The warehouse where the Commandos had hidden belonged to Recorp Holdings. They were still waiting for more information on the company, what else they owned, and who’d funded it. But most likely, the Commandos had just broken into it at random.
Aside from that, nothing. No place nearby that reminded him of the lab, no suspicious activity reported in the area, nothing found at the place after Pain got shot.
Dave leaned back in his chair, massaging his temples. It was almost eleven PM, and maybe he should just get some sleep or sit with Chad in the infirmary to rest his eyes. Rooney was working his keyboard something fierce in the room adjacent to Dave’s. The door was cracked open, so Dave heard it when Rooney’s phone buzzed on the desk.
“How’d it go?”
Dave’s ears picked up on the conversation right away.
“Which one, the basement? Yeah, I see you… and her phone?” Rooney hummed, apparently satisfied with the response. “Don’t bother. I need to stretch my legs anyway. Meet you at the office.”
Dave frowned and turned back to the screen. The exit door banged shut, and he breathed out, his thoughts swirling. If Rooney was going to the office, that meant the call had been from Peter. But “her phone”? Had they been talking about Victoria? And the basement—there was nothing in the basement—
Dave nearly jumped out of the chair when the realization hit him. The cells were in the basement. They hadn’t been talking about the basement that Dave had been to, the one leading to the tunnels. This basement was on the other side of the ground floor. One of the secret rooms, more precisely. Dave didn’t even know how to get in.
And if they had meant the cells, then…
Dave got to his feet. He had to know, now, while there were still traces of what Peter had been up to. Because if what Dave was thinking was true, if they had gotten Victoria, then Peter and Rooney had known for some time and hadn’t told him. And that was suspicious as hell.
He glanced at Rooney’s laptop as he walked out—it was locked. Pushing the door open, he took a deep breath and schooled his features, before heading straight to the staircase. They were just one level below Peter’s office.
Rooney walked out of the waiting room just as Dave rounded the corner. “You found anything?” the hacker asked him, a friendly smile on his face.
Dave’s eyes flicked to the black case he was carrying. “No, but I’m fried. Gotta get some sleep.”
“You do that,” Rooney said with a nod. “The work’s not going anywhere.”
Dave put on a half-hearted smile and kept walking, until Rooney disappeared in the elevator. He turned on his heel then and retraced his steps to the waiting room.
Skull and Luke were inside, and they fell silent when Dave walked in. “Hi,” he said, trying to keep his face nonchalant. “Is Peter busy?”
Skull gave him a long look before cracking open the office door. “Dave here to see you.”
“Sure,” Peter said.
Dave squeezed in past Skull, finding Peter tidying up his desk. He wasn’t in his usual shirt and pants but in a black turtleneck and gear bottoms instead.
“Hi,” Dave said, noting the wide-open door to Peter’s room.
“Hi there,” Peter replied with a smile. “You done for the day? Anything new?”
“No, nothing new. I’m about to turn in, so I thought I’d swing by, in case you got anything on Victoria.”
Peter shook his head, lips pursed. “No, not yet. But we’re working on it. You’re with Rooney all day, aren’t you?”
Dave nodded, taking a few steps closer, until he stood just across from Peter’s living room.
“How are you doing, Dave?” Peter asked, pausing his cleaning. “I know I haven’t been around much, with everything that’s been going on. Haven’t even had a chance to ask how it went with Albert. But you seem to be doing all right, huh?”
“Yeah. He’s… something else. And he did help. Being busy helps, too.” Dave pushed the topic from his head, remembering to forget all about the days before their long weekend, about Elena and his trashed penthouse and the Commandos’ lab. “Have you checked up on Pain today?” he asked, pretending to rub his neck as he cast his eyes at the couch in Peter’s room.
“Not yet. Was going to in a minute. Why, is there any change?”
Dave shrugged. “Dunno, just asking.” He backed away from the table. “Okay, I really should get some sleep. Good night.”
“Good night,” Peter said with another one of his good-natured smiles.
Only this time, instead of comfort, his smile brought anger.
Because there in the living room, strewn carelessly on the couch, were Peter’s body armor and twin swords.
* * *
Peter was in the infirmary with Pain when he got a call from the basement, informing him that Victoria had come around.
His first impulse was to run to the cells, but he thought better of it. The longer Victoria waited, unsure of what they would do to her, the more worked up she’d be, the bigger the chances that she’d slip—and spill something useful.
So instead of going down, he went up to his room, took a shower, made some coffee, and read Rooney’s latest report. There was a possible lead, the company that owned the warehouse where Pain got shot, but Rooney needed more information so he could cross-reference it with everything they had.
An hour after the call, Peter pulled up the surveillance feed from the cells on his laptop—Victoria was pacing her cell. Good, he thought, closing the laptop and standing. At least she was nervous.
He paused as he walked by a mirror, wondering if his plain white shirt and jeans were a bad
