Chapter Twenty-Four

Nina

After shimmying into a pair of black leggings and a black turtleneck in the backseat of the U-Haul, I slipped on my jogging sneakers and we ran. The park was dark and deserted, and we powered through the distance easily. Over our shoulders, the sky filled with the sound of sirens, and a throng of swirling blue and white lights crowd behind us. Now the traffic would all slow to a standstill.

We broke through onto the next street and hailed a taxi the rest of the way to Redman Corporation. Normally, taxi rides are slow, but this ride seemed sudden. I wasn’t ready for it, and the large brick complex was already looming darkly in front of us. The taxicab driver glanced over his shoulder at the two of us—both clothed entirely in black, he in boots and I in sneakers—and didn’t bat an eyelash. “Eleven dollars and sixty-five cents.”

“Why don’t you make it an even twelve and drive another half a block?” Eli asked in a low voice. The driver did as he was asked, and we paid our fare, then broke out of the backseat and into the brush surrounding the unkempt field running alongside Redman Corporation. The brick complex stood on the outskirts of Hinton, where it was dark and lonely and quiet.

The building didn’t look like anyone or anything could possibly be waiting inside. There was no movement. No sense of life.

Eli took my hand and we crept together through the brush, then slinked along the length of the front wall and swiped Marvin’s security pass over the electronic scanner. It gave up a two-tone beep and then turned green. Bing, bing. Green.

The glass doors unlocked, and we pushed them open, slipping inside as quietly as we could. I barely let myself breathe, and every breath sounded like surround-sound to me.

“There’s no one here,” Eli whispered. “I can feel it.” His eyes flicked down to me. “Where’s Marv’s office?”

“Upstairs,” I whispered back, and we snuck up the stairs next. The building was still absolutely silent, but my heartbeat seemed audible to me. I couldn’t believe we were here, doing this. Disobeying Dad seemed like the kind of offense that would be met with a swift demise. The cameras were catching us. Dad would know. We were going to get into a lot of trouble.

Marvin’s office was on the second floor, and we used his security pass to enter the room. My teeth sank into my lower lip as I watched Eli move. He flicked the computer on and settled in Marvin’s chair.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “I’m sure that’s password-protected.”

“You know what? I bet you’re fucking right,” Eli said. “But we can take the entire hard drive. As long as we can crack it open before JP remotely destroys the files, we can download and store them, no matter what he does to them after that. We’ll have our copy.”

“The hard drive?”

“It’s not that big.” Eli scooped up the hard drive and disconnected it from the computer. “We probably have until tomorrow morning to figure this shit out. Let’s go. We can regroup at my place.”

A two-tone beep sounded downstairs.

Bing, bing.

The downstairs doors pushed open and we both froze, the hard drive gripped against Eli’s chest. We lingered at the doorway of Marvin’s office.

“He didn’t t-t-tell me,” a familiar voice stuttered. “I g-guess it’s up to us.”

“Shut the fuck up,” another voice commanded him in a hushed rage. It sounded like the new part-timer, Michael Hornberger, though I knew he wasn’t Michael anymore. He was Mikey, and he worked for my father, too.

Who didn’t? Right now, you could say that even I did. My bookstore was destined for eviction now, all because Dad’s good graces wouldn’t extend to an honest day of work.

“Get your light on,” Mikey commanded his partner.

“W-w-wanna s-s-s-split up?” Will asked.

“Fuck no,” Mikey snapped. “You haven’t seen this guy fight. There need to be two of us there, or he could kill your ass. Come on.”

My eyes flashed to Eli, but he didn’t appear to be listening to them. His eyes swept back and forth over the office, and he nodded toward the stairwell landing. “Take off your shoes,” he breathed against my ear. “We’re going downstairs while they check the ground floor. We’ve got to get out of here before they come up to Marvin’s. We’ll be trapped.”

I slid off my sneakers, and Eli slid off his boots. We slunk down the stairwell, only whispering in our socks, the hard drive still hugged to Eli’s chest.

We reached the bottom of the stairwell as two voices filtered from the bank of computers in the left lounge area, not the right one. Shit! If we lunged for the doors, we’d be caught directly in the barrel of their lights.

Eli grasped my wrist firmly with one free hand and nodded toward a utility closet hanging half open. Brooms and cleaning agents cluttered the inside. One flashlight swept over the wall across from us, catching the silhouette of the other Freak in its beam. They were heading back in this direction.

I crept into the utility closet and gestured for Eli, agreeing that it was the best place to hide on such short notice. It was cluttered, but there was also enough space for two adults to hide. Even if one of them was Eli Connelly, reincarnated gladiator.

We slipped into the closet and closed the door again, barely breathing. That little thread of light from the doorframe was the only light in the whole world now. I couldn’t hear anything but my own heartbeat. My hands pounded with it.

Footsteps progressed toward us. Shit. We should’ve hidden somewhere else. We should’ve run for it! There wasn’t enough time! We were greedy to think that we might be able to get out of here without even being seen, without the stolen hard drive even being noticed,

Thunk, thunk, thunk. Their feet came closer.

“I don’t see anything out of place,” Mikey muttered. A flashlight swept across the cement flooring at our feet. They must’ve been close to the utility closet. They sounded like they were right on the other side of the door.

“Y-yeah,” Will agreed. “I don’t th-th-think anyone is h-h-h-here.”

There was a pause. “I don’t know,” Mikey muttered. “What if they went upstairs? Would we hear them? Aren’t the offices up there carpeted?”

“Y-yeah,” Will said. “We could ch-check it.”

Perfect! If they went upstairs to check the executive offices, Eli and I would definitely have a clear shot at the door. They would hear us leave, but they wouldn’t be able to see us or stop us. By the time they reached the bottom of the staircase, we could be deep in hiding. I already knew all the best spots.

But Mikey gave another thoughtful pause.

“Wasn’t the broom closet hanging open when we first walked in?” he asked.

“Yes,” Will hissed with conviction.

Their feet came closer, squeaking softly over the hardwood floor. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Their lights grew brighter and brighter. I couldn’t hear myself think anymore. My entire mind filled with panicked screams as the closet door fell open, and two blinding flashlight beams spilled over me and Eli.