Page 71 of The Wicked

I took it out. It was a black cylindrical box. “Is this filled with water?”

“Nope, just an illusion of what water should feel like,”Upper said.“Water would work just fine too, but this device is more effective with sound and resistance recognition.”

“Place it on top of the box,”Milk said.“You’re looking for a light click, two resisting clicks, three thick clicks, and one light click to get it open.”

“Twelve minutes,”Devil’s voice cut through.

I got to work, picking the lock with the instruction Milk provided. It took two minutes to hear the final click and get the vault open. “I’m in.”

“Ten minutes.”

I rushed into the vault, seeing the sensored safe in the middle of the room, big enough to hold the painting. I looked up at the vent and grinned. “Hey, Upper, what are you doing up there?”

“You know, just, hanging around,” he said as I went to the vent-lock key swipe by the side, digging through my purse for the key card I’d nicked off the kind guard who let me into the hallway. I swiped the card and the vent gate pushed open on its own.

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand technology. In my days, vents were pegged tight with screws.”

Upper jumped down, landing on his feet as he opened the laptop in his grip. “You’re twenty-six, not sixty-eight,” he said, typing furiously on the keyboard.

“Seven minutes,” Devil called out.

“Hacking into the systems now… lucky for us, I recognize this build, it might take a few—oh.” Upper scoffed as he typed. “It’s either this painting is worth nothing or the people who built this system didn’t care enough to make this challenging—security alarms disabled, password, 556745.”

I typed that into the safe lock; it clicked and I twisted it open and—

“What the bloody fuck?” Upper said, staring at the same thing my eyes were locked on.

“What is it?”Milk asked, alarmed.

“It’s empty,” I said, my shoulders slumping.

“Fuck, you think someone got to it before us?”Dog asked.

“We’re the only ones hunting this thing, right?”The wariness in Milk’s voice didn’t escape me.

“The client was vague with their email. They didn’t exactly give anything away, just that we needed to get it,” Upper informed.

“It’s 9:49, Zahra,”Devil said.“You have to leave that vault in three minutes.”

I stood there, at a loss for words. “I don’t know what to do, maybe we should—”

“Sport.”

I turned immediately, seeing Elio standing by the vault door. “Let’s go,” he said.

I frowned. “It’s empty, I can’t just—”

“You”—he gestured to Upper—“back up the vent you crawled in from. I bought your team some time—if you want to leave, now’s the chance.” Then he looked at me. “You, follow me,” he said, turning and walking out of the vault.

“What the fuck is he doing? You can’t leave without that painting,”Dog said.

Upper had his eyes on me, waiting for instruction.

I sighed. “Go, I’ll handle this.”

He nodded, shutting the laptop and going his own way.

I rushed out of the vault, shutting it behind me.