Chapter 11
Drew: Won’t be at the huddle this morning.
Wyatt: Friend Drew, are you down with the sickness?
Janet: Great, now that’ll be stuck in my head.
Wyatt: How does Drew fit in your head?
Janet: Sarcasm.
Wyatt: We agreed no sarcasm in texts.
Janet: Sorry.
Wyatt: Was that too sarcasm?
Orion: Yes.
Arthur: Yes.
Connor: Yes.
I smiled at the screen. If Janet had suspected something, she’d have said it.
Though now that Orion and Connor knew, I could only imagine they would take over all security cameras.
They’d see not one but two faces leaving my apartment this morning.
Then they’d see a quick stop for croissants and coffee. I’m sure I’d hear about it later.
“Ready for this?”
I glanced up. We had decided to change tactics.
Well… he decided, and I nodded my head. Interviewing potential suspects one by one had been a trial by fire.
With the number of employees, it could take us weeks to get through them all.
For all we knew, we had already interviewed the mastermind and missed the signs.
Instead, we were going to spend the day reviewing security footage to see if we could find the common link between Cypher and Redford.
Find the link, and we could trace it back, or at least that’s what Booker hoped for.
“How else will the mystery get solved?”
He smirked before scanning his badge. Hydraulics hissed as the door to the security center opened. I gestured for him to lead. In this dynamic, I’d gladly play the part of sidekick. I also didn’t mind watching the way he sauntered with confidence.
Following him, I swore Booker still smelled of French roast and warm croissants.
Waking to an empty bed had become our thing.
After last night, I had been disappointed that he left early in the morning, but even as my brain tried to weaponize it, I remembered his touch.
To my surprise, he barged in the front door with coffee and baked goods.
He returned. I’d forever associate that smell with the way he explored my body.
“You must be Booker and Drew.” Lost in a memory, I hardly paid attention to the room.
Hellion would have already clocked every human, defense, and potential weapon.
I tried, but all I could focus on was the twelve-foot-wide screen that reached from floor to ceiling.
There were so many more cameras hidden within the building than I could have imagined.
“Janson.”
The security guard moved toward us with his hand extended. The six employees in the room wore matching white dress shirts, but none of them were as large as he was. As he walked, he kept himself small, not wanting to give away his size. His shirt must have been a size too large, hiding the bulk.
“It’s a pleasure,” Booker said.
He shook Booker’s hand and then moved to mine.
He squeezed. The subtle art of male dominance.
Not hard enough to be threatening, but enough to show he had the upper hand.
I returned the favor, except my strength was a mix of nightly patrols and supernatural might.
He flinched. I won. Janet would be proud.
“Ms. Keyes mentioned you’d be visiting. What can we help with?”
“We’re looking for…”
I wandered away from the conversation, moving closer to the screen.
It was broken into a hundred different windows, each one capturing a small section of the building.
Three women sat at a desk, now and then glancing up.
Orion always talked about what happened in the building as if he were an all-seeing god.
Now I understood how he did it. If he were here, what would the computers be whispering to him?
“Wait,” I said.
The woman closest to me looked up. “Can I help you?” I couldn’t tell if she was being genuine or if sarcasm dripped into her voice.
Her eyes hovered at the intersection of brown and orange, only made brighter by her dark skin.
When she spotted the badge clipped to my shirt, her tone softened. “What do you need, sugar?”
I couldn’t fathom how they scanned the fast-switching images and took in what they saw. Apparently, they were missing things, or they’d have spotted a man wearing robotic tentacles as he left the building. We’d get to that, but first I had to indulge a curiosity.
“Can you make that square bigger?” Fourth from the bottom, third from the right. A small, empty room.
With the flick of a finger, the square enlarged until it covered the entire screen.
Empty except for cleaning supplies. It was one of the many side rooms in the building that the janitors used to snag their supplies.
I recognized the purple polka-dotted tie hanging off a stack of paper towels. I tried to keep a straight face.
“This is a weird question, but how far back do you—”
Both her hands swiped through the air, not so different from Orion when he worked. If she weren’t wearing black gloves, I’d have assumed we had another technopath on our hands.
“What’s going on?” Booker rested a hand on my shoulder. I fought the instinct to touch his fingers. “You think the janitor’s closet is tied to this?”
Time moved in reverse. Janitors walked in and out. She made another swipe of her hands. I snorted out loud. I recognized the back of Arthur’s head. The video played forward, and for a moment, we couldn’t see Ricardo.
“Oh, the sex closet,” Janson said. “Yeah.” He didn’t sound thrilled.
Booker’s fingers tightened as Arthur moved to his knees. “Okay, that’s enough of that.”
The image froze. I reached out with a fist, and the woman bumped knuckles. She shot me a wink. “We see everything.”
“Can’t wait for tomorrow’s huddle,” I whispered. “But wait, if you see everything, how did Redford go undetected?” My curiosity might have led to an actual question.
“This is why, sugar.” My new friend flipped her hands about until a black tile filled the screen. “The feed for his lab is blank.”
“Erased?” asked Booker.
“No,” Janson said. “It never recorded. It was corrupted at the source.”
“How did he know to do that?” Booker asked.
“If you think my people had something to do with it, you’re sorely mistaken.
” Booker had wounded Janson’s professional pride.
“We’re compensated for our discretion. If we wanted to turn a profit, we’d resort to blackmail or selling information to the media.
” Jason turned to face us, his face neutral.
“The world would love to know our CEO had superpowers, and that’s not even the most interesting intel we’ve seen.
” His eyes flickered in my direction for a split second.
Janson knew. He probably referenced Tint, but what about Hellion? Suddenly, the flex of strength with the handshake felt foolish.
“We’re on the same side.” I jumped in. “Redford makes them look just as bad. We all want the same answers.”
Janson nodded. “Agreed. Sophie, help these men with whatever they need.”
He walked away, and Booker spun about. “Call me curious. Who do you report to?”
“Ricardo,” he said. “Him and only him.”
Curious question. Booker had a theory. I could almost hear him trying to connect the dots. It wasn’t so different when Orion broke out the red string and ran to one of his conspiracy boards. We’d need to have a conversation when there were fewer eyes.
“Sophie, is there any way for somebody to hack the feeds?”
She shook her head. “We’d have noticed an external entry.”
“It had to be in the lab?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
He moved to the front of her terminal. “Just so I can put it out of my head. There is no way—” His eyes widened, staring at me. “—for somebody to hack your security?”
Her head tipped to the side. “No computer is impenetrable. But I assure you, we have preventive measures in place. It’d take a super genius to hack this system.”
Oh.
I took a slight step back out of Sophie’s line of sight.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my cell phone.
Booker wasn’t making casual conversation.
He had thrown down the gauntlet and relied on me for bringing in the cavalry.
Janson obviously knew our secrets—did Sophie?
At this point, Booker must have had suspicions about why I had access to somebody capable of breaking into Synergy's security system.
Drew: Connor, I need your help.
Connor: Everybody does.
We’d need to have another talk about the arrogance. Just because he was the smartest person in the room, he didn’t need to remind us.
Drew: Can you figure out why Redford’s security footage is missing?
Connor: Sophie’s good. For a human.
Drew: How do you know Sophie?
Connor: She plays League of Heroes with me.
Of course, she did.
Drew: We’ll be over in a few.
Connor: This feels like an email situation.
I gave Booker a nod. If only I could climb inside his head and hear his thoughts right now. How close was he to figuring out I worked with a team of misfits willing to bend the law for the common good?
“Sophie, could we have somebody inspect the camera itself?” Booker asked.
She turned in her chair and smirked. The blood-red lipstick emphasized the curl of the lip. “Tell Connor we raid at eight.”
“Uh.” How did she know? Maybe these humans weren’t as bad at their jobs as Connor thought. “I’ll let him know.”
Booker moved, putting a hand in the small of my back, pushing me along. We had come busting into the security office, and now we retreated with our tails between our legs. He waved to Janson as we reached the door. He leaned close, whispering, “They’re good.”
Maybe, but I’d bet they weren’t Connor good.
“I need to prepare you.”
My anxiety continued to rise as we waited for the elevator to the third floor.
It was one thing to whip out my phone and call one of the guys, but taking Booker to the office?
A man as perceptive as him would know something was off.
From Janet’s sexual harassment to Wyatt’s frequent “Earthling” comments, there was no way he wouldn’t figure out our collective secret.