Page 55 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
“Bravissima,” Silva said, commending them with a few light claps. “This is just the information we needed. I think it’s safe to say your mission went impeccably, ladies.”
“Well,” Dani said, and her voice came out louder than she’d planned it to. Everyone looked at her, and she felt her face get hot. “Well, there was, um, one more thing that happened. On our way out, we kind of—um, we kind of ran into Dr. Rodriguez.”
Silva’s smile slid from her face, but she stayed still, gazing unwaveringly at Dani. “Dr. Rodriguez? Did she recognize you?”
“Oh yeah. Immediately. And she was not exactly happy to see me.”
“Cazzo.” Silva put a fist to her mouth. “That is indeed a hiccup.”
“It wasfine,” Katya interjected, giving Dani an annoyed look. “We played it off like Dani was there to get quotes for her article. Dr. Rodriguez probably hasn’t thought about it since.”
Dani found this highly unlikely. In fact, the more she thought about it, the worse she felt about the whole interaction. Dr. Rodriguez knew her real name, and undoubtedly knew plenty of people at Fox’s Leap. What if she called someone at the university and asked aboutDani, discovered she wasn’t on the school paper at all? There was no doubt Dr. Rodriguez could pull some strings to get her punished. Maybe Dani wouldn’t face the review board in the end—maybe Dr. Rodriguez would use her influence to have her scholarship cut or get Dani kicked out before it could even happen.
She didn’t say any of this, though. She waited to see how Silva would react. The woman was studying Katya, weighing her words. “We’ll have to hope that’s true,” she said at last. “And we’ll have to make certain that Miss Lionet isn’t recognizable when she returns to OneiroLabs this Wednesday.”
“Wait, what?” Dani said. “You wantmeto go back in? But I have to work that night.”
“Then call out,” Silva said, and the glacier white in Dani’s mind told her that the professor had spoken more coldly than she intended. “Or find someone to cover.”
“Y-yeah, I mean, of course, but—isn’t it too risky to send me again? Haven’t I been around OneiroLabs stuff a little too much?”
“A fair question,” Silva said, her chill warming by a few degrees, “but I’ve thought this through. I believe your ability is of far more value than it would be to keep you sidelined from fear of the risk. And in any case, that’s why we brought your lovely friend on board. I trust you have the skill to come up with disguises for Miss Lionet and Mr. Shalhope here?” she asked McKenna.
“Of course,” McKenna said, tossing her hair. “Just tell me what you want them to look like, and I’ll have it ready.”
“Nothing exciting,” Silva said, which took some of the wind out of McKenna’s sails. “I want them to be as uninteresting to look at as possible. The last thing we want on this particular venture is attention.”
“So it’s me and Wyatt?” Dani asked miserably. She really, really, really did not want to do this one. “Are you sure we’re the best choices?”
“I’m absolutely certain,” Silva said. Her tone had flint in it; she wasn’t open to arguing about this. “We’ll be in contact with you every single step of the way, thanks to Mx. Izumi. They’ll be running comms through a telepathy device they’ll provide.”
“It’ll be a little shell that goes in your ear. They make particularly good conductors of telepathic communications,” Oliver said. “I’ve already got some I can use; I just need to enchant them.”
“Miss Novak will be monitoring security from off-site and instruct you as needed,” Silva went on. “As for Miss Amari”—here she cast an appraising glance at McKenna—“well, I think her skills will better serve us elsewhere. Mr. Shalhope is essential thanks to his teleportation abilities, and you, Miss Lionet? Well, your gift may be needed. Does that clear things up for you?”
Like a good weather charm.But all Dani said, in a very quiet voice, was, “Yeah.”
“Splendid. That means we can move on to logistics. Mx. Izumi will be in touch with their contact to get your names—pseudonyms, of course—on the list of approved visitors for the evening. What happens once you get through the gate is up to all of us.”
“So what’s the idea?” Wyatt said, bending forward to balance his elbows on his knees. “We stealing a badge in there or what?”
Silva held up a cautioning hand. “Not so fast.”
“Professor Silva and I talked it over, and we don’t think that option makes the most sense,” Katya said.
“Why not? Seems simple enough to me. Find this Dr. Rodriguez lady, grab her badge, and I poof us out.”
“It seems simple on the surface,” Silva allowed, “but Dr. Rodriguez, or any of those three people, would notice if their badge was stolen. They’d report it missing and have the old badge wiped and a new one made, which would put us back at square one.”
“Okay,” Wyatt said slowly, “then why don’t we just do the wholething at once? Grab the badge, get to the hydroponics lab, and get the formula?”
“If you think we could justdo that, you’ve got a lot more to learn than I thought,” Katya snapped. “Those people have their badges on them at all times. Getting it off without them noticing, especially when we don’t know if they’ll be in the building or where they’d be if they were—then having enough time to break into the lab and find the formula before anyone sets off an alarm would be next to impossible. Honestly, it’s a big fat bull’s-eye rightonimpossible.”
“Miss Novak is correct,” Silva said. “As frustrating as it feels, we need to take this one small step at a time if we’re going to be successful.”
“We don’t even want to workshop my idea?” Wyatt said, looking to Dani, McKenna, and Oliver for backup. Dani showed him her palms, absolving herself from this particular discourse.
“I think they have a point,” Oliver said apologetically. “We shouldn’t rush into anything.”
