Ingenious

Chapter Twenty

The alarm sounds at 8am. We don't plan to go until 11am but I wanted time to get ready. From the second I get out of bed everything in me is shaking and my nerves are electrified. Ryan tries to calm them, but I ask him not to. Sometimes nerves are good even if they are so, so annoying. I change into the light grey skirt suit while Kacey is wearing a matching dark grey and Maia a navy. We have to look like we belong in the government if we have any way of actually pulling this off. So we are all dressed in suits and sadly in uncomfortable heels I'm going to have to ditch when it comes to running. As I stare at my reflection after putting on the mascara from Morgan, I realize how this is what I pictured my future as. This is what I always wanted my whole life. The suits and heels, everyday for my fancy job. Yet it just feels so wrong.

"Raegan let's grab some food, we shouldn't do this on an empty stomach," Kacey says to me as she finishes using the mascara and lip gloss. We grab the briefcase from Maia's Dad's closet and join everyone who's eating eggs and coffee. The briefcase is completely empty, we just need it to carry the files out without looking suspicious. When we finish breakfast we get into the car and drive. We drive for about half an hour and stop a 5 minute walk from the building. Driving in an old white van would look suspicious. So we are going to walk in. In order to get past the gates Ryan and Kacey are really going to have to work their magic. We climb out of the car, making sure it's completely blended in with the other cars around us. Ryan offers me his hand to get out of the car and I take it. As I stand on heels that are uncomfortable to walk in, I wonder if we look like government people, even if we are on the younger side.

"Ready?" Kacey asks all of us as we stand idle on the sidewalk. "We got this. We'll be fine." I nod and we all start walking down the busy streets filled to the brim with business people. No one has given us weird looks... at least not yet. The hard part is going to be figuring out who knows about us and who doesn't.

"We can do this," I whisper to myself as we line up at the gates to be let in. Most people in front of us have a pass and Kacey studies them so she can recreate one to the best of her ability. "Got it?" I ask her. She nods,

"The general idea," she tells me, turning to Ryan, "you'll have to make him overlook it because I don't have enough details to make it pass for true real cards." Ryan nods and prepares himself as we near the security guard in the booth.

"Next!" he calls. Kacey goes first. She looks the oldest and most believable to be here. She also has the illusions we need. I see Ryan scrunching his eyes as he does something to his emotions. I can't hear what the guy is saying to Kacey since she's a couple feet ahead of us and out of ear shot. When he waves her through I breathe a sigh of relief. Kacey walks a bit further from the booth to not seem suspicious but stops at the fountain pretending to check something on her phone. She's close enough to create the illusions we need, but far enough it's risky and could fail. "Next!" Ryan walks up. I move a bit closer so I can hear but I only pick up parts of it. Ryan jokes around with him about something and then walks through. Now it's my turn. I glance at Ryan who is still pretty close. It makes him look suspicious but if he goes any further he'll lose control over the guard. "Next!" I walk up, praying he can't see the slight shaking of my hand and sweat pulsing through me along with the nerves. "Name?"

"Raegan Treston," I lie. We agreed on fake last names since it's possible they have our last names somewhere.

"Position?" he asks. I say a little thanks that we prepared all of this.

"First year position studying under the testing review board," I tell him. We all have slightly different ones in order to avoid suspicion. He looks at the fake card under illusion and back up at me. I flash him a smile and act normal. "I'm so sorry, I know they are trying to up the security around here after the incident last month, but I have a meeting in 10 minutes and it's really important."