“What do you mean, you haven’t seen them? They came up the elevator with Thor about . . .” Kandy checked the watch on her wrist. “Hell, almost an hour ago to meet with Wyatt. I was certain you would be there.”
Gypsy’s gaze swung to the digital clock on the wall across from her. Rule had left nearly an hour ago.
“As a matter of fact, the clock over the elevator read one thirty-three,” her sister announced. “I noticed that because Loki said he only had a few minutes to talk before he was due for a meeting at one forty-five. But it was canceled—” Her sister stared around the room again. “Where could they have gone?”
The breath seemed to become trapped in her chest, threatening to smother her as Gypsy suddenly knew exactly where they were.
“No,” she whispered, the knowledge that her mother must have done something incredibly stupid again blaring out at her senses, screaming at her to do something, to protect them. “Oh God, no.”
Before the words were past her lips she turned, threw open the door as she ignored her sister’s startled cry and began racing down the hall, heading for Jonas’s suite.
Rule had been called away, the summons evidently imperative enough that he had left a confrontation she knew he’d had no intention of breaking off. He’d been enraged with her, and intent on convincing her of something she knew wasn’t true when he’d been called away. At the same time her parents should have been knocking at the door of Rule’s suite.
Rounding the corner, she nearly barreled into Loki, surprising the Coyote who had obviously been rushing through the hall himself in the direction of Rule’s suite. He reached out for her, his expression startled, and the knowledge that flashed across his face caused her to duck, executing a slide that kept her well out of his reach before she shot back to her feet and sprinted to the end of the next hall.
“Gypsy, no. Wait,” he called out, anger vibrating in his voice as she heard Kandy call out his name in confusion.
Adrenaline was racing through her now, dread a close companion as she whipped around the next corner, racing full stride for the Breeds now blocking Jonas’s door.
She came to a hard stop, realizing that the seven Breed males had no intention of moving as they had previously whenever she arrived.
“Get out my way, Flint,” she ordered the one she knew best, glaring into his dark eyes as he watched her grimly.
“I can’t do that, Gypsy.” He shook his head, his expression never softening as he kept a careful eye on her. “Just be patient . . .”
“Patient?” she cried out, enraged now, knowing she didn’t have time to be patient. “Get the hell out of my way before I move you myself.”
How she was going to accomplish that one, she had no idea, but she knew she would sure as hell try if he didn’t let her through.
...
The nano-nit technology was ingenious, Rule thought as he surveyed the device the McQuades had attempted to bring in, inspecting it from beneath the microscope set within a secure, impenetrable shell just for such dangerous electronics or minute robotic devices.
The nano-nit was attached to a microscopic line leading to a nano-reader pad inside the shell. Access to the technology was through a set of ports protected by sealed latex that adhered to the user’s hands as they entered and ensured that an air-free, no-exit environment surrounded the nit and the reader.
“Storage capacity exceeds previous known standards,” he murmured as he finally managed to crack the encryption set on the nano-nit’s technology. That security wasn’t really strong. The nit could bypass almost all known security measures, but it couldn’t prevent access to its own programming. “Programming consists of activation upon a remote signal, whereby it would detach from the host device and make its way to the nearest electrical source before boring inside and making its way to the designated receiver signal to begin storing audio and video. In twelve hours it would then travel along the electrical current to the next floor, to the nearest device capable of transmitting, including satellite or the lesser used cellular phones.”