Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Neither woman said anything. Millie grabbed a pen and paper and started sketching, ignoring him completely.
His phone rang. Giovanni.
“Gonna take someone with more technical knowhow to make these changes to my phone like you said.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Giovanni said with more amusement in his voice than Shadow liked. “I’ve got a kid at the base who can fix it for you. I needed you to know that room the girl’s being held in may not be as straightforward as it looks. I’ve studied her movements, and she never moves far from the center. I’ve managed to hack into security, and the images I’m picking up don’t make a whole lot of sense. It almost looks like a… I don’t know.”
“A maze?” Shadow glanced at Millie. The girl was drawing out the maze on that pad she’d picked up. “Give me a bit, and I’ll give you a rough layout.”
“Oh, really?” Giovanni drawled.
“Yeah. One of my girls here knew why they chose that location for Katya.”
“That the name of the target?”
“Yeah. Seems the maze has one entrance and one exit. The entrance has a one-way door, and the exit is likely heavily guarded.”
“Makes sense from what I’m seeing. Going is slow. I don’t want anyone figuring out someone has accessed their security. I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, forget about the phone. Knew it would be too much when I sent it.”
“Bastard,” Shadow muttered. “Give me some good news.”
“Well, I’ve studied the device I believe we’ll be working with. There are two distinct and separate pieces of hardware. One is a straightforward tracker. It gives off a signal strong enough that anyone in the house can follow it. The other is a bit more complex. If it loses signal with the house security, or with a paired handheld device, it explodes. Small detonation, but, depending on where it’s implanted, potentially fatal. Definitely debilitating.”
“So that has to come out. Regardless.”
“Yes. Be a good idea to remove them both.”
“Gonna need more equipment and drugs than I have here.”
“You’ll have everything you need when you land in Poland. I’ve studied the tech they’re using. As long as you take them out in one piece, they should continue to work uninterrupted. They aren’t temperature dependent or anything like that. Kind of primitive, actually.”
“Sounds pretty sophisticated to me.”
Giovanni chuckled. “Not in my world, Shadow. You’re going to have to take them out before you move her, though. They need to think she’s where they put her. There is a possibility they can detonate the second device without losing signal if they choose to.”
“Lyudmila seems to think no one can enter this maze but her, due to both my and Venus’s sizes. Says she’ll barely fit. And, I gotta tell ya. The girl is barely five feet and probably doesn’t even weigh a hundred pounds.”
“Then you better be showing her how to remove something like that. Because you absolutely cannot take those trackers out of that room. Even beyond the small perimeter she’s currently confined to would be a risk. They have to stay behind.”
* * *
The thoughts of going back into that maze made Millie’s skin crawl. The place was positively claustrophobic. There was no way for a normal-sized, full-grown adult to get in and out. She’d had to squeeze her way through several tight spots to make it through, and that was several years ago. Right after the maze was finished. It was complicated enough she didn’t think Victor would have made any changes. He’d never have thought to change it with Millie not being there to continue to practice getting through it.
And she had practiced. Every day, many times a day from the time they started building it. She’d been careful about it, but, as the security had gone up, there was no way for him to not know what she was doing. Any time anyone had asked her what she was doing, she’d grinned and said it was fun. But she knew a prison when she saw one. Since Victor had plenty of holding cells in the deepest sublevel of the palace, this cell could only be for a member of the family. She’d thought it might be her since she was never one to obey the rules. Especially after Venus had gone. But she’d managed to leave Belarus before they’d had the chance to put her there. Katya had always been timid and shy. She’d never think to find her way through the maze and memorize it. It might have even been impossible since it was built when she was still too young to explore on her own.
She’d just about finished with her rough sketch of the maze route when Shadow crouched down in front of her.
“You good?”
“Fine,” she bit out. The big fucker was acting like he was better than everyone. Talking to her and Venus like they were naughty children. Sending them to opposite sides of the plane.