The kangaroo didn’t give him an answer, however – it remained resolutely silent, though it was as tense as Trent had ever felt it.
“Fine,” not-Laura said, as the silence went on. “You’re not going to shoot me, then. But are you going to stop me from taking the hard drive?”
“Well, that’s a bit academic at the moment anyway,” Trent said, mainly because he wasn’t sure what answer he was going to give her yet. “Since hacking the lock might take some time. If it can be done at all.”
“It’s already done.” Not-Laura gave him alook, raising one eyebrow. “I did it. It’s open.”
“What?” Trent moved to look over her shoulder, but it was true – he hadn’t noticed it in all the excitement, but the LED on the digital lock was glowing green. It was open. The most sophisticated digital lock he’d ever studied, and not-Laura had gone through it like it wasn’t even there. “How did you –”
“Trade secret,” she snapped. “You didn’t think I’d come here without knowing how to hack a digital lock, did you?” She raised her eyebrow at him again. “Or is that whatyoudid?”
“No,” Trent only half-lied. He had a decoder tucked into his pocket – he’d just been expecting it to take a while. Clearly, not-Laura was a cut above average, though. Orseveralcuts. “I just didn’t expect it to take such a short amount of time.”
“I have my ways,” she murmured. Then she glanced at him. “So. I’m taking the hard drive. It’s up to you what you intend to do about it.”
She gave him a hard, challenging look. Trent swallowed. Then, she opened the door of the safe – and all hell broke loose.
“Shit!” Trent looked around as alarms blared, red lights flashing. “Shit, the alarms systems weren’t disabled?”
“They should have been!” not-Laura yelled, one foot still in the vault. “I don’t know how this happened!”
“Well, grab the hard drive, if you’re grabbing it!” Trent motioned with the hand that wasn’t holding the gun for her to hurry up. “We’re not leaving it after getting this far!”
Not-Laura actually did as he asked, dashing into the vault and then out again in record time, the hard drive in her hand.
“Is that the right one?” Trent asked.
“It’s the only one in there, so I guess so,” not-Laura said. “Come on – we don’t have time to climb back into the ducts. We need to –”
“We can do it,” Trent said firmly. He laced his fingers together, indicating that not-Laura should use his hands as a step. “I’m tall enough. I can lift you.”
A conflicted look crossed not-Laura’s face, before she evidently decided to take him up on his offer. She tucked the hard drive away in a pocket of her pants and then planted her foot in the middle of his joined hands. He hoisted her up easily, and she sprung up agilely into the hole of the removed vent.
Is she a shifter then?Trent wondered, as he gazed up after her.I don’t get that sense from her, but I’ve never seen a human move like that…
“Come on, if you’re coming!” Not-Laura’s head appeared from the edge of the duct. “Or do you need help climbing up here?!”
“No need,” Trent told her – and there really wasn’t. As soon as not-Laura’s head moved back, he jumped, drawing on his kangaroo’s strength. He got his hands on the edge of the duct and hauled himself up, joining not-Laura in the confined space. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s move.”
“God, this has been a botched job from start to finish,” not-Laura muttered as they crawled hurriedly down the duct. “Just a mess.”
“Look on the bright side,” Trent pointed out. “We got the hard drive.”
Not-Laura snorted. “Well, I’ll look on the bright side once we’re actually out of here, and not strung up by our thumbs in some terrorist torture chamber.”
“Oh, that is it,” Trent said, rolling his eyes. “Since I know now that your name isn’t Laura, I’m just going to call you Smiley. Because you’re really lifting my mood right now.”
“Call me whatever you want, I literally don’t care,” Smiley said. “You can call me Gerald if we get out of here.”
Trent couldn’t hold back a quick, snorted laugh. “I think I’ll stick to Smiley. Gerald just doesn’t suit you.”
We must find out her real name,his kangaroo said, strangely insistent.We have to know it. We cannot leave here without discovering what she is truly called.
What’s gotten into you?Trent asked it, as, ahead of him, Smiley kicked out a wide, vertical vent, before crawling out of it and into a stairwell.I get it, she’s good, and she’d gorgeous, and honestly, the grumpy act is kind of hot. But can you please just keep your mind on getting us out of here?
Out in the stairwell, he could hear the echoes of voices rebounding off the concrete walls – but none that seemed to be heading their way.
“Come on,” Smiley whispered. “If we can get to the roof, we can get out of here.”
