Page 133 of Inside the Sun

He doesn’t give me time, just growls, and in one move he lunges and tackles me. We're right at the turn, so I slam hard into the wall.

"You fucking idiot! What the hell are you doing here?!"

He pins me against the wall. I could fight back, but I know negotiation will get me further than swinging.

"Mauro told me Sun’s locked in that room!" I blurt. "I have to help him!"

Luca snarls again, pushing harder.

"And you thought you’d just fuckingwaltzin here? Are you completely insane? Do you have any idea what could happen?"

I keep my mouth shut, because he’s right. This is beyond stupid. Clenching my jaw, I whisper,

"I had to do something… You don’t understand. Sun and I—"

"Idon’tunderstand?" he growls, fingers digging into my arms. "I’m the only fucker on this planet whodoes. I know what it’s like to watch the one you want more than life itself and not be able to do a damn thing. To be stuck in a fucking trap! But that doesn’t mean you get to pull this kind of reckless bullshit."

I stare at him in the dim hallway, stunned. What is he even talking about?

Luca grits his teeth. Then reaches into his pocket, pulls out his phone, taps something, a word maybe, and shoves the phone away. Then he grabs my arm and growls,

"We’re leaving. If no one saw you yet, it’ll be a fucking miracle."

"But what about Sun—"

"Shut the fuck up. If Anzo catches you in this hallway, it’s not just Sun who’s going to lose his head. You’re dead too."

We move, half running, down the corridor, perhaps fifty yards or more.

Suddenly, Luca punches in another code at a different door. It unlocks, and he shoves me inside.

I let him, because at this point I’m kinda dazed. This whole thing is super weird.

The room light hits me like a slap to the face, and I blink. It’s glowing with thirty pale blue monitors staring me down from every direction.

But the background is dark. Only illumination comes from the screens. This is the CCTV control room. Every fucking corner of The Sun is under surveillance, every camera feeds into this place.

My eyes dart between the rows of footage. None of the monitors show the gazebo, thank fuck.

Only then do I notice the guy at the desk, almost buried behind all the tech gear. In the pale glow, I recognize him.

The one who sees everything, as I called him in my mind.

Mauro.

He looks up. The blue light flickers across his face, making him look like some kind of ghost.

"Our sweet little soldier just did a whole lot of un-soldierly shit," Luca growls. "Now we get to clean up his fucking mess. Again."

Mauro’s fingers hit the keyboard. A feed comes up: front entrance. Me standing there, clear as day, messing around with the keypad.

"If Anzo sees that…" I stammer.

"Oh, now you think about that?" Luca snaps. "You thought you’d just rescue Sun like a fucking white knight? And what, forty of Anzo’ssoldatiwouldn’t come down on your ass? You’relucky they’re all training in Sector H. But if that alarm had gone off they’d be here in seconds. None of us walks out of that building without Anzo knowing, and that includes Sun!"

I stare at him, speechless.

"This is the second time we’ve saved your ass," he continues. "You better get your shit together, because even going full fuckingimagowon’t help you when forty soldiers put a bullet in your skull."

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