tabby

what to do next because it was all up in the air, but I wasn’t worried. We’d been teammates for so long we could function without one.
Mike stood in his booth overlooking the stage like normal as the late-night dancers performed their opening number. And when we walked in, he acted like normal, like he hadn’t just unmasked his other form—whatever it looked like.
“Hey, Mike, I have a question for you.”
Mike turned to me with a smile and held up one finger as he spoke into his headset. The moment his finger lowered, he pushed the microphone away from his mouth. “Sure thing. Is it about Miss Kitty’s schedule or something she needs?”
I had to hand it to him, he was a great actor, but then I shouldn’t have been surprised by that. He’d managed to last this long under our noses. With a motion of my finger, I encouraged him to walk to the far side of the booth, leaving his tablet on the control station table. “I was wondering about light placement. I watched Miss Kitty’s last dance tonight from that corner”—I pointed to a dark shadowy area that was partially obscured by a post—“and noticed she’s in a shadow for most of her dance.” It was true. Kasim told me about it that first night since he’d watched her from that vantage point, but I’d decided not to mention it in case I needed to use that fact. “Is there something we can do about it? Maybe add another spotlight or reposition one so it doesn’t cast such a big shadow?”
While Mike contemplated the problem, I watched from the corner of my eye as Arin placed the DICC next to the tablet and pressed a few buttons. It took only seconds before he flashed me a thumbs-up and slid from the room.
“Don’t think too hard on it tonight, Mike.” I slapped his shoulder. “I just wanted to let you know so that you could start thinking of possible solutions. Maybe tomorrow or the next day during practice we could try a few different solutions to fix it.”
Mike nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” I’d begun to walk toward the door when Mike called out to me, “Oh, and thanks for spotting that problem.”
“No problem.” I walked out the door excited to see if the device turned up any clues. Hopefully, we were one step closer to getting our tabby back.
I met Arin in the small unused storage room that we swept daily for electronic devices. It gave us a secure room to meet and talk. Plus, it also offered us a secure hideaway for Tabitha, not that she got the chance to use it, having been taken from right beneath us.
The worst part was not knowing why she’d been taken. So far, we hadn’t used her for anything public other than to dance. All her research was done at the hotel. We didn’t even allow her to go exploring, not wanting anyone to get suspicious of her wanderings.
“So what did you find?”
Arin glanced up at me and then dropped his gaze back to the screen of his laptop. “Tons. But nothing related to the money laundering for Mastermind. But Mike is definitely involved with Mastermind’s organization. It seems he is a purveyor of fresh young human women for Mastermind. But I can’t tell if they are being used for mutants, for experiments, for sex, or for breeding. Or maybe it’s for all areas since he appears to have numerous contacts.”
“Shiiiitttt.”
“I agree.” He hit a few keys, flipping through various pages of data. “But from what I’m seeing, I can’t figure out why he took her. While she matches the young and beautiful criteria, taking the headliner is a far cry from taking people who came here for an audition.”
“Hmmm.” Arin’s observation hit the nail on the head. While we knew more, it didn’t answer any of our questions. “Has there been any recent contact with someone? Maybe setting up a pickup for tonight?”
“No. Nothing.” Arin slammed his fist into the wall. “Fuck. I hate this. The not knowing. I swear, whoever took her will die a slow painful death at my hands if they hurt a single hair on her head.”
I wanted to chuckle at his dramatics but couldn’t. The same thoughts marched across my brain on repeat. But I didn’t go around hitting the wall. “Cool your jets, sloth boy. There’ll be time enough for retribution once she’s back safe in our arms.”
He hung his head. “Yeah, you’re right. I need to keep my head in the game. There has to be a clue on this device.”
For the next few minutes, the only sound in the room outside of our breathing was the tapping of Arin’s fingers on the keyboard. Each keystroke added to my hope that we were on the right track, but when Arin pushed the laptop across the table and slumped, my hope evaporated faster than ice on a hot tin roof.
“Fuck, there’s nothing here. I was so sure there was.” He gave the laptop another shove, nearly sending it off the table. I reached out to stop it, hitting a number of keys in my attempt to keep it from crashing to the floor. Arin jumped up. “What did you do?” He lunged for the computer. “Holy shit, Bae. You found it.”
I didn’t know what I’d found or how I did it, but I was glad to see Arin so excited.
“It’s here. It’s all here.”
“What?”
“Where Ed’s real hidden room is. Ed’s passwords. The smuggling pipeline they use. Everything.” Arin lifted his gaze to meet mine, a huge smile on his face. “I know where to find her.

20
Tabitha
Mr. X left the room after receiving a phone call. I tried the door that seemed to magically unlock for him but had no success. I needed an escape plan, but escaping in my dressing gown wasn’t high on my list. The wardrobe, when I opened it, did indeed contain clothing. Initially, it worried me