Page 54

“Adam, if you’ll allow me to sp⁠—”

“And another thing. I get that a million for Tom Collins is a lot, and it’s not my money. But buy another one? Really? Tom Collins is more than just AI. I don’t know what he is, I mean I have some ideas, but he’s one of us, and that means he’s under my protection—our protection. You’re acting like you don’t care about any of this. I’m beginning to wonder if I know you at all, Victor.”

He straightened and took a single step closer so I had to lift my chin to look him in the eyes. “I stand by my decision not to reveal my association with Agatha,” he said. “I cannot risk you rescinding my invitation to remain at the SOS Hotel, and an association with someone of her profession risks exactly that.”

“The very fact you didn’t tell me gives me a reason to throw you out.”

He swallowed hard. “That is your prerogative.”

I sighed. I wasn’t going throw him out, but we clearly needed to discuss what we were, if anything. “We’re going to have to work on these trust issues.”

“We are, but prior to that, we’ll likely need to escape this enormous aquarium tank Agatha has locked us inside.”

“What?” I looked around anew. The gloom was so thick, I couldn’t see the tank’s edges. Just nothingness. That might explain the heavy sense of doom pushing in from all sides.

“Try the door, but I suspect you’ll find it sealed and warded,” he said.

I did try the door and did, in fact, find it firmly sealed and warded. I should have known it was odd when I’d stepped over the two-foot-thick door seal. She’d been leading us here the entire time. Zee was right. Agatha had not been fooled by Reynard’s sudden interest in her operation. Okay. This was fine. There was no need to worry. There had to be a way out. “What about the top, can you see it?” He had better night vision than me. Aquariums had to have open tops, so the divers could climb in, but all I saw above was a curtain of darkness.

“It’s a lot higher than I can jump, the sides are too smooth to scale and too thick to break, plus the filtration vents are too small to crawl through.”

He’d been working on possible escape routes while I’d been ranting. “Right.” I planted both hands on my hips. “Just once, I’d like to leave the hotel and not get kidnapped. Or arrested. Or put in a pie. But no, Adam Vex can’t catch a break.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

“I know that, Victor.”

Reynard blinked and turned his face away. “My apologies, you’re clearly upset.”

“A little. Yeah. I am. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on things, it all goes poof. Every time. Now I’m in a fish tank. This is not good.”

“Indeed. Agatha has little interest in killing us. I suspect there are other forces at work—applying pressure. Agatha is looking out for her own interests.”

“Other forces such as Gideon Cain?”

Victor glanced back and bowed his head in thought. “What did you tell Tom Collins, Adam?”

“Nothing.” I paced, and the sound of my shoes crunching on dry gravel echoed in the vast space. “Not much. Nothing worth all this fuss. We sometimes talked about . . . maybe . . . unaliving bad people?” Like murdering Gideon Cain. We’d talked about that a lot.

“Hm.” Reynard considered it. “Anything more personal, that Gideon Cain could use against you, or wield to have the hotel closed?”

Gideon Cain knew more than he should. He’d made that clear when he’d handed me the torn prophecy page from the Wilson’s Guide. But he didn’t have anything to prove his suspicions. Unless he listened to Tom’s astute character references for us all, and how sometimes, late at night, I’d tell Tom that fate had me in its crosshairs. “Possibly.”

“We must retrieve Tom’s backup before Agatha hands it over to Cain, and we still need to secure the evidence that will keep you and Zodiac out of jail.”

“And get out of this tank.” I peered up, into the void. Would screaming into it help? At least it wasn’t full of water, right? “It could be worse.”

A rumbling sounded, like distant thunder. Underfoot, the floor vibrated. I glanced at Reynard.

His eyes widened. “Can you sw⁠—”

A blast of water swallowed Reynard, snatching him away. I gasped, and the same wall of water slammed into me, punching all the air from my lungs in a sudden whoosh. I tumbled, spinning among bubbles. The light was gone, drowned, like we were about to be. But a new light spun in my vison. A way out? The churning slowed. I pinned that light in my sights, and kicked toward it, then broke the surface, gasping.

A surging waterfall thundered into the tank and drowned out the sound of my pounding heart.

“Victor?!”

Where was he? Choppy waves splashed my face.