Page 61 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

“Great, base sized demon trap, definitely easy to take down unnoticed,” Chloe snips back, and the car rumbles accordingly. “Stay here, I’m getting an energy drink.”

There’s nothing she can do to stop a demon from exiting the still-chugging car, but she swings the door open, stomping into the gas station.

Of course, she doesn’t actually need anything, but breathing hard in the beef jerky aisle does her good, and she putters just long enough she knows she’ll have to buy a few things, but she pulls out her phone before deciding on anything.

And hesitates, thumbing over to her contacts.

Maison is probably the person out of her closest group of friends who’s been the most active with the college, who might have the most knowledge, but he’s been effectively sidelined for the last five years, barely kept in compliance because of his mother. Gurlien had the most encyclopedic knowledge of bases, but mostly of personnel, of where people flowed in and out of, not of experiments, and the last thing she wants to do is plunge him back into considering it. Ambra has more, but not usually advantageous info, usually from a hazy point of view of being the subject of the experiments.

CHLOE (12:02 PM): What do you know of the base two hours outside of Minneapolis?

Immediately—

ALETTE (12:02 PM): Why?

CHLOE (12:03 PM): Next target.

ALETTE (12:03 PM): You can’t.

Chloe picks up a packet of pop tarts, before setting them back down again, under the eyes of the watchful clerk.

CHLOE (12:05 PM): Any reason why?

ALETTE (12:05 PM): It’s dangerous. They process dangerous beings there, put them through all sorts of diagnostics and stasis spells, and they’re ruthless.

That just describes most of the bases Chloe’s seen, outside of the actual educational locations. The locations where they teachpeople, where they give them rosy glasses of magic and the things they could do.

CHLOE (12:07 PM): Wasn’t planning on any destruction, just getting a scan and back out. How’s the security?

ALETTE (12:08 PM): You can’t brute force this base.

CHLOE (12:09 PM): They said that about Toronto, and I did it with a Half Demon and a Necromancer on a Sunday afternoon.

She picks out her favorite energy drink, some beef jerky, and some disgusting power bars, paying with the change from the coffee shop, and the clerk throws a nod over at the car.

“That’s a piece of shit,” he says, serious. “The chop shop down main and turn left on Orange will give you four hundred dollars for it, if you need to offload it.”

“Good to know!” Chloe replies brightly, beaming a smile at him, and he startles back a bit, like he’s never had someone respond enthusiastically to him. “Just need it for a few more days, I might check back.”

ALETTE (12:12 PM): We can get you schematics, Zoel just needs a day and a half. All the traps, all the security checkpoints, everything.

Chloe scuffs her boots in the parking lot, popping open the drink and staring at the text.

On one hand, it’s unlikely her friend is there, unlikely that that time will matter.

On the other, the acid burn in her stomach tells her it’s too long, that her forced inactivity of so long just prolongs the suffering.

Her eyes flicker up across the ice-crusted parking lot, to the car still chugging and Killian leaning back in the seat, twisted around and watching her.

So she takes a big, deep breath, plasters on a smile and strides back over to the car.

“I can get us some schematics,” Chloe says, swinging her way into the driver's seat and plopping her drink in the rickety cup holder. “Accurate ones, updated ones, but it’ll take us 36 hours.”

“How accurate?” Killian immediately challenges, his gaze reflecting the light back at her as she arranges the snacks in the back seat.

“Accurate enough to not cause fatalities,” Chloe snips back, before smiling as sunnily as she can. “Updated traps, updated security checkpoints, all that fun stuff.”

He hesitates, narrowing his eyes at her, as if he can read through her defenses. “Do you just smile like that to get humans to do what you want?”

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