Chapter 15
Fifteen
Their first official meeting with Silva was the very next morning.
Dani ducked out of her ten o’clock class a few minutes early, refusing to be late for this particular occasion.
Her heart thumped ominously with every step down to the oneiromancy department, and the sound of voices trickling out of the dream lab only served to spike her anxiety even higher.
She continued at the slowest possible wift, unhappy at the realization she would have to present herself to a group instead of being the first one there, as she’d planned.
The glass to the lab was fogged, so she couldn’t even get the lay of the land before entering—a socially anxious person’s worst-case scenario.
Dani took a long, stabilizing breath. She could do this.
Everyone turned at the sound of her entrance, and Dani couldn’t stop her wince of apology, well-rehearsed after years of chronic tardiness, even though she wasn’t late this time. “Um, sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” Silva said. She stood behind the desk at the front of the room, scrolling through her quartzpad like she was getting ready for a normal lecture. “Come in and make yourself comfortable.”
Dani’s gaze passed from the professor to the people staring at her from the cots.
She realized she recognized all three of them.
Katya was sitting closest to her, her usual expression of vexed boredom freezing her facial features, which she’d accented with white swoops of eye shadow and a septum ring.
She was wearing a long mauve trench coat over her usual pseudo-uniform, this time with silver boots that matched her hair.
Next to Katya was Oliver, whom Dani had just seen before class.
With their roommate still away, they’d spent the night in Dani and McKenna’s apartment, and the girls had taken turns waking up to make sure they didn’t fall into too deep a sleep.
So far, though, the new charm seemed to be doing its job.
Oliver waved cheerfully when her gaze fell across them, hand half hidden by the overlong sleeves of their mushroom-print pullover.
The last person she knew the least, and it took her a moment to place where she’d met him: Kass’s party.
He’d been the frat guy who very openly hated Kass’s guts.
She couldn’t remember his name, but he was still excessively handsome, with sparkling white teeth, a slicked-back crew cut, and a complexion far too clear to belong to a college student.
His look was old money, with a luxurious cable-knit sweater and khaki pants cuffed over saddle shoes.
All together, her peers provided a nearly complete sampling of the student population at the Leap, of which Dani, sharply self-aware as always, suspected she was the missing element. She gave a stilted wave and stumbled over to an empty cot in their midst.
“Do you all know one another?” Silva asked. She’d set aside her quartzpad and was observing them with what appeared to be a light interest.
Katya and Oliver both nodded. Dani and the boy looked at each other.
“Hey. I’m Wyatt, he/him. Not sure if we’ve met before.
” He stretched to offer Dani his hand. She took it, not wanting to seem rude, and allowed her fingers to be strangled in his overconfident grip.
As they shook, his sleeve pulled back to reveal a state-of-the-art Swiss watch, complete with the current weather floating behind the hands.
“Only briefly,” she said. “At that party on Friday night.”
“Oh yeah,” Wyatt said. “You were with that super-hot girl. Mackenzie, right?”
“McKenna.”
“Right. She totally ditched us, by the way. Think you could put in a good word for me?” He winked.
Dani laughed. “McKenna does what she wants.”
“Guess she didn’t want me, then.”
The words landed in her brain with a splash of muddy brown—McKenna’s rejection had made him pissier than he would’ve normally admitted.
“Ugh,” Katya said. “Stop being a douche, Wyatt. Don’t pay any attention to him, Dani, he’s a total ass.”
Wyatt pulled back on his cot, donning an air of offendedness like a cravat. “Moi? You wound me, Kat.”
The girl rolled her eyes. “I’ve known Wyatt since he was a baby first-year at orientation,” she told Dani. “He hasn’t improved much in the past two years.”
“Come on, Kat,” Wyatt said, some minor aggravation bleeding through his chipper tone. “Can you go one minute without trying to take a dig at me?”
“Can you go one minute without winking like a fucking weirdo?”
“I do not wink like a—”
“Miss Novak. Mr. Shalhope,” Silva cut in. “I will not tolerate any bickering in this group. We are a team, and if we are to succeed in our mission, we must behave like one. Starting now.”
Neither Katya nor Wyatt looked like they were taking this team spirit thing to heart, but they stopped sniping at each other, at least.
“Grazie,” Silva said. “Now that that’s out of the way, we can get started.
” She circled around to the front of the desk and perched on its edge, crossing one foot over the other.
“I’ve invited each of you to join this particular, ah, project because you have a unique set of skills that behooves our efforts. ”
She let her gaze scan from one end of the group to the other, like she was taking a mental snapshot of the scene in front of her.
“Miss Novak is an expert in arcane technology, with a focus on security. She interned in OneiroLabs’s security department last summer, and as such has a basic familiarity with their system.
Miss Lionet has a knack for very subtly uncovering information.
” Dani stiffened at the mention of her ability, but no one else batted an eye.
“Mx. Izumi has a personal stake in the matter and the ability to connect us all telepathically, as well as knowledge of arcanobotany. And finally, Mr. Shalhope here is a mage who specializes in portals, which we’ll need for transportation purposes.
“On paper, the objective of this project is simple,” she continued, her tone even. “Acquire the formula for OneiroLabs’s new product. To do that undetected, however, presents a more, how do you say, gnarly challenge.”
So this really was the plan … steal a valuable, top secret recipe for a brand-new product from a high-security, internationally renowned company.
“You want us to run a heist,” Dani said, unable to stop herself. “Us. A bunch of students.”
Silva looked hurt. “Don’t underestimate yourselves,” she said. “You are all extremely capable. And your youth? With any luck, it will render you less suspicious.”
Dani had a hard time believing that, but she bit her tongue and let Silva continue.
“I’ve thought carefully about the best possible timing for this undertaking,” the professor went on. “I believe the ideal opportunity will come during the Renard Gala and Exposition for Magical Innovation and Development on Friday, December fifth, right here on campus.”
“Where OneiroLabs is launching the new product,” Oliver said.
Silva nodded. “Correct. It stands to reason that their key players will be attending that event: the CEO, the Head of Research whom you and Miss Lionet met, and so forth. Their attention will be occupied on that particular evening, which will provide us the perfect opportunity to enter the facility and secure the formula. Getting to that point, of course, will take a tremendous amount of preparation and coordination.”
Dani’s mouth had gone dry. She wanted to help, but that didn’t mean she didn’t find this absolutely fucking terrifying.
“We have approximately a month to position ourselves for success,” Silva said.
“Thanks to the information acquired by Miss Lionet and Mx. Izumi on their tour of OneiroLabs, we understand that the formula requires a particularly high security clearance. So our first order of business will be to find a way to access such a clearance.”
“Why can’t Katya take care of that?” Wyatt asked. “Do some tippity-tap”—he mimed typing on a keyboard—“and snatch it out of digital thin air?”
Katya snorted. “Yeah, because OneiroLabs doesn’t do any penetration testing or have any firewalls up. Try again, genius.”
“Miss Novak is correct,” Silva said before Wyatt could clap back.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way: from the inside.
To that end, I have assignments for each of you this week.
We need to find a way to get back into the OneiroLabs building.
Mx. Izumi thinks they may have a connection within the company who might agree to help us do just that. ”
Dani glanced at Oliver, who confirmed her assumption with a nod. Max. He’d given them his personal quartz address as he’d escorted them out of OneiroLabs—“just in case.”
“So their task is to reach out to their contact and see if they can be of assistance. In the meantime, Miss Novak and Miss Lionet”—Dani stiffened at the sound of her name—“I’ll need you to do some reconnaissance to learn anything else about the clearance levels and who possesses them.
I’ve received intel that there’s a popular social spot for OneiroLabs workers near their headquarters.
The two of you need to put your heads together and work out an evening this week you can pay a visit to that bar—perhaps when their second shift gets off, around ten. ”
Dani’s heart sank. Her only night off this week was Thursday—and she had her date with Kass that night.
“Mx. Izumi recalled that on your tour, your guide mentioned something about a hydroponics lab on the twentieth floor. I think that’s a good place to start.
So,” Silva said, facing Dani and Katya in turn, “you need to find out who has access to that floor and any clues on how we might be able to become one of those people. Once you do that, and once Mx. Izumi has confirmed that their contact can help us get in the door—we’ll plan our next step. ”
“What about me?” Wyatt said. “What’s my assignment for the week?”
“Becoming less of an asshole,” Katya said out the corner of her mouth.
Silva ignored the quip. “Nothing as of this moment, Mr. Shalhope,” she said. “But rest assured, your services will be required shortly. Once we have all these pieces, we will need to enter OneiroLabs to secure the clearance—and we’ll need an escape route as well.”
“I thought we weren’t breaking into OneiroLabs until the gala,” Dani said, fiddling with the amethyst pendulum around her neck.
“We aren’t acquiring the formula until the gala,” Silva corrected her. “I’m afraid we will have to make one initial excursion before then, to make sure our security access is in place—unless, by some miracle, Miss Novak finds a way to do so from without.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Katya said.
“Right,” Dani said. “Great. Got it.”
“Now—some housekeeping,” Silva said, barreling ahead. “Any records we have of our time together must be ephemeral. From now on, you should only contact me using a secure messaging app that Miss Novak has developed for us. She’ll be sending out downloads to all your quartzpads as soon as possible.”
“It’s completely private,” Katya added. “Our messages will vanish after twenty-four hours, and the app itself is set to self-cannibalize after December fifth.”
“Please only use that app to contact either myself or one another with regards to this endeavor. I’m counting on all of you,” Silva added after a beat, “to bring your best attitude, skills, and complete discretion to this project. I cannot overstate the severity of the consequences if we are found out.”
Dani glanced at the others, gauging their reactions, but their faces didn’t change at the reminder of how much of a risk they were taking. She wondered what had driven Katya and Wyatt to accept Silva’s offer—how they would use the money.
“In the event that things should escalate, I will do my best to protect you, but you should understand that only so much is within my power. That being said, I have the utmost confidence in our abilities as a team.” Silva looked significantly at Katya and Wyatt when she said this.
“You have your assignments. Please update me as soon as they’ve been completed, or if you run into any trouble.
We’ll be having regular meetings here every Monday starting next week—I’ve booked us as a recurring group project for the entirety of the month.
We can add extra meetings as needed. Ah, and I almost forgot.
” She clasped her hands together. “We are still missing one crucial member of our team. Do any of you know someone who’s well-versed in illusion magic and might be willing to join a mission of such risk as this? ”
Dani laughed out loud, catching herself and everyone else off guard. Silva’s eyes slid over to her.
“Did I say something amusing, Miss Lionet?”
“Yeah, no, sorry,” Dani said. “It’s just—well, I think I might know the perfect girl for the job.”