Whereas yesterday she was a beggar, queen only of the filthy alleys of corporate thought, today she felt power, power true and royal, pulsing in the air which followed her, and puddling in her footprints. The difference was like that between the counterfeit watch and the one with a price tag as long as her womanly hand. She felt the bitterness laying on the tongues of the other office women as they complimented her; jealousy, no doubt, whereas they possessed about themselves the security in their status to build another woman up ingenuously when she could not threaten their fragile hierarchy. The men, simpler creatures, stared from afar, or complimented her, or, if particularly daring, touched her bottom as she passed. (Today only one did that: Nick, from Management, who knew damn well why the women of the office exempted him from harassment charges. That same hand moved up to his face, to mischievously stroke his broad, rugged jaw as he retreated through a nearby doorway.)

When she arrived at the joint office it was empty and quiet, as was the control room to their interview panel. By all measures things had gone back to normal, at least externally. Jules arrived not too late thereafter, although his habit of scraping through the doors just before the eight-O'clock tick irritated more people than one. Today it was 7:56 when he clocked in, and slightly after eight when, clammy and panting from the labors of the staircase and the halls, he threw himself into the wheeled chair. In his ringless hand he gripped the same mocha concoction as yesterday, bitterer than the way most others liked their coffee. So everything had fallen into place after all, restoring itself to normalcy; Ona worked herself to death and Jules got by on his graceful mediocrity. His shirt was a pale lime-green today, and his tie purple.

"[color=8d97bf]Morning,[/color]" he said, nodding. "[color=8d97bf]Who's first?[/color]" Groggy. Dulled. Sleep deprivation sagged under his eyelids, and the blue-white tint of holoscreens haunted the shine in his eyeballs.