Sky Ghosts: All for One (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1) (18 page)

“Jane!”

He rolled his eyes, hiding behind his magazine as she burst out laughing again.

*

Pain decided not to follow the route from the map that Betsy got from Peter and just chose one of the most remote from their building and rarely-used exits, heading straight to it. The chosen hatchway didn’t lead to a street – it opened into a basement of one building in the middle of Brooklyn. She hovered under the ceiling, lifting the cover and peeking outside – no one. So the cover banged open, and she flew through the opening, landing carefully in her shoes. The basement was all concrete and dust; nothing changed since she had been here last winter. There were two doors in two opposite walls, and she headed for the left one, smoothing down the front of her jacket.

No one saw her come out to the parking lot and cross it, approaching the elevator. In a couple of minutes she was outside, squinting at the bright sun and trying to glimpse a free cab. As she got into one and gave the address to the cabbie – the traffic was busy, and she knew the road would take at least an hour – she opened the briefcase and sorted through its contents.
Peter’s gonna be so pissed
, she thought with a detached worry. She looked over Jane’s papers quickly. Good thing they were so alike. Nobody would ever bother that it wasn’t really her on the photo, because she would look almost the same without her makeup. According to the passport, she was twenty-eight.
I could pass for a twenty-eight,
she thought.
I’m a well-preserved twenty-eight,
Jane Adams. Jane A-dams,
she practiced in her mind as they drove up to a bridge. People shouted and cursed outside – she didn’t hear them, as her focus was already on the building plan. Now, this was something that needed memorizing. She knew what she was going to do once she would get inside, but the floors scheme was essential to doing it fast.

They were halfway to the Beasts’ building when she was done. Aside from the documents and the plan, there was a stack of cash in the briefcase. She split it in two halves, folded, and slid in different pockets. It would be stupid to walk around like a drug lord. She blinked. Why was she expecting being searched?
Call if you need backup,
Marco had said. She hadn’t told him she didn’t have her cell phone with her, but again, there was no need for him to know that. He would worry in vain. It wasn’t like she was going to have any trouble. She knew everything Peter had told Jane: Beasts didn’t show up there, nobody would recognize her, and even if it happened, they would still have to catch her. She felt a smile form on her lips,
That could be fun… okay, no daydreaming.

The car screeched to a stop, and she jammed the papers back into the briefcase. Under the expectant stare of the driver, she put the glasses back on her nose and took a deep breath.

“We’re here,” he barked out, not very kindly.

“Easy, tiger.”

She handed him the money – much more than the meter was showing – and smiled the foxiest of her smiles.

As the car hurried away, roaring and snarling like a bear, she stood in front of the building regarding it with a hateful look. There it was, the hotbed of the infection, the eight-story glass and concrete bulk, looming over her. It shone in sun rays, reflecting their blinding light, its windows a blue sea of mirrors. Pain tore her gaze off of it with an effort of will and began mounting the stairs, reluctance heavy and strong in the pit of her stomach. Somehow all her eagerness to pay a visit to Eugene evaporated once she arrived at the place. But she had a job to do and she wasn’t going to disappoint Peter. She knew her chances to find out something useful were better than Betsy’s.

The glass doors slid open, and she strode through them and right to the reception table. A redhead girl sat behind it, engaged in sorting through some papers. Pain came up to her and cleared her throat.

“Hello, how can I help you?” Two big eyes stared at her questioningly, the color of emerald.

“Hello. Department of Buildings, Jane Adams. I’m here to inspect the building. You must have received a notification,” Pain answered in a steely voice.

“Hm-mm…” The receptionist leaned close to the monitor, grabbing the mouse. She must have been checking the email for some time, then raised her look at Pain again. “No, we haven’t, actually,” she said a bit apologetically.

“I guess there was some kind of a mistake, then. It won’t take much time. I’d like to proceed anyway, since I’ve already arrived. Would you assign someone to attend to me, please?” She looked at the girl through the glasses with all her superiority. If only the redhead knew what a funny picture was before her eyes, she thought with a dark humor.

The girl looked at Pain’s documents – clearly, she didn’t understand a thing in them.

“Sure,” her voice didn’t sound sure at all when she replied. She took the phone and dialed a number.

“Alex, I need you downstairs,” she spoke quietly into it and hung up after a moment. “You can wait over there,” she prompted to Pain with a half-smile, pointing at the white couches by the wall.

“Thank you,” Pain replied, taking her papers, and walked to one of the couches.

She barely had the time to put the documents back into the briefcase, when the elevator pinged, and a young man with curly dark hair showed up from it. He was tall and lanky, and his light gray suit looked too loose on him. He hurried to the receptionist, and after she quickly explained him the situation, he turned and headed to Pain with long gawky strides.

“Hello, I’m Alex, how can I help you?” he said with a smile, regarding her from top to toe as she got up. His brown eyes glistened frantically, and she thought he already seemed eager to get rid of her as soon as possible.

“Jane Adams. We should start with the top floor. I will perform a brief construction inspection, and the rest will depend on my report.”

“Follow me then.” With a polite incline of his head, he showed her to the elevator.

When they reached the top floor, she instantly recognized it as a buffer zone: abandoned rooms, which they used to store furniture and equipment, on the one hand, and a place for a fight on the other. She knew that Eugene’s office was located on one floor from the top, and this one was for rebuffing a possible attack from the roof. For a few long minutes she was walking through the deserted corridors, examining every wall meticulously to impress the attendant. When they were heading to the next floor, the cell phone in his pocket rang.

“Excuse me.”

His smile was tense when he took out the phone and answered it. She didn’t care. She just needed him distracted and as far from her as possible.

Slowing down, she let him pass farther and finally disappear around the corner. At the next second she tiptoed a few steps back and walked again into one of the offices where she had spotted a big grid of the ventilation system. Dust lay in thick sheets on everything around her. She suppressed an urge to sneeze, shutting the door with her back and trying not to touch anything else. The grid was just below the ceiling. She rose into the air and unhinged it at the bottom, then slid in with her feet first and closed the grid. Swiftly, she crawled along the wide rectangular duct until she reached a vertical shaft and hovered inside it. A dull noise filled the space around her. Fans were working somewhere, though she didn’t see any of them near. She tried to see what was below, and then a sharp clang pierced the air.

“Goddammit!”

She reached down, trying to stay as far from the duct’s walls as possible, and took off her shoes. Their metal heels obviously weren’t intended for places like this one. The shoes went into the briefcase. Inside it, she found a long strap, which she hitched to the loops so she could sling it over her shoulder.

For a minute she was remembering the building scheme, and then she lowered to the next floor. Eugene’s office must have been to her left. She realized she still had the stupid glasses on and ripped them off. As she lowered and crawled into another duct, a shrill distant voice caught her attention. Someone was scolding loudly in one of the offices, and she hurried forward, suspecting that only one person on this floor could shout like that.
Eugene.

There were ventilation louvers along the duct’s side, and as she reached the one she needed, she could hear his voice more distinctly. With her face pressed against the louver’s slats, she peered into the room, barely breathing.

She could see him now – he stood with his back to her, just a few feet away – and a thrill ran through her veins. It wasn’t the first time she saw him, but then he had been in front of her, armed and alert, practically glowing from all the energy encircling him. Now he had no clue that one of his enemies was right behind his back. He looked so casual in his white polo shirt and light pants, and the very idea of this maniac looking so ordinary was awfully disturbing. There was another man in front of him, an impossibly huge Beast in a black T-shirt and pants, his head shaved and his hands clasped behind his back. It was Eugene’s second-in-command, she knew. They had a brutal encounter in the city a year ago. She couldn’t remember his name, though, for it was unusual and rare. From her spot she could see the surroundings, too: a big wooden desk with a chair behind it, an expensive-looking rug and paintings on the walls, heavy golden drapes on the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“I don’t want to even think about this anymore! It’s your job! How much brain does one need to perform a task like this?? Why do I have to worry about it and make a plan for you? I don’t care if you’ll have to besiege the whole Headquarters – just get the job done!” Eugene was shouting, every word like a slap at the fighter’s face. The Beast didn’t raise his head, looking down guiltily, his broad shoulders tense.

“Boss, we almost got him at that apartment. Next time we’ll definitely get rid of the girls and bring him here,” he said, and his voice reminded Pain of Skull, so deep and husky, it was hard to make out the words.

“Exactly, girls! Two girls against your imbecile squad, and they got away! I’m not going to risk my agents for this, and I’m not going to wait until next time. You use some of that enormous head and come up with a plan, because I can’t get back to my work until we’re finished with this!”

Eugene shook his head with dissatisfaction. It was white-gray, his hair cropped short and looking transparent. He was of average height and had a peculiar slouch to his shoulders that contrasted oddly with the way he talked. There was some tired casualness in the way he held himself, and at the same time, the sound of his voice sent chills through Pain’s body.

“And call off the lookouts from his apartment and garage. What’s the point in them if he hangs out at Peter’s the whole week?? I thought you were smart enough to realize that on your own!” he added and paced over to his chair, flopping in it with an angry exhalation.

Garage.

Pain’s breath got stuck in her throat.
Garage??
She tried to inhale as questions bubbled up in her mind: Chad?? But how? Why? Why on Earth would Eugene hold something against Chad?? She couldn’t see the louver and the room behind it anymore. She saw Chad, the moment they found him and Dave in that alley, his big eyes raking up and down her figure, frowned with alarm. Everything was always written on his face. Was he even able to keep secrets? Did he know something and just let them play their roles as they risked their lives for him? Was he someone else entirely, someone who just pretended to be an ordinary guy? Or did he really not know about Eugene at all?

“So what?”

Eugene’s voice brought her back, and she reminded herself she had to listen to their conversation. It was a pity she had missed the beginning, but still, she was lucky to be here at this precise moment. She could have found an empty room or just Eugene doing some boring paperwork. Instead, she got here just at the right time. It was so perfect, it almost seemed unreal, unless…

She shook her head. No, it couldn’t be a setup, and Eugene wouldn’t put up a show just for her.

“I think we should let him go for now,” the fighter responded, and Pain had to strain her ears to make out his low voice. “We’ll get him without any trouble after a couple of days. They won’t guard him forever.”

“I see… This is all you care about, isn’t it? ‘Without any trouble!’ This is all you want! You know what? I could track him down myself in a month or so. I don’t need you dumbasses for that! His father threatened me. The boy can be plotting something against me right now, for all I know! What would you do if he posed a threat to your life?”

“I’d kill him, boss.”

“Exactly.” Eugene blew out a weary breath, leaning back in his chair. His weak features were contorted in anger, and his beady dark eyes stared at the other man without blinking. “Alright, this is what you’re going to do. Contact our informer again, ask him about what’s new in the organization. Maybe this will give us some clues. We’ve got other things to do. What’s with that Washington fellow?”

Pain listened for some more time, but she couldn’t really grasp what they were talking about. Her thoughts were still swirling from what she had heard: Chad, not Dave. Nothing to do with Forrester’s money or business. An informer somewhere among them, a spy. Chad being a threat to Eugene, an ordinary civilian, or was he? There was no way he could bring any harm to Eugene himself, but what if he used someone else for that? As a manipulative tool, he turned out to be quite effective, especially, with Dave serving as a false front.