Page 6 of A Touch of Treachery
Iris flinched, and her entire body tensed.
One second ticked by.Then two, three, four, five ...
Nothing happened.
Iris’s body relaxed, although her face twisted into an ugly sneer.“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Charlotte—”
Bang!
An explosion sounded, and a cloud of bright green smoke spewed out of the briefcase.
CHAPTER THREE
DESMOND
Ipushedthejanitor’scart toward the café exit, where the spout of a water cooler hanging off the side of a table was dripping onto the floor.I turned the spout fully to the off position, then pulled my mop out of its bucket and slapped it against the gray marble, cleaning up this latest spill.
I kept my shoulders hunched, but my gaze remained on Charlotte.Even if we hadn’t been on a mission, I still would have been watching her, since Charlotte Locke was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, especially when it came to her aura.
People constantly gave off energy, just like all the phones, tablets, and laptops they used.As a galvanist, I could see and feel that energy the same way I could sense the light and heat from a glowing bulb.People’s auras usually appeared as shimmering colors, although I occasionally sensed ripples of emotion instead.Charlotte’s aura was a deep, brilliant blue, more vivid than any sapphire, and most of the time, she radiated a sense of cool calm that was like a balm soothing my heart.
Charlotte joined Iris Berriston at the reception desk.Iris’s dark green aura flickered over and over like a bulb about to short-circuit, indicating she was more nervous than she appeared.As the Section agent on-site, Iris was responsible for overseeing, cataloging, and protecting all the dangerous, valuable objects stored in the Vault.That was enough to make anyone nervous.
The two women went down the corridor on the left side of the lobby, heading toward the elevators.
Our plan was simple.Charlotte would let the thieves approach and try to steal the briefcase.While the thieves were focused on her, I would come up from behind and subdue them.
The three thieves picked up their pace, crossing the lobby and following along behind Charlotte and Iris.Their auras were a swirling miasma of rusty red, sickly yellow, and putrid orange that reflected their raw nerves and ill intentions.
The thieves quickened their pace.My fingers tightened around the mop, and I stepped out from behind the janitor’s cart, ready to sprint forward to help Charlotte ...
At the last instant, the three thieves veered away from Charlotte and rounded the right side of the reception desk.
I froze mid-step, and one of my boots slipped on the wet patch of floor I’d mopped.By the time I steadied myself, the thieves had entered the corridor on the right side of the lobby and vanished from view.
Worry dripped off me faster than the water sluicing out of the mop.Why had the thieves moved away from Charlotte?Had they realized I was watching them?But if that was the case, why go deeper into the lobby?Why not head toward the exit?
A flash of movement caught my eye, along with the murmur of a low baritone voice.I looked to the right just in time to see a man wearing a dark business suit cross the wooden bridge over the stream of water and step behind a tree in the garden section of the lobby.
I’d only seen the man for a moment, but something about him seemed strangely familiar.I peered in that direction, but I only got glimpses of the man moving back and forth through the trees, as though he was pacing while he took a call.
I shrugged off my unease.The mystery man didn’t matter.Protecting Charlotte did.
I glanced at the left side of the lobby.Charlotte and Iris stepped into the elevator, and the door closed behind them.The thieves hadn’t even tried to get close to the two agents, which increased my confusion.If the thieves weren’t after Charlotte, what were they doing here?
I stowed my mop in its bucket and pushed the janitor’s cart toward the right side of the lobby where the thieves had gone.
“Charlotte?”I murmured.“Charlotte, can you hear me?”
A faint whine erupted in my earbud, along with crackling static.I pulled my phone out of my pocket, but I didn’t have a signal.Someone was jamming our comms, which meant Charlotte and I had no way to talk to each other.
I glanced up at the nearest security camera, but it was no longer sweeping back and forth.Looked like it had been disabled too, which meant our Section backup was most likely blind to what was happening.Fuck.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket.My steps slowed, and I wavered, torn between checking on Charlotte and tracking the thieves.But Charlotte could take care of herself, something she’d proven time and time again, including a few months ago here in D.C., when we’d been trying to ferret out Henrika Hyde’s moles inside Section 47, and a few weeks ago in Germany, when we’d been separated at Tannenbaum Castle.
I trusted Charlotte to do her job the same way she trusted me to do mine.Right now, my job was apprehending the thieves, so I pushed the janitor’s cart forward again.
I parked my cart beside the reception desk, then plucked the mop out of its bucket and glanced around the corner into the right corridor.The three thieves were standing beside an elevator.The man in the business suit pulled a white keycard out of his pocket and waved it over the reader on the wall.A light turned green, a louddingsounded, and a green arrow pointing downward appeared over the elevator.Somehow the thieves had gotten a keycard that let them access the Section elevator that went down to the Vault, which meant they could still ambush Charlotte on the lower level.
