Page 4 of Seductive Architect (Grunts of Vanguard #2)

Wyatt: Friend, I can fly you home.

Drew: I’d happily give you a lift.

Orion: Appreciated, I still have work to do.

Arthur: Go home. You can’t work all night.

Wyatt: Shall we fight crime this evening?

Janet: No superhero action tonight.

Janet: Occupied with other action. Do not disturb.

Arthur leaves the group.

Route 13-C. Leave Secret Identities. Walk through the heart of Vanguard’s business district.

Into the subway, heading away from home.

Double back. Rear door. Service elevator.

I stopped long enough to check the penny wedged between the door and the frame.

Nobody had broken in, at least not from the hallway.

I slid inside the door, and the automated lights flooded the apartment. Latching the front door, I secured the three deadbolts and the electronic lock. The front door required somebody with Wyatt’s strength to break down. The noise would be enough to wake me.

“Connie, do a sweep.”

“I’ve been monitoring your apartment all day?—”

“A sweep. Please.” She insisted I use manners. When not helping me piece together the unsolved mysteries of the world, she had enrolled in college. She swore it was to pass the time, but I think she took Behavioral Psychology to study me. My computer understood human behavior better than I did.

“Interior. Exterior. Perimeter. All negative for signs of disturbance.”

While I trusted Connie with my life, I still walked from room to room, checking the closets and under the bed. In my line of work, I could never be too safe. There were too many of them out there, determined to silence me.

I pulled back the shower curtain, the last possible hiding spot.

No secret operative hid in the tub, waiting for me to let down my guard.

The closer I got to finding answers and uncovering the truth, the more of a liability I became.

I was convinced the night cashier at the bodega had been replaced by a doppelg?nger.

It meant no more late-night beef jerky runs.

“Would you be interested in a movie?”

“Connie…”

“A movie about conspiracies?”

I turned on the sink until the water turned warm.

With a couple of splashes against my face, I stared at the mirror.

The lengthy walks weren’t only to dodge government agents.

Being cooped up in the office all day did little for my stamina.

If I were going to keep fighting crime, I needed more cardio.

If a villain wanted to declare victory, they’d only need to make me run up a flight of stairs.

“They’re created to throw people off the scent. They’re funded by big Pharma.”

I flexed.

“Not too shabby,” I mumbled.

I had muscle… soft muscle. Grabbing a hand towel, I patted down my face and beard. I desperately needed a shave. Perhaps I’d make a trip to the barber and have him clean it up. The last thing I needed was to look like one of those tinfoil-hat-wearing lunatics on VideoTube.

In the living room, I followed the cords from the television to the NovaStation.

Despite being able to speak with it and play games, there had always been something comforting about holding the controller.

Now it sat on the couch, untouched for months.

Video games had been the perfect blend of distraction and human connection.

I didn’t expect to meet somebody, and I would have laughed if somebody suggested a romantic relationship.

Picking up the controller, I wrapped the cord around it.

I couldn’t go back, not after making a fool of myself.

Spending hours together, I thought I knew the guy…

and I did. Feelings had gotten in the way, and my objectivity went out the window.

I had gone to the extent of suggesting we meet in person.

That’s when it unraveled, and I discovered he cared more about the game than the people playing it.

I had been nothing more than an accessory.

I pulled the plug from the console, tucking it away in a drawer. Torturing myself had gone on for long enough. I tried. I failed. I dropped the controller in, saying farewell to my hard-earned loot. There were more important things than trying to shoehorn a man into my life.

Walking across the apartment, I reached the door to my study.

The moment I turned the handle, the whispering of electronics vanished.

Stepping inside, I closed my eyes, savoring the silence.

The Dead Zone, as I liked to call it, was where the magic happened—no windows, no electronics, no way for wireless signals to penetrate.

The far wall was lined with thousands of newspaper articles and photographs.

What had once started as a whiteboard consumed the entire room.

Here, I could see the truth, the reality hidden from most people.

At first, I had joked about needing yarn, but I quickly discovered its usefulness in tying together conspiracies .

On the desk, the phone rang. I pressed a button, putting it on speaker.

“I take it, no more video games?” Even Connie could only access the room through a landline. “I don’t know why you won’t let me in.”

“This is my sanctuary.”

“My textbook suggests you have trust issues, and need to?—”

“No analyzing!”

Even a computer can scoff. “If you won’t, somebody should.”

Arthur had struck a nerve in the break room.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. I had working theories and more than enough suspicions about what was happening in Vanguard.

Until I could prove them, they were nothing more than the ramblings of a madman.

If I could solve just one, it’d pull back the curtain on the entire underworld.

“You’re awfully quiet.”

I scanned the wall. Corrupt government officials.

Bermuda Triangle. Vanishing people in Southland.

I suspected they were tied together. Each missed a crucial clue.

Instead, I focused on the most immediate problem.

The government had chosen Vanguard as the staging ground for a program to counteract supers.

Not only did it jeopardize Secret Identities Incorporated, if I was right, it’d put the Coven in jeopardy.

“Connie, I want to focus on the super-soldier program. ”

I first heard rumblings when somebody leaked code online.

I contacted the mole, and he said his employer had taken a special interest in supers.

Not long after, Senator McAfee delivered a passionate speech about Vanguard needing to implement the Superhero Registration Act.

Arthur didn’t know I hacked the senator’s email, but I found the letter demanding access to our database.

Thankfully, Arthur shot it down without a second thought.

“Has there been new information with Senator McAfee?”

“Lucy and I had a virtual meetup yesterday.” Connie could have stolen the information without effort. Instead, she insisted on befriending Senator McAfee’s cell phone. “I noticed he met the CEO of Synergy Research.”

“Ricardo?” Arthur’s boyfriend. In our office building, Secret Identities Inc. took up half of the third floor. The rest of the building housed Ricardo’s company. Much like Arthur, he was one of the good guys… or so I thought.

“Where did they meet?”

“Synergy. The Cage.”

“Dammit.” Connie could scour the security cameras and access microphones on every cellphone in Vanguard. Even in our building, I had her monitor unusual activity. However, the Cage, much like my Dead Zone, couldn’t be penetrated. I knew, because I helped him create it.

“Can you ask Lucy if there were any notes or follow-up meetings? Find out who he talked to immediately after. ”

“I’ll invite her to coffee tomorrow.” I often forgot that Connie existed without a physical body.

Inside the internet, she had a rich and vibrant life.

If I didn’t choose to isolate myself, I might be jealous.

I often wondered who else she mingled with?

Did she and her girlfriends spend their nights at the club, listening to techno and gossiping the night away?

“Not to distract your brooding face?—”

“I’m not brooding,” I snapped back.

“You’re most certainly brooding.” Okay, fine, she knew well enough she didn’t need to see. “I found the ID photo in Synergy’s database for your new… friend.”

“Friend?”

“Huuuuudson.” It was like Janet was in the room. I preferred it when Connie only talked to other computers. “I believe they refer to him as a beefcake. I’d take a bite out of that.”

“Connie, I’m trying to focus on?—”

“Then I tried accessing the video logs.”

She knew how to pique my curiosity. “Go on.”

“The cameras go on the fritz when he walks into the room. I can follow him, but I don’t get a clear picture. There is something about him…”

Connie got on my nerves like only a best friend could, but she’d always be my partner in crime.

Never did she judge my hobby, and more often than not, she brought her own theories to the table.

Whenever we had unanswered questions, we added them to the wall.

It might be nothing worth recording, but we wouldn’t know until we explored it.

It didn’t hurt that it involved a sexy man.

“Do we add him to the wall?” I asked.

A slight humming sounded from the doorway.

I turned to see a drone hovering in the air, careful not to cross into the Dead Zone.

Hanging from a clip, Connie had printed Hudson’s identification photo.

I took the photo, admiring that square jaw and goofy smirk.

If we couldn’t get information about his past from the internet, I’d have to rely on face-to-face recon.

I studied the wall for a moment, not sure where to put his photo.

I doubted he had a role in the alien incursion.

He could be working for a clandestine government agency.

Until I figured out how Ricardo played a role in the senator’s super-soldier theory, I’d set it aside.

I pinned Hudson’s photo in the middle of the board.

Not the most urgent threat. But he’d earned a spot for now.

Maybe I’d find nothing. Or maybe I’d find something that ruined everything.

Out of every curiosity I currently pursued, he was the most handsome.

My curiosity had as much to do with those broad shoulders as it did with the reason I heard Synergy code when we touched.

His determination to record his experiences, and the way he handled Janet…

okay, it had plenty to do with the smile .

Orion, don’t make this personal. Never make the wall personal.

“Settle in, Connie, we have some sleuthing to do.”

“Surprise, surprise.” Computers shouldn’t have a sarcastic tone. I’d lie and say she learned it from Janet. In truth, she picked it up from me long before we took the job at Secret Identities.

“What secrets does our handsome… uh… mysterious… man hold?”

Maybe he was just a guy with a nice smile. Maybe.