A Chronetic Memory (The Chronography Records Book 1) by Kim K. O'Hara

threat of being reported. “Would you recommend it? Maybe I’ll borrow it when you’re done,” she teased.
    “I only recommend books to people I know well.”
    Was that an invitation or a rebuff? She wasn’t sure.
    His voice grew a little softer. “I’d love to recommend a book to you, actually, when I know you a little better. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in months.”
    “Me too.” Inexplicably, she felt more lighthearted than she had in a long time. Whoa, girl. Remember your assignment, she reminded herself.
    They conversed over vegetable barley soup and sandwiches with tall piles of deli beef. He found out she was on her own, without parents or siblings. She found out he had an older brother whom he idolized. He bought her a coffee. She tidied his mess while he was gone. He ignored his book, leaning forward to absorb every detail when she talked about her favorite old movies. She laughed at his stories about growing up in a family that packed up and moved every two or three years.
    As the hour drew to a close, Dani wished it could continue. Suddenly, she remembered her assignment. “Hey, you work in Financial Services, right?”
    “I’m flattered you noticed.”
    She laughed. “I had a student ask me the other day, in one of my presentations, something I couldn’t answer.”
    “What do you need to know?”
    “Where do we get our money from? Who funds the institute? Is there a public record somewhere, or even something general that we let people see?” There, that sounded like a legitimate reason for asking, without any trace of a hidden motive. And it had the added advantage of being completely true.
    “I can probably dig something up for you. Does it have to be public? I can access some files that the general public can’t. I have a talent for ferreting out useless pieces of information in places most people wouldn’t think to look. I was kind of known for that in college.” He laughed sheepishly. “Thus the fascination with spy novels.”
    “Oh yeah, I suppose.” She squelched the eagerness that she felt bubbling up inside her and tried her best to appear only casually interested. “I can get a general picture from it and summarize for the kid.”
    “Sounds good. After work, then? Do you get off right at five?”
    As they talked, they were standing up, gathering belongings and trays. Preparing to go their separate ways.
    “Yes, right at five. I’ll meet you outside the security gates, on those benches under the clock tower.”
    “It’s a date, then,” he said. “I mean … let’s do it.”
    But as Dani dumped her wrappers in recycling, deposited her tray on the rack, and headed back to work, she entertained the lingering conviction that he meant something more.
    She felt astonishingly upbeat, even when she looked over her afternoon list and discovered more—many more—time decay checks. One thing about boring task lists: They gave her time to think.
    Back at the library shelves, she was happy to discover that the next twenty-two items were small enough to fit on one tray. She could fit one more into her lab coat pocket—whoa, what was this? She realized she still had the four sample materials in her pocket from yesterday. She’d have to remember to take those back to the supply room. Oh well, they had probably twenty more sets there, so these wouldn’t be needed any time soon.
    She carried the items back to the scanner station. This batch could keep her occupied for at least an hour and a half, and she could plan out her next step. Kat and Marak would be pleased with her progress.
    Dani was a little surprised that she was enjoying this so much. Maybe she missed her calling, she thought wryly. She wondered idly what the market was for academic espionage. She was half-qualified; they’d have to consider her, anyway. Whoever “they” were.
    She stepped into the observation box and placed the items on the small table there, arranging them in order by their tags,