A few hours later Arena was sitting in Sterling’s office, arranging gear inside her own little desk area set up for monitoring comms. Anita tested her with various scenarios similar to the first mission she monitored. Anita would ask her a question, and Arena would run through the best ways to learn the information. Sometimes a video flashed on the screen, and Arena had to connect the right information or type in certain commands. It wasn’t as hard as she remembered from the first time.

  Sterling was next to her, his hands flying over the keyboard. Arena didn’t think anyone could type that fast. She didn’t know exactly what he was working on at the moment, but they were to go live in less than an hour. Sophia and Yates had just walked out the door, on their way to the location Sterling gave them.

  “Centurion,” Sterling said in the comms to Yates, “You are coming upon the drop point. The building should look like a business complex, with offices.”

  “Roger, Catalyst,” said Yates. “Willow and I are ready. We have three Decoys with us as well. Cyclone, are you ready?”

  “Affirmative,” said Arena. A message popped up on her screen from Anita. “Good luck, Cyclone.” it said. She typed a thank you to her.

  “We’ve reached the drop point,” said Yates. “Mission is a go.”

  “Roger, Centurion,” said Arena.

  They heard some shuffling, and a click that sounded like a door opening. “Homebase, this is some type of business office, as you said. Doesn’t seem to be anyone here, though. We’re going to proceed inside through the back. Willow is attaching the surveillance feed to the outgoing line.”

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  “Roger that Centurion, connection established,” said Sterling. He was still typing very fast.

  “We’ve entered the building. So far it appears to be completely empty. Empty rooms, no furniture at all,” said Yates. “Seems they’ve cleared out completely.”

  Sterling grumbled next to her. She looked over at him, “Everything okay?”

  “There’s a message on the guild message board,” he said, frowning. “Can you log in and check it out?’

  “Sure,” she said. She opened the game, and ported herself back to the guild hall. She walked over to the message board, and clicked on the blinking page that signified a new message.

  It read, “Will be at the Red and Gold tavern in half an hour. Theseus is still stuck in the festering swamp. PvP players after me, need help getting rid of them. -Jasmine”

  “Sterling!” Arena shrieked. He jumped and turned toward her. She copied it and sent it to him.

  “What’s going on?” said Yates.

  “We’ve had contact from our operatives. Trying to decipher.” He paused and then sighed. “Pickup point is across town from you, and I don’t want to say where in case we’re compromised. Cyclone and I will have to go—we’re closer. We have two operatives left here. One will have to stay and secure the building, but we’ll take the other one.” He looked at her. “Homebase, you’ll have to follow through the trace.”

  “Roger, taking over the transmission,” said Anita.

  He switched off the comms and pulled her out of her chair. “We don’t have much time to get there. Chapman! You’re with us. Richards--you secure this location.”

  They raced to the extra van. The Decoy named Chapman slid into the driver’s seat. Sterling tapped something into his handheld, and the location popped up into the GPS of the vehicle. They set off through Sydney, which was a beautiful, modern city.

  “Unfortunately, the location of the bar, the ‘Scarlet Lion’, is a good twenty-two miles away, and it might take us more than a half-hour to get there depending on traffic. If Lorna is being followed, she might not have extra minutes. I’m not sure how she managed to log in, but I’m glad she found some way to do so.”