Chapter 30 #5
I truly don’t know whether I’m supposed to smile at that or feel worse, so I just look back at him, probably wearing some helpless expression while waiting for my sentence.
"Well. No point in wasting time. Let’s go. Simon is probably waiting."
"One more thing, Blue."
I push myself off the lounger and walk toward him. His eyes track every movement.
"I don’t think whoever’s responsible is operating from very far away.
The signal behavior doesn’t fit. If they’re maintaining a stable live connection to hardware this sophisticated, there’s probably a local relay somewhere in the chain.
A short-range bridge node, an access device forwarding traffic outward while staying close enough to preserve timing integrity.
" I glance toward the penthouse behind us.
"That could be hardware planted somewhere in this apartment.
One floor down. Hidden inside the building infrastructure.
Hell, somebody could literally be carrying it. "
Blue’s jaw tightens slightly.
"Tell me," he says. "If I grant you full access to my glasses, will you actually be able to determine all of this?"
"With a pretty high probability, yes."
"Good. We’ll deal with it after the meeting."
I lift my hands almost defensively.
"Whoa, wait, Blue. I really think you should cancel."
"Cancel?"
"Whoever was inside your system knows they’ve been cut off. If they realize they’ve been detected, they might decide to make their move."
"They would need to move very quickly. The meeting begins in approximately thirty minutes."
"Blue, please." Stress is building in my chest now, almost vibrating.
"Cancel everything for today. We need to dig into this properly. Whoever did this is not an amateur. The intrusion was elegant. Subtle. If I didn’t have borderline eidetic recall for signal behavior and timing anomalies, I might not have noticed it at all.
This person is very, very good, which makes it less likely this is about something trivial.
Somebody invested serious resources into this. "
Blue says nothing for a few seconds.
Then he speaks in a tone that ends the discussion before it even starts.
"I am attending the meeting. Afterward, we will return here and deal with this matter."
And just like that, he heads toward the door.
I want to keep arguing, negotiate, push harder. Beg him to handle this now instead of later. But I can already tell he’s made his decision, and we’re not exactly in a good place right now.
When we step into the elevator, I can feel the tight knot of tension inside him, irritation tangled up with something.
Is he this angry with me, or with the other person, the one who hacked into his glasses?
Hard to tell with Blue. His mind is logical enough that maybe he can frame this in terms of outcomes and utility, but does that cancel out the bitterness over what I actually did?
Then, as if he pulled the thought straight out of my head, he says it.
"The first thing that made me begin seeing you differently was trust, Gabriel. Trust that you were on my side."
I exhale sharply. This is bad. He may rationalize it, yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hurt. He mentioned it as part of life, yet his disappointment is still real.
"Dammit, I am, Blue!" I blurt out in a shaking, high-pitched voice.
"I really am. From the day I started working here, I always have been, and I always will be. Whatever I saw, I never used any of it against you. I need you to know that. I’ve been nothing but loyal.
" My voice nearly cracks under the pressure building inside me.
"I’ve made a pledge of loyalty to you, remember? I could never use it against you."
Our eyes meet, and I add in a whisper, "You can still trust me. I’m sorry if I crossed a line. If I abused that trust in any way. Please forgive me."
Blue doesn’t answer, but his eyes stay locked on me, as if he’s gauging my truthfulness, maybe even through our Bond.
And I have nothing to hide. I’ve never betrayed him in any way beyond the incident with his glasses, so I hold his gaze without flinching.
For some bizarre reason, the cryptic thing Snow said earlier comes back to me out of nowhere. I have no idea if it even makes sense, but it slips out of me anyway.
"Sometimes you need to break something to come back stronger."
No clue whether it applies to any of this, but I say it anyway.
"Excuse me?" Blue raises an eyebrow.
"It’s…um. Something Snow told me. A piece of advice, I guess. About how to get out of trouble."
The elevator doors slide open onto the small Malden branch floor, so Blue doesn’t get the chance to respond.
Simon is already standing there waiting for us, Director Flanegin next to him, talking and gesturing widely.
"Oh, good, there you are!" Simon sighs, as if relieved he can excuse himself from his chat with Flanegin. "Another few minutes and we’d be late. Traffic’s ugly at this hour."
He joins us as we continue down, the director being left behind.
Simon constantly talks during the ride to the lower levels, but my head is a mess and almost none of it sticks.
We step out into the underground garage, and I’m immediately unpleasantly surprised by the sight of Ruben, Rolf, and Lionel standing near Blue’s limousine.
"They’re coming with us today?"
Blue nods.
"Yes. We decided that whenever I handle matters outside the office, I would be using external security, did we not?"
I mutter an ugly Russian curse under my breath and follow him anyway.
Hector isn’t with the guards today, and their car pulls out behind us.
We start crawling through the city, pushing through traffic.
But I just can’t calm down.
From time to time I throw little dart-like glances at Blue, who seems to be deep in thought.
At the back of my head, this strange pressure starts building, slowly at first, then strong enough that my vision almost swims. I don’t understand what’s causing it.
Is it just nerves about the whole situation, or is it an actual reaction to what’s about to happen?
As the sensation keeps intensifying, I turn to Blue.
"Listen. I know you’ve already made your decision. But you need to know that sometimes, ten or fifteen minutes before something bad happens, I get headaches like this…"
Silence follows. Blue just stares at me.
Simon, who has no idea about my abilities, looks up with an amused expression.
"Probably a hangover. Those can hit in the middle of the day too. Annoying as hell."
I let out a loud breath.
"No, that’s not it!" My voice is half an octave too high. I look at Blue, almost pleading. "I don’t drink." I lean a little closer to him. "I have a bad feeling, Blue, I beg you. We should be extremely careful."
Our eyes stay locked for a while. Blue doesn’t ask anything else, he just nods, activates his earpiece, and tells Ruben to stay on high alert.
I can hear the doubt in Ruben’s voice when he answers, "Alright, boss," but he doesn’t question it.
The pain in my head ramps up fast, to the point where I can’t focus on anything except obsessively scanning everything around us. I keep looking out the window, watching cars, people, buildings, trying to figure out where the threat could come from.
I stare and stare, almost X-raying the nearest cars, my heart picking up speed, then I turn for a second and catch Blue’s eyes. I can see the concern there too, and in a strange way that gives me a flicker of relief, because it means he believes me, that he takes what I’m saying seriously.
Maybe the trust thing is not lost after all?
I force the words out, not even sure where they come from.
"I’m sorry. I wish my ability allowed me to see more. I’m not good enough to fully protect you."
"No one is, Gabriel, but you’re very close," there’s something almost soft in his voice.
"I’m sorry, Blue. I really am, for everything. But whatever’s coming… it’s bad."
Blue nods slowly. "It’s alright. Sooner or later they were going to get to me. I’ve always lived with that assumption. If not today, it would happen tomorrow."
Then suddenly the pain spikes so hard I can barely take it. I raise my hands and press them to my temples with a loud groan.
My 5-sec ability finally catches up.
A vision.
I turn, and in that instant I see a black car with tinted windows cutting in right between us and the security vehicle, but it doesn’t just merge, it swings sideways, forcing us to brake hard.
I hear gunshots right away, probably from Ruben and his guys, and at the same time another vehicle pulls out from a side street in front of us, blocking the road.
"It’s happening!" I shout. "I see it, two vans, front and back, they’re cutting us off from security, gunfire!"
Blue reacts instantly.
His finger taps the edge of his glasses and I hear his voice, most likely recording a message.
"Detective Arnold, we’re surrounded, two vehicles front and rear, separated from security, black vans. Gunfire. I’m deploying a drone."
A second later he hits something in the door panel and part of the roof opens. A small drone shoots up from inside the limousine’s floor and rises fast into the air.
My five-second window ends and reality catches up.
Just like I saw, the vans wedge in, Simon lets out a shocked sound, Gerard slams the brakes and the tires screech.
The drone is already about sixty-six feet up, and before I can even say anything, another vision hits me.
"No, you need to turn it, because they’re about to—"
"Gabriel, I don’t have control over it, that’s intentional. If they captured me they could use it otherwise!"
"Damn. So it’s already gone."
A second later, a shot rings out, just as I predicted.
Simon stares at me in shock, shaking.
Someone out there is a damn good shot, because the drone gets hit clean. With a buzzing, crackling sound it drops and slams onto the hood of the limousine.
"Shit," Simon curses. "They’re professionals."
"I’m sure it’s NFH," Blue says through clenched teeth.