Chapter 19
caitlyn
Nobody was explaining anything to me. Petra’s answers earlier had only made everything more complicated, more confusing.
I was ready to accept it, to just sit back and let it play out how it was going to, to trust Petra and Vera—the Blackbirds—and trust that they would tell me everything I needed to know in due time.
And then an assassin crashed my sister’s wedding and nearly killed her.
It was a solid hour afterwards where I couldn’t calm down, my memory seared with the image of the blade flashing through the air, the moment where I thought I was going to watch Elaine die. And then Vera’s blood spilling over the floor…
My sister-in-law, now.
And nobody would tell me anything after it happened, either. I could understand why. The others were more focused on each other, and on Elaine. She was the most important one in all this.
But this awful feeling in my chest wouldn’t go away as I sat alone in my room, heart pounding.
So I opened my laptop. Petra had told me enough that I could work it out, and the house here had its own encrypted network, probably with its own databases. If I could just figure out the right database injection…
I started typing. It would take me a while to get into the network, but I had all day. Eventually, I found it—not the encryption key, but a network address for a device I could hard-reset to gain access.
Another woman had arrived, a Blackbird physician called Jenna, and the others were all in a room together. Nobody ever suspected the kid.
So while their attention was busy with the physician, I slipped out of my room.
The stairs were the first hurdle. The device was in the basement, and my legs were already feeling wobbly from the stress of the day, but I clung to the railing and put as much weight on the banister as I could, taking breaks to rest my legs as I went down.
Pain seared up hotly through my legs as I pushed myself onward, but the questions in my head burned hotter.
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, in front of the door for the basement stairs, leaning on a table and catching my breath. Rolling my ankles to keep the burning sensation down, steadying myself, and I jumped when I heard Petra’s voice from behind me.
“Where do you think you’re off to?”
“Oh—er—” Panic shot up in my chest, but I cooled it.
She was just teasing. She was a playful person, and she didn’t mean it really how it sounded.
I shot her a nervous smile. “I just wanted to see more of the house. I got too nervous sitting in the room… I felt like someone was going to come in the window and jump me.”
She put a hand on my shoulder, nodding. “It’s a lot to witness.”
“I guess you’ve probably… seen things like it a lot.”
“Seen it a lot, yeah. Caused it even more. But I haven’t killed anybody. I like to keep it that way.” She relaxed. “So, where you headed? I can help you.”
“I think I just need a minute to my own devices,” I said, hoping the nervous quiver didn’t show in my voice. When Petra narrowed her eyes a fraction, I said, “I hate feeling powerless and stuck in one place.”
She softened, and she took a small clip-on radio from her pocket, pressing it into my hand, her larger and more callused hand firm on mine.
“Use this to call me if you need help,” she said.
“If you fall or just get tired. Needing help sometimes doesn’t mean you’re powerless.
And you can fly further if you have someone to catch you when you fall. ”
“I… thank you.”
“Don’t get into trouble,” she said, mussing my hair, and I laughed nervously as she continued on out of the room, back towards Elaine and the others. I waited a while before I clutched the radio tightly, and I slipped it into the table drawer before I continued on.
It had to have a tracker. If she confronted me, I’d… I’d say I forgot it.
The basement door was heavy, but I got it open and crept down the stairs, stopping to sit for a bit on the landing, and finally I got to the bottom, where I knocked along the walls listening for the resonance of wiring.
I’d done it before in Mom’s house—when she got a smart lock for my door to keep me inside while she went out drinking, and then forgot about the lock, I had to get into the wall and disable it to get out.
This wasn’t too different. Eventually, I tracked it to a panel that looked like it was just a regular utility panel, but there wasn’t enough there to explain the number of wires that led to it.
I felt around inside until something unlatched, and I slid open a secret compartment with an electronic keypad.
I’d read about this model, though. I hooked up my phone to the rear data port, and I hopped online to grab the crack, running it off my phone.
After a second, the keypad screen reset, and it asked me to input a new passcode, and I punched in 3769, confirmed it, and then when it asked for the passcode, I entered it one last time, and it beeped and clicked before the whole wall shifted.
“Score,” I laughed, detaching my phone from the keypad as the wall slid open. On the inside, it looked like a server room on one half, tall computer towers humming, and a weapons locker on the other half, handguns on the wall.
I hit a button on the inside to shut the door quietly behind me. I shrugged off my shoulder bag, setting it up at a worktable, and I collapsed on the stool, my legs burning so hot I couldn’t feel my feet anymore.
I slid my laptop from the bag, opening it up and running a device scan.
The router name and model popped up quickly, and I scanned the room until I spotted it on another wall.
I groaned at the distance, and I gripped the chair and waddled it over to the router instead of walking.
I looked silly, but if anyone could see me, I had bigger problems than looking silly.
I reset the router, adjusting the connection settings until it blinked, and I shuffled back over to my laptop, searching for connections. It worked for a second before it flashed that it connected, and my heart sped up when I saw the admin access point open.
I got it. A massive database… on Blackbird activities.
Oh my God. This thing was probably worth millions, tens of millions. If anyone found out I’d gotten access, I was dead. What had gotten into me?
I shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t help the feeling that it was either this, or… my sister.
I tightened my hands on the keyboard. No way out but through.
I still didn’t have direct access, but I could send some database commands, and I poked at it carefully until I found something that had my heart pounding.
The South Yard. Under a project called Horizon, spearheaded by Glenn Levin, who had the highest status level in the organization. South Yard was listed as the final acquisition for the project.
“No way,” I breathed, my hands shaky as I sifted through the files. A sick feeling welled in my stomach.
Everything Petra had said about the weapons logistics system was true. Every word of it except one.
Except Whitecliff.
No. This was a Blackbird project.
They wanted the South Yard. They wanted to build the Horizon plant, ordered directly by the Blackbird boss.
Which meant the marriage… so that Vera would be the inheritor if Elaine died…
They were going to kill her. And me too, now that I knew.
Sick with panic, I let my gaze drift across the room.
The handguns on the wall.