“Yep. Not that big a deal.”
“For real?” The troll, whose human-illusion mask gave her bright blue eyes and dark auburn hair, clicked her tongue. “That sucks. We threaten to lock assholes up here all the time. Sometimes we even ship ‘em here directly.”
Yurik nodded and gazed at the top of the security towers on either side of the front doors. “Yeah, doesn’t pack the same punch when you know the place you’re threatening to send ‘em isn’t that big a deal.”
“Sorry to burst your bubbles.” Cheyenne snorted. “Would you rather have me tell you it’s the most dangerous place I’ve ever been, and I hope we don’t die on the extremely high chance that we get caught and we can’t fight our way out of it?”
The agents glanced at each other, and each cracked a small smile.
“I mean, it kinda helps with morale, right?” Yurik wiggled his eyebrows.
Shaking her head, Cheyenne tried to hide a crooked smile as she stared at the front doors. “You guys are nuts.”
“Come on, Goth drow.” Bhandi elbowed her in the ribs. “You already knew that.”
Rhynehart glanced at them over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. “Do I need to find you a private room so you can hear each other better? No? Then shut up and pay attention.”
Cheyenne frowned at the back of the agent’s head. That better be his version of hardass superior bringing in new prison recruits. Could be real, though.
Bhandi stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”
“Hey, Stevens.” Rhynehart nodded at the guard in uniform, standing inside the security tower. Stevens nodded back and offered the gesture to the group of magicals in disguise. When he looked at Cheyenne, though, he frowned.
Cheyenne raised her fist and pumped devil horns his way before heading after Rhynehart, Corian, and L’zar. Gotta act like the angry Goth halfling who got in way over her head and has to pander to Sir and his fuckups. Easy enough.
When they entered the prison’s front lobby, Rhynehart nodded at the guard standing at the counter on the left behind the pane of reinforced glass. “Crowley.”
“Rhynehart.” Crowley leaned forward as far as he could without pressing his face against the glass and took stock of Cheyenne and the five new agents on prison duty. “Something going on that I don’t know about?”
Rhynehart forced a chuckle and headed for the metal detectors at the other end of the lobby. “Probably.”
“Hey, I’m serious. What’s goin’ on?”
“Me doing my job,” Rhynehart muttered. “What does it look like?”
“It looks like you walking in with a bigger team than usual. Mostly it’s just you. And her.” Crowley nodded at Cheyenne without any friendliness. “And I’m just doing my job.”
“Big batch of new recruits, Crowley.” Rhynehart turned around and spread his arms as he walked backward to the metal detectors. “I’d rather toss ‘em in and indoctrinate them all at once instead of one at time. ‘Cause, you know, my job has a bit more wiggle room than whatever you’ve got behind that counter.”
Cheyenne shoved her hands into her coat pockets and raised an eyebrow at Crowley before following Rhynehart to the security checkpoint beyond the lobby. Careful, Rhynehart. Not like anyone would suspect something if you’re too much of an asshole. Don’t snare us in stuff we didn’t plan.
Their party stopped in front of the metal detectors, and Rhynehart nodded at the guards behind the tables and scanning belt. “Hell of a day, huh?”
“It’s hell every day.” The guard shrugged at Rhynehart and gestured for the agent to step through the metal detector. Then the radio strapped to his shoulder buzzed with static.
“Hold on a minute, Mack. Don’t let ‘em through just yet.”
Rhynehart stared at the radio.
Mack shrugged. “Guess you don’t need me to relay that message.”
“Jesus, what now?” Rolling his eyes, Rhynehart spun and headed to the door in the wall beside the glass-protected window just as Crowley stepped out into the lobby for a private chat.
The rest of the disguised magicals stayed where they were in front of the metal detectors. L’zar clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth from his heels to his toes. Mack frowned at him. “You look right at home for a rookie on his first day.”
The human-passing drow thief raised his blond eyebrows at the guard and smiled. “I’m happy to be here. “
Cheyenne forced herself not to roll her eyes and focused instead on Rhynehart’s conversation with the guard no longer behind the window.
“We don’t have anything in the system for new recruits today, man,” Crowley said. “What’s going on?”
“Exactly what I said.” Rhynehart spread his arms. “New recruits. And L’zar’s halfling kid. You remember her, right?”
When Crowley glanced over Rhynehart’s shoulder at the halfling, Cheyenne wiggled her eyebrows at him. “Tell me you’re not bringing her on to station her somewhere, man.”
“No way. Are you kidding? She’s here to help us look into where L’zar might be. You know, unique perspective and all that.”
“I don’t think hating L’zar’s guts is a unique perspective, man,” Cheyenne called from the other side of the lobby for everyone to hear her. “Trust me, I wanna see that asshole behind bars again as much as you do.”
Rhynehart blinked at her, turned back to Crowley, and gestured at the halfling. “There you have it.”
Corian lifted a fist to his mouth and forced out a cough.
Crowley shrugged. “Yeah, I know she comes in here without warning, but I don’t get why you have five new recruits rollin’ in here with you, and not a single thing pulls up in the system.”
“Jesus Christ, man.” Rhynehart pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with the system. Not my problem, and it sure as shit isn’t my job to have to explain it to you.”
“But it’s not—”
“You know what? Fine. If you think this is seriously such a big deal, go ahead and call Sir. You can tell him all about how worried you are. That’ll be
