Page 61 of Red Zone Awakened

Sticking close to his back, she strained to listen for any hint of trouble.But all she could hear was the beating of her heart as the blood rushed through her veins.They made it out of the service stairs and into the vast lobby without incident.The route they took kept them out of view of Enforcement officers outside the building, and the cameras between them and the main stairs were the kind that wirelessly transmitted their signal, so their feeds were currently jammed.However, that wasn’t the case when they made it to the top of the stairs on the level containing the security hub.

“Camera,” Mace whispered, pointing to a spot high in the corner that covered the entrance into the corridor beyond the stairwell.“Hardwired.”

So, like the cameras upstairs, this one wasn’t blocked from transmitting its images by the jammer.Which meant whoever was in the security hub would see them when they passed under it.

“What now?”Keiko curled her fingers into the back of his shirt.

“I can’t shoot it out.We’re too close to the hub, and they’ll hear the gunfire.We need to cover it.”

“How?”It was too far away and too high to reach—not without being spotted first.

He hung his head and cursed under his breath.Now he was scaring her.

“Mace.”She tugged at his shirt.“What are we going to do?”

“I’m thinking.”

As she stared at him, he seemed to be having some kind of internal argument.After a few seconds, his shoulders slumped, signaling that he’d come to a conclusion.

“I need you to close your eyes,” he said, “and keep them closed until I tell you to open them.”

Okay, that wasn’t what she’d expected.“What?”

“Shut your eyes while I deal with the camera.”

“You’re making me a little nervous.”Okay, more than a little, but she didn’t think admitting that was wise.She wasn’t certain it wouldn’t push him over the edge of the cliffs of insanity, a spot he seemed, at that moment, to be precariously balanced on.“I don’t understand why I can’t watch.”

“I can’t explain.I just need you to trust me on this.”

“Are you going to leave me here once I shut my eyes?”

“What?No.”Mace ran a hand through his hair again, making him appear tousled and sexy as well as worried.“I have ways of dealing with the camera.Secret ways that you can’t see, which is why you need to close your eyes.”

“Secret ways?You know how corny that sounds?Do you have more tech that I don’t know about?Something else experimental?”He seemed to be pretty blasé when it came to testing out new tech.There was his hearing implants and the tattoo that appeared and disappeared, and now there seemed to be something else.“You shouldn’t keep volunteering as a labrat for untested technology.That can go badly wrong.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” was all he said.

“You know, considering I don’t work for CommTECH anymore, there’s no need to keep tech secrets from me.There wouldn’t be a conflict of interest because I don’t have a company to share them with.”

Mace did that thing where he scrunched up his face and stared into space, as though arguing with himself.“Okay,” he said at last.“This isn’t exactly a tech secret.It’s just something you shouldn’t see until we have time to deal with it properly.I’m not keeping it from you.I’m just waiting for the right time to reveal it.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a silent “if ever” tacked onto the end of that last sentence.Now she was seriously dying of curiosity.“I really don’t want to close my eyes.”

“Keiko,” he said with strained patience, “we’re running out of time.Do you want to keep arguing about this or let me cover the camera?”

“Moody.”Against her better judgment, she shut her eyes, then folded her arms and frowned.He might excel at saving her life, but he sure knew how to get on her last nerve while doing it.

“Turn to face the wall,” Mace ordered.

Keiko let out a huff of irritation.“No trust.”But she turned away from him.

“Okay, I’m going to cover the camera.Keep those eyes closed tight.”

“They’re as tight as they’re going to get.”

“Promise me you’ll keep them that way.”

“I promise.”And she meant it.“Can you get on with it?Or do I have to stand here forever?”