Backing out, I headed to the third floor, where all the offices reminded me of Kohara’s. Big. Filled with what was likely expensive furniture. Important people.
I’d almost suggested that we do the same kind of read on several other buildings, just to see what was inside. Maybe the knowledge would solidify the idea that this one was headquarters. Or show us one that was a better target and use of our time.
Seneca said the pings are still going on around the building. Not with the intent that they’ll get a read on the empty rooms that won’t form, but so the suspicion about what’s going on gives them something to focus on. They’ll be changing the frequency sometime today. Just to keep Silence busy so they don’t have time to focus outwards.
Koh had shown me into an empty office close by where I could blow the map up a little more and walk through the different rooms of the Silence building. Seneca left me alone as I wandered through the hologram over and over again.
I moved through office after office of important people, trying desperately to determine which was the president. The man in charge. The person responsible for the organization. But at least in this hollow version, they all looked the same. A couple had desks in the corner. A handful had a fireplace and seating area around it. One had a whole bunch of bookshelves.
There were big offices with banks of computer monitors on their desks. One that had a long table filled with multiple computers—that’s what it looked like anyway. Hard to see when it just appeared as part of the wall. Two had closets, but it was hard to say what was inside them.
While I didn’t stop moving through the different floors, I focused a lot of time on the top one. Determined to make an educated guess as to which rooms we needed to focus on.
“If we storm to the top and take the big wigs out, that brings everyone to us. If we start taking out from the ground floor, the top guys can get away,” I murmured to myself, shifting my focus to exits.
There were half a dozen staircases and a set of double elevators. The elevators were easy enough to sort. Hadley could give the fuse box a nice electrical kiss and shut them down quickly. But if we block the stairs, that’s taking at least six of us away from the whole.
Six on their own and halving our number. I frowned as I moved between the staircases.
We could lock down the building from the inside once we made it there. Focus on the doors first and seal them. But there was the fact that we simply didn’t know who was in charge of Silence. What kind of monster they were.
Did they have wings and could simply fly away? Could they walk through walls? Move through electrical circuits? Fall from the fourth story and land light as a feather?
Frowning, I thought about the other option. Like The Harem Project, our doors were set up to connect all facilities to the few main business buildings within cities. Headquarters and the others that are set up to concentrate on other departments of the agency.
How would we find those doors in this kind of model? Maybe there were tunnels in the basement that led between the buildings. Maybe there were portals that presented as walls. They could escape. Or call in reinforcements.
“Hey, sugar.” I looked up to see Taranis and Notus in the door. They had take-out containers in their hands. “Hungry?”
I shook my head, my gaze flicking back to the semi-transparent walls around me. Notus moved into the room, walking through the holographic walls and grabbing my hand to pull me out of the image. “We’re not giving you a choice. You’re going to eat.”
Sighing and trying to hide my smile, I let him bring me to the side of the room as Tara entered. The door slowly swung shut, and I watched it while they doled out food between the three of us.
“Learning anything good?” Tara asked.
I shrugged. “Making all kinds of assumptions and also freaking myself out that this is a decoy.”
Notus chuckled. “Eat. Let’s talk about something else for a while.”
As soon as the first bite hit my mouth, my stomach growled and clenched in hunger. Clearly, I needed to do better about eating. I hadn’t even noticed I was hungry until I tasted it. I shoveled half a container of pasta down before I looked up for a breath. Notus and Taranis watched me, amused. Eating a lot slower than I was.
Sighing, I sat up straighter. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was hungry.”
“We’re all working hard, but you need to take care of yourself, too,” Notus said. “Or we’re going to tell on you and Saar will make you stay home.”
I glowered at him. Childish! But I didn’t doubt him at all. I’d have also threatened the same thing and followed through with it, too.
“Not intentionally,” I said, pouting as I pushed another bite into my mouth.
Both of them grinned. We ate in silence until the food was gone. Honestly, I probably could have eaten a couple more containers. I was hungry. Plus my monster was restless and wanted the fuel. Knowing we were on the brink of unleashing again.
Taranis moved closer to me, straddling my crossed legs and keeping me stationary as he framed my face with his hands. I had to look up at him in this position, craning my neck to see into his dark eyes.
“Do not work yourself so hard, Bronte,” he said, voice low and crackling like a fire. “We need our strength for the main event. That means you cannot be draining yourself in the days leading up to it. Understand?”
He was right. His words made me aware of the exhaustion in me. It suddenly felt like a weight on my muscles, dragging me down. Making my eyelids droop.
Taranis smiled. “That’s what I thought. How about taking a break and heading home for a bit?”
