A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3) (17 page)

“Was that your mom?” Michael asked suddenly. “Strung out on booze and drugs?”

Jade’s eyes blazed purple before she turned her head away. Then, just as quickly, she turned back. “Yeah, ace, it was. What about it?”

“What if someone had helped her?”

“Well, then.” She took a breath. “They’d have learned the hard way that some people don’t want help.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jade shrugged. “Shit happens.”

“You say that a lot.”

She cast her gaze out the window, sliding her hand from his leg to grip the edge of the mattress. “It happens a lot.”

Michael put a hand on her shoulder.

Jade cleared her throat. “So that’s what they do, eh? Just randomly helping?”

“Not randomly. It’s organized. From what I hear,” he added. “Some people think they try to influence government policies where they can. Sabotage those who put others in danger for their own interests. Protect people who’re in a position to do the same. Rumor is they’re spread around everywhere. A huge conspiracy across the globe.” He forced a laugh. “But that’s pretty stupid. Like something that big could exist.”

“Sure.” She looked back at him. “So what are they doing in New Eden?”

Shoot.
“Er, nothing, that I know of.”

She smirked and leaned closer, one fetching eyebrow arched as she scrutinized him. “Oh, nothing,” she said. “Except I heard you tell Felix they were at work in New Eden. Lying to him, or to me?”

If she’d heard, was there any further point in denying that part? Unless she hadn’t and was just trying to trick him into an admission, but . . . “To you,” he said finally.

“Well, at least you’re honest about lying.” She patted his knee again, scooted further onto the mattress, and then faced him with her legs crossed, still smiling. “So what are they doing in New Eden? And how do you know? And what’s this got to do with my mysterious cyber-employer?”

She watched him, leaning forward as if in expectation of his answer, like a predator who’d cornered her adversary. Another smirk lurked on her lips, but her face held no malice, only anticipation of victory. Delicate strands of light hung from her right temple, setting a glow across one smooth cheek and reflecting in her eyes.

He licked his lips. Her smirk edged wider.

“I don’t entirely know,” he managed. “And if I don’t get some sleep here I really am going to drop.”

The smirk faltered. She looked him over again, and then edged closer just long enough to whisper, “How convenient.”

He lay back anew. “It’s also the truth. I’m sorry.”

She chuckled. “No, you’re not.”

Michael let that go with barely a grunt. He needed time to think.
You’re not alone
, Michael reminded himself.
There’s Caitlin, and Holes. Maybe Felix.
But it would be so easy to trust her.

And that was the problem.

“Ever see something in someone just because you need to?” He’d muttered it before he’d realized it.

Jade was back at the window. “Come again?”

“Oh.” He lay a still-jacketed arm across his eyes to block the room’s light from pushing through his eyelids. “I said good night.”

“Sure, ace.” Geez, he could even
hear
her smirking. “Better not talk in your sleep . . . ”

THE CITY AIR DASHED
into gaps between the hood of Michael’s sweatshirt to nip his ears and sneak down the back of his neck. He guessed the tall buildings surrounding the tiny park across the street from Fagles’s condo somehow funneled the wind into the park. It might even be designed that way: a subtle way to discourage “undesirables” from loitering in the pristine, upper-class district.

With another shiver, Michael decided it worked well. Across the square stone park table from him, Jade did the same. Wind wobbled the pawns on the chess board between them. He’d have suggested they leave the park long ago if they hadn’t been there for something more than a chess game.

Though Jade appeared focused on the board, her gaze flicked to their surroundings every few seconds in search of danger. She had yet to resume last night’s aborted discussion about the AoA, and Michael hadn’t encouraged it. Today they were focused on Fagles.

So far. He tried to force his stomach to loosen, but with little to do but wait, it remained knotted.

Jade captured his last knight with one of her bishops and then tugged her own hood further around her face. “I hate these things,” she said, indicating the hood.

Michael cast a sidelong glance at the exit to Fagles’s building, a twenty-story glass and steel structure named the
Azure
. Two taxis and a small limo idled in wait, but no one had yet come out for them. “You’d rather be colder?” he asked Jade. “Or recognized?”

“I’d
rather
be inside.”

He looked back at the board. “It’s not my fault your hair’s so . . . ”

“Gorgeous?” she offered. “Lustrous? Glowing?”

“I was going to say ‘ostentatious.’”

“Nice twenty-dollar word, ace. Admit it, you love it.”

She might have a point there, Michael realized. He cleared his throat. “Holes, any luck yet?”

Beside them on the table, sealed within Michael’s closed pack, Holes’s response came slightly muffled. “I am still infiltrating the building’s system. I remind you that complete stealth requires increased time when defeating security measures of the nature employed by the
Azure
. Please inform me should you wish me to trade speed for secrecy.”

Michael shook his head but realized Holes couldn’t see it. “No, just keep at it.”

“He’s getting snippy,” Jade said.

“I’m not sure Marc programmed him for ‘snippy.’”

“If you say so.” She glanced at the
Azure
. “Still your move.”

Chess wasn’t his game. He knew how the pieces moved, a bit about their relative value, and that holding the center was important. Beyond that? He’d never played much. Black and white squares blended together as his eyes crossed and his thoughts drifted.

Fagles was still in the building, or at least the phone from which he’d called Felix was. As soon as he left, and if Holes could make headway on the building security, Michael would go in—break in—and see what he could find.

That assumed that there was anything useful to find inside. And that Michael could manage a successful break-in in the first place. Even with Holes on his side, break-ins weren’t his game either.

In front of the
Azure
, a female tenant Michael didn’t recognize boarded the limo. Michael moved a pawn out to challenge Jade’s bishop just to get his turn over with. He belatedly realized he’d left the pawn completely unprotected.

Jade would be coming into the
Azure
with him. What if he did find something there that he had to hide from her?

“You don’t have to come in with me,” Michael said.

“Can’t protect you from out here.”

“Protect me from what?” He tried, not sure why he was arguing. “If it goes well, I’ll be in and out of there in fifteen minutes. If it goes bad, all you can do is get caught along with me.”

“Really. You think that’s all I can do?” He couldn’t tell if she was amused or annoyed. She took his pawn with her bishop. “That’s cute.”

“Those people in there aren’t out to kill me, they’re just doing their jobs. You can’t just shoot them for that.”

“Who said anything about shooting them? There’s other ways to get you out of a jam.” She waved his captured knight and pawn at him. “Two heads are better than one. I got your back, don’t worry.”

He looked into her violet eyes and caught himself smiling. “Thanks.”

Though a smile of her own peeked from the corners of her lips, Jade shrugged and whispered, “Well, just doing my job.” She cleared her throat. “The trouble will be if we need to figure things out on the fly if Holes can’t—”

“Have you ever killed anyone before?” Michael blurted.

Jade leaned back from the table, her head cocked to one side. “Ambush.” She scowled. “Fun.”

“It just . . . came out.” He stopped short of saying she didn’t have to answer it.

“Mm, a lot of men have that problem, don’t they?”

Michael ignored the joke; she hadn’t put much humor into it. Instead he waited with what he hoped was a sympathetic grimace. Jade leaned forward again. “I have. It’s not a topic most freelancers bring up. Or ask about, if they’re being polite.”

“Polite isn’t a term I’d apply to a lot of freelancers,” he said.

“Relatively speaking, then,” she said through a scowl. “Have you? Killed anyone?”

He shook his head.

“Want a free tip? Don’t ask how many.”

He wondered if she meant of her, or of anyone. That Jade had killed didn’t surprise him, despite an initial flicker when she’d said so. She was a freelancer, had been for years, and Northgate was a violent place. Michael had often wondered how long he could live in the city himself without encountering a need to use lethal force. He couldn’t fault her for it, especially without any details.

Some freelancers might have bragged about it. He’d never asked Diomedes. Would he have bragged?

“The phone believed to be owned by Adrian Fagles has left the building,” Holes reported.

Michael and Jade both scanned the Azure’s exit, seeing nothing. “He could have left from the parking garage,” Jade suggested.

“Right. Holes, which way is he going? How fast?”

“The phone is now shut off. At the time, it was moving north at a rate of speed indicative of a ground vehicle. I believe I have analyzed hotel security to provide favorable probabilities of undetected physical access to Mr. Fagles’s unit for a limited time.”

“How limited?”

“A precision estimate is unavailable until we have entered. Individual unit security is maintained on an isolated system I am unable to reach, however the security system manufacturer listed in hotel purchase records—”

“Holes!” Michael said. “Just give us a rough estimate.”

“Between five to twenty minutes following our hypothetical entry into Mr. Fagles’s unit. Bypassing door security to get inside the unit should be a trivial matter for Michael.”

Jade frowned. “Five minutes isn’t much time.”

“Five minutes is a worst-case estimate only.”

“We’ll just have to make the most of what we get, I guess,” Michael said. “Let’s do it.”

“I will arrange for falsified guest credentials to allow you into the front door. Please stand by.”

A short while later, a pair of eyes caught sight of Michael and Jade from down the block, moments before they entered the revolving door of the
Azure
’s front entrance.

He’d been too late to stop them! Yet there were other options. He hurried toward the
Azure
, in search of a back entrance.

“TWO CLUBS, A FANCY HOTEL
, and now swanky condominiums,” Jade said as they left the
Azure
’s elevator. “You take me all the great places. And that windy-ass park.”

“Yeah, can’t forget the park.” Michael counted the doors ahead. The third one down would belong to Fagles. Directly above it lurked a tiny, dark, half-globe. “Are those cameras above the doors, Holes?”

“Affirmative.”

Michael slowed his pace. Jade matched him. “Um, are they active?”

“Nope. Neutral looping will continue for eighty-three more seconds before system detection.”

They pushed forward. “You can beat the door that fast?” Jade asked Michael.

“Holes says I can.”

“Riiight.”

Aside Fagles’s door waited a keypad lock with thumbprint scanner. He lifted his hand and then stopped, with a glance at Jade. Should he make a show of it?

Taking his hesitation for a tacit directive, Jade pressed her palm to the center of the door to do her customary check for occupants. He busied himself at studying the lock mechanism until, with a shake of her head, she confirmed the condo was empty. Deciding it best to move quickly, Michael swallowed, pressed his right palm against the thumbprint scanner, and waited.

Seconds passed. He could feel Jade’s eyes on him.
Come on, any time now . . .

The AoA microchip embedded in his palm hummed. The lock’s indicator light flashed green. The door clicked open.

“Go!” Michael needn’t have said it: Jade was in the door before he’d even gotten it out. He darted after her.

The floor of the entryway was stained wood, smooth and dark. It created a broad platform bounded by the condo’s wall to their right and a carved wooden railing, abutted by a potted Japanese maple, to their left. Ahead of them, after a single step down, yawned Fagles’s living room. There was only time for Michael to register a sense of dark browns, deep reds and traces of silver in the décor before he cast about for the unit’s security alarm panel.

He spotted it on the wall between the front door and an antique, brass-framed mirror. Michael pulled Holes’s platform from his pack and set the A.I. atop a parson’s table beneath the mirror while Jade shut the door behind him.

The alarm panel read: “
ENTRY RECORDED. ENTER CODE TO DEACTIVATE ALARM
.” A timer showed “
28
” and counting down. Shit, was there time? How did he even connect Holes to the system?

“Holes? You see this? What do I do?”

“Please stand by,” was the only response.

27.

26.

He and Jade exchanged alarmed glances a moment before pulling ski masks from their pockets to shove over their faces.

23.

“He
is
doing something, right?”

22.

Was he?
He must be
, Michael thought. Holes wouldn’t just freeze up. It was a wireless connection or something. It had to be!

“Holes?” he tried.

The readout froze at
22
.

“I have halted the system,” Holes reported. “The alarm panel allows minimal-range wireless access for home owners’ and authorized security technicians’ ease of use.”

“Spare us the sales pitch,” Jade said. “How long can you hold it?”