Page 169 of The Mask Falling

Climbing down was unbearable. Even as every instinct screamed at me to hurry, I had to place my boots and hands with care—not just so I wouldn’t fall, but to make sure no sharp-eyed Vigiles caught a glimpse of me. Twice I slithered on the ice and almost plunged to my death. In my wake, the bells rang out.

When I was low enough, I let go of my handhold and flumped into a snowdrift, then beat the flakes from my coat, hitched my scarf up to hide my face, and started walking. Ducos was approaching from somewhere near the University of Scion Paris.

I sped up. As soon as I glimpsed her on Rue Serpente, I crossed the street to stop her.

“Isaure,” I called.

Ducos looked up from under a snow-flecked umbrella, lips parting with her intake of breath. “Flora.” She pulled me left, into a doorway. “Cordier got you out in time, then?”

“Cordier?”

“Yes, Cordier. She called me to tell me that your safe house was under attack. We were cut off, so I came—” Ducos stopped, her hand tight as a cuff around my arm. “You didn’t see her?”

“No. I was across the street when it happened. Somehow they didn’t spot me.” My voice shook. “Ducos, Warden was still inside. They took him.”

The cords of her throat shifted. “Stay calm.” She brought me under her umbrella. “Is your dossier still in the safe house?”

“Everything.” My breath came in white gusts. “Everything is.”

The ledger that exposed the corruption in the Parisian syndicate. The music box and the parcel from my father. If Scion had found my backpack, they had everything I possessed in the world. Everything but the mask I had left in the appartements privés.

Ducos checked the street, then started to walk again, taking me with her. She linked our arms as if we were the closest of friends, dipping her head close to mine as she spoke.

“Here is what’s going to happen,” she said under her breath. “Stéphane is nearby. You are going to get in their car and leave this district. You will be installed in a safe house in Rue Vernet, and you will stay there until I tell you otherwise. Meanwhile, when the coast is clear, I will see if there is anything left at Rue Gît-le-Cœur.”

“I can’t stay indoors.” My heartbeat was a fist on velvet, thick and heavy in my ears. “I have to get to Warden.”

“No rescue attempts. I told you.”

She took me through a number of streets before she stopped near a telephone box. After a short wait, Stéphane pulled up, and Ducos bundled me into the heated interior of their car.

“Her auxiliary was detained. I will keep looking for Eléonore,” she said in French. “Take her.”

She slammed the door and walked back into the snow. I shivered uncontrollably, dread and nausea puncturing the icy shell around me.

“Where is Rue Vernet?”

I sounded nothing like myself. Stéphane glanced at me. “Very close to the Arc de Triomphe and the Grand Cours. Expensive area,” they said. “You will not be there for long.”

It was among the most famous districts in Paris. It was also north of the river, much closer to Passy.

“You never found Albéric, then,” I said.

Their long hands tightened on the wheel.

“No,” they said, in clipped tones. “If Cordier has also been detained, I can only think that one of the other two agents has betrayed us. Mannequin is compromised.” Silence. Then: “Do you know how long the average lifespan is for a spy in the Domino Program?”

“Do I want to?” I asked dully.

“No.” Stéphane let out a mild chuckle at that. “But know one thing, Flora. All of us are on borrowed time.”

I was quiet for the rest of the journey.

Stéphane dropped me in Rue Vernet with a key, a small amount of money, and a new dissimulator. I waited until the car was out of sight before I smoothed the dissimulator onto my face and strode back into the snow. The golden cord was soundless and unmoving, but I poured a promise into it.

I will find you, I told him.Hold on. Just hold on.

23

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