After that, I needed the work that would let me be there when Maya got home. Night shifts, maintenance, invisible work, he paused. You get used to invisible. Victoria was quiet for two steps. I made myself invisible once, she said.
Early in my career. I thought if I stayed quiet, did the work, didn't take up too much space, they'd see what I contributed. Another pause. They saw nothing, so I stopped being invisible. Her voice carried something old and compressed in it.
I became the loudest thing in every room, and I won. And I have been alone in every room I've won in since since. The secondary stairwell door was in front of them. Darius stopped, put his hand on the lever, and then they both heard it from somewhere inside the mechanical corridor. From somewhere above them in the stairwell, they were about to enter.
A sound that should not have been there. A phone, a cell phone ringing, which meant someone up there had signal, which meant the communications blackout was not a buildingwide failure. It was targeted. Whoever had sabotaged the systems had killed signal in specific areas the elevator shaft the lower floors the security dispatch office but had left a window somewhere above them. A window that the person hunting them through this building was moving toward Darius felt the cold understanding of it settle through him like concrete.
"He's not working alone," he said. Victoria turned to look at him in the dim corridor. "What? " the phone. Someone above us has signal. He's reporting in.
There are two of them at minimum one tracking us through the building. One managing from somewhere with communications. He thought through it fast. They didn't just kill the power and communications randomly. They killed them in the spots that would have let us call out or get located, but they needed a communication line for themselves.
Her expression shifted. He watched the realization move through her. Watched her run the same calculation he just ran and arrive at the same place. Maybe one second behind then catch up and go further. Ethan doesn't work alone either, she said slowly.
He never has. He delegates everything, even the things he shouldn't. She stopped. Marcus Webb, junior operations director. Ethan brought him in 14 months ago.
I approved the hire. Ethan managed the onboarding. He has building access. He knows the systems. Her voice went flat in the way a voice goes flat when someone is angry enough that the anger burns cold instead of hot.