Page 15 of Tech Prince Troubles (Runaway Prince Hotel #6)

Chapter Fifteen

ADRI

something's not right

W e did indulge Sam’s espresso craving—and mine—in the end. The rich aroma—he’d insisted on brewing himself—enveloped us from the to-go cups as we sat at the fountain while the sounds of the city faded into a comforting murmur around us.

Energy hummed behind us, subtle and unmistakably magical—the fox and elk guarding the hotel doors. I didn’t speak their language, nor they mine, but I sensed a recognition, an agreement between us. They deemed me friendly, harmless.

While Sam had barely glanced at them earlier, he was fidgeting, forcing himself not to look. I exchanged a glance with them and sensed their reluctance. Message received. It was not my place to speak for them.

I leaned into Sam, enjoying his warmth and the bitterness of the espresso coating my tongue. He wrapped his hand around mine and squeezed. No words were spoken. Instead, we sat in comfortable silence until it was time for him to go.

He pulled me with him as he rose and wrapped his arms around me.

“See you tomorrow,” he whispered in my ear .

“See you tomorrow,” I repeated, wishing I didn’t have to work. Wishing he could stay.

“Have a good shift.”

I smiled. “I will.” How could I not, after he’d set me alight? “Sleep well.” That was what humans wished each other, wasn’t it?

“Oh. I will,” he said with a wink.

Just for that, I let him kiss me goodbye, right there on the plaza.

As I walked to the hub, my entire system felt alive—awake, buzzing—from the kiss.

Kisses. I could still feel the imprint of Sam’s lips against mine.

A soft pressure that sent a thrill through me.

The lingering sweetness of the treats he’d confessed to eating, the sugary notes mingling with the fizzy drinks that sparkled on my tongue. And, of course, espresso.

The hub was empty when I entered and put the box containing the Bakelite rotary phone on my desk. Strange. I pinged Rick, but received a busy signal. Then I pinged Riley.

“Hey, Adri. Bit busy here. Did you need something?”

“There’s no one at the hub, and I can’t reach Rick.”

“Personal issue. He’ll be late. I added it to the schedule.”

Which I should have checked first. I sighed as I found the entry. Wait… “Jim’s marked as on-shift, but he’s not here either.” I assumed he was still ill.

“He was when I came in.”

So, where was he? “I’ll stay here until he’s back.” I wasn’t scheduled to work in the ballroom for another hour.

“Okay. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon. Probably just a toilet break.”

Perhaps. I settled at my desk and unpacked the box, sorting all the elements. Time to put this phone together.

I started by cleaning the inside of the phone, getting rid of any residual dust. Next, I installed the chip and its cradle, making sure it was secure before soldering and connecting the wires.

Only when I smoothed even the tiniest errant spark did I exchange the remaining outdated and broken components for new ones.

After one last cleaning, I put it back together.

I’d been tempted to add more modern features, like a small screen, but all guests would need these phones for was to call the lobby or order room service. Adding Bluetooth capabilities was more than enough.

“No need to make it complicated,” Kin-Bertie would send when my system veered into overengineering.

As I’d been taught from a very young age, I tested every component before and after screwing the bottom plate in place. It gave me the same satisfaction fixing glitches or implementing Frank and our mins’ ideas on major projects did. I couldn’t wait to show Riley.

When I finished programming it half an hour later, I was still alone in the hub. I connected it for testing, as a deep, dissonant hum rattled my system. It seemed to rumble through the floor.

I was already checking for alerts when Jim slammed the door open behind me, mumbling an inaudible greeting as he rounded the desks and sat down.

Confronting him about leaving the hub wasn’t my job. I doubted he’d react well if I commented on it. I’d leave that up to Rick. “Good to see you feeling better.”

“Thanks.” He sounded out of breath.

I found no alerts, but the unsettling hum didn’t let up. No surges either, but that didn’t stop me from asking, “Did we have a short?”

He blinked, a wide-eyed expression on his face, caught midway between guilt and confusion. “No! All systems normal. I was just, you know, helping a new guest with their Wi-Fi and TV.”

That sounded… off, rehearsed. But with this hum crawling un der my skin, whatever was going on with him would have to wait. I got up. “Okay. When Rick comes in, tell him I’m tracing a glitch.”

I left the room without waiting for his reply and followed the dissonant hum toward the lobby. It was harsher here and drew me to the east wing.

“Hey, Adri. Were you looking for me?”

Riley leaned against the ballroom door.

I shook my head. “I’m chasing a glitch.”

“Huh. The lights did flicker earlier.”

In the ballroom? “I’ll run a quick scan.

” Though the hum drew me in a different direction, I couldn’t dismiss the thought it might be related.

I brushed my hand along the ballroom wall.

It seemed calm. But then an erratic spark jumped across my fingers and shot into me.

It had reached my elbow when I ripped my hand from the wall.

“Are you okay?” Riley asked. She hovered in front of me.

I held up my hurting hand to stop Riley from reaching out as the wild energy raged through my body.

She took a step back, concern in her eyes.

I shivered and shook, my vision blurring in and out while my system absorbed and processed the influx. It didn’t last more than a minute, but it felt like hours. My body relaxed, and I took deep breaths. Then I saved the readings—from the wall and my system—to study later.

“Can I touch you now?” Riley asked, but didn’t wait for my answer. She pushed me into a chair she must have dragged out of the ballroom.

“Thank you,” I breathed out, my voice thin and reedy.

“What the fuck was that?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But that wasn’t the glitch I was chasing.”

“Whatever that was, you’re not touching the wall again until we’ve scanned it. That was scary. You looked like you were having a seizure.” She pushed something into my hands. A battery.

Clamping my hands around it, I smiled. It wasn’t much, but I appreciated that Riley thought it might help.

“Can I help you check that glitch you were chasing?”

“No. Thank you.” It was probably too late now.

“Okay. You keep hold of that battery, and I’ll let Rick know you’re on your way back to the hub and need a break before tackling the ballroom.” She helped me up. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

How could I promise that? I nodded anyway.

I meant to go to the hub, but as I passed the corridor into the east wing, I picked up the hum again.

It had faded to a trickle but still pulled at me, leading me to the old elevator.

The one Layla had told me was out-of-bounds.

I’d avoided it, had blocked its noise from my system… but I couldn’t ignore this.

I stopped and froze. A vaguely familiar figure stood near the elevator.

Tall, impressive, with olive skin and dark curls, dressed in ’80s pastel-colored human fashion.

It was the clothing that threw me off, but when I studied him closer, I realized why he seemed familiar.

He was from the underworld. I’d never met any myself, but there were stories about Niren selling their souls to find their way back home…

I shuddered and wanted to turn away… but he smiled at me—a surprisingly genuine smile, friendly even.

“Good evening. I’m Zagreus. Which floor can I take you to?”

I blinked. “I… there… I’m Adri, from IT.”

“Ah. Yes. Layla did warn me about you, Niren. You’re not allowed access to my systems.”

“I know. But… there was dissonance, and?—”

“The brakes needed oiling. I took care of it. Nothing for you to worry about.”

While Zagreus’s tone was friendly, I read a warning in his posture. “Next time you’re free, come find me, and I’ll take you up to the roof. The views are quite spectacular there.”

“Perhaps,” I replied as I took a step back. “Next time.”

“I’ll be here,” he said with a wink.

Bewildered—and frustrated about chasing a problem I wasn’t allowed to fix—I returned to the hub, where Rick stood waiting for me.

He pointed at my hands. “Riley told me what happened. How are you doing?”

I glanced down. The battery. I was still holding it. I put it on the nearest table and ran a quick scan of my systems. Not quite there, a bit frazzled, but far from depleted. “I’m okay.”

“Good. We’ve got three burned-out circuits on the second floor and two on the third. You up for it?”

I pushed any thoughts of the elevator out of my system. It was a different system. Not our problem. “When did that happen?”

“Around the same time as your incident, I’m guessing.”

The timing was suspect. “Give me a moment.” I connected to the server and compared my readings to the log. I turned to ask Jim, but he wasn’t there. “Where’s Jim?”

“Out on a call. He did say you were chasing a glitch. Anything I should know?”

“Busy night for him.” Something about that didn’t sit well with me. Neither did the log, but I didn’t want to tell Rick my suspicions until I was certain.

“Yeah. I really thought we finally had a grip on it. So, sparks jumped out of the wall?”

He made it sound like fun. My system disagreed. “I got zapped. Yes.” And now there were glitches on the floors above the ballroom? “Those burned-out circuits might be related. Touching the wall might have deflected the flow.”

“Lucky us.” Rick sighed as he checked his tablet. “More glitches to fix.”

I doubted luck was involved. My readings showed there was something off about that energy. That didn’t just happen.

“I’m going to have to wait for Jim to return. You want the second or third floor?”

“Before I go… that glitch Jim told you I was chasing… it was the old elevator.” I held up a hand to stop Rick from interrupting.

“You don’t have to tell me; Layla made it pretty clear it’s off-limits.

I picked up a dissonance. Perhaps I should have realized when I couldn’t tell where it came from, but I had to check it out. ”

“Right.” He crossed his arms. “And you’re mentioning it because?”

“I thought you should know, in case someone complains about it.” No need to tell him about meeting the elevator operator. “I’ll take the second floor.”

“Gotcha,” Rick said as he handed me a toolkit. “And thanks for the heads-up.”

Once I reached the second floor of the west wing, I tried to lose myself in the repairs. I scanned and rewired the affected rooms, but the lingering sense of something being off about that log still bothered me.

It had been tampered with; I was sure of that, even if the only visible proof was a j at the end of a sentence. At first glance, I thought it was a typo. I’d dismissed another stray j in a different log for the same reason. But two of them? In different logs? That couldn’t be a coincidence.

As I replaced broken components, I scanned the logs for any sign of similar typos. By the time the energy flow on the second floor was back to normal, I’d found four more tampered logs.

The typos had to be an oversight, but they hinted at something much bigger. Whoever had messed with these logs knew what they were doing.