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penetrate the gym again.”
    I said, “Seriously, after what they just did to you?”
    “Yes.”
    Those assholes upstairs could learn something from her.
    I laughed and said, “Honey badger don’t care.”
    “Huh? What’s that mean?”
    “You know, that YouTube video about the honey badger that gets bitten by cobras and attacked by bees but keeps on going? The weirdo narrator says, ‘Honey badger don’t care,’ whenever something gets in the way of his goals.”
    She just looked at me with a blank expression.
Must be a guy thing.
    “Never mind. We can’t go back to the gym. Johnny’s right about one thing: It
is
his mission. We can’t risk spooking them, even if you are correct.”
    “I’m right, and I want show that to his team before it’s too late. Before they lose the thread that’s hiding somewhere else.”
    “Jennifer, the only thing that’ll convince them is a lesbian porno starring the wife and the woman with the cross.”
    “Yeah, I agree. That’s what I’m going to give them.”

Chapter 5
    Jennifer placed the binoculars on the dashboard. Pike said, “You still want to do it?”
    “Yeah. The only tricky point will be getting from the stairwell to the women’s locker room. There was no guard at the front desk in the daytime. Just the folks checking people in and out.”
    Pike said, “Okay, but remember, there’s a fine line between hero and zero. You get caught in there and it won’t screw up the mission, but it sure as hell will destroy your reputation.”
    Jennifer smiled, “You mean
your
reputation.”
    “Yeah, that too.”
    She said, “What do you think?”
    “I think I’d like to stick the tape you get up Johnny’s ass. But
I’m
not going in.”
    “Pike, we talked about this. You can’t scale the climbing wall with your leg and—”
    He cut her off. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Doesn’t make it any easier to sit here.”
    She smiled and punched his shoulder. “But if I get caught, I don’t want any excuses about your leg keeping you from helping me out.”
    “Now we’re just wasting time. You ready?”
    “Yeah. Let’s roll. I’ll open the door once we’re past that streetlight. You planning to circle back here?”
    He reached up and disabled the overhead light, then put the car in drive and entered the street that circled around the gym. He said, “Yep. I’ll keep an eye on Barney Fife. Holler when you want me to call the gym.”
    They passed under the light and she felt the adrenaline begin to flow. The drop-off was on a two-way road paralleling the side of the building, forcing a rolling insertion to prevent suspicion from anyone who was watching the car. Thirty meters beyond and Pike said, “Go.”
    She opened the door without a word and slid out of the car, rolling into the ditch beside the road. She watched the taillights disappear, then scuttled across. She waited a beat, then sprinted across the parking lot of the gym, away from the circles of light pockmarking it. She reached the climbing wall and paused, staring up but unable to see where it ended because of the darkness.
    During her orientation on the first day, she’d been shown how to use the wall and had scampered up it like a lizard on brick, enjoying the freedom of the climb. She’d reached the top, then had rappelled back down with ease to find her gym guide openmouthed. He’d said, “I thought you were a beginner.”
    She’d silently wanted to kick herself for giving up her skill. “Well, I’ve done it before. This one isn’t as hard as the one I used in the States.”
    He’d said, “You took the hardest lane.”
    She’d just shrugged and they had continued on, exploring the rest of the facility.
    When she’d come up with her idea of getting proof, it had hinged on what she’d seen at the top of that climb, where the roof met the climbing wall. Pike had initially balked, thinking she meant she wanted to simply repeat the previous mission in the hopes of getting proof. She’d convinced him