“Under no circumstances are you to tell anyone about this, is that understood?” he said, his voice low and firm. We nodded, and he put a hand on the doorknob then pulled the door back with a creak.
I blinked. Instead of a bathroom, a long, narrow tunnel stretched away into the darkness. The walls and floor were rough cement, not natural stone or earth, so someone had obviously built this, maybe as an escape route. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Our old “school,” the place Dante and I had grown up, had several secret exits, in case we were ever attacked by our ancient enemies, the Order of St. George.
We never had been; I’d never seen a soldier of St. George except in pictures, but there were surprise “emergency escape practice runs”
every month or so, just in case.
“Tomorrow morning, I expect you both to be here at six fifteen sharp. Now listen, you two. Where you are going, and what happens when you get there, is strictly confidential. This tunnel doesn’t exist—
do not mention it to anyone. In fact, from the time you step through this door until whenever you return, you are to speak to no one outside the organization, for any reason. Leave your phones at home—
they won’t be necessary where you’re going. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Dante said immediately, but I wrinkled my nose, staring down the tunnel to where it vanished into the dark. A hidden passageway in our own basement? What other secrets were hiding in these walls, I wondered. And was this level of paranoia normal for Talon, or were Dante and I special for some reason?
Curiosity flared, and I stepped forward, but Liam quickly shut the door again, locking me out. I frowned and watched the key vanish into his pocket, wondering if he would ever leave it sitting unattended on a dresser. It would probably be too much trouble to “borrow” the key and slip down the passageway alone, especially if I just had to wait till tomorrow to find out where it went. Still, I was curious.
“Where does the tunnel go?” I asked as he shooed us up the stairs again.
Liam grunted. “There is no tunnel,” he said briskly as we stepped into the kitchen. “This is a perfectly normal household.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. The nonexistent secret passageway that we’re not supposed to talk about, I get it. Where does it go?”
“You’ll see tomorrow.”
And I did. The next morning, I hurried downstairs with Dante to find the door already unlocked for us. Pulling it open with a creak, I peered into the corridor, lit sparsely with bare bulbs every twenty or so feet, then grinned back at my brother.
“Do you think it’ll take us to a secret underground cave full of dragons and treasure?”
He smirked. “What is this, a Tolkien novel? I very seriously doubt it.”
“You’re no fun at all.”
We followed the straight, narrow passageway for maybe three blocks, until it ended at a flight of stairs with another simple wooden door at the top. Eager and curious, I pushed it open, but there was no looming cavern beyond the frame, no circle of dragons waiting for us, no bustling, underground facility with computer terminals lining the walls.
Through the door sat a clean but very plain looking garage. It had cracked cement floors, no windows, and was wide enough to hold at least two vehicles. The double doors were shut, and the shelves lining the walls were filled with normal garage-y things: tools and hoses and old bike tires and such. Not counting the secret tunnel we’d just come through, it was disappointingly normal in every way.
Except, of course, for the pair of black sedans already humming in the center of the carport.
The driver’s doors opened, and two men stepped out, dressed in identical black and white suits with dark glasses. As one, they turned and opened each of their passenger doors, then stood beside the cars, hands folded in front of them, waiting.
I eyed the men warily. “I guess we’re supposed to go with you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of them answered, staring straight ahead.
I suppressed a wince. I hated being called “ma’am.” “And, there’s two of you because…?”
“We’re to drive you to your destinations, ma’am,” the human answered, as though that was obvious. Though he still didn’t look at me. I blinked.
“Separately?”
“Yes, ma’am. That is correct.”
I frowned. Dante and I never did anything separately. All our classes, schoolwork, activities, events, everything, had been done together. I didn’t like the idea of my brother being taken away in a strange car with a strange human to a place I knew nothing about.
“Can’t we drive there together?” I asked.
“I’m afraid that is impossible, ma’am.” The human’s voice was polite but firm. “You are not going to the same place.”
Even more wary now, I crossed my arms, but Dante stepped up behind me, brushing my elbow. “Come on,” he whispered as I glanced at him. “Don’t be stubborn. Talon ordered this—we have to do what they say.”
I sighed. He was right; if Talon had set this up, there was nothing I could do. “Fine,” I muttered, and looked back at the drivers.
“Which car is mine?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter, ma’am.”
Before I could reply, Dante stepped around me, walked over to one of the cars, and slid into the back. His driver briskly shut the door, walked around to his side, and shut his own door behind him.
That left me. Swallowing a growl, I walked to the remaining car, ignoring my driver, and plopped into the back seat. As the garage doors lifted and we backed out into the sunlight, I turned to watch the other car, hoping for a final glimpse of my brother in the back seat. But the windows were tinted, and I couldn’t see him as the sedans pulled onto the road and sped away in opposite directions.
The drive was short, and silent. I knew better than to ask where we were going. Resting an elbow on the door, I gazed out the window, watching the town flash by, until we pulled into the parking lot of a plain looking office building. It was several stories high, with lots of dark glass windows that reflected the cloudless sky.
The driver pulled around the building and came to a stop in front of a loading dock in the back. The metal door was tightly sealed, but an entryway stood open beside it, dark and beckoning. I sighed.
Leaving the car and the driver, who still said nothing to me, I walked into the building and followed the long tile hallway until I came to an open door at the end. Beyond the frame was an office, with a metal stool sitting in front of an enormous wooden desk. a plush leather chair swiveled as I came in, and the blond woman in black Armani smiled at me across the floor.