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“If you want.”
He nodded and led the way up the stairs to the front door.
The main door to the building had a simple lock, similar to the one on the front door of their house. It was a standard Fartech mechanism that she knew she could easily circumvent. She would just have to find the right tools.
They climbed up a flight of stairs. His office was one of many doors in a long hallway. She counted the number of doors from the staircase to his office.Four.
His office was standard. For a member of the Mudden ruling family, the Baeddan government wasn’t giving him any special treatment. It was a medium-sized room with a desk, some chairs, a couch, which had probably served as a bed when he’d lived there, and some shelves and cabinets against the walls.
The documents she was looking for could be anywhere. She’d hoped they would be visible enough that she could find them on this trip, but she’d probably have to come back later.
“How long did you live here?” she asked, nonchalantly walking around the room.
He looked at the couch.
“Four months.”
“That’s a long time to be in such a small office with nothing to do.”
“I wasn’t pleased,” he said, looking at her. “But my patience was rewarded.”
The intensity in his eyes set butterflies in her stomach.
She looked away, continuing to scan the room. Her eyes roamed over a statue, and she nearly choked. It was about waist high and made entirely of solid flintoid. It took all her self-control not to squeal with excitement. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him where he’d gotten it, but she doubted the real Meghan would have any idea what flintoid looked like, solid or liquid. Nor was she entirely sure thatheknew what he possessed. Surely if he did know the value of his statue, he wouldn’t keep it here in an unsecured office.
She closed her drooling mouth and told him she was ready to go. She wasdefinitelygoing to have to come back.
* * *
Two days later, it was market day again. She noticed during one of her deliveries. No one had offered to give her any money despite the fact that she’d been working almost a full week. But she always kept the coins she’d gotten from selling her dress in a hidden pocket inside her bra that she’d sown in years ago for a heist.
She found a stall that sold some sort of wrap with meat and veggies inside that smelled amazing and asked if one of her coins would be enough to purchase one. The vendor looked at her strangely.
“You’re three coins short,” he said.
In that case, the woman who’d sold her the dress had really ripped her off.
“But I’ll give you a special price as a first time customer,” he said, eyeing her fancy dress. Maybe being Altair’s wife did come with some privileges after all.
She thanked him and handed him the coin. She went to sit on a short wall that surrounded the square to eat her newfound treasure.
The chewing helped her brain think. She planned out the break-in of Altair’s office, going through every possible danger and coming up with ways to deal with them. She called this game “stump yourself” because the whole point was to make it difficult for herself so that when the unplanned thing happened, she would know how to react on her feet.
She was going over the probability of successfully stealing the flintoid statue and bringing it back with her to civilization when she saw a familiar face walk by in front of her.
“Mak,” she called, unsure if she was supposed to acknowledge him in public or not, but considering she took care of his mother it wasn’t inconceivable that she’d know him.
He turned to face her. The side of his face was swollen. His eye was turning a dark shade of purple, and his lip had a still bleeding cut on it. It didn’t stop him from smiling at her a little too brightly.
“Meghan,” he said. “Are you done with your deliveries?”
“No. But I’m taking a lunch break. And I won’t let anyone stop me.”
He laughed. Then stopped to touch his lip in pain.
“I wouldn’t dare to stop you,” he said. “Lunch sounds perfectly reasonable.”
“What happened?” she asked.
