Quantum Break Read Online Free Page B

here?
    Beth watched as Gibson hunkered down in front of his daughter and held up his palm again.
    “What does the billy goat do?” he drawled, thick as molasses. “C’mon now, show me whatcha got.”
    Beth knew he was playing up to the crowd that had gathered on the mezzanine, groupies from admin, Industrial, Pharma, and all the rest.
    Lorelei giggled, toddled at her dad, and flumphed her head into his hand. Onlookers cheered. Lorelei plopped her hands over her face, embarrassed.
    Her mother swept her up, blew a raspberry on Lorelei’s fat little cheek. Lorelei reached for her dad, grasping inexpertly, all big brown eyes and “Hug Dada!”
    Gibson took her, Lorelei pressing to his fatigues, arms clamped around his neck.
    “I gotcha punkin’ butter, I gotcha.”
    Yeah, the Gibsons have it all. Beth envied Lorelei’s ability to love like that. Beth barely remembered her own father’s face.
    Horatio nudged her. “Don’t feel bad.”
    Horatio was a white dude in his thirties, handlebar moustache, wearing a theater sports T-shirt. DON ’ T SHOOT , I ’ M A PLOT DEVICE !
    Hilarious.
    “Do I look like I feel bad?” Beth wasn’t super tight with most of the other Monarch Security personnel, but the guys over in Innovations liked her just fine.
    “Cheer up, dude. Better people than you washed out of the C-1 program.”
    Beth blinked. “‘Better people’?”
    Horatio backpedaled. “I mean … you know what I mean. Shit.”
    “Yeah I know what you meant. Do you know what’s going on?”
    Beth had made it a good way through the tryouts. Further than most. Flaked at the last hurdle. Now she was mid-level Monarch Security. Stable. Vanilla. Unremarkable.
    Just how she liked it.
    Horatio shook his head. “Nah. I’ve spent half of today trying to get our product demos into a showable state for the gala tomorrow night, so I haven’t been poking around as much. I was banking on Will Joyce helping me to get the platform stable but he totally flaked out on me. Hey, are you free? I need a newbie to run through our flow, see what you get snagged on.”
    “Sorry. Plans.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    The mood on the mezzanine changed, the crowd dispersed. Gibson’s smile vanished. He handed his kid back to his wife without even looking at them. Which meant Martin Hatch had just made an appearance.
    His wife understood, turning and leaving without a word, child in one arm, dragging her luggage with the other.
    Yep, there was Hatch: A tall, good-looking motherfucker with a killer smile he rarely deployed. Luminous midnight skin and a voice that was pure alpha-wave richness.
    He scared the shit out of Beth.
    “Ugh.” Horatio rolled his eyes. “Gibson may be big dog, but Lord he’s got daddy issues. The way he looks at Hatch I’m surprised they’re not picking out curtains.”
    The elevator doors opened. Gibson’s wife dragged their luggage inside. Lorelei called for her dada. If Gibson heard, he didn’t react. The doors closed, and they were gone.
    Beth walked out of the project management bullpen and hung by the door. Next to the elevators, Hatch had one broad hand on Gibson’s shoulder, addressing the team. After a while, the chosen nine, Chronon-1, followed Hatch to a glassed-in meeting room.
    Beth stayed back, watching.
    Gibson never took his eyes off Hatch, hardly blinked, nodding sharply at anything the CEO had to say.
    It was a short meeting. Hatch departed. Chronon-1 filed out, marched briskly past project management.
    Gibson saw Beth as they passed.
    “Yo, Wilder,” he called out, all Louisianan.
    “Looks like the squad’s got something on the boil tonight,” she said.
    The squad came to a halt while Gibson broke off to get closer to Beth. “Your shift ends around six, yeah?”
    “My squad’s on call. Monarch Actual didn’t say why.”
    “I’m gonna need to blow off some steam later. I’d like to give you a ride home.” He smirked. “You gonna say yes this time, or what?”
    Gibson had the corn-fed