The Sunset Job (The Rainbow's Seven 1)

Chapter 1

Wyatt Hernandez

A gaggle of uniformed children burst through the bright red doors and into the Miami Science Center, crowding around a table that was meant to show how tides worked, water funneling in from one end and covering the fake beach to the intense excitement for the gathered fourth graders. One of their chaperones came over to Wyatt Hernandez and drew his attention up from the computer screen, her dark green nails tapping rhythmically across the white countertop.

“Hi, sir, I was just wondering at what time the Planetarium Show starts?”

Wyatt tried his hardest not to glance at the massive sign that hung above her, the words “Trip Around the Galaxy Show: Every hour on the hour.” twinkling across it as if written in stars. The skylights around the sign opened up to a cloudless blue expanse, the sun beaming through the glass.

“It starts every hour and lasts fifteen minutes. I’d suggest getting there five minutes before so you can get everyone settled in.”

“Perfect, thanks so much.” She offered a friendly smile and turned, looking up at the sign and muttering something under her breath before working to wrangle the class.

Wyatt got back to reading the gossip article that filled up his screen, clicking through the annoying slideshow of information and battling a hundred different pop-ups, all to find out that the actress and rock star ended up divorcing amicably.

He rolled his eyes and clicked out of the article, opening another window displaying lines and lines of code. This was really the only reason why he stayed in this job, the fact that he could sit and work on his side projects without anyone stopping him. It certainly wasn’t because of the pay or the people, that was for sure. He could have made more managing an IT department somewhere, but that would mean he’d have actual responsibilities and eyes over his shoulder, making it much harder for him to work on his side projects.

So he stayed, surrounded by the chatter of excited kids and the slumped shoulders of the exhausted adults.

Today, he worked on an app idea that wouldn’t function the way he wanted. He could normally handle a couple of bugs with his eyes shut and one hand tied behind his back, but something must have happened early on in the code and cascaded outward, creating a tangled web of brackets and letters and numbers. He cracked his knuckles and dug in, feeling the usual thrill that came with a complicated coding problem unfurling in front of him.

“Excuse me.”

Wyatt’s eyes drew up from the screen and landed on a bright smile. The woman in front of the desk appeared as if she had her own personal spotlight shining down on her, her raven-black hair perfectly framing an angular face with pouty lips and eyes crowned with orange eye shadow.

“Hi, yes, how can I help you?”

The woman leaned forward and dropped her voice so that Wyatt also had to lean to hear her. “I’m assisting a celebrity with a top secret music video they’re shooting. I can’t say the name, or I’m pretty sure the NDA magically appears and suffocates me, but I promise you’ve heard of them. You might even be part of the hive.”

Wyatt perked up, that last word serving as a juicy hint. “Would you like me to call our events manager?”

“Actually, I’ve worked with Gina before, back when she was at the Natural History Museum. If you could just unlock the door to the offices, I can go and have a chat with her.” She shot a hurried glance at her gold wristwatch. “It’s time-sensitive.”

“Right, of course, let me just call ahea—”

“No need,” she said, reaching across the desk and placing a soft hand on Wyatt’s, pushing it off the phone. “I talked to her yesterday. She’s expecting me.”

Wyatt chewed the inside of his cheek. His inner voice was riddled with anxiety about getting in trouble with the higher-ups, which likely came from his experience of getting thrown out of college. It had left him with a permanent weight of anxiety every time he thought about upsetting any authority figures. And letting an unauthorized guest through a locked door that held not only administrative offices but also storage rooms for highly valuable and irreplaceable items was definitely listed as a “no-no” somewhere in the employee handbook.

The woman must have sensed his hesitation. She clicked open the strap on her black leather purse and pulled out her phone. A moment later and she was speaking, no longer in hushed tones. “Hey, B, yeah, we might need to scrap the—I know, I know how much this means to you. What about—right, of course. No, I thought the staff would be aware. Can you—”

Wyatt got up, keys jingling in his hand. “It’s okay. I’ll walk you to her office.”