Al slammed the table hard enough to make his tools clatter. I jumped at the noise, then turned in my chair to look at him in confusion.
“That’s it!” he cried, striding across the room. “I’ve had it! I quit! See you again never!” Al declared as he marched up the stairs.
The door slammed shut. I stared after him, speechless.
“Um,” I began, glancing over at Tazina.
“Don’t worry,” she said over her shoulder, “he’s not actually quitting. He’ll be back.”
“But – ”
“Al is just really dramatic sometimes.”
“Alright then,” I replied, still thoroughly confused by what happened. I looked over at Al’s workstation where the partially disassembled 216894 lay.
“Hey, Tazina, did you know?” I asked.
Tazina adjusted her wheelchair to face me. “Know what?”
I looked again at 216894. “About the city guards. Did you know what they really were?”
Tazina scrunched up her face. “Not exactly,” she replied. “I had my suspicions because of the programs I had to work on for my job, but…” Tazina glanced at 216894. “The way our tasks were divided up, it was hard to know for sure.”
She looked back at the blue letters lighting up her screen. “Wish I could’ve seen thetjioewhdis when I was inside, but the last time I got clweoijtekwmfdsfhe System didn’t like, she tried to kill me.” Tazina gave a bitter laugh.
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?” Had I heard her right? Did Tazina just say the System had tried to kill her?
“It’s a long story,” she said, looking back at me. “Basically, I was digging into things I wasn’t supposed to.” Tazina hesitated. “I found blueprints of the System,” she continued, “and something about them didn’t make sense.”
Tazina paused, tapping a finger against the arm of her chair. “But before I could figure out what was bothering me about them, I had an accident due to a ‘malfunction.’ The fall should have killed me.”
“That… sounds extreme,” I replied. “Even for her. What makes you think it wasn’t an accident?”
Tazina narrowed her eyes. “The System never had me taken to a hospital. She didn’t even try to help before tossing me out.”
The door creaked open, followed by the loud stomps of Al descending the stairs. “Alright, fine,” he said as he entered the room, “I won’t quit, but oieorwfkmdskfjsand leaving a project unfinished.” He carried three plastic bags full of circular cookies.
Al placed one bag on the counter beside the stack of System devices. “Here,” he said. “Enjoy.” He handed the second bag to Tazina, who accepted it with an amused smile, then took the third over to his workstation.
As soon as I bit into a cookie, I heard Al exclaim, “Oh, that’s what the problem was!” I decided to ignore him this time.
Just as I reached for another System device to continue my work, Al slammed his table again. “Done!”
I spun in my seat. Al stood triumphant over his workstation where 216894 had been fully reassembled.
To be continued…