“Certainly.” Holton gestured to Trebling to stay where he was. Then Mr Murphy and Holton went over to the other end of the office where the windows were.
Jim Trebling sat in his uncomfortable chair beneath the fluorescent lights. He wanted to leave this office, leave it now and not come back. He couldn’t understand Holton any longer. He no longer knew him.
Trebling was aware of someone standing beside him. He looked up: it was the blue-eyed girl. He started to get to his feet.
“Don’t move,” she said. “I’m just passing by. Mr Murphy and Bob seem to be having some sort of conference. I thought I’d wait outside the gate till they were through.”
“Sit down,” said Trebling.
“Thank you.” She sat down in the chair beside him. He wondered what to say to her, what to talk about.
“Have you been here long?” he asked.
She told him that she had been there for several years.
“It must be interesting working in a place like this.”
She laughed. “It’s pretty awful, I think. As jobs go, of course, it’s not bad.”