Chapter Eighteen
Eighteen
Katya was waiting for Dani in front of the building next to the bar.
For once, she was actually wearing something other than her usual pseudo-academic livery—a black, non-pleated skirt, black tights with matching boots, and a black sweater under her raincoat.
She made a face when she saw Dani jogging up to her.
“We have a problem,” she said, instead of the anticipated admonishment for Dani’s lateness. “There’s a password.”
“A password to what?” Dani said.
“The bar,” Katya said, her expression very plainly implying duh.
“Oh.” Dani peered around her at the exterior of the bar.
It wasn’t as discreet as she would have thought, with a giant window lined with twinkle lights and a neon flamingo under a bright green palm tree.
It looked like your typical divey lounge, with a half-assed tropical theme and a punny name—The Sand Bar.
Not like the kind of place that would require a password to get in.
“I think it seriously is an OLabs-only hangout,” Katya said, sensing Dani’s confusion. “I tried to wait for you inside, but there’s a bouncer guy sitting at the door, and he made me leave when I didn’t know the password. I assume they only distribute it to employees.”
Dani inflated her cheeks and blew out the breath. “And Silva didn’t realize that when she sent us here?” she asked.
Katya shrugged.
“Didn’t you intern at OneiroLabs over the summer?” Dani pressed.
“I didn’t even know this place existed,” Katya snapped, umber lightning bolts streaking through Dani’s mental airspace. “Maybe they don’t tell interns about it.”
Or maybe they just didn’t tell you about it, Dani thought, but she decided to keep that uncharitable sentiment to herself. “Okay,” she said. “I guess we’ll have to come back another time once we’ve found out the password.”
“No way,” Katya said. “We’ve got to do this now. Can’t you go talk to the bouncer and get him to tell us the password or something? Use your, uh, whatever-you-call-it?”
A barb of irritation pricked Dani’s skin.
“It doesn’t work like that,” she said, deciding not to mention that she’d already sensed it working on the girl just a moment ago, and likely would again.
“He’d still realize he gave it to me. I can’t, like, put people into a trance to forget what they told me. ”
“Okay, okay,” Katya said, holding up a hand. “It was just an idea.”
“Don’t you know anyone from when you worked there? Someone you could hit up and ask to get us in?”
At that, Katya looked away, squinting into the rain. “I never really got to know anyone that well,” she said, and the thinnest vine of melancholy wisteria unfurled across Dani’s mind. The girl didn’t seem to notice that she’d said anything out of the ordinary.
Not good at making friends, Dani thought. Got it.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Should we get in touch with Silva? See if she has any ideas?”
Katya shook her head. “Let’s keep thinking. I don’t want her to think we can’t handle this.”
What does it matter if she thinks we can’t? Dani was strongly considering pushing back on Katya’s reticence when she saw two people hurrying down the sidewalk toward The Sand Bar.
“Hey,” she said, tilting her head in their direction. “I’ve got an idea. Follow my lead, okay?”
Dani didn’t know where her initiative came from—a desire not to stand here with Katya any longer, maybe, or an unwillingness to prolong the task—but she sprang into action.
She looped her arm through Katya’s like she would with McKenna and started walking toward the bar’s front door, fake laughing as if Katya had just said something wickedly funny.
“Stop. That’s ridiculous,” she said, slowing them down as they came to the door—conveniently, at the exact same moment as the two strangers were approaching it.
She could see them more clearly now, two young people in business-casual clothes with OneiroLabs badges hanging from around their necks.
They couldn’t have been more than two or three years out of college, if that, and they gave Dani and Katya friendly if cautious looks as their paths collided in front of The Sand Bar.
“Please,” Dani said, gesturing to the door. “After you.”
“You’re going in there?” one of the OneiroLabs employees asked.
“Yup,” Dani said, adding a little giggle for authenticity. “It’s our first time. We’re new OLabs interns. I’m D-Dahlia, and this is Kathryn, both she/her.” Better to give fake names, since Dani had used her real one on the OneiroLabs tour. “We just started a few days ago!”
“Interns?” the other person said. “You do know interns aren’t really supposed to—”
The first employee cut in. “What’ll it hurt if they sneak in for one night? I’m Frank, he/him,” he said to Dani and Katya. “This is Sage, they/them. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Dani said, but she was keeping an eye on Sage, whose lips twisted in obvious disapproval. After a few seconds, they lifted their shoulders in a shrug.
“Fine,” Sage said, “but it’s your responsibility if they get caught.” They strode toward the door, opened it, and went inside, leaving Frank out in the rain with Dani and Katya.
He gave them an apologetic smile. “Don’t take it personally. Sage is always like that. I’m guessing you tried to get in and didn’t know the password?”
“Guilty as charged,” Katya said, finally tuning in to what they were doing here. “Is it really that big of a deal if we go in?”
“Nah. I snuck in as an intern all the time. Which wasn’t all that long ago, to be honest. I’m still pretty green, if you ask my coworkers in the legal department.”
“Legal? Okay, if you say it’s all right, then I believe you,” Dani said.
“I’ll vouch for you,” Frank assured them. “Come on, let’s get out of this rain.”
Dani and Katya exchanged a glance as Frank opened the door, holding it for them so they could shuffle in.
The Sand Bar was every bit as unassuming on the inside as it had looked on the exterior: booths fringed with fake grass and coconut shells, colored lanterns hanging above the bar, and generically upbeat music playing in the background.
It seemed like a random choice to be the official OneiroLabs after-hours spot, but it very evidently was: Almost everyone in here was dressed in their work clothes, and the energy level was more subdued than it would be in a bar stocked with bachelorette parties, students with fake IDs, and people looking for trouble.
Dani kept her arm linked with Katya’s as Frank spoke to the bouncer, the password inaudible over the sounds of conversation and music, then ushered them into the crowd.
“You don’t have to stick with me,” Frank said as they drifted toward the bar. “I won’t be offended. But I’m meeting some friends here if you want to join us. What department did you say you were interning in?”
“Security,” Katya said. “But we don’t know anyone yet—we just onboarded.”
“Oh, cool. One of my friends is in security, if you’d like to meet her.”
“That would be amazing!” Dani said brightly. “We definitely want to meet more people in the department.”
“Sweet,” Frank said. “I’ll grab us some drinks.”
Some drinks turned out to be cheap beers, which Dani forced herself to accept without complaint before Frank guided them to a corner booth where several people were already sitting.
The array of unfamiliar faces—plus Sage from before—sent a sparkle of anxiety through her body.
Fooling Frank had felt simple enough, but this was bigger and riskier.
Luckily, she didn’t recognize anyone from her tour of the company.
She and Katya squished into the booth as Frank introduced all of them.
“Lily over here is the only one of us in security,” he finished, gesturing to a woman who looked to be in her late twenties with dark red hair.
“I just started over the summer,” Lily said.
“How are you liking it?” Katya asked, taking a swig of her beer. Dani looked at her bottle, knowing she should follow suit, but, yuck. She faked it instead, pressing her lips closed against the opening.
Lily hesitated, her finger tracing a drop of condensation on her glass. She smiled, though it was restrained. “It’s a challenge,” she said. “Always something new every day. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“I can’t wait,” Katya said. She was about to say something else when someone changed the subject, complaining about some caustic spill in one of the labs.
From there, the conversation swept away from them, ebbing and flowing to and from the topic of OneiroLabs.
Dani sensed Katya’s impatience and pressed her shoulder gently against hers—wait for the right time.
Katya seemed to get the message, and they spent the next forty minutes or so letting the friend group do its thing, chiming in where they could and answering questions when asked directly.
Finally, Sage and two of the others got up to refresh their drinks, and Dani and Katya stood to let them out. When they slid back into the booth, Dani ended up right next to Lily. She waited until Frank seemed engaged enough in a discussion with someone else, then turned to the woman.
“So where were you working before OneiroLabs?” she asked. She didn’t want to start right in on the sensitive material—that would be too suspicious.
“I was actually at another pharma company in Austin,” Lily said. “A recruiter from OneiroLabs reached out and offered me a more senior position here, so I decided to take the chance.”
“Was it worth it?” Katya asked.
Discomfort pinched Lily’s face, so Dani intervened: “I think she means the move. Don’t you miss the weather?”
Lily laughed. “Honestly, no, not at all. I hated the heat, so that hasn’t been a problem.” She sipped her drink, which was mostly melted ice at this point. “So you two are both students at Fox’s Leap?”
Dani nodded.
“Frank was, too. We get a lot of our employees from the university.”
“Yeah, we know. Fingers crossed,” Dani said.