Alex all but collapsed into his chair, and at first he only sat there, his eyes closed and head resting against the high, padded back of the chair, taking deep breaths. The meeting had been exhausting, and he didn't want to move at all if he could help it.

After several minutes of this, he opened his eyes again, reached for the telephone, and dialed.

Ring. Ring. Ri-- "Alexander Harrigan's office. This is his assistant; how may I help you?"

"Marina, I'm going home for the day. Take messages, and if anything's really important, send me an email, but I probably won't be getting back to any of them until tomorrow."

"Sure, Alex."

"Thanks." Click. He paused for a moment with eyes closed again, and then dialed another number.

Ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sare. Want a ride home from school today?"

"Skipping out early? Yeah, last class just got out."

"Long meeting. I'm too exhausted after that to get anything done. I'll be there in... 15 minutes, okay? Same place."

"Okay." A long pause. "Thanks, Alex."

"No problem. I'm on my way out the door."

The conversation with his sister ended, and he got up, checking briefly to ensure that his office was in order -- everything he needed in his briefcase, nothing confidential lying out in the open -- before walking out of his office.

Luckily for Alex, no one interfered with his flight from the office; more often than not, someone tried to get his attention when he was on his way out, but today, most people were actually working in the mid-afternoon. He moved down the hallways with no interruptions, took an otherwise empty elevator down to the ground floor, and walked out of the building into the overcast afternoon.

A one-way street lay between the office building and the parking garage; he tossed a glance down it before stepping off the sidewalk, but never heard the motor coming from the wrong direction. Something hit his legs, the world tilted, and then his head struck the sidewalk and everything went black.