She wasn’t the junior scientist anymore, being taunted by the two older ones. She was a brilliant woman who’d been working with special operators for so long, she didn’t think twice about launching herself into a dangerous situation.
“Perfect,” Will said as the panel came free. “Now you should see a rectangular module with cooling fins. That’s what we want.”
Brooke carefully revealed the module. “Should I disconnect it?”
“We’ll leave it in place in case someone comes looking for it,” I said. “Mario put on a good show, but if it’s Fenix, they may be scrambling to recover it before he takes it.”
“I have a thumb drive.” Brooke pulled a small device from her pack. “It has a port.”
“Bene,” said Mario, in an appreciative tone that did something to my stomach I didn’t like. “Do you carry things like this normally?”
“A girl’s gotta be prepared.”
I moved closer to her, growing progressively more aware of how long we’d been down here. “We should hurry.”
“USB won’t work while it’s powered down, and we don’t want to wake it up with all of you there,” Will said. “Place Malcolm’s phone on the memory module. I may be able to clone the drive.”
“With a phone?” asked Percival.
I glanced up at him. “Told you my team was good.”
Brooke held the phone against the open panel, and Will made a few noises on his end. After what felt like ten minutes but was likely only one, he said, “Got it! Close the robot and get out.”
As Brooke sealed the robot, Percival said, “Bobcat doesn’t report any tangos.”
That made my worry drop only a fraction. They could have been watching. And I’d run straight to the shed. “The maintenance shed might be monitored if Fenix has people in the park.”
“There’s a western exit I can guide you to,” Mario said. “Less visible, and it comes out near the House of the Arches. It’s a difficult walk through some narrow tunnels, so it’s unlikely anyone would be looking in that direction.”
Brooke stood and put her pack back on.
“I’ll circle back and exit through this shed,” said Mario. “If they saw me on the feed and come looking for the robot, they would be waiting for me to leave.”
“Smart thinking,” I said. “Give me five minutes to move one of our cameras in here, though. I’ll grab one from the chamber with the scaffolding.”
Chapter 23
Brooke
I stoodin front of the bathroom mirror, wearing only my towel, debating whether to wipe the fog away and see myself again. The shower had washed away the dust from the Pompeii tunnels, but it hadn’t done anything for the knot in my chest.
Six hours.
Six goddamn hours since cloning the robot dog’s memory, and we still had nothing actionable.
I dragged a hand across the mirror to see my face. The face was good. A little harder around the edges than it once was, but it was normal. My fingers found their way to the scar tissue on the left side of my neck, which disappeared beneath the fog.
After the hot water, the damaged skin looked angrier than usual—pink, shiny, and ragged.
My mind drifted to the rooftop terrace last night. To the warmth in Rav’s eyes as he’d moved closer. The barely-there scent of James the Bodyguard’s cologne, like citrus and cedar. The way he’d taken my hand that had—once again—drifted toward his chest. The way he’d placed it exactly where it had wanted to go.
I’d wanted him to kiss me. God help me, I wanted him.
Be strong, Brooke.
I cleared more of the mirror, revealing the scars that spread across my collarbone and down beneath my towel. They kissed the inside of my arm, hugged my ribs, and covered my left breast.
Owen’s face flashed through my brain, the first time he’d seen it. We’d been dating for months. I’d told him about what had happened. He’d seen the results left behind by the chemical burns on my neck.
