Page 111 of The Prize

In a blur, I left the hotel and caught a taxi back to our Manhattan home that had been our refuge, the place where the seeds of our plan had been sown and now I regretted not talking Wilder out of it.

After hurrying into the drawing room, I pressed my palm to get access to Tobias’s workshop. The door opened and I was let in. I sprinted down the ramp and between his workbenches and made a beeline for Jade. She sat on her charger.

“Jade, I need you. Wake up.” I tapped the top of her.

The drone rose from her base and hovered before me as that green power light flickered on.

“Tobias is in trouble. Do you understand? You have to help me find him. Can you do that? I need you to help me find his equipment. This is an emergency.”

Jade floated off toward the back of the workshop—all the way toward a chrome door.

“Open it,” I ordered.

It clicked and the door swung wide and I stepped through—

What the hell?

Lined up along the left-hand wall was a row of fifteen drones, and all of them looked exactly the same as Jade. Why would he need so many? The door slammed shut behind me, sending me into blackness. Arms out, I made my way toward the door.

It was locked.

“No.” I slammed my palms against the chrome. “Open the door.”

In a flash of inspiration, I remembered Jade, the one on the other side of that damn door, could track Tobias with his wristwatch. I’d seen him talk directly into it and give orders to Jade back in Arizona. Tobias was connected to that drone.

I turned and with outstretched arms fumbled for one of the other drones resting on that chrome shelf and hoped to God they worked. I tapped the first one I came to. “Wake up.”

A green light flickered on the front.

“Make me a coffee.” I said the first thing I could think of.

Within the darkness there came the humming of the drone lifting. A green light floating in the dark and I followed it. There came a click and light flooded in from the open door. I burst out, following the drone, with panic reaching a fever pitch at the time I was wasting. It headed away and up the ramp.

I ran to Jade. “Tobias needs you.” I bit back my anger.

She hovered past me and into the room, and when she reappeared she was dragging a duffel bag. I knelt and unzipped it and peered in at the climbing gear, tool kit, a flashlight and all the gadgets a thief might need. Jade hadn’t locked me in there on purpose. She’d wanted me to find this and the door had shut by accident.

“This is good.” I stared up at her. “Follow me.”

Inside the satellite tracking room, I studied the control panel. “Turn this on, Jade.”

The screen lit up. “Connect to Wilder’s wristwatch, Jade.”

The images flipped from one screen to another until I saw New York projected via a satellite image in a gray-and-white blur.

I tried to make out what I was looking at. “Show me where Wilder is at this very second, Jade.”

The screen zeroed in until a small dot moved along Interstate 81.

“Is that Tobias?” I snapped my gaze back at the screen.

The image went blank.

“No, no, no.” I held my hands together in a prayer. “Where did it go?”

“Hey, sweetheart.” It was Tobias’s face enlarged on the screen and he was staring at me. He looked well with no sign of injury or expression of distress or anything to hint something was off...

“Tobias, where are you?”