Deep within the stone-walled wine cellar of the estate, the air was cold and still. This was Audie's only sanctuary, a known dead zone for all electronic signals.

She sat on an overturned crate, her back to a rack of priceless Bordeaux. The heavy oak door was bolted from the inside. She pulled her hoodie up and began to peel off the tape from her wrist.

On the screen of her micro-tablet, an encrypted chat window was open. A single blinking cursor waited.

When the ruby bracelet was revealed, she slipped her entire hand into a silver Faraday bag, cutting the signal cold. She had exactly ninety seconds before Basil's system would register an anomaly.

She typed furiously.

<Tracker active. Biometric. GPS. Custom lock. Cannot remove.>

The reply from her handler, Leo, was instantaneous.

<Acknowledged. Men like Dean don't give jewelry to staff. They give it to...>

The text stopped. The implication hung in the digital silence.

<Is your cover compromised?> Leo typed.

Audie pulled her hand away from the keyboard. The mission is my cover, she thought, but didn't type it. It was too close to a lie.

<That's not a no,> Leo's text appeared, as if he'd read her mind. <He's a mark, Audie! He's the target! You don't fall for the target.>

<I'm not falling for him!> she typed back, her fingers stabbing the screen. <I'm surviving him!>

There was a pause.

<Chatter on the dark web,> Leo sent. <Bounty on The Auditor. Five million. Unknown source. If they link you to the Dean estate...>

Audie felt the blood drain from her face.

<Need the files,> she typed, her focus narrowing. <The original hack that crashed his stock. Leverage. Need it to trade for my freedom.>

<Be careful,> Leo wrote. <Take the ceramic blade. It's in the dead drop.> The dead drop was a hollowed-out brick behind a loose wine rack.

<No. If he finds a weapon, I'm dead.>

<Take it, Audie.>

<My cover is my weapon,> she typed, and terminated the connection.

She re-taped her wrist, pulled her hand from the bag, and slid the tablet back into its waterproof pouch. She had been dark for eighty-two seconds.

She slipped out of the cellar and headed for the main floors. As she reached the top of the service stairs, she froze.

A new red laser grid crisscrossed the hallway. He had upgraded the internal perimeter while she was gone. He hadn't detected her location, but he had detected the signal drop.

She was trapped in the service wing.

She had to find another way back to her room.

Audie pressed the buzzer for the service elevator. It was the only route back to her floor that bypassed the new laser grid.

The elevator doors opened.

Mercer was waiting inside. He didn't look happy.

"He's in the foyer. He's been waiting ten minutes."

Audie walked in.

Basil was sitting on a velvet bench in the center of the hall. He was holding a glass of ice water. The condensation dripped onto his hand.

"Where were you?"

His voice was calm. Too calm.

"The signal disappeared," he said. "For eighty-two seconds. From the wine cellar."

Audie clutched a plastic bag from a 24-hour convenience store. An emergency prop she always kept.

She didn't speak. She simply held up the bag. Inside was a box of tampons.

Basil stared at the bag. It was the one thing men like him didn't question. The one thing that made them uncomfortable.

Audie then pointed downstairs, toward the cellar, and made a shrugging gesture, as if to say, I went to the only place I knew had a private bathroom and no cameras.

Basil stood up. He walked over to her. He loomed over her, smelling of expensive cologne and cold anger.

He looked at the bag. Then at her eyes.

"The signal dropped because of the lead lining in the cellar walls," he said, his voice a low murmur. "My phone loses service there all the time." He was completing her lie for her, testing her.

Audie's heart hammered against the bracelet. She watched the BPM counter on his phone, which he held angled so she could see it, climb to 145. He saw it too.

She gave a single, terrified nod, confirming his version of the story.

Basil stared at her for a long time. He was dissecting her. Looking for the lie he already knew was there. A slow, cold smile touched his lips. He enjoyed knowing she was lying. He enjoyed having the proof.

"Go to your room," he said finally.

Audie fled.

She locked her door. She collapsed onto the bed.

She looked at the taped wrist. She thought about Leo's question. Did you fall for him?

No. But she was fascinated by him. And that was worse.

She looked around the room. The silk sheets. The clothes in the closet. The bracelet.

It wasn't a job anymore. It was a cage. A gilded cage.

She felt sick. She ran to the bathroom and dry heaved.

She couldn't do this. She couldn't be his pet.

She grabbed a pair of scissors. She sat on the floor.

She jammed the scissor blade into the tape. She cut it away.

The ruby glared at her.

She couldn't take it off. But she could reject it.

She checked the schedule on her tablet. Tomorrow morning. 8:00 AM. Basil inspected the kitchen inventory.

She would give it back. Publicly.

She heard footsteps in the hall. They stopped outside her door.

Basil.

He stood there. She could feel his presence through the wood. He was waiting for her to open it. To invite him in.

Audie sat on the floor, hugging her knees. She didn't move.

After five minutes, the footsteps walked away.