“But how do you know the name?” I ask, brows knitted in confusion.
3 shrugs. “Heard it. Masks said.”
“I don’t get it. How are they connected?”
3 starts to answer but starts shaking his head frantically. I can tell he can’t get the words out.
“Thor, can you hand 3 the notebook and pen on the table?” I ask.
“Sure thing.” Thor snatches them up, handing them over to 3.
3 flips it open, writing quickly. After a full minute, he shows me the page. My brows shoot up.
“Um… he says that the masks talked about her. Many times. They would reference something that ties them together.” I pause, chewing this over in my mind. “Did they ever hint at what it might be?” I ask 3.
He starts scribbling again.
“…He says there’s some kind of connection, he thinks. They would threaten him with the name when he was out of control,” I read, brows furrowed. “What the fuck?” The actual fuck is this about? “Purge?—”
“Five steps ahead of you, Iskra. Thor, let's track this shit down. If the masked fuckers talked so openly about it, there must be something in the Solomons’ files.”
“Yep, bro, agreed. Avengers—assemble!” Thor throws a fist in the air.
I’m confused when Purge bursts out laughing.
“It’s a superhero movie, Iskra.”
“Alrighty then.” I toss up my hands in exasperation.
Maybe I’ll be caught up on popular culture at some point.
Purge
I’m still snickering at Thor’s Avengers comment as we walk back into the lab.
Bill is still in there, as usual.
“Do you ever leave?” I ask him.
Without turning around, he flips me the bird. I laugh again.
“Dude, you should’ve gone with Banner. I mean...”
“Oh my God.” Thor dies laughing, tears rolling down his face. “Bro, dude—you'd be Loki, and Harris would be Tony Stark.”
I laugh harder, shaking my head to clear it. “We need to focus. Bill, 3 told us there’s a connection between him and the Solomons. We need to find out what.”
Bill lets out a deep sigh. “Fine.”
I jump on the computer next to Thor, admiring it a bit. It's top of the line. Thin, sleek, and powerful. I don’t recall hearing of the brand before. There's a separate tower below me, and a gamer-style wireless keyboard and a gaming mouse.
I click to wake the screen, and the graphics are incredible. I head to the Tor browser first that masks your IP so you can access the dark web, shocked at how lightning-fast it is.
“Damn, this is a nice machine,” I say in admiration.
Thor hums in agreement.
I punch in the Solomons’ names, along with The Retreat’s information. I pull up a secondary program to reroute the IP even more, and to bypass the restrictions Tor has—even though it’s a dark web browser. It's a popular one, so it’s not as unsecure as it used to be.
