—and I was back in the present. The lobby was quiet except for the murmur of conversation and the noise of the escalators. The receptionist was looking at us, the tablet in her hands.
“Hi,” I said. “We’re from EDF. Looking for Keith Adams from Salesforce?”
The receptionist eyed me doubtfully. “Do you have an appointment?”
I nodded at the tablet. “EDF Energy.”
The receptionist checked the tablet. “Can I have your name please?”
“Radu Todoca.”
“You’re a bit early . . .”
“Our job window’s twelve to three.”
“It just says three here,” the receptionist said, but she’d lost interest. My name matching the one on her tablet had removed any suspicion. She handed me a clipboard. “Can both of you fill in your name, company, and time entered. Also, we need a mobile number so we can contact you while you’re in the building.”
I took the clipboard and started filling in the form. The security guy had wandered up, apparently friendly. “Hello there, sir,” he said. “What were your names again?”
“Radu. And this is Bogdan.”
“Oh, really? From Poland?”
“Romania.”
“Romania! That’s great. What are you here for?”
I handed the clipboard to Cinder; he took it and started to fill in the blanks in silence. “Need to check the power for the twenty-third floor,” I said. “Health and Safety.”
“If it’s the power, shouldn’t you be going to the basement?”
I shrugged. “Work order says twenty-third.”
“I’ve sent a message to Keith Adams,” the receptionist said. She handed us two badges. “I’ve scanned you through the security gate. Make sure to wear these at all times inside the building.”
“Okay.” I took the badges, handed one to Cinder, gave the security guard a nod, then turned and headed for the gates. Cinder followed. No one stopped us as we walked through the security gates, took the escalators to the mezzanine floor, waited for a lift, and stepped inside. I hit the button for the twenty-third floor and the doors hissed shut, leaving us alone.
“You are shit at passing for an electrician,” Cinder said.
“I got us in, didn’t I?”
The lift hummed as it rose. Gravity pressed down on us as the lift climbed past the lower floors and into the glass elevator shaft I’d seen from the outside. Through the clear windows we could see the street and shops and pavement below, shrinking quickly.
“That guard had you made.”
“He’s a security guard,” I said, keeping an eye on the numbers above the lift door. We were going up fast. “Being suspicious is his job.”
“You sounded like an American doing a Cockney accent.”
“Oh, come on. I wasn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, you were.”
“My dad was a university professor. I’m never going to make a convincing construction worker.”
“You sound like a posh twat.”
“You think anyone with an RP accent sounds like a posh twat.”
“’Cause they are.”
The lift slowed and stopped with a ding, the doors sliding open to reveal two women and a man in business dress. I held up a hand. “Sorry. Maintenance.”
They stared in confusion. I hit the Close button, followed by the top floor. The doors slid shut and we started rising again. “Okay,” I said. “Once I get off, head down to the basement and find a place to hole up. I’ll get in touch with you once it’s time to cut the power.”
“Use your phone,” Cinder said.
“Mind-to-mind is quicker.”
“Yeah, and it’s creepy as shit,” Cinder said. “Phone.”
I sighed. “Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of picky?”
The lift reached the top floor and I stepped out. Behind me, Cinder pushed the button to the basement; the doors closed and he disappeared from sight. Above the control panel, I saw the numbers counting down.
The clock was ticking now. Our cover story had gotten us inside, but the longer we stayed, the better the chance someone would figure out that we weren’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t worried about building security or police, but I was worried that Levistus might have a communications tap, or that the Council might pick up on an alert. The first thing I did was strip off my overalls and bundle them into a nearby closet. One nice thing about overalls: they’re so ill-fitting, people don’t notice when you’re wearing armour underneath. The set I was wearing was an imbued item of reactive mesh with solid black plates covering vital areas. It had been badly damaged when I’d taken the fateweaver, and it was only within the last couple of days that it had recovered enough that I felt comfortable wearing it. I could feel its presence around me, watchful and protective. Time to get to work.
The top of Heron Tower was a windswept jumble of smaller structures, crowded with ventilators, railings, and stored equipment. The data centre was a smaller sub-tower that reached up above the roof, its top a forest of aerials. For now, my goal was the longer, squatter structure on the tower’s east side which held the tower’s backup power systems. A few flights of stairs and some work with my lockpicks got me into the power room, which unsurprisingly was deserted. The generators stood against one wall, silent and unguarded.
Divination is powerful, but it has limits. The further ahead you look, and the more decisions you try to map through, the harder it becomes to follow a possible thread. Looking ahead to see what would happen if I left the van and got past the security guards at Heron Tower and made it all the way up to the top floor and bypassed all the other security measures and waited for Cinder to cut the power in the basement had been too difficult. Now that we were both in position, it was a different story. I took out my phone and called Cinder; he picked up on the second ring. “Yeah?”
“Get ready to cut the power. Don’t go without my signal.”
“Sure.”
And with that, I was ready. I looked ahead to see what would happen if I crossed the roof of Heron Tower, approached the data centre, and tried to force my way in. My future self felt a low-pitched, vibrating crump as the bomb went off, destroying everything of value inside. But if I cut the backup power, called down to Cinder to cut the main power, then crossed the roof to the data centre and forced the door open, then—
Crump.
Uh-oh.
“Hold on,” I told Cinder. I looked ahead to see what would happen if I tried a different way in. Crump. Call Starbreeze and have her give me a lift? Crump. Gating, picking the lock on the door, breaking a window . . .