The Countdown (The Taking #3)(77)

Not exactly child’s play.

On the other hand, Jett had managed to disarm the access keypad in under sixty seconds using just Griffin’s pen and a paper clip he’d found tucked in the back of a drawer, forever earning a place in my dad’s heart. My dad called him a modern day MacGyver and then clapped him on the shoulder with pride.

I had to bite my tongue. With my new ability I could have disabled the alarm in my sleep, but I let Jett take the win.

Since we’d tried the “team” thing once, back when we’d broken into the Daylight Division in Tacoma—a strategy that had ended with Willow being taken hostage, I decided we should try a more elementary school approach, not exactly the playground buddy system, but something along those lines.

I assigned everyone a partner to keep tabs on. The idea was to watch each other’s back. Heck, if it was good enough for kindergarteners it was good enough for saving the world.

My dad got Jett as his “buddy” since the two spoke the same language: computerese, and Simon and Willow were paired up because their partnership went way back. The four of them were in charge of getting Jett to a computer where he could hack into the ISA’s security and figure out where the ships were being stored.

Griffin and Thom would go scouting for the ships on foot, floor by floor. It would be time-consuming and risky, but we needed to cover our bases in case the computer search didn’t pan out.

That left Tyler and me with Agent Truman, which went against the laws of the buddy system since it forced us into a three-pronged partnership. I didn’t care, though. Ours was the most delicate job.

Tyler and I were going after Adam. And, for once, Agent Truman’s lack of moral scruples might come in handy.

“Once we leave here”—I looked around at all the buddies, hoping beyond hope I hadn’t underestimated my friends—“we won’t have any way to get in touch with each other. The goal here is to locate the fleet, but we should have a meeting place.” I was stumped. I’d been so focused on who to pair up that I hadn’t considered all the logistics of our operation.

“In the bio lab,” Tyler offered, taking charge when I faltered. “You guys know where it is. Big place on the main level with all the freaky plants.”

Thom flashed me a knowing grin. “Kyra loves the place.”

“Good,” I said, before I had to explain what Thom meant. “Meet in the bio lab when your task is completed.”

“What if we get caught?” Jett asked.

Simon looked around. “Then we proceed without you.”

I couldn’t think like that. “Everyone got it?” I asked.

Every one of them nodded, and I took a deep breath, telling myself this wasn’t the last time I’d see them.

Now all that was left was to save the world.

Getting out of there wasn’t the hard part.

Maybe they should’ve stationed a security guy with a harder head outside our door. Or maybe he should’ve tried harder not to look at Griffin’s cleavage when she pretended to twist her ankle.

Either way, he dropped like a rock when Willow whacked him on the skull from behind.

He only had himself to blame, but it made me think we should’ve paired up in Girls versus Boys, just to see which team landed on top.

After watching Willow and Griffin in action, my money would be on the girls.

From there, we parted ways.

Our group—me, Agent Truman, and Tyler—were taking the main level, not just because that’s where Adam was, but also because it was the most dangerous place.

As the only one who could manipulate matter and electricity with her mind, it made sense I take on the most risk. That was according to Agent Truman.

Under normal circumstances, I’d say he was just trying to get me out of the way. But considering he was partnered with me, I could only assume he was some sort of adrenaline junkie who got off on this sort of thing.

I wasn’t sure how it was going for the other teams, but with Tyler around, we got around surprisingly easily.

Tyler’s ability didn’t just work to sense me, it seemed. He apparently knew when and where others were located too. He heard voices and footsteps long before Agent Truman and I did, and he would drag us to a stop. And when he didn’t hear those things, he listened for heartbeats . . . for breathing.

He knew where people were.

He sensed everyone. Everything.

It was uncanny. And he was never wrong.

The hardest part of our operation was steering clear of the cameras. Agent Truman suggested shutting them down with my “electrical skills,” but I worried the outages would draw unwanted attention.

Eventually, they’d realize we’d gotten out anyway, no point raising the alarm too early.

So instead, we backtracked and searched for alternate routes—back stairwells and fire evacuation routes—to get us where we needed to be.

When we finally reached the main level, nearly an hour had passed. So much for meeting back up with everyone else at the bio lab. My palms were sweaty with the awareness that the clock was running out.

Only three more hours to go.

Unlike the day before, when everyone had been panicking about the new signal, today the main level was disturbingly quiet. To the point of nearly being deserted.

This should have been a good thing . . . it made getting around remarkably easy. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy it as a stroke of good luck, and my worry meter shot through the roof.