Where There's Fire (Panopolis Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

turning a profit once you go to work for the corporations.”
    Corporate jobs were the ones that made you real money, and there were people around to broker them if you knew what you were searching for. Raul was notorious enough that he had representatives seek him out, rather than the other way around. I . . . was not. Not yet.
    “How are people supposed to know it’s me if I’m in a disguise?” I asked once we were a block from First National. It was cool out, a little after eight, but my palms were sweating so badly I worried I might drop the briefcase. “I thought the whole point of that was not to be recognized. And I’m not going to spray paint ‘Edward Dinges was here’ on the inside of the vault; that’s tacky.”
    “Tell one of your former coworkers when you’re almost done. Let them carry the tale.”
    “Ah.” Well, that would certainly work if I ended up with someone like Wendy. She could talk like nobody’s business, and about things that were nobody’s business too. “Okay.”
    “Edward.” Raul straightened my lapels and kissed my forehead. He had a bouquet of carnations in one arm, which he’d be handing out randomly once he got to the coffee shop. He’d told me it was one of his favorite ways to pass the time, putting smiles on people’s faces and coaxing their guard down. He’d learned more about people while giving away flowers than at any other time. I had a prop of my own, apart from the briefcase and cane: a cup of coffee. Cold, of course, I didn’t want to cause any burns with it. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be listening, and if you need help, I’ll come rescue you.” He looked seriously at me. “You know I wouldn’t let you down again.”
    That was Raul’s greatest fear: the idea that I’d be in trouble and he wouldn’t be there to help me. Last year I’d almost been killed by Pinball, a former colleague of Raul’s, and I’d been saved by Freight Train when Raul had been unavailable. Not long after that I’d been arrested, and Dr. Steuben, the prison’s resident shrink–slash–mad scientist, had had time to hook my brain up to an experimental thought-reading machine and torture me into Super status before my rescue.
    Needless to say, neither of us liked to remember those times. I didn’t like him thinking of me like that—helpless and needing rescue—and I certainly didn’t want that to be on his mind right now. “I know.” I kissed him back, as firm and confident as I could. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in an hour.” I adjusted my hat, then slumped down a bit. “How do I look?”
    “Forgettable,” Raul said approvingly. “Utterly forgettable, darling.”
    “You say the sweetest things.” I was the first to turn away, walking at a slow stroll down toward the bank. By the time I got there, the manager should be about ten minutes out. I could kill that time pretending to drink my cold coffee, being busy on my smartphone, and doing my best not to freak out. Yeah. Piece of cake.
    Apart from a woman with lavender hair in a pantsuit who exchanged nods with me as we passed each other, I managed to avoid eye contact with the other people on the sidewalk, and I was feeling pretty good by the time I got to the bank. I set down my briefcase and locked the cane into the custom slot at the top of it, pulled out my smartphone, then pretended to screw around with the screen while I discreetly looked over my gear to check that all my tech was working. Earpiece connecting me to Raul, check. Cane of many secret compartments and special uses, check. Biometric lock to hold in my loot, all ready.
    I had to be good too, though—I had to keep myself together. Now that I was on my own, no reassuring Raul in sight, I was barely keeping myself from hyperventilating. My coffee sloshed around the cup like it was being sucked into a waterspout, and the wall between Inside Me and Outside Me was too thin to trust. That wasn’t helpful. I had to be calm if I wanted this job to go