I hauled myself over the lip of the building and collapsed on the rooftop for a minute to catch my breath. Definitely too much pizza this week. After hearing the twins talking about Anna the day before, I had really gone all out for lunch and practically rolled myself into my afternoon classes I was so full. I was paying for it now, though. Mental note: eat more salad, damn it!

“All right,” I huffed into my Bluetooth headset. “I’m up. That was harder than anticipated.”

Lucy chuckled on the other end. “I told you not to eat so much this week, fat ass!”

“Yeah, yeah.” I blew out a breath, then rolled to my feet, “Okay, where is this entry point?”

The taps of Lucy’s keyboard accompanied her directions guiding me to the center of the roof near the air conditioning motors. The ventilation shaft would give me access after Lucy deactivated the alarm system. While waiting, I checked my phone and saw a message from Caleb. I’d managed to avoid him completely the day before, then left early to get to the job site, where I had spent all day on surveillance until the building emptied of workers.

Not that I particularly wanted to hear about his afternoon with his brother and Anna, the lucky bitch. What? I was only human and not a blind one either.

Hey, where were you yesterday? I couldn’t find you at lunch. It only took him a whole day and a half to reach out. Too busy perhaps?

I tapped out my reply and hit send. I’m sure you had enough company.

There was a pause before his response pinged through. You sound jealous.

Shit. I do. Not jealous, just not sure we have the same taste in friends. The last thing I needed was to focus on drama, so I added another text before he could respond. I’m in the middle of something, catch up tomorrow maybe.

Maybe? He added a frown-face emoji.

I didn’t bother to reply. Silencing the phone, I slid it back into my pocket.

“You’re clear,” Lucy announced. Good timing.

With a small screwdriver, I opened the ventilation grate. After securing a rope to one of the pipes, I used it to shimmy down the shaft.

It was a tight squeeze, but not impossible. In the interest of time-saving, I tucked my body tight into a pin and dropped rapidly, using my gloved hands on the rope to slow my descent.

“Ten more feet,” Lucy advised, tracking my location. I continued my slide until she said, “Now.”

Her timing was perfect; I was right in front of the vent I needed. I waited a beat. If there was a problem, Lucy would have me hold. With a kick, I opened the vent and descended into the server room. Waiting for Lucy’s app to do its job, I held in place. Once it showed the room as being clear, I located server seven and plugged in a handheld laptop. The only reason I was here, instead of Lucy simply hacking them, was because these servers had no external network access. The laptop possessed its own Wi-Fi uplink. Lucy logged into it remotely and began hacking the passwords I’d need to select targeted files on the server.

Waiting for the file transfers was boring, so I clicked through the files. Maybe what we were taking wasn’t any of my business, but I was curious. What was stored here that someone would actually pay such an exorbitant fee to retrieve?

The first three seemed pretty much what one would expect: electronic paper trails for huge sums of money moved into offshore accounts and property bought under false names. The fourth file, however, sent a cold chill along my spine.

I scanned through the document and then slowed to read it again. Stomach churning, I swallowed the bile burning along my throat. The filename seemed innocuous enough, just a sequence of numbers and letters—similar to the other files.

“Lucy?” I exhaled her name. “Can you just read me the client’s requests again?”

“Sure. Is there a problem?”

I answered with a grunt because I didn’t know if we had a problem yet.

Lucy rattled off a series of filenames in sequence. The file bothering me definitely fell on that list. Crap.

“Kit, what’s going on? You’ve got me worried, girl.”

It wasn’t a question of whether or not I should tell her but if I could manage the unsettling terror filling my veins. “I’ve just clicked into a file which has nothing to do with money. It’s a series of memos discussing a black market genetics experiment focusing on enhancing human abilities with specific mentions to enhanced strength and speed... Luce, it doesn’t look like they’re using willing participants or that there is a very high rate of success.” My heart rate kicked up as I relayed the information. “There is specific mention in one of these notes about how reckless the scientists are being and how many ‘subjects’ they have needed to terminate or that have died during the experiments. It all seems to be referencing a successful experiment from the eighties that they’re attempting to replicate...”

“Hon, that sounds like...” She trailed off, but I knew what she was saying. It sounded like me. Maybe this was what caused my abilities. Was I the product of some sort of lab experiment? “What are you going to do?”

I chewed my lip and weighed my options for a minute. I could finish the job, pass along the files to some shady person who would do who-knew-what with the information, or I could delete the file in question and pretend it never existed.

No contest.

Decided, I pulled an extra pen drive from one of my pockets. Like the Boy Scouts, I was always prepared. Sliding it into an open USB on the laptop, I copied the file for myself. After that, I made the unilateral decision to delete the file off the server and from our client’s package. The folder stayed, but the actual file was gone. I needed to shield Lucy, and the folder’s presence meant we’d technically fulfilled the contract. Without a doubt, it was the right thing to do. Nothing good would come from either party having the information.

“I’m done,” I told my partner, and none of the trembling in my hands reflected in my voice. “I’ve taken a copy for us and deleted the original. I’m heading back out now.”

“All right,” she said gently. “Let me know when you’re safely clear, and I will reactivate the alarm. See you back at school in the morning.” She probably wanted to say more, but thankfully she left it alone. My best friend never pushed me until I was ready to talk.

Mind in chaos, I cleaned up the physical signs of my presence before returning up the ventilation shaft. While it was deeply concerning that someone was conducting these experiments, this could be the answer to what had given me such unusual abilities. Part of me couldn’t wait to investigate further, but the sensible part reminded me that from what I had seen, there weren’t many clues to go on.