Nita narrowed her eyes, and Kovit watched them both with wary eyes, as though afraid not just of what plan Fabricio might have up his sleeve, but what Nita might do about it.
“Fine,” Nita said, not trusting him at all. “Lead the way.”
Thirty-One
THEY LEFT THE HOTEL, leaving Martin’s dead body still bound and gagged in the chair. Nita would clean it up later. Her fingers ached for a scalpel, and her hand twitched involuntarily. What she wouldn’t give to just spend a few hours crawling through this man’s chest cavity, ripping out his organs and putting them in jars, all clear lines and still bodies.
She’d only dissected a few hours ago, but it felt like an eternity—the calm and stillness it had brought had been shattered by the real world, with its noise and tricks. There were no clear lines and still faces in living people. Just lies and scams and deception.
Fabricio, instigator of those lies, walked slightly ahead of her out of the hotel and onto the street. The sun shone down on him, making the golden brown highlights in his hair gleam. He tipped his head back and looked up at the sky and smiled, as though a great burden had been lifted from him.
Nita scowled. A great burden had been lifted from him, and he’d conned Nita into doing it. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him, wondering what else he had in store for her and Kovit. He’d said he’d get them in and give them the password, but she didn’t trust him, not at all. Had she ever?
A little, she realized. She’d trusted that he had his own self-interest in mind, and she’d banked on that. The problem was, she hadn’t known enough about him to realize what was in his self-interest. She still didn’t.
The thought sent a chill down her spine.
No, he couldn’t turn on them completely. She could still ruin his life with a few clicks of a button, send all his information to the internet and let the black market descend. It would be everything he feared. He wouldn’t let that happen.
But the uneasiness lingered as she fell into step beside Kovit, following Fabricio into the light.
They left the hotel and walked south along the water of Puerto Madero. Joggers ran past, and Rollerbladers skated around each other, laughing. A woman leaned casually against the railing over the water, rows of ships lined up behind her, as a college-aged young man took pictures using a tripod and a teenager held up a portable hairdryer so the model’s hair would blow in the nonexistent wind.
Glass and steel skyscrapers looked down on them, silent and powerful, blocking out the sun in places, as though the buildings were trying to obtain the dark, shadowed atmosphere of Toronto, but the sun in Buenos Aires was too bright, the sky too blue, and there were too few skyscrapers.
Nita fell into step beside Fabricio. There was something lighter in the way he walked now, as though with each step he shed a piece of the fear that had been weighing him down for years. Someone passed too close to him, and for a moment he froze, then relaxed again. He bent down, hands on his knees, and took big gulps of breath.
Nita leaned away from him and gave him a suspicious look. “Are you okay?”
He laughed, a short, high burst of sound, almost disbelieving. “I am. He’s dead. He’s finally dead.” Fabricio took a gulp of air. “It’s just taking a moment to sink in. I keep watching the street, looking out for anyone who might be working for him, who might come kidnap me and bring me back, but then I remember: he’s dead. It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
Fabricio was shaking with relief, and he looked close to tears.
“It’s over,” he whispered again, as though by repeating it to himself, he could make himself believe it.
Nita went to say something and was surprised when Kovit intervened instead.
“That stage of your life is over. He can’t hurt you again.” Kovit’s voice was soft, but hard. “But that doesn’t mean it’s all over. You have to get us into Tácunan Law.”
He nodded, straightening, “I know.”
“And, Fabricio.” Nita raised her eyebrows. “Remember, if you betray us, I still have all your information set up to automatically post if I don’t stop it.”
His smile was bitter. “I know.” His gaze was steady. “You held up your side of our deal—you killed the man ruining my life. I’ll get you the information you want. I don’t give a fuck about this company, I never have. When this is over, I’ll never go back. It can go down in a ball of flames for all I care.”
Nita almost flinched at the sheer hatred in his voice but kept herself still. “So long as we understand each other.”
He started walking again. “We do.”
They continued down the port, but Nita wasn’t reassured. Fabricio had proven himself an incredible liar and manipulator, and she couldn’t trust which of his emotions and reactions were real, and which were designed to maximize her sympathy, tug on her trust, manipulate what she wanted.
Kovit tilted his head so his sunglasses met her eyes, and she knew he understood. He was wondering the same thing.
Nita wanted so much to just rip the information out of Fabricio’s brain, to strip it out in pieces and consume it like French fries, so that she could do this herself, so that she didn’t need him. But as people said, if wishes were unicorns, most of the world would be dead.
Now that Nita thought about it, she wondered if that was actually a real saying or just something her mother had made up. She’d never heard anyone else use it. Speaking of her mother, since Fabricio was finally shedding some of his lies, she might as well ask him some questions she still needed answers to.
Maybe he’d even tell her the truth.
She picked up her pace slightly so she was walking beside him, her legs moving a little quicker to keep pace with his longer strides.
“Can I ask you something?” Nita’s voice was softer than she expected.
Fabricio blinked. “All right.”
“Before, back in Bogotá, you told me my mother kidnapped you because she wanted to blackmail your father, but you didn’t know why. That was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you turned eighteen last week. A week after my mother kidnapped you. That’s a pretty big coincidence.”
His shoulders slumped slightly and he nodded. “Yes, it was a lie.”
“I thought so.” The water glinted in the light of the setting sun, orange tinted. “So, why did my mother kidnap you?”
He sighed, long and hard. “Because I was stupid and desperate and made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Martin kept me locked in an apartment. I had access to the internet, but though I could view things, I couldn’t comment. I couldn’t do anything. And while I had complete control over the Tácunan Law computer system, it’s locked. There’s no internet. No one can hack in if you’re not connected. So one day, when he brought me into the company for something, I logged into the system and just stole some random information that had been marked as valuable. It was in a separate file. I figured I could sell it online for money.”
“Information on my mother?”
He hesitated. “On your father, actually. Apparently your dad used to work for Tácunan Law. Did you know that?”
Nita hadn’t, but it was certainly plausible. He’d been a legal consultant as long as she could remember, he had to get that legal expertise from somewhere.
“Anyway, so it had information on your father. His current address, current clients, all sorts of things like that. Your mother was only tangentially mentioned.” He swallowed, eyes flicking to her and then away. “I didn’t have access to the internet, so I bribed one of my jailers. I said we’d split the profit fifty-fifty if he posted the information for sale online.”
Fabricio’s smile was bitter. “He did. But of course, I didn’t get a penny of it. It all went straight to his bank account.” He laughed, cruel and angry. “Though it didn’t help him in the end. He died before he could use that money. It was only a day after he got paid that your mother showed up at my apartment an
d killed my jailers, including him.”
Fabricio’s mouth twisted. “The rest you know. She kidnapped me to blackmail my father into taking the information on your father down, not realizing my father was already dead and I was responsible for the information leak.”
And in the meantime, Andrej had bought that information on her father online, and then killed him in his quest for vengeance.
Fabricio was just as responsible for her father’s murder as the man who actually killed him.
Nita thought she’d feel anger, that her rage at Fabricio would bubble back up, so large it would devour her whole. But she didn’t feel mad. She just felt tired. No, not tired. Relieved. She finally had her answers, she’d finally figured out the start of the domino chain that had ruined her life, and she could feel her shoulders relaxing a little, her body loosening.
She had her answers.
They didn’t come with anger. They didn’t come with pain. They came with clarity, perfect, wonderful clarity. Nita would murder Fabricio for everything he’d done, of that she was sure. But she wasn’t angry at him anymore. It was just one more inevitability, one more thing to do on her checklist.
So much murder, so little time.
They turned away from the water and toward the towering steel and glass towers of Puerto Madero, each of them lost in thought. So much so that Nita almost didn’t notice when Fabricio stopped.
“We’re here,” he whispered.
Thirty-Two
THE SUN WAS SETTING. It was a Saturday, and the office was closed, most of the lights off. Nita didn’t take any chances, though, and called Diana.
Diana picked up on the first ring, and Nita dove in without preamble. “I’m here, is everything ready?”
Diana’s voice was nervous, and a little excited. “Yes. I mean, it took a bit of work, Tácunan Law isn’t easy to hack, you know, but CCTV really is a joke security-wise and—”
“Is it off?” Nita interrupted.
“Oh. Not yet. They’ll notice when it vanishes. Do you want me to loop it instead?”
“Please.”
The sound of keys clicking echoed tinnily on the phone, and Diana said, “Okay. Annnnnnd, you’re good.”
“Excellent. Call me if there’s any issues.”
“Will do.”
Satisfied that the cameras were taken care of, Nita hung up. Her googling had revealed that Tácunan Law leased out most of the lower floors in the building, but that the upper ones, where the firm worked, were completely inaccessible from the lower floors. It had its own elevator, stairwell, and security.
Which was fine by Nita. It made things less dangerous. If there were people in her way, she knew they were employees of Tácunan Law and should be dealt with accordingly, not random employees of Habitat for Humanity who decided they should work on Saturday for some reason.
She tucked her bag close. She’d prepared for any security they found.
Nita turned to the others and nodded to Fabricio. “All right, lead the way.”
Fabricio didn’t go to the front door, he went around to the side of the glass and metal monstrosity. Nita and Kovit followed, both watching his every movement.
An emergency stairwell exit blended into the side of the building so well it was almost invisible, innocuously placed behind an artistic patch of flowers. It was the same gray as the rest of the building, and if Nita hadn’t known it was there, her eyes would probably have skimmed right past it.
Fabricio typed some numbers into the small covered keypad beside the door. The door beeped twice, and the lock clicked off.
Fabricio hauled the heavy metal door open and gestured to the entrance. “Coming?”
Nita and Kovit exchanged a look, then entered.
They ascended the stairs slowly, sterile concrete steps that went round and round, up and up. They looked like they’d barely been used, and a fine layer of dust covered the railings.
“There’s no elevator?” Kovit asked, huffing as he passed the eighth floor.
“There is.” Nita answered before Fabricio could. “But if there are security guards in the building, they’ll notice the elevator. I want to keep this under wraps if possible. We’ll kill them if we need to, but I’d rather just avoid the risk.”
Kovit grunted in acknowledgment and continued up the stairs.
She kept her blood highly oxygenated, and she thanked her past self for building muscles and getting rid of all the chemicals that inhibited muscle growth. She was the only one in the trio who wasn’t panting with exertion.
As she went, she reminded herself why she was doing this. She thought of all the valuable information she’d get from this office. All the things she could use to blackmail the black market, to bring down INHUP, to control the people who were trying to kill her and sell her body online. The key to getting rid of all her enemies lay in the building, and she was so close she could almost taste it.
It made her nervous. Every time she was this close to anything, something went wrong.
She swallowed, trying not to think of all the problems she’d still have to deal with after she got the information. She’d actually have to implement it. She’d have to twist it and craft it to get rid of the DUL, to take down the black market players.
And no matter what the information here said, it still wouldn’t help with her biggest problem, the one she still didn’t know how to face.
Her mother.
Nita shuddered softly and pushed that thought from her mind. She’d deal with her mother later. After. When she had the information and the power that came with it. Maybe it would even the playing field a bit.
But even as she thought it, she knew it was just an excuse to avoid the fact that she was no match for her mother, and she had no idea how she’d survive if her mother wanted Kovit dead and Nita back in her power.
When Fabricio finally stopped on the twelfth floor, he leaned against the wall and gasped for breath. He wiped sweat from his brow before turning to the door. Another keypad with another code. He unlocked the door and they were in the office building.
The overhead lights were off, but all the walls were windows, and the sunlight provided more than enough light to see by. The floors were polished white reflective tiles, and the offices and meeting rooms had short, fuzzy black carpets. The walls between rooms were all made of glass, as were the doors, so all the rooms looked like fishbowls. Nita shuddered at the thought of working in a place like this. Big Brother always watching.
She looked around, but there were no guards. No people at all. The whole floor was deserted. Would they really just trust that security cameras and PIN codes would be enough to keep people out?
Nita paused, eyes narrowed. She didn’t buy it.
“Where are the guards, Fabricio?” Her voice was soft.
He hesitated, then admitted, “I don’t know. There’s usually always a few.”
On cue, the elevator dinged, and Nita’s eyes widened. She gestured for the others to hide before realizing there was nowhere to go because literally every wall was glass.
Instead, she pointed to either side of the elevator door, and Kovit nodded, smoothly moving to one side, while Nita took the other. Fabricio, realizing what was about to happen, wisely ducked out of range beneath a desk.
The elevator doors slid open, and Kovit flicked his switchblade out.
When the first guard stepped out, Kovit darted forward, stabbing him in the neck, instantly severing his spine and killing him.
Nita swung around, darting into the elevator before the body had fallen, her scalpel raised. The guard reached for his gun, but never made it, her blade going into his eyes and up into his brain as she buried it as deep as possible. Kovit stepped in and slit the man’s throat for good measure.
They dragged the bodies out of the elevator, and Nita swore as she tried to pry her scalpel from the dead man’s eye socket. It was sticky and wet when it came out, and she wiped it absently on his clothes.
From under the table, Fabr
icio squeaked, “Is it over?”
“It’s over.” Nita’s voice was hard. “Let’s get going before more show up.”
Fabricio crept out from under his desk, studiously avoiding looking at the dead bodies as he led them down the hall to another office, this one obviously more important because it was huge. Through the glass walls, Nita could clearly see two couches, a coffee table, a massive desk larger than their Airbnb bed, with three monitors on it, and a wall of bookshelves—the only non-glass wall in the whole floor.
Fabricio input another PIN code, and the glass door buzzed open.
The three of them stepped into the room, and Fabricio headed directly for the desk. He powered on the computer and stared at the blank screen for a moment, expression inscrutable, then shook his head, as if dislodging an unpleasant thought.
Nita went around his shoulder, a memory bank in hand. She’d found one that claimed to hold fifteen terabytes—she hoped it was enough. Even if she couldn’t get everything, she would be able to get a massive amount of data.
Fabricio entered a series of passwords, pressed his thumb into the scanner, and finally the computer appeared to deem him acceptable and the home screen came up.
Nita plugged the memory bank in and gave Fabricio a look. He shrugged and set the device as a backup machine for what was on the computer.
“Most of the information is on servers, which we host here.” Fabricio typed in another password. “But this is the only terminal in the building that can access it all. My father was more than a little paranoid.”
“With good cause, it seems,” Kovit commented.
“Indeed.”
The computer chimed, and then a small window with a loading bar came up. Time until download completed: thirty minutes.
Nita let out a breath and leaned back. Thirty minutes.
Kovit took off his sunglasses and put them on the desk, rubbing his eyes before sitting on one of the couches on the other side of the room and cleaning his switchblade. He made an unhappy noise when the blood didn’t come off. “Is there a sink somewhere I can clean this?”
When Villains Rise Page 21
