Page 79 of Peak’s Code

"Not even a little,” he admitted.

The ghost of a laugh escaped her as she opened the truck door. "I'm taking a look."

Peak grabbed her wrist before she climbed out. "What if it's being watched?" She looked down at his hand and then back at him.

"Everything's being watched,” Maeve said.

"I know,” he said.

"Then why are you stopping me?" she asked.

"Because running into another trap isn't on today's schedule,” Peak insisted.

Maeve softened. "I'm not running." She squeezed his fingers once before letting go. "I'm just looking around."

Peak sighed. "I'll go." She opened her mouth to argue, but he beat her to it. "I'm the one with body armor."

She rolled her eyes. "You never fight fair."

"Nope,” he breathed.

The tower sat only a hundred yards from the road. Peak approached carefully. His old instincts kicked in automatically. The marsh remained eerily quiet—no birds, no insects. Just the wind pushing through tall grass, and that bothered him because nature usually made noise. Unless someone else was nearby. He slowed immediately.

"Peak." Maeve's voice came softly through the Bluetooth earpiece Warden had insisted they wear.

"What?" he breathed.

"Look down." He did, and noticed fresh tire tracks. They weren’t from a truck but from an ATV, and from the looks of them, they were fresh tracks. "They're still damp," Maeve said. "They had to have come through after the rain."

Peak crouched and looked at them closely. There were two vehicles, and the tracks led right to the tower. He smiled grimly. "Good catch,” he said to Maeve.

The old tower's door hung half open. Rust streaked the hinges, and one glance would've convinced anyone it had been abandoned for years, but Peak wasn't anyone. He noticed the fresh scrape marks around the padlock. Somebody had removed it recently.

He drew his pistol. "Warden,” Peak called over the comms.

"Yeah?" Warden said.

"I'm going in."

"I'll cover from here,” Warden promised. Peak stepped inside and noticed that the air smelled of mildew, saltwater, and coffee—fresh coffee. His pulse quickened. Someone had been here recently—very recently.

The interior consisted of one circular room with a rusted ladder leading upward, but nothing else. At least, nothing obvious. Peak walked slowly around the perimeter as he listened for any signs of trouble.

He smiled when he saw what he was looking for. "There you are."

"What did you find?" Maeve asked. Peak knelt beside the wall where he had found a single electrical outlet that was completely out of place for a building with no power.

"No—” He whispered. The outlet plate sat half an inch farther from the wall than it should have. Peak pulled out his multitool. Thirty seconds later, the cover came free. Behind it was a fiber optic cable, and it was active.

Maeve inhaled sharply through the earpiece. "Oh, my God."

Peak nodded. "They're piggybacking off the state network." He followed the cable with his eyes. It disappeared into the concrete floor, not toward the tower.

Peak looked toward the ladder. "No."

Maeve seemed to immediately understand. "What else did you find?"

"This isn't the entrance." He smiled. "It's camouflage."