Chapter 8 No.8

Deep within the stone-walled wine cellar of the estate, the air was cold and still. This was Audie's only sanctuary, a known dead zone for all electronic signals.

She sat on an overturned crate, her back to a rack of priceless Bordeaux. The heavy oak door was bolted from the inside. She pulled her hoodie up and began to peel off the tape from her wrist.

On the screen of her micro-tablet, an encrypted chat window was open. A single blinking cursor waited.

When the ruby bracelet was revealed, she slipped her entire hand into a silver Faraday bag, cutting the signal cold. She had exactly ninety seconds before Basil's system would register an anomaly.

She typed furiously.

The reply from her handler, Leo, was instantaneous.

The text stopped. The implication hung in the digital silence.

Leo typed.

Audie pulled her hand away from the keyboard. The mission is my cover, she thought, but didn't type it. It was too close to a lie.

Leo's text appeared, as if he'd read her mind.

she typed back, her fingers stabbing the screen.

There was a pause.

Leo sent.

Audie felt the blood drain from her face.

she typed, her focus narrowing.

Leo wrote. The dead drop was a hollowed-out brick behind a loose wine rack.

she typed, and terminated the connection.

She re-taped her wrist, pulled her hand from the bag, and slid the tablet back into its waterproof pouch. She had been dark for eighty-two seconds.

She slipped out of the cellar and headed for the main floors. As she reached the top of the service stairs, she froze.

A new red laser grid crisscrossed the hallway. He had upgraded the internal perimeter while she was gone. He hadn't detected her location, but he had detected the signal drop.

She was trapped in the service wing.

She had to find another way back to her room.