Carrie Vaughn - Dreams of the Golden Age

Anna looked for another door: a closet, access to another room, anything. But no, the place just had the two rooms, and the rooms weren’t enough.

“There aren’t any filing cabinets,” she murmured. As far as she could tell, except for the law books, there wasn’t a scrap of paper in the whole place.

“They must have everything on computer, and we’ll never get through the encryption,” Eliot said.

“No,” Anna said. “I don’t care how high tech a company is, there’s always a paper trail. People sign things, people turn in receipts, they make copies, they get forms and notices from the city.”

“You the business expert or something?”

She didn’t say anything, because she would have to talk about West Corp and what it was like growing up in the middle of the city’s largest privately held business. “It’s just common sense.”

“I suppose I can try hacking into their computer, just in case there’s something there.”

“No, you can’t,” she said and held up the monitor cable—which wasn’t plugged into anything. There was no CPU, just the monitor and keyboard for show. “This is a fake law firm.”

“That looks like a real diploma to me,” Eliot said, pointing at the wall.

“The guy’s probably a real lawyer, but the firm isn’t really doing any business.”

“So we’re dealing with a fake company fronted by a fake law firm? Now what?”

“Makes me want to hide out and see what really goes on here.” She pulled out her cell phone and started taking pictures. Not that it would do any good, but it might mean … something. She could send the pictures to her mother—anonymously, of course—and see if it meant anything to her.

In the meantime, Eliot opened and closed desk drawers. Pens and other office detritus slid on particle board, but for the most part the drawers seemed empty. Then he came to the locked drawer.

“What’s in there?”

“Let’s find out,” he said and got out the lockpicks. This one took even less time than the front door. Anna moved to look over Eliot’s shoulder.

The drawer was deep, but all that lay in the bottom was a file folder. Slim, not much in it. Eliot took it out and set it on the desk’s surface, and Anna flipped it open and scanned the scant handful of pages within.

“Anything good?” Eliot asked after a moment.

She couldn’t tell right away. The business jargon made her eyes blur at first, until she made the effort to focus. She had to look them over a couple of times.

“They’re invoices. But they’re going the wrong way. They ought to be charging Superior Construction, not paying them.” But she wasn’t reading these wrong—Superior Construction hadn’t paid the law firm to file their paperwork and front the company. The law firm was paying Superior Construction, apparently for the mere effort of existing—but why?

The last couple of pages in the file were direct deposit receipts, the payments going in, made by a company called Delta Exploratory Investments. Those were pretty big numbers in those deposits—six figures. Not just-doing-business big. Payoff? Bribery?

She showed the page to Eliot. “You ever hear of them? Could this have something to do with the Executive?”

He hesitated and pursed his lips before shaking his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

This was important. She didn’t know how, but her only task this trip was finding the next piece, not solving the whole puzzle. After glancing around the minimalist office again, she growled. “There’s no copy machine—what office doesn’t have a copy machine?” Finally, she took pictures of the documents and hoped the images came out good enough to be useful.

“You get what you needed?”

“I think so.” She tucked her phone away. “Let’s go. Make sure everything’s locked.”

They locked all the doors, turned out the lights, scanned the rooms one more time to make sure everything was in place—not hard, considering how little was there. The offices were just real enough to make a casual visitor believe it was a real business. No more effort than that had been put into the place.

Now that they were on the way out, Anna’s sense of urgency grew. They’d stayed too long already, someone would find them out. Eliot kept his cool, though, casually striding up the stairs and across the empty floor until they arrived back on the patio. The night sky opened up, and the edge of the patio loomed.

The thought of Eliot jumping off the building and diving straight down to the street below made Anna’s knees lock up. Eliot had already climbed halfway up the patio railing.

“You coming?”

She didn’t have a choice, but she couldn’t get her legs to move. “I’m not sure I can do this.” Closing her eyes, she crept forward, her steps slow, until she reached the railing—and made the mistake of looking through the bars and down the side of the skyscraper. Gasping, she took a step back.

Eliot said, “You can’t be a superhero if you’re afraid of heights.”

“I’m not a superhero, I’m just a freak with a parlor trick,” she replied.

He laughed. “We all are. It’s how you use the trick that matters. Trust me, it’ll be okay.”

He even looked like a superhero, standing above her, legs straddling the railing, with the haze-lit city skyline as a backdrop, his smile blazing under his mask and helmet. I wonder if I should ask him to prom … Maybe if she asked him to kiss her. For luck, right?

With that distracting thought, she took a deep breath and grasped the hand he reached out to her. Instead of looking down again, she stayed focused on the plastic shell of his mask. His grip around her middle was tight, and she tried not to cling to him too hard.

“Hold on,” he said and then dropped. Just stepped off the ledge. Anna squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her jaw to keep from screaming.

He bounced once, and in spite of herself she looked—he’d pushed off from the side of the building, changing direction and slowing down. They swooped toward the building across the street, and Eliot shoved off from that one as well, aiming them downward, until he landed with a controlled jolt. At the last moment, he lifted her up in both arms, holding her completely off the ground. She was pretty sure she would have smashed into the pavement otherwise. He straightened from his shock-absorbing crouch and set her on her feet.

“See? I told you it’d be okay.”

“That was … that was really cool. Thanks.” Her smile at him felt ridiculous, silly, but she couldn’t help it. She really wished her heart would stop flipping over like that.

And then she stood on her toes and kissed him, just briefly, on the cheek. For luck, after the fact. It might have been the most impulsive thing she’d ever done in her life, and she instantly regretted it. In a novel or movie, he’d kiss her back, of course. Get a steamy look in his eyes and sweep her off her feet with those strong arms. Instead, he looked back at her with a kind of bafflement. Her cheeks burned.

“I’m sorry … I just … I’m happy to be alive, I guess…”

His grin was crooked. “You’re pretty cute, Rose,” he said, in the same way he’d describe a kitten dressed up in doll clothes.

The end of the night was a letdown. Marching off in a huff would have made her feel even more childish than she already did, but her feet dragged on the way back to his car, and once they were driving, she didn’t want to take her mask off. First time for that. But the mask hid the blushing. Eventually she did, and he was already back in his mundane clothes, and they were just two normal people out for a drive again. The world somehow seemed plainer.

“Can I drive you home?”

“Back to campus is fine, I still have time to catch the last bus.” She almost apologized again for kissing him, but if he wasn’t going to say anything, neither was she.