Cole felt his eyelids twitch, but he stubbornly kept them shut, he was not ready to wake up. Cole groaned, he couldn't lay there forever, he needed to check on Alyx. The thought felt natural and he did not question it, slowly opening his eyes.
He was looking up at a plain ceiling, and when he turned his head, he took in a room with a sterile appearance. Everything was exceptionally clean and well organized; it was unfamiliar.
Cole sat up, stretching his arms. He expected his body to scream in protest as he remembered his escape from Harbor, but surprisingly his body felt fine. Cole looked at his right arm. He had remembered a vicious gash running along his forearm. The arm looked in perfect condition. Was this a dream?
"Mr. Spearsgate, welcome back." A calm voice sounded through an open doorway, and a young man clothed purple entered the room. The young man reached up, covering his left eye to better observe Cole with his right.
The eye twisted and scanned Cole mechanically. "You should be fine. Actually you are probably in a better condition than ever." The man laughed and uncovered his eye.
"Where's Alyx?" Cole wasn't sure why he could only care about the woman who had led him to hell, multiple times, but the question felt right.
"The woman who came in with you? She is fine, she just needs a little rest, so I sent her home. Her implant will help her recover in a day or two. Unfortunately, I can't do the same for you. Your condition is perfect so I have to clear you for work. Today."
Cole was so relieved, he didn't care that he had to go back to work, and instead asked about the time, to get a better sense of how long he had spent in Harbor.
"You were brought here about twenty minutes ago, and the work day should be starting in just a few minutes." After confirming that he had not missed any work, Cole realized that they had only spent a single night in Harbor. They had arrived in the afternoon, and escaped the next morning, yet the time distortion had made it feel like much longer.
"I can't say I have ever seen someone who came in here needing the coffin." The man gestured towards a long box that was taller than Cole. From the man's words, Cole assumed that the box was filled with the medical technology that had healed him.
"Don't tell me about your work, by the way. I don't want to get in trouble with the company." The man spoke quickly before Cole could explain why he had been so injured.
"I am just a baseline worker…" Cole muttered, but neither he nor the man believed him. "Alright. Have a good rest of your day. Hopefully we won't see each other again, Mr. Baseline worker."
There was no animosity in the man's words, and Cole understood that the only reason that he would see the man again would be because he was injured. Once out of the medical bay, Cole only had to take a few steps, before he came to the familiar elevators of the company.
Once in the elevator, Cole was not sure where he should go. In the end he decided to head to Resource Management. Alyx was not at work, meaning he did not have any new directions. He knew he would have to file a report about Harbor, but he was not in the mood.
'Might as well talk to Sinje.' Cole thought to himself. The affair seemed so unimportant, but it was the only thing that he could think of doing. He wanted to talk to Alyx, before he had a conversation with Jam.
Cole stared blankly at the ceiling of the elevator, focusing his thoughts away from Harbor. He knew that Sinje was having an affair with Mr. Jenkins, and it was possible that she had gone into his office at the same time as Mr. Jenkins, on the day of the murder. 'What do I even ask her?' Even though his body had been cleared because it was in perfect condition, his mind had not been fully rejuvenated.
Cole shrugged his shoulders as the elevator opened, he was just going to wing it. It was unlike Cole to go into something without a plan, but after spending so much time around Alyx, maybe he was changing.
"Cole, I need to speak with you." Cole blinked as Jam Hardy stepped in front of the elevator. It was as if the man had been waiting for him.
"Sure." Cole said nonchalantly. There was not much he could do to avoid the situation. Jam turned on his heel, leading Cole towards his office. Cole looked at Jam, even from just his back, Cole could tell that Jam was tense.
The usually friendly man had spoken with firm intent, and his shoulders were set; the opposite of the relaxed demeanor that Cole had experienced.
Jam held open his office door for Cole, letting it slam once Cole had entered. Jam was a large man, and Cole might have felt wary to be locked in the room with him, but the tattoo on his forearm was oddly reassuring. Cole had just bested a small army of Harbor members, and he was not afraid of one more.
"What's going on Jam?" Cole casually flopped onto a chair in front of Jam's desk. As if noticing that his close proximity was doing nothing to intimidate Cole, Jam walked behind his desk before speaking.
"You know why you are here. Don't mess with Harbor, ever again." Jam slammed a heavy hand against his desk.
Cole did not respond, staring blankly at Jam. Normally he would not feel so relaxed, but his mind had not recovered enough to worry about someone yelling at him.
"Come on. I know that people wearing the company uniform infiltrated Harbor. And it could only have been you and Alyx. You are poking your head where it doesn't belong, back off."
Cole looked down at his uniform. Apparently the coffin had repaired it, because it was in perfect condition with no stains. Cole lifted a pinky, and a small smile crossed his face, miraculously the ring Alyx had created was still firmly on his finger, looking as good as ever. "Why do you think it was Alyx and me?" Cole finally spoke.
Jam glowered. "You weren't here yesterday, and if the company had sent someone to Harbor they wouldn't send them in uniform. Besides the report I got described both of your builds perfectly. The company denied that any of its employees were at Harbor, and your records were erased, but I know it was you two."
Jam spoke with a ferocity and passion that Cole had never seen before. "If you are so sure it was us. Then why are you confronting me, rather than reporting it to your superiors."
"I don't want to deal with the extra responsibilities. I like where I am in Harbor, and don't want to be moved up the food chain. But I will do anything to protect Harbor, so stay the fuck away from it."
Cole pursed his lips, wondering if he should point out the contradiction in Jam's words. "You got it boss."
Jam snorted angrily. "I am just an organizer at the company, and a common member at Harbor. I shouldn't have to deal with this." Cole suddenly saw Jam as one of the figures in the hall, his eyes controlled by lines of code. Cole pondered if he should warn Jam about the possibility of losing his body to Harbor, but decided against it. The man seemed angry enough to attack him, without the aid of any program.
"So it's safe to say that you didn't want that promotion that Mr. Jenkins had in mind for you?" Cole brought up the form he had found in Mr. Jenkins' office. It had been completely filled out by Mr. Jenkins, and only needed Jam's signature to get him a promotion.
"I don't know what promotion you are talking about, but I would not want one." Cole could tell that Jam was lying. The man who had been so fiery, had suddenly seemed subdued when he answered. Jam definitely knew about the promotion. Cole wasn't sure that it meant that Jam was the killer, but he now knew that the members of Harbor were not above such violence.
Since Jam wasn't saying anything else Cole stood up. "Welp, I'll get out your hair. Have a nice day."
Jam had lost passion that he had initially used to confront Cole, and he was slumped in his chair. "Just stay away from Harbor, okay? That is all I have."
His words were the cry of a desperate man, and Cole looked at Jam with pity as he walked out of the room. Someone who he had thought was so charismatic and put together, had such a glaring weakness.
As the door to Jam's office closed behind him, Cole set his shoulders and marched towards Sinje's door. He was feeling good, and he wanted to get all of his confrontations out of the way, in one day.