Don't Look Now by Michelle Gagnon Read Free Book Online Page B

kind of like the protections Noa used to set up for company networks, a real-world firewall.
    But those precautionary measures meant that she never knew much about what the other units were up to. Peter was in charge of monitoring them, and he’d been in touch less and less frequently of late.
    Which made Noa wonder if he was regretting the decision to stay involved. He was probably back with his old girlfriend, enjoying his old life. Helping her out might have become a burden.
    No , she told herself. Peter cared about this as much as she did. After all, these monsters had killed his best friend.
    “You sure Peter’s right about Phoenix?” Zeke pressed.
    Noa shrugged. “He hasn’t been wrong yet.”
    He frowned. “Sucks that we can’t just hack in ourselves.”
    “Too risky. If they tracked us and figured out where we were . . .”
    “Yeah, I know,” he grumbled. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”
    Ever since going on the run, they’d stopped hacking into networks directly; P&D had proven too adept at finding infiltrators quickly. So Peter handled their online work and research, and Zeke clearly resented him for it. Hacker pride, which Noa understood—sometimes her fingers itched for a keyboard; she hated having to steer clear of the one place she’d always felt most comfortable. But they couldn’t risk endangering their unit.
    “He’s right about Phoenix,” Noa repeated firmly.
    “If you say so.” Zeke stood and stretched, exposing his lean lower belly. “I’m going to crash. Wake me for dinner.”
    “Sure,” Noa said, forcing herself to look away.
    “And Noa?”
    She turned to find him framed in the doorway. “Yeah?”
    “You’re doing great. I mean it.”
    “It doesn’t feel like it,” she muttered, remembering the way Turk had challenged her last night. Sometimes it seemed like if she made one wrong move, the kids would pounce.
    “Hey.” Zeke hunkered down in front of her, wrapping his arms around his knees. “You okay?”
    “Not really,” she said, biting her lip.
    He reached out and stroked her hair with one hand, smoothing it back from her face. In a low voice he said, “I think you’re amazing.”
    Noa blinked, surprised. Suddenly she was having a hard time swallowing. Zeke was looking at her with a serious expression, his eyes warm and full. He started to lean toward her, and her breath caught.
    “Um, hi?”
    They both looked up, startled. Teo was standing awkwardly in the doorway. “Daisy wanted me to tell you the guy is awake again.”
    Zeke quickly straightened up. “I’ll deal with it. You get enough sleep, Teo?”
    “Sure, yeah. Slept great.” Teo looked back and forth between them. “I just wanted to thank you again, for, y’know, letting me join you.”
    “No problem.” Zeke clapped him on the shoulder. “We gotta work on your timing, though.” He threw Noa a crooked grin, then turned and left the room. Teo hovered in the doorway an instant longer, then slunk back down the hall.
    Noa tucked her chin on her knees and stared out the window. She was having a hard time sorting out how she felt about Zeke. If Teo hadn’t interrupted, would she have let him kiss her? She rubbed her wrist with her thumb and sighed. As if life wasn’t complicated enough right now, she suddenly had boy trouble. In spite of everything, Noa smiled. A year ago, that would have been pretty much inconceivable.
    The kid on the bike was still outside, even though the shadows were lengthening and it was probably getting cold. He spun in slow, lonely loops, his head down. She wondered if a family waited for him, or if he was another lost kid, like her; like all of them. As night fell, she kept watching until he was just a shadow drifting in and out of the circle cast by a streetlamp overhead.
     
    Peter hit Send, mailing the blueprints of the Phoenix warehouse to Noa’s secret account. It was nearly ten o’clock, and he had to get home soon. He’d told his parents that he was