Page 34 of Duality

Adrian gave me a small nod, his face relaxing when Evie did. He headed towards the door, and we followed him out. I opened the door to the SUV for Evie, and she ducked under my arm. Before I could follow her inside, Grace slipped in after her, grinning at me when I scowled. I wanted to sit next to Evie! I stomped around to the front seat as Adrian settled into the driver’s side.

The drive was quiet. Both Evie and Grace cleaned their guns in the back seat. From their focus, I figured this must be some sort of pre-mission ritual for them. When Adrian slid into the designated alleyway an hour later, their gazes were clear and sharp.

Adrian turned in his seat. “Tell me the plan.”

“We’re going to enter on the east side of the building while the guards are doing their rounds. After unlocking the door, we’ll hit the IT room first, then proceed to each floor, starting at the top and working our way down. The goal is to plug the flash drives into at least three additional computers and plant bugs where we can.”

Evie recited the plan just as clearly as she had the last ten times Adrian had asked that day. Her frown was tempered by the softness in her eyes. There was a bond between them, albeit a reluctant one on both sides. But it’s what made her give in to his compulsion to run through a plan until I wanted to drop dead from boredom. He was such a stickler for safety and protocol. Boring.

“If you’re done with the neanderthal act,” Grace drawled, “we’re wasting moonlight.”

Adrian ignored Grace, speaking to Evie again. “You have ninety minutes before I come in.”

“We’ll be fine.” Evie offered him a rare smile. “Let’s go.”

Evie, Grace, and I exited the car, pulling our hoods down over our faces. We fell into formation, Evie in the lead with Grace bringing up the rear, as we stuck to the shadows of the overdone landscaping in front of Citadel’s building. We paused in some bushes, watching as a guard exited the front door, his eyes scanning the parking lot between the bushes and the building before he barked an “All clear!” into his radio.

Once he disappeared back into the building, Evie tapped her comms, activating them.

“Comms check?”

“Loud and clear, Boss Lady,” Liam’s voice crackled through our ears. “Interrupting the cameras in thirty seconds. Remember, I can only loop them for twelve seconds at a time before their system alerts.”

“Hope you brought your running shoes, pretty boy,” Grace murmured next to me.

“Just call me the Flash,” I murmured back, not letting her sharp words get to me. It was clear as day that she was overprotective of Evie, and I was glad she had people like Grace in her corner. I would win over the prickly ex-military operative. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 17

EVELYN

“Go!” Liam called.

We sprinted across the parking lot, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. We hit the side of the building in under ten seconds and flattened ourselves against the building under the camera. Adrenaline danced in my veins, and I kept my breathing steady to stay focused despite the pounding of my heart in my ears. If we got caught by the guards, we would lose our element of surprise with Citadel. If Citadel knew we were on to them, they could launch another attack that we would be ill-prepared for. This had to go well.

“All right, now,” Liam said through the comms.

I pressed the small box against the card reader next to the door. A second passed. There was a soft beep, then the door clicked open. Sebastian entered first; his gun raised as he cleared the hallway. He motioned us forward, and Grace eased the door shut behind us. Luckily for us, the IT room was just down the hall.

“One guard on the third floor, one on the second, and one in the control room,” Liam said.

“Copy,” I whispered back.

We silently moved down the hall and into the IT room. I took out a thumb drive from one of my many pockets and plugged it into a port at the computer against the wall.

“All yours, Liam.”

“Awww, Boss Lady, you spoil me,” Liam gushed, and I heard his fingers crack over the comms before the computer in front of me turned on remotely. Programs started running on the screen, and I looked up around the room. Sebastian was studying the servers lined against the wall, while Grace kept an eye on the hallway through the small window in the door.

“All right. I’m in, and cameras are looped,” Liam said. “Happy hunting.”

I let out a slow breath. First step done. While we worked on gaining access to the computers on the other floors, Liam would keep the cameras looped and start hacking into this computer. For every computer we were able to access tonight, he was going to create a clone of each computer on a secondary computer at the house, so we could dig into the files without Citadel knowing.

“Guard Two just exited the back door for a smoke break. You probably have ten minutes. Fifteen if his badge malfunctions getting back in,” Liam said.

“Let’s move,” I directed.