CHAPTER 29

In the spirit of the compromise I'd promised I texted Anthony. I hadn't really had a chance to go over the whole 'invade a military building' plan with him. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to like it. When he didn't answer me, I even made an attempt to search the manse for him, only to be told that he was 'out on business'. The inequitable expectations weren't lost on me.

I reminded myself that Anthony was under a lot of pressure and would probably come around. Keeping that in mind I decided to take back up both to ease the blow when he discovered what I done, and because I thought it was probably wise. Micheal and Chase were still in the security office, making a report to tanner. I waited until they were finished, stealthily avoiding Tanner, and snagged them to come along. To their credit they didn't argue with me long, especially when I informed them that the alternative was that I would go alone. Chase did text Anthony himself, but wherever he'd gone he must have turned his phone off.

It bothered me a little, actually, and I had to keep pushing my hurt feelings and niggle of worry away, hoping if I give it some space and time in my mind I would be able to think of it all a little clearer.

The second person I'd texted that evening was Aiden, giving him the place and time. I just hoped he was reliable enough to show.

We pulled into the parkade with fifteen minutes to spare. Darius was already waiting, leaning against a silver Lexus, he wore a set of jeans that fit like a glove and a button down shirt over a black tank. He looked like a business man just coming off of work, which suited the professional feeling of the area.

"You again?" Micheal growled when we stepped from the vehicle. Darius only nodded, tipping his head toward me.

"How's the hip?"

"Still a little stiff, but better than it was," I told him, joining him at the edge of the parkade floor. We were on the third level and from here there was a pretty clear view of Defence Medical down the street. A four
story white stone building with tinted windows and state of the art security system.

I'd done a bit of research in my down time, and it made me nervous. My stomach did a little flip. My wolf stretched out her senses.

"Where's your tech guy?" Darius asked.

"He said he'd be here."

We stood in silence and I focused on what my wolf was doing. That expanded range of our senses wasn't the only improvement from the power surge, even closer range we could tell a lot more, and more accurately too.

For example, we knew that there were fifteen guards in various parts of the building, they were all human. Plus three more in a room to the back which was probably their security office. We could also tell that at least six of them were coming down with some form of illness and a seventh was in the first stages of pregnancy.

I was impressed by the new clarity, but, unfortunately my biggest concern wasn't the guards, it was the electronic security system. That, we couldn't sense, and it would be the biggest challenge to avoid detection while searching for the records room.

God I hated waiting.

Aiden showed up exactly three minutes after midnight, stepping from a gunmetal gray, unmarked car. No maker's tag or identification was anywhere on it that I could see. It had sleek lines that were powerful and yet subtle enough for day to day driving. I suspected it was extremely expensive.

"*This* is your tech guy?" Darius demanded. "*The CEO of Hoventech*?"

Aiden smiled, flashing white teeth. Which would have been nice if a smile in the werewolf world was usually a threat.

"Call me Aiden," he held a hand out to Darius. A distinctly human greeting. Darious looked at his hand suspiciously. "I spend a lot of time among humans," Aiden shrugged, dropping his hand. "It's best to fit in as much as possible."

"How did you get a hold of a Scuti?"

Darius sounded suitable awed so I tilted my head at him.

"It's the newest in the Ferrari line, not even supposed to be in production yet."

"It's not," Aiden assured him, "I did a favor for someone very high up in the company."

The men stood for a long moment, admiring the vehicle. I didn't bother to tell them that it was just a car since I thought it might get me thrown off the top of the parkade.

A moment later a non-descript dark blue van pulled into the parkade. Micheal tensed, but Aiden waved a hand at them and they pulled up next to the Ferrari. A wolf got out of the driver's seat. I recognized her from the Assemblage, but couldn't quite remember her name.

"This is my security chief, and the most proficient hacker on my team. Caroline," Aiden said, clearing up that problem for me. "She'll be monitoring the situation while we go in."

That startled me.

"Wait, I thought I was going in alone, that you would just tell me what to do," I tapped the head piece that we wore standard on our missions.

Caroline scoffed, and Aiden shook his head.

"Defence Medical's internal servers are locked in faraday rooms with both biometric authentication and physical locks. Assuming you can get me in, as you promised, I will then need to hardwire into them and trick them into believing we have an approved MAC address and that we are on site. If we don't we will trigger the automated kill switch that will delete everything we're looking for. Oh, and you'll want to get rid of that crap," he pointed to my headset.

I would have been offended, but the string of words he just rabbled off still had me confused. That, and he offered me a tiny wire about the length of my forearm with a little round dot on each end.

"What's this?"

"The newest in Hoventech communication. Extremely sensitive and transmits over long ranges, even with electrical field interference. It also cannot be detected and has virtually no decibel restrictions," Caroline said.

I blinked.

"You'll be able to communicate with us, securely, no matter the defences they have in place and you won't have to speak up to be heard."

Huh. He handed another one to Darius.

"Uh...listen guys, this is all really cool and stuff, but when I said I could get in past the guards I kinda meant *only* me. I can't shield either of you from being heard or scented. And I still have no defences against their cameras, or mechanical sensors." In fact this whole thing seemed suddenly so very impossible.

Aiden studied me and tilted his head. "But you can shield yourself from scent and sound?" he asked, very carefully.

Micheal and Chase watched me too. They were not included in the higher pack members that were aware of my abilities. Chase looked pissed.

"That's why we can never find you."

I nodded. "And my senses are enhanced as well. I can tell exactly how many guards there area and where they are in that building."

"From how far?" he wanted to know.

"From here."

Aiden and Caroline shared a significant look.

"Was that how you planned to get in? Because they aren't just going to open the door if you go knocking," Caroline wanted to know.

"No, *this*, is how we are getting in," Darius pulled a flat black disk out of his pocket. It was lined with thin blue markings that looked somewhat like a circuit board.

"How did you get that?" Aiden demanded, reaching for it. Darius closed his fist around the disk and slipped from his reach. Aiden's handsome face fell into a frown.

"You aren't the only one with friends," he said. "This is a disrupter, it's military and it's secret. It interferes with electronic and magnetic security enough to bypass it. The only problem is you've got to be physically close enough to attach it to the door you want into. The system will read it as a recording error and not mark it as suspicious, so the only thing we have to worry about it keeping our trail random enough so anyone watching close enough doesn't catch on."

Ok. That made sense. But there was still one problem.

"Does it work on cameras?" I wanted to know.

"No," Aiden answered for him. "But we have a solution for that." He looked at me, his eyes calculating, "And when this is over I have a very interesting offer for you."