Page 46 of Snow

Nova was quiet for a moment, then she turned to Snow with a small shrug. “I’m good with it, if you are.”

Snow nodded, appreciating the fact that she didn’t throw a tantrum. “I’m good.”

Clint’s smile widened, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Good. How about I give you guys about thirty minutes to get settled, and then I’ll come back to show you around.”

Snow nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Clint said as he handed Snow and Nova each a key card. “These are your key cards. They are programmed with access to everywhere on the rig except for Platform Three.”

Snow pinched his eyebrows together. But before he could ask, Nova spoke up.

“Why is that?”

Clint hesitated for just a fraction of a second but recovered quickly.

“That platform is still under construction and is only used as storage for materials,” he explained. “It was built for future expansion. It’s off limits unless escorted because of safety hazards.”

Snow nodded slowly like the answer made perfect sense. But internally, the bullshit alarms were ringing loud and clear. And judging from the slight narrowing of Nova’s eyes beside him, she wasn’t buying it either.

“If you don’t need anything else, I’ll let you two get settled.”

Snow just nodded as Clint stepped into the hallway, the door clicking shut behind him.

Snow stepped further into the room and gave it a quick scan. It had the stripped-down functionality of a college dorm with slightly better finishes. He set his bag on the bed.

Nova started to speak behind him, something about the view or the size of the room, but he held up his finger and put it against his lips, indicating for her to be quiet.

She gave him a curious look but did what he asked.

He pulled the RF detector from his bag. He started at the door and worked clockwise. Searching behind the TV, under the beds, inside the bathroom vent, the light fixtures, anywhere a small hidden listening device or camera could be placed.

He could feel Nova watching him as he moved through the room.

He moved to the lamp on the desk. It looked standard, utilitarian, the kind of thing no one would think twice about. He lifted it, checked the shade, the bulb socket, then ran the detector along the backside of the base. The meter suddenly spiked, and Snow turned it around. He saw it immediately: a small, black disc no bigger than a dime, stuck to the metal lamp base.

He glanced at Nova and caught the way her eyes widened.

He pocketed the device without a word and continued to sweep the room, but his jaw had tightened, and he knew she could see it.

As soon as Snow finished his sweep, he took the tiny device from his pocket and grabbed his phone. He snapped a quick picture of the listening device, zooming in to capture any details. Once he got what he wanted, he walked to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.

As he walked back into the room, he looked at Nova, who was still silently watching him.

“It’s all clear,” he told her, walking over to his bag and putting the RF detector back in his bag.

“What was that little thing?” she asked.

“Listening device.” He watched her face carefully, saw the flicker of understanding followed by something darker.

Nova crossed her arms, glancing toward the door as if it might have ears of its own. “Why would someone plant that?”

Snow considered her question as several possibilities floated through his head. But without any supporting intel to narrow it down, it made it challenging.

“It could be any number of reasons,” he said, his voice low. “The two most obvious are corporate curiosity, although I doubt Mr. Silverman would appreciate learning that Gulf Tide could be spying on his legal counsel. The other possibility is that someone on this rig has something to hide and they’re trying to figure out whether we’re a threat.” He met her eyes and saw the worry she was trying to mask. “Point is, someone wants to keep tabs on us. That means we’re already on someone’s radar. We need to be careful what we say and where we say it.”

He turned back to his bag and dug through the gear until he found the two compact surveillance cameras, no bigger than his thumb.

He pulled them out and glanced up to find Nova watching him from just inside the door, her arms crossed, her expression shifting from curiosity to suspicion.