“Didn’t I already answer that?”
“Yes, my skin, my smile, whatever. But why did you really pick me?”
He shrugged. “You looked real. Unlike the plastic girls that are in there, you seem like you might actually be a person. And sometimes that’s what we’re all looking for, a little connect—” He frowned. “I…” He shook his head and frowned again. “Sorry. You’re just…” He glanced down at his glass.
I stepped back. “What’s wrong?”
“I fear I may have the same affliction that your friend does. Suddenly, I don’t feel well.”
He opened his mouth to call out, and I brushed my fingers over his lips. “Oh, no, no, no, no. Just lie down. I’ll help you.”
I took his hand as he wove toward the bed. When he leaned his weight onto me, I almost collapsed, but I kicked off my shoes and helped him to the bed. “Oh God. Fuck, is this okay? Are you okay?”
He nodded, blinking rapidly, trying to clear his head. The sedative was powerful. It was only absorbed when it came in contact with human skin, which was why I’d used my nail to peel it off. He started to call out again, and I leaned over him. “No need for that. I can help you. Do you need water? I’ll get you water.”
I started to turn, but he pulled on my hand. “No, no. You stay.”
He slowly blinked, and then he was out.
I held my breath as I checked his pulse. He was breathing and his pulse was good. I snapped my fingers and then checked his pupils. When I was satisfied, I tapped my comm unit. “He’s out.”
Addie was up in a flash. She had taken the pins from her hair and mine, and made a makeshift knife. That was the only weapon we were getting, so if anyone came through that door, she’d have to make it work. It was the only shot we had.
My job was to find the safe.
That proved slightly more difficult.
If I were a safe, where the fuck would I be?
There was one behind a painting in the main room, but when I checked the schematics, it wasn’t the one we were looking for.
Addie checked the curtains. “Any luck?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
And then I took a closer look inside his closet and said, “Hold on.” I moved aside a rack of his dress shirts and hit pay dirt.
I tapped my comm unit and said, “Tyler, I’m here. What do we have?”
“Okay, grab your phone and turn on the app I put on it.”
“Okay, done.”
“All right, keep the app pointed at the safe and let it run the encryption.”
“What’s it doing?”
“Well, it’s checking the pattern of fingerprints, the ones that have been touched most often, and it’s cross-referencing them with things we know about Stellan. It’s going to pull up the access code for you.”
“Are you kidding me? What if it guesses wrong?”
“The encryption device we’re stealing is one we already have. We just don’t want anyone else to have it.”
I laughed. “Of course.”
Within seconds, I had the code and typed it in. Holding my breath, praying to God that this worked, I turned the handle. I waited for an alarm, bracing myself for hell to rain down, but nothing happened. It opened, and inside the safe, I found files, money, and many passports. I didn’t have much time, but I quickly photographed each of the passports because it would give us a way to track Tusk’s movements if he traveled under an alias.
Then I grabbed the device, put everything back the way I found it, wiped down the keypad, and closed it up before rearranging the shirts exactly how I’d found them.
I came running out of the closet, only pausing to grab my shoes. I checked on Stellan and found he was still out cold.
Addie nodded her head at me. “You have it?”
I nodded. “Yep. Let’s go.”
But as we ran for the door, the power went out.
Addie’s voice was sharp. “Tyler, what the fuck?”
“It’s not us. Get out of there.”
We ran for the door, surprised to find that there was no guard. Then we heard gunshots down the hall. Hurriedly, we barricaded ourselves back in the room and ran for the balcony. “Fuck, Tyler, do we have an exit?”
“Back stairs on the balcony. The gardens are open and clear, but we’ve got company in the house.”
“What the fuck do you mean ‘company’?” I asked as we ran to the balcony.
Then a litany of swears came over the comms, and from the roof Kira muttered under her breath, “It looks like fucking Exodus. Retreat.”
“Who has the decryption device?” Tyler asked.
I piped up. “I’ve got it.”
“Only Lyra on the primary exit route then. Everyone else on secondary,” said Tyler. His voice was stony and cold.
Addie stared at me. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know. What the fuck is Exodus doing here? Aren’t they in bed with assholes like this?” Had Exodus come to clean house?
She quickly motioned that she was switching to B channel, and I followed suit.
“What’s up?”
“I was looking into why Tyler’s here, due to my general mistrust of assholes.”
She navigated barefoot down the ancient, narrow wooden stairs that led to the beach. It was eerily quiet out there. None of the guards were around.
“Addie, you know you’re going to get slapped for doing that.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care. He doesn’t matter right now. But listen, on the last six missions he’s been on, Exodus has shown up for at least four of them and interrupted, tried to take a target that we were going after. Something’s going on.”
I frowned. “Do you think Exodus came to clean house?”
Exodus. The Firm had a history with them. We all used
