Chapter One
719 Words
The Explosion Wasn't Part of the Plan
Berlin, Germany.
2:14 A.M.
Rhesa had always believed there were only two kinds of rich people.
The first kind knew they were greedy.
The second kind pretended they weren't.
Helix Dynamics belonged to the second category.
The company liked to advertise itself as a force for innovation. A leader in technology. A champion of progress. Their smiling executives appeared on magazine covers and business channels talking about changing the world.
Meanwhile, they paid workers pennies in countries nobody cared about and spent millions protecting information that could have fed entire cities.
Rhesa hated people like that.
Which was probably why robbing them felt so satisfying.
Rain pelted her face as she crouched on a steel support beam attached to the side of the Helix Dynamics tower. Thirty stories below, Berlin glowed beneath the storm. Thousands of lights stretched across the city like scattered stars.
Beautiful.
Cold.
Uninterested.
If she fell tonight, most of those people would wake up tomorrow and continue with their lives as if she'd never existed.
The thought didn't bother her.
It never had.
Nobody was special.
That was something life had taught her very early.
Some people learned it from heartbreak.
Some learned it from loss.
Rhesa learned it from her father.
A small smile touched her lips.
She wondered if the old bastard was still alive.
Then she decided she didn't care enough to find out.
"Status?"
Her voice disappeared into the wind.
A few seconds later Kaine answered through her earpiece.
"That's a very rude way to start a conversation."
Rhesa rolled her eyes.
"Status, Kaine."
"Not even a hello?"
"No."
"How are you?"
"No."
"I'm beginning to think our friendship is one-sided."
"We're not friends."
There was a brief silence.
Then—
"Ouch."
Rhesa smiled despite herself.
Three years.
Three years of listening to him talk.
Three years of watching him somehow survive situations that should have killed him.
Three years of threatening to throw him out of moving vehicles.
Somehow he was still here.
Which was unfortunate.
Because if she was being honest with herself, she would miss him if he wasn't.
Not that she would ever tell him that.
Kaine's ego was already unbearable.
"Anyway," he continued, "the security team on levels twenty through twenty-six is blind."
"Good."
"The elevators are locked."
"Better."
"The police have been notified."
Rhesa sighed.
"That's less good."
"Nobody appreciates honesty anymore."
"Nobody appreciates you."
"That's hurtful."
"I was aiming for accurate."
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
The sound surprised her.
She didn't laugh often.
Not genuine laughter.
Most people thought she was fearless.
The truth was simpler.
Fear required believing somebody would save you if things went wrong.
Rhesa had stopped believing that years ago.
Which meant she had learned to rely on herself.
It worked surprisingly well.
Most of the time.
"Where's Nyra?" she asked.
A voice answered behind her.
"I'm here."
Rhesa nearly cursed.
She turned.
Nyra stood less than six feet away.
Completely expressionless.
Completely silent.
Completely dry despite the rain.
Which honestly felt unnatural.
Rhesa narrowed her eyes.
"One day I'm going to put a bell on you."
Nyra looked genuinely confused.
"Why?"
"So I know when you're nearby."
"I walked here."
"No. You appeared."
"I walked."
"You materialized."
Nyra blinked.
"I don't think that's how materialization works."
Kaine immediately burst out laughing through the comms.
For some reason that only annoyed Rhesa more.
"Vault access is secured," Nyra said.
Straight to business.
Always.
Rhesa sometimes wondered if Nyra had been born thirty years old.
The woman had the emotional range of a knife.
A very loyal knife.
But a knife nonetheless.
"Any problems?" Rhesa asked.
"Six guards."
"Only six?"
"That was my reaction."
Rhesa grinned.
Now that sounded more like a challenge.
Far below them, blue police lights flashed through the rain.
The city was waking up.
Too early.
Too angry.
And entirely too interested in what The Harbingers were doing tonight.
Rhesa looked toward the towering glass structure ahead.
The job had been almost too easy.
That bothered her.
Easy jobs were usually traps.
The problem was she enjoyed traps.
Especially when she survived them.
A dangerous thought.
A dangerous habit.
One that would eventually get her killed.
Just not tonight.
Tonight, she planned on getting paid.
- Writer
