The sound of hovers slowly broke through Tila's concentration. There was a ban on hover use except by officials, and a cold chill ran down her arms.

Had there been another explosion?

She hadn't heard one, so what where the hovers doing so close by?

She set her screen aside, stood, and walked to the balustrade to look out.

The noise was coming from above her, and she looked up, stumbling back at the sight of a hover directly overhead. She stared with wide eyes as it lowered, then stopped when it was level with her.

She looked straight into the eyes of the pilot.

Nick.

She knew her mouth dropped open, but she couldn't help it.

And to say he looked less than thrilled to see her was an understatement.

She tried to smile and gave a little wave, and he scowled at her, lifted the hover up and back, then dived down toward the ground.

She leaned over the edge and saw him land in what should have been a busy street.

It was cleared of all EMs and people, and the chill that had gripped her earlier intensified.

Could there have been an explosion in the building? But she would surely have heard it?

Her screen chimed, and she raced back to it, and snatched it up.

“Nick?”

“Tila, where are you?” His voice was clipped, his face expressionless. She'd never seen him this way, and she suddenly found him intimidating.

The feeling triggered anger, more than anything else.

“What do you mean, where am I? We just looked each other in the eye.” She glared back at him, and then walked over to the balustrade and looked down at his hover, to see if she could see him.

He stood beside the vehicle, with three other Protection Unit members around him. They were far below her and she couldn't tell much about them.

Nick took a deep breath. “Where are you in the building? Our plans aren't showing a balcony at your location.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip. But she'd always known the puzzle would have to come out sometime. “When Guan built his puzzle buildings, he built a series of clues into the murals and decorations, which all lead to a secret room. In the case of Freya's Puzzle, it's this balcony.”

There was silence, and she saw Nick look over at one of his colleagues out of the frame.

“How many people know about the balcony?” He turned back to the screen, eyes intense.

“Just me, as far as I know.” She shrugged. “I've kept it my little secret.”

“What's the access point?” Cris leaned into the frame, her features far more relaxed and friendly than Nick's.

“Hi, Cris.” Tila smiled. “The entrance to the balcony is in the corridor just past the main open office, where the passageway kinks.”

“Thanks.” Cris winked and disappeared from view.

“Tila Dor Rio.” The voice that spoke was deep, a little rougher than she remembered, but still unmistakable. Commander Drake must have taken the screen from Nick, because suddenly he was the only one in the frame.

“Commander,” she acknowledged, heart beating with a nervousness she couldn't explain. “Hello.”

He looked suddenly discomforted. “Hello. I'm sorry we meet again under such circumstances. Would it be possible for us to rappel a team onto your balcony and you to get them into the passageway without being seen?”

“Yes, but I don't understand why. What's going on?”

“You're not hiding there?” Drake frowned.

“Hiding from what?”

There was silence for a moment.

“Three men have taken your colleagues hostage, and they're insisting they'll detonate the explosive they brought in with them, killing themselves as well as everyone in your firm, unless we give them a way to escape.”

Tila looked at the time, realized she'd been on the balcony for at least two hours, and yes, it was incredibly strange that no one had tried to contact her in that time. She had no messages from her colleagues at all.

“Is anyone hurt?” Could she really have sat here in the sun and not been aware of any of this?

The Commander paused, and her stomach sank.

“We think a few people are injured, and the two security guards who confronted the men may be dead.”

Tila fisted her hands. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

* * *

Drake was watching him, a strange look on his face, and Nick fought the urge to stare back in challenge.

He would not be made to feel embarrassed for what had just happened. When Tila had moved to the edge of the balcony and looked up, they had thought they were about to speak to a hostage-taker. To find himself staring into Tila's eyes had shocked him to the core.

“So, how do you know Tila Dor Ria?”

“She's my neighbor.” Nick could see Drake hadn't expected that answer.

“Haven't you just moved?” Drake asked after a pause.

Nick nodded. “Just over a week ago.”

“You seem pretty friendly for having known her a week.”

Nick frowned at him and said nothing. What did it matter to Drake how well he did or didn't know Tila?

Drake stared, waiting for a response, and when Nick didn't oblige, he turned and made a 'come' gesture with his hands. The other members of the team crowded around.

”We have a way in, but the civilian does not, I repeat does not, accompany you. She shows you the door to the corridor, and you leave her safe on that balcony.”

”Agreed.” Drake would get no argument from Nick on that.

”Bartega, you able to think straight if I send you up there?”

It was Nick's turn to narrow his eyes. He gave a tight nod, and tried to ignore the stares of his team mates.

”Wait,” Vreg said suddenly. “Is this the marsalos girl?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw Cris shaking her head at Vreg, trying to cut him off.

”Marsalos?” Drake swung around, surprise and shock on his face. “What's this about, Bartega?”

Nick cleared his throat. “Tila makes really good marsalos, sir.”

Drake studied him for a beat, and Nick glimpsed something in his eyes--some deep-felt emotion--before the commander turned back to the group and started laying out the plan of action.

They were up in the hover fifteen minutes later, Drake piloting, and one by one, they slid down on ropes to Tila's secret balcony.

She stood back against the wall as they came down, giving them as much space as she could in the delicate, beautiful space.

The intricate tile work that was a feature of Guan's style was on full display, and the architect had built planters into the design and filled them with lush flowers and miniature trees.

Nick was the last to rappel in, and he found Cris introducing the team to Tila. They were all a little too curious, a little too focused on her, in his opinion.

”What's the plan?” Tila didn't greet him, and after the tension of their earlier conversation, he supposed he didn't blame her. She focused on him, eyes unwavering, but he could see the tremble of her hands.

Cris was standing beside her and she slid an arm around her shoulders. “We're going to try and get your colleagues out safely, Tila. Trust us.”

Tila looked up at her and nodded, face serious and lips in a tight line.

Nick cleared his throat. “If you show us how to get into the corridor, we'll do the rest. You stay back here.” Nick waited for her gaze to land on him again. “Don't come out until the commander or one of us calls your comm and lets you know it's safe.”

She gave a reluctant nod. “Well, getting you to the corridor is easy enough.” She gestured toward the wall, which seemed to be nothing but a wall to Nick, although it was covered in plaster flowers, trees, birds, and insects in a relief pattern, white against a wall of deep blue.

Tila reached out, grabbed a flower, and twisted it, and the thin outline of a door emerged.

She leaned against it, opening it a fraction, and then gave a nod, stepping aside so Nick could get through.

He stopped as he passed her, wanting to say something, but his entire team was looking on.

She stared at his chest, and then the stiffness left her spine. “Stay safe,” she murmured, just as she had done this morning, but this time, it was she who leaned toward him and brushed a kiss on his cheek.

His gaze snapped to hers, and then Cris was crowding him, moving him on, and he stepped out into a section of passageway that kinked strangely. He slid along the wall, the rest of the team right behind him, silent and focused.

Up ahead, there was a scream, and Nick stopped moving, listening carefully.

The scream was followed by a shout, and he began edging along the wall again, getting closer to the noise.

“What have you done to her? Where. Is. Tila?”

Nick tensed. They'd all hoped that the rest of the staff had not brought the hostage-takers' attention to the fact that Tila hadn't been rounded up, but possibly they thought she was injured, rather than hiding.

This could work for them.

If some of the hostage-takers came looking for Tila, they could pick them off, one by one.

He heard the murmur of voices, and then he winced as a voice boomed over what must the in-house speaker system in the office.

“Tila?” The man speaking dragged out her name, almost singing it. “Apparently you're out there somewhere on this floor. I have someone here called Yasmi, and I'm going to have my colleague hurt her until you come out. If you don't come out at all, I'll discharge my laz against her throat. I'm assuming your hiding place is tricky, or we'd have found you already, so I'm giving you until the count of fifty. Starting . . . now.”

Nick turned to the team, face grim as the man started counting down. Over the sound of his voice, all of them heard the short, sharp cry of someone being struck.

They were dealing with pros. They'd known this from the start, but these insurgents were obviously smart enough not to split up and weaken their position.

Movement at the back of the team had him raising his gaze, and there was Tila, standing in the open doorway to her secret space, face pale under the warm gold of her skin tone, hands shaking.

“I have to go,” she said, voice raw. She was looking only at him.

“No--”

“I'm going, Nick.” Her voice trembled, then steadied. “You can take advantage of that by putting some cameras on me somewhere, so you can get some visuals of the hostage-takers and the setup in the conference room, or not. But I'm not letting him kill Yasmi. I don't think he's bluffing.”

Unfortunately, Nick didn't, either. If Tila didn't come out, they would kill Yasmi, and then start on the next person in the room. They had enough hostages to spare.

He and Vreg shared a look, and then Nick gave a nod. Vreg started to move instantly, pulling two tiny, pinhead sized cameras out of his pack.

Cris took them from him, fixing one to the back of Tila's cream dress high on the right shoulder, so they could see what was happening behind her, and one just below the dress's V neck at front.

All the while, the countdown droned on over the grunts and cries of someone being beaten up. Tila looked as if she was taking the beating herself.

Nick touched his comm. The commander looked out at him from the screen. Drake would have heard and seen everything from the cameras in their uniforms and packs.

“I don't like it.” There was a palpable tension on Drake's face.

Nick nodded. “Me, either.”

Cris cut in. “She's ready.”

The counting was down to twenty-five. Halfway.

Nick could see Tila was visibly agitated. She wanted to get moving. Stop her friend's torture.

“Having eyes on the room is a good thing,” Cris reminded them. “We're not going to be able to pick them off, not if they're this risk averse, so having a good idea where everyone is before we storm in is the best way to go. Especially if they're hunkering down and not splitting up.”

She was right, but handing the hostage-takers a new hostage was not procedure. And procedure or not, Nick did not want her going in there. Every part of him screamed that it was a bad, bad idea.

Drake's face reflected his own thoughts.

“Sir?” he asked.

“Let me speak to her.”

Tila stepped toward him, face set. He put out a hand and touched her arm. “The commander wants to speak to you.”

She looked down at the screen. “Sorry, Commander. I have to go.”

“I know.”

Nick couldn't see Drake, Tila was holding the screen, but the commander's voice was deep and steady.

“Just stay calm. Keep your wits about you. The team will get you out.”

She nodded, handed the screen back, and Nick covered her hand with his.

“Your turn to stay safe,” he murmured in her ear, and she took a deep breath, gave a nod, and then ran down the passageway.