Jace tilted his head slightly toward me. “It’s a light, not a sniper,” he whispered.
“Do you want to test that theory?” Parker shot back.
Silence stretched, the buzz of the lamp loud enough to make my skin crawl. Then—click—the light blinked off, plunging us back into darkness.
Jace grinned. “See? Easy.”
I rolled my eyes. “You say that now. Wait until we’re sprinting for our lives.”
Parker didn’t respond, already motioning for us to move. We darted across the remaining stretch, the marble looming larger with every step until we reached the admin building itself.
FAIRFAX ADMINISTRATION HALLwas carved deep into the stone like a warning.
I stared up at them, chest tight. “Sounds friendly,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” Jace said, smirking. “Like welcome-to-your-impending-arrest friendly.”
We crept along the back of the building, the marble slick beneath our shoes. A security camera blinked above a service door, its red light cutting through the dark like it was judging us.
“Seriously?” Jace whispered. “They just leave this out in the open?”
“Not for long,” Parker murmured.
Jace pulled a strip of black tape from his pocket, probably left over from one of his “creative projects,” and stretched up to slap it over the lens. The red light disappeared.
“Pretty sure that’s not how security systems work,” I said.
Parker crouched beside the door, peering through the narrow glass pane. “The feed’s live, but I bet no one’s actually watching it. Colleges always have, like, one guy covering thirty monitors, and he probably has YouTube open on another screen. We’ve got time.”
He set the duffel down quietly and unzipped it, the softclinkof metal echoing in the silence. Then he looked up at Jace. “You’re up.”
Jace blinked. “Why exactly do you think I’m qualified forbreaking and entering?”
Parker’s mouth twitched. “Because Jagger’s your brother.”
Jace stared at him for a beat, then snorted. “Okay, fair point.” He crouched by the lock, rolling his shoulders like a man about to compete in the Lockpicking Olympics, and started working the picks with unnerving precision.
The metal gave a softclick,and the door creaked open, the smell of polished wood and old money spilling out to meet us.
I stared at the open doorway, then back at Jace. “Great. Now I have even more questions.”
He grinned, pocketing the picks. “Good. Means I’m keeping our relationship interesting. Wouldn’t want you to get bored, Matty-kins.”
We slipped inside. The temperature dropped immediately, the air still and heavy, like the building itself was holding its breath. The corridor stretched ahead, dim and spotless, every sound amplified in the silence. Somewhere deeper inside, a clock ticked steadily, marking the seconds we didn’t have.
Portraits lined the walls, stone-faced men in dark suits, each with the smug look of someone who’d never been toldno. Their painted eyes seemed to track us as we crept past.
“Creepy,” Jace whispered. “I feel like they can smell public school on me.”
“Keep moving,” Parker muttered.
We took the stairs, the old wood creaking with every step, each groan loud enough to make my pulse jump.
Third floor.
The hallway stretched ahead, thick carpet muffling our footsteps. Trophy cases glinted faintly in the dim light, reflecting fragments of our shadows as we moved.
Parker froze suddenly and lifted a hand. “Security guard. End of the hall.”
