Unseen

Chapter 6

Delta-Nine-308 paced the fourth floor, counting steps, estimating distances. She started from the bedroom at one end, walked past the kitchen, then the cavernous living room. Then back again. She did it three times, then averaged her results.

Every room was an assault of color. Even the kitchen, with its sedate black that felt like stepping between the claws of some insect, like the room was poised to attack.

She treated the distractions as passive assaults, illusions meant to keep her from her goal. The same principle as a painting hung over the entrance to a safe room meant to shield her targets from her. She had faced that situation on a mission. This was the same, on a larger scale.

She let the distractions melt from her mind. She tapped the floor and the walls, searching for weaknesses and hidden exits. She found none of the latter, and not enough of the former. She did find two hiding places in case she found herself under assault, but neither allowed her a quick route to an exit.

She looked down at the deceptively beautiful bracelet. There was no exit. There was no escape.

She found the locations of the guards next. Two were stationed outside every window. Between each set of guards also stood to either side of some sort of black, a little larger than a welcome mat.

The first time, she thought it had something to do with the garden. When she saw the same item outside every window, she began to understand that it had to do with her.

Something that would set off an alarm at a touch, maybe. Smart of Yvette. But she had underestimated PERI's physical training. Delta-Nine-308 could sidestep it easily, even while leaping down from above.

If not for the bracelet.

She looked down at the metal, at the sparkling facets of silver. She just as quickly looked away.

She should have known that the beauty of the vast world came at a cost.

She suspected the last set of guards was at the bottom of the stairs. But she couldn't see them. The stairs traveled in a descending circle, and she didn't know how far down she could go before the bracelet activated. Rather than risk it, she lay on the floor with one ear pressed to the polished wood.

She listened until she heard footsteps. Then voices. Then footsteps again. After the better part of an hour, the guards' natural fidgeting and brief exchanges of words gave her a good idea of their position.

She returned to the bedroom and closed the door. She pulled one of the fluffy white towels off the bathroom rack. It felt as soft as she had imagined those flower petals would feel. As soft as she imagined a kitten's fur would feel.

Yvette had said she could have anything she wanted. If she asked for a kitten, would Yvette—

She cut that thought off. She wasn't staying.

She buried her face in the towel, savoring the softness. Then she rolled it up and shoved it against the bottom of the door, where it could block the tiny gap where sound could escape.

Next she took a smaller towel, rolled it up, and tied it around her mouth. A makeshift gag. It took her two tries. Her training had included plenty of practice in escaping restraints, but no practice in gagging herself. But this would hold the sound in more effectively than the towel across the bottom of the door.

The window wasn't locked this time. Yvette must have thought the bracelet was enough of a deterrent.

The thick morning smell had burned away. Now the air smelled warm, like sunshine. That had startled her the first time she had gone out in daylight—the way warmth had a smell.