Joey heard the shuffling under Smith's desk again, and he looked away from the empty desk next door.
"Well," said Anton too loudly. "Don't forget about the planning meeting tomorrow morning. I need design doc updates for all systems. Come on. You can do it!" He made a ridiculous hand gesture as he walked out. Something like fingers as pistols shooting everybody.
Nobody relaxed with his exit. Everyone just hunched their shoulders and hunkered down over their workstations.
The yellow piece of paper dropped over the wall. Joey unfolded it. "I don't think beer will help the twitch you've developed in your leg."
Joey turned to his computer. This conversation wasn't subversive enough anymore to keep away from the snoops monitoring the IM logs.
Joey: Twitch? I'm not the one who keeps pulling USB plugs out of the CPU down there.
Smith: I'm not the one who thinks CPUs make good foot rests.
Joey: There wouldn't be a problem if you didn't keep throwing all your crap down there.
Smith: Really? You're going to take this out on me?
Joey: Sorry. But seriously, I'm not twitching my feet. You're the one who keeps kicking over my stuff.
Smith: I don't even put my feet under there anymore. It scares me.
Joey: Hah.
There was a pause. Joey leaned to one side. He hadn't looked under his desk for a long time. It did tend to collect all the flotsam and jetsam accumulated over a year and a half of practically living in the office.
It seemed unnaturally dark under there. Wires and cables tangled together. Far more than seemed right. He supposed Smith's wires were mixed up with his, but still. He didn't remember plugging in a cherry red cable two fingers thick. Joey pushed his chair back to get a better view.
The red cable, a blue one. Where were these coming from? They snaked around in a horrible mess, half hidden by discarded papers and chip bags. The floor had a crummy ooze covering it. Joey wondered if the cleaning people had been laid off along with Leon and Uri.
Something moved.
Joey jumped back. He was too tense for this. In his headphones, he heard the ring from his computer saying he had another IM message. Joey looked up.
Smith: I'm serious. It's like a black hole under there. It scares me. Stop moving stuff around.
Joey: I didn't touch anything.
Smith: ... neither did I.
Joey heard something shift again right by his feet. He scooted back.
Smith's head appeared over the partition. Joey shook his head and looked under the desk. He saw the big red cable fall a couple inches. Both he and Smith jumped.
