Jasper finally broke the lock on the door, momentarily distracting her from whatever Grace was dealing with. On the other side was a gold sheet of metal. “Holly. Dax. Thea. Status updates.”
“I got in,” Thea said. “Nothing here but some equipment for the renovations.”
“Same here,” Holly added. “Nothing.”
“Great. My location’s boarded up tight. This must be Ringmaster’s base.” Jasper ran a hand along the metal. It seemed tough, but it wasn’t galaxium. “We’ll have to figure out a way in.”
“What do you want us to do now?” Thea asked.
“We’ll regroup in the food court,” Jasper replied. “Angel, hold tight. I’m on my way to you.”
“Great. I’ll just keep pretending I know how to help these people.” Grace didn’t bother trying to mask her exasperation. “Excuse me, I need to scan that!”
Jasper closed the door and returned to the sales floor. As she worked her way to the fitting rooms, she said, “Angel, you could just walk away.”
“I’m pretty sure these people would start an actual riot.”
“Not our circus, not our fire-breathing reptiles.”
“Okay, but—yes, sir, the dressing rooms are full. If you could just wait in line—”
Jasper paused to let a child run by in front of her. She gave the crowd a quick scan, curious if the kid had a parent anywhere nearby. Instead, her gaze found an older teen boy standing with a backpack slung over his shoulder, eyes darting around suspiciously. Pale-skinned and sporting curly blond hair, he could pass for human. From where she stood, anyway.
“Hang on,” Jasper said. “I think this kid’s shoplifting. I’m going to follow him.” She started toward him.
“What? Why?” Grace asked.
“You think I’m gonna let some punk steal on my watch?” Jasper followed the kid to the wall shared with the next store. The one hit by Ringmaster.
“What do you care if some kid shoplifts?” Holly asked.
“They’ve got a sign posted in the back saying the employee who catches the most shoplifters gets a bonus.” Jasper’s eyes narrowed as the kid slipped behind a rack. She paused next to it and activated her heat vision.
The kid pushed a bunch of coats aside and pressed a hand to the wall. A rectangular section heated up, and he stepped through.
Jasper switched back to normal vision and moved around the corner. When she inspected the wall behind the rack, she found that a section seemed to have been cut out and replaced with metal. A silver metal, not gold like in the back hall.
“Thea,” Jasper said. “If I send you a picture, could you get me an ID?”
Thea sounded skeptical. “You want me to run facial recognition on a shoplifter?”
“No, I want you to run facial recognition on a kid who just walked through a wall.” Jasper backed away from the rack.
“Jasper, where are you?” Grace asked.
“Waiting for this kid to come back. I think he’s—” Jasper’s gaze darted to her right. “Ooh, these coats are nice.” She picked up a long black overcoat and tried it on.
“Don’t you have a dozen other coats just like that?” Thea asked.
“Are you spying on me?” Jasper glanced up at the nearest security camera.
“I got into the cameras to see what you’re doing. What happened to regrouping in the food court?”
“That’s still happening, but I’m pretty sure I just found the Apprentice. We need to ID him.” Jasper found a mirror and adjusted the coat.
“Well, I tried getting into the cameras in the store next door, and they’re all shut off,” Thea said. “What if he takes a while to come back out?”
“Then we wait.” Jasper grabbed a wide brimmed hat off a nearby shelf and set it on her head. “If you’re going to spy on me, then tell me what you think of this.”
“I don’t think it really works with the neon floral shirt.”
“Whatever. I’m taking it.”
“Hey, I just got promoted,” Grace said. “At least, I think that’s what happened. The manager I just spoke to was very hungover.”
“Congratulations.” Jasper glanced at the wall and switched back to heat vision.
“Wait, he’s sending people over to me. Oh, god, he wants me to train them.”
The metal was heating up again. “Kid’s coming back. Thea, get ready for a photo.” Heat vision off. Jasper opened her camera.
“I can’t promise he’ll be in any of the databases my program checks,” Thea warned.
“Well, let’s find out.”
The boy stepped out from behind the rack, glancing around to check if anyone had noticed him. Jasper snapped a photo before turning away. She slid her sphere out of her pocket. Under her breath, she said, “Mia, send image 1228 to Thea’s tablet.”
“No results found for ‘These Apples.’”
“Thea’s. Tablet,” Jasper hissed.
“What would you like to do with Thea’s tablet?”
Jasper groaned. “Send image 1228.” Artificial Intelligence was rapidly becoming her most detested misnomer.
“Sending.”
“You got that, Thea?”
“Yeah, I got it. Could take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour for the program to find a match. If it finds a match.”
“Great. I’ll meet you all at the food court.” Jasper walked to the fitting rooms. “Angel, you still over here?”
Grace emerged from behind a line of people, carrying a stack of clothes. “These need to go back out to the floor.” She dumped them into Jasper’s arms.
“We can go now,” Jasper told her.
“Look, Yrag said I’m the best employee they’ve had all year. I don’t know if I’m actually that good or if the bar is incredibly low, but I want to enjoy this while it lasts.”
“Who’s Yrag?”
“He’s either a supervisor, a manager, or a fear-induced hallucination.” Grace shook her head. “Sorry. I’ve never been in a situation like this before. It’s weirdly rewarding. But we should get out of here before I lose my mind.”
“Really?” Jasper dumped the stack of clothes onto a random shelf, and she and Grace headed toward the exit. “You were enjoying this?”
“Oh, I hate it. I had no idea people could be so rude over something so unimportant. But accomplishing things on my own is nice,” Grace said. “I always had everything I needed handed to me. Until my bodyguard tried to murder me, I mean.”
A man tapped on Grace’s shoulder, bringing her to a halt. “Excuse me,” he said. “I asked you to bring me this jacket in red.”
“We don’t make that jacket in red,” Grace told him.
“Well, why not?”
“I don’t know, I just work here! Do you want to call the designer and ask them why they didn’t make it in red?” Grace ripped off her badge and tossed into a nearby trash can. “I quit.”
Jasper tossed hers too, unable to hide a smirk. “Not bad, Angel. You’re starting to get the hang of this.”
They headed for the exit. Grace frowned. “I wouldn’t put being a fake employee and a master criminal on the same level.”
Jasper chuckled. “Okay, okay. Whatever you say.”