I had no privacy. With no way to contact the outside for help and no way to maneuver without being observed, getting a word in with Quanta would be near impossible.

But I’m in. My fingers drummed against the desk. Danger or not, I was impatient to get started.

I had to steal every piece of information I could get. What Doctor Nagi’s top teams were researching. The weaknesses in his serum formulas. Anything that would give the Ravens an edge.

If I could help Quanta, then even better.

Whether it took days or years, I was ready to get to work.

A short knock broke my musing and the door slid open. “Orpheus?” A man in a white lab coat strode in and I had him read in ten seconds. Late twenties. Not Seligo yet, but his unnatural green eyes screamed mod and the straight bridge of his nose wasn’t the one he’d been born with. Thick cologne. A good build under his lab coat—he worked out when he wasn’t on duty. And confidence in the set of his shoulders as he extended a hand. “I’m Darren Waldman. Your supervisor.”

I returned his firm handshake. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He stepped back into the corridor. “Let’s walk. The noob bunks are fucking claustrophobic.”

Couldn’t argue that. “You’re bunked elsewhere?”

“Obviously. Senior research staff have much nicer digs.” Darren shot me a condescending smirk. “Not that you’ll be around long enough to see the other side.”

I clenched my jaw. Not one minute and he already needed a whirlwind kick to the throat. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”

“Too bad you’re on Quanta’s case. Fifty percent of staff assigned to her drop out the first week. Fifty percent of the rest don’t last a month.” He placed his hand on the pad at the lift and the doors slid open. We stepped inside and he punched a button. Purple floor. The buttons weren’t numbered, and I’d already been on enough rides to know they weren’t placed sequentially on the panel.

Until I’d gone to each floor—which I didn’t have clearance to do—there’d be no way to know which buttons went up or down or where they were in relation to ground level. Darren leaned against the paneling as the lift whirred, relaxed in his domain. “Though the perks are sweet if you can stick it out.” Going by his tone, he didn’t expect me to survive the afternoon, but I swallowed my irritation.

“Why would anyone run?” Washing out wasn’t an option for me, but I wouldn’t, even without the raised stakes. The facilities I’d seen thus far were top of the line from the surveillance to the ventilation to the locks on the doors. If anyone wanted to pursue science, this was the place to do it.