Page 156 of Huntress

They walked the perimeter, searching for any way off their current level, ignoring the glass double doors that led back to the apartments. Another set led into the exam rooms. The lights were dimmed inside. Without Cornick here to harass her, they’d shut the entire section down.

“Should we risk it?” Elsie asked doubtfully. “Getting the day off may be a test to see what we’ll do when given some freedom.”

“We’ve never seen anything interesting in there, but we’ve never been free to roam, either.”

“There’s potential to find records, and we’ll learn what the other rooms contain.”

They’d visited three different exam rooms other than the one Elsie had come to think of as home base, all of which had various medical equipment.

Saint glanced around, then pulled the door open. No alarms sounded, and they snuck in without a single person challenging them.

“That was easier than expected.” Elsie’s brow furrowed. “If anyone on this level can walk in as they please, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave anything important or damning lying around.”

They checked each of the rooms, anyway. Cornick was a carefully calculating man, but that didn’t mean his underlings weren’t capable of making mistakes. They found a series of exam rooms, testing equipment, and supplies. Next to the nursing station was the only office, which didn’t have Cornick’s name on it.

“Why would he clear out an entire floor just to spend every day for weeks with us?” Elsie muttered aloud as she searched for anything useful. Not a single stray note or memo had been left behind, and Elsie didn’t know anything about computers to even begin searching through it. The hunters hadn’t recruited her for tech support.

“This floor is easily contained, there are plenty of people to report unusual behavior, and it has all the medical supplies he needs. Not to mention it has everything necessary to keep a moody, impatient field captain entertained and busy.”

“Hmm…”

They left the medical ward to continue searching.

“This place is huge.” Elsie slumped onto a bench after an hour of mapping out the entire floor.

They’d found two sets of elevators, not including the one in the medical ward, and two stairwells. No cameras watched the exit points, and not a soul guarded them, but they were protected by a security system that would only open for the key cards every staff member seemed to carry.

“Most of the researchers aren’t hunters, so they don’t use the ID coins.” Elsie’s eyes danced with opportunity. “All we have to do is steal the right key card.”

“Leave that to me.”

They returned for their ice cream, positioning themselves to watch the elevators and suss out who was coming and going. A dozen people came and went in less than ten minutes.

A twig of a man balancing an armload of code books and files made his way over and slapped his card against the reader, nearly dropping his haul. Saint sat back in his chair, watching him closely without making it obvious. The man disappeared into the elevator, and Saint scraped the last bits of caramel pecan ice cream from his cup.

“I’ve got enough potential targets, but he might be the best of them. Nobody pays attention to a gopher, and he’ll have access to everywhere his boss can go.”

“Great job. We’ve got to get our hands on some scrubs if we’re going to blend in.” Staying a bit longer to acclimate people to their faces and build a sense of familiarity, Elsie observed them—their style of dress, social hierarchy, and mannerisms.

Their chance came sooner than expected. Four days later, Cornick did not show up for the second time.

“I’ll bet he’s getting bored, since he hasn’t gotten any results from trying to break the seal,” Elsie guessed.

“Gods know he’s run all the tests known to hunter kind. He’s making shit up at this point,” Saint growled.

The day before had been particularly brutal; the test had involved a scalpel and acid. Today Elsie was sporting a large white bandage over her chest to cover the patch of skin they’d burned off. Cornick wanted to know how long it would take to heal, and if it would affect the seal’s hindering abilities.

It had not.

They put on light blue scrubs they’d pilfered from the medical ward supply room, then started working on their hair. Elsie’s mass of ass-length blue locks stood out from the sea of mostly brown, blond, and black hair. Few women had hair color indicative of magic in their bloodline, and she’d seen none with hair longer than their shoulders.

With Saint’s help, they wrapped her head in multiple layers of French braids, pulling them back to wrap around a bun to make it as professional as possible, leaving enough down to leave some loose. Even with all the braids and wrapping, the loose hair still reached her shoulder blades, but it looked tidy.

Saint’s mane of curls was more of a challenge. Hunter men, even the science geeks, didn’t have much hair atop their heads, and very few had facial hair. He trimmed his beard back to a heavy stubble, leaving it along his jawline and across his chin with a soul patch and mustache. Elsie smoothed his curls into a bun, tucking in all the errant strands that wanted to spring loose with pins.

It took over an hour, and they stared at each other for a moment when they finished.

“Not bad, but scrubs are not your best look.”