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He looked at her strangely. “My what?”

She pointed to his backpack. “You’re the musician, remember. I’m pretty sure you need something to play.”

“Right,” he said, shuffling over to his pack to retrieve the instrument. “I haven’t played in years.”

“Hopefully it’s just like riding a bike,” Alex said.

“What’s a bike?”

Alex gave a startled laugh at the absurd comment before she brushed his question off and told them all to leave.

“We’ll come get you once we have the performer guy we’re meant to find,” Jordan said.

“Sure,” she replied, trying to act okay about it all when really she was frustrated that she had to stay behind with Skyla. “Take all the time you need.”

Alex watched as they made their own path down the hill and crept along under the cover of the now completely dark sky. After a while it was difficult to see them, but she spotted them again once they were closer to the well-lit mansion. One by one they broke away from the group and entered the building.

“We’re in,” Declan’s voice whispered through the ComTCD. “The waiters are heading to the kitchen and Tom’s joining the band. Pip and I are going to introduce ourselves to the host.”

“Don’t forget to use your fake names,” Alex reminded.

“Oh, right. Thanks.”

It was another twenty minutes before Alex heard anything other than the indecipherable chatter of the various guests and the distorted music from the orchestra.

“Alex, we have a problem,” Declan said. “I overheard one of the guests talking about a performer who was in the middle of his juggling act two nights ago when he accidentally dropped a ball into Sir Oswald’s wineglass, spilling it all over him. No one has seen the performer since, but they think he’s locked somewhere underneath the mansion.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Alex cried. “Do you think he’s our guy?”

“Pretty certain, yeah,” Declan said. “It makes sense, considering Hunter’s instructions to retrieve the performer from his ‘accommodation’.”

“Do the others know?”

“No, I haven’t been able to talk with anyone. But I’ll try to get a message to them.”

“How will you bring the performer out if he’s a prisoner?”

“I’m still working on that,” Declan answered. “I’m hoping one of the others might have an idea. I’ll update you again in a few—”

His words were interrupted by a loud voice. “What are you doing in here? Who are you talking to?”

“Uh, I was just admiring the view,” Declan said.

“Show me your ID,” the other voice commanded.

Alex flicked her ComTCD to the visual setting so she could watch what was happening. The holograph rose up out of her Device, showing Declan and another man standing in a small room. The other man looked like some kind of armed security guard.

Declan handed over his identification tag and the guard peered at it before saying, “Dillon Staring? Never heard of you. How did you get on the guest list?”

“I came with my girlfriend. She’s a close friend of—”

Whatever Declan had been about to say was interrupted when the door burst open.

“Bro, where’ve you been? We’re all waiting for—Oh.”

Alex would have groaned at Blink’s horrible timing if shewasn’t so worried about sound carrying through Declan’s ComTCD.

“Both of you, put your hands up,” the man ordered, pulling out a weapon that looked identical to the military Stabilisers she’d seen at the compound.