Chapter 37 #2
He’d already assigned who was with whom, so I move to Kellan’s side and lightly shake Sam’s arm.
“Sam. Sam,” I urge in a whisper. We have Alice and four of her siblings to help us sneak in and out undetected.
Thankfully, Alice was the only one who hadn’t known how to make other people invisible, so there was no training required.
I rub his back and then pat it a little harder. “Sam. Wake up.” He drags his eyelids open, looking like I’d pulled him from a deep sleep. “Hey. Can you stand? It’s time to move.”
Sam starts to nod and gets caught in a yawn.
Kellan’s already crouched because of the low ceiling, so it’s easy for Sam to climb off when he’s ready. I help make sure he’s balanced before letting go. Aside from Kellan and his invisible partner, we’re the only ones left. They vanish almost as soon as Sam is on his feet.
“Are you ready?” I hold my elbow out to Sam.
He takes it, his hold soft and light.
“You can hold on tighter,” I tell him, worried his hand will slip if I move faster than him.
His grip tightens—barely—but I leave it alone. I shouldn’t be racing around if we're invisible anyway. The rest of the group slowly comes into view, a thin, translucent veil shimmering over them, telling me they’re invisible and I am too.
Aiden leads the way, climbing the ladder and unlocking the door. He pushes it aside, then climbs out with his invisible partner latched to his leg. The rest of us follow a pair at a time. Sam switches hands to my lower leg as we ascend the ladder, then back to my arm again when we’re out.
We’re in one of the kitchen storage rooms on the Guild Hall floor. The lights in the ceiling are dim like nightlights. It’s enough for us to see each other since our eyes are already adjusted to the dark. I scrunch my nose at the foul smell. The food inside is spoiled.
We move in a line through the kitchen and bar to the open Guild Hall before the teams separate.
There are five devices we need to acquire; one for each of us.
Dane and Alice are picking up the controller device that he’ll use to deactivate the rest before they can move them.
They move in the direction of the infirmary while Kellan, Aiden, and Jack’s team take the stairwell to the other floors.
Sam and I walk through the Guild Hall to the far end corner.
There’s enough moonlight pouring through the glass wall and half-dome ceiling that we can see fairly well.
Tucked in the dirt of a potted plant is a black box the size of my hand with wires and things sticking out of it haphazardly like it was just thrown together. A green light blinks at us.
“Who’s there?”
A light sweeps over us, and I freeze. Sam looks over his shoulder, then squeezes my arm. I turn, and the security guard is walking straight toward us.
Fuck.
Are we not invisible?
I look at my hands, but they still have that weird shine to them that says I am.
The guard gets closer, his flashlight moving back and forth over the area we’re in as if he’s searching for something here.
Did we mess up?
There’s a low, flatline beep that makes all three of us pause to listen.
The green light is now a solid red light.
Dane’s deactivated them.
A heads up that it would make noise would have been nice, Dane.
“What in the hell—” The guard pulls a radio from his hip.
Fuck a duck.
Sam lightly pulls my arm, dragging my attention from the other man to see where he’s trying to get me to go. He brings us around the back of the potted plants while the guard starts talking on the radio.
“Hey, I might’ve got something here. Meet me on floor eleven. Yeah. The place with all the plants.”
The guard strolls up to the potted tree just as Sam’s hand covers the box. He doesn’t grab it or move it, just holds his hand there as the guard leans forward to inspect the pot.
“I swear I saw something,” he mutters, moving branches aside and looking at the other pots around it.
Sam carefully extracts the box—slower than a sloth, it feels like—until it’s free from the dirt. He makes it just in time before the guard starts rooting around the dirt, mumbling to himself. The guard stares right through us to the wall and floor, looking around.
He brings his radio back to his face. “Never mind, I—”
Crashing echoes from the hallway. Where the offices are and...
...the infirmary.
Dane!
The security guard takes off running. I pull Sam up and grab his hand, taking him with me as I race after him.
He taps my arm repeatedly. I ignore it at first, the worry for Dane taking over, before I finally realize he’s trying to say something.
Looking at him, he puts a finger to his lips, then points to my feet.
Right.
I slow enough that I can better control my steps. Heel to toe. Fast, but quiet.
We turn the corner down the hallway and nearly crash into a running Dane and Alice. I grab his shirt and push his chest at the same time as he grips my shoulder. Then he points behind us. Go back?
A text message alert rings between us.
“What was that?” a guard asks another, who grunts back.
Dane shoots a glare at Alice. She’s trying to get her phone out of her pocket with the hand that’s already holding the controller device while still holding Dane. It dings again. And again.
The sound of heavy footsteps picks up to a jog.
“Fuck’s sake,” Dane mutters under his breath.
I can only hear him because we’re nearly standing on top of one another.
He pushes my shoulder to turn me around and get us moving.
I do, holding Sam tight as we quietly run to the kitchen and storage room to wait for the others.
Dane and Alice have their device, and we have ours, so we need to get the fuck away from the guards before something else tells them we’re here.
I close the doors to the kitchen and the storage room, then turn on Alice. She’s given the controller to Dane as she taps on her cell phone, her eyes scanning the message there.
“How could you have left the volume on?” Dane hisses.
She shoves the screen in his face for him to read. I shift against him to read it, too. The sender’s name says Tobias. The first text is a date and time. The second, a string of numbers I’m guessing are coordinates. And the last text...
You forgot one.
“Dad,” she whispers as the door to the storage room flies open.