Page 66 of Resurgent

Three steps.

Four.

"Hey, Lee." I glance over my shoulder. "Catch."

Something small flashes through the air, and I snatch it inches before it smacks me in the face.

Looking down, I see a tiny listening bug resting innocently in my palm.

The one I'd slipped into his pocket.

I lift my gaze.

Matt’s already walking away, hands shoved into his pockets.

"You’ll have to work harder than that if you want to get me," he calls back, and I can hear his unbearably smug grin.

Once more, I look down at the bug in my hand, a slow smile spreading across my face.

It’s the one I planted in his pocket—the decoy. The one he'd assume was the only bug if he caught me. Good. The prototype comm rune hidden beneath his collar, disguised with texture camouflage for the Spell Casters' latest test, worked exactly as intended.

Tucking the recovered bug into my own pocket, I can’t help but smile.

Got you, Mattey.

Chapter twenty-one

Theo

The hotel suite has an absurd number of locks.

I noticed them as soon as we stepped in the door last night—deadbolt, chain, a second reinforced latch, and some kind of magically etched security seal worked into the frame of each bedroom door.

I guess this must be a part of the enhanced security precautions Mom was telling me about the other week. The instructors apparently have some new thing about sending recruits on covert missions and the need to make sure their hotel rooms are so locked down, we could survive a Clowessian invasion.

Unfortunately, even with all these extra locks, I've barely slept. Okay, in all fairness, it’s not because of the security.

No, it’s because Annalise Corvin has been on the other side of the suite's common room.

We got back late last night after spending hours upon hours watching and waiting to see if Matt and his partner would succeed in the first part of their mission. Watching them was frustratingly uneventful, minus the interesting show I watched through binoculars while Annalise was in the bathroom. But my time with Annalise? Let’s just say I’m glad they were able to get the information they needed, because now our mission isn’t over yet.

Today, we have to intercept the pair before the final handoff, which is where our Frankenstein plan comes in.

Delay them.

So Annalise and I spend breakfast going over the route, the timing, and every possible inconvenience we could think of to slow Matt down.

By the time we leave the hotel, I feel pretty damn good about it.

The plan is solid, our cover is solid, and, surprisingly, working with Annalise today is...easy.

It didn't start that way.

Yesterday, she'd been polite but guarded. I got the distinct impression she'd been evaluating me with every sentence I said, deciding whether I was worth the effort of getting to know, or if I was just here riding my mothers coat tails and expecting preferential treatment.

Fair. I'd do the same if I were in her position.

But somewhere between arguing over surveillance positions and debating whether chocolate-covered pretzels are a superior snack to cinnamon crisps, I finally got her laughing.