Page 23 of Heartless Legacy

I turn back towards her and pretend not to have seen the smile on her face. She wants me and the guys at odds,and because of circumstances beyond my control, she’s getting exactly what she wants.

Chapter 15

Finn

I’m working alone. It’s been a while since the last time I did a solo challenge. It’s kind of relaxing, knowing I get to execute the plan the way I want, with no one cautioning me to hold back or take it easy. But that also means there’s no one watching my back.

There were two texts for this challenge. The first was a flight departure time. I booked my hotel, not knowing exactly where in the city I’d be working. Thankfully, my mentor had enough time to warn me about the challenge and that I’d be on my own. He also had a travel bag waiting for me at the house. The League loves their tests. It’s obvious what they’ll grade me on for this one. Everyone always wonders if I know when I’ve gone too far. They question if I can do a job without leaving a mess to clean up. The answer is Ican. I’ve never had a problem with that. Do I want to? That depends on the situation. Sometimes a mess is needed to get a point across.

The last text came in two hours ago, with the location and the challenge item. That’s all the prep time I had. I looked up the address on the internet, called a cab to drop me off a few blocks away. I sigh as I cross the rooftops towards the building that houses my challenge item. I’m here to retrieve a notebook. Themost basically ordinary thing in the world. Well, not basic to The League. An advertising executive living in Connecticut keeps the book locked in a safe in his office.

The company’s social media feed is full of posts about the start of this year’s internship recruiting drive. I’m counting on there being too many unpaid employees running around to notice me. But since my name’s not on the attendee list, I can’t go through the front door where there are security guards and check-in requirements. The access door on the roof is my way in.

The executive offices are on the fifth floor of a multi-use building. I change in the bathroom on the twelfth floor, down the hall from a dentist’s office, then take the stairs to the second floor, before riding the elevator to the third floor where the other interns are filling out applications and touring the office spaces.

It’s a lot of trouble to go through, but I need to blend in, and it’s easy to pretend I got off on the wrong floor. The executives are supposed to sit in on some of the interview sessions, but I’m betting they’ll get bored and wander off before they’ve even made a dent in the number of people here. That means I won’t have time to study the safe and will have to wait until everyone leaves for the day to break into it.

Right now, I’m here to learn about the building. Looking for cameras, learning the number of security guards on each shift, and whether they sit behind a desk or rove the building. When it locks down for the night, I’ll already be on the inside. The information I’m gathering is so I know how to break out.

God, I need my bed. And a drink. I spent three hours in a bathroom stall waiting for the night shift guards to end their roving patrol. The safe wasn’t all that hard to crack, but then again, why would an Ad Exec have a top of the line safe in a secure office building? The only thing in the safe was his passport, some files, and the leather notebook that has a gold embossed roman number eight on it.

I grabbed the book. Then, it was another four hours of hiding out, until the cleaning crew came in. Their uniform of jeans, polo shirt and smocks were pretty standard. I nabbed a smock that was hanging on the side of a cart and put it on, before stashing my backpack in a garbage bag. I grabbed a few bags of trash from around the office and walked out the door with them. Nobody batted an eye. After dropping the trash in the dumpster behind the building, I walked seven blocks south and called a cab to take me to the airport.

I’m back in Canyon Falls now, walking by the secure rooms in the bank where The League houses one of its vaults, when I hear a familiar voice say, “It’s been three months.”

I pause, not wanting to walk by a group of council members in the middle of a sensitive conversation. Although, I don’t mind lingering here to listen. I peer around the door when no oneresponds. Malcolm’s on the phone, his hands clenched at his side, as he snarls, “I gave explicit instructions on how to handle the patient and you and your staff disregarded them. Whatever happens from here on out is on you.” He pauses. “Well, I guess you’d better hope she turns up dead in a ditch, or never comes back. Now, don’t call me again, unless it’s to report that the former has actually occurred.”

Malcolm rushes out of the room. I plaster my body to the wall, drifting deeper into the shadows. Now who could he have been talking to and about? Whoever the patient is, is female. But why is he involved in her care? Is she a scorned lover? A pregnant mistress? A secret love child? All those are people on the list ofmost likely to blackmail you, and in our world, dead is preferable to them having any kind of leverage over you.

Malcolm’s connection to this patient and her identity are a secret, and we know how much I love those. I send Holden a text.

Just saw Malcolm. He’s hiding something.

Holden

Isn’t he always?

Pax is probably in on it.

Probably

We need to find out what it is

Definitely

I’m just getting back to the dorm when I get another alert. It’s a message through Prospectus from an unknown contact. Theapp does a good job filtering it spam, so I don’t see most of it, but sometimes junk gets through. Or it could be someone I don’t follow sending an invite to a party.

38195

Reality is an illusion. How far will you go? What are you willing to risk? To see the truth.

Is this some new age recruitment advertisement? They definitely targeted the wrong person. I go to delete the message, but it erases itself. Not recalls by sender. It just fades out like some mission impossible type self destruct.

I’ve never heard of an ad self-deleting. That would defeat the purpose of advertising. Maybe this is a lead up to the announcement of the first fraternity game? I haven’t been to any of the planning sessions, but if it is, then I like the mystery of it.

As I’m stripping out of my clothes and heading to the shower, I think of the message again.How far will you go? What are you willing to risk to see the truth?

That’s an easy answer. I’ll do whatever it takes to win.

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