Roc wore a black morning coat, a pair of charcoal-colored trousers, a nice white cravat, and the most horrendous bright yellow waistcoat known to man. It fit Roc’s personality, but it was not good for blending in.
Oh well.
Reaching into his morning coat, Payton felt for his mini com-pad and congratulated himself on remembering that he’d brought the smaller folding computer to Englor with him. His regular com-pad would have never been able to fit inside his coat pocket. He made it to the lobby, pleased to find it empty, and headed toward the water closet.
In the washroom, he glanced around to ascertain that there were no cameras or anyone else in the room. Once Roc cleared the door, Payton locked it behind them and pulled his com-pad out of his pocket. This shouldn’t take him long. He’d already studied a map of the building and knew exactly where Markham’s office was in relation to this washroom. He’d bring the cameras down for a minute and a half in order to get there, then bring them back up. That shouldn’t be long enough to cause too much alarm. It would look like a glitch.
“Whoa. What are you—?” Roc shook his head. “Pay, I can’t let you—”
Payton sighed and looked up from his screen. He didn’t want to make Roc mad at him, but he
was
going to break into Markham’s computer. “You can’t stop me, Roc. You can either come with me or go back to your seat, but I’m going.” He hoped his tone was gentle enough not to make Roc mad, but firm enough to let Roc know he meant what he said.
Roc glared at him, his hands going to his waist. He opened his mouth to argue, but Payton held up a hand, stopping him. This was wasting precious time.
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“You can tell Simon I gave you no choice. I’ll take the blame.”
“Right.” Roc snorted. “I’m bigger than you, Pay. I can stop you.”
Payton hated to do it, and he hoped Roc would forgive him, but he looked down his nose at Roc, challenging him. “Can you?”
“Yes.”
“Assuming you can physically stop me.” And Payton wasn’t about to concede the point. He may be more brain than brawn, but he wasn’t without skills. “I’m not above kicking and screaming at the top of my lungs. So you need to decide what you’d rather have to deal with. Me causing a scene the likes you’ve never seen before? Or Si?”
“I— You— Uh—” Roc groaned, then finally his shoulders slumped. “Fine.
Theoretically he didn’t say to stop you, just to watch you.”
“Oh good, a technicality. I love those.” They’d gotten him out of more than one tight spot. Payton looked back at his screen, tapped into the Parliament Building’s camera loop and shut it down. Galaxy, he loved this. It was nice to know things. “Let’s go. Stay close, look inconspicuous and walk fast.” Payton unlocked and opened the door.
Roc stayed right beside him, peering around corners.
Surprisingly they made it to the office without incidence. The corridors were empty, with everyone in the meeting. It was almost too easy.
Pulling his com-pad out of his coat, Payton leaned against the closed door and turned the cameras back on.
“What do you want me to do?” Roc asked.
Shoving off the door, Payton took the cable out of his other pocket and headed toward the big golden oak desk. “Lock the door and look around, see if you can find anything of interest.”
Nodding, Roc went to work searching through file cabinets.
Payton set his com-pad on the desk, then ducked under it to plug into Markham’s computer.
Tap tap tap…
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What is that?
Payton froze, his head still under the desk. It sounded like someone drumming their fingers. Glancing up, he found Roc tapping on top of the file cabinet with one hand and rifling through it with the other. “Shhh…”
“Sorry.” Roc looked at him and winced.
Shaking his head, Payton went back to work. He needed to make an image of everything on the computer. Typing as fast as he could, he got the program up and going.
Now he could read through files as it copied.
Thump, thump, thump…
Roc was tapping his foot on the carpeted floor. The sound was muted and probably no one else could hear it, but…
It was like working with Tarren. The man couldn’t be still to save his life. How had Roc gotten through boot camp without the drill sergeant killing him? “Roc,” Payton whispered. “Stop that.”
Roc froze then turned, giving Payton a glaring view of his hideous bright yellow waistcoat. “I didn’t mean to,” Roc very nearly whined.
Oh yes, he even sounded like Tarren. Payton blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the waistcoat against the dark colors of the rest of Roc’s clothes and the wood bookcases that surrounded the room on three sides. It was worse than the crimson one Roc had worn to the gaming hell. Apparently, the man had the notion that as long as he wore black trousers and jacket, a white shirt and cravat, he could add any color for his waistcoat.
“This shouldn’t take too long. I’m going to look through the files while we’re waiting. I already set up a program that will send me any new information he receives, then we’ll go.” He looked back down at his com-pad, made sure the files were copying and opened the recovery program.
Rrowl, click…
Roc shut the door in the file cabinet. “I was hoping to get to knock someone over the head or something,” he groused.
Scanning down the screen, Payton stopped abruptly.
Vretiel.
He opened the mail and found it was one he’d read before on the IN Intelligence server. Markham was Vretiel.
Markham
was the operative on Englor.
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Closing the mail, Payton skimmed through the rest until he came to a mail titled
Markham,
sent to someone named Michael. Opening it, Payton scanned through what looked to be the Earl of Markham’s genealogy. At the bottom of the note was a short sentence that said,
Markham and heir dispatched, I’m in position
. “He killed the old Earl and his heir and took the heir’s place.”
Roc whirled around. “What?” He came forward and braced his hands on the desk.
“You mean the current Markham?”
“Yes.” Payton kept typing.
“What are you doing, exactly?”
“Taking an image of everything on this workstation, that way I can get deleted mail and such.”
“But if it’s deleted, isn’t it gone?” Roc’s tawny eyebrows rose in surprise, then he began to pace back and forth in front of the door.
Payton shook his head. No way was he going to try and explain this to Roc. When he’d done so to Tarren it had been a circular conversation and in the end Tarren still hadn’t gotten it. “No. But most people don’t know that and even less know how to recover that information.”
“So I shouldn’t put things on my computer I don’t want people to know?”
“Essentially.” Which was why Payton recorded his journal on paper. If he wanted to get rid of it, he’d burn it. Of course he could do the same to his com-pad, he supposed.
“Hrmph.” Roc cracked his knuckles as he rerouted his pacing in front of Markham’s desk. At least he’d stopped tapping his fingers on the file cabinet.
Looking back over the data he was gathering from Markham’s deleted files, Payton spotted the word Regelence. The information was spotty, something about Azrael not knowing Remiel, who was in the castle. Payton frowned. Who the hell was Azrael and Remiel, and why did those names sound familiar? Was one of those Caldwell’s code name? Or was Caldwell’s code name
the valet
?
Azrael, Remiel, Michael and Vretial.
Payton rubbed his temples.
Come on, Pay, where have you heard those—?
Rrowl, screech…
Another file cabinet opened, then there was a clomping noise.
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Jolted out of thought, Payton glanced up. Roc was frozen, staring at the door. The clomping sound wasn’t in the room. It got louder and Payton caught his breath, realizing what it was. Someone was walking down the corridor outside the office.
Roc held his finger to his lips and pointed at the door.
Payton nodded.
The footsteps grew loud like they were right outside the door, and stopped.
Payton’s heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest.
The steps resumed and Payton let out the breath he was holding. He and Roc remained motionless, staring at each other for another few moments, until the footsteps receded to nothing. It took several more seconds after that for Payton’s heart to stop pounding.
Roc went back to searching the file cabinet.
Okay, where was I? Ah. Azrael, Remiel, Michael and Vretial. Angels?
Payton shrugged. Maybe they were demons. He’d have to check when he and Roc got done here.
Not that it really mattered, they were all IN Intelligence code names.
Going back to the com-pad screen, Payton flipped through deleted files again. There were several from Michael. Payton skimmed through them until he saw mention of the queen. He read the words “met with unfortunate accident.”
The bomb?
He searched further, looking for a date. That was the bad thing about recovering deleted data, it didn’t always give you a full picture of the deleted file.
Rrowl, clink…
Roc shut the cabinet door and heaved a sigh.
Payton went back to reading. The date was on the day of the king and queen’s murder.
Good. More possible evidence.
“Got it.”
“What?”
“Reference to the king’s demise.”
Roc smiled. “Are you sure?”
Nodding, Payton looked back at his screen.
“Good. That’s evidence of treason. I’ll have Markham followed when he leaves here.
Maybe we can catch him
and
Baymore, or Caldwell, whatever.”
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Payton was glad to see that Roc was onboard with this mission, but he wanted to argue and tell Roc to have Markham arrested immediately. However, he understood the need to let the IN think Englor was still ignorant of their plans. As far as they’d been able to find out, Baymore had no holdings. No one knew where Caldwell was. And if they could catch Caldwell as well…
Roc was right, they needed to get a hold of Caldwell too. Markham didn’t know they were on to him, so the chances were good he’d lead them to Caldwell.
Payton was actually getting excited. No way was Si going to be able to stay mad in light of this new info. Maybe now he’d stop trying to cut Payton out of the action and realize how much help Payton was.
Out of his peripheral vision, Payton spotted a blur of yellow, black and white.
Galaxy, he hoped they could get out of here unseen. He typed in the word Regelence and started a search. “Good idea. Can you have marines follow him?”
“Yes, Si has a small group that’s been working on this already. I’ll get in touch with them after this.”
Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack…
“Oops.” Roc hurried to still the clacking silver triangles and round gemstone toy on the big oak bookcase across from the desk.
“Roc,” Payton ground out through gritted teeth.
“Sorry.” Roc looked up at him, a blush on his cheeks. “Didn’t know it was going to make noise.”
Payton checked his com-pad to see how much longer the download would take.
Already he had enough evidence to link Markham to the death of the former Earl and the Queen and King of Englor.
Beep.
The program finished. Payton unplugged his cable, shut down Markham’s computer, leaving it like he’d found it, and folded the cable up and stashed it in his coat.
“Done?” Roc asked.
“Yes.” Payton pushed back from the chair and picked up his com-pad. They’d need it to get out of here. He shut off the cameras and tucked the com-pad into his pocket.
Roc hurried to the door and peered out. “The coast is clear.”
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“Okay, lead the way. Walk casually.”
“Gotcha.” Roc opened the door and closed it behind Payton. “I can’t believe how easy that was.”
“Don’t get complacent, it’s not over yet.” And with Roc’s very noticeable waistcoat… Payton hurried his steps. “Stop before we get to the lobby area, and wait till I tell you.”
As they got to the last hallway, voices reached them along with loud applause. It sounded as if the meeting was about over. Suddenly the noise got louder, people talking, their voices growing closer.
“Bloody hell. The meeting let out. Hurry, Pay.”
A guard walked past their hallway.
Dust.
Payton froze. Roc urged him forward. The nervous feeling from earlier returned. How could the guard possibly miss them? Roc’s yellow waistcoat was like a beacon it was so bright.
Someone else passed the hallway, never even looking down it.
Thank Galaxy.
Payton stepped closer to the wall but kept walking like he belonged there. The noise of the crowd dismissing from the auditorium grew louder. Keeping his stride steady, Roc vanished around the corner.
Payton followed him, relieved to see a crowd of men directly in front of them. He and Roc blended in with the crowd and passed the guard that had passed them seconds ago. Another guard came running up to the first, no doubt letting him know the cameras were out. Payton nudged Roc’s arm. “Go.”
“Are you okay? I was supposed to take you back to Si, but—”
“I’m fine. Go. See to Markham. I’ll go find Si.”
Roc nodded and walked away at a fast clip toward the front doors.
Making his way across the crowd, Payton headed toward the auditorium. It was like trying to swim upstream, but he finally made it to a spot where he could stand behind a very large leafy potted plant beside the side door of the auditorium. He looked around and didn’t notice any cameras or guards near, so he took out his computer and brought back up the building’s cameras before quickly tucking his com-pad away again.
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