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PART XVI

CYPHER

Somewhere miles and miles away in the near dark-

"I've got a certain set of skills. Skills that you need. And who am I?" Cypher leaned over and adjusted the blue lamp on her desk. "You can call me Cypher. I'm a fan of Nix and I'm pissed off."

Her words were true.

She was pissed.

And when she was pissed, she liked to do some damage.

Only she was selective about her damage. She knew where she was aiming, and she hit what she was aiming at.

"I've been doing some research into the venue since I heard the concert was going to be held there. Fascinating history."

She heard his sigh and could almost picture his face, but she wasn't about to waste time tapping into the security cameras. She had other things to do. "Do you have your tablet available, Ares?"

She heard him swear under his breath.

"Yes."

His word was clipped like his jaw had locked in place.

"Sending you a set of plans that I've discovered in the files of the contractor who worked on the renovations. It seems he had a benefactor who paid him quite a bit to make use of some of the buildings more... secretive designs. Thank goodness the contractor kept the plans in his external drive. He had a password lock on it, but it wasn't wise of him to use his old fraternity motto as a password."

A soft chime reached her ear in her headset.

"Do you have the files?"

She knew they did. Their own tech security was good.

Expert even, but she had a few tricks to get past the firewalls that wouldn't endanger her or the Big Sky Bodyguards.

Cypher smiled at the name.

"Holy shit."

She smiled at the wonder in his voice.

"I started digging when I saw the people being escorted out of the theater and heard the calls to the local news desks. Looks like there's a whole set of rooms above where you are. Some kind of observation office. The best way in would be the glass panels above the observation room."

"You said there was a benefactor?"

"Yeah. I need to dig into the holding companies that were used to pay off the contractor."

"I could send a man to him and... ask."

She shook her head, forgetting that she was alone in a room thousands of miles away. "He's on vacation. The contractor's passport was used in Barbados. It says that he's there for a few weeks. I'm guessing it was to get him out of the way for this event."

"You know so much more than we do."

She smiled but felt bad about the frustration in his voice. "I don't have wheels on the ground where you are. I was just enjoying the concert via the security cams." She continued to tap at the keys and sent another message to the tablet that Ares was carrying. "Now, I'm no expert or architect, but-"

MARK

"The glass ceiling." He mumbled an apology to Cypher.

"No need to apologize. I can tell you've got a lot on your mind. I'll stop talking, but I'll be on the line if you need me, just ask."

He nodded and Badger moved closer to look at the blueprints laid out on the screen in front of him.

Badger leaned away from him to talk into the comm.

"Cypher?"

"Hmm? Yes, Badger?"

Mark looked up at Badger and saw the bemused look on his face.

Badger answered her. "I think you should talk to our boss. I think we could use someone like you."

"Antisocial and awkward? A tech peeping Thomasina?"

Mark could see Badger's thoughtful frown. "No, but we might be able to use your skills and put you on the payroll."

Her laugh was a little awkward, a bark of sound that faded almost too quickly. "You don't have to pay me. I love to dig into things online."

Badger shrugged. "Still. His name is Alex-"

"Marchand. Got it."

Mark turned his head and saw Badger's beleaguered smile.

"Yes," Badger nodded. "That's our boss."

"Oh, interesting history. I think I'll like talking to him."

Mark whistled under his breath at Hanson.

When the other man looked back at him, Mark signaled for him to shut off the torch and come over.

Once Hanson was at his side, they made quick work of the new architectural plans.

Hanson chuckled, but in a dry, dark way. "Whoever created these upper rooms, they were some seriously paranoid people."

"Whoever they were," Mark sighed, "they had money to hide the rooms in the original construction and when they reconstructed the building to use again, they kept these rooms hidden from the whole organization that was going to use the building for years into the future. There's just something missing."

Hanson shrugged, probably just as lost as he was.

"Cypher?"

"Yes, Ares?"

"Did you hear-"

"What you were saying? Yes. What do you need?"

"Have you figured out who all the shell companies link to?"

He heard her furiously typing and marveled at the speed in which she worked.

"No, but I'm getting close."

Mark couldn't say anything but the words at the tip of his tongue. "How are you doing this so fast? I'm guessing there should be warrants involved."

"Well," he heard her soft chuckles, "you'd have trouble if you tried to use this information in court, but-"

"Exigent circumstances. Don't stop looking. All I'm worried about is getting Heather back."

"Heather..." Cypher's voice sounded soft, smiling. "The name fits her. When you guys get her back, I'd love to say hello over the phone."

"Cypher?" Mark fought of sudden tears. "When we get her back it will be because of your help. We'll fly out to you for a visit."

Cypher's soft intake of breath told him how much that meant. "Wow. That would be amazing."

Mark smiled for the first time since the door shut between him and Heather. "It's the least I'll owe you."

He looked up at Hanson and Badger. "Okay, let's get her back."

Badger nodded, but Hanson looked hesitant.

"How are we going to do that?"

"Flash?"

"Yeah, Ares?" Mark knew that Flash was still down in the lobby. "What do you need?"

Mark nodded, his heart swelling with hope in his chest. "You still have your climbing equipment in your car?"

"Yeah?"

Mark swore he could hear Flash smiling.

"We're going to need it." Mark turned the tablet around and pointed at the ceiling diagram on the screen. "We're going to get Heather back."

HEATHER

Heather was finding a balancing act. Walking a few steps, dragging a little on others. She wanted to give herself time.

She wanted to give Mark the time he needed to come and find her.

She had no doubts that he would.

Heather just had no idea how it was going to happen.

But faith, she'd discovered, wasn't about easy.

Faith was what you had when you couldn't see the sun behind the storm, but you knew that it was going to come out and you were going to feel its warmth again.

She had faith in Mark.

"Damn it, Heather! Pick up your damn feet!"

She did what Tanner asked but he wasn't expecting it and the two of them stumbled because he had her by the arm and wasn't expecting her to move with him.

He stopped short just inside another doorway and she almost expected him to hit her or throw her to the ground.

Instead, he laughed.

Heather tried not to cringe away from him, just watching him as she would stare at a rattlesnake if she was too close.

Her mind was already reeling with the sudden reappearance of Tanner in her life.

Over the years, she'd felt guilty in a way.

His father had gone on trial, and she'd been one of the 'star' witnesses that had put him in prison.

The federal prosecutors hadn't been much better than Tanner's father in her mind.

They spoke around her as if she was no better than furniture.

They talked about their strategies and how they were going to use her as if she was an inanimate object. Especially when they'd talked about the effect on the case of having her testify.

She'd been on the stand with a bandage still visible beyond the neckline of her blouse.

The defense had argued that her visible bandage was prejudicial, but the judge ruled against them.

She had to sit there on the stand trying to ignore the heated looks from Tanner's father.

No matter how much she tried to keep from looking at him, she felt like she could feel his anger as if it was a physical touch.

Being in the same room with Tanner was bringing it all back.

He swung her around, tugging her arm until she felt like it might come out of its socket. "Sit your ass down, Heather."

The way he said her name it was clipped in two distinct syllables.

She sat down and wanted to avoid his anger.

His anger which felt like another person in the room with them.

He pulled out a chair from the other side of the table where he'd sat her down and pulled it alongside her own.

When he sat down beside her he dropped his hand down on her thigh and gripped it so hard she hissed out a breath and leaned closer to him to hopefully ease the pain by loosening his grip.

It didn't work.

So to take her mind off of his painful grip and the hard look in his eyes, she looked around the room.

There were corners covered in dust and detritus. Tables with pieces of plaster strewn across the top. She could see some old folders in a file cabinet along the wall. It looked like someone had walked out of the door decades before.

"Like it?"

She swung her head back and looked at Tanner, seeing an element of the boy she'd known before.

It fell away a moment later.

"I could have paid the contractor to fix this up a little, but the man was greedy. It turns out paying a man to build a wall to hide a door gets expensive. At the end I almost did it. Paid him to spruce up this old office."

Tanner turned so he could look at the office around them, but his hand held onto her thigh even tighter, pinching his thumb in so hard she knew that she'd have a bruise.

She could only breathe in and out as he turned back to look at her, fixed on her gaze. "I don't mind paying for a job well done. My father felt the same way. But this man. He had a... shifty look about him."

Shifty.

She held it all in. Tried to keep her gaze mild and her jaw loose.

He had the nerve to call the contractor shifty.

"So it turns out it was cheaper to pay the man to do the bare bones of what I asked him to do and instead of paying him off at the end, I just ended him."

His smile.

His seemingly guileless smile.

"If anyone's looking for the man, they'll see that his passport was used in Barbados."

She nodded.

She didn't need him to say the rest.

While she'd been testifying for the federal prosecutors, she'd heard more than she ever wanted to know about the business that her father was in. The same business that Tanner's father was in. And she'd heard in excruciating detail what Tanner's father had done. Things that were more gruesome than the things that her father had done. The defense had thrown that at the prosecution, trying to muddy the waters. It had been horrible to find out that her father was part of organized crime. It was hard to find out that she'd been shot for the same reason.

"I can see that you're thinking."

His voice was too upbeat for her peace of mind, but she didn't say anything. There was too much information coming at her both through his words and his mannerisms. She prayed he couldn't see her thoughts.

"I remember what you were like back in the day, Heather. So sweet and kind. My dad wanted us to be together. I thought it was stupid. Our parents telling us that we should date! Didn't they know that we were people? We were teenagers! What teens did what their parents told them to?"

She didn't know what to do.

She certainly didn't know what to say, so she kept quiet, hoping to pick up some hints on how to keep him calm.

There was a soft glow above their heads and a quick look showed her the moon coming out from behind clouds. There was a glass ceiling above her.

"But you know what happened back then?"

Heather forced her gaze to meet his.

Not just because she wanted to see him or the look in his eyes. She did it because she didn't want him thinking about those glass panels above their heads.

"I fell for you back then. It's not what I intended. It's certainly not what I wanted. And you, you were head over heels for Mark back then."

I still am.

She wanted to say the words but held them back. She didn't know what brought Tanner out of the woodwork now.

Heather knew she had to keep him talking or at least focused on her.

"You might even think that I'm here to bring us back together, you and me."

His words did make her wonder, but there was something in his eyes.

A little flame of anger that she latched onto.

"You're angry with me."

He smiled.

"You're smarter than you were back then."

"Probably not," she sighed, feeling the truth of her words. "More jaded, maybe."

"Jaded?"

She could see that her words had some effect on him. The anger in his eyes sputtered a little.

"What's that about?"

"Hmm?" She felt some of the emotions from years ago rushing back and it knocked her off balance.

"What made you jaded back then?"

Heather drew in a breath and looked at him. "Maybe when your father tried to shoot mine."

"No." Tanner shook his head, a minute back and forth movement. "That's not true. Your dad turned on mine. Put him in jail!"

"Yes," she nodded. “My dad turned on yours, but your dad did try to shoot my father. I was in the room. It was that night, the bonfire. That night I got out of your car and went home. They were talking, our fathers, in the kitchen.

"I walked in and stepped in front of my dad." Heather didn't think in that moment, she reached for the collar of her dress and wrenched it down and toward her shoulder. It hurt, the fabric dragging against her skin, but she didn't care. She wanted Tanner to see it.

"What the fuck is that?"

"I took the bullet your dad was going to put in my father. I had to be airlifted to a base for medical care under the supervision of WITSEC. I became another witness against your father."

"No." Tanner shook his head. "He told me that you'd turned against him like your father. He told me that you'd made up lies. That you'd lied to put him in jail. It's why I lost my dad."

She didn't argue with him. Or get angry.

She just looked at Tanner waiting for him to come around.

While he sat there, his chin dropped down, his gaze moving, roaming back and forth as his mind struggled to make sense of what he'd always been told and what she'd said to him.

She could feel how confused he was, his hand, still gripped around her knee flexed and pinched as his mind worked, churning through facts.

Heather watched him in one way, keeping her gaze on his face hoping to see some progress or change in his thoughts. The rest of her mind was focusing on Mark. Keeping her thoughts positive.

Hoping for a rescue.

Mark and the other Big Sky Bodyguards had gone over the architectural plans of the building over and over and while Mark had never gone through the plans with her, he'd never shushed her away from their meetings, he'd included her, kept her in the know.

She couldn't help but feel that it was like having Alex there. He'd never hidden anything from her, she just hadn't wanted to know. She'd kept her head in the sand.

The building plans hadn't included a room with a glass ceiling.

They'd poured over the plans kept in the city records.

If they got through the heavy metal door to the dressing room, they'd find Evan and they'd see the door open into the passageway that Tanner had dragged her through.

That must have been the plan from the start.

He'd wanted her almost alone.

But surely, he wasn't planning to get her out the way they'd come.

Where was their exit?

There were no other doors in the room.

All they could do without climbing through the window was to go out the way they came.

She had no idea what he had planned but she knew it wasn't good.