The elevator reached his floor and he got off. To avoid raising suspicions any further, he actually kept the appointment – talking to an agent for half an hour about his insurance needs (he had many, apparently), while mentally scanning the floors above.

Angels, all right – more than he could count. And some of their energy was stronger than anything he’d ever encountered, hitting him like a physical slap.

On his way out, Alex had asked where the restroom was and then went wandering, keeping an innocent, slightly distracted look on his face. In a distant corner he’d found the door for the stairwell and started to push it open. A woman coming out of another office stopped him, flashing an apologetic smile. “No, no, Señor – don’t go out this way. You can’t get back into any of the floors without a code.”

Alex had the heavy fire door half-open by then; glancing at the outside of it, he saw it had a digital keypad for a lock. “Sorry, wrong door,” he said, smiling like a clueless gringo and letting it swing shut again. “Could you tell me where the restroom is, Señora?”

Now, standing in the target range with the team clustered around the table, Alex explained what had happened as he spread out the two blueprints he’d managed to get hold of. One showed the Torre Mayor’s top floor – which unfortunately was depicted as an almost empty area; the VIP suites and meeting rooms seemed to have been added at a later date.

“The Council’s definitely still up there,” said Alex, tapping the plans for the top floor.

“I thought so,” said Willow softly, her red-gold spikes framing her face as she took in the blueprints. She and Seb stood next to each other. Alex tried to squelch his slight irritation; though Seb had only been here two days, he already stuck to Willow like glue.

The others shifted as Willow spoke, glancing warily at the pair of them. Alex knew that half the team thought the two half-angels must have known each other before, somehow. It bothered him, but he didn’t know how to combat it. He couldn’t order them to trust Willow and Seb.

“That top floor just feels...dangerous,” Willow added. She looked up at Seb, who nodded.

“It feels like a place where something will happen,” he said in his quiet voice. Frowning slightly, he touched the symbol for the service elevator – then slid his finger across to the same icon on the other blueprint, which detailed the ground floor. “Here too, I think.” He circled the service elevator with his fingertip.