by C. L. Stone
Brandon didn’t reply, but I caught the edge of his smile in the darkness, and his arm threaded around my shoulders, holding onto me.
North pulled the car up to the gate, said two words to security, and then the gate opened and the car rolled forward.
Moments later, we were at the front of the house we’d spied on earlier. The house was lit up, the yard was full of guests. Cars were dropping off people by the driveway and then moving on into the night.
“We’re lucky this wasn’t some sort of small family event,” Brandon said. “Or some quiet affair.”
“What kind of party is it?” I asked, eyeing the guests as they walked up to the front door. North pulled up behind another driver dropping off guests, stopped the car, and ran around to open the door on my side first.
“A wedding reception,” Brandon said as he slid out behind me. “We can pretend to be on the husband’s side. The employees at his company were invited to attend.”
Mr. Murdock was getting married? I guess he didn’t realize two teams were trying to break into his precious illegal cell phone service. It seemed pretty ballsy to have hordes of guests at the same location where your core was.
Standing outside, the chill prickled my skin. I glanced once at North, who remained quiet, but studied me in my dress once and then looked away.
He didn’t look like a driver. He was barely our age, maybe younger. It was hard to tell. He had such a serious expression.
Get out while you still can. It was the only thing I could really think to say to him, but couldn’t say out loud. He didn’t need to be in the middle of this.
Brandon took my hand, guiding me up the sidewalk. North moved quickly back into the driver’s seat, and the car followed the line and turned around to leave. Brandon focused ahead. I tried to do the same, ignoring the desire to slide back into the car and run off and not go into the lion’s den. Think of Axel. Think of Marc. Do this for them.
The wedding reception was mostly inside the house. This made me nervous. We did need to be inside, but this meant more eyeballs and the increased chance we might be noticed trying to sneak around.
Fortunately, the party itself was packed. There was a formal parlor that had been cleared of furniture and in the corner, a string quartet played instrumental versions of popular songs. People held onto tiny plates of finger food and flutes of champagne. There was a pile of wedding gifts stacked up on one large table in the front entryway. Attendants all wore black suits and white gloves.
“Blake didn’t have a quartet,” Brandon said to me as we dove into the thickest part of the crowd.
“He had a band,” I said. I used our cover to study people and look around the house, searching for doors that had security panels. “I think that’s more than a quartet.”
“He didn’t have an ice sculpture,” Brandon said.
“Yes, he did,” I said, although I couldn’t really remember. I just wanted to contradict him. Why were we comparing parties?
“This house is bigger,” he said.
I looked around the house. “Yes,” I said, noting the rooms were large and open compared to Blake’s old-fashioned house. “But Blake’s house is an antique built two hundred years ago. This one is new. And why do you care whose house is bigger? Is this a guy thing?”
Brandon grunted as he scanned the room. His hand covering mine tightened. “I don’t know,” he said. “Just ignore me.”
What was it about parties that made him agitated? I tried to forget about it. I focused, trying to figure out where I’d hide a core in my own home. I didn’t even know who Murdock was. Corey had said he had dark hair but I hadn’t seen a picture.
My first goal was to identify security. Most obvious were the attendants wearing dark suits and standing along the sidelines. Their eyes surveyed lazily. Occasionally they leaned in and commented to a passerby, but otherwise, they looked bored.
Two were positioned at the foot of the stairwell. Brandon and I circled most of the downstairs rooms, but it seemed, aside from the busy kitchen, all the rooms were open to party guests as spill over rooms since it was so crowded. The core couldn’t be downstairs.
“We need to get upstairs,” I said to Brandon. “If they’re guarding the stairwell, it’s probably up there somewhere.”
“I know,” he said. “There has to be another way up. Even if I distract security guards, you’ll be exposed going up, and the ones on the other side of the room are watching.”
I studied the space. The majority of people were eating from the buffet that was set up in the dining room. If there were a back stairwell, then maybe it was beyond the kitchen. “Do you think there’s two stairs?”
Brandon bit his lip. He pulled out his cell phone and typed into it. He got an immediate reply from Corey and showed it to me. “Yeah,” he said.
Corey: Beyond the kitchen, behind door number two on the right.
“Ask him if there’s a bathroom that way.”
Brandon typed in a message and Corey confirmed there was.
“Good,” I said. I went to the buffet table and took a champagne glass. “I’m going to go pretend the downstairs restrooms are full.”
Brandon eyeballed the glass. “We shouldn’t separate.”
“You need to keep an eye on the guards. If they come after me, try to stall them. Or stay behind if somehow I get kicked out.”
Brandon pursed his lips and looked around. “Kayli…I really don’t want you going alone.”
I didn’t want to, either, but I was a girl sneaking upstairs, and I could pull off looking like I was tipsy and had gotten curious. If Brandon came along, it might be harder to explain.
To ease his mind, and to quell my own nerves, I got up on my toes and kissed his cheek.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “I’ll just find the ‘kids should stay out’ room. I won’t go in.”
He frowned but then kissed my mouth quickly. His eyes held my gaze after, and he squeezed my hand. “Ten minutes,” he said, “or I’m coming after you.”
“Fifteen,” I said. “And no heroics if the guards kick me out.”
“No getting kicked out,” he said.
I left him, turning a couple times to look back. He picked up his own champagne, and while he tried not to be obvious, his eyes kept watching me.
I dove through a small group of people chatting, smiling and saying excuse me. Everyone was dressed up and laughing, gossiping and drinking and eating. I wondered how many of them were in on the illegal phone service.
The kitchen was organized chaos, with a kitchen manager in a white suit barking directions to chefs and attendants dropping off empty plates and champagne glasses, only to pick up trays of food and clean dishes and get sent back out again.
I was trying to slip in behind an attendant when the kitchen manager pointed at me. “Miss!” he cried out. “You’re not supposed to be back here.”
“Sorry!” I clamored. “There’s a restroom back here, isn’t there? The other ones are occupied…and I need to change my pad.” Want to ensure men got out of your way and gave you access to the bathroom? Talk about your period.
The kitchen manager’s face stiffened. “Uh, sure,” he pointed to the door at the far end. “There’s one back there.”
I thanked him, and smiled pleasantly at others nearby. After I got to the door, they resumed their jobs.
In the back hallway, there were several doors. I followed Corey’s instructions, finding a hallway behind a door and heading up.
The second floor carried an echo from downstairs, which made me paranoid, as I couldn’t hear if anyone else occupied the floor. It also meant I couldn’t hear someone sneaking up behind me, like a security guard, or the owner.
Still, I tiptoed my way through the hall, taking a long detour to avoid the main staircase, and avoid being seen. The hallway had a thick carpet. That was good for me. It kept me from clomping about in my low heels. It was also cluttered, with potted plants and framed pictures. It might have been a pa
rty house, but it sure looked like someone lived here. The pictures were of the same family, the more recent looking ones with a lot of adult siblings with a few smaller kids and a stern looking elder man in the center. I wondered if that was Mr. Murdock. Maybe the wedding wasn’t for him, but for one of the grown kids.
Most of the doors along the hallway were closed, save for a couple of bathrooms. A big set of doors at the end of the hallway looked suspicious at first, but when I peeked inside, I spotted a large bed: the master bedroom.
Most other rooms were bedrooms, and one was an upstairs office. Even inside it, there was a plain-looking computer. I shook the mouse, and it instantly opened up to reveal a browser on today’s news. The history was email boxes, bank websites, the stock market, news, and YouTube videos of cats and dogs.
The desk drawers were surprisingly clean. The bills had the real estate name on the front. I looked for Murdock’s first name from all the envelopes, and I got a variety: Trisha, Ethan, Gregory, Harold. I wasn’t sure which one was the Grandpa Murdock in the photos.
I was going to steal some of the mail, but I didn’t exactly have a place to stuff it, and wasn’t sure how helpful it would be. I did find a cell phone bill, which was interesting and ironic. I guess you couldn’t own an underground cell phone service and fake having a normal cell phone. I grabbed the bill, hiked up my dress, and stuck it in the waistband of my underwear. Maybe tracking that phone number would help. I’d have to get it to Corey somehow.
The rest of the floor didn’t hold anything interesting. The core wasn’t on this floor.
I pursed my lips, glancing back toward the main stairs. They were they only way up to the third floor. I’d have to use them without alerting the guards. Sneaking around wasn’t my area of expertise. Plus, I wasn’t sure how much time I had left, and worried Brandon might do something stupid and chase after me. I should have told him twenty minutes.
I slipped the heels off my feet.
I couldn’t imagine what Brandon was doing. It unnerved me that he was out of sight. It was how I had lost Axel and Marc. Still, he was in the middle of a crowd. It’s not like Alice could get her thugs to knock him out and cart him off. Not even Eddie would risk it.
Alice did manage to get Axel and Marc out of the aquarium, though.
I already didn’t like not knowing what I was hunting for. It made it more difficult to steal. Or break into.
I did my own version of tiptoeing down the hall, crouching when I got close to the stairs to avoid being seen. I contemplated how I would sneak up the stairs, but then, I decided it was probably best to not make it look like I’m sneaking around. Best to just move as quickly and quietly as normal.
I peered over the line of sight where the guards were downstairs. I waited until I was sure they weren’t looking and started heading up.
I was on the start of the third stair, turned and then just when I made it to the third step I heard a male voice.
“Hey!”
I started to dash upward a couple more steps. Whoever it was, maybe he wasn’t talking to me.
“You! Hang on a second!”
I stilled. Curses escaped my mouth. I should have been better. I could have gone faster. I was going to get kicked out. Brandon will have to find a way. At least I was pretty sure the core was upstairs.
I turned, ready to face a guard, holding the flute of champagne to my lips, ready to pretend I was drunk and lost.
I focused on the first set of stairs, but the guards had their backs turned, looking bored. Had they said something to someone else?
From down the hallway on the second floor came a man. He was in his thirties, with dark hair, a lighthearted grin, and wearing a dark suit, but different from the attendants. It was much more formal. A partygoer?
He looked at me inquisitively. I supposed he must have been the one to ask me to stop. Instead of answering at all, I stared back.
He approached the stair, stopping at the first step. “You’re Janet’s daughter, aren’t you? Little Angela? God, I haven’t seen you in years. When did you grow up?”
My lips parted. He was mistaking me for someone else? It was a better excuse than I could come up with. “Oh,” I said slowly, and then forced a smile. “You remember me?”
“You don’t think your Cousin Ethan would forget about you?” His smile broadened and he opened his arms wide. “Come give me a hug.”
My spine rippled. Ethan Murdock. One of the kids. This was way deeper into the lie than I wanted to go, but it was way too late now. Angela must have been a good enough likeness that I could get away with playing that role, but it wouldn’t take too many questions from him to prove I wasn’t her.
I faked a smile and slowly moved down the steps, spreading my arms a bit.
Cousin Ethan hugged me tightly around the middle. I tried to return the hug but it was awkward I gave him a little pat.
He released me, looking at my face. “Were you exploring? You always did run off to poke around the house when you were younger, too.”
“I...” It was on the tip of my tongue to say something else, but I changed my mind and nodded. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.”
“No need to be shy,” he said, coming up the steps ahead of me now. He gestured to the top of the stairs. “Have you seen the observatory? I think it’s my favorite.”
Did he live here? This could be extremely dangerous if he did own this core.
Might as well...
I hopped up the steps beside him, forcing my eyes wide and trying to look curious. “I saw all the windows,” I said. “Can you see far?”
Ethan nodded. “I hate to say, you can peek into the neighborhood. Just be careful where you look. You’ll get way more than an eyeful.” He made a gross face and then laughed. “Did you graduate from high school yet? How’s Aunt Janet?”
“She’s fine,” I said, going with the flow, and also feeling a sink in my heart. I realized now that if the owner was Ethan, and if Ethan was willing to let little cousin Angela into this observatory, then it probably wasn’t where this core was either. I was wasting time. “I shouldn’t take too long, or take you away from the party.”
He waved his hand. “What? Like they can’t handle themselves?”
Or they might try to sneak in and steal your stuff. I shrugged and followed. If Brandon came to look for me now, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Ethan seemed friendly.
We cleared the stairs to a third-story landing. This one was just a small foyer-like space, with walls all around and a single door.
The door had a security pad next to it.
Bingo! It did have security. The core must be here! He’d let me in? Wouldn’t he want to keep the core a secret?
Ethan went to the security pad and then typed in a number. I watched, memorizing the sequence in my head, repeating it again and again to remember it.
Ethan opened the door and stepped in and then to the side to allow me space to enter.
The observatory was big. I didn’t know what an observatory was supposed to be. I could only picture a Clue game board and I wondered where the candlestick was.
The foyer area we left was the only walled off section of the third floor. The rest of the space was an open floor. The room was designed to give ample viewing of the large windows surrounding us. The room itself was mostly seating arrangements overlooking every possible angle. Low sofas, and coffee tables were clustered together. The air was cooler up here, reflecting the temperature outside. The light was minimal, and across the floor in low lamps.
The view was impressive. While I’d seen higher up over Charleston at the apartment, the house overlooked the ocean, some of the neighbors’ homes, and over the trees to look out toward John’s Island.
I surveyed the area. There were telescopes positioned near different windows. Among the clutter of furniture, I looked for a computer, a server, a locked safe. Anything.
Ethan moved ahead of me to one of the telescopes. He pointed the eyepie
ce and then gestured for me to come closer. “Come take a look,” he said.
I couldn’t get out of it. If I got the dime tour done with quickly, he’d have to go back to his party. Or maybe if I stayed up here long enough, and acted interested, he’d give me a chance to snoop around on my own. Nothing in the room looked like a core. No electronic doodad computer that Corey could fiddle with. Wouldn’t a core need a huge server to store data? Or to operate at all? Alice presumed Corey knew more about this, but I wasn’t sure even Corey would have been able to figure out exactly where this thing was. I was starting to wonder if it was even up here at all.
Then why have a security panel on the door?
I moved to the telescope and looked through it. It was pointed at the ocean. There was a ship out in the distance, and a couple of stars off the shoreline. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud.
“So what are you doing these days?” he asked while I was looking. “Going to work for your cousin, aren’t you? Come work for me?”
“I don’t know what I could do,” I said. I stood, finding Ethan standing nearby with a light smile. I felt a pang of guilt since I was lying to him, plus here to steal his core if I could. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know why he started the core, or why it had to be illegal and underground. He was showing his little cousin the observatory during a wedding reception he was hosting. Despite what I might have been thinking, he didn’t seem that bad. He didn’t look like a bad guy or a killer. Maybe I didn’t know what a core looked like, but I could read people, and Ethan Murdock was a good guy.
Still, if he had a core at all, I just needed to know so I could steal it, or use it to trade to save lives. Hopefully when the dust cleared, Mr. Murdock wasn’t going to get into trouble.
“You’re the artist,” he said. “We’ve got an advertising department if you’re interested.” He motioned to another of the telescopes, one looking out across St. John’s. “Want to see the other ones? That one’s probably my favorite.”