Free Cold Courage by Pekka Hiltunen

He’ll be there soon.’
    Lia stared in disbelief at the computer screen, which displayed three camera views of an office building lobby. The receptionist, a woman with dark hair, sat at a semi-circular desk.
    Seconds passed. Lia swallowed as she watched the surveillance camera images.
    ‘We’ll see whether he makes it on time,’ Mari said. ‘Oh, there he is.’
    As a man wearing a sedate dark suit entered the lobby, Lia recognised him immediately. Only donning it as he departed for important meetings, Matt Thomas never wore a jacket at their office.
    Thomas approached the desk and spoke to the receptionist. No sound came from the computer, and Lia looked at Mari in alarm.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ Mari said. ‘We’ll hear him when he gets up to the Elevate office.’
    The receptionist handed Thomas a guest badge. He considered whether to clip the badge to his suit, but then decided simply to hold it. He nodded to the woman and walked towards the lift.
    ‘Does that woman really work there?’ Lia asked.
    ‘Of course she does. But the two who are about to interview Thomas work for me.’
    Matt Thomas entered the lift.
    ‘Mari, can you still stop this? This is crazy.’
    ‘Now don’t fret,’ Mari said. ‘Let’s see what happens now.’
    Mari clicked and a different camera image filled the screen, showing another conference room with table and chairs, bigger than the one in which Lia and Mari sat.
    A moment later, Matt Thomas entered the room, followed by two other people. Their voices sounded tinny coming from the small loudspeaker sitting on the table in front of Lia and Mari.
    Lia scarcely dared breathe.
    ‘They can’t see or hear us,’ Mari said.
     
    ‘Please, take a seat,’ the woman in the conference room said to Thomas.
    Thomas smiled and sat in the chair reserved for him at the head of the table, where there were also a notepad and pen. The interviewers set up at the opposite end of the table, spread out laptops, binders and papers.
    The older of the interviewers, a blonde woman of about fifty, led the meeting. Her assistant, a man of some thirty years whose features indicated Indian ancestry, spoke in an accent indicative of time spent at an elite university.
    ‘This meeting will be videotaped,’ the woman said, pointing up towards the camera that provided Lia and Mari with their view of the scene.
    ‘The recordings will be carefully stored for six months, after which they will be destroyed. No one beyond Elevate employees will be able to see them. And of course all of us are bound by non- disclosure agreements.’
    Matt Thomas nodded.
    He was clearly nervous, Lia thought and found herself able to breathe somewhat easier.
    ‘So, for the record, my name is Carol Penn and this is Robert Cansai, interviewing Mr Matt Thomas, editor-in-chief of
Level
magazine. This is a first-round interview, and the date is the 25th of August. Mr Thomas, could you please tell us why you initially chose to work at
Level?
’
    The question came quickly, but Matt Thomas was ready.
    ‘It was a mixture of ninety per cent reason and ten per cent emotion. Producing a magazine requires strong financial management,creating principles to guide content decisions and process control, but an editor-in-chief also has to be able to create a unique spirit. In addition to the quality of the magazine,
Level
has a tradition of independence, and that unique voice appealed to me,’ Thomas said.
    ‘Ha!’ Mari said to Lia as they watched the screen. ‘Memorised and grandiose.’
    The interviewers took turns asking questions, first about work experience and education. Thomas told of the public school and university he had attended and his working years before
Level
.
    Mari continued eating as she watched the interview, but Lia couldn’t touch her food, even though everything seemed to be going fine onscreen.
    Ten minutes later, the mood in the interview room was relaxed.
    It was Carol Penn’s turn to ask a question.
    ‘Mr Thomas, do you