A thin white beam flashed down the hall before a shadow turned a corner and came toward our room. I motioned to the others to be silent and pressed back against the door. Riley and Mist ducked behind the desk, Riley hiding the phone in his jacket to snuff out the light, and we held our breath as a human passed in front of the windows. His shadow slid over the blinds, and his footsteps knocked against the tile floor as he went by, not slowing, and faded away into the dark.

I slumped in relief as the other two popped out from behind the desk, Riley snarling quietly into his phone again.

“That’s what I said. I need you to hack into Talon’s computers and...” He paused, frowning. “Dammit, Wes. What do you want me to... Hang on.” He pressed a button on the phone and placed it on the desk. “All right,” he whispered, sliding into the desk chair. “What do you need on our end?”

“Bloody hell, Riley,” came Wes’s voice over the speakerphone, sounding harried. “All right, listen. First, you’ll have to open the browser and go to this IP address. That will download an exploit that will grant me access to—”

“On a time limit, Wesley,” Riley growled. “Don’t need an explanation, just give me the damn address.”

“Right. Hang on, then.” He rattled off a list of numbers, and for a moment, the sound of tapping keys filled the silence of the room. I turned back to the window and peered through the blinds, searching for the guard. On the phone, Wes and Riley muttered back and forth for a few tense moments before Wes gave a triumphant grunt.

“I’m in. Found the file.” He paused a moment, his next words begrudgingly impressed and eager at the same time. “Well, that is a nasty encryption, isn’t it? I’ve just the thing for you.”

A flashlight beam cut through the hall again, and I motioned everyone to get down. We dove behind cover and held our breath as the guard passed by once more, but this time stopped to shine his flashlight through the cracks in the blinds. I flattened myself to the wall, holding my breath, until the light dropped from the window and the guard moved on once more.

Riley sat up, hissing into the phone. “Wes!”

“Hold your bloody horses. These things take time.”

“We’re sitting in the middle of a Talon office building, surrounded by people who want to beat the crap out of us, then kill us. We don’t have time.”

“Got it!” Wes’s voice rang with triumph. “I’m in. There, your damn file is unlocked. So, what’s so bloody important that you had to...oh...”