Page 72 of Enthraller

Ed stopped and turned at the sound as well, and she rose up a step to get level with him.

“If people are here and they heard that, they will have looked out a window. They’ll know something is up,” she whispered in Ed’s ear.

He gave a nod, but there was no hesitation in him as he continued on to the next floor.

The dark purple gleam of jarram wood on the landing was visible in the glow of a small wall sconce, and they both stilled at the sound of a voice behind one of the doors set along a short passageway.

It sounded like a woman, and as Wren got closer, her nanos helped her make out the words.

“I was right. There was someone following me from the warehouse this afternoon.” The woman’s voice was low and rich, her accent not Aponian. “They must have followed Vim when he came to deliver his message. It’s possible they followed me when I left. The whole operation is blown.”

“You shouldn’t have come straight back here if you thought you were being followed.” The man who answered was curt.

“I had no concrete reason to suspect Iwasbeing followed. It was a feeling I’ve had many times before that’s come to nothing. I’ve gotten used to living like this.” Her voice was just as curt, as if she didn’t like being criticized. “I received word today that Salisas hasn’t come home for two nights. Do you know where he is?”

“No. I’m the one who told management he was missing. He didn’t come in yesterday, and that’s not like him. You think he’s the one who ratted out the location of the warehouse?”

“I doubt it. I’ve kept away from the secondary warehouse because I agreed that it was best not to draw any attention to it, but when I heard Salisas was missing, I walked past it yesterday evening. Had a look inside.”

“So they might know where the second one is, too?” The man sounded outraged.

“No, because the address I have for it is wrong. The warehouse I broke into isn’t ours.”

“You sure you wrote down the correct address?” The man asked.

“That’s what you’re going with?” She sounded disappointed. “Where is it, Pontia? What’s going on?”

He sighed, as if aggrieved. “Just another layer of security, is all, given its importance. Someone up top knows where it is, obviously; they pay the rent on it. If they say I can, I’ll tell you. If Aponi Defense has found the primary warehouse, though, we need to get out of here before it blows.”

The way he said it made Wren go very still.

She touched Ed’s shoulder. “Boom?” she mouthed.

He gave a quick nod, taking out his comms unit to tap out a message for Protection and the SF teams.

If everything in the warehouse exploded at once, it was possible this building might not be far enough away.

While they’d been inside it, they hadn’t found anything that would indicate the whole warehouse could be set off, but the SF explosive experts would be checking for that before anything else.

“They’ll be coming here next,” the woman said.

“So hurry.”

There was silence, and when it went on longer than a minute, Ed shoved at the door, and they both peered inside.

It was empty and completely dark.

Wren stepped into the room, and as she did, a light came on. She blinked, looking around for where the two could have gone, and saw the wall to the left was slightly angled.

She shoved at it, and it swung open easily, showing a staircase that went up.

They both heard the whine of a hover from above.

She raced up the stairs, Ed on her heels, but by the time they reached the top the hover was lifting up and away.

A man lay, panting, to one side of the hover pad. It looked as if he’d been shot.

“She shot you and then left you here for us, did she?” Wren asked as she jogged toward him.

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