AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 16

At the crosswalk, Kayla and I hustle across Main Street's four lanes of traffic and take to the sidewalk. With my eyes on the city hall building and its bulk of marble, glass, and steel, I feel behind me to keep track of her pace. By accident, my hand touches hers. To my surprise, her palm sinks into mine and her fingers latch on. A strong desire urges me to glance back at her, but I resist it and keep pressing forward. Holding my hand is probably nothing more than an instinct she has to seek comfort in an intense situation. Regardless, I don't care. I'm holding Kayla Sims's hand. I stifle a jittery laugh as we enter an open square with three walls of the building on each side of us.

Snow covers the shrubs on both sides of the sidewalk leading to the front entrance. Globe fixtures sit atop wrought-iron poles, lighting the way. There's a sign next to a frosty bush that says the city won a beautification award for excellence in landscaping, an award I'm sure they gave themselves.

Three vehicles sit, parked next to the front curb in reserved spaces. One is a police cruiser, the other a CCPD van, and the third a white Lexus SUV. As we veer onto the sidewalk to the front entrance, I slow and release her hand.

I peer over at the police van and take note it blocks my line of sight to Lattes. That's not good. My dad will have to sit in the far corner and lean back against the wall to glimpse us passing through the front double doors.

"That's my dad's Lexus," Kayla says. "The cruiser belongs to Officer Tate, and the van... I don't know. This is the first time I've seen it parked there."

"Don't know either, but it's in the way." I shake my head. "I can barely see Lattes from here. Just a sliver of the last window on the storefront."

"I'm sure your dad will improvise," she says as we stop at the front entrance of city hall. Inside, the police officer stands with his back turned, but Kayla bangs her fist on the glass with enough force to rattle the door and get his attention.

The officer spins on his heel, a scowl plastered on his face. But when he recognizes Kayla, his wrinkled brow and stern set to his mouth and eyes transforms into a warm smile. He raises a hand to greet us as he paces to the door and turns the deadbolt to let us in.

"Thank you, Officer Tate," Kayla says. "We're here to see my dad."

"He's upstairs in his office. His door will be closed, but I'm sure he'll open up when he hears you knocking." He nods in my direction. "Who's your friend?"

Kayla's lips curl up as she tells the officer my name.

"Nice to meet you, Aiden." His eyes squint, evaluating me for some unknown purpose.

"Same here." I divert my gaze when his focus remains on me longer than I'm comfortable with. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect he doesn't think I have the purest of intentions in mind for Kayla.

She gestures toward the main elevator at the back of the lobby. I think she wants to rescue me. Her toothy grin softens Officer Tate's expression, and in return, he tells us to go ahead.

As we walk away, I whisper to Kayla, "He seems duty bound."

"He takes his job seriously, especially for protecting my father."

"The mayor isn't the only one he's looking out for." I arch a brow as we approach the elevator.

Kayla punches me in the arm and snickers. "You're imagining things."

"Maybe, maybe not." I press the up button on the wall, and we wait for the elevator to descend from the fifth floor. The numbers light up one at a time. As we stand there, I look at Kayla out of the corner of my eye. She smiles at me, and my face glows with warmth. I feel like I know her better than I actually do because of the danger we've faced together. I've seen how she responds to adversity and I've learned she's willing to risk her life to keep The Collective from taking control of my mind. Even after I accused her of causing my headaches, she didn't run, but she stayed by my side, for good reasons, to protect her father and stay alive herself, but still...

When the elevator arrives at ground level, it chimes, and then the doors slide apart. I allow Kayla to enter first, and once we're inside, she selects the fifth floor and we begin our ascent.

Another thought occurs to me: if Kayla had been in contact with my dad the entire time, and she knew I wasn't a secret agent slash assassin, why did she play dumb after we escaped from Agent 24? Why did she ask me if I was Agent 23? Obviously, she had doubts about me, despite what my dad told her. She said as much. And it seems odd that going to the museum wasn't her first choice. I was the one who suggested it as a hiding place because I was late for my shift. I guess for Kayla, Plan A was to block the signal from The Collective, and I suppose Agent 24 was an unexpected problem that arose. With that in mind, I assume Kayla reacted on-the-fly as we made our escape. The assault by Agent 24 turned her night upside down, just like mine.

On the fifth floor, the elevator doors open to a small hallway with chairs on each wall.

As we take a right into a long hallway, I ask Kayla, "Have you thought about what you're going to say to your father?"

"I'll lead with the truth; I just don't know if he'll believe us."

"Guess we better do a good job of convincing him."

She replies with a tight-lipped nod.

At the end of the hall, Kayla raises her hand to knock, but before her knuckles strike the frosted glass, the door swings inward, and we see her father's wide eyes and stark white face. A python-like arm coils around his neck and the suppressed end of a pistol jams into his temple. Strangled groans sputter from his lips as Agent 24 tightens his hold on the mayor of Coastal City.

"The game has changed," the assassin says with a delighted snarl.

Agent 24 edges into the hallway as Kayla and I backpedal to give him room. Before I know it, he barrels through a doorway to the side labeled Stairwell. Before the door closes behind him, he gives us a stern warning. "Don't follow me if you want to see him alive again." He grins like a wolf after catching its prey. "I'll text you a secure location to meet me at. Wait for it." Then, just before he disappears, he says, "Oh, and Aiden, be sure to bring your dad. The Collective has unfinished business with Agent 1."

With air rushing from the closing door, Kayla and I stand breathless in the empty hallway, wondering how long we have to wait before it's safe to enter the stairwell. She's in shock and can't speak—all of her hopeful energy drained from her when she saw her father in the grip of an assassin. After waiting as long as we can, finally, we find the courage to move. As we creep down the stairs and draw near the exit to the ground level, my mind, that's in a whirlwind, remembers to call my dad. My shaky fingers select his contact in my phone, but by the time I get a call through to him, it's too late. When we push into the lobby, Officer Tate lies sprawled out on the floor unconscious, and Agent 24 is peeling rubber in his getaway vehicle... the CCPD van that was parked at the curb. As I watch him speed away, I don't know what we're going to do next. We've failed, and Kayla's father is as good as dead.