Evenfall (156 page)

He didn't have time to stand there forever though, and he supposed that if this did raise an alert, at least everyone would come toward his position rather than Sin's. Even so, it would be quite the coincidence if it was not directly connected that a central idea of Janus also happened to be the correct number of digits and used only those three letters on a phone pad. Without wasting another second, he input 3733366 into the keypad, spelling out 'freedom.' At first nothing happened and his heart thundered in his chest while his mind raced, planning escape routes and distractions that would hopefully give Sin the time to keep looking for Thierry, trying to decide how he would manage to make it up to the wooden beams before he was surrounded. But then a faint green light flashed to the right and the door made a shifting noise before it slowly started to open.

Boyd closed the panel and stood to the side of the wall, ready to attack anyone who may come through the opening, but all that entered the small room he was in was the light from the area beyond. He held his breath and peered quickly around the side but he didn't see anything but an empty office room, nor did he note anything that looked like surveillance cameras. He pulled back into the small room for a moment then moved quickly into the office and immediately found cover behind a nearby low-lying chair while he searched the room intently for any movement or sound. He was alone and the only other door he saw in the room was firmly shut; there were no windows so no one outside of the room would be able to tell he was in there unless someone came in.

Letting his breath out quietly, he looked back at the door he'd entered through and noticed a small ornament on the wall that, upon closer inspection, he concluded was actually a button for the hidden door. He didn't know if the opening and closing of the door would be monitored by any programs in the complex but he didn't think it would be good to leave it open. It didn't really work as an escape route because he wouldn't be able to jump high enough to reach the wooden beams and if someone walked abruptly into the room, he would be less likely to be found if he hid and everything appeared to be untouched. He pressed the decoration inward and the door slid quietly closed; once shut it was almost impossible to tell that it was there at all.

Looking around the room more closely, he saw that it appeared to be a regular office with nothing glaringly secretive about it. He suspected if he had the time to tear the place apart he would find plenty of interesting things, but that would make it too obvious that someone had been there and he didn't know how much time he had. So, he went toward the most likely form of compact information: the personal computer sitting on the desk. It was already on, although it appeared to be in standby mode. There was no password but that only appeared to be because whoever had last accessed the computer had forgotten to log off.

He quickly checked the files located on the desktop but nothing seemed particularly important so he investigated further and saw that there were multiple drives; C, D and E. Boyd narrowed his eyes, then glanced toward both doors to make certain there was no movement before removing a small object that was hidden along the inside of his belt buckle. He'd found the belt and buckle in the supply room at the Agency; it was designed to hide one of four small objects that he'd had the chance to choose between. Although the lock picking kit would have been helpful, he'd ultimately decided that information would be more useful for him so he'd opted for a compact, 200 GB jump drive. It didn't take him long to hook the jump drive up to the computer through the nearest USB port and to start copying the C drive.

While the computer struggled to copy the information over, Boyd moved quickly through the D and E drives, searching for anything that stood out to him, anything that seemed like it would contain important information. He wished this sort of thing would go faster; the progress bar seemed to be moving incredibly slowly and he was hyper-aware of the rest of the room. The fact that he could easily be walked in on, that his only real escape route was out the door he hadn't searched yet, and that once he left through that door he wouldn't even know where he was in context of the rest of the building as this section hadn't appeared on the blueprints, left him on edge.

Despite the difficulty of the situation he was in, there wasn't much he could do about it except save as much information as he could and hope not to get caught. He would figure out the rest of it as he went. Even so, just to be sure, he left the computer copying while he silently approached the main door to the room and listened intently for any sound. He didn't want to open the door in case the movement would attract attention from anyone he couldn't hear, but as far as he could tell it was silent on the other side. He returned to the computer and watched the progress bar with a paranoid sense of impatience; it was further than it had been before but still seemed to him to be moving entirely too slowly. As he waited he studied the room intently, noting where all the potential hiding places were (the side of the bookcase, in a corner behind the love seat, beneath the desk) and if anything could be used as a weapon.

Time was skewed to him; the knowledge that he was temporarily tied to the room as he waited for the files to copy made it seem as though everything was taking longer than it should. In truth, it was probably only a handful of minutes before the C drive finally copied over; he immediately started copying the D drive, which seemed to him to have the most likelihood to hold any important information. While that copied he began quickly searching the room, opening drawers and searching through a few of the books for anything that stood out to him. Everything he touched, he made sure to put back in the same position he'd discovered it.

As he flipped through one book with a collection of philosophical essays, a sheet of folded paper slipped out that he caught before it hit the floor. Before he could open it, he heard footsteps approaching the other side of the door. He shoved the book back on the shelf and moved quickly to the computer, detaching the portable hard drive in the middle of the operation. A window popped up saying the file path was lost and he barely had time to close out of that and other windows he'd opened before he heard a key sliding into the door. The love seat was closest to him so within seconds he'd jumped behind it and crouched in the corner, barely daring to breathe. Luckily the fabric extended to the floor, which gave him further coverage, but it also meant he couldn't see anything at all in the rest of the room.

The door opened silently and a single person entered the room and he didn't dare move; the paper was lying on his chest, partially against the back of the seat, and he didn't want it to crinkle and give away his position. But the person who'd entered was very quiet; even the footsteps were faint and even though he heard items being moved on the desk, it was with the care of someone who was used to being in dangerous situations and made little noise by nature.

He couldn't tell at first what the person was doing, but he did hear a low, annoyed sigh. The mouse clicked a few times, emitting a soft sliding noise as it moved across the mousepad. Keys clacked at a varying pace, as if the person was writing something quickly as the thoughts came to mind, paused to think, then resumed the flow once more. He listened intently for any sign that they had any idea that the space had been recently occupied but nothing happened, so he assumed he hadn't left anything out of place.

A few long moments passed as the person continued to type and Boyd became entirely too aware of how awkward his position was and how much his knee was starting to ache. What was he supposed to do if the person remained there for an extended period of time? He couldn't exactly crouch there for hours while Sin ran around trying to find Thierry; they weren't even positive that the area Sin had discovered was the correct one so it could still be up to him. And it would only be a matter of time before something happened to give him away. If it lasted too long, he would just have to try to catch the person off guard and knock them out before they could raise an alarm; but without knowing anything about the person's body build, height, or strength, a surprise attack could prove to be difficult to pull off properly.

"I can't believe this," a woman's voice muttered at length. The clicking of the mouse became a little more pronounced and when she typed she hit the keys harder than was necessary. Boyd tensed, wondering if she'd noticed something after all, and prepared to react quickly when he heard her abruptly push the computer chair back. The chair squeaked in protest; he suspected she'd leaned backwards as far as the chair back would allow.

"Why does he never fucking--?" she started to ask herself heatedly then cut herself off. "This is such bullshit."

He heard her stand suddenly, the pull of cloth against cloth and the clatter of her chair as it rolled back and hit the wall. The mouse clicked again in angry staccato followed by the humming of a computer that was powering down. She grabbed a few things off the desk, judging by the sound of objects sliding across wood, and then fell silent. If the mood it sounded she was in was anything to go by, he would have expected her to storm out of the room; instead, she seemed to pause in the center of the room.

At first he couldn't tell why, but then he heard the faintest buzzing noise and realized her phone was ringing. She made a soft noise of impatience and muttered to herself, "Finally," in a manner that led Boyd to believe she'd been waiting for this call. She flipped it on and the volume was set high enough that he heard a male voice on the other end ask, "Lynn?"

"Yeah," she said. Boyd couldn't hear the other voice again except as a muffled group of syllables; he suspected she had the phone against her ear now and previously he'd heard it only because it had been in transit from wherever she'd been keeping it. Her side of the conversation told him nothing except that she was not pleased; all she said was "yes," "no," and "of course not."

She was quiet for a few seconds as the other person spoke, then she said testily, "That'll take at least half an hour." The person on the other end sounded a little more intent, at least as far as Boyd could tell judging by the quickness and length of the reply. She was quiet a moment after the person finished talking. Then she said with a hint of disapproval, "Fine. But I would really like to talk to you about this later." The other person said something short and she didn't reply. She was on the phone for less than a minute before he heard it flip closed.

He didn't know who she was or what her position was, but he could tell enough about the room to realize that it was the sort of office that would only have access to the higher ranked people. Because of that, he wanted to get an idea of what she looked like; at the very least, he would probably need to describe her later in the debriefing in case it turned out her presence was significant. For that reason alone, he very carefully set the paper to the side and silently peeked around the corner of the love seat. He would have preferred to use a mirror but he didn't have one; instead, he kept his head low to the ground and looked around the edge that seemed to be furthest from her.

Past the desk, he could see that Lynn appeared to be in her thirties, with long, utterly straight sandy blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail that ended halfway down her back. She was standing in the middle of the room with her back mostly toward him and she was breathing very deliberately; he could imagine her counting to ten in her mind as she attempted to calm herself from whatever was angering her.

She straightened suddenly, her expression annoyed but determined from the little he could see. She drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly, her hands curling and uncurling into fists at her side. Her jaw set and she whispered simply, "Okay," before she strode purposefully out of the office. As the door fell shut behind her, he heard an immediate click that implied to him the door automatically shut when closed. That wasn't very promising; if he needed to return to this room to escape, then how would he get in without propping it open somehow and making it obvious someone had been there?

He had no idea what she was irritated with but he wasn't about to analyze it right then. Instead, he waited long enough to hear her footsteps fully before he let his breath out and relaxed against the love seat with his eyes sliding briefly closed. That had been close. He didn't take much time to rest though; he closed the jump drive and clipped it back into the inside of the belt buckle. He folded the paper up and slid that down the side of his sock where it would be less likely to be found if he was searched.

There was no point in even trying to download anything further from the computer; it would take more time to turn it on again and he was sure it was password protected. He just had to hope that he had enough information with what he'd managed to get before the woman arrived.

Chapter 44

Boyd moved to the door of the hidden office, waiting a moment to make sure he didn't hear anything on the other side; only when he verified the silence did he open the door silently and glance out. The door opened into a hallway much like the others he'd been wandering through, but it was less glamorous which strengthened his belief that this was a hidden wing that could only be accessed by probably one or two ways and was not open to the general public or guests.

He glanced up and down the corridor but no one was around and he didn't know how long it would take for more guards to appear so he didn't want to spend too much time just standing there. He slipped into the hallway, letting the door fall shut with a quiet click behind him and went in the direction that seemed most likely to eventually lead to an exit. He hadn't heard anything from Sin again so he wasn't certain if the place he'd found had in fact held Thierry; as he passed through the hallways he watched for any places that seemed suspicious or that may have further information he could bring back to the Agency.

With that in mind, when he found a staircase that headed down, he figured it couldn't hurt to check out. He hadn't heard or seen any other guards, but half the hallways in this wing seemed to be well-lit as opposed to the rest of the complex that had seemed shrouded in darkness which put him in a far more vulnerable position. On the other hand he was hoping he could pass himself off as a recruit guard just long enough to get away. If that didn't work, he didn't have any troubles improvising.

The next floor down appeared to have the same type of hallway. The rooms that he passed were all shut so he couldn't see what was inside without rattling the doorknobs, which was not a very intelligent idea. He passed through a variety of hallways without finding anything of interest or any doors that were open. He didn't hear anyone in the vicinity so he turned the corner and was halfway down the corridor when the scuffing of boots against the floor ahead of him caused him to freeze and look for some sort of cover.

There wasn't even a single table in the hallway, though, and when he tried the nearest doors he found them to be locked. His heartbeat increased and he moved quickly to find somewhere to hide. The footsteps were just about to the corner when he finally found a room that was unlocked and he ducked into it quickly. He barely noted that it was dark inside the room and he listened intently through the door as the footsteps slowly approached his hiding place and, seeming to take longer than was necessary, finally passed by.

Some of the tension that had built inside him released; he listened through the door to verify the coast was clear and was just about to reach for the doorknob when the lights in the room suddenly flipped on. He automatically crouched and started to turn but before he could fully react, a heavy hand dropped onto his shoulder and held him still. He froze and didn't struggle or attempt to get away immediately; he was already in a suspicious enough position and if he wanted to blend in or have some sort of believable story, then fighting would only take away much of his credibility. It would be better to gauge the situation and try an excuse first; if that didn't work, he could always resort to violence.

"Identify yourself," a voice commanded behind him; deep, resounding, and somehow familiar. He looked over immediately and found himself confronted by a solidly built, lightly tanned man whose presence resembled that of a bear. He was glowering down with sharp brown eyes while behind him a woman with light brown skin and deep black hair glared.

They seemed familiar to him but just before he placed where he knew them from, the woman's eyes widened as her expression changed from anger to surprise then immediately to deeper suspicion.

"Reed?" she demanded, walking closer with eyes narrowing as she studied him more closely. His heart leaped at the name, at the idea that someone recognized him, and he studied her closer. Her hair was held back in a messy bunch at the back of her neck and her sleeves were three-quarter-length, showing scars from what appeared to be a terrible burn that appeared to start under her shirt and extended down her left arm, disappearing beneath a black leather glove at her wrist.

He remembered abruptly who they were; Dana and Rick, two Janus agents who had been a part of the security team at the hotel during the days prior to the convention. When Boyd had been wandering around as Kadin Reed, he'd run into them several times and had even spent the first afternoon with the two playing cards while they'd waited for the rest of the representatives to arrive. They had been placed there to ensure the safety of the representatives before the convention and he hadn't seen them since he'd entered JKS. He didn't remember her burn scar from before; it must have been something that had occurred since they'd last seen each other, likely even in JKS itself when the bombs had exploded and fire had raged in the building.

This put him in a difficult position; if they hadn't known who he was, he could have made up any number of stories but since they recognized him as Kadin Reed, he'd have to be especially careful. He already didn't look the way "Kadin Reed" had at JKS; his hair was mostly blond now, his eyes the natural brown, and that alone cast further suspicion on who he was and what he was doing there. After all, Kadin Reed's natural hair color was red, his eyes blue; what the hell would he have changed both if not for suspicious reasons? Added to that, if he didn't act like Kadin, it would make it even more obvious that the Kadin they'd known had not been who he'd claimed.

That would negatively implicate 53 as possibly having sent a spy to the JKS, which would put the lives of everyone in 53 in danger of Janus' revenge. At the same time it would compromise the Agency's contact to Janus through them. Beyond that, any doubts that he was not actually Kadin Reed could potentially implicate the Agency, or make it more obvious that someone from an entity like the Agency was attempting to infiltrate the compound. That could have been because he'd taken out the real Kadin Reed and was pretending to impersonate him, which could also implicate 53 if Janus felt they were not strong enough to be in their regime, or that Kadin Reed had all along been a lie.

Since they knew him as Kadin even without the correct hair and eye color and after half a year's absence, they obviously weren't fooled by superficial changes. It actually surprised him that they recognized him, considering it had been so long ago that they'd met. He looked different now, and they'd only been around each other for a few days. The fact that they were such keen observers did not bode well for his chances at getting away from this smoothly either, but that just meant he had to put more effort into this.

"Dana," Boyd said after a moment, smiling at her lopsidedly like Kadin. He was trying to remember all the nuances of that man, the way he'd held himself, the intonation of his voice, and he found that it was all coming back to him more easily and quickly than he would have expected.

He flicked his gaze up to Rick, who was staring down at him with an expression that was reserved but seemed displeased. He also had to be careful to say the sorts of things Kadin would say, even if he knew it would not necessarily be best for the situation. "Rick... It's been ages. How've you been?"

"Kadin Reed," Dana said slowly, walking around him while Rick's hand tightened painfully on his shoulder. Closer, he could see the burn extended partially up the left side of her neck as well as it wound its way up from beneath her shirt. and that she didn't seem to be moving her left arm very much. He felt her fingers trailing along his hair until she arrived in front of him again and she smiled pleasantly.

Rick suddenly slammed Boyd back against the wall so violently that he hit his head and didn't have a chance to react; he hadn't expected the large man to be so quick. Dana was immediately in his face, her good right arm pressing against his windpipe firm enough to be a definite threat but not quite hard enough yet to choke him. "I oughtta gut you right now you worthless sack of shit," she hissed furiously.

Boyd stared at her with wide eyes. "D-Dana?"

That only caused her eyes to narrow further, her lip lifting in a sneer. "I should rip out your intestines and choke you with them. How would you like that, traitor?"

She pushed so hard against his throat at the last hissed word that he couldn't breathe; he tried to press himself against the wall to get away from her but that did nothing. He let his eyes widen further as he made a choking sound to show what she was doing; she only smiled at the sound, cold fury significantly darkening her eyes.

Boyd didn't struggle at first but she didn't seem ready to stop; he looked quickly at Rick, who was watching with an unreadable expression. He tensed, his vision starting to go dim on the edges as his heart pounded in automatic reaction to a threat on his life, and he knew he had to try to get away or she may not stop. He'd been nearly choked often enough or in similarly dangerous situations that he didn't necessarily feel fear at the threat but that also didn't mean he couldn't be killed by something as stupid as this if he didn't react quickly enough.

He kicked at her suddenly but she only pressed the length of her body against him to limit his movements; he could feel that she was wiry, almost entirely muscle, and that although she'd barely moved her left arm she still had enough strength in her right arm and body to cause him damage. He pushed at her arm on his throat but she only grinned, an entirely cruel look, and pressed harder.

He could feel his heart beating faster in a spike of fear now as black dots started to eat away at his vision, turning the mundane room into meaningless shapes. Other senses seemed strangely heightened and slowed down; the sound of her breath harsh near his face, the smell of her sweat and something coconut, probably shampoo or lotion she'd used earlier. He tensed further and felt his heart pounding furiously in his body, quickening his blood while adrenaline slipped into his system again. He realized he would have to get serious about this if he wanted to escape; she showed no signs of yielding any time soon.

Boyd was just tensing himself to violently shove her way and attack when Rick dropped his free hand onto Dana's right shoulder and said simply, "Dana."

She didn't seem to hear him at first so Rick pushed her lightly, a gentle rock that caught her attention. She blinked, glancing at him questioningly before returning her attention to Boyd again. His mouth was open as he tried to draw breath he his lips looked pale. She pulled away from him abruptly, stepping back and watching as he sagged against the wall and would have fallen forward if Rick's hand hadn't still been on his shoulder.

Boyd coughed roughly, his breath catching as he struggled to breathe evenly, one hand moving automatically to his throat as if to protect or console. "What the hell, Dana?" he rasped after a few moments, looking up at her from beneath his eyebrows.

Dana didn't answer at first; she just watched him distantly and seemed more interested in the way his fingers curled near his neck, his chest still heaving a little uncertainly. Her gaze slid toward Rick and she ordered, "Hold him."

Rick pulled him upright and shoved him against the wall without warning, forcing him to look at them straight on. He held him securely while Dana searched him roughly but thoroughly with her right hand. Boyd didn't move or resist, although he paid special attention as she moved around his sock and belt. Thankfully, she didn't notice the jump drive or the sheet of paper, mostly because she seemed more interested in searching for weapons.

She didn't find any weapons on him but he did have a small glass cutter, the hand held trap detector and the code breaker. She pulled the three items out of his pockets while Rick pushed him harder against the wall. Dana met Boyd's eyes with a flat look. "What are these?"

"Just some shit I've had on me for
a while
. Like, that one's a flashlight," Boyd said, nodding toward the small black device that did have a light on one end that was recognizable as a flashlight.

Dana raised an eyebrow, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "And you're going to try to tell me this isn't a glass cutter?" she demanded as she held it up.

"No," Boyd said, giving her a strange look. "That is. Look, what's going on?"

"Where have you been?" Rick's tone was relatively reasonable given the circumstances but it was clear he wasn't asking this idly; it was simply a softer form of a demand.

"I was around," Boyd said with a hint of irritation. "Seriously, what the fuck, guys? Why'd you call me a traitor?"

"Anyone who was in that building and didn't turn up dead or in the hospital's a traitor," Dana informed him coldly. She slipped the decoder, glass cutter and trap detector into her pockets.

"Where 'around'?" Rick insisted, watching Boyd unwaveringly with sharp eyes.

Boyd made a face at them. He wished now he'd had the chance to interact with them more at the time they'd met in the hotel. Although he'd seen them a few times, they had all been relatively short meetings except the afternoon they'd played cards. Even that had only been for a few hours and they'd been in such an informal setting that it was entirely different than these circumstances.

"Towns around Monterrey at first, mostly," Boyd answered, giving them a look that stated he was trying to work with them despite how unreasonable they were being. "I didn't know why the place went down, who was attacking us, if someone was hunting down all the reps, Janus and would-be's alike. I figured it was best to run 'till I knew what was happening." He looked at Dana, insulted. "How's that make me a traitor?"