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you?”
    “Fifty.”
    “Okay.” Her brain started whirring, juggling options like Tetris blocks, trying to get a handle on a system for the work. Her uncle used to make fun of her when she got into this mode—but then, the only system he’d ever practiced was one he’d used to bet on horses. “There are like a million pages here. Are they at least in some kind of order?”
    He shrugged. “Not that we know of.”
    “And where are the ones that are already processed?” she asked, looking around. The whole place was one big, hot mess of paperwork.
    He shrugged again.
    “Jeez Louise,” she muttered. “This sounds like Maggie all over. You guys are going to be at this forever at this rate. Probably reviewing some of the same documents more than once.”
    He sighed, a little, gentle smile on his face. “The work itself is not so bad, really.”
    “Stuck in this sunless hole?” she said. “It’s like an icebox in here!”
    “Trust me. We prefer it that way.”
    “So, I guess I should check in with this Overseer guy,” she said. “He’s your boss, right?”
    That smacked the smile right off Slim’s face. “It… might be better if you don’t see him,” Slim said slowly. “He does not particularly like your kind.”
    “What? Temps?” She frowned. What an asshole . “You guys are contract workers, aren’t you?”
    Slim nodded. “But he has quite a bit more authority over us,” he said. “And he is like us… He comes from where we are from. The Overseer wants us to find the documents, and we are behind schedule. He can be rather demanding.”
    “Lotta that going around,” she said, grimacing. “What, does he yell at you?”
    “Among other things,” Slim muttered darkly. “We work until we drop.”
    Kate’s frown intensified. “How about I take you to lunch,” she suggested, “and you can fill me in on how everything works down here.”
    “Lunch?” Slim’s eyes widened. “We’re not allowed meal breaks.”
    She stared at him for a long moment, not comprehending. “Are you telling me they’re not letting you eat ?”
    “It is not so bad, really,” he repeated, glancing nervously over his shoulder.
    “Are you kidding me?” Appalled did not even begin to cover it. She dug into her purse. “When was the last time you ate? Or drank?”
    He looked nonplussed. “Truly. It’s not—”
    “Here.” She pulled out a package. “Sorry. Sometimes I need a sugar rush, and it’s all I have…”
    He stared at it for a long moment. Then he looked over his shoulder and tore the package open with shaking hands. He stuffed one cake into his mouth. Then his eyes widened dramatically, and he looked at her in surprise.
    “What? You’ve never had a Ho Ho before?”
    He shook his head. Then, like a five year old, he smiled broadly.
    “I can’t believe your supervisor is letting this happen,” she said, huffing. “Or that the higher-ups are okay with it. Can you imagine what a union would say? I should just—”
    “No!” Slim’s look of panic and alarm cut through her self-righteous anger. “Please. Tell no one what’s going on down here.”
    “Sure, okay,” Kate reassured him. It’s not my business , she reminded herself. How many years was it going to be before she learned to keep her nose out of other people’s problems? “Um… Why don’t you show me what it is you’re looking for, and I’ll see if I can help.”
    He nodded, then took a bite of the other Ho Ho blissfully. When he was done, he rummaged around for a blank piece of paper and a pen, then drew a funny symbol.
    “That,” he said, when he’d swallowed. “That’s what we’re looking for.”
    “All right,” Kate said. “I’ll find one.”
    He smiled again, this time more indulgently. “Even if you can read the writing, this symbol is difficult to find.”
    She buckled down to it, flipping through the first contracts. The fact that the words all looked similar was a big part of the problem. The really weird