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There was silence

She tried again But still no music materialized One by one, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end It had to be a probleht? But instincts were screae to ask if soet to the bottom of the issue There was no response Her heart started hae to Mace through the hotel’s network

The e fell into dead space

The i just ail were now unresponsive She tried hotel security Local Enforcement Her boss at CommTECH All calls ended in silence Her sto had disabled her i off her access to the outside world Which et some answers

“Don’t scream,” a man said

Keiko gasped and spun toward the voice Three strangers stood in the shadows at the edge of the pool—two ht in her throat, and her hands trerateful for the water holding her upr

ight Her heart pounded so loudly she could barely hear anything over the sound

“I’ht “Usually, as soon as so”

She was tall, athletic in build, with light brown skin and h to tie in a ponytail on top of her head But it wasn’t her looks that made Keiko’s breath hitch It was the fact she was decked out eapons

Working hard to breathe evenly, Keiko assessed her situation Her i, and she couldn’t reach out to the data network for help, which nals She was naked and in water, which definitely didn’t give her an advantage—although they couldn’t touch her unless they got into the pool, too There was no point in screa as she was fifty floors above the rest of the world That left waiting for Mace He was her only chance at getting help She just had to stall until he arrived

“Who are you?” She was surprised at how cal inside, but all those years of putting on a show of confidence for the ca-time

“You don’ need to know” It was the ht, and Keiko sucked in a breath He was tall, brown-skinned, and ripped There was a patch over his left eye and a gun in his hand “We don’ wanna hurt you, we just wanna to talk Do as you’re told, and you’ll be fine”

She couldn’t help the h that escaped when she realized he’d said they didn’t want to hurt her, not that they wouldn’t hurt her “Do you expect me to take your word on that?”

“You don’ really have a choice now, do you, chère?” His strange accent was hard to place, but then she re a history lesson on Cajun culture Keiko didn’t think anyone still had that accent Guess the history class rong

The wo a robe out to Keiko “Tih this whole surreal experience was great fun