Revolution (Book 3 of POE Chronicles)

Chapter 6 - Meetings are never easy Part 3

Standing in front of the UGE's headquarters, I knew I should be feeling a ton of different emotions, but to be quite honest, I was too exhausted from all the meetings to feel anything. This time Gerald wasn't with me, because they explicitly requested that I turned up with only one companion who wouldn't be from the de Silver family. I think somehow they must have heard of Gerald. When I left, he was sulking in the hotel lobby, an equally gloomy looking Tristan and a wary Georgina on a nearby sofa. Why they forego their beautiful rooms to be in the public space is beyond me. In the end, I brought Viktor along. I wasn't sure why I did, but somehow he seemed to be a good choice.

"Are you ready?" Viktor asked next to me and I nodded, offering him a small smile. His presence was strangely reassuring; perhaps it was because of the normal life that I knew him in. I knew that wasn't just because of that, but I had a hard time to put my finger on it.

"Thanks for coming with me." I said as we marched up the steps.

"You saved my life." Viktor replied with a warm smile, pulling the door open for me. "This is the least I can do."

I was glad that he wasn't flirting with me because while I like the guy it definitely wasn't in a romantic way. "It wasn't just to save you." I slipped through the giant glass doors and waited for Viktor to come through as well. "We would all have died."

Viktor shrugged his shoulders and I knew that it was lost on him. I took a quick look around and tried not to be too impressed by the black polished basalt floors and matching white marble countertops. The light streamed through the glass window beautifully and I had to struggle to keep my head straight as we marched towards the receptionist.

"Hi, I have a meeting with Mr. Kenning at 10." I said calmly, and the receptionist gave me a quick glance before returning to her computer screen. She was wearing a headpiece as well and I couldn't help but marvel at how fast her fingers were moving over the keyboard.

"Miss Beckett?" She asked and I nodded, feeling the shift in her attitude. "Please take the elevator at the end of the corridor and proceed to the top floor."

She then slid the two cards towards me and gestured to the rows of what resembled ticket barriers with even more rows of elevators behind. Feeling a little lost despite the instructions, I handed one of the cards to Viktor and started making my way tentatively towards that area.

"It's just the key cards that would give us access to the building." Viktor said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. I gave him a look that shut him up, and paid close attention to see how the people entering used it.

After successfully navigating through the barriers, I followed the instruction and made my way to the very end. No one else seemed to be approaching this section and I took that as a good sign. They probably didn't want us to mingle with their employees.

I eyed the wide array of buttons on the elevator panel and pressed on the highest one firmly. Viktor didn't seem too bothered by the choices, but I was a bit unnerved by it. Even though I had been living the life of a diplomat for the past few months, I longed for the normality of life I used to know when I was just another girl in London Citybase.