Page 32 of Into the Fire: After
We’d given Vikki a wider berth since Brooks’ outburst two days ago. I knew she felt badly about setting him off…and I twisted that guilt to finagle a few key pieces of intel from her for our own purposes. Like the fact that she was in talks with some mysterious figure at the district attorney’s office, ostensibly to build out a case against Wainwright Corp. using whatever bombshells we managed to steal from Phoenix.
“What is it they’re waiting for?” I asked in as conversational a tone as I could manage.
Vikki typed a few things onto the keyboard. “She’s got someone on standby to help decrypt and protect whatever we’re able to get off the lab’s servers.”
I swallowed, keeping my face neutral. “And this someone can be trusted?”
Vikki shrugged. “I trust Gail. Empathy aside, if she can nail Wainwright for half the shit we know they’re up to, it’ll make her career.”
I stowed the name away to follow up on later.
We lapsed into silence, and I wandered through the kitchen, which was now entirely covered in computers, tablets, charging cords, hard drives, files, maps, papers galore.
One half-folded map sat to the far side of the counter, half the page climbing the wall like a sheet of ivy. With a quick glance at Vikki to confirm she was engrossed on her computer, I leaned over to peruse.
It showed the whole region—Remington State and the surrounding southeastern states. Remington City took up the largest portion of the map, north and northwest of the massive Greysmoke National Park, where we currently stood. The smallcity of Pockston sat tucked in the far southeastern corner. Farendale on the far west.
Yep. I’d gotten about as far away from home as I could’ve without leaving the state.
The other handful of major cities filled the space around and between—Fort Matamir, where Lin’s family lived. New Gilden, neighboring Farendale. Serenity Falls. Springvale. Sorizen.
A black X stood out on the map in the northwest of Greysmoke National Park—the cabin. Other X's marked a few key places in Farendale.
But what drew my eye was the green circle in Remington City, in the thick panhandle that extended over most of Greysmoke. As though my pack were calling to me from that tiny dot on the map.
I stared at the map, memorizing the precise location of the pin as best I could; if I pulled out my phone to snap a pic, Vikki would notice. While we’d reveal our plans to her eventually, flying under the radar felt like the right move at this point.
A notification beep sounded from behind me.
“Holy shit.”
I rushed to Vikki’s side, looking at the monitor. A login screen had appeared, black with dark gray entry fields for authorization number and password.
“We’re in?” I asked, heart pounding.
Vikki pulled one of her tablets over, scrolling through a handful of files before pulling up a table of credentials. Her hands shook as she typed some in, little stars filling in the fields. We both held our breath as she hit enter.
The screen went blank.
Then folders appeared.
“Yeah,” she breathed, half laughing with hysterical adrenaline. “We’re in.”
Thirteen
Caine
Linwasn’tokay.
Neither was I. But in a bigger way than how I wasn’t okay.
Having my packmate by my side had been a godsend. That didn’t even feel like an exaggeration, in this place. A few days of actually eating my meager meals instead of skipping them or tossing them across the room, and my strength had improved. With added strength, my injuries had healed almost entirely.
Limpdick Motherfucker didn’t make a repeat visit after reuniting us, and by unspoken agreement we’d kept any chatter about the chip or plans to get out of here to a minimum. Any talk at all, really, we kept as quiet and as little as possible.
Through the bond, though, Lin’s essence was changing. Where he’d always been smooth and cool like the polished wood of his antique desk back home, now he felt…rougher. Running my hand along him left me with splinters.
His second night in my room, I woke to find him sweating, twitching and murmuring next to me on the bed. Three things Lin never did in his sleep.
