Chapter Nineteen #2
Like a good weather charm. But all Dani said, in a very quiet voice, was, “Yeah.”
“Splendid. That means we can move on to logistics. Mx. Izumi will be in touch with their contact to get your names—pseudonyms, of course—on the list of approved visitors for the evening. What happens once you get through the gate is up to all of us.”
“So what’s the idea?” Wyatt said, bending forward to balance his elbows on his knees. “We stealing a badge in there or what?”
Silva held up a cautioning hand. “Not so fast.”
“Professor Silva and I talked it over, and we don’t think that option makes the most sense,” Katya said.
“Why not? Seems simple enough to me. Find this Dr. Rodriguez lady, grab her badge, and I poof us out.”
“It seems simple on the surface,” Silva allowed, “but Dr. Rodriguez, or any of those three people, would notice if their badge was stolen. They’d report it missing and have the old badge wiped and a new one made, which would put us back at square one.”
“Okay,” Wyatt said slowly, “then why don’t we just do the whole thing at once? Grab the badge, get to the hydroponics lab, and get the formula?”
“If you think we could just do that, you’ve got a lot more to learn than I thought,” Katya snapped.
“Those people have their badges on them at all times. Getting it off without them noticing, especially when we don’t know if they’ll be in the building or where they’d be if they were—then having enough time to break into the lab and find the formula before anyone sets off an alarm would be next to impossible.
Honestly, it’s a big fat bull’s-eye right on impossible. ”
“Miss Novak is correct,” Silva said. “As frustrating as it feels, we need to take this one small step at a time if we’re going to be successful.”
“We don’t even want to workshop my idea?” Wyatt said, looking to Dani, McKenna, and Oliver for backup. Dani showed him her palms, absolving herself from this particular discourse.
“I think they have a point,” Oliver said apologetically. “We shouldn’t rush into anything.”
“I think we have a lot of points,” Katya said. “The more reasonable, better idea is to plant an undetectable device inside OLabs tech—something that will give me access to their security system that I can’t get from out here.”
“Exactly,” Silva said. “Our working plan is for the two of you to get inside, then place the device where Miss Novak tells you.”
“I’m not totally sure where yet,” Katya said. “I’ll have our options figured out by then.”
“And if we do that,” Dani said, “you’ll be able to do the override Lily told us about?”
“Yeah,” Katya said. “Should be.” Dani couldn’t tell how much of her confidence was bluster and how much of it was real.
She decided she didn’t want to know. “Once you’ve planted the device and I’ve gotten access, I’ll be able to shut everything down for a few seconds.
That’s when Wyatt will port you out. I should be able to get everyone in and out on the night of the gala the same way,” she added. “You know, when we do this for real.”
Like this time wasn’t for real? It was all sounding rather precarious to Dani. But she swallowed the sour taste in her mouth and kept her misgivings to herself.
“And that’s it,” Silva said with a touch of pride. “We’ll be meeting off campus at nine on Wednesday evening and traveling to OneiroLabs together. I’ll send you a pin for the meeting point later tonight via our app. Any questions?”
Everyone looked at one another, then back at the professor. The mood among them was sagging now, knocked down several levels from its original high morale.
“Excellent,” Silva said briskly. “In that case, meeting dismissed.”
It was impossible for Dani to dismiss the looming reality of her upcoming task, though, and all the worry that came along with it.
The only thing she had to distract her was the promise of Kass stopping by Quarter Cast that night, though she hadn’t heard from him since their brief quartzpad exchange on Friday.
That wasn’t necessarily a cause for alarm—he had warned her he’d be busy over the weekend, after all.
When she arrived at the café, her first order of business was asking if any of the other baristas could take her Wednesday night shift; she couldn’t bear to call out, as Silva had suggested.
After a little negotiation, Amelie agreed to come in at eight thirty and finish out the shift if Dani worked a double for her on Saturday.
Not ideal in terms of completing literally any homework, but it was what it was.
Kass hadn’t specified when he’d be showing up tonight, so Dani kept herself occupied by cleaning the crust off the syrup bottles and trying not to get whiplash every time the door-ghost cried out.
By midnight, she was starting to lose hope when she saw a familiar backpack-toting dog pad up to the door.
This time Kass fully shifted into human form before he stepped inside Quarter Cast, grinning when he saw Dani at the handoff plane. She grinned back, every worry temporarily gusted away by the gale-force wind that was her crush on him.
“Hey,” he said, and leaned across the plane to kiss her on the corner of her mouth once he reached her. It was awkward and perfect. “How are you?”
“Oh,” Dani said. The real answer to that question was off the table. “I’m all right, I guess. How was your family time?”
“Brutal,” Kass said. Brick red bled into Dani’s mind.
“My dad really knows how to ruin a perfectly good weekend. He took me to this business thing with him and—” Kass bit down on the rest of the sentence and shook his head, the red fading as quickly as it had come.
“You know what? I don’t want to talk about that.
I’m here with you and I want to enjoy it. Are you busy right now?”
Dani shook her head. The rest of the syrup bottles could wait.
She brewed them a French press with a new small-batch roast that had just come in and cut a cheese Danish in half.
They spent the next two hours sipping their coffee, holding hands, and talking.
Once closing time hit, Kass waited for Dani to lock up so he could walk her back to her apartment, cozied up together under his magic umbrella.
“I’ll see you soon, Dani Lionet,” he said before he kissed her goodbye at her front door. She fell into bed feeling almost tipsy with euphoria, forgetting for just a few brief hours about the long shadow of OneiroLabs and everything that awaited her.