by Gini Koch
“Show off.”
White and Jeff both laughed. “It’s not as difficult for us to land well,” White explained, while Jeff cajoled Vance down the ladder.
“Who’s going to catch me?” Vance asked.
“No one,” I replied. “Because you’ll like it too much.”
“Bitch.”
“You know it. Hurry up, Vance. It’s going to be Christmas by the time you reach the rest of us.”
He got to about where Oliver had jumped, whimpered audibly, and leaped. Lorraine and White grabbed his arms and pulled him fully onto the top of the walkway. “That was the most pathetic jump I’ve ever seen,” Lorraine said.
“Whatever. My God, is this what you people do for fun?”
Jeff grinned and took my hand. “Buddy up with the humans,” he said to Lorraine and Claudia. Then he took off for the Embassy. Showing judgment, Lorraine and Claudia both took a hold of Oliver. White grabbed Vance, and they all ran after us.
Since we were going at hyperspeed, we reached the Embassy in about two seconds. However, we now only had to get up five floors. The wisdom of this gambit was eluding me.
“There’s the fire escape,” Vance said. “And does that pill the doctor gave me kick in late or what? I want to barf.”
“That’s from you getting upset over the jumping,” Oliver said. “You’d be much worse without Doctor Hernandez’s cure.”
“You have a bottle of pills, MJO?”
“I acquired some, yes.”
Chose not to ask him how. “Super. Um, Jeff? What’s the plan now?”
The fire escape wasn’t as conveniently placed as the one at the Zoo. We had to leap over from the top of the walkway a good ten feet. I wasn’t liking our odds.
“Who’s first?” Jeff asked. “I think it has to be me or Richard.”
“You go, Jeffrey,” White said. “You’re the strongest and have the longest reach in case someone doesn’t jump well enough.”
Jeff kissed me and, without any hesitation, jumped to the fire escape. He made it without issue. “Come on, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll catch you again.”
As I backed up, contemplated whether to keep my heels on or not, decided I should since it wasn’t slippery here, and started to run, it dawned on me that Jeff was, despite the circumstances, having fun.
The leap wasn’t too bad—my track coaches had ensured every one of us could do every event, and I’d been okay with long jump—but Jeff was there to grab and catch me anyway. It wasn’t quite the same as when he caught me as I dropped from a great height, but it was still nice—two catches in one night. And, you know, the likelihood that I’d fall from up high was getting better with each passing moment. If I was clumsy enough, we could get a triple. Go us.
Started up the ladder as the others contemplated how to get Vance and Oliver across without worry. I reached the top while they were still discussing it. Conveniently, I had an easy answer.
“Hey guys! Someone went this way before and left us a path.” A sturdy rope was tied quite well to some metal on the roof, right over the walkway. Clearly my Assassination Uncles planned well.
Tossed the rope down while Jeff climbed up the fire escape using hyperspeed and then helped me hold the rope and help the others up. Oliver had a little trouble—Bellie flew off his shoulder to perch on Jeff’s, but apparently only so she could squawk enthusiastic encouragement.
Oliver up, Lorraine and Claudia went up next. They used hyperspeed and were up in no time. “This is so much more fun than that dinner party was,” Lorraine said with sincerity.
“Totally,” Claudia agreed. “Not that the party wasn’t nice, Kitty.”
“If you were into uncomfortable small talk and murder, it was great, yeah. What’s the holdup?” I shouted down to Vance and White, though I had a good guess.
“I wasn’t an athlete in school,” Vance shot back. “This is giving me horrible flashbacks from the parts of gym I didn’t like, which was all parts of it other than the locker room and showers.”
“Time’s wasting. Climb the rope or jump to the ladder. Or stay there and we’ll get you later.”
“You know, I think I want to stop being your friend.”
“You’re not actually in the Friend Zone yet, Vance.”
“Something to motivate me.” He started climbing up and either he was the best actor in the world, or he really sucked at this.
White shook his head. “This is embarrassing. Young man, let’s go for a version of the fireman’s carry, shall we?” He helped Vance down the whole two inches he’d managed to climb. Vance then got on White’s back, and they started up.
“You’re letting your uncle do the heavy lifting?”
Jeff shrugged. “He’s enjoying himself.”
“So are you.”
Jeff grinned. “Yeah, I am.” As White got nearer to the top, Jeff reached down and grabbed Vance’s shirt and jacket, and hauled him up. White zipped up the rest of the way.
“This has been, without a doubt, the least fun I’ve ever had breaking and entering,” Vance said. “So, now that we’re here the hard way, what’s next?”
“You know, I thought the Embassy was shielded. How is it we could climb up and are standing here?” Was so happy this had occurred to me now, as opposed to when we were on top of the walkway.
“It is,” Jeff said. “The shield means we can’t breach the building, not that we can’t stand on it.”
“If you say so.” Pulled out my burner phone and dialed again. This time, I could hear the ringing, too. “I think it’s coming from the other side of the roof.”
We trotted over toward the sound. “There,” Jeff said, as we neared the “room” that made up the roof entrance. There was a burner phone sitting on the ground where you’d see it if you opened the door from inside the Embassy. It was where the ringing was coming from, confirmed when I hung up my burner phone and dropped it back into my purse and the phone on the ground stopped ringing.
White grabbed us both before we could go to the phone on the ground. “There’s something, or someone, on the other side,” he said quietly.
Looked. Sure enough. Something was just visible at the “back” of the roof entrance room. Something that looked like it was hiding.
CHAPTER 40
JEFF SHOVED ME TO WHITE, motioned for all of us to get back, then ran over using hyperspeed. He stopped dead. He didn’t look scared, he looked shocked. “What are you two doing here?”
The rest of us chose to take that as meaning it was safe and joined him. To see Amy and Caroline, trussed up like Siamese Twin Turkeys, effective gags included. They were sitting back-to-back, arms at their sides, torsos expertly tied together. Their legs were straight out, also well tied. It would be close to impossible to move, unless they were both world-class gymnasts, which they weren’t.
“These knots are unreal,” Jeff said as he checked their bonds. “Hang on, it’s going to take a few minutes.”
Vance sighed, dug into his pants pocket, and produced a rather impressive Swiss Army knife. “This should help.”
“See?” I said to Lorraine and Claudia. “That’s why he’s along.” They still didn’t look convinced, but not as unconvinced as they had earlier. So that was something.
Jeff sawed the girls free in quick order, while Vance actually assisted with the gags. White picked up the burner phone and handed it to me. “This appears to be a phone. It seems your ‘family’ no longer wants you able to reach them.”
“I suppose.” Took the phone from him. Had a thought and checked. Sure enough, there was another number programmed in. “No. I think they wanted us to find Amy and Caroline.”
“They did,” Amy croaked. “Bastards.”
“They could have killed you. They didn’t. Call them Efficient Friends.”
Caroline nodded. She didn’t seem able to speak. White stepped away and made a call. I stepped away and tried to open the door to the roof.
I was enhanced, so I should have been able t
o rip it off its hinges if necessary. But I couldn’t even get the knob to turn. “So, I guess the building’s shield is really on.”
“Yes, handling, Missus Martini,” White said as an aside, still on his call. “The shield prevents you from entering, not touching, but it also repels intrusion. If you shove against the shielding you’ll bounce off.”
“I’ll take your word on that, thanks. Vance, you want to give it a go?”
“Like every other thing we’ve done since we walked outside, no.”
A thought occurred while White continued his quiet conversation I couldn’t hear even though I was trying to. “Mister White, could the building’s shield affect the scans? As in, we couldn’t tell Amy was here because she’s sitting on the shield?”
“It’s very possible. I’m handling something else right now, but I’ll check with Gladys once we have breathing room.”
“Sounds good.” Tried to let him continue uninterrupted. Failed. “If that’s the case, we’ll want a workaround.”
“I agree.” White hung up. “Ah, I believe we have our answer. Gladys just sent a text sharing the fact that she can see Amy near to me.”
“How does that prove anything one way or the other?”
White smiled. “Because Gladys saw her the moment the shield was turned off.”
The door opened and Jeremy Barone stepped out, followed by Len and Kyle. Jeremy looked surprised to see us all up here. Len and Kyle did not. Len and Kyle had worked with me a lot longer. Jeremy had two bottles of water, Len had two women’s coats, Kyle had my Converse.
“I love you, Mister White,” I said as I took my heels off and put my comfortable shoes on. The hell with fashion—if asked, I was bringing the tennis shoes and skirts look back.
While the girls were helped into their coats and drank their water, I decided it was time to figure out where My Favorite Uncles were. They clearly hadn’t left the roof via the Embassy’s interior.
Dialed the number on the new burner phone. This time the phone I was calling was answered. But no one said anything. “Hello?” I said finally.
“Ah, Miss Katt. I felt it would be you, but wanted to be sure.”
“Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on? Why was the phone I was supposed to be calling if I was in trouble left on the top of the Embassy?”
“I knew you’d find it.”
“Wow, you have a lot of faith in me.”
“I do. As do your friends.”
“Yeah, about that . . .”
“They are, as you’re surely determining, unharmed. Cold and uncomfortable, but unharmed.”
“What if we hadn’t figured out where they were?”
“If you had not called me within another hour, I would have called in an anonymous tip.”
“Okay.” I had no argument for this, since we’d found them and, per Jeff’s giving me the thumbs-up sign, clearly both girls were indeed okay. Lorraine and Claudia were doing some medical-type things with Amy and Caroline, but no one seemed worried. “Raul almost killed me. At least I’m pretty sure it was him.”
“Yes.” The Dingo sounded pissed. Which was kind of nice. “Your friends distracted us at a very poor time. That has been explained to them. In detail.”
“Great. I’d imagine they’ll never make that mistake again. Who wants to sit on the roof tied up for half the night?”
“It’s better than being murdered.”
“Yes, I’m in total agreement with you. So, where are you?”
“We’re somewhere very safe.”
“Good to know. Just out of curiosity, do you have any idea where Raul is?”
“No. He missed you tonight and the area became quite . . . crowded. He left well before we did.”
“Yeah, there were a lot of police all over the area.”
“There were a lot of your agents as well.”
Interesting. I hadn’t known that. Because Alpha Team didn’t tell us what we didn’t need to know.
“Well, great. So we don’t have to worry about Raul right now, then?”
“You should always be vigilant.” He paused for a moment. “Are you still on the roof?”
Saw no reason to lie. “Yes.”
“Why are you still on the roof?”
“We just found the girls and don’t know where you are.”
“We aren’t on your roof.” The Dingo had a point.
“True, but we also couldn’t get inside until just now.”
“Excuse me?”
“We climbed up from the outside.”
“I see. How many is ‘we’?”
“Seven of us. Well, now, really twelve of us.”
“You must make quite an interesting picture, a dozen people standing on the highest building in your area.”
“You just said we didn’t have to worry about Raul right now.”
“No, I said you needed to be vigilant. Standing outside on top of a high building is better than standing outside under a tall building, but not nearly as safe as being inside your very secure building.”
“We couldn’t get in. Before. But you’ll be glad to know we can now. And all that.” Vance tried to get inside. Jeremy prevented this.
“Someone’s opened the door?”
“Got it in one!”
“Good. Get inside.”
“Tell me where you are.”
He sighed. “I don’t want you bringing an army. It won’t help. I’ve given your friends some instructions. They’ll share them with you. Stay vigilant and keep your head down. We’ll be in touch. And please get inside—it’s going to rain soon.”
And with that, the Dingo hung up on me.
CHAPTER 41
“BYE,” I said to no one. Hung up and dropped the new burner phone into my purse along with the other burner and my actual phone. I looked like a cell phone hoarder. Or a drug dealer.
“What’s going on?” Jeff asked.
“I honestly have no freaking idea, but my ‘uncle’ says Amy and Caro Syrup have intel and that we should get off the roof before we receive it. So let’s do what he says and get inside.”
He’d also said it was going to rain. Sniffed. Didn’t smell like rain. Looked around. Didn’t look like rain, either. Maybe he’d been being obscure. Or maybe he meant bullets were going to rain down on us. Or something.
“Oh, I know why I couldn’t feel them,” Jeff said, as he held out his hand. There was a disc in it. “Caroline had this taped to her. She said she was told to ensure that it was given to you.”
“Emotional blocker or emotional overlay device. Don’t try to open it; they’re rigged to explode. Len, Kyle, who’s where? We need to get this to Serene, pronto, but I want Ravi to stay in the loop. And someone needs to verify if Malcolm has a disc like this on him somewhere.”
“Everyone but the hackers are with the Pontifex,” Kyle shared. “And to say they’re all kind of pissed at you guys for disappearing is like saying the Atlantic’s a little wet.”
“Fabulous. How’d you guys know we were here?”
“Mister White called me,” Len said. “We didn’t tell Alpha Team where we were going.”
“Not that this meant anything,” Reader said as he and Michael joined us on the roof. Reader looked pissed. Michael looked worried. “Because I’m really aware when people leave a room I’ve told them not to leave.”
Michael didn’t bother to bawl us out—he headed straight for Caroline.
Len shrugged. “We work for the ambassador.” Kyle nodded. So did Jeremy.
Reader let this pass without comment. Probably because he had other comments. “I’d love to know why American Centaurion’s Prom King and Queen are playing around on the roof of their Embassy. Just asking.” Reader didn’t sound like he was just asking. He sounded angrier than he looked.
“Thanks for the lovely new title, James.”
“That’s not an answer, Ambassador.” Wow. Ambassador, not my name or anything. Yeah, Reader was officially pissed off at me and apparently planning to
stay that way. Joy.
“Scavenger hunt,” Vance said. Happily, none of the A-Cs were actually facing Reader when this was announced. They were facing me. My ability to control my Inner Hyena was, therefore, being tested severely.
Reader stared at Vance. “A scavenger hunt.”
“Yeah. It’s something fun to do, breaks the ice. Everyone was feeling tense and down, Kitty and I thought, why not a scavenger hunt?”
Reader looked at me. “You suggested—after having one man poisoned at dinner, and then another shot in front of you, along with the announcement of Jeff’s new assignment, and yours—that what everyone needed was to have a scavenger hunt?”
“Not everyone. Just a few of us.” This was true. Sure, I hated lying to Reader, but by now I couldn’t remember who we’d told what to any more.
“Ambassador, is there a good reason for why you’re lying to me? I’m just asking, because it’s been a hell of a long night and all, but in all the time I’ve known you, the words ‘scavenger hunt’ have never left your mouth.”
“Ah . . .” Damn, lying to Reader didn’t work. Had Mom been giving him tips? And he was still calling me ambassador. Wasn’t sure if he was doing it to remind me that I was supposed to be more mature and in charge or because he was too angry to use my name. Decided now wasn’t the time to find out.
Saved by the bell. Well, really saved by Michael who rejoined us, his arm around Caroline in a very protective manner. “James, I want to take Caroline home. She’s been attacked, is freezing, and I don’t want her getting sick or being in any more danger than she’s been in already.”
“M’okay,” Caroline croaked out. “Jus’ cld.”
“Yeah, get her home. We can get all the information from Amy, right?” Reader asked her.
“R-r-r-ight. But ’m fine.”
“Caro Syrup, you sound like a frog. You need some hot tea with honey or something.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Michael said. “Everyone else might want to get inside, too.” With that he bundled Caroline down the stairs.