brain too scrambled for words.
“You two done yet?” Isaac groused from the living room.
“Yeah, coming,” Elias managed to say.
He wanted to remain where he was, tucked away from the rest of the world with Jo, but until this was handled she was still in danger. She was trusting him to help her out of this.
“Is the car here?” Elias asked.
Isaac glanced at his phone. “Almost.”
They’d decided to leave the company SUV with Jo and instead take a cab to the front door of the Eagle Tech building. Each of them wore a Kevlar vest under their clothes because they knew at least one team was close on their heels. The truly useful things were the invisible comms that fit inside the ear and a digital lock breaker. With enough time, there was no lock that could withstand them.
Together, they wordlessly headed for the door. Elias secured it and shoved down the internal dread. He just knew Zain was on their trail, too. He’d somehow figure out Elias had been here, too. Those were problems to deal with after.
Their little trio descended the stairs. They trekked two blocks over to a parking garage where they’d left the SUV on the third floor, looking out over a bit of the city. The real reason he’d parked here was just in sight.
The Eagle Tech building.
Jo would have a bird’s-eye-view of everything happening around the building while they took an initial look around inside. With luck, Jo would pass unnoticed and safe up here until they needed her.
Jo paused in front of the SUV and turned toward Elias. “This is me. Good luck.”
“Keep your head down,” Elias said. There were other things he wanted to say, but for now that was it.
He turned and walked toward the stairs with Isaac falling in beside him. The shorter man glanced up at Elias a few times. Isaac had complained loudly about having to wear some of Elias’ clothing to pull his role off.
“Think we’ll pull this off?” Isaac asked as they reached the sidewalk.
A silver four-door car pulled up at the curb.
“Yes.” Elias put his full confidence behind that one word. They absolutely had to pull this off.
Isaac surprised Elias by opening the door to their ride and letting him in first. He settled back, curious at how far Isaac would take the role. He leaned forward and gave the driver directions.
He must have really taken his assistant job seriously. Then again, Jo had said Isaac was accustomed to being a right-hand man. This was likely more his speed.
The drive took them a little over a minute thanks to red lights, but that wasn’t an issue. The ninety or so seconds allowed Elias to take a breath and settle into this role. He had some guilt eating at him already for their plan to fool the company reps into believing he was someone he wasn’t.
It was just a facilities tour.
Isaac swept open Elias’ door.
This was it. Time to play the role he’d been handed.
The cab eased away from them, leaving their path to the door clear.
“Let’s do this,” Elias muttered.
Together they entered the lobby of the four story building that comprised the entirety of the Eagle Tech company. Elias had done as much homework as he could on the place, but the only pictures he’d found of the interior were prior to Eagle Tech moving in. They’d no doubt changed the floor-plan.
Elias prayed his cover story held water. Oh, and that no one recognized him seeing as they catered to the same type of people.
“Mr. Allen,” a younger man with pitch black hair in a trim cut suit approached Elias with a welcoming smile.
“You must be Torres. Samuel Torres?” Elias took the guys’ hand.
Torres glanced between Elias and Isaac. “That’s me. Thanks for stopping by. Crossing a few things off your list before the holidays?”
Elias inclined his head. “Something like that.”
Torres gestured at the marble floored entry decked out with Christmas trees and fake snow. “Well, let’s have a quick walk around and let me tell you about what we can do for your personal security.”
Elias paused and really looked at the lobby layout. It was from the same decade, maybe even the same company who’d built the old Aegis Group building. Right down to the weird box thing in front of the elevators.
Man, just looking at this place brought back memories, and not the good kind.
Hopefully they didn’t blow this place up, too.
“Lead on,” Elias said.
To his credit, Torres was a thorough salesman. They walked