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Chapter 1

Lila had everything under control

She padded silently into Senator Edward Serrano’s office, pulling the door closed without a sound She had not chosen the man or his office randomly The puffed-up politician favored oversized leather furniture and velvet drapes Both would provide Lila with plenty of cover if a patrolling guard peeked inside She wasn’t worried about being found, though Her partner had carefully ti to Tristan, she would have at least twenty minutes to steal the files and withdraw from the Bullstow compound

Flush with tie and opened a bottle of Saveur, taking several deep gulps of the expensive beer It tasted lightly of vanilla and smoke and money A lot of money She slid the bottle cap into her trouser pocket and let her fingers skate over the slick wooden box on his desk She didn’t need to open it to knoas inside, for the hout the office

After pocketing a few cigars, she tossed her black peacoat upon the senator’s desk The heating would not be turned on again for another hour or two, but she was glad to be rid of the coat despite the chill It was a cover of poverty she was unaccustoht that barely flowed past her hips

Shivering, she tossed her frayed newsboy cap and the therray shirt and trousers would come next, followed by her stiff work boots, which had already worn blisters into her heels She could have done the entire job in her ther seen on therh-end thief if anyone saw it

Lila took another swig of Saveur and plucked the senator’s laptop froan her second break-in of the evening

Tapping quietly on the keys, Lila tried theinto the senator’s laptop was the only part of her plan that she had not accounted for Perhaps she was getting sloppy, but these jobs had begun to feel too routine, too h to counter the drudgery of her day job Perhaps she’d partnered with Tristan for too long, and his irresponsibility had rubbed off on her

Yes, she thought, narrowing her brown eyes It was probably Tristan’s fault in some way

Lila typed yet another permutation of the word Odin—the in screen She hoped for the sake of her government that Serrano’s passould not be so simple, but those hopes were dashed on her fourth atteram

She was in

Brushing her dark curls from her eyes, Lila scanned the senator’s desktop She spied a folder entitled Toys, but on this occasion she chose not to trespass against Senator Serrano’s privacy He had nearly two dozen children, after all, and at this tiift list for the Winter Solstice If it wasn’t so innocent, she knew she didn’t want to see what the folder ht contain

Instead, Lila logged into the senate’s network under Prolix, the usernararams to hide her activities and to keep an eye out for snoops, and she updated them often While they ran, she set the entire BIRD to back up on her star drive, a slice of memory the size of her knuckle She then leaned back into the cushions of the couch and checked her watch The guards would not patrol the second floor for another twenty minutes She still had plenty of time

A light on her snoop program flashed red

Lila sat up instantly and put down her beer She squinted at the snoop’s user ID Her progranize it, which meant that the account was fake If soht have just arht in the Bullstow co files fro files froman’s noose