Raven was warm, though, and since he was close, I was using him as support. My head felt light, and I was starting to get dizzy every so often. I needed coffee and food; more than the few bites of sandwich I’d grabbed back at Blake’s. I needed to sleep. I couldn’t stop, though. Not yet.
We walked quietly toward the house. In the length of time it took us to get to the corner of the Murdock property, I had a thousand scenarios going through my head. An army of Germans. Alice on the lawn with a bazooka. Aliens hovering over the house to collect it and move into outer space.
The yard and house were oddly quiet. The doors were shut. Windows shuttered. There was no hint there had been a party there earlier. No cars in the driveway.
“I expected World War III by now,” I said as we peeked around. I hoped no one could see us standing on the neighbor’s lawn, but really, there didn’t seem to be any activity. It was the middle of the night, and the neighboring homes were still.
Raven studied the house and then pointed up. “What’s that? That’s the roof with all the glass?”
“It’s an observatory,” I said. “I thought that core was in there. I guess it is. I don’t know how it works though.”
“You said the church steeples were used as antennae?” Corey asked.
“Yeah.”
Raven laughed. “So couldn’t the obituary be used as an antennae?”
I was going to correct his term, but then I looked up at the observatory, with the metal beams that held up the glass between each pane. “Raven,” I said. “You’re smarter than the average bear.”
“What? What bear? Like my tattoo bear?”
“Never mind,” I said. It was brilliant. There wasn’t an antennae here, because the entire third floor was the antennae. Looking up at it now, with the metal beams, it was obvious. He did have it under security. Ethan just didn’t realize anyone cared about his project. “It’s too quiet, though. We don’t know if anyone is inside. What should we do?”
“I should get inside,” Corey said. “I need to look at his work, at the core. We’ll need time to prepare for this trade.”
Raven slunk along the edge of the property, and to the outside wall that was the garage. He went to the window and checked inside. “One car,” he said. “It’s covered in a sheet.”
“Is no one home?” I asked. “Not even Alice?”
Raven shrugged. “Let’s go in,” he said, and then started around the wall. “I hate waiting.”
Ditto.
I caught up with Raven. He darted across the lawn, around the pool, and toward the back door. Corey stayed behind us, watching our backs.
Raven tried the handle to the door. Locked.
He inspected the door, and then pulled a wallet from his pocket. From it, he pulled out what looked like a credit card.
“That won’t work on this door,” I whispered. “There’s a deadbolt.”
“It’s not the deadbolt that’s locked,” he said. Then he showed me the card, which had tools buried into the plastic. “And we’ve got a bump key.”
I remembered Axel once telling me about bump keys. “What about the security panel? The alarm is probably on.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Corey said.
“I know the code,” I said.
Corey smirked. “Well then what were you worried about? The box should be near the door. Find it and enter the code.”
Was that how security panels worked? The one upstairs for the observatory was on the outside. I wondered if the codes were different for the bottom floor.
Raven unfolded the plastic card to reveal a long metal piece. He inserted one end of the key into the door, and then used his knee to pound against it while twisting the handle at the same time.
The door opened with a shudder and then quieted.
I cringed at the noise and then checked over Raven’s shoulder. If someone was downstairs, they would have certainly heard that.
Raven walked in slowly ahead of me. He put his bump key away, but then his fists clenched, unclenched, clenched. He was ready to throw a punch if someone got in our way. I spotted his gun in the holster at his back. Did he have any bullets left?
Corey found the panel on the wall in an alcove. I pressed in the security code, and held my breath.
It beeped, and then quieted. We all exhaled in relief.
We walked through a small rear entertainment room and then an adjoining kitchen. I’m not a quiet person, and Raven is a bear on hard floors. Everything seemed to creak underfoot. Someone should have heard us.
“Is anyone even home?” I asked.
“Let’s check this obituary,” Raven said.
“Observatory,” I said.
“What’s observatory?”
I looked at Corey for help. I wasn’t even sure. As far as I knew, it was a fancy room. I found it amusing, though, to be teaching Raven English. Corey shrugged and I continued. “The third floor,” I said. “It’s called an observatory. I guess you observe things from it. Like it has telescopes you can check out from up there.”
“Oh,” Raven said. He angled his head into the hallway, checking it out, and then eased into it, inspecting around the corners. “Like stars and shit?”
“Like things on the ground, too. Like spy on your neighbors.” I followed him out, and tensed, anxious about the quiet around us. Wouldn’t Alice be protective of something she wanted access to?
“Oh,” he said. He did the Russian version of tiptoeing, sliding his feet across the floor. “We have an observe-rotary.”
Corey laughed. “Who does?”
“You mean the top of the Sergeant Jasper?” I asked. I started to mimic him, but then picked my feet up and walked on my toes. And when no one came around the corner or jumped us, I simply walked.
“Shhh,” Raven said. “No I meant Corey. He’s got one in his computer.”
Did he consider Corey’s ability to spy on those around him the observatory? Teaching English was harder than I thought. I shared a glance with Corey.
Corey sighed. “No one is here.”
Raven nodded. “Doesn’t mean no one is on the way. They could be here any minute.”
“Let’s go upstairs,” I said.
Raven followed me as I led him up to the second floor. Corey took up the rear again. We stopped on the second story landing, listening.
When no one rushed at us or shot at us, and the floor seemed quiet, we took our time, checking out what was behind every door.
When Raven opened up the second floor office, he started to go inside.
“Someone in there?” I asked.
“No, but it has a computer.”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “I already checked it.”
Corey came out from checking the master bedroom.
“Corey,” Raven said. He inspected the office again. There wasn’t a closet door inside, so no one was hiding anywhere. He pointed inside and then went in. “Come in here.”
Corey went in after him. “There was nothing,” I said, following. “Just a regular computer.”
“Let’s get some info on Ethan,” Corey said. “And who exactly his friends are. And maybe there’s info on Alice…or Anja.”
That seemed like a good idea. “There wasn’t a computer upstairs, either,” I said. “I was up there the other night. Could he run it from this computer?”
“Maybe,” Corey said. He turned the computer on, checking history, opening up email screens, and searching through files.
I felt another wave of dizziness and entered the room to sit on a chair to stabilize myself.
Raven was watching Corey work and then came over to me. He nudged me with his boot. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Sick?”
I shook my head. “Tired.”
“Sleep,” he said.
I sat up, frowning and shaking my head to wake myself more. “No,” I said. “We’ll need to get this done first.”
“You should probably head back to the hospital,” Corey said, focused o
n his computer. “If you’re that tired, it’s not going to get better. You won’t be able to run.”
“I don’t want her driving alone,” Raven said. “And I can’t leave you here alone. No one does things alone right now. I’m in charge now.”
Corey’s lips lifted in a small smile. “You’re carrying her if she passes out.”
“Khorosho.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted, but I was too tired to care. I continued to sit, but made myself sit up, and occasionally pinched myself to stay awake. It was hard not to lean back and simply sleep while Corey worked.
Fortunately, it didn’t take Corey long to figure out what he wanted. “No locked files,” Corey said. “Ethan didn’t have much to hide in here. Church emails, like on his phone. The only thing interesting are his conversations with his father.”
I recalled the photos in the hallway of the older gentleman surrounded by kids. “He’s the one that introduced him to Anja. How did he meet her?”
“I don’t know,” Corey said. “But according to some of these news reports he’s saved, it was about Ethan dispelling rumors about the company. Fraud and there was a questionable branch they started in Africa that seemed to contract in arms deals. Fingers were pointed at his dad, and but it was Ethan telling everyone it was a lie. No investigation ever put together enough evidence to convict.”
Interesting. “I don’t…Ethan didn’t lie to us about this core, did he?” I asked. “If there’s rumors, something’s going on, right?”
“Rumors could be false,” Raven said. “Or rumors are smoke and there’s a fire. Sometimes bigger than the rumor.”
“That’s not the impression I got,” Corey said. “Ethan seemed genuine. His ideas were honest and he appeared to care about Anja…Alice a great deal.” He stood, turning off the monitor. “But we should check out this core. Let’s find out what he’s up to.”
When we cleared the second floor, we continued up along the second staircase. The wall panel was the only light in front of us on the third floor and I couldn’t find a switch. I went to the panel, remembered the numbers and then started to type it in.
Raven materialized beside me and slapped my hand. “Don’t.”
“Stop it,” I said, slapping his hand back. “It’s the same as the one for downstairs.”
“It’s not the number that’s the problem,” he said. He pointed to the panel. It was different from the one downstairs, but I followed his direction, checking it out.
There was a small camera lens inside the unit.
“Did the downstairs one have that?” I asked.
“No,” Corey said. He came up, tucking me behind him and inspected the panel. “Looks like… too small for an iris scanner. Looks like facial recognition.”
Huh. Extra security for the upstairs room. And this panel was on the inside. The core had to be up here, and it was designed to keep people out. Ethan had lied to his niece. It was hard to believe we could be wrong about him. “How do we get in?” I asked.
“Give me a minute,” Corey said. “Don’t touch anything. I’ll be back.”
I glanced at Raven. He frowned and then started to follow him down the stairs. He stopped at the landing, a guard between Corey and me. He was keeping an eye on both of us.
Corey was back in a few minutes, carrying a freshly printed sheet of paper. He showed it to me, a picture of Ethan.
“The flaw about facial recognition cameras,” he said, holding it up to the lens and motioning me to put in the code. I started typing it in. “They can’t tell the difference between a picture and the real thing.”
That was clever. I wouldn’t have known. Maybe that’s what kept everyone out.
It still made my heart skip a beat when the unit beeped after I finished. When it did, though, the panel read: Alarm Off.
Raven blew out a breath on my neck. “You’re lucky. If it were Russian alarm, it would explode if you got the wrong number.”
That sounded like Russian gloating. “No, it wouldn’t,” I said.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” he said, his chest puffing out. “Look me in the face and say it.”
I rolled my eyes and then opened the door.
The observatory was in the same shape it was in before. I found a switch, flicked it, and the low-level lamps lit up. Raven closed the door behind us, and then used the panel nearby. “I’m setting the alarm, since you’re a know-it-all and know the pass code. Anyone coming in now will set it off.”
I did a circle in the large room, checking the furniture, with the slight hope that someone else was here. Brandon. Anyone. “There’s no point, really,” I said. “If they aren’t here, we’ll have to figure out where they went.”
“We’re chasing tails,” he said. “Let’s make them chase us.”
Corey looked around the room, checking out the furniture. He went to the window, touching the metal bar framework. “I don’t see a network base. How does it even work?”
“That’s what confused me,” I said. “But it’s got to be up here somewhere. He had facial recognition to keep people out. That’s got to mean something.”
Raven clomped across the room in his boots, looking out through the windows, surveying. He checked out one of the smaller telescopes and swung it to look down the road. “Let’s turn off the... thing. The core? Right?” he stood, and then looked at Corey. “If we take out the power, it’ll shut it off.”
“There might be a generator somewhere,” Corey said. He got down on his hands and knees. He smoothed his hands across the floor, and traced the grooves. “And we want to bribe them with access. We have nothing to negotiate with if we shut it down.”
I knelt beside Corey, “What are we looking for?”
“It might be in a crevice somewhere,” he said. “Look for a panel. The floor, the wall.”
There wasn’t much wall. I lifted one of the carpets. Raven started shoving furniture around.
Corey circled the room. He groaned. “We’re running out of time,” he said. “It’s got to be here somewhere.”
“We’re out of time,” Raven said. He was by one of the windows near the front of the house. “Someone just drove up.”
Corey and I raced to the window.
While it was still dark, the front drive was lit up by garden lights, and the front porch light was on.
A car was parked in the drive with its headlights on. There was movement from what I could see inside the windshield, but whoever it was remained in the car.
Corey went back into the room, and started pacing. “We need more time. They can’t come up here yet.
I met Raven’s stare. Raven focused on me for the longest time. His mouth set, his eyes wide and wild. It struck me, looking at him, realizing he was feeling the same as I was. His friends were out there somewhere, and we didn’t have answers or a means to free them yet. We didn’t have the ability to check on them. We only had access to this room right now.
“I don’t want Alice to kill them,” I said quietly.
His head reeled back for a moment, and then he shook it. He stepped forward, coming at me with those intense eyes. The closer he got, the bigger he seemed to me. He wasn’t as tall as someone like Corey, but he didn’t have to be. He had mass on him that was unbelievable and made me feel small next to him.
He cupped my cheeks in his wide palms and forced me to look at him. His eyes held steady with mine. “No one will kill us,” he said. “Family first. That’s what they taught me.”
It took me a moment to remember this was something to do with the Academy. “Isn’t that an... a rule or something?”
“The first one,” he said. “And the most important. You and I aren’t going to get killed. We’ll save our family. Are you with us? Will you be with me?”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking. Did he mean my being part of the group? I nodded, my cheeks brushing against his palms. Maybe I hadn’t really heard all he was saying. I was feeling dizzy again.
“Say it,?
?? he said, his voice deeper.
I wasn’t sure what this had to do with Axel not getting killed. “Yeah,” I said. “I mean, being with the group and all.”
He smirked then leaned in and kissed my forehead quietly.
I closed my eyes. It was a split second of warmth from him, after a lot of running around. He’d kissed me before, but this was something different. We were in this together. This meant something much more.
“My little thief,” he said quietly. He pulled his head back gazed at me steadily. “Let’s pull the trigger together. Let’s shut down their core. We make them come to us. I’ll call in the A...our team, tell them to meet us here. We’ll take them all down together.”
He wanted to call in the Academy. “And Axel? And Marc? And the others?”
He brushed his fingers against my cheek. “They would want us to push the button.”
“We don’t need to shut it off,” Corey said. He was still looking at the wood paneling on the floor. “Just help me find the thing. We still have time. I just need to look at it.”
I stepped away from him and looked outside. Whoever was out there was waiting, possibly for backup. If it was Eddie, he might be waiting for more of his team to show up. If it was Alice… I didn’t know what to expect. “We need a backup plan. We should maybe call Kevin. Let him know to be on the way, and what we’re doing.”
Raven pulled out his phone, and then held it up. He started to type into it, and then sent the message. He waited, but then looked confused. “I’m not getting a signal.”
“We’re inside a big cell tower thing,” I said. “Or one that messes with signals. I think it can interfere with your cell phone if you’re too close.”
“We’ll have to find another way,” Raven said, looking around. He motioned to a side table near a couch that had a wired landline phone beside it. “Call Kevin.”
I went to it, and pressed in the number he relayed to me. Raven kept an eye on the car. Corey searched the room. I waited through three rings before Kevin picked up.”
“Yo,” he said. “This is Kevin.”
“It’s Kayli.”
“Hey!” he said, sounding surprised. “Where are you? Did the guys find you?”