Chapter 59
elaine
I should have been panicked and terrified, but I didn’t know how to be when I was next to Vera. I knew nothing in the world could hurt me as long as I was next to her, and I went alongside her without so much as a flinch.
The entry point was clear, just as she’d planned, and I kept watch while she set up the small explosives parcel.
We slipped downstairs and pressed into a utility room together as she drew the detonator, and she hit the button to a muffled blast from upstairs.
The pipes rattled around us as water started gushing on the next floor, and she hit a button on the radio, sending out silent signals, and we moved carefully as Vera led me through the complex and deeper towards the basement.
She was a force of nature once we were in action.
When we encountered a guarded door, she cut open the wall in the next room and sliced a knot of wires, making the electronics in the next room shut down and sending them out of the room to investigate.
We got down to the basement and got jumped by an armed guard who didn’t even get time to point his gun before Vera swept his feet out from under him, wrenched the gun from his hands, and she had his arms tied behind his back and a muffle over his mouth before he could say a word. She handed me the gun.
“Don’t try to shoot anything unless I’ve given you a signal. Just use it to scare people.”
“That, I can do.”
A heavy door locked with a key stopped us before long, but I kept on sentry duty while Vera picked the lock, and we got through into a musty hallway that smelled like old documents, the room needlessly ornate with thick red carpet and decorative columns.
Above us, a muffled explosion sound rang through the air, and Vera stopped, leaning against the wall and activating her radio.
Rail’s voice came through as soon as she turned it on.
“Yulia’s inside the building. We have eighty percent of the Blackbird force accounted for and occupied at least twenty minutes away from headquarters, and the assault has started.”
“Petra?” Vera said. “How’s Caitlyn faring?”
Petra’s voice crackled through. “She’s looking grouchy.”
The rustling said Caitlyn had just grabbed the radio from her.
“They took the bait. Sent the key operatives to intercept the north route out of the city for the times I was looking up. But I’m trying to get in now and…
they’re good. It doesn’t help that this system is ancient. Nothing’s working the way it should.”
“Glenn doesn’t like updating devices. Try the old administrator key, AJK12749B116.”
“Jesus—you’re going to have to repeat that. How old is that?”
“Six years ago. August 12th. Administrator credentials for it were Adam Rand, system code 23643266.”
“Hold onto that. That’s going to help.” I heard her tapping from the other side. “Okay… okay. That worked. Just a little bit, but enough to compromise the system. I’m shutting down the automatic response system, but this thing is getting unplugged as soon as I do, so don’t miss the moment.”
Vera looked at me. I nodded, and she turned back to the radio. “We’re in position. Pull the plug.”
I heard her hit a key with finality. “Systems offline. Overloaded with enough junk they should be… fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes to burn this thing to the ground,” Vera said, drawing her gun and approaching the door at the end of the hall. “That should be plenty.”
My heart hammered as we kept on down the hall, a sick sensation of worry pressing hard into my chest.
We were this close. Just one thing…
But I couldn’t shake this awful feeling creeping in the back of my mind.
Vera pressed herself up against the archive door, her eyes narrowed, and I saw the reaction in the split second before it was too late.
An explosion blew the door open from the other side, throwing Vera off her feet as smoke billowed out through the hall, heavy in my lungs and choking me as Vera picked herself up off the floor, up to one knee, but not before a gunshot rang from the smoke and ripped the sleeve of her jacket, a plume of blood from her arm as she let out an angry cry, clutching the wound.
A figure emerged from the smoke, and a cold sensation dropped in my stomach as it cleared enough for me to make it out.
Quayle, his gun in hand, eyes fixed on Vera. And behind him, at the entrance to the archive, was Glenn, his arms folded, a sick smile on his face.
“I appreciate the delivery service,” Glenn said. “Bringing Elaine directly to me… maybe you’re more considerate than I thought, Farkas. As thanks, I’ll have you killed quickly and mercifully. Quayle.”
He held up his gun. I moved without thinking, lunging in front of Vera with my arms out to shield her.
A gun barrel gleamed as I stared down it, just like that first night, when Whitecliff assassins cornered me in that lot and held me at gunpoint.
But this time, I wasn’t afraid.