Heist Royale (Thieves’ Gambit #2)

Chapter Thirteen

Thirteen

While studying the lab’s blueprints, I’d been imagining the set design from The Thing . The reality was a little less sci-fi.

I led the way across the scuffed white tile of the hallways. Multicolored Arctic coats and boots hung on hooks here and there. Disorganized shelves were stacked with books with intimidating scientific titles like Nuclear Fission and Atomic Subdivision , Vol. 12, but also a few well-worn Dan Brown novels and Twilight paperbacks with the covers nearly disintegrated. The lab was giving off a lot more ragtag crew of young scientists instead of corporate sterile lab vibes. No wonder they turned down all the organization’s proxy attempts to buy them out. I bet they were the found-family types that wanted to unveil their stunning prototype together.

My heart ached for taking this from them.

I bet Mom wouldn’t have wasted a millisecond on a thought like that.

We took a quiet route through the research sector of the lab. We needed to get to the main research and storage unit toward the shore. Half the building was residential. As long as we stayed on the lab side, there was no reason we should run into anyone in the middle of the night. Noelia was one step behind me, hand on the hilt of the gun in her waistband, scanning for any surprise attacks.

After creeping through a few more corridors leading into messy offices and mini labs, we slipped through a pair of saloon-style swinging doors and into a darkened mess hall. Arctic moonlight squeaked in through slit-like windows inches below the ceiling line, illuminating the metal tables and mismatched steel and plastic chairs.

I pointed toward another saloon-style door on the other side of a serving counter near the back. This shortcut was going to save us about five minutes.

I weaved through the well-loved chairs and tables, until a sliver of sound broke into the otherwise-silent mess hall.

On instinct, I ducked behind the side of a counter, reaching to pull Noelia down too, but she was already dropping into a crouch. A whisper of footsteps echoed beyond the door on the other side of the counter. Light steps. Trained steps.

They were here.

Worrying my lip, I looked at Noelia and mouthed: “Team Kenzie.”

“Maybe,” she mouthed back.

Those quiet steps were getting closer. They must have come in through another entrance. There were dozens on the residential side they could have taken advantage of. What were the chances they cared just a little less about getting caught by the staff than we did?

They could’ve been less worried because they were better prepared to mow down anyone in their way. That was the way Mom would think of it.

I wanted to win like Mom, didn’t I?

She wouldn’t hesitate.

Noelia still hadn’t moved. Instead she was waiting to react. That kind of crap was probably what got her an L during the Gambit too.

“Gun,” I mouthed.

She frowned and shook her head. “Too drastic. Wait.”

“Gun. Now.”

“No.”

She really wasn’t going to do anything.

I flexed my fingers, pretended to gesture at something, then pivoted directions and swiped the sedative gun from her grasp. Noelia’s eyes widened. She reached to snatch it back, but I shoulder-rolled out of the way. Landing on the balls of my feet, I prowled toward the door and the nearly there footsteps. How many of them would be coming through? One? Two? All three? It only sounded like one, but who knew.

My grasp was surprisingly still on the gun, and my finger right on the trigger. I thought I didn’t like guns, but maybe I didn’t know what I could do. I’d been choosing not to be this brave for so many years. Choosing to be so easy to get one over on.

A pale light slipped under the crack of the door. I raised the gun. Come on.

Noelia crashed into me. Her arm snaked around my neck. We collapsed to the floor. My grip on the gun slipped, and she easily twisted it from my fingers, all while managing to tug me to the side. I flailed at her arm around my neck, but she managed to drag us between an industrial fridge and a trash compactor anyway.

Furious, I opened my mouth to protest, but she covered it, using her finger to tap Morse on my cheek. “Look.”

Reluctantly, I ripped the goggles off her head and angled the reflective lenses to spy on the half-open door.

A short man with a thin beard, wrapped up in flannel, peeked in skeptically.

Not Team Kenzie.

Noelia cocked her head at me in a way that said more than any Morse code taps could. I’d overreacted, at least in her view. But I couldn’t feel that sorry about it. I was just trying to be ahead of the enemy. Trying not to be so soft. Those were the traits that always got Mom what she wanted.

I watched our guest for a few moments longer, noting the revolver holster. Count’s intel was spot-on. They were scientists packing heat. I suppose getting into a gunfight with one of them…wasn’t in our best interest.

Mr.Flannel opened the door of the fridge opposite us. He peered around the room one last time before fishing out a bowl of leftovers labeled SARAH in big bold letters on the side. Guess that explained his cautiousness on the way here. The guy who eats everyone else’s food is hated by all. In about five minutes, he’d eaten Sarah’s soup and Akshi’s fruit salad, then retreated the way he came.

Noelia slipped out of the hiding place first, giving me a once-over as she kept a tight hold on her weapon.

“Good?” she asked.

I forced a nod.

···

Despite my paranoia, things continued to go as planned for the remainder of the job. Almost too well, which was only increasing the sense of dread. We made it into the inner chamber of the lab undetected. The target looked exactly as it had in the picture included in the file Count forwarded us. A fairly large piece of machinery. Well, portable but still a decent size—a contraption that reminded me of one of those cube gaming consoles my mom said were all the rage in the early 2000s. About half the size of my torso, stainless steel, and with a small fan in the back.

Noelia got to work making sure all of the cords were disconnected and the security RFID tags disabled, while I used Mylo’s laser pen to carefully shave off the security tag welded to the side of the cube.

Tag-free, the cube wouldn’t catch any of the scanners at all the windows and doors. We’d be able to walk right out—as long as no one saw us.

I bit the inside of my lip as Noelia held open my reinforced backpack and I deposited the cube inside.

“I don’t like this. Where are they?” I whispered.

“Don’t complain. Focus on not tipping over,” she mouthed back.

She had a point. This was like carrying a backpack full of bricks. Even with the reinforced shoulder straps, I felt like there was a whole house hanging off me. I buckled an additional round-the-waist strap over my snow coat and around my torso for extra support, but still, damn. My legs were already sore, and now no doubt my upper body would be too. I tested out a few steps with bent knees just to make sure I didn’t waddle.

Maybe Noelia was right. I should be glad we hadn’t run into any drama yet and pray it stayed that way. I wasn’t exactly in fighting condition at the moment.

We retraced our steps through the mess hall back past the smaller research labs and a submersion tank room, until we branched off in a different direction, following my exit route. We maneuvered around to the north side of the facility, the side facing the outbuilding near the frozen ice. Around the rocks toward Mylo’s Zodiac we’d go.

Every step I expected Devroe or Diane or Kyung-soon to appear, ready to take us on somehow.

What if…we had just gotten here ahead of Team Diane? Even I had to catch a lucky break every now and then, right?

As we passed the north service door, halfway to the exit we were planning to use, the universe reminded me, No, Ross Quest doesn’t really get those.

Fluorescent lights came to life, blinking a furious bloody red. The same lights flicked on behind us, turning the hallway into a scalding-red hellscape. A shrieking alarm blared.

Welp.