Page 10 of Devil
“It has to be here somewhere then,” another woman said. Her statement was followed by the sounds of rustling papers.
“Maybe there was a problem?” the first woman suggested.
“Or she lied,” the other woman replied, now opening drawers.
“She wouldn’t have lied.”
“Then why isn’t it here?” the other woman countered.
“I don’t know,” the first woman said, her voice laced with frustration and anxiety. “But she wouldn’t have lied. Something must have happened to her.”
“Then what do we do now? It’s not like we can keep popping back in here.”
The first woman sighed. “If it’s not here, it’s not here. There’s no point in hanging out any longer. We should finish up for the night, and then I’ll see if I can reach her tomorrow.”
“This job sucks,” the other woman said.
The first woman chuckled. “No shit, why do you think it was so easy to convince the real cleaners to let us take over for the night?”
A drawer closed, and Devil assumed they’d be stepping out into the hallway any moment. She would tap into the security feed to get pictures of them, but she wanted to see the two women for herself. Glancing around to gauge her options, Devil’s gaze landed on the door to the stairs. Making a quick decision, she eased the door open and passed through. When the women returned to their cart, Devil flung the door open and walked back into the hall as if she’d just arrived.
Keeping her head down, Devil held her phone in front of her. “That’s not acceptable,” she said, speaking to no one. The door to Lab 14, Dr. Jennifer Pritchard’s lab, shut and she used the opportunity to let it draw her attention. She caught the eye of the two women and let a small, questioning frown touch her lips. Everyone who worked at the center knew cleaning staff wasn’t allowed in the labs, and it would be odd if shedidn’treact.
The two women froze. Devil took the moment to memorize their faces. Then she shook her head and dropped her gaze back to her phone, as if extremely irritated by the person on the other end of the line. “I told you, that won’t work. I need the delivery by tomorrow afternoon or the order is canceled.” As she spoke, she strode by the women, not sparing them a second glance. Their faces were burned into her memory, but she was trained for these kinds of situations. Devil hoped that allthey’dremember was nothing more than some irritated woman talking on her phone.
Devil continued her “conversation” as she rounded a corner, then made a show of ending the call. Before meeting Darius, though, she texted Cyn and asked her to tap into the fourth-floor security footage and download it. She doubted that the feeds were at risk, but Devil didn’t want to take any chances. If someone had access to the security system, it wasn’t inconceivable that they’d also have the ability to erase any recordings. There was also the very real possibility that the “glitch”in the system was something more than just a glitch, and she wanted eyes on the two interlopers.
Cyn replied quickly saying she was on it, then, putting her phone away, Devil knocked on the door of Lab 3.
“Come in,” Darius called.
Pushing the door open, she was greeted by the sight of him standing on the far end of the lab. His shirtsleeves were rolled up, revealing a tattoo she hadn’t noticed at Smith House, and, of all things, he held a mop.
“What happened here?” she asked, coming to a stop at the edge of a puddle of water.
“Just a leak,” Darius responded, gesturing to the sink behind him. “Luckily the water hit a sensor on that device that alerted facilities. Since I was still here, I offered to check it out.”
“And here you are mopping. You do know there’s a cleaning crew that could help?” she asked, although he did look kind of happy about being out of his office. She had to wonder if he missed working on a navy base with its constant buzz of activity.
He shrugged. “The cleaning crew is busy.”
And not the real cleaning crew, she thought, opting not to push the issue.
“It was an easy fix, and it’s just water. Sorry for the false alarm earlier. The AC in the server room stopped working. A few servers went offline as part of a fail-safe rather than overheat. Once they figured out the issue, they got the room cooled down, and everything came back online.”
As he spoke, he continued to mop, soaking up water with the long cotton threads, then squeezing it out in the bucket. She watched the play of muscles in his arms. It was hard not to. But his easy, almost hypnotic, movements didn’t distract her enough to stop the bizarre thought that kept pinging through her mind; she had never seen a man mop before. She knew they did. Six’s house cleaner was a man, and she was sure neither Joe nor Gavin would bat an eye at doing it; she’d just never seen it.
“You okay?” Darius asked, pausing his cleanup.
She gave a little shake of her head. “Fine, just thinking. Are they looking at what might have brought the ventilation down?”
He studied her, then nodded slowly. She didn’t blame him for his hesitation, itwasan odd question. Most researchers would simply be glad the data were back.
“That will be part of the root cause analysis,” he answered. “They thought they’d have an update tomorrow. Do you want me to keep you in the loop?”
Yes, she did, but she knew it would sound even more bizarre if she said so. Besides, Cyn would be able to get the report. She shook her head. “No, as long as they are sure it wasn’t a breach or attempted breach, I’m good with that.”
He nodded. “You going to check your lab while you’re here?”
