Ambrose dove into the lab as quickly as humanly possible, leaving Eli to fend for himself in the kitchen. He set his shoulders back, bracing for some kind of talking-to from Grim. After all, he had managed to seduce their…boss? Co-worker? Semi-adopted, fully grown, blue-haired son?

Surely the security lead would have a few…words for him.

“Good, you’re up,” Grim grunted as soon as he strode into the kitchen. “Come on, perimeter check with Banneker.”

“What?”

Before Eli could even grab a muffin, Grim shoved a camo-patterned jacket into his chest and slapped a baseball cap onto his head. Bleary-eyed Banneker was already on the porch in a similar outfit, energy drink in one hand, toolbox on the other. His Hawaiian shirt, kelly green this time, stuck out under the brown camo.

“Ah.” Eli nodded slowly as he shrugged on the heavy jacket. He didn’t think Banneker would necessarily be involved in the talking-to, but that was alright. “Don’t wanna talk about it with Ames in earshot. I get it.”

Grim frowned as they opened the porch door. “Talk about what?”

Eli paused with his arm halfway through a sleeve. “Um…about…oh, we’re actually doing a perimeter check?” Banneker held up the toolbox. “Cool. Yeah, great.”

He grabbed a muffin and stuffed it into his mouth before he could say anything else.

#

Between Grim’s usual silence, Banneker’s half-asleep trudge, and Eli’s desire not to dig himself into unnecessary holes, the first half of the hike passed by peacefully. Eli found himself enjoying the satisfying crunch of the autumn leaves under his shoes and the birdsong that accompanied the chilly morning breeze. When Banneker and Grim stopped at their perimeter cameras to check the signal and wiring, their mumblings to each other remained soft, hardly breaking the dewy frost in the air.

It wasn’t until Banneker pulled out his phone and grinned at something when they finally left the quiet part of the hike behind.

“Hey, Eli.” He held out his phone. “So I was talking to Dawn last night…”

It took Eli a second to adjust to the chaotic chat system on screen before latching onto Dawn’s name, and the screaming text that came after it.

TELL HIM TO TELL ME EVERYTHING

RIGHT NOW

“You didn’t.” Eli gaped and looked up at Banneker. “You told her?”

“What? She was asking me about it, and you don’t have a phone. She’ll probably try to call in a few hours, bug you for the details or something.” Banneker shrugged as he took back the phone. “I don’t really get it, I don’t go in for any of that stuff.”

Eli groaned. “She’s gonna lord it over me for the rest of my life.”

“She was going to do that anyway,” Grim said ahead of them. Though Eli could only see the back of their shoulders, he swore they were smiling. “I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with you two staring at each other anymore.”

This was far worse than the stern lecture Eli was expecting. He twisted to look back at the cabin, but they were far too far away to see it. If he tried to run back now, he’d get lost.

“It’s all fine, Valenz,” Grim continued. “We support you both.”

“Yeah.” Banneker nudged Eli’s arm, his grin sincere. “All good, man.”

Before Eli could mumble out a thank-you, Grim came to a stop, leaves swirling around their feet. “Banneker, we approaching number twelve?”

“Fifteen yards ahead.”

“Eli, hit the lights on your hat.”

“The what?” Eli frowned and took off the cap to inspect it. A small line of lights were nestled between the base of the hat and the brim, with a tiny button off to the side. It was a simple enough trick intended to flare out a camera’s view of their faces—but the why of it didn’t add up for him. “We, uh, hiding from our own cameras?”

“Not ours.” Banneker’s eyes flitted from tree to tree. “Camera twelve’s feed went out yesterday. Gotta make sure it wasn’t done to draw us out here.”

Eli tensed immediately, his own gaze swiveling between the branches. The level, sparse forest here wouldn’t be an ideal place for an ambush—Grim already knew that, or else they’d be armed—but it would be the perfect place for a tiny counter-camera, meant to pick up the elusive identities of Beake’s crew as they wandered out to fix the feed.

Eli slowed down behind Grim as Banneker slid away the phone chat and pulled up an app that was twice as chaotic.

“Any signals?” Grim whispered. Banneker shook his head.

“Not picking up on anything.”

“Good.” Grim nodded to a camera lodged in a tree trunk. “Go ahead and check twelve.”

“Wait.” Eli grabbed Banneker’s arm. “Let me check around it first.”

“Why?”

“To see if there’s a trap.” Eli pointed to the thick layer of leaves around the roots. “If they catch me, it’s fine. They already know who I am. But you’re not on their register, and we need to keep it that way.”

Banneker looked to Grim, who paused, then nodded.

Eli shuffled forward, nudging the leaves aside with his foot, his eyes honed in on anything that wasn’t a leaf, root, or soil. Any hint of metal, or plastic, or—

The toe of his shoe bumped into a thin black object, and he jolted back on instinct. Grim and Banneker froze behind him.

“Valenz—“

“Hold on.” He held up a stiff hand, then rustled around in the leaves behind him for a stick. “Let me just…” He poked the object. Nothing. No movement, no spark of electricity.

Holding his breath, he carefully dug the stick under it and lifted it up. The thing draped lifelessly over the edge of the twig and gave no resistance when he pulled harder. As one end finally lifted free of the leaves, Eli followed the other end up to…

He sighed and plucked up the broken wire for camera twelve. Tiny bite marks littered the messy, severed end hanging from his hand.

“All clear.” He held up the wire for the others to see. “Camera twelve tastes good, apparently.”

They gave a simultaneous exhale and moved forward, Banneker already rummaging in his toolbox for a replacement wire.

“Don’t freak me out like that,” he muttered as he took the offending object from Eli’s hand. “What would Ambrose say if we took you into the woods and didn’t bring you back?”

Eli grimaced. “Yeah, the optics wouldn’t be great.”

Grim clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Just stay intact for a few more camera checks, and we’ll all live to see another day.”