She slid around to the back entrance stealthily, her hair tucked discretely into a black cap to match her stretchy bodysuit. There was no one around but Audrey knew that the peace was fleeting. Someone was bound to surface and demand to know what she was doing there if she didn’t work fast.

I hope Danica knows what she’s talking about, she thought tersely. I’m not in the mood to be shot at tonight.

Stealing against the shadows of the brick, Audrey made her way down the alleyway, toward the caged window near the metal fire door.

Her heart was pounding loudly but she managed to regulate her pulse before slipping onto the balls of her feet and peering through the window.

Of course it’s blacked out. How am I going to get in there?

Audrey knew she should turn around and get back to the hotel but the intense feeling of curiosity was overcoming her and she refused to give up so easily.

Her aunt had been certain that Oculus had a lab of sorts in the city and Danica had never been wrong yet. Her own ties to Oculus had given the Conways an advantage in the past but this was the first time Audrey had ever used Danica for her own knowledge.

“Why are you asking about Oculus in Berlin?” Danica demanded, her eyes wide with fright. “You can’t get involved with all that, Audrey, your dad—”

“Doesn’t need to know about this. No one needs to know about this but it’s important, Dan. I wouldn’t have asked you if it wasn’t.”

In the end, Danica reluctantly told her niece what she knew, and promised to remain silent, but Audrey wasn’t convinced she’d keep it quiet from Xavier.

It won’t matter if she’s right.

On a whim, she tried the door and to her shock, it opened easily. Alarm bells chimed through her mind in a blare and again, Audrey had to pace her heartrate before following the long, black hallway through the abandoned warehouse.

As the door closed at her back, she froze, plunged into pure darkness but the concern only lasted for a split second before the auras took over.

White light illuminated her way over the hall, the uncertainty it depicted almost blinding.

But at least I can see, she reasoned, silencing the warnings screaming at her to run in the opposite direction.

There was nothing to indicate that anyone else was in the warehouse, no colors other than the white of her own nervousness.

Yet some inherent sense told her that there was certainly something going on there, something she couldn’t see.

At least not yet.

At the end of the hall, she found herself at another door and again, she paused, pressing her hand against the cold steel.

NO!

The single word reverberated through her mind and Audrey gasped by the sheer intensity of it. She wasn’t sure where it had come from, an external source or her own head but suddenly, she knew she had to get out of there.

Without checking what was beyond the door, Audrey fled, her breaths escaping in jagged gasps and she pushed her way back into the alleyway, gulping back the night air as if she’d just escaped a throttling.

But she didn’t give herself a moment to rest.

They’re here. Oculus is here.

It was the first time she’d physically come so close and even though she hadn’t seen anyone, the feeling lingered that she had almost come face-to-face with them.

Almost colliding with a man as she scurried through the lobby of her hotel, Audrey raced up to her room, peeling off her suddenly suffocating clothes as she dug out the burner phone, her breasts heaving wildly, her lungs hungry to breathe.

“Peterman.”

“I-it’s me,” she wheezed. “Aud—”

“Audrey. What the hell happened?”

“I have an address in Berlin,” she mumbled. “They’re there. They’re there now. You have to go.”

“Send me the address.”

She exhaled and texted out the information with trembling fingers.

“You went there, didn’t you?” Peterman demanded.

“Did you get the information?” she asked, her words steadier now.

“Did anyone see you—yes, it’s coming through now. I’m sending a team in right now, Audrey.”

“No one saw me,” she sighed. “But I know they’re there.”

“I’ve dispatched a strike as we speak. You’re sure it’s them?”

“Has my intel ever been wrong before?”

“No…but you’ve also never gone to a site before, have you?”

“It was a mistake,” she told him. “It won’t happen again.”

Peterman inhaled deeply.

“Audrey, when you’re feeling better, we should have a talk.”

“About what? I’m fine, Peterman,” she insisted quickly. “It was stupid and I regretted it the minute I went there. I’m not really an ‘on the scene’ kinda girl.”

She laughed nervously but she meant what she had said.

Despite the training you received at the compound, you’re really not the kind of person who should be front and center. Your place is behind the scenes, collecting intel and giving it to people who can do something about it.

“Wait…” Peterman told her and Audrey realized she’d been muted. A feeling of dread overwhelmed her and she waited for Peterman to come back on the phone.

What did they find? Did someone get hurt? Could the team have already been that close?

Audrey had learned a while back not to underestimate the CIA. There had probably been an active team waiting for word before she’d even gotten to Berlin.

“Audrey?”

“What happened?”

“There’s nothing at the warehouse.”

Her heart sank and she shook her head.

“Someone was there, nearby, I’m sure. Just stay there and—”

“No, you don’t understand,” Peterman sighed. “You were right. There was definitely activity there and it looks like Oculus is responsible but they left in a hurry. Almost like they’d been tipped off.”

Defensiveness fused through her spine.

“I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, Peterman but I hope it’s not that I had something to do with them not being there.”

“I don’t know what to think right now,” Peterman replied shortly. “But things don’t add up, Audrey. You’ve refused our protection but you’re going into buildings which is both dangerous and goes against protocol. If you aren’t helping Oculus, you are inadvertently obstructing our investigations.”

“Your…are you kidding me right now? You wouldn’t have known where to go if it wasn’t for me!”

“Actually,” Peterman countered. “We brought this to you and not vice versa.”

“You…what is happening right now?” Audrey snapped. “Are you dropping me?”

“I think we both need to re-evaluate our relationship,” he replied shortly. “Dispose of that phone now. It’s going dead in twenty minutes.”

“Peterman—”

“That’s all, Audrey.”

The phone went dead in her ear and she gaped at it in disbelief.

Did that just happen? Did that really just happen?

She tossed the burner aside and sank against the wall, shaking her head in disbelief.

The CIA isn’t going to just let me go, are they? Not when I know as much as I do…

Immediately, she thought about calling her father and the idea made her nauseous.

If I do that, he’ll insist that I return to the compound with Drake. I can’t do that. I have a life, one I built away from the Conways. I swore I wasn’t going to run from Oculus, that I was going to flush them out my own way without being afraid. Instead, I’ve made an enemy out of the CIA now.

She willed herself to think rationally, to use her head and not let her past or emotions rule her.

I need to meditate on this. Assuming I have time to meditate before Peterman sends in a strike team to take me out too.

The house phone rang from beside the sofa and Audrey almost jumped out of her skin.

“H-hello?” she breathed, her eyes and ears alert for any sudden movements. She was developing a plan for escape in her mind’s eye.

“Frau McMahon? This is Mauro at the desk. I have a man here to see you.”

“No! No, no men!” Audrey choked. “Do not let him up here!”

“No, Fraulein, he wishes for you to come down and join him at the bar. His name is Herr…uh…” She listened through the phone, channeling her telepathy to hear the thoughts of the man on the other end of the line.

“Bennet,” she heard a man say. “John Bennet.”

Audrey honed in on his thoughts. There was nothing. Not a word of exasperation, not a sigh of impatience, nothing.

“Herr John Bennet.”

“I don’t know him,” Audrey insisted. “What does he want?”

“Would you care to speak with him yourself, Frau McMahon?”

“Ja. Bitte,” she agreed, waiting with sweating palms for the man to take the phone.

“Forgive the intrusion on your speaking tour, Dr. McMahon,” he said cordially, and Audrey noted the English accent. “You are a difficult woman to find.”

The words filled Audrey with a new terror.

“W-what do you want?” she breathed. “Just come and finish me if that’s what you’re here for.”

She willed him to have a silent thought, at that comment, but there was nothing readable.

“Finish you?” he asked. The confusion in his voice was evident.

“I think, perhaps, I may have alarmed you, Dr. McMahon, and I assure you, that was not my intention at all. You are Dr. Audrey McMahon, author of the MOPs method?”

“I…” It was Audrey’s turn to be confused.

Is this a case of bizarre timing? Could it be?

Again, she tried to probe into his mind but he seemed to be waiting for her response.

“I am,” she replied softly. “What is it you want from me?”

“Ah, good. For a moment there, I thought perhaps I had mistaken you for someone else.”

John Bennet laughed and oddly, the sound was surprisingly reassuring to Audrey.

“Could we meet briefly for a drink? Again, I am sorry to have alarmed you but I was hoping the element of surprise might be to my advantage.”

Is this a trap? Is this the CIA trying to flush me out? But why in a public place? It would be so much easier to do it in private.

“I can’t consent to meeting you for a drink, Mr. Bennet, until you tell me what this is about,” Audrey told him firmly. “I’m not in the habit of meeting strange men under these circumstances.”

“Oh!” He laughed again and sounded embarrassed. “I’ve neglected to explain myself properly.”

“You certainly have!”

“Let’s start again, shall we? Dr. McMahon, I’m John Bennet, chief of staff at Hospital de los Ninos Heurfanos.”

“I-I’ve never heard of it,” Audrey said slowly.

“You wouldn’t for two reasons—a, it’s not officially opened and b, it’s in Nicaragua.”

“Oh.”

John chuckled again.

“Bringing me back to why I’m here, Dr. McMahon,” he offered quietly. “We’d like you to come work for us in Nicaragua at the orphaned children’s hospital. Naturally, you will be compensated for your selfless work but the good you’ll be doing is insurmountable.”

Is this for real — she pushed away the thought that Oculus or the CIA had anything to do with this. She felt a sense of relief wash over her ...

“When?” she blurted out, her heart thudding with such intensity against her ribcage, she wondered if her bones might crack. “When would we leave?”

“Of course, I understand that you’re on a tour right now. No one expects you to drop anything, should you choose to accept this—”

“I’ll take the job if you can get me out of here tonight,” she told him – she’d rather take a chance on the sensation of calm she got from speaking with Bennet than deal with Oculus or the CIA.

“What?”

“Those are my terms.”

“I…I’ll s-see what I can do, Doctor,” he choked. “C-could we meet and sign the paperwork?”

“We’ll sign it on the plane,” Audrey told him. “I’ll be down in five.”