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I sat down across the table from Liam, directly in his line of vision. “Are you sure you don’t want to babysit me down here?” I asked him in a saccharine voice. “I might escape again if left to my own devices. I mean, you make it so easy. I didn’t know Ansel was working with such an amateur.”
“She can stay,” Ansel said firmly, giving Liam a severe look, who looked ready to jump across the table and throttle my neck. “She’s the reason we got the information in the first place.” Ansel slid his hand under the table to rest on my knee, squeezing it once. “She’s part of the family now, just as much as any of us.”
I was about to stick my tongue out at Liam, but Ansel’s words caught me off guard. I angled my head towards him, taking in his serious expression. The back of my neck heated, and I turned back to my cereal, utterly speechless.
Liam scoffed at the comment but didn’t argue. “So, what’s the plan, then? Because if you’re thinking it’ll be as easy as just walking up to the front door and letting ourselves in,” Liam typed something into the laptop opened in front of him, before he turned the screen around for Ansel to see, “then think again.”
I peered over Ansel’s shoulder at the image of a mansion. I think it was a mansion, because most of the building was covered by thick concrete walls with searchlights and barbed wires sitting at the top.
“So this is where Gregor has been hiding this entire time?” Ansel asked Liam. The elf nodded.
“His security may be at an all-time low but look at this place. You’d have an easier time breaking into a federal prison,” Liam added.
Ansel was quiet as he stared at the screen. “We could climb the walls. You know how to climb a wall, right?” he asked.
Liam pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing to himself. “It’s not as simple as just climbing a wall,” he said, reaching his hand over the laptop to point out the security cameras sitting at the top of the wall. “You see those? They’re security cameras, Ansel. I’m sure the whole place is covered with them. As soon as we set foot on the property, they’re going to know we’re there.”
“Can’t we just spray paint over the cameras? That’s what I used to do when I was younger,” Demie offered from his spot next to Liam.
Liam shook his head. “This isn’t some convenience store you’re stealing money from. If only it were that easy. To even get close to the cameras, you would have to climb the wall, which would defeat the purpose of being stealthy in the first place.”
I grabbed the edge of the laptop, pulling it closer to my side until the screen was directly positioned in front of me. “Liam, do you know what kind of camera it is?”
“How am I supposed to know what kind of camera it is?”
I ignored his snarky comment, right-clicking on the GPS image and image searching the cameras. It worked, pulling up the brand of camera in the search engine. I clicked on the first advertisement that came up on the search, scrolling through the details. “It’s an infrared, motion-activated camera.” I let out a low whistle when I saw the price. “I don’t know much about cameras, but it looks like Gregor didn’t skimp on quality or price. These ones sound really nice. Luckily, like most cameras, they’re connected to Wi-Fi so, in theory, you could hack into them and superimpose an image from earlier on the screen. I mean, it’s not a perfect plan. Whoever was watching the security footage would eventually notice their screens are frozen, but it may buy you enough time to sneak in undetected.” I looked up to find everyone staring quietly at me. My cheeks burned as I pushed the laptop back towards Ansel. “In theory, of course. I don’t know if it would actually work.”
Liam raised an eyebrow at me. “And where do you recommend we find someone who can hack into something like that? Should I put an ad out in the newspaper?”
“Skye works in IT,” Demie said, still staring at me. I didn’t like the hopeful look in Demie’s eyes. This was just a theory I was pulling from thin air, not something I’ve ever actually tried. I fixed computers for a living. I didn’t know how to hack into expensive security systems.
“Skye,” Ansel said in a low voice, leaning towards me. “Is this something you could do?”
I stared at the laptop screen, unable to meet his gaze—not while he was staring at me with those open gray eyes, his expression so earnest. I really, really didn’t want to let him down.
“In theory,” I said again, my voice tight. “They say to be good at my job you have to be a good hacker. I’ve dabbled a little in hacking in college, but that was a long time ago. Not enough to be totally confident. I have a friend who is on the dark web regularly and may be able to give me some advice, but that doesn’t guarantee it will work. There are still a lot of factors to consider.”
“If you were to try this, what would you need from us?” Ansel asked.
I chewed my lower lip. “A laptop and the same kind of cameras. The only way to know if this would really work is to set up the cameras and hack into them as if they were the real thing.” Finally, I braved a glance up at Ansel. His lips were pressed in a line, but I could tell the wheels were turning in his head. Holy shit… he was actually considering this? I said I wanted to help them, but not like this. Lives were on the line; Ansel’s life was on the line here. This was too much pressure; I shouldn’t have opened my stupid mouth in the first place.
Ansel’s chair squeaked loudly against the concrete floor as he stood from the table.
“Where are you going?” Liam asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Shopping,” he replied. He turned his attention to me, jerking his chin towards the stairs. “Go get dressed. We can use Liam’s laptop, but we need to go find some cameras for you to use.”
My stomach lurched as I blinked up at Ansel. “Don’t you want to discuss other plans with Liam? I can look into this, but we need a back-up plan just in case.”
Ansel hooked his hand under my elbow, forcing me to my feet. “There are no other plans, Skye. This is our only one. Now hurry, we only have forty-seven,” he paused, looking down at his watch, “forty-six hours until the next shipment drops.”
In and out. In and out.
I tried focusing on slowing my rapid breathing as Ansel sat next to me in the car, speeding down the highway towards downtown. After a quick search on his phone, he had found an electronics store that did sell the correct brand of security camera, to my dismay. My chest felt tight, and my face was flushed, despite turning the AC all the way up, and I could feel an impending panic attack. I closed my eyes, moving to my next tried-and-true coping mechanism—list-making—since the breathing was only making my heart beat faster.
Buy security system
Call Marcie for advice
