She let out a sigh. “Let me put it this way: If this works, we can shut down the Chamber’s retina and ID scanners. Anyone will be able to get in the building. All the prisoners will be free to escape their rooms. And I can disable the sprinklers that spray iron dust, so anyone with magic can fight back.”
He straightened, suddenly interested. “If we went in, I could use my magic in the Chambers?”
“Assuming you can do it without destroying the place.”
“Destroying the place would be the whole point.”
She kept her eyes locked on the dark screen, waiting for an update. Everything—her chance to redeem herself, her friends lives—it all depended on one line of code. Come on, Josiah, you psychotic asshole. Open the email.
Her heart skipped a beat as a line of code updated in terminal—the Brotherhood’s server had made a request. She loosed a long breath. “It’s working. Josiah opened the attachment. Dumb fuck.”
“What’s happening?” Caine asked, leaning over her.
Her pulse raced, and she typed a command telling the Chamber’s server to download mapping software. It would allow her to scan the network. “I’m looking for vulnerabilities.”
“Exploit vulnerabilities,” he said, a hint of admiration seeping into his tone. “Like you so cleverly did with Josiah.”
“Same idea.”
“Good. I look forward to finding out if your colleagues murdered Malphus.”
She flinched, trying to scan through computer names in Nmap. “You’re not helping me focus, Caine.”
retinascan.brotherhood.agency.gov. And those would be the retina scanners. They weren’t exactly very well hidden. The computers controlling the badge scanners had a similarly obvious name.
Probing further, she picked out the name dust.brotherhood.agency.gov—the iron dust.
If they’d promoted her to Guardian and put her in charge of their security systems, she would have renamed their computers, but they’d screwed that right up.
She inhaled deeply, picking up the gun she’d stolen earlier. “Are you ready to transport us? Once I make these changes, all hell will break loose in the Chambers. I want to make sure Tammi doesn’t get lost. Or eaten by a starving demon.”
“I’ve been ready for over an hour.”
One by one, she picked through the computers—the ones that simulated sunlight to burn the vamps, those that blasted hawthorn stakes at incubi. She rewrote the code until none of them were functioning, and in a final masterstroke, she shut out the lights.
Chaos would rule the Chambers tonight.
After she disabled the last computer, she stood, facing Caine. Her body trembled with anticipation. “Let’s go.”
He wrapped his arms around her, anchoring her with his aura. This time, she pulled off her own ring.
Chapter 31
As the mist cleared, Caine slid her ring back on her finger—only to yank her forcefully behind a tree. They stood a hundred feet from the Chambers, shielded by an oak. On the other side of grassy courtyard, a line of armed guards stood before the old brick Chambers.
Red lights flashed from the roof, glinting off the shattered glass that littered the ground from their earlier escape. In the quiet night, the guards’ feet crunched over the shards.
From inside the building, gunshots rang out, and her stomach turned. She hadn’t even thought about the guns. She’d been so focused on fighting with magic, that she hadn’t thought about ordinary firepower—which, incidentally, could kill ordinary humans.
From the streets of Harvard Square, sirens blared. Reinforcements were already on their way.
Caine whispered in her ear, “I’m going to build a shield around the building. We’ll be able to get out, but no one can enter. And I’ll get rid of the guards. Stay a few paces behind me, and you’ll be protected.”
He stepped out from the oak, holding out his arms to either side. Rosalind followed behind, walking through the shadows over the soft grass. Caine chanted in Angelic, and as he spoke, his silvery aura whirled around his body, curling through the air across the courtyard. The guards stood frozen. After a few moments, they dropped their guns, stumbling away.
Something didn’t seem right, and dread whispered over her skin. Why weren’t the prisoners fleeing the building? She clutched the gun tightly. She wasn’t trained to use it, but she’d managed to shoot through the glass earlier.
Her breath came faster as they approached the shattered doors, footsteps crunching over the glass. The flashing red lights cast a garish hue over the abandoned security desk. Behind Caine, Rosalind tentatively stepped through the lobby, her gun raised.
A rhythmic sound, metal against wood, grew louder in the stairwell, and the door swung open, releasing noxious black smoke.
A bearded man stood in the doorway, his chest bare. Copper boots encased his feet, and he wore a red hat, dripping with gore. Blood ran down his chin. Fear coursed through her mind. A redcap.
The man’s pale eyes landed on Rosalind. “I’m still hungry, and you look delicious,” he growled.