The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) by Chris Strange

Besides, this was getting interesting.
    They always said I was a bad listener.

TEN
    The AISOR offices were something else. One whole exterior wall of the building consisted of a couple of hundred huge TV screens, showing a rotating image of the AISOR logo interspersed with pictures of grinning customers. The building wasn’t near the tallest around, but it was the only one on the street that looked like it was pulling a profit. A steady stream of young, well-dressed but not over-dressed businesspeople—and business-Vei—made their way in and out of the automatic doors, walking among the carefully manicured trees that shaded the entranceway. I whistled a long, low whistle. I figured they deserved that at least.
    I was a bit cleaner now. A shower had done me a few worlds worth of good. I’d even found some canned meals in my cupboard that hadn’t expired. My nose wasn’t broken, but it was a near thing. Parts of my face had taken on a jellyfish-purple hue, but I’d got rid of the blood. I’d even shaved. I rubbed my chin as I crossed the street, enjoying the weird sensation. A weight bumped against my hip with each step. A bottle of Kemia in my jacket pocket. I wasn’t going to get caught out again. My coins and a small pocket knife balanced the weight on the other side.
    The doors opened to accept me into the modern, glass-walled lobby. The security guard had a smile for me, which was so unusual it almost sent me running. I’d already passed him before I realized I should have given him one back. I did better when the string-thin guy behind the reception counter looked up from his keyboard and smiled.
    “Can I help you, sir?”
    What the hell was with all the sirs lately? I bared my teeth in what I hoped was a friendly manner. “I’m a…a friend of Zhi Lu’s, one of your chemical analysts. She asked me to come by and help her with something.”
    “Ah, yes,” he said, and he flashed his pearl-white teeth at me. “You must be Mr. Franco.”
    “I must be.”
    “I was told to expect you. You’ll find the elevators just down the hall there. You’ll need to swipe this before you press the floor button.” He handed me a lanyard with a swipe card attached. VISITOR was printed across it in big red letters. I shoved it in my jacket pocket.
    “Where am I going?” I said.
    “Basement four, sir.”
    “Four? How many do you need?”
    He smiled and made a noise that could’ve been a polite laugh. Maybe he just had something stuck in his throat. I thanked him and wandered over to the elevators.
    A pair of pretty young women in tight business skirts waited for the elevator with me. I wondered if they were native Bluegatians, or whether they came packaged with the rest of the company when it got shipped in. How had this place got a foothold here so fast? What was here that interested them so much?
    The elevator let out a sing-song noise while a down arrow flashed up on a screen. The doors slid open like they were floating in angels’ spit. Apparently the girls were going up, because I was the only one who got in. They watched, smiling politely, while I waved the visitor’s card in front of the panel. Finally, the blonde took pity on me and showed me the right place to swipe it. The panel beeped happily and let me press the button for B4. The blonde returned to her friend, and the doors slid closed, leaving me alone.
    At least until I blinked, and Claudia appeared beside me.
    “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I’m working on it, okay?”
    The doors opened again. I didn’t even notice the elevator moving, but I guess it must have, because the room I was looking at was completely different from the lobby. Black marble lined the walls and the ceiling, and there was a sense of heaviness about it that made me decide it was no thin veneer.
    The room had more computers than people. Three rows of computer stations sat in front of me, sloping downward to an open space in the middle of the room, maybe ten foot by eight. It