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When Nadine’s voice came through the speaker, she was careful to keep her head angled, her face shielded by shadows.
There were no more nerves, but only the first waves of excitement.
“Nadine Furst?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ve got a packet from a Cabott, Channel Seventy-five.”
“Let’s see your ID.”
She’d prepared for this—it irritated to be asked, but she’d prepared. She pulled out the ID she’d made. It would pass a low-level scan; she’d tested it herself.
And when it did, she felt another tickle of excitement.
“Come on up.”
When Nadine buzzed her in, her heart began to beat hard, hard at the base of her throat. So hard, she couldn’t swallow, but she crossed the tiny lobby, called the elevator.
As she did, a couple of teenagers came barreling in the main doors, squealing with laughter.
“His face! His face! Total caution!”
“I know, right? Ultramazing. We abso have to tag Flo-lo, give her the deal and the deets.”
They clambered on the elevator with her in their thick-soled boots and hats with bouncing puffy balls, smelling of sugar and strawberry shampoo.
“I’m just twee!”
“You are? I’m twee-squared. Flo-lo’s going to completely pop. Screwed she’s under house arrest. We need her to trio like now.”
“Her mom’s down, so no chance.”
She could kill them, she thought. The squealing girls with their strawberry hair and shining faces.
Stun them both, cut their throats, leave their bodies smelling of blood and strawberries.
It’s what happened to girls who weren’t careful. Girls who weren’t respectful.
Didn’t they see her standing here?
Her ears rang with pressure, her chest ached with it. Fingering the stunner, just brushing her fingertips over it, eased the pressure. As the elevator climbed, and the girls’ voices squealed and shrieked in her head, she started to draw the stunner out.
The elevator doors opened; the girls clumped out, laughing like hyenas.
Not the plan, she reminded herself, annoyed her fingers trembled. Focus was essential. Nadine.
But girls that age made her so angry, so full of grief and despair and rage.
Had to put them, all of them, out of her mind. Work to be done.
And when it was done, the happiness would come again.
To settle, she brought Eve’s face into her mind, and understood, like a light blooming, she was doing exactly the right thing. For Eve, for herself. For their friendship.
Some part of her had always planned to do this—just not on a fully conscious level. Otherwise she wouldn’t have taken all that time, put in all that effort to learn about all these distractions, these obstacles.
Removing them was key to their partnership, their happiness. Their unity.
