Wes gave a frustrated sigh. “Right. Well, be careful, Riley. If you hear me screaming, you’ll know something’s up.”

Warily, Ember and I made our way across the lot. The NewTech lab remained eerily silent as we edged up the steps to the main entrance. I scanned every corner and wall of the building for cameras, alarms, motion sensors, anything. But, like the rest of the lot, it was disturbingly empty.

Two large glass doors sat at the top of the steps, unbroken and locked. I reached into my jacket lining for the picks I always carried and easily jimmied the lock open, with Ember watching curiously over my shoulder.

“You’re good at that,” she remarked as the mechanism clicked under my fingers. “I keep forgetting you have breaking and entering down to an art form.” I grinned at her.

“It’s what I do, Firebrand. That and blowing up buildings.” Carefully, I pulled the door open, and we picked our way into the lobby. I scanned the walls and floors for bullet holes, grenade burns, pools of dried blood, telltale signs of trigger-happy St. George soldiers. But, aside from being dark and abandoned, the place was almost pristine. A large white welcome counter sat against the back wall, dusty models of prosthetic limbs set out on display. I saw Ember shiver and wrinkle her nose at them. Brochures were scattered across the tile floor, rustling underfoot as we walked.

“Everything looks pretty normal,” Ember remarked, picking up one of the brochures and flipping it open. “Creepy dismembered limbs aside. No signs of the Order, anyway. Or Talon.”

I walked to the welcome counter, taking everything in. “No computer,” I mused, seeing the spot where a computer would have rested. Ember followed my gaze and frowned.

“Stolen?”

“Maybe. Given everything we’ve seen so far, though, not likely. Nothing else has been touched, and prosthetics are damned expensive for thieves to leave behind. Talon probably took it themselves.”

“So we won’t be able to see what this place really is.”

“Not here,” I agreed. This was just the front, to keep up appearances. I glanced down a corridor that snaked off into the darkness. “We’ll have to go deeper if we want to find what they’ve really been up to.”

As I suspected, the first floor held nothing interesting. Ember and I passed offices filled with desks and chairs and models of prosthetic limbs sitting on display. Like they were trying overly hard to appear legit, that everything here was as it seemed. As we went farther into the building, however, I began to notice the inconsistencies.

There were no computers, anywhere, in the rooms. No security cameras in the halls. No files scattered among the brochures and envelopes on the ground. Anything that would hold any bit of information concerning the building or the business was gone. And I realized why the grounds out front had been completely empty.

“This place has been cleaned,” I said.

“Oh?” Wes said in my ear, sounding wary. “Well, that’s bloody suspicious. Not surprising, though, considering this is a Talon business.”

Ember glanced at me, frowning. “What does that mean?”

“It means that Talon has erased all the information regarding this facility,” I replied. “Computers, files, even the security cameras. Anything that showed what went on here has been stripped and taken away or destroyed.”

Her eyes gleamed in the dim light, and she gave a thoughtful nod. “Which means they’re definitely hiding something.”

“Yeah,” I growled. “Let’s keep searching.”

We continued farther into the building, passing more of the same. Silent, abandoned rooms and darkness. None of the elevators worked, but through a pair of doors that read Employees Only Beyond This Point, a flight of metal stairs led down into the unknown.

Motioning Ember to stop, I stepped back into the hall. “Wes,” I said, “we found the stairs down. Everything still okay out there?”

“Pretty much,” was the terse reply. “I still don’t like this, Riley, have I mentioned that before? Poking around Talon’s territory is always risky, even if this place is abandoned. You two almost done in there?”

“Almost. Nothing interesting up top, but I want to keep searching.” Opening the door again, I peered down the stairwell, seeing it vanish into the dark. “If Talon is hiding something here, it won’t be out in the open,” I said, my voice echoing down the shaft. “We’re heading to the lower floors now. Just keep watching the building.”

“Roger that,” Wes sighed, and I stepped into the stairwell and turned on my flashlight.