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on sunbeams, I ran my mind over and over the code Sayer had given me, ordering and reordering them like they could be some kind of anagram. But it contained both letters and numbers, and meant a whole lot of nothing as far as I could tell.
    The note was meant for me, specifically. Sayer knew I’d be the one trying to figure it out. Did he have to make it so flipping hard?
    “What were you trying to tell me, Say? Where is it?”
    I ran the tip of my finger back and forth across the messy scrawl, until I noted a small space between two of the numbers. And then another.
     
    A13H57T 17 35 8
     
    It wasn’t one long code. It was four small ones. Or maybe . . . I twisted the sheet, examining it from another angle. One long number/letter combo and a three numbered code . . . like a combination . . . to a locker. The lockers at the hospital had codes like that on them demarking the wing, ward, and first letter of the doctor’s last name. In fact, this one was almost identical to Ballard’s. Same wing, A13, and ward, H57, only his ended with a B.
    He looked at that thing every freaking day. How could he not recognize it?
    “I know where it is!”
    “What?” Ballard didn’t sound nearly as excited about my discovery as I was.
    “You know what. And know where, too. Why wouldn’t you tell me he stashed the file at the hospital?”
    Ballard slumped against the wall, sending a cloud of dust into the air, and ran a hand through his nonexistent hair. “Because this is a fool’s errand. I understand that you mean well. That you both meant well. But this isn’t your responsibility. It’s gone far enough. Auralia, I’ve already lost you once, my girl. Don’t make me do it again.”
    He’d always been a master guilt-tripper, but I wasn’t going to let it sway me this time. “I’m going to that hospital with or without you, Ballard.”
     
    ><><><><
     
    With him, it was. Refusing to let me go it alone and knowing there was a greater chance of the Legion spontaneously combusting than me giving up once I’d set my mind to something, Ballard opted to join me on my hunt.
    Word of Ballard’s involvement in whatever they were accusing Sayer and I of hadn’t gotten around yet, if it ever would. He’d probably turn out to be one of the poor, unfortunate souls that died of a ‘heart attack’ via bullet to the brain, if the Legion had anything to say about it. Either way, his presence at the hospital would go entirely unnoted. Mine, not so much.
    Sweat dripped into my eyes as I sweltered under a thick hooded jacket. I garnered a few odd looks—not unexpected for the loon decked out in winter-wear during a heat wave—but no one paid me much attention as we rose to the thirty-second floor. The locker bank was directly off the employee lift, and I knew our luck couldn’t possibly hold out the minute we found them vacant.
    “Hurry up, read the combination.” I shoved the scrap of paper in Ballard’s hand and hustled over to the locker we needed.
    “Seventeen, thirty-five, eight.”
    I twisted the knob on the heavy padlock as Ballard rattled off numbers and it popped open. My hands shook with a combination of nerves and excitement as I wrestled it from the metal door and tossed it aside. I couldn’t believe I was actually going through with this. And yet, I couldn’t believe it had taken so long to get to this point. I knew Sayer wanted more proof, specific documents the insurgents had some sort of plan for, but personally, I thought what Sayer had come to me in the first place with should have been enough. We were about to find out who was right the hard way, and I hoped it was me for more than just egotistical reasons.
    The locker swung open and four tan metal walls stared back at me with not so much as a stray paperclip in between. No folder, no kill orders, no death certificates, no proof . Nothing. It was all gone. Taken. By the only other people who knew it existed, the Legion. And that could only mean one thing. They