Page 38 of A Touch of Treachery (Section 47 #3)
I waited until the closest guard moved past me, then stood up, crossed the terrace, and darted behind a game booth that was part of the Winterfest event.
Keeping to the shadows, I worked my way around the perimeter of the hotel to the edge of the golf course and plastered my back up against the side of a large open-air shed where the golf carts were stored.
A single security light burned above the shed, and a few more lights dotted different holes, but for the most part, the golf course was dark and deserted.
Still, the longer I looked around, the more unease filled me. I could have sworn someone else was out here, even though the closest guard was posted several hundred feet away at the hotel—
“Nice moves, Slick,” a familiar voice drawled.
I whirled around, my gaze snapping left and right. Where was he?
A smoky gray shadow detached itself from the opposite end of the golf-cart shed. The shadow slinked closer, quickly solidifying into the shape of a man.
Gabriel Chase grinned, his white teeth flashing like pearls in the semidarkness. He too had traded in his tuxedo for all-black attire, along with a knit hat pulled down low over his forehead.
Gabriel leaned his shoulder against the shed wall he had just phased through.
“Congratulations on not splattering your pretty self all over the main terrace. Although it was touch and go there for a while. I thought the wind was going to blow you off the side of the hotel like a bug on a windshield.”
“Funny how you didn’t call out and offer your assistance, Gaby,” I drawled.
“Nah,” Gabriel replied, grinning even wider. “It was way too much fun watching you crawl down the wall like some wannabe superhero.”
I huffed. “What are you doing out here?”
“The same thing you are—searching for Henrika’s lab. I’ve already checked most of the hotel, but I don’t think it’s in there. Otherwise, one of the guests or workers would have stumbled over it already. My guess? Henrika is hiding her biomagical toys in the woods.”
His logic made sense and matched the conclusions Charlotte and I had drawn, although I would never admit it. Gabriel Chase’s ego was already big enough.
The former cleaner grinned again and held his arm out to the side. “After you, Slick.”
I grumbled with annoyance, but I headed toward the woods. Gabriel followed me.
We moved from one shed and outbuilding to another, keeping out of sight of the patrolling guards.
Every so often, I stopped and glanced over my shoulder.
I didn’t know if Gabriel was using his phasing ability, but I could barely see him in the semidarkness, and I wouldn’t have even realized he was behind me if I hadn’t been able to sense his smoky gray aura with my galvanism.
We skirted around as much of the golf course as we could, then stopped. The next section was a wide, rolling green with nary a tree or a sand trap in sight, but we had to cross it if we wanted to search the woods beyond.
I looked at Gabriel, who nodded back. We both waited for the closest guard to turn his back.
The instant that happened, I sprinted forward, with Gabriel running right beside me.
The quick thumps of our boots on the grass banged like drums in my ears, along with the swish of our clothing.
I strained to hear other noises, but my pounding heart drowned out everything else.
Still, the longer we ran, the bigger the smile that stretched across my face.
I might not like having to make nice with paramortal villains or watching the General gamble with agents’ lives. But skulking past throngs of guards and slipping into places I wasn’t supposed to be? I bloody loved those parts of being a spy.
Gabriel and I ran over to the tree line, then split apart. He went left and stopped behind a towering pine, while I went right and did the same thing. We both glanced behind us.
A flashlight bobbed up and down in the distance, on the other side of the golf course, but no shouts sounded, and no one seemed to have seen our mad sprint into the trees. Gabriel flashed me another grin, which I returned.
Together, the two of us moved deeper into the woods.
I went from one tree to the next, keeping my footsteps as quiet as possible. Off to my left, Gabriel did the same thing.
The whistling winter wind had finally died down, although it was snowing more heavily than before.
Fat flakes fluttered down through the branches, covering the ground in an icy-white carpet.
My breath steamed out in thick clouds of frost, as did Gabriel’s, like we were two wolves stalking through the dark night. In a way, that’s exactly what we were.
The one good thing about the snow was that it naturally brightened the landscape, so I didn’t have to risk activating the button flashlight on my jacket.
I stopped every few feet to scan the ground, but I didn’t spot any signs that anyone had been out here recently, not so much as a stray golf ball that had sailed off the neighboring course.
“You see anything, Slick?” Gabriel murmured.
“Nope. You?”
“Nothing.”
Since there were no obvious signs of a lab, I reached out with my galvanism, searching for any flickers of life or currents of energy running through the woods.
There.
A spark of electricity twinged my power, and I spun toward the energy source like a compass arrow pointing due north. A faint current hummed in the distance, although I couldn’t tell what—or whom—it might belong to.
“You sense something?” Gabriel asked.
“Yeah. Let’s check it out.”
We hiked about half a mile deeper into the woods before the trees thinned out, revealing a large clearing. A tall, skinny security light stood at one end of the open space, its round bulb casting out a weak but steady glow like a miniature moon suspended above the trees.
No sheds or outbuildings were here, and I didn’t see so much as a single footprint disturbing the freshly fallen snow.
It didn’t look like anyone had been in this section of the woods all day, not even a guard for a quick patrol.
In the distance, I could just make out the steady slapping of the lake against the shoreline, and the fishy scent tickled my nose and made the air seem even colder and damper.
I pulled my phone out of a zippered pocket on my jacket and checked our position against the Section satellite photos, maps, and other surveillance images of the Glittertop Resort.
We were at the north end of the property, where a wide swath of the lake curved around the tip of the woods.
According to some reports Charlotte had found, the resort developers had deemed this terrain too rough and rocky and too far from the hotel to build anything useful, so this area was largely untouched.
I reached out with my galvanism. Once again, I sensed that faint electrical hum, a little stronger than before, so I stalked across the clearing to the security light.
I examined the metal pole from all angles, then peered up at the bulb itself, but it was just a security light, the same as dozens of others that ringed the hotel and dotted the surrounding landscape.
The light didn’t have a keypad or any obvious switch, which meant it was probably controlled from inside the hotel, just like all the other security lights.
“We’ve come to the end of the line,” Gabriel said. “Quite literally. There’s nothing out here but trees.”
I slid my phone back into my pocket. “Let’s keep searching. Maybe we’re overlooking something.”
We spread out, each of us scanning a different section of the clearing. Trees, rocks, snow. Everything was exactly what it appeared to be, and nothing sinister was hidden in the surrounding woods.
Gabriel and I met in the middle of the clearing. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll check down by the lake.”
“I’ll see if I can pick up any more energy sources with my galvanism.”
He nodded and moved off, his steps silent despite the brittle snow underfoot.
I closed my eyes and reached out with my galvanism yet again, straining to find any energy in the vicinity, any bright flares, telltale tingles, or sharp crackles that might indicate something nearby was drawing or emitting electricity . . .
There .
A warm, sparking sensation tickled my magic like a bulb flickering in a socket.
Still keeping my eyes closed, I latched on to the sensation and turned my body toward the flow of energy.
I took a few careful steps forward, like a moth fluttering toward a candle flame, then opened my eyes to see . . .
The security light at the end of the clearing.
Frustration coursed through my body. I already knew the light was there, so why did my galvanism keep pointing it out? It was just a lone bulb, and it wasn’t even as bright as the similar lights around the hotel—
Crunch.
A footstep broke through the snow behind me, and a new aura pinged my senses. I whirled around.
A security guard wearing a green jacket was standing about ten feet away, a gun leveled at my chest.