his time.

But regardless, he hadn't heard anything that Jean did that could warrant his worry. And he didn't even know Angelo was another heir to the Fournier family until recently.

"Bad enough," Rye said, cryptically. He shook his head and didn't clarify any further. Instead, he said, "And now I have to work for them? And I don't even have a choice."

That had piqued Callisto's attention fully. "What do you mean?"

Rye frowned. "Didn't they tell you in the email that rejecting this offer meant termination of occupation?"

It took a second for Callisto to process the words. As soon as they registered in his head, he said, "What?"

"Yeah?" Rye pointed at his jacket pockets. "Didn't they specify that in your email?"

Callisto eyed his friend as he took out his phone again and swiped across the screen to get to his email. He didn't think there was such a clause on his notice but he checked anyway. But no matter how many times he read the email from top to bottom and even carefully reading through each lines, there was no such... threat in his own notification.

His throat dried as the mixed messages that he and his friend were getting.

Turning the phone around so his friend could view the email himself, Callisto said, "There's... there's no such notice in my email, Rye."

"No way...." Rye grabbed his phone and scanned the email, his eyes frantically flitting across the screen. His shoulders slumped and a soft breath of air escaped his lips when he finally paused, staring at his phone for a few more seconds. "What the hell..."

"Rye?" Callisto said, taking his phone back when his friend handed it over.

"Then why did it say that to me?" Rye said as he took out his own phone and opened his email. Handing the device to Callisto, he continued with, "What's with the two different email?"

Callisto's heart was beating loudly against his chest when he did confirm that there was a bold statement at the end of the sentence in Rye's notice. It was either he accepted the position to be in this team or he would be terminated from his position.

It was illegal for sure to threaten an employee like this — and Callisto wasn't sure why they would be so boldly write this in an email of all places.

"What's going on?" Callisto muttered under his breath.