Brad seemed annoyed. Was it because he had already put away the Kahlua?

Annabel had worked all day long. She had had a heart-to-heart with Simon which had made her feel better about things.

Work had been slow and difficult. The incident with Dow Corning had caused a lot of meetings about security, and those meetings had taken up most of her day. In fact, she thought bemusedly, a terrorist could have planted a bomb under her desk during her normal office hours, because she had been in the conferenceroom all day.

She wanted to tell Brad this. She thought he would get a kick out of it, in his own impassive fashion. But something was bothering him. He hadn't even poured her drink, he had just set the Kahlua and Smirnov on the bar with a glass and had walked off to mop.

Brad was acting strange.

Annabel wondered if she should ask him what was bothering him. But that would have been ridiculous: like if a waiter came up to your table and you asked him if he needed anything.

She poured herself another, feeling helpless about the proportions. It was all wrong, but she drank it and stared up at the TV. It had the sound turned down. It looked like an old movie, or the news. There were flames pouring out of a building and billowing black clouds.

  the Bartender serves up Melancholy Hour the Bartender serves Happy Hour putting it to bed the News, evening edition the News: morning edition the Secretary and the Administrator discuss a private matter pertaining to a possible problem the Secretary has a doctors appointment the Secretary does research on the Internet the Administrator stays at work late the Administrator goes to work about dawn the Administrator lies awake all night the Janitor gets drunk at night the Janitor goes to work in the afternoon the Janitor gets up in the morning Werd falls asleep at night Werd gets drunk in the evening Werd goes to work in the morning