Page 61 of Static/Cling

“Roger is not okay in there.”

“Give him some credit. He’s got more training than Bjorn and me. He’s got his dog in here somewhere. He’s going to be fine.”

“But his guard might?—”

“He won’t hurt him.”

“You don’t know that.Idon’t even know that.”

“I do.” Though why Sal thought they would know better than anyone else what one random guard might do twigged his radar, now wasn’t the time to ask. “Listen. You have to be our eyes as much as you can from there, but you have to let us do our job.” Their frantic, less than useful suggestions didn’t bode wellfor them keeping their head if things really went pear-shaped. “Rog?”

Roger cleared his throat.

“Do that again if you’re listening.”

He did it again.

“And one more time if you heard what that guy said to Kassian about your guard.”

He did.

“So you see?” Leif said. “Roger knows the score. All he has to do is not let the guard get bored.”

“How?”

“Tic-tac-toe. Play catch. It doesn’t matter how. He’s got this covered, don’t you, Rog?”

Roger cleared his throat.

“You see?”

“You need water or somethin’?” Antony asked, his voice low and not unpleasant through Roger’s headpiece.

“Yeah, please. That’d be awesome.”

“Sure, sure, little dude.”

“Okay,” Leif said, moving on from Roger, who seemed to be handling things fine for now. “So, next. We have to get in there, Sal. That’s going to be the sticky bit.”

“Gimme my sweats,” Bjorn said.

“What?”

“I can’t go in there half-mast. I need out of these jeans. They’re cramping my style.”

“Half-mast?” Leif muttered. “Really?”

Bjorn grinned.

“Hopeless,” Leif said, but shucked his pack so Bjorn could change.

“I can track Kassian,” Sal said. “He’s gone down a south stairwell to the main floor, and now it looks like he’s headed forthe elevators. I’ll let you know where he ends up.” They sounded calmer, now.

“How? His earpiece?”

Sal grunted. “As for you two, that’ll be trickier. You’ll have to just be careful and don’t get caught. Use Bjorn’s electric thingy to circumvent the security, but remember, the more you disable, the less I’ll be able to help.”

“I’m beginning to think Kassian is not the computer genius among us after all.”

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