They continued to whale on each other—headlocks and sucker punches and ill-timed swings that resulted in only minor contact between fist and face. It was like watching two drunk guys wearing blindfolds go at it.
“Are you really not going to break this up?” Persey asked Kevin at last.
“Do I have to? This is kind of the best thing ever.”
“Agreed,” Neela and Mackenzie said in unison.
Persey sighed. Time was not on their side…even if there wasn’t an active countdown clock. Yet.
“Fine.” Kevin, who despite being about Wes’s size seemed to tower over him in both bulk and presence, wedged himself between the two assailants. “Cut it out, children. You’re both pretty.”
Panting, Wes and Riot gave in quickly to Kevin, separating almost as soon as he stepped between them. Wes spun away, bent forward, hands on knees, while Riot fell back against the side of the air cushion, slouching into its folds, gassed. Neither wanted to be the first to quit, but neither was interested in continuing.
Kevin clicked his tongue. “They sure the fuck don’t teach you to fight at Ivy League schools.”
Meanwhile, Mackenzie, unfazed by her ex-whatever’s fistfight, had been staring at Riot, eyes pinched, like a nearsighted person trying to read a sign on the other side of the room. Then, suddenly, she straightened up.
“The UMass library!”
Riot was silent as his panting gradually slowed. But if he thought that would throw Mackenzie off, he was gravely mistaken.
“You work there. Or at least you did, a year ago. I remember now. And we…” She let her voice trail off, remembering. “How did you know?”
“I overheard you in the stacks.” Riot must have realized there was no point denying it. “You were in six fifty-two point eight. Looking for books on code breaking. I was shelving two rows away, but I heard you discussing Escape-Capades and the Prison Break challenge.”
“I knew it,” Wes said. “You’re a thief.”
“I didn’t steal anything,” Riot said. “But you two morons had set up your laptop with the encoded file and then disappeared to screw in the bathroom without even dimming the screen.”
“Classy,” Kevin said, nodding.
“I just took a few photos on my phone. Enough to realize that you hadn’t exactly come by that information accidentally.”
“I thought you said you went to Harvard?” Neela asked. She still sat on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, but her misery from earlier seemed to have abated somewhat.
Riot nodded. “Undergrad. I’m at UMass for my master’s.”
“To recap…” Kevin pushed himself off the wall. “For those of us who have no fucking clue what’s going on, Wes and Mackenzie—who were banging—got their hands on some secret code shit—”
“I didn’t get my hands on anything,” Mackenzie said, correcting him.
Riot snorted. “Except Wes.”
“Jealous?” She sidled closer to Kevin as she addressed the question to Riot. It was as if her entire reason for being revolved around what men thought of her. Which was fine, if that was her thing. Just kinda sad.
“Not at all,” Riot said. His eyes trailed to Persey. “I prefer smart girls.”
No one had ever called Persey smart before. It felt…nice.
“One more time from the top.” Kevin laughed. Persey wasn’t exactly sure what was funny considering how many people had already died, but whatever. “Wes stole some secret code shit and—”
Wes erupted, throwing his hands in the air. “I didn’t steal it! How many fucking times do I have to say it?”
“Right,” Kevin said. “You bribed it.” He turned to Neela. “Is that a verb?”
“Sure!”
“I didn’t do that either,” Wes snapped. But his anger, like his fight, was ebbing.
“Then how did those coded plans come to be in your possession?” Neela asked, genuinely confused. “It’s not like you worked for Escape-Capades or something.”
Worked for Escape-Capades…“Brian.”
Wes shrunk back at the name, his shoulders hunching so severely they threatened to turn him inside out. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Bullshit. “The cubicle in the Office. The one with the outdated calendar. Neela and I found a photo in one of the drawers. Four people in Halloween costumes, one of whom was named Brian. And in the Boyz Distrikt, you slipped and called B.J. ‘Brian.’ Because you recognized him.”
“You’re insane.”
You have no idea. “Neela, what else did we find in that desk?”
Neela piped up immediately, listing off items as if she was still in front of the desk, naming things as she saw them. “A movie stub for a Fast and