Page 153 of What We Become

“Those aren’t necessarily different options anymore.”

Holden ends his call and returns to the kitchen. “Odin’s sending a team to the florist and another to pull every camera between there and here. We hold the house tonight. Full physical watch until we know how he got inside.”

Sage doesn’t argue. She keeps staring at the stranger on my screen.

“What was he doing in our house?” she asks.

I look at the flowers, then at the empty space where Micah’s tulips used to be.

“Whoever did this wanted us to know they could get inside.”

“Then why hide from the cameras?”

“Because knowing someone got inside is frightening.” I meet her eyes. “Not knowing how is worse.”

I send everything we have to Fenrir and watch the files disappear into Odin’s network.

The man on the screen isn’t Stephen.

That should be good news.

It isn’t.

Because the flowers don’t prove Stephen came back from the Atlantic.

They prove he doesn’t have to.

THIRTY-FIVE

HOLDEN

“And you still have no idea how he got into your house?” Odin’s wearing his eye patch this morning, legs crossed as he lounges elegantly in his three-piece suit, espresso cup in hand.

“Not even a footprint telling us which entrance he used,” I say, hating the answer. But Odin doesn’t waste time making us explain everything we failed to find. His attention shifts to Milo.

“Do you believe the security system can be upgraded to stop him from doing it again?”

“Not if we don’t know how he did it the first time,” Milo says. “Fenrir’s above my pay grade, and he’s as stumped as I am. These people are good. And I hate them even more for it.”

Odin leans forward and places his untouched espresso on the table. “Then we stop relying on a system he’s already proved he can beat.” He turns to Thor, whose massive bulk takes up the far end of the couch. “I want rotating teams on the house twenty-four-seven. Front, rear, and every viable approach covered, with no gaps during handover. If anyone walks onto that property again, human eyes see them.”

Thor nods. “How many?”

“Enough that nobody watches alone or remains in one position long enough to become predictable. Change the people, vehicles, and vantage points regularly, and keep them off the home network.”

Milo shifts beside me. With Thor and Loki joining Odin for this morning’s meeting, all six of us are squished together on the couch across from them. I stretch my arm behind Milo’s head to give him a little more room. Loki notices.

“I’m still going to find out how he did it,” Milo says, knee bouncing.

“I expect you to,” Odin says. “But we’re dealing with someone whose technical skills may be better than ours, and waging a digital war against him isn’t going to be enough.” Odin’s gaze travels around the room. “From now on, we put feet on the ground and eyes on every active subject—Stephen’s known contacts and any Kennel connection that enters our territory. Milo and Fenrir keep working the data, but the data supports the people watching. It doesn’t replace them.”

“Understood,” Eli says.

It requires more personnel, more money, and more opportunities for something to go wrong, but it also gives us something Stephen can’t alter from behind a screen.

Witnesses.

Odin fixes his attention on the still Milo has projected onto the wall. The man from the florist is caught mid-turn, baseball cap shadowing part of his face, one hand wrapped around the bouquet that later appeared in our kitchen.