Chip still had a pair of earbuds clenched in his fist as he stepped off the elevator. He’d stuck around the Tower after his first shift, but he’d tried to find some solitude in an empty viewing room with music and a video game on his laptop. On a day when he was looking to focus on anything trivial, he realized several familiar songs sounded different. It took him a few more songs to realize it was all for something lacking in the left earbud. He tried a different set, and the same thing happened. He’d been warned about this. He’d always listened to music and games and TV too loud. Combined with the injury from a couple years ago, he was losing more hearing capacity.

He was tempted to ignore it, but then he became aggravated when he was unable to hear a bass drop evenly in both ears. So he packed up his things and headed for Three’s floor. He had a request he should’ve asked after two years before. “C-Cad, you busy?”