Dangerous Game

Langdon

Between Gallant and Evie arguing and Coco being Coco, Lucy was glad for a quiet moment. Perhaps finding something new to read would help. Maybe a book on how to play piano, since there was one and it couldn't hurt to hear something other than that dreadful song.

As she walked into the room, Lucy froze. There was already someone in the room, thumbing through files at a desk.
"I was under the impression that I could call on the next person to be interviewed," he said with a smirk.
"I'm sorry, I was looking for something to read, I didn't realise you would be here," she said quickly. "I can leave." She turned and started walking back out.

"No."

She turned back to look at him, at the small smirk on his face.
"No?"
"No, pick your book," he said. Lucy's eyes widened and she rushed over to the nearest shelf.
"Thank you," she said, smiling a little. Truthfully, she was glad she'd have something to ignore the others with after all. "Sorry for interrupting you."
"No need. I do have questions now you're here," he said. He rested his chin on his hand. Something about his gaze made her feel like a piece of meat, like he was deciding whether or not she was good enough to pick for slaughter.
"Is this part of the interview?"
"No," he said. "But I will take into account your answer." Her fingers trailed along the spines of the books and she swallowed.
"I understand."

"How did you get here?"
"The room or... here in general?"
"Here in general." Lucy nodded, feeling a bit foolish but it was a bit of a vague question.
"My father, he helped design these places. Mostly this one, I think, I'm not sure he was never allowed to say much about it," she said honestly. No point in lying to the man, there was nothing she'd lie about anyway, and anything else she could have said would have sounded far more stupid. "We got tickets because of that, I think. But my parents were stuck somewhere in London, and they couldn't make it to the airport in time. I gave one of the tickets to Jaz, that's why she's here so... that's it really."

He hummed and then stood up. Lucy turned back to the books, reading the spines. These were mostly in Latin and she didn't have the brain power to try to deal with those.
"I assumed correctly that you were not brought here for perfect genetics," he said with an amused chuckle.
"No, I'm definitely not here because of that." He stood right beside her now, staring into her eyes, a warm orange in the light of the burning candles. "Do you have other questions, Mr Langdon?"
"I'll save those for the interview."

Lucy pulled a book from the shelf. Something on plants and flower species. It wasn't what she usually read but it would do, and seemed like the kind of text that was dense and took a while to read.
"Then I'll take my leave, no doubt you're busy."
"What makes you think I'm busy?"
"You have to decide who's going to the Cooperative, right? I figured that would be some work," she said as she took a small step back, away from him. "Besides, Ms. Venable always has work, and you're higher than her so I figured you'd have work too."

"Hmm, yes, Ms. Venable," he said. "What work is it exactly?"
"Probably trying to stop us from destroying the place out of boredom," said Lucy with a small smile. "Or maybe she's trying to make us bored on purpose, we're not allowed to do much at all."
"Yes, so I've seen." He almost sounded disappointed at that, like he didn't like how Venable ran things. It would only be a good thing if he disliked how strict she was, she'd hate for him to have more rules than she did. Was it even possible to have stricter rules than Venable?

"Can I ask you something?" Lucy asked. He nodded. "Langdon is your last name, isn't it?"
"It is."
"I once knew someone with that name. I met him once I think, he was dating my cousin," she said, smiling at the memory of her cousin. She'd been a bit odd, but it wasn't her fault. "I think his name was Tate, actually. He was her neighbour, he looks a bit like you now I think about it." They had a similar hair colour, and a similar strangeness to them.
"How strange."

"I guess," she said as she looked at the book in hands. "I'll leave you to your work now."
"You assume I'm returning to work?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"What else would you do?"
"Classified."
"Of course it is." She laughed a little at how ridiculous that was and started heading to the door, hopefully she'd actually leave this time. "Nice talking to you Mr. Langdon, now if you'll excuse me. Ms. Venable might think something inappropriate is happening if I'm gone for too long. Besides, she doesn't seem very fond of you as it is."

"What makes you say that?" He followed her towards the door and she wished he wouldn't. There was something unnerving about him.
"She always looks uncomfortable when she's by you, like she doesn't like that you're more important," Lucy said with a shrug. Venable seemed like the type to love being in control, and Langdon's arrival meant she was no longer the highest ranking, she didn't have all of the control. "But I should get going." He turned his back to her and strode towards the desk. Lucy took that as her queue to leave and get away from him too.