| |
––––––––
SOMETIMES THINGS HAVE TO GET WORSE before they get better. That’s what Abe kept telling himself. The taggers killed more in the last three days than they had since their first day here. In the same three days, Sef’s gangsters seemed more powerful than ever, which didn’t make any sense. Why weren’t the taggers killing the gangsters anymore?
He gripped his bag as he stomped into the office. Edrice and Husani’s whispers stopped the moment they saw him. They’d been doing that a lot lately. Edrice sat down at her desk and said, “Imara is coming, so don’t leave until she gets here.”
“What?” He turned on his heel to face her. “When did you talk to her?”
Edrice wore a smug expression as she scrolled through her hologram screen. “She’s fine, Abe. She didn’t even know she still had a job, by the way. You might want to work on those communication skills.”
Before he could retort, Imara walked into the room. Her hair looked freshly trimmed, and her cheeks were bright. He plastered on a smile, hoping it would help. But how could it help? He’d practically ignored her for three days, so how could he expect her to not be mad?
He wanted to talk to her. He did. But he was so afraid of what she would say. Keeping his distance had seemed like the safer option.
His smile didn’t have any effect on her. She merely nodded at Edrice. “Are we leaving immediately?” she asked.
“Yep,” Husani said, and then he and Imara started for the door.
Edrice hadn’t even yelled at Imara. If anything, they both smiled at each other. Smiled? How had Edrice done more to repair her relationship with Imara than he had?
His gut clenched as they climbed into a bubble car. Husani seemed more than happy to keep the conversation in his hands. “I love your hair, Imara,” he said. “When it’s short on the sides and back, it makes the curls on top extra fun. It looks especially gorgeous on you.”
She gave him a tentative smile and then turned to the window. “What’s the plan?”
Again, Husani supplied the answer. “We go to the shipping warehouse and wait for the boxes to arrive. After they’ve been delivered and before Sef’s gangsters get there, we open them up and steal anything dangerous so the gangsters can’t use it.”
“How long do we have?” she asked.
Husani stared off to the side and squinted one eye. “Based on my internal clock, which is perfect, we should have ten minutes between drop off and pick up. We’ll have to work fast.”
She nodded, which made the curls topple over onto her forehead. Abe felt he should probably say something. Sorry I ignored you for three days? Sorry I didn’t tell you about my ex girlfriend? Sorry you’re working with her? No, it was best to stay quiet. Once the conversation started, it wouldn’t end for awhile. Best to wait until the right time.
“Are you okay, Imara?” Husani asked as he set his hand on her forearm. “Are you sure you’re ready to work after everything Takara did to you?”
“I’m fine,” she said, turning away. She reached up to pull on her hair and let out a sigh. “The taggers are in Kenya. I think they’re the ones who framed Safiya.”
“What? In Kenya?” Abe’s insides reeled. He moved closer to her, trying to catch her eye. She kept it firmly focused on the window. At least he knew Naki had passed along his messages. Imara couldn’t have known about Safiya being framed otherwise.
“Apparently it was part of Professor Santini’s plan. The taggers are supposed to take over Egypt first and Kenya second.”
Abe shook his head and sat back in his chair with a scowl. “When did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Imara glanced back long enough to give him an icy stare. It probably wouldn’t have hurt so much if it wasn’t so well deserved. “You’ve been surprisingly unreachable,” she said through her teeth.
Before he could respond, Husani jumped in. “Better taggers than gangsters, if you ask me. How bad could they be?”
She turned to face Husani with a glare. In words that sounded sharper than usual, she said, “I jumped through an eraserfall trying to stop the taggers. I don’t want them here, and I definitely don’t want them in my home country. They’re worse than you think.”
Abe gripped his knee to keep himself from smacking Husani.
After a tiny gulp, Husani said, “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”
When they arrived at the warehouse, Abe looked at Husani and asked, “How long?”
“I timed it so we’d arrive at the same time as the... and there they are.” He pointed out two huge delivery drones that dropped five wooden boxes onto the delivery pad.
Abe glanced around, but no employees came to retrieve the boxes. He shrugged. Might as well take advantage of the opportunity.
Before they could get to the delivery pad, two employees came out of the warehouse, seeing him and the others immediately.
With no time to hide, Abe started walking with a swagger and punched Husani in the shoulder. “That was crazy last night, right?”
Husani let out a laugh. “Yeah it was. That was fresh when Bast started singing. I didn’t know he could sing. Did you?”
Imara seemed to catch on that they were putting on a show so the employees wouldn’t suspect them. She shook her head with a smile, and it was the happiest face he’d seen on her all day. That thought made his gut clench with guilt.
Soon, the employees had the boxes loaded onto a hover cart to bring into the warehouse. Abe tapped his ring and said, “I have a video, if you want to watch Bast again.”
Instead, he started recording a video just as the employees came to the door of the warehouse. He zoomed in far enough to record the first employee’s fingers as he typed a code into the door opener.
When the employees disappeared behind the door, Abe played the video back again.
He watched until he knew the code by heart. “How long until they unload the boxes and leave the room?” he asked Husani.
Husani scratched his ear as he looked to the side. “About sixty-two seconds.”
They spent the time in silence. He kept turning to Husani expectantly, but Husani would only shake his head. He dared a glance at Imara at one point, but she speared him with a look that cut through his heart. Best to not try that again until after they’d had a proper talk.
When sixty-two seconds had passed, he played back the recording one last time as they strolled to the door. He typed in the code, but an error notification chimed a moment later. He huffed at the screen and studied the video one last time. When he typed the code in again, he knew for certain he did it the same as the employee had. But the error notification chimed again.
“Maybe they reset the codes after each use,” Imara said.
He nodded with a frown. “I was afraid of that.”
Husani scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Too bad Keiko’s not here. She could probably hack it open for us.”
Imara shot Husani a filthy look, and Husani shrank back. What was that about?
Turning away, Husani said, “But Keiko is a free agent. She can do whatever she wants. If she doesn’t want to help us rescue orphans or stop her evil mom, I guess that’s up to her. I mean, it’s a little selfish and all, but—”
“Husani!” Imara said with a scold.
Husani’s shoulders dropped, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s not really selfish of her. She’s under the global working age and all that. I just thought she’d want to see us.”
Imara shot him another glare, but Husani seemed to be avoiding her eyes. How had they done so many missions without an ounce of interpersonal issues, and all the sudden things were falling apart? Abe shook his head. It was probably his fault. Or definitely his fault.
He waved the thought away. “Maybe I can hack into it. Keiko taught me a couple tricks while we were trying to figure out how to get Imara out of the mansion.” He tapped the screen on and then slid his finger across the top until the control panel menu displayed. He tapped into the grid system when suddenly Imara stepped forward, gazing at the door opener.
She whirled around to face him and said, “Can you get this stuff out of my eyes?”
He drew his eyes to her slowly and raised an eyebrow. Then he looked back at the door opener. “Now?”
She stepped in between him and the door opener. “Yes, now. Just do it.”
He sighed and looked into her eyes. Sure enough, the familiar goop sat in the corner of each eye. She stood patiently as he picked it out, apparently unaffected by his touch. That was a sour thought. Once he cleared the big pieces away, he noticed small strings of goop that slid out over her irises. Wherever this stuff came from, it was getting worse.
He let his hand linger on her face for one extra second, but she pulled away seeming to sense he had finished. She bent down over the screen and tapped on an app. Her eyes narrowed as she reached for the hair on her neck.
He couldn’t help the grin that formed on his lips. She always looked cute when she was thinking like that. But the more she concentrated on the door opener, the more familiar her stare became. He remembered it from the catacombs.
Before the eraserfall.
For a moment, a spring of hope burst through him, and he almost laughed with glee. Was she getting her hila back? But the moment he had that thought, he remembered what he had just done.
Picked the goop from her eye.
His heart sunk. Maybe she had stopped bothering him about it, but she obviously still thought he was a healer. Which was impossible. Now his gut clenched knowing he had inadvertently given her false hope. He couldn’t bring her hila back any more than he could bring his mom back.
As his gut twisted, Imara’s face fell. Whatever she thought she could do or see, it obviously wasn’t working. She tapped the screen and bit her lip, but she kept shaking her head while puffs of air came out her nostrils.
Time for a new plan. He scanned the area for another entrance to the building. A window sat a few feet from the door. It had worked at Takara’s mansion. Maybe it would work again. He tried opening it first, but the lock was secure. Imara was still staring at the door opener, and Husani was checking around the other side of the building.
Abe spotted a large rock on the ground. Without thinking, he grabbed it and chucked it at the window as hard as he could. Even as the rock left his fingertips, he knew it was a bad idea. Not because they could get caught, but because the window most likely had impact-proof glass.
As he suspected, the rock bounced off the glass and back toward him with even greater velocity. He took a step to the side to swerve away from the rock, and it just barely missed him. When his mind relaxed, he realized Imara was gripping his shoulder.
“Be careful,” she said breathlessly. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He felt his lips twitch into a smile. He turned toward her, letting his arm briefly brush against hers. He flashed her with a smirk. “So, you still care about me then?”
She pursed her lips, but it didn’t hide the grin she tried to suppress. “I’m thinking about it,” she said. “But only partly because you smell so good right now.”
He would have kissed her right there except Husani gave him a death glare once the idea hit his mind. Still, he reached for her waist, and she didn’t pull away. They shared one brief look, which Husani ruined less than a second later.
“We have five minutes and eighteen seconds, Abe. We need another plan.”
Once again, Imara slid her hand to the back of her neck so she could pull on her hair. Her eyes narrowed in thought, which made the gold flecks in her black irises stand out even more. She really did look cute doing that.
Suddenly her hand dropped to her side. “Why don’t we just go in the front door?”
“No,” Abe said.
When he didn’t elaborate, she turned to Husani.
“You can get arrested if they catch you tampering with a package,” Husani said.
“How would they know it’s not mine?”
“They scan your identification if you do anything suspicious,” Abe said.
She shrugged, not looking as frightened as she should have. “Then I won’t act suspicious. I’ll walk in like everything is normal. If they scan my identification, I’ll just play dumb and act like I went to the wrong warehouse on accident.”
Tension shot through his shoulders as he clenched his fists. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I think it’s a good plan,” Husani said.
Abe huffed and stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep himself from smacking Husani over the head. “It’s not a good plan. It’s too much of a risk.”
Imara quirked her head to the side with an air of confidence. “It’s too much of a risk for plan A, but we’re on plan B now. Or plan C if you count you throwing that rock at the window. We’re running out of time, and we have to do something.”
Husani nodded making a stupid face that was probably supposed to look thoughtful. “We definitely have the best chance if you’re the one who goes in there, Imara. Your magical powers of persuasion are unstoppable.”
She snorted, but started to round the corner toward the front door. Why did everyone suddenly think they could go over his head? Imara was good at what she did, but he didn’t like putting her at risk. Especially so soon after she’d been tortured. Even if he was going to lose this argument, he wouldn’t go down without a fight. “What if you get arrested?” he asked.
She put on a sweet smile and fluttered her eyelashes twice. “You can bail me out, can’t you?”
With that, she rounded the corner and he could do nothing but wait.
Husani smirked. “I’ve never seen someone convince you as easily as Imara does. She’ll be able to pull this off easily.”
Husani was right. She did have a power over him that he’d never been able to control. Whether or not he had a similar power over her was yet to be seen.
“You know another reason she’s so good at persuading?” Husani asked. “She is extremely hot.”
“Really?” Abe said with his eyebrows lowering. “It’s 2121. I hope the human race has evolved past helping people just because they’re hot.”
“But she is hot.”
“Shut up, Husani.”
The tease in the boy’s eyes fell away, and in an instant, his face grew serious. “She is, and you know you aren’t the only one who’s noticed. Plus, she’s smart and kind. I know looks aren’t everything, but she has both inside stuff and outside stuff. She’s the perfect package.”
“Do you have a point?” Abe said through his teeth. He checked around the corner of the building to see if Imara was coming back yet.
“Yeah,” Husani said. “The point is, maybe you should have thought things through before you lied to the two most important people in your life.”
Abe hit his fist against the wall with a scoff. “Most important?”
Husani rolled his eyes. “Besides your dad, obviously.”
For a moment, a glare seemed to be the only response he could muster. “They are not both the most important.”
Husani stepped forward, crossing into his personal space. He lifted his chest, standing as tall as he could. “The only way I’m wrong is if you’re counting your mom too. Your business is your life, and like it or not, that means Edrice. You can try to pretend Imara is more important, but the only one you’re fooling is yourself. You met her a few months ago. I don’t care how intense things got in the catacombs, she can’t erase two years of history.”
“Maybe history isn’t everything.”
Husani laughed. “If you believed that, maybe you wouldn’t have kept the secret.”
Abe massaged a sudden knot growing in his shoulder.
Husani glanced around the corner then looked back at Abe. “After we finish this mission, you need to let Imara go. She’ll be all right.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Abe said under his breath.
