“I’m already out,” Victor replied in our earpieces. “You guys were pros.”
I imagined him making his way down a dark, narrow street. I would bet money he had a nice dress shirt and cuff links on. Even for a breakin.
Iris nodded once at me, as if she were sealing a deal with a business partner, then turned and dashed into the night. I took a twisting alleyway on the opposite side. We’d see each other again at headquarters.
“You did good,” Iris said into my earpiece. “I think those guards were out of practice.” I could hear her smug confidence.
“You’re a machine,” I replied to Iris, breathless, because I was sprinting at full speed.
Lingyi’s familiar chuckle came from across the ether. “That’s why I love her.”
CHΔPTER THIRTEEN
We met at headquarters two days later to debrief. On my way there, I grabbed five orders of scallion pancakes and fried dough wrapped in sesame flatbread for my friends from one of the stands on the street, smiling when the mei girl gave me a free hot soy milk for the large order.
Lingyi met me at the door, ecstatic and glowing, and assured us that Doppelganger had insinuated itself completely into Jin Corp’s security system. She had spent much of the last forty-eight hours glued to her MacFold, studying Jin Corp’s layout and inner workings—devising the best way to infiltrate and blow up the building.
“The easiest way is to trigger the fire alarm,” Lingyi said. We were eating in the sitting area as she brainstormed aloud. “Jin Corp has a tight protocol set in place. All employees must evacuate the building within ten minutes, then are allowed to return ten minutes after. That gives us twenty minutes.”
“I would suggest detonating the bombs within three minutes after the building has cleared,” Victor said, which led to a long discussion on the logistics of where the bombs should be placed and how many were needed.
“During the fire alarm, Jin Corp’s main security system will give access to the backup—in case of emergency. This means I’ll have full control of the system.” Lingyi projected images and video of Jin Corp’s interior and floor plans as we continued to talk through possibilities. After two hours, Lingyi called for a break. But as I rose from the sofa, she said to me, “You should cool things off with Daiyu. You got what you needed from her.”
I blanched, and Victor raised one dark eyebrow. It sounded so cruel when spoken aloud, even though that had been my same exact thought after Daiyu had given me a tour of Jin Corp.
“I haven’t talked to her in a while,” I lied. In truth, guilt had gotten the best of me, and I had messaged her to ask if she had news about Joseph. Daiyu responded that he was still quarantined in the facility outside of Taipei and recuperating.
Iris grabbed an apple from the bowl on the kitchen counter, every movement spare and smooth. “You’re losing interest, that’s all. You can play that, right?”
I could feel Lingyi scrutinizing me over her MacFold.
“I don’t think it hurts to have Zhou continue to woo her,” Victor said. “It’s always good to keep the enemy close.”
“There’s sense in that,” I replied before I could control my traitorous mouth. “It could be to our advantage if we remained friends.”
I’d made the mistake of agreeing with Vic, something I rarely did.
“Wait,” Lingyi said, tapping her hot pink fingernails against the glass table. “You don’t actually like her, do you?”
I felt all eyes turn to me. Arun folded his arms across his chest. He had tipped his orange spiked hair with indigo dye and looked like an aggressive rooster.
“And so what if he does?” Victor leaned back in the armchair. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with him gathering intel. Not everyone can turn their feelings off so easily, Lingyi,” he drawled.
The chamber went silent, like we had all sucked in a breath and held it. Lingyi colored, and Iris gave half an eye roll, then continued her push-up sets in the corner. Arun stared at his boots, seemingly fascinated by the laces. Lingyi, Iris, and Vic worked together well enough, but he had never hinted at his feelings for Lingyi so pointedly before. He had always acted like he didn’t care, pretended to be unaffected. But we all knew the truth.
They had only dated a few months before Lingyi ended things, soon after Iris joined our group. Neither discussed the breakup with me, but it was clear enough that Lingyi thought it was more casual than Victor had. He tried to appear blasé, but he had fallen hard for her. Although he’d had plenty of hookups, Vic hadn’t seen anyone seriously since.
After a long moment, Lingyi said, “Feelings can complicate things. . . .”
Victor’s dark gaze slid to Lingyi, and she opened her mouth as if to say more, then clamped it shut again. “Victor, if you want to talk—”
He gave a nonchalant flip of his hand. “No. I don’t want to talk. You’re the boss.” Vic flashed Lingyi a charming smile and winked. “But you should respect Zhou’s choice. He knows what he’s doing.”
Do I?
I shrugged and kept my face smooth. “Whatever. It’s over.”
I proceeded to ignore Daiyu’s calls and messages to me in the next few days, chucking my Vox onto the bed each time and shoving a pillow over it—annoyed with myself over how much I did want to talk to her.
How much I missed her.
? ? ?
The next day, Arun messaged me via Vox: Bad situation. Headquarters now.
I left the 101 by the back exit, the one used by celebrities to dodge paparazzi. But I used it to avoid having people wonder why I was leaving without my suit on. I couldn’t go to headquarters suited as a you boy—it’d draw too much attention.
The crowds were thin this morning. Another dozen meis had died in the past three days from the new super avian flu strain that had yet to be officially identified by our media. Experts reassured the public that although the fatality rate was higher than normal, most deaths happened to those who were already suffering from secondary illnesses or had seriously compromised immune systems. Instead of just normally compromised immune systems, downplaying the fact that it was airborne among the meis living in hovels and on the streets. They failed to notify the public that this flu had already spread among young and healthy meis, and they were dying too.
But the undernet was humming with the news and speculating on government conspiracies, keeping tally of their own death count.