“That must be the office,” she said, starting off in its direction.
The ease with which they’d managed to get this far astounded her. Because if there was one thing she’d learned early on, it was that no job ever went off “without a hitch.”
So she shouldn’t have been surprised, really, when she finally stood before the door and encountered a problem.
“Jo? What’s the matter?” Nico whispered, despite the fact that neither of them had their watches on. He was standing at her side, shifting the painting on his shoulder.
It wasn’t until then that Jo realized she’d been staring at the door, or more specifically the biometric security system attached to it, for a good couple of minutes, frozen under the weight of the unexpected lack of magical sensation. There wasn’t that same unraveling she usually felt. The lock didn’t transform into a deeper understanding before her eyes. It did. . . nothing.
She closed her eyes, trying to remember anything she’d seen or heard about the technology before her.Nada. Eyes still closed and mind whirring like an overheating, old, moving hard-drive, she tried to imagine what the tech on the inside might be like. There had to be a weakness somewhere she could exploit.Still nothing. No magical spark buzzing beneath her skin, no sense of the door’s secrets laying themselves bare at her feet.
With a huff, Jo let her eyes flutter back open.
“I’ve never seen a lock like this before,” she finally managed to mumble, brow furrowed in concentration as if she might be able to will her magic to work anyway.
“I see. . .” Nico said, even though his tone betrayed that he clearly did not understand.
A new thought had a spike of terror running down Jo’s spine. “Usually, that shouldn’t be an issue. But my magic isn’t working. It’s not—I can’t decipher anything.” She dug deep, trying to see if she felt any hint of it at all. Nothing, nothing,nothing. In fact, it almost felt like an absence of magic entirely; that part of herself that was now distinctly “other” felt almost empty, hollow, the more she stared at the lock. Her stomach dropped. Not now; her magic could fail any time butnow. “It’s not helping me work out a way to break in like it normally does. I—”
“What do you mean?” Nico asked, voice equally panicked. “I don’t understand.”
Frantically, Jo peeled her eyes away from the biometric scanner, looking about the mostly empty hallway before landing on a wall-mounted thermostat.
Without a word to Nico, Jo rushed over to it, analyzing the make and model and recognizing it as one she’d seen installed in many of her higher-paying clients’ offices. It was based on a semi-artificial intelligence unit set to recognize the average heat signatures of the bodies within the building. It pinpointed algorithmic consistencies through the sensors in the smart bands everyone wore on their wrists, adjusting each floor to benefit the widest demographic.
Hardly a look was all it took for Jo to know exactly how she would be able to access those commands and issue a building-wide freeze or meltdown. She could feel the certainty of it in her veins, hear the echoing thrum of something ethereal yet distinctlyherbuzzing about between her ears.
The relief behind the realization was so potent she could taste it. Her magic was still working, after all.If she knew what she was dealing with. Nico’s earlier comments, before the start of the wish, returned to her.
“It’s my restriction.” The admission left a sour taste on her tongue.
“What is?”
“I can’t crack something apart unless I sort of know how it’s put together—at least the basics, I think. I have to see something of its guts. . . Without that fundamental knowledge, I’m useless.” She looked back at him, panic rising in her. He’d brought her to help him get where he needed to go and now she was going to fail him. Just like she’d already failed all of them. . . again.
“Everyone has their restrictions.” Nico put on a brave face, brave enough to dare a smile. “I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t work around.”Bless him.
“You’re right.” Jo leeched off his certainty. She’d been in tougher spots. Restrictions be damned, she could do this. “If I can’t break the lock, we just have to find another way in,” Jo said once she was back at Nico’s side.
“Likely for the best, really.” He looked back down the hall. “Even if you could break into it, you’d have to have your watch active. If we clocked into time now, we’d surely be noticed.”
Jo nodded in agreement. Simply unlocking the prime minister’s door and strolling in was out of the question. They had to find another way to get the door open without causing a scene.
“Okay, okay.” Jo ran both hands through her hair before clapping them hard on Nico’s shoulders. He jumped, but otherwise made no motion to shake off the touch. “We need someone else with access. Someone else he’d trust with entry to his personal office. Maybe like, a cabinet member? Or the deputy prime minister? Something?” But where were they supposed to find someone who prime minister Nakamura would answer his door for? Especially in a crisis like this one? And with whattime?
“Maybe we don’t need somebody that high up.” Nico’s voice pulled her away from the spiraling “what ifs” and back to their present situation. He, too, seemed to be lost in thought, looking off in another direction, focus unwavering and expression set with fierce determination. It was the same resolve she’d seen when he took up the torch the rest of them had all but extinguished.
She followed that gaze back to the desk situated at the front of the hall like a guard post. A woman, likely the prime minister’s secretary, sat, chatting with the man they had followed up to this floor to begin with. All at once, Nico’s plan of action solidified amidst the growing details of her own.
“You’re a genius, Nico!” She nearly laughed, her hands finally falling from Nico’s shoulders as she began another quick search of the other offices on this floor. All she needed now was an open door and an active third-party computer, and they’d be golden. “Wait here. This won’t take long!”
Jo sprinted back down the hall to one of the larger main areas. A door several yards ahead swung open, and Jo doubled her pace as she b-lined for entry. A distracted businessman exited, more focused on his phone than anything else—especially not a phantom outside of time sprinting toward the room.
Please don’t shut the door.Jo prayed silently.Please,pleasedon’t shut the door.
Popping out of time to let herself into the man’s office surely wouldn’t go unnoticed. Discovery would force them to abort, pull out of time again, and wait until the chaos their presence caused died down. The prime minister would perhaps leave for a more secure area, and they’d have to figure out a way to follow. All of which wasted time they barely had.
Luckily, the distracted businessman remained exactly that, rushing out of his office without bothering to close his door, leaving it wide open for any lucky wish granter to take advantage of. From there, it was simply a matter of jumping back into time, hacking into the computer’s communications systems, and accessing the right connection.
