Читать книгу Topics About Which I Know Nothing - Patrick Ness - Страница 19

Ten minutes later, the boss comes in.

‘Stay in your office,’ he says. His face is set, worried. ‘Don’t leave, no matter what you hear.’

‘What’s going on?’ says Percy.

‘Just stay here,’ he says. He looks over at Tammy. She holds his eye for a moment, then raises her eyebrows before looking back to her computer. The boss closes the door behind him. Percy looks at me.

‘What’s going on?’ he says again.

‘How should I know?’ I say.

‘Best to leave it,’ says Maryam from Africa.

‘What do you mean Best to leave it?’ Tammy says, spinning round to face us.

Maryam’s posture straightens. It suddenly looks like she’s a whole lot bigger.

‘Exactly what I say, Little Madam,’ she says. ‘Best. To. Leave. It. Get back to work.’ She looks at Percy. ‘Some of us have quotas to meet.’ Percy turns back to his terminal and starts dialling the next number.

‘Aren’t any of you curious?’ says Tammy, looking at us, exasperated. ‘They tell you to avoid the end of the hall, and you just say, Fine by me?’

I look at Maryam, who still has her eyes locked on Tammy. I look back at Tammy.

‘It’s not quite like that,’ I say.

‘Then what is it like?’ Tammy says. ‘What’s wrong with you? Don’t you want to know?’

‘Well,’ I say, ‘the reality of it is -’

‘Go look yourself if you’re so interested, Miss Missy,’ says Maryam.

‘Maryam!’ I say. Maryam looks at me.

‘The woman is not going to be satisfied until she has a look,’ Maryam says. ‘She is just gathering her courage. Well, I say leave us be with your courage-gathering and just go if you’re going to go.’

Tammy takes off her headset. She stands. ‘All right then,’ she says, ‘I will.’

‘Tammy,’ I say, ‘I really wouldn’t.’

‘And yet you can’t, or won’t, tell me why,’ she says.

Percy is also trying to mouth at Tammy not to go, but he’s on a call. It’s company policy that you never disconnect a call. Percy over-balances and hits the floor with a thud. ‘No, madam, I’m still here,’ he says, waving his hands at Tammy to stay put.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Tammy says. She looks at each one of us in turn, then opens the door and steps out.