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Cass whorled around to find Grayson standing at the entrance to the outside, a boy standing tall next to him, his slender arms plastered across his chest. He held open the exterior door to the building.
“A friend of yours?” she asked, eyeing the kid.
“I asked first.” Grayson crossed his arms across his muscled chest.
“There’s a forest about forty feet under the mall. I found the controls to the elevator in the floor. I must have pressed them on accident.” Cass flipped up the carpet and pointed to the row of buttons.
“A forest? As in a bunch of trees?” Grayson raised his eyebrows.
Cass knew it sounded ridiculous, but now wasn’t the time to argue. There was a zoo of mutated birds beneath their feet. She nodded. “And a bird talked to me. In English.”
Grayson reached out to touch the back of his hand to her forehead. “You’re not running a fever.”
She batted his hand away. “I’m serious. And not delusional.”
“I believe you,” the boy said softly. “This place has a lot of secrets.”
. “I’m Agent Sparks. Who are you, and how do you know so much about this place?”
The boy put his fists on his hips. “I’m Phineas, and I think whoever is hiding out here took my sister and my dad. I’ve been trying to find them.”
His little face scrunched up with determination. Cass knew there was no convincing the boy to stay behind while she and Gray went back in. She glanced up to Grayson, who shrugged his shoulders. He’d probably already tried to talk the kid out of tagging along.
“Did you call for backup?” she asked Grayson.
He crossed his arms. “Of course. They are a few minutes out. We should wait.”
Cass swallowed a shiver that threatened to trickle down her spine. “You didn’t see what I saw. There’s no telling what this Sandy would do if she knew FUC and ASS were on their way. We need to start the rescue before anything vile happens.”
Phineas nodded. His eyes widened. “What did the bird say? The one who talked?” he asked.
“Run.”
“Run?” Grayson repeated, exchanging a worried look with her.
“I didn’t see any observation room or cells or cages for the victims,” Cass continued. “Just the underground forest at the end of the hall,”
“Maybe there’s another way down,” Phineas hypothesized. “I found feathers at the other mall entrance but couldn’t figure out where they went to. There wasn’t a trail for me to sniff out.”
“Which makes sense if there’s another elevator at that entrance,” Grayson proposed. Then he turned to look at the boy. “Can you take us there?”
Phineas nodded with a sly smile.
* * *
Grayson decided to take his backpack with him in human form in case one of them needed to shift. Especially if it was Cass. He knew she’d rather risk her life than leave her favorite heels behind. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but she’d be really sad if something happened to them, and Grayson did not want to see an upset Cass. If he could be the hero by carrying them for her, he would.
Cass fiddled with the buttons until she found the one that operated the barrier. In a flash, it rolled up as quickly as it had slammed down on her earlier. They walked in human form through the vestibule back into the dark mall. Cass had left the rug overturned so that no one accidentally hit one of the controls in the floor. Phineas led them through the building. Dust swirled on the old tiles, clumping in places around old benches and giant pots filled with dead ferns.
“We’re almost there.” He turned the corner toward another corridor jutting off the main atrium. It was just past where Grayson first ran into the boy. The entrance shined dimly at the end of the hall as sunlight filtered through the dirty glass.
Grayson held the inner set of glass doors open for the rest of the gang to pass through. They all piled into the vestibule. Cass crouched down to roll up the carpet.
“See,” Phineas said pointing to a couple of loose white feathers in the corner.
“We didn’t doubt you for a second.” Grayson watched Cass search for the controls.
“I don’t understand,” Cass said, rubbing her hand across the smooth tiles under the carpet.
