Page 56 of Even Robots Die (Even Ever After #3)

Florentine

I switch the list to include all shifter women above twenty.

“Milton, can you run a facial recognition based on apparent age? Take all women that look like they’re between thirty and forty,” I say out loud.

The list triples in size, and I scroll through the pictures again.

Christina stops me many more times than with my first search and I start losing patience.

Doesn’t she have surveillance cameras? I mean, that’s how she knew I was the pain in the ass at the door.

The camera at the door.

I must have overestimated my ability to work after getting shot and the quality of rest I got, because it’s not like me to forget such crucial information.

I stop scrolling through the pictures and pull the video feed from the camera at the entrance of the catacombs in the Sacré Coeur.

“Find my dad,” I mouth to Milton.

We’ve lost too much time already. I’m not going to explain every step of my process to Brice and Christina.

Once I’ve found Dad on the feed, I cross check facial features with the Interpol database and pull the picture of the woman.

“It’s her,” Christina says, and I can hear a hint of relief in her voice.

I bet you’re relieved. It will get us out of here quickly.

It’s no wonder we didn’t find her in my first search, though.

She is a shape-shifter, yes—a fox—but in her official picture she has dark brown hair and is definitely not registered in Paris. According to the Interpol file, she’s supposed to live in Napoli.

“Okay, now you’ve got her, but we don’t know where to find her,” Brice tells me, and I want to tell him immediately that it’s not the only database I can run her info through.

I have her name now, after all, and I hacked a very interesting database a few hours ago.

“We’ll find a way,” I tell him with a secret smile.

“What about this new weapon you spoke of a few minutes ago?” Christina reminds me that I promised to tell her what I knew after she answered my questions.

“They’ve built guns that propel nets. Once the nets are anchored to the ground, it discharges a heavy voltage dose.

I didn’t get to find out the exact voltage because it was the early stages of the conception, so I don’t know if they’re built to knock people out or to kill.

I’ve tried to find a way to get back in ever since, but it seems that they might have upped the security and the small hole I managed to slip through in their internal web last time doesn’t exist anymore.

All I know is that the nets can’t electrify anything unless they’re in contact with a surface.

Ground, buildings, trees, as long as it’s linked to earth, it can go off and fry anything.

They’re not small nets, either. They’re building them to cover surfaces over ten square meters so anyone on the ground will find themselves at a disadvantage if they can’t run fast enough. ”

When I’m done with my explanation, Brice and Christina look at me with horror in their eyes.

Knowing they’re both known to be ruthless and collected, it makes me shiver to think this is the thing that gets through to them.

Their matching expressions are replaced at almost the same time by a blank mask of boredom, and I have to wonder if they match in more ways than this.

They would look lovely as a couple.

At least she doesn’t look like she could be his daughter.

Is that jealousy? Or pettiness? Or maybe a bit of both?

I have no reason to think that they could be a couple and even fewer reasons to feel jealous about it, but my mind doesn’t give a shit.

“Do you have something that could work against it?” Christina asks, and I tuck the awful feeling at the very back of my mind.

I’m not about to ruin years of collaboration over something that isn't even there. It’s just my mind making up scenarios. I should not pay attention to them. We have more pressing problems.

Like finding my dad and saving humanity, no less.

Yeah, I know, but as they say, shoot for the moon and maybe you’ll end up amongst the stars.

One can dream.

Well, I dream. I dream of a better place. I dream of my city, country to be safe again for everyone, shifters and humans alike. I dream of a world that isn’t blinded by bigotry anymore.

I dream of a place I can call home and be proud.

But dreams are only the fuel for what needs to be done, and I can’t forget that before my dreams can come true, we’ll have to go through hell.

Before dreams come true, one has to walk through their own nightmares.

“I’ve been working on something. It’s not finished yet, but as soon as I’m done I’ll send the blueprints,” I tell Christina, and I can see from the corner of my eye that Brice has questions, but luckily he keeps them to himself for now.

The only answer Christina gives me is another question .

“Timeframe?”

I know what she means and do the math in my head.

I could finalize everything in five days.

But once we’re back, I have a brain to repair.

It might only be the first surgery since I’m starting to believe Brice is telling the truth when it comes to his returning emotions, but it still needs to be done, and two days won’t change much for Libération.

“About a week,” I tell her as I walk to the door.

I have a feeling Shiny Skull is waiting to bring us back to the surface behind it.

Brice walks faster and opens the door for me, but before I pass through it, I turn my face in Christina’s direction.

“If I were you, I’d stock up on steel. You’ll need a lot of it for what I’m working on.”

And then I walk through the door, Brice at my back and the scowling man leading us out.

I’m exhausted, but this is not over.