Chapter 2 - 23:00

PART 2: 23:00

By the third audit night, the building had learned her.

Joseph at security had stopped reaching for the register before she got to it. The service lift knew her floor. And at some point after ten, without either of them ever saying it out loud, there would be a cappuccino waiting on the edge of the 14th-floor kitchenette counter. No sugar. He'd noticed by night two.

Mapule had noticed things too.

"I pulled the other three complaints," she'd said on the phone that afternoon, voice low like the rosters could hear her. "None of them match, Thandeka. Not one. The 7th of February — log says done, signed. The 24th — done, signed. Every single complaint is about work my people finished."

"So someone is writing fiction about us."

"Someone with access to the client's complaints system. Sisi, this is above an audit now. Come home."

"One more night."

A pause, long enough to carry everything Mapule wasn't saying. "It's the audit keeping you there, neh? Three visits. Must be a very dirty floor."

Thandeka hung up on her laughing.

The man with the clipboard arrived at 22:40.

Stocky, navy suit a size too proud, gold watch, a junior trailing him like a comma. He walked the floor like he was disappointed in it on principle, ran one finger along a windowsill, and held the finger up to the light.

He did not greet her. He spoke about her, to the junior, while she stood a metre away holding a cloth.

"You see? This is what I mean about standards. This is what we're paying for."