Chapter 29 - Felix #2
A pause. Then Seb’s measured tone again, infuriatingly calm.
“You arrived at the hotel at six this morning. You’re currently running purely on caffeine and adrenaline.
Right now, you need to sleep. Plus, I’m almost two hours away from the hotel right now.
We’ll meet early tomorrow morning to carefully dissect this evidence together.
Use all our brains to decide the best course of action here. ”
The fight drained out of me like air from a punctured balloon. My shoulders sagged as hot tears prickled behind my eyes. It was no good. I knew Seb well enough to know that.
“Okay,” I whispered.
His voice softened. “Go sleep in one of the rooms upstairs. It’s late.”
“Maybe.” The word came out as a mumble.
“Well done, Magpie,” he said. “And I promise we’ll get to the bottom of this tomorrow. We all want to find Kit, and as soon as possible. We’re on the same team here.”
“Okay.”
I ended the call and set the phone down with trembling hands. The weight of the empty hotel suddenly pressed down around me. Just me and the hum of electronics and the weight of knowing where Kit was but being powerless to do anything about it.
My throat tightened, followed by a familiar squeeze of my chest that meant my lungs had forgotten how to work properly. I gripped the edge of my desk, forcing air in through my nose, out through my mouth. In. Out. In. Out.
The panic attack crested and broke like a wave.
My gaze fell on the small terracotta pot sitting beside my keyboard.
The Philodendron Pink Princess looked impossibly delicate under my harsh fluorescent lights, its heart-shaped leaves gleaming with those distinctive pink streaks.
When I’d found it in that garden centre, I’d known it was perfect for Kit. Bright and unexpected and beautiful.
The sight of it steadied me somehow. Kit was alive. That’s all that mattered right now. Kit was alive, and tomorrow morning we’d review the evidence all together and take action.
But… tomorrow morning.
Wasn’t that leaving it too late?
Far too late?
For a start, they’d spend hours debating.
Seb would want to verify the source of the information, run background checks on the encryption methods, analyse every pixel of the footage for signs of manipulation.
Priya would insist on contacting her own network of informants, of running through every single possibility inside and out.
Flynn would frantically attempt to side with everyone, agree with every idea to keep the peace.
Rory, at least, would want to charge in guns blazing.
But Theo would be there right beside him, handcuffing him to the nearest chair.
Then, finally, if I got the result I wanted—if they agreed to mount an immediate rescue—we’d have to make travel arrangements. Flights, equipment, backup plans for the backup plans, an endless debate on who would actually go.
By that point, hours and hours would be wasted.
And who knows how long it would take once we arrived in Switzerland to actually locate Kit?
The satellite footage showed absolutely nothing at those coordinates.
Just mountains and trees. We wouldn’t be able to leave the airport and jump on a bus to him.
It would take ages to even work out how to get to the location, let alone recon, then mount an actual rescue operation.
No. We needed to leave right now. It was the only way we’d have the tiniest sliver of hope.
But… not we.
Me.
By myself.
Icy terror crawled up my spine. I’d never travelled by myself, let alone on something like this. A crazy suicide mission.
Suicide mission—was that what this was?
Probably.
But Kit wouldn’t hesitate to do the same for me. Fuck, he’d probably be halfway to Switzerland by now, having commandeered a helicopter or something equally impossible.
I shot to my feet, adrenaline flooding my system.
I’d need to go home to get my passport… no, wait.
One of our counterfeit ones stashed in the weapons room would be ten times safer anyway.
No paper trail linking Felix Ch?ng to whatever disaster I was about to stumble into.
No time to go home. I’d make do with what I could find in the hotel.
I scurried up the stairs, opening cupboards almost at random, throwing things into my backpack. Energy drinks—ten cans, then I put two back because the bag wouldn’t close with my laptop and all this stuff crammed inside. Phone charger, Kit’s emergency cash stash from behind the fire extinguisher.
Reaching the hotel’s side exit, I froze.
I hadn’t actually booked a flight.
I flew back down to the basement, fingers flying across my keyboard. There were still seats available on British Airways flight BA710 departing Heathrow at 06:05 for Zurich. Not a budget airline, so it would empty my bank account. A problem for Future Felix, after he got fired for this.
But 06:05 was perfect timing, actually. I’d be able to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Plenty of time to sit in a freezing departure lounge, regretting my life choices and wondering what the hell I thought I was doing.
My gaze drifted back to the plant on my desk. In a moment of complete madness, I grabbed it.
“Right, Princess,” I told it, the same way Kit talked to his houseplants. “I hope you’re ready for an adventure.”