It was a huge relief to finally climb out of the food cart. Grace stretched her legs, arms, and wings while Thea climbed on top of the cart to move the loose ceiling tile.
“What if Ringmaster’s in there?” Dax whispered.
“I did a heat scan. No one’s up there yet.” Thea climbed in.
Dax followed. Grace went last, and despite Thea’s assurance it was safe, apprehension made her tense as she pulled herself up.
A workspace had been thrown together in the space above the ceiling. An elaborate computer system was piled onto a desk, with machines hooked up to several keyboards and multiple monitors. A rolling chair sat nearby. Tarps hung all around the makeshift office, isolating it.
“Awful lot of work for such a small space,” Thea said, turning in a slow circle. “He blocked off any part of the building that had direct ventilation access.” She stepped toward the desk and ran a finger along the top of one of the monitors. “And most of this equipment is purely security. Prevents people like me from getting into the messages or camera feeds remotely.”
The screens lit up at her touch, and the computers hummed in a chorus of overworked electronics. Thea plopped into the chair.
Dax sat down nearby and made himself comfortable. Grace, after some hesitation, did the same. Anxiety faded to a sense of relative comfort, which quickly turned to boredom. Thea typed endlessly at keys, occasionally cursing and smacking the equipment.
Holly tuned in over comms from time to time to check Thea’s status, and to note that she had yet to see anyone approach the offices.
Grace’s mind wandered back to the comment Holly had made earlier. If she was West Kronosian, why did she make herself look human? What was the point in staying in a shapeshifted form all the time?
A West Kronosian might draw more attention than they wanted in the lower districts, Grace supposed. But what was stopping Holly from using her true form at home?
“How are things going?” Holly asked, for the…fifth time? Sixth? Grace had lost track.
“I’m doing okay,” Thea replied. “I’ve got a program running to download the stored messages I detected to my sphere. They’ll probably need decoding, too. And I’m working on camera feed access right now.”
Grace wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them to her chest so that she could rest her chin on top. “How is Ringmaster getting race instructions out to the villains? Is that what the messages are?”
Thea shook her head. “I’m not sure what the text messages are. They could be communication with the governor, though, which would be a huge help to us.”
“Ringmaster announced the races last season on a hijacked broadcast and told any interested villains to send out a signal that would put them on his list,” Dax added. “After that, Jasper was sent a responding signal with a code to access an encrypted audio channel. He’s been sending information that way.”
Jasper joined the conversation. “Yeah, there’s just one complication.”
“Oh, look who’s back,” Holly responded with a huff. “What do you mean ‘complication?’”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Thea said before Jasper could answer. “But I’ve got camera access.” Various feeds popped up on the rightmost monitor. “Looks like these were set up to follow the race. Pretty much what we expected.”
“That’s great,” Jasper said. Her breathing was labored. “Let me know when you can read the messages.”
Dax frowned. “Are you okay, Jasper?”
“I’m fine.”
“The decoding process is just starting,” Thea replied. “I’ll let you know if I get anything interesting.”
“I get that the party was the easiest way to access Ringmaster’s setup,” Holly said. “But I’m not the only one who thinks we could have just pulled the fire alarm, right?”
“I had to get everyone away from the building,” Jasper told her. “Plant the idea of going somewhere else. Otherwise, they would have waited around for the fire department.”
“Still,” Holly muttered.
Dax shrugged. “It did seem a little excessive.”
“Jasper’s always been dramatic,” Thea said. Frowning, she leaned forward and squinted at the camera feeds.
“What can I say? I’m a supervillain.” Jasper’s statement was followed by a grunt of pain that made Grace wince.
“It’s clear you have other plans,” Holly said. “What are you doing, anyway? You sound like you’re—”
“Running across a rooftop?” Thea tried.
“Oddly specific guess, but yeah.”
“That’s because she is.” Thea pointed at one of the screens, though Holly wouldn’t be able to see whatever she was looking at.
“Wait,” Holly said. “Someone’s coming.”
Grace tensed. She found herself exchanging an apprehensive glance with Dax.
“Yeah, I recognize this guy,” Holly continued. “He’s an intern. Maybe he was at the party and left something behind.” She sighed. “Should I knock him out?”
“Not yet,” Thea told her. “The messages are downloading faster than I expected. Keep an eye on him, and delay him if you can. We just need to get out before he gets in and sees the hole in the ceiling.” She frowned. “Jasper, what are you doing? Why are you climbing that building?”
“Hey, yeah!” Sudden realization laced Holly’s annoyed tone. “Jasper, you were supposed to hang out at the Electroswinger and make sure no one came back. You clearly failed at that.”
Grace climbed to her feet and peered at the monitor over Thea’s shoulder. Jasper was scaling a building, using ledges and skywalks and balconies to make her way up with impressive speed.
“Wait,” Grace said. “What was Jasper saying about a complication earlier?”
Jasper managed a weak laugh. “Let’s just say that with the danger involved in the races, Ringmaster is anticipating a lot of elimination.”
“So?” Holly asked. “We’re following Ringmaster, not the races.”
“Yes, well, Ringmaster wanted to reduce the chances of race locations being leaked in advance to people who could cause problems. The police, for example.”
Grace folded her arms. “If Ringmaster’s working for Starr, couldn’t Starr just—?”
“Stop the police?” Jasper asked. “No, no, Starr doesn’t control every precinct to that degree. He’s never that obvious about it, either. Plus, other villains might try to interrupt the races for their own reasons.” On the screen, she pulled herself onto a balcony and disappeared into a gap between two buildings. “So, as I was saying, Ringmaster is only handing out locations to villains who qualify for the next race.”
Thea raised an eyebrow. Dax’s eyes widened. Holly cursed over comms.
“You mean if we want to follow Ringmaster…” Grace began.
“I have to run the race,” Jasper finished.