Where did Engel go afterward? Why did she step back from our lives and let them transform into all cool detachment and rigid schedules?
I frown at the room around me. “Do you think shewantedto leave the facility, or did the others force her out?”
“From the things I heard, it didn’t sound like her time with them ended well there,” Zian offers.
Andreas nods. “Yeah, there was a lot of tension in the few memories I caught.”
And part of the path to those answers could be right here in front of us.
I glance back at the guys. “If these are the sort of the surroundings she liked most, where she felt most at home, then if she left the guardians and went off someplace even the hacker couldn’t track her down… maybe she got herself a cabin in the woods just like that picture.”
Andreas hums to himself. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Jacob’s mouth twists. “There are a lot of woods with a lot of cabins in them all over the world,” he says. “Even if you’re right, that information doesn’t get us very far.”
Dominic gets up and treads lightly in a circuit around the room. “It’s a start, something to narrow things down.”
“Maybe we could find another,betterhacker—” Zian begins, and halts with a stiffening of his stance. His head jerks to the side, tipping one ear toward the ceiling. “I think I hear a car. Coming close.”
We all tense up. Jacob moves first, waving us toward the door. “Come on. We’d better see what we’re dealing with.”
Twenty-Four
Riva
The five of us hustle together through the halls of the old facility to the massive staircase that leads to the outside world. By the time we’ve reached it, I can hear the car too—or cars, more like it. At least two different growls of engines hitch as they travel along the uneven lane.
It would probably make the most sense for me to sneak up and take a peek, since I’m the smallest, but Jacob must figure I might actually flag our pursuers down or something. He marches up ahead of everyone else, slowing cautiously as he reaches ground level.
After a moment, he returns to us. “Only two vehicles: a van and a normal-sized car. They’re definitely heading this way—they just came past the gate.”
Zian’s forehead furrows. “Only two? Even with the van, those can’t hold anywhere near as many guardians as they sent after us back at the college.”
I swipe my hand across my mouth, my body still braced for battle. “They might not realize it’s us. We have no idea if they figured out we went to Engel’s old workplace.”
“That’s true,” Dominic says. “They found us on the campus, not there. There’s a decent possibility they have no idea what trail we’re on.”
Jacob glances toward the control room, his expression dark and pensive. “It’d make sense for the organization to have some kind of alert connected to the opening of the door, even after all this time. I should have thought of that. We should have moved faster.”
“They’re here now.” Zian grimaces. “And I guess we’d better not let any of them leave to tell everyone else what we were doing.”
Jacob cracks his knuckles. “Absolutely. Even if Drey could wipe us from their memories, these people must be affiliated with the current facility. Whoever questions them about what they encountered here will know what the gaps mean.”
Andreas raises his head, looking haunted for a moment before his eyes narrow. “We need to keep at least a couple of them alive for a little while—so I can search their memories about Engel. We need to know more.”
“Right. We can try to question them about what went on in this place too.” Jacob glances around at the rest of us. “Target the oldest ones for that, as well as you can tell. They’re the ones most likely to have worked with her and to know about the facility’s history. Everyone else, we take out as quickly as we can.”
“We should stay down here,” I say, letting my back rest against the wall. “Out there in the open, it’ll be too easy for them to get shots at us.”
“Of course. Spread out and get ready to pick them off.”
Jacob shoots a final look at Zian, who responds by moving with me when I back up to the entrance to one of the offices. He’s still playing babysitter, even after everything.
I bite back a caustic remark and prepare myself, extending my claws from my fingers. We fended off the last bunch of guardians, even though there were more of them then and they took us by surprise. There’s nothing to worry about here.
Other than the fact that they’ve gotten so close to us twice in just a few days.
The rest of the guys duck into other doorways where they can watch the hall without being seen. Zian’s lips pull back from his teeth in a silent snarl, but he stays in completely human form.