He nods.
“Piper?” she says sharply.
Another nod. “We were in the pool,” he says. “Well, Piper was. When they came. She—Augusta Pine”—he gestures at me—“helped get us to safety. This apartment isn’t locked down like the others.”
Aunt Connie’s attention switches to me. “Thank you. For helping them.”
I nod. It sounds as though those words cost her something. Perhaps she’s angry that she wasn’t there to protect her family. Or maybe she’s not used to owing anything to a wiry teenager with half-pink hair and a can of pepper spray.
“We should get inside,” I say. “Just in case.”
Eames takes a step back and I wait for Aunt Connie to go inside before I follow. Nonna is in the hallway of her apartment, rolling pin in hand. Once she sees me, her shoulders relax.
“Aunt Connie?” says Piper, coming out from behind the love seat.
Aunt Connie smiles. She hugs her niece, then sits down on the love seat and sets her pistol on the steamer trunk.
Unspent adrenaline simmers in my veins, urging me to action. I want to get up, to leave this quiet apartment and track down the other members of Radio-cremation. But I need every scrap of information I can find.
“How did you get out of your apartment?” I ask. “Did you see anyone out there?”
Aunt Connie’s attention flashes to me. “I was taking out the garbage when everything locked down. Had the front door propped open so I wouldn’t have to take my key. I went looking for the kids.”
“With a gun?” I ask.
Aunt Connie nods. “I keep one in a safe for personal protection. I went back for it after that announcement. Then I started going up and down the floors.”
She’s lucky she didn’t run into any of Vale’s crew. Or even Vale herself.
“Okay,” I say. “Listen, I don’t have time to explain everything right now, but the criminals are looking for something owned by the government. I’m an intern with a federal agency, and my boss told me to find it first.”
“Oh,” says Aunt Connie. She manages to gather herexpression into something neutral. “Aren’t you a little… young?”
I rub my forehead. “I get that a lot.”
“Why are you hiding in this apartment?” she asks.
I answer, “Because the stubborn old lady refused to upgrade.”
“I prefer ‘determined’ to ‘stubborn,’” says Nonna, with a serene sip of iced tea.
I bite back a grin. “We can’t be locked in remotely, there’s no virtual assistant to spy on us, and the fire system won’t suffocate us. It’s an improvement over all the other places to hide, trust me.”
Aunt Connie stares at me rather distrustfully. I can’t fault her instincts.
“You know how to use that?” I ask, with a nod at her gun.
Her lips purse. “I took a class.”
Great. A single class. She’s just as likely to shoot one of us as one of the bad guys.
“Listen,” I say. “The criminals have to go through the apartments one by one. We’ve got a little time.”
“And what happens,” asks Nonna quietly, “when they reach this apartment?”
The truth is, I could let Vale’s people search this place. They’re not going to find a government work product in my grandmother’s apartment. “Whatever they’re looking for isn’t here. You should let them in and don’t put up a fight.”
Eames’s gaze flashes to mine in alarm. I can clearly seemy own fears reflected in his eyes—he has no desire to let such dangerous people near his family.
