Overload

Chapter Twenty-One - Secrecy

She made her fifth round of the room. Pacing only made Ian twitchier as he sat there, watching her with a thoughtful expression.

"Ricki, that's not helping," he snapped and rubbed his temples in an irritated motion.

The girl gave him a withering look but forced herself to remain still. "She just – she just blacked out. What if she can't handle it? What if these are her limits? What if – if –" A look of horror crossed her face, her mouth a frightened O. "What if we killed her?"

Ian snorted. "That girl is way too resilient from what I saw. It's going to take a hella lot more to kill June."

"I know that," she snapped.

He raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you –"

"Shh, let me think." She waved a hand for him to shut up then began wringing her wrists together. "Booker and Josh are there. They'll take care of her. Right? They have to."

Ian rolled his eyes. "Nobody saw the surveillance. You rigged it well. It just looks like June fainted from exhaustion."

Biting her lip, she reached for the tablet on her desk and beckoned to it. The slim square screen hovered then vibrated in midair. A quick flick of her wrists sent the tablet scattering into pieces, down to its barest components: every single wire and circuit board fell apart. She continued to chew on her lower lip as she reassembled pieces of the tablet back together.

"Erica, did you have to destroy the poor thing?"

She snapped her eyes on him, mid-puzzle. "Yes."

Ian stared back at her, gaze unwavering. "Why?"

Erica blew through her lips. "How many times do I have to tell you: it severs the connection to Evergreen's systems and keeps them from tracing us and deletes evidence and – and –"

"Put it back together."

She didn't need telling twice. Erica shifted her attention back to the remaining pieces and waved with a finger left and right, up and down until the tiny black pieces were almost complete. It took her far longer to figure out the last bit of wiring she must have forgotten to insert in the first few steps, but finally managed to have everything back together.

"You forgot the home button." Ian pointed to the lone circle piece still lying on the desk.

Erica clenched her teeth at the sight of it. Now she had to pull everything apart again.

Once she was satisfied and there were no more missing components, Erica jerked her chin and the tablet turned on, a cheerful jingle breaking the silence of the room.

"Well that was a mission," Ian commented in amusement.

Erica sighed and lowered her hand, the tablet also lowering down on the desk. "I usually do that in thirty seconds flat. Not a millisecond over."

"Do you feel better now?"

She pursed her lips and stared at him long and hard. "Yes." Erica fought the urge to roll her eyes. Another one of Ian's psychological telepathic tricks to calm her down. But it worked. Making her answer questions and focus on simple tasks often worked.

He was her rock, after all.

"Have they reached out yet?" she prompted once they'd wallowed in silence for a few minutes.

Ian cocked an eyebrow. "We just cut contact with Booker ten minutes ago. Give it some time."

Erica stormed to the nearest chair and threw herself down in it. "Can you get me a PC? I need something more challenging."