South Central Bellevue has never been in more need of spots to get good food. There’s no end in sight to the suburban sprawl down west Capehart, and the Waterpark is practically peaking over the southern horizon. The hungry hordes grow by the day! And today’s crowds aren’t just satisfied with the old standbys. Of course, the new McDonald’s is plenty busy, and Lil’ Burro and Filipino Fusion are tried and tested, but what if you’re looking for something new and different? Enter Gyro Kings.

Jenna blew out stunted breaths before she even opened her eyes. The stress of the week had been too much to bear, and she had given in to her friends’ demands to go out and drink herself to oblivion. Mission accomplished it would seem. Her head throbbed from every possible angle, and her mouth was bone dry from sleeping with it rather agape. Ironic, since she seemed to have formed a large pool of drool on her left shoulder. How had she even gotten home? She vaguely remembered protesting her friend Kara getting another round of shots. Had she then cheered later for the next round?

Thursday afternoon bled into evening. Jenna had struggled to focus ever since her argument with Felicity. Mr. Ternal’s files were still on her computer. She moved on to another project to try to clear her head and make some semblance of progress, but the twisting knot in her stomach refused to relent. Felicity did at least apologize before she left, as had Jenna. But now she sat by herself in a slowly darkening office with absolutely no sense of closure. She let out a long sigh and decided to take Felicity’s parting advice to just leave it till tomorrow.

As Mr. Ternal settled back in the chair and finally seemed to relax, Jenna initiated the recording program. She noticed right away how much feedback Mr. Ternal’s sensors were providing. Her training told her that this meant he was either very alert, very nervous, extremely intelligent, or some combination of the three.

“Yeah, that tracks,” Jenna muttered to herself.

“I’m sorry?” Mr. Ternal responded.

“Ope! Sorry,” Jenna quickly replied. “Just adjusting some settings.”