The Devil You Know

by Kit Rocha

“Fuck.” Not that there was much risk of leaving a trace behind—Conall had too much respect for his former classmates at the TechCorps to get sloppy. But of all the times to lose their eyes on the inside …

  “Yeah.” Maya rubbed a hand over her face. “Okay. Well, it’s not great. But it’s not necessarily as bad as it seems, either. If they think Cara just showed up to be a good little girl and hand over all Richter’s secrets so they can decommission her…” Maya smiled grimly. “God help whatever sucker they promoted to Richter’s place.”

  Conall barely heard her. Nina had pushed open the door and was holding it for Ava’s mystery contacts. The tall woman at the front had to be Syd. She looked like she was in her mid-forties, which probably meant she was closing in on sixty. Tall, tough, and sporting a leather jacket and beat-up jeans, she was exactly what Conall had always imagined Nina would age into in twenty years.

  But she wasn’t the reason his brain had stuttered to a halt.

  The man who prowled in behind her was a metric ton of broody in just under two meters of man. Salt-and-pepper hair cut brutally short, an equally trimmed beard dusted with silver, tanned skin, and a scowl that challenged the world to fight him clashed with the brightest blue eyes Conall had ever seen. He moved with liquid grace, assessed the room with a wariness Knox would envy, and looked like he could kill you in fifteen ways with his pinky finger.

  “Conall,” Maya whispered. “You’re staring.”

  “How are you not?” Conall retorted. Fuck, the bastard made Gray look warm and cuddly. Though, to be fair, Gray was kind of warm and cuddly now. At least around Maya.

  This bastard sure the fuck wasn’t. He looked positively grumpy. Conall was half in love already.

  Maya shot him a sympathetic look before raising her voice. “You must be Syd. I’m Maya.”

  “Good to meet you.” Syd strolled over, and she had that same easy grace. Like a panther on the prowl, her predatory gaze assessing him and Maya in turn to decide whether they were potential prey. Her lips quirked a little as she eyed the tablet in Conall’s hands. “You’re the tech? I heard you’re pretty good.”

  Conall cleared his throat and tried not to look at the guy, who was hovering behind Syd with all the brooding subtlety of a lion with a sore paw. “I’m not bad.”

  “Maybe you can talk to Max before we go.” She jerked her head at her second. “We’ve been having some trouble with our satellite out on the farm. Even when we can connect to the GhostNet, our upload speed is shit.”

  “Sure, I know some tricks.” He leaned sideways on the stool to peer around Syd, straight into the full supernova power of all that glowering sexy. “We can chat if you want.”

  Max made a noncommittal noise. Something between a growl and a grunt, all low and rumbly and hot.

  Conall’s brain glitched.

  “After the meeting,” Maya said firmly, planting one hand on Conall’s shoulder. She pushed him gently upright. “Someone should watch the kids…”

  “Max has got it,” Syd said confidently. As if obeying a silent command, Max pivoted and stalked toward the opposite side of the warehouse, and the tiny children in their little protective circle.

  Maya cleared her throat. “No offense, but are you sure…”

  “Trust me,” Syd told her with a feral smile.

  Max stopped a few feet away from the children. In an instant, the dour expression melted away, replaced by a brilliant smile as he clapped his hands together. “Okay, who wants to learn about something fun, like quantum physics?”

  Oh, fuck. Conall was screwed.

  TECHCORPS PROPRIETARY DATA, L1 SECURITY CLEARANCE

  When apprehending the Silver Devils, take special care not to permanently damage 66–793. I’ve invested too much time and money into him to let an idealistic fool like 66–615 ruin his future potential.

  Internal Memo, January 2086

  THIRTY-TWO

  Conall fled two seconds into Max’s lecture on quantum theory, and Maya pressed her lips together into a firm line to keep from laughing. Conall lost his heart regularly and swiftly—and predictably. Max would likely last as long as all the others did.

  Then again, Syd had returned to her earnest conversation with Nina, and the two of them seemed to be hitting it off. Even Knox looked relaxed, which was rare around a stranger and damn near miraculous around a stranger vetted by Ava. If Max and Syd became a regular part of their lives, Conall’s crush might not get an opportunity to subside.

  Resolving not to tease him about it—unless he started teasing her—Maya swept up her tablet. And dropped it again just as swiftly when the familiar silk of Gray’s voice curled around her.

  “Need some help?”

  Maya spun on her stool, opening her arms. “You’re done already?”

  “Yep. Savitri gave me a clean bill of health.” He was standing on his own, his arms steady as they folded around her. He felt amazing. Strong and solid and alive. “Still a few patchy holes in my memory, but she said that’s to be expected.”

  Maya leaned into his chest and savored the warmth of his embrace. “Where is she?”

  “She headed out already.” His lips brushed the top of her head. “Had shit to do, I guess. As any criminal, nightclub-owning genius neurosurgeon likely does.”

  She tilted her head back and smiled up at him. “Does that mean we get to sleep in my bed tonight?”

  “Absolutely,” he replied in a low voice full of promise.

  It would have been easy to tilt back into the giddy memory of how good it felt to kiss him right there, but Nina lifted her voice. “Okay, grown-up talk inside.”

  “Later,” she whispered. “When we’re alone, you can grown-up talk me.”

  Gray’s laughter carried them into the kitchen, where they found Savitri sitting at the head of their table, as regal as if she had her ass planted on her throne at Convergence.

  Dani stood there, watching her as she nursed a steaming cup of coffee. “I found her here. We might need to beef up our security system.”

  Gray just shook his head. “I thought you left.”

  “It didn’t seem prudent.” She waved her hand at Syd. “You have such interesting guests. I don’t want to miss whatever comes next.”

  Maya was sure she didn’t. Information was gold for Savitri, and God knew there was plenty of that sitting around the table. “Is this you calling in your favor?”

  “Maya, don’t be crass.” Savitri tapped her fingers on the table. “I just thought I’d raise a few pertinent questions you might be able to answer. Like how Richter found you, and who’s in charge of security now that he’s gone.”

  Maya focused on the easy question first. “Who’s in charge? It’s honestly hard to say. Richter was jealous about his power. He didn’t trust his subordinates with it. The only person he trusted…” The ache of betrayal had faded, but she still had to force the words out. “We just found out that his data courier turned herself in. Normally, she’d be decommissioned—”

  “Murdered,” Conall clarified darkly.

  “Yes,” Maya agreed. “But Cara’s probably the only person left at the TechCorps who knows all of Richter’s plans. They definitely need her. They might be stupid enough to think they can use her.”

  The buzzer for the front door went off, and Dani abandoned her mug on the counter. “I’ll get it.”

  “That covers the second question,” Rafe said. “But not the first. How the hell did Richter know to set that damn trap?”

  “It wasn’t by something as simple as tracking Mace,” Knox confirmed. “It had been carefully planned. Hours in advance.”

  “More likely days in advance.”

  The deep voice came from the direction of the door. Jaden Montgomery stood there, and even for him, his glower was fierce. He stopped at the head of the table, and his gaze found Nina’s. “We were the leak. Lucas was working for Richter. He confessed to me after he heard what happened. He gave Richter all of the information you passed to us. He claims Rich
ter promised him that you three ladies wouldn’t be harmed, but…” His jaw tightened. “A promise from Richter means nothing and he knew it.”

  Dani cursed softly, but Nina just stared at him. “What are you going to do with him?”

  Jaden’s expression didn’t change. “I dealt with it.”

  “Uhh…” Conall raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a hint?”

  Jaden’s silent stare made Conall sink back in his chair, both hands raised in silent apology.

  “I guess that’s that, then.” Gray crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless it isn’t. Nothing in the rule book that says there can only be one leak.”

  Nina shook her head. “Wondering won’t help, and it doesn’t matter, anyway. We’re not just going to sit here and wait for the TechCorps to come after us again.”

  “And they will,” Knox said. “We have to assume that, if nothing else, Cara Kennedy has already told them we’re still alive.”

  “What about the server access I procured for you?” Ava asked from where she leaned against the wall, carefully situated to be able to see all of them and both exits. “That should give you some insight.”

  “I think that’s been burned,” Maya admitted. “Conall just intercepted a memo. They’re shifting all communications about Richter and Cara to in-person only. We have to assume that anything relevant we come across going forward was planted there for us to find.”

  “Assuming they don’t shut me down entirely,” Conall grumbled.

  Savitri’s gaze found Maya’s, and her lips curved in a tiny smile that whispered of shared secrets. “I may able to do something about that,” she murmured, and Maya remembered her confession on the roof.

  Adam is everything I made him to be.

  No wonder Adam had trounced Conall’s attempts at hacking so handily. And no wonder the TechCorps couldn’t touch Savitri. She had a miraculously sentient AI trained in combat and strategy running her security.

  She was probably the safest out of all of them.

  “Information will be good in the long run,” Knox agreed. “But we already know what’s going on inside right now. They’re in turmoil. Richter was the scary monster who kept order on the Hill. Right now, everyone with power is going to be scrambling to solidify their base, and everyone who wants power is plotting to step on someone else to get ahead.”

  Syd’s grin was utterly predatory. “Sounds like a fun time to fuck with them.”

  Yes.

  It had always been an impossible dream before. The hellfire she wished upon them while she took her tiny victories, her petty crime and her rebellious but invisible middle fingers. The TechCorps had always been so massive, and she was so small …

  Maya let her gaze drift around the table, taking in everyone. Dani and Nina—her first family. Conall and Knox and Rafe, the brothers she’d never known she needed. Gray, the man she loved.

  The man who loved her.

  Maya didn’t feel small anymore.

  But there were allies around this table, too. Dangerous allies. Mace, whose commitment to saving lives went so bone deep, even Tobias Richter hadn’t been able to torture it out of him. Savitri and her terrifying genius, and Adam, who was the terrifying result of her genius. Mysterious Syd, who had already confused and concerned the TechCorps with her single-minded mission. Jaden, who had built a smuggling empire under the TechCorps’ nose and used it to constantly undermine their grasp on power.

  Ava, who would set the whole damn world on fire if it made Nina happy.

  For the first time, her dreams of righteous hellfire didn’t seem so implausible. Maya found herself smiling, too. “Honestly? Fucking up the TechCorps sounds pretty damn good.”

  “That’s a dangerous game,” Savitri noted with an utterly predatory smile. “I love dangerous games.”

  “Are there any other kinds worth playing?” Syd retorted. “Besides, I’m already fighting them and a dozen other bastards besides. Been doing it most of my damn life.”

  “So have I,” Jaden said quietly. “But I don’t think any of us can afford to keep fighting them alone. You know what they’ll do if they feel threatened by the loss of Richter.”

  “They’ll crack down,” Knox said quietly. “It’s probably already starting. Winter is a good time for it. People are cold and hungry. Can’t worry about revolution if people are just trying to stay alive.”

  “Technically this wouldn’t be a revolution,” Ava noted. “A revolution generally involves the overthrow of an existing government. The TechCorps never officially established one.”

  Conall groaned. “Does her pedantic dictionary setting come with an off switch?”

  But Rafe leaned forward, bracing his weight on his elbows. “I hate giving Ava any credit at all, ever, but she has a point. The revolution already happened back in ’42, when the government collapsed and the TechCorps took over. These are just neglectful dictators with profit sharing.”

  “Oligarchs,” Ava supplied.

  Conall leaned forward and thumped his head against the table.

  “We can settle on the correct terminology later.” Knox’s voice was firm. “In the short term, we have to consider the cold reality of this. All of our faces could be spread across the vid network tomorrow. They could declare a city-wide bounty on us. Or they could just decide to squeeze every neighborhood so hard everyone’s too tired to think about fighting back.”

  “They’re doing that already,” Jaden said. “Like you said. Winter’s coming. Most everyone just cares about staying alive.”

  Maya braced her hands on the table. “So that’s how we fight. On two fronts. We use my contacts to weaken them from the inside. And we use everyone else’s to help people stay alive.”

  “A noble goal.”

  They all whirled toward the kitchen at the sound of the new voice. John stood in the hallway leading from the back door, calm and collected, heedless of the fresh round of curses Dani ground out.

  “I swear to fucking Christ, I will shoot the next person who does that,” she spat.

  He just blinked at her, then turned his attention to Knox and Nina. “If you’re going up against the TechCorps, you’ll need someone on the inside.”

  Rafe leaned across the table, eyes narrowed. “And how, exactly, do we know we can trust you, Professor?”

  “You don’t,” he replied. “But you’re talking about a full-scale uprising. Can you afford to turn away allies?”

  Maya waited for someone to answer him, but silence hung heavy in the kitchen. Knox was looking at her. So was Gray, and Conall. Rafe and Dani and even Nina. Realization swept over her like a cold wind. For all her agonizing over when and how to use her power, for all her eagerness to see what she could do—somehow she had forgotten the stark reality of the situation.

  This wasn’t like a mission, where Nina and Knox would make the battle plans and she’d get to simply fall in line. She was the one who’d been raised for this. Trained for it. She’d grown up inside the beating heart of the monster. She knew the secret pressure points and the points of leverage. She knew where to find allies, who to trust, who to avoid. How to fight them. How to destroy them.

  If she took this step, she wouldn’t just be the heir to Birgitte’s fight. She’d be the leader of her own.

  For a chilling moment, the sheer responsibility of it terrified her. A sheltered girl from the Hill had no right to make decisions that might impact the lives of millions. If she chose wrong, life could get worse. And people would die if she did this. Maybe people she knew. People she loved.

  Panic tightened her chest. She almost opened her mouth to shove the whole mess of it back into Nina’s lap. Nina would never fault her for it. She’d shoulder the burden and do her best.

  Gray’s hand closed around hers. She looked to the side and found him staring back at her, his blue eyes warm, his smile just for her. “Trust yourself,” he whispered.

  Maybe he’d finally rememb
ered that moment in Richter’s torture chamber. Maybe he didn’t and this was just what came automatically to his lips. His faith in her was unshakeable. Gray would make himself into a human shield or a weapon or a revolutionary. Whatever she wanted.

  She just had to trust herself as much as he trusted her.

  Maya blew out a breath. She squeezed Gray’s hand in gratitude and turned back to the table. This time she barely felt the weight of all those gazes. She could do this. She could do anything.

  “Okay, y’all,” she drawled. “Let’s get to work.”

  March 19th, 2081

  I’ve done my best to prepare for every eventuality. I’d like to think that it will be enough, that someday I’ll laugh at myself for my paranoia. Perhaps Marjorie and I will laugh together.

  Diana is leaving at dawn with this journal and my instructions for Marjorie’s inheritance. I suppose I have one last letter to write. The hardest.

  There will be no absolution for me.

  The Recovered Journal of Birgitte Skovgaard

  EPILOGUE

  Revolution or not, books still needed to be scanned. Tools needed to be checked out. The neighborhood needed movies, and music, and freeze-dried food, and Maya had files to organize.

  She’d propped the warehouse door open to let in the cool autumn breeze. The oppressive heat had finally broken, and the wind whipped dead leaves past the door. Rain was coming tonight, maybe even a thunderstorm—the kind that shook the whole warehouse.

  Maya would be snuggled up with Gray, cozy and warm in the bed he shared with her more nights than not. She turned her brand-new ring around on her finger as she considered that, a slow smile tilting her lips.

  Later.

  She finished uploading Rowan’s remastered files to their shared server and pulled up her new digital to-do list. Savitri had been the one to suggest it, pointing out that just because her brain could do something didn’t mean she should waste precious mental resources on it. Maya hated to admit it, but dumping her task list onto a tablet had helped clear her head.