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Seventeen
“Dothe others know what we’re doing?” I asked once we were on the freeway heading downtown.
“No,” Gavin muttered from the backseat.
“What do they think we’re doing?” I looked to Luca, but he kept his eyes on the road.
“Just hanging out,” he answered after a moment.
“The three of us?” I turned to face Gavin. “They didn’t think that was strange?”
“Oh, no. They were pissed. But we just said that we had something planned, and they could do something with you tomorrow.”
I blew out a breath and faced forward. The damage was done, and I could worry about any hurt feelings later. Right now, we were on a mission. A real one. Without the support or knowledge of any of the parents.
This was going to work out just fine. I sighed again and dropped my head back, careful not to mess up my hair.
Gavin repeated the plan for the fourth time, but I already had it memorized. He would go in first, deal with security, and give us the signal. Then, we go in, find the external investigations department, hack in, download the files on Juliet, and get out. What could go wrong?
Even though this had been my idea—at least the breaking in part—I didn’t think it would ever actually happen. I was actually hoping we could just get Luca’s dad or someone to tell us the truth. Luca and Gavin both tried, but their parents told them the same thing Daniel told me. There wasn’t much information yet. They were waiting. It was inconclusive.
That wasn’t enough for me. I also didn’t believe them. The Society didn’t do anything partway. They knew everything about who Juliet was and what her plans were. They just didn’t want me to know, and I had to find the truth. Not just for me, but for Dad.
Luca took the turns through the streets of downtown with confidence until he pulled into an underground parking garage that had no signage indicating what it was. There was a single black sign about a foot wide that said, “Private.” Part of me expected something, more. A locked gate with a secret code or even an eye scanner to only let in approved employees. It was rather pedestrian for what I came to expect from the Society.
He parked near an elevator and turned to me. “Remember, we’re here to pick up a flash drive for the case we’re working on.”
I nodded. It wasn’t a complicated story we were going with. I just hoped we wouldn’t have to talk to anyone.
“You’re up,” he said to Gavin before opening the driver’s door and stepping out. He left it open so Gavin could climb over the center console and get out without using a back door. He thought that through, in case someone was watching security footage of the garage. He was already invisible, but he bumped and pushed against me as he crawled out. Luca was at the trunk, pretending to look for something.
I realized while watching them he could have easily pretended to look for something in the backseat or even hung up his tux jacket in the back so Gavin could have gotten out without squeezing through the tight space, but it was too late. It had been mildly entertaining to hear Gavin’s grunts and sighs on his way out.
Next time, I would bring it up.
Luca slumped back into the chair, acting overly frustrated as if he couldn’t believe he couldn’t find the flash drive. We had the whole skit planned. Next, he would pick up his phone, make some pretend calls, act like someone was supposed to be meeting us, and all the while, I was to act impatient and remind him of the time.
I thought we would talk it out or talk about nonsense, but he only mouthed words, which made me feel like I, too, had to play the best game of charades as well.
Finally, my phone lit up with a text from Gavin. We were good to go.
“Come on.” I dropped my phone into my black satin clutch and opened my door. I met him at the back of the car, and we walked to the elevators like we’d rather be anywhere else.
We didn’t speak, in case there were microphones, as we rode to the seventh floor. I huffed a few times and eyed Luca like I was annoyed, and he ignored me. Overall, our performance was convincing. At least to me. If the video was still recording, anyone that watched would see us on the verge of a fight, impatience, and clearly meant to be somewhere else.
The doors opened, and we stepped out each looking in opposite directions, checking for anyone Gavin might have missed. We were alone. Luca walked confidently up to the third desk on the right, a completely random selection, and sat down before trying to log in.
I leaned against the edge and watched with as much disinterest as I could muster while trying to also follow Luca’s progress. He only had to try twice before getting into the system, something I’d have to ask him about later. Since when was computer hacking on his list of skills?
He pulled up with Society’s network where all information was saved but found only the external investigation’s folders. So, Gavin had been right. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t use one of their parent’s computers to get the files, but he explained that each department was limited to their own information. The only people that had access to everything were the higher-ups like Luca’s dad, and there would be red flags everywhere if we tried to get into his computer.
“We’re already late,” I grumbled to give myself a reason to look at Luca and see what he was doing. He’d searched for Juliet and was working his way through files. Gavin pointed out we shouldn’t just take hers because that would make it too obvious so Luca was copying over most of the women with names starting with J found in Illinois, so it would look like we were trying to get general information. Maybe we forgot our target’s full name.
“I’ve got it,” Luca shot back like he couldn’t wait to get out of here either.
Once he ejected the flash drive, we stood and walked back to the elevators at a casual pace. Nothing to see here. Just two people doing their jobs. I couldn’t believe it had gone so smoothly. Not one bump? It felt too good to be true.
We stepped on and Luca pressed the button for the garage. As we headed down, I let out a small sigh.
