Jane had never been to Level 10--she'd never had occasion to. Fortunately she had already been on Level 9, so it wasn't a very long trip to make her way down the stairs to this lowest of the levels of the Ministry. The corridor was cramped and poorly lit, so she made her way slowly down it, wondering what in the world Conley Singh-Phora wanted with her.

It couldn't be normal Ministry business, or he would have requested she meet him up in his own office in International Cooperation. In fact, she hadn't seen much of him since socializing with him and his partner at the Ministry social event back at the beginning of the year, when she was just about to start her position at the Ministry--my, that seemed a long time ago. Preoccupied with these thoughts, Jane didn't notice the person she was thinking about lingering up ahead of her.