Page 10 of A Touch of Treachery
During our fight, Iris’s phone had slid out of her pocket and landed on the floor.I picked it up.The screen was unlocked and open to a comms channel with a single name at the top of the screen:Bryce.
Who was that?One of the male thieves I’d spotted in the lobby?Or someone else?
“Status update,” the male voice—Bryce—asked for a third time.
I remained silent, and no other voices joined the conversation.Severalclickety-clack-clackssounded, along with a steady hissing sound.What were those noises?
A few more seconds passed, then Bryce muttered a curse.“If you can hear this, I’m almost done with the primary objective.Get to the rendezvous point or get left behind.”
He cut the connection, and the phone went silent.
Iris had said stealing the Grunglass Necklace was asecondaryobjective, something Bryce had confirmed by referring to whatever he was doing as theprimaryobjective.My stomach clenched with worry.The thieves had something else in mind than just swiping the necklace.
I needed to find the mysterious Bryce, but how?He could be anywhere in the building, as could the other thieves—and Desmond too.
A knot of dread lodged in my throat, but I swallowed it.Desmond Percy was one of the best cleaners in Section 47, and he could eliminate any threat that crossed his path.I believed in Desmond’s skills as much as I believed in my own, and right now I needed to stop worrying about him and figure out where Bryce was.
I stared at the phone, and I thought of the background noises that had echoed out of the device while Bryce had been demanding updates.Thoseclickety-clack-clackshad sounded like ...typing on a keyboard, while the hisses reminded me of ...the espresso machines in the café.
Bryce was in the lobby, and so was his primary objective, whatever it was.
I crouched down beside Iris, who was still unconscious.I rifled through her pockets, but the only thing she was carrying was a white keycard.I grabbed it, along with her gun, then picked up the briefcase.I swiped the keycard across the elevator reader, opening the door.Then I shoved the keycard into my pocket, stepped inside, and punched the lobby button.
The elevator door closed, and I once again found myself staring at my reflection in the mirrored surface.My shoulder-length auburn hair was a tangled mess, my blue suit was wrinkled, and my hands were stained a sickly pea-green from the smoke bomb that had been hidden inside the briefcase.
I grimaced.As a spy, I was used to things going wrong, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was goingexactlythe way Henrika Hyde wanted—and that I was already too late to stop her master plan.
Theelevatorfloateddownto the ground level.I was still clutching Iris’s gun in my right hand, and I dropped the weapon to my side, hiding it from sight as best I could, even as I tightened my grip on the briefcase in my left hand.
The door slid back, and I cautiously stuck my head outside.The corridor was empty, so I stepped out of the elevator and headed toward the lobby.
“Desmond?”I said in a low voice.“Desmond, do you copy?”
More static crackled through my earbud.Our comms were still being jammed, which meant I couldn’t warn Desmond about what was going on.I growled with frustration and walked on.
I stopped at the end of the corridor and peered out into the lobby.It was after ten o’clock, so the rush of people going to work and appointments had vanished, and the area was largely empty, except for some folks working on laptops at the café.
I walked slowly, approaching first one person and then another and sneaking glances at their screens.I concentrated on the men, but I studied all the women as well, since I had no idea who might be working for Bryce.
No one gave me a second glance, and everyone remained focused on their screens, which featured everything from work documents to spreadsheets to word games.I even spotted some super-cute photos of a cat named Kitty Boodle.
The longer I looked at the laptops, the more my synesthesia surged, and the more colors bloomed like flowers on the screens.Grays mostly, indicating typos and other small mistakes, although a few pinks flickered on some of the spreadsheets, indicating more serious mathematical errors.One college-age guy’s screen was a veritable sea of red, which indicated knowing, outright, deliberate fraud.Someone was plagiarizing a paper.
I finished my winding route and stopped at the café exit.Frustration bubbled in my chest.Bryce was heresomewhere, and the steady hiss from the espresso machines sounded like a chiding chorus, chastising me for not spotting him yet.
I examined everyone again, from the folks in the café to a woman reading a comic book in the middle of the lobby to the people walking past the glass wall that fronted the building.Nothing was out of the ordinary, but I had the nagging feeling I was missing something ...
Or, rather,notmissing something.
My gaze zoomed over to the reception desk.Instead of it being empty, since Iris Berriston was unconscious on the fifth floor, a man was sitting in her chair, typing on her laptop.He looked to be in his mid-thirties, the same age as Desmond and me, and was quite handsome, with thick, wavy dark brown hair, tan skin, and a strong, square jaw.A scar slashed a jagged white line through his bushy left eyebrow and zigzagged down into his cheek.
My gaze snagged on his suit.The man’s jacket, tie, and shirt were all the exact same charcoal-gray.Nothing terribly unusual—except for the fact that dark, monochromatic suits were practically the uniform of Section cleaners.
You could always tell the assassins by their suits.
The man must have sensed my stare because he looked up.His gaze locked with mine, and his dark brown eyes narrowed.He clearly recognized me, which meant he was the mysterious Bryce.Everything about him, from his tall posture to his calm demeanor to his snazzy suit, screamed alpha leader.
In the distance, footsteps pounded out a fast, furious rhythm, drawing my attention.Desmond sprinted out of the corridor on the right side of the lobby and skidded to a stop.His gaze flicked to me, and I jerked my head to the side.Desmond spun in that direction and spotted Bryce behind the reception desk.
