Blake nodded again. “The middle door—I know. The code?”
“Wait. Where do the other doors take you?” Kat asked.
“To the great Oz,” Luc said, hitting the space bar until the camera was now focused on the doors. “Actually, nowhere interesting. Just offices and actual FEMA stuff. Anyone want to guess what the code to this door is?”
“Daedalus?” Kat threw out.
He grinned. “Close. The code to this door is Labyrinth. It’s a hard word to spell, I know, but make sure you do it correctly. You get one chance. Enter the wrong code and it’ll get ugly. Take the elevator to the sixth floor like Blake said and then you enter the code Daedalus—all caps. Voilà!”
I shook my head, doubtful. “There’re only codes to enter? That’s their security?”
“Ha!” Luc hit a few buttons and the screen went black. “I’m doing more than giving you codes and taking down cameras, my new BFF. I’m going to take down their eye recognition software. It can go down once a day for about ten to fifteen minutes without raising an eyebrow.”
“What happens if we’re still in there and it goes back up?” Kat asked.
Luc raised his hands. “Uh, kind of like being on a plane that’s about to crash. Stick your head between your knees and kiss it good-bye.”
“Oh, that sounds great,” she said. “So you’re like a mutant hacker, too?”
He winked. “But be careful. I’m not taking down any other security precautions they may’ve decided to put up. That will raise concerns.”
“Whoa.” I frowned. “What other security precautions could they have?”
“Nothing but guards, but it’s a shift change.” Blake grinned. “We’ll be fine. We got this.”
Paris handed over a sheet with the codes scribbled down. I snatched it before Blake could and slipped into my pocket. “Thank you,” I said.
Luc’s smile faded as he returned to the couch and picked up the game he was playing. “Don’t thank me yet. Actually, don’t thank me at all. I don’t exist, you know, not until I need my favor. Just remember, this Sunday at 9:00 p.m., you have fifteen minutes and that is all.”
“Okay,” Kat drew the word out, glancing at Blake. “Well, I guess…”
“We’ll be going,” I offered, taking her hand. “It was nice, kind of, meeting you all.”
“Whatevs,” Luc replied, thumbs flying over the game board. We turned to the door, but he stopped us. “You have no idea what waits for you. Be careful. I would hate for my dealing to be one-sided if you all get yourselves killed…or worse.”
Kat shuddered.
I nodded at Paris as we headed out, Blake closing the door behind him.
“Well,” Blake said, smiling. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?”
Kat rolled her eyes. “I have the feeling we just made a deal with the devil, and he’s going to come back and want our firstborn child or something.”
Hmm… I waggled my brows. “You want kids? Because you know, practice makes—”
“Shut up.” She started walking ahead of me.
I laughed under my breath.
Mountain Man met us at the door. “Remember,” he said. “You were never here.”
Chapter 11
After school on Thursday, we were all gathered in the living room, hashing out the plans for the Sunday-night raid on Mount Weather.
Dee wanted to go in with us, but I wasn’t having that. It was bad enough that Dawson would be in the line of fire if shit went wrong. “I need you and Ash to hang back just in case something goes wrong, along with Matthew.”
She folded her arms. “What? You don’t think I can handle myself with you guys? That I might trip and stab Blake to death?”
I wanted to laugh. “Well, now that you say that.”
Dee rolled her eyes. “Is Katy going in with you?”
My body tensed as Kat dragged in a heavy sigh. “I don’t want—”
“Yes,” she cut me off. “Only because I got most of us into this mess, and Blake won’t do any of this without Daemon and me.”
Ash smirked from where she sat. “How valiant of you, Katy.”
Ignoring her, Kat continued, “But we do need people on the outside in case something does go wrong.”
“What?” Andrew asked. “You don’t trust Blake? Go figure.”
Sitting back, I scrubbed my fingers through my hair. “Anyway, we’ll be in and out. Then everything…everything is over.”
Kat was watching my brother. “How long… how long has it been since you’ve seen Beth?”
“I don’t know. Time there was different. Weeks? Months?” Dawson stood, rolling his shoulders. “I don’t think I was at that Mount place. The place was always warm and dry whenever I was taken outside.”
My jaw clenched. When he was taken outside? Hell, I wanted to punch something.
Dawson let out a ragged breath. “I need to walk or something.”
The sun had gone down a while ago, and it wasn’t exactly walking weather, but I got why he needed out of here.
“I’ll go,” Dee offered.
Andrew stood. “I’ll follow.”