past him. “That’ll be a fun talk.”

“Fat fucking chance,” he grumbled and stormed across the lobby.

Cheyenne followed the fairly simple directions to Colonel Thomas’ office. The halls were empty of FRoE agents, as were the elevators. Almost the entire third floor was dark, except for one office on the left at the very end.

Still might be a chance this is a setup. If it is, I’m pretty sure I can handle a few FRoE officers trying to take me down all together. If it comes to that. And Sir gets to skip out on the whole thing. Don’t wanna spike his blood pressure.

Her black Vans moved silently across the carpeted hallway of the mostly dark, mostly empty third floor. The door to Colonel Les Thomas’ office was wide open, spilling warm yellow light on the opposite wall. Cheyenne stuck the activator behind her ear and slipped into drow mode before she reached the office. Just so this asshole knows exactly who he’s dealing with when I step inside.

She turned the corner into the office and found herself in a room very much like Bianca’s personal study. Clearing her throat, she knocked firmly on the open door but didn’t expect much in response.

Colonel Thomas sat behind the massive oak desk at the far end of the office, his arms folded and one ankle crossed over the opposite knee. “Cheyenne Summerlin, I presume?”

“Colonel.” She stuck her hands into the pockets of her trenchcoat and strolled casually into the room. “A little birdie told me you wanted to have a chat. Face to face.”

The colonel snorted. “More like a screaming, cursing birdie, but I get the point. Please, take a seat.” He gestured at the two leather captain’s chairs in front of his desk.

Cheyenne shook her head. “I’ll stand, thanks. This won’t be a long conversation.”

“Really?” Colonel Thomas opened the center drawer of his desk and pulled out a tobacco pipe and a book of matches. “Why’s that?”

“Because you want me to tell you about the other break-in at Chateau D’rahl, and I can’t help you.”

The man tamped a pinch of tobacco into his pipe, then struck a match and puffed as the dried leaf strips caught. He shook out the match and set it gently on his desk. “Can’t or won’t?”

“Not much of a difference when they have the same result.”

Les Thomas chuckled and puffed on his pipe again. “How’s L’zar?”

He’s testing me, but I’ve been perfecting my poker face since I was eight. “You’d get a more accurate answer if you asked him yourself.”

“So, you don’t know where he is?”

“Right now? No. Your fellow officer asked about him the last time I was called in for a meeting.”

“Sounds like you have an issue with answering the same question more than once.”

“It’s a waste of everyone’s time because the answers haven’t changed.” Cheyenne raised an eyebrow and scanned the code the activator brought up in her vision. Every time she glanced at the colonel’s computer sitting off to the side of his desk, a new prompt revealed itself to dig deeper. Helps that this thing jumped right onto FRoE wi-fi. I don’t even have to see the screen.

“Well then, let’s move away from L’zar Verdys, shall we?” Thomas’ executive desk chair creaked when he leaned back in it. “I wanted to talk to you about the break-in this afternoon anyway.”

“So I heard.” With a mere thought, Cheyenne moved the visual her activator fed her to center over the top of the colonel’s head instead of on his screen. And there’s that encrypted file. Time to dig in. “I’m surprised this is a one-on-one meeting, Colonel. How come you’re the only one who wants to talk to me about this other little mishap?”

“Ah.” The man blew a thin trail of smoke from between thin lips. “We’re more concerned about the security at Chateau D’rahl than the prisoner who slipped past it this time around. He has no magic, as I understand it.”

“Hmm.” Cheyenne cocked her head. “Then it must be pretty awful security.” The activator flashed quickly in her vision, sending scrolling code across the top half of Colonel Thomas’ forehead before the message she’d been waiting for flared in bright yellow letters:

Full system scan complete. File Folder Friends of the Bull download successful.

Gotcha, Colonel.

“That’s the thing, though, Ms. Summerlin.” He rocked back and forth in his swiveling leather chair. “In 2000, after L’zar Verdys escaped the confines of his cell at Chateau D’rahl and surprised us all by returning to custody three days later, I personally headed the team that designed and integrated the prison-wide security upgrades, so as you can imagine, I’m intimately familiar with the way that prison operates when it comes to assessing potential threats. There’s nothing wrong with the security.”

Cheyenne gave him a pert smile and flicked her fingers at her side to wipe away the activator’s scrolling code from her vision. “Except for the second prisoner escape in the last two weeks.”

“This wasn’t a solo attempt, Ms. Summerlin. While L’zar apparently finds it amusing to test our patience with his antics, it’s impossible for an inmate to break out of Chateau D’rahl on their own. Especially an inmate who was brought into custody without magic or the ability to use it. Unless they had help.”

“Huh. Maybe L’zar helped him.”

Colonel Thomas tilted his head toward the tip of his pipe held loosely in his hand. He puffed three times and smacked his lips. “Where were you this afternoon when the prisoner escaped?”

Yep. He’s fishing. Persh’al wiped all the security cameras. Cheyenne gazed around the room and assumed her best nonchalant expression. “I’m not sure, Colonel. When exactly did he escape?”

“The system alarm activated at 1:13 p.m.”

“Okay. I was at my apartment in Richmond. I got home from teaching a VCU undergrad class at about twelve-thirty. Feel free to look me up there if you haven’t already. I didn’t leave my apartment again until I headed here for this stimulating exchange of useless information.”

“Is that so?” Thin plumes of

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