Page 10 of The Company We Keep

"Where you at, Nick?" Vashvi asked through the comms system.

The question was piped straight into Carrow's ear, and he already knew where this was going. He stroked a hand through his hair and contemplated whether or not it was worth wasting the resources to find Nick in the chaos.

The Company was spread out over several blocks in an industrial neighborhood just outside Las Abras proper. They were on a retrieval mission — set to steal sensitive data that a rising political star needed to sabotage her rival’s campaign. It would’ve been a simple job if it didn’t involve blasting through several layers of armored doors in a basement storeroom that wasn’t supposed to exist.

The first blast had drawn curious cops, but hadn’t gotten them access to the vault.

Carrow waited near the score site in his sedan. Vashvi wasset up on a roof with her wicked rifle to provide cover. Herron was stationed on a bike nearby, pulling the cops off for as long as they could. Wayles was tucked safely behind a console in The Company’s cargo van with Coffee, their hired driver, behind the wheel.

Carrow knew that Leta, somewhere miles away in her chopper, poised to receive the little USB drive and fly it to the drop point, would be sighing deeply at the fact that they'd lost Nick again.

Nick wassupposedto be planting charges on their target building while Vi watched on through her scope. But something else had clearly caught his attention.

"His comm's gone dead. Just wait for the next detonation," Wayles said through the comms — and Carrow could hear the smile in the kid's accented words. It annoyed him that Nick disappeared during vital moments like these so often that it was becoming a running joke, but he'd never begrudge The Company the fact that they had fun doing what they did.

"I'll put eyes on him," Herron said.

"Don't divert," Carrow snapped quickly into his comm box.

"Won't," Herron said. "I'm headed to where he was anyway."

"And the cops?" Carrow asked, holding the edge of anger out of his voice.

"Are shooting into an empty building they think I'm in," Herron said. "They'll be there for a while."

"Vi, did Nick set the additional charges before you lost visuals?"

"At least two," she said quickly. "It'll be enough."

But we can't detonate until we have visuals again.She didn't need to make the statement, but he could hear the caution in her voice. She knew how mad this shit made him, and maybeknew, too, that he'd be sitting in the sleek black sedan and fantasizing about detonating anyway.

"So you're telling me we're at a standstill," Leta chimed in, deadpan. Her voice was strained over the sound of the chopper in the background, which blasted them all with a wall of noise every time she used the comms. Carrow made a mental note to ask Wayles if he could do something about that.

"Yes," Carrow said. "Yet again."

"I should go down and –"

Vashvi was interrupted by a blast that filled all of their earpieces with a noise beyond noise.

Time began to stretch for Carrow — because something had gone wrong, and that's what time tended to do when he was needed. The blast wasmuchlarger than what Short was supposed to be detonating. Carrow’s hands were putting the car into drive before he'd instructed them to do so. He could feel the phantom concussion pulse through the air from the blast, even though he knew that was impossible — he was too far away from where the charges had been set. It was just his imagination.

"Vi, you with us?" he asked, calm and completely aware that she may be gone.

There was dead air on the line. He knew that Herron would be rerouting back to her building. If it had been anyone else in danger, maybe, the heist could've continued moving forward — but not with Nick missing in action, and now Vi too. The overprotective Herron would be making a beeline for their sniper's position.

"I'm here," she said, finally.

"I'm two blocks away," Carrow said, skidding down an empty alley to approach the block from behind.

"Don't," she said. "I'm fine. Let me get my bearings.Herron, don't you come here. I don't know what's happened yet."

Herron didn't respond. They all knew Vi's words were useless to keep them away. They would be clamoring up on the roof faster than seemed possible. It always happened.

"Was that one of ours?" Leta asked.

"I don't know. It wasn't the target — looks like the buildingnextto it."

"And Nick?" Wayles asked.

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