Getting to my feet, I rushed to the bookshelf and searched through the things that Brent kept on it instead of books. Nothing was there. I opened the drawers and his closet, digging through his things, but I didn’t find any answers there. My next stop was the bed, but there wasn’t anything in the pillows and the covers.

Lifting the mattress, I pulled at it until it was on the floor. Something black was peeking out from under the bed boards, and I realized that one was loose, so I picked it up and tossed it to the floor. The black edge I’d seen belonged to a box, and I grabbed it. Settling myself in the chair that was across from the bed, I placed the box on my lap and opened it.

The first thing I saw was a phone, probably the one Brent had used to contact the Desaltis. When I tried to turn it on, it asked for a password and fingerprint. I put the phone back down. Maybe Meg would be able to hack into it. There was also a syringe and a small bottle of some kind of a drug.

What the hell? Since there wasn’t anything else in the box, I closed it and decided to take it with me. After getting my phone, I texted Petra to come to the tech office and hoped Meg or Felipe would be there too. They were the ones who could provide me with the answers that I was desperately looking for.

Before I reached the door, I turned around and looked at the mess I’d made of Brent’s room. Why had he betrayed me? What had the Desaltis offered him that he couldn’t have here? How long had this thing between them been going on? If I’d let him live and demanded an explanation, I was sure he would’ve never told me the truth but would’ve tried to convince me to believe his lies.

I unlocked the door and hurried outside.

***

“OH GOD, I STILL CAN’T believe he did that,” Meg said as she typed something on her computer. “How did we not see it? How did he even use this thing and bypass my protection?” Her brow furrowed. “Wait, I think I know how. Son of a bitch.”

“What?” I said when she remained silent.

“He must have given his phone to the Desaltis’ tech guy, and they made a phone that could be used to send texts from here but in a way so that no one would be able to detect its signal. His phone was like a ghost hiding on my network, and he was using it without me knowing about it.” She curled her lip. “I can’t believe he’d give our enemy access to our technology! The technology I helped design.”