“Working on it,” was the terse reply, just as a faint beep sounded from the door handle. “Okay. You’re clear.”

We entered, and I looked around a small dark room. It was filled with gray totes, wheeled carts and books, some piles stacked halfway to the ceiling. A musty smell lingered in the air.

Across from us, a pair of elevator doors stood against the far wall. They were old and gray, paint peeling off in narrow strips, and they sent a stab of recognition through me. I’d seen them before, many years ago, when I came through this very room. The ancient, faded sign beside the doors read Storage, with an arrow pointing down, which I found as ironic as I had the day I first came through. “Storage” didn’t quite cover what was really hidden down there.

I took a deep breath. Here was where things got complicated. We couldn’t just press a button and be taken down to the Vault. That would be far too easy, and Talon was way too paranoid for such lax security. The elevator required not only a key card to make it work, but a numeric code to get past the basement and, from what I knew of Talon, it probably changed every couple weeks. I hoped Wes had been watching the last person to use the elevator closely. I also hoped he had hacked the camera that was inside the elevator, otherwise this was going to be a very short mission.

“Get out of sight,” I whispered to Ember. “Hurry. They’re changing shifts now—we don’t have a lot of time until the next—”

The elevator dinged.

We had just enough time to dart back and press ourselves into the wall before the elevator doors opened and a man stepped out. Dressed in a sweater-vest and slacks, he yawned, scratched the back of his head and started across the room.

I hit him from behind, striking right below his ear, the “knockout button” in humans. His head jerked, and he collapsed into my arms without a sound. Laying him on his back, I quickly searched his pants and wallet until I found what I was looking for.

“Got it,” I said triumphantly, pulling a key card out of a pocket, where it dangled on a stretchy cord clamped to his belt. “We’re in business. Wes, St. George, get back here now.”

“On our way.”

I dragged the unconscious human to the corner and dumped him carefully behind a stack of crates and totes, while Ember watched the doorway and elevator like a hawk. I heard Wes’s voice buzz in my ear, though he wasn’t speaking to me. A few minutes later, the door opened and Wes slipped quietly into the room, followed by the soldier.

“How’d you guys get past the desk clerk a second time?” Ember wanted to know.

Garret smiled. “I informed her that there were a couple teenagers smoking weed in the bathrooms,” he replied. “She didn’t seem very happy at the notion, though she did thank me for telling her.”

Wes rolled his eyes. “Called him an ‘upstanding young man’ before she left, which I find hilariously ironic. Considering we’re about to break into this place and rob it blind.” He eyed the elevator like it was a tiger getting ready to pounce. “Into the belly of the beast, then?” he said with overstated cheerfulness. “Where there’s no possible way out if we’re discovered? Fabulous, who wants to go first?”

“We go together,” I said, shrugging off the backpack as I stepped forward. “And from here on, we have to move quickly. At the bottom of the elevator is a guard station you have to pass through to get to the Vault, and the guards there are all Talon loyalists. There’ll be no sneaking around, no talking our way through, nothing like that. Once those doors open, the guards will know something is wrong. They’re not going to escort us out, inform us that we’re trespassing, or call the police. They’re going to try to kill us.” Reaching into the pack, I pulled out my gun, shoved it into the waistband of my jeans and tossed the soldier a pistol. “So you know what you have to do.”

St. George caught the gun and racked the slide with a metallic click. “Lead the way.”

“Wes? Cameras?”

“They’re all on a playback loop,” the human replied. “You could dance naked in the elevator box and the guards won’t see a thing. Not that I’d recommend it. For all our sakes.”

I glanced down at Ember, who looked troubled but determined, and lightly touched her arm. “You ready for this, Firebrand?” I murmured as her gaze flickered to mine. “You know what you have to do?”

She nodded. “Yeah,” she said without hesitation. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

We crowded into the elevator. It wasn’t large; St. George and I pressed into the corners and Ember made herself very small in the center. Wes stood over the panel, swiped the card through the scanner and pressed a series of numbers once it lit up.