I looked around the room and considered the Chief’s words. The threat was there. He had tried to be subtle about it, but this was a man whose idea of subtlety was invading your personal space until you cracked and gave him what he wanted. I wanted to shake my head and defiantly say no, to tell him to go fuck himself, but my heart was beating so fast and hard I was afraid I would pass out.
So, going against every fiber of my being, I nodded.
“Good. Good girl. We wouldn’t want Roman to have to give you a disciplinary, now would we?”
Roman grinned like a hungry wolf staring at a piece of meat.
I took a deep breath. “No,” I said.
“Rip that notepad apart and toss it in the trash,” the Chief said. “If I want to fill Margo in, I’ll do it myself. She should have been here instead of doing whatever it is she’s doing.”
“She’s sick,” I said, again going against my better judgment. “She couldn’t be here.”
The Chief’s jaw began to work, and I got the impression he was grinding his teeth. Roman, sitting next to him, made as if to stand, but the Chief put a hand on the bigger man’s shoulder and urged him to sit back down again. “Get out,” the Chief said.
I grabbed the notepad and headed for the main door in a hurry when Vito called for me.
“Uh, forgetting something?” he asked, pointing at the trolley of dirty coffee cups.
I put my head down, marched across the room, and took hold of the trolley. I could feel their eyes on me, everyone watching me, probably judging me. I was being obedient, doing everything I was told to do. It was humiliating and degrading. Even though I wasn’t Max, the fact that this was going on in the upper echelons of the Faction’s management was sickening. I couldn’t take it.
Without saying a word, I pulled the trolley out of the room with me, breathing a sigh of relief once the elevator had gotten moving.
My mind was reeling. Racing. My stomach had twisted and turned upside down. I wanted to get the hell out of the building. It was too much. The air was too thick, the walls too tight, the light too dim. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, and for an insane moment I didn’t care whether the disguise fell or not. If it fell, it meant I could fight, and if I could fight, then I was in my element.
But I couldn’t do any of that because Jamie and Abel were still undercover inside the building somewhere. If I started raising alarms, then it was possible they would be caught too. It wasn’t just possible, it was inevitable. Faction HQ would go into lockdown, and no one would be able to leave until they were thoroughly scanned, at which point our cover would be blown.
Then again, after what I had just heard in that meeting, who was to say the Faction wouldn’t go into lockdown anyway?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Instead of going looking for them, I decided to send telepathic pings to Jamie and Abel as I left the building. The guard outside didn’t pay me any mind as I hurriedly walked across the grounds with the files I had stolen from the archives tucked safely away inside Isabella’s gym bag.
I continued on foot when I cleared the compound, walking away in the direction of the nearest gym, which hadn’t been hard to locate. I waited outside for a while, anxious, watching the cars and the people roll past, wondering if anything had happened to Jamie and Abel, wonder turning to worry after a time.
My fatigued mind had been expecting to see Jamie, the Jamie I knew, so when Jamie walked up to me still in disguise and touched my shoulder, I jumped and almost swung the gym bag at him.
“Woah,” Jamie said, throwing his hands up. “It’s me, it’s me.”
“Shit,” I said, holding my hand to my heart, which hadn’t stopped running a marathon sprint in weeks, it seemed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
“That’s okay. Are you alright?”
I shook my head. “No. Where’s Abel?”
“Not far. We talked about not leaving together before making our move. Why’d you bail on the mission early? That could have caused all kinds of shit for us.”
“I know. I didn’t want to, trust me, but I have something. I have a lot.”
Jamie’s face tightened. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything, Jamie…” I scanned the people passing us, and suddenly felt incredibly exposed. Vulnerable. Paranoid. “But I can’t talk about it here. We need to wait for Abel, and then we need to go somewhere safe.”
Jamie peered around. After a few minutes of waiting, we picked Abel out of the crowd, or at least, the much shorter, stockier man Abel was pretending to be. Jamie and I crossed the street to meet with Abel, and the three of us hurried away, walking far enough apart to not arouse suspicion, but close enough that we could keep tabs on each other.
We decided to rendezvous in the side alley between a block of apartments and a multi-story parking garage. The alley was quiet and private—at least, as private as an alley could be. One side was a dead end. Between the street and the depths of the alley there were dumpsters, piles of boxes, and plenty of natural cover, so we walked to the end, keeping an eye out for anyone skulking around.
On the street, cars whizzed along, tires hissing over rain-kissed asphalt.
“I don’t know if leaving in such a hurry was a good idea,” Abel said in his new deep, voice. “The Faction might suspect us.”
“The Faction were going to start scanning for their people’s chips,” I said. “I don’t think we had a lot of time left undercover.”
“How did you find out about this?”
“Because I was in one of their board meetings.”
“You were what?” Jamie asked, incredulous.
As briefly as I could, because the details of how I wound up at the meeting weren’t important, I gave a summary of what had happened with Margo, at the archives, and then told them about the phone call I had received asking me to go up to the meeting room, fill in for my boss, and also bring fresh coffee.
“How could you have been so reckless?” Abel asked. “You don’t have any idea how powerful those mages are. You don’t know if they could identify you or not.”
“I didn’t, but I also didn’t have a choice,” I said. “It was go up to the board room, or make up some excuse that would have probably drawn more suspicion. Let’s not forget, if I hadn’t gone up there, I wouldn’t have learned what I’m about to tell you.”
“Tell us what?” Jamie asked.
I took a deep breath. “I think I know why the Faction tore Pinnacle tower down.”
Abel narrowed his thick eyebrows. “Explain,” he said.
“I heard them talking about worm holes.”
“Worm holes?” Jamie asked. “Like, portals between two places?”
“Not just two places, but two dimensions—portals between earth and Arcadia.”
“I thought those were called… what were they called again? Faerie doors?”
I shook my head. “Faerie doors are natural, almost random. These worm holes—I hate that name—are intentionally created portals; portals created by the Seelie.”
“Why don’t I know about worm holes?” Abel asked, though I suspected he was asking rhetorically than actually expecting an answer from us.
“I think the Seelie had opened one of these portals, or were about to open one, and the Faction decided to bring the building crashing around the site to stop it from being used.”
I almost couldn’t believe how calm I sounded. Inside, I was furious. My hands were shaking, my breaths were quick, and my heart was pounding. But outwardly, I was as cool as they came, explaining my points concisely and clearly. I almost felt like I did before a hunt, calm and collected, perfectly in control of my body despite the things the thrill of the hunt would do to it.
“That’s sick,” Jamie said. “I can’t understand why the Faction would accept so many human lives as collateral just to shut one of these worm holes.”
“I can. If you’d asked me a few months ago, I would have told you to go fuck yourself, then probably brought y
ou in as a traitor. But now? I believe it. I believe everything the Order has ever said about the Faction.”
“Maybe not everything,” Abel said. “But yes, I’m starting to believe they’re capable of doing something like this. Of course, we know members of the so-called Unseelie live and thrive in New Seattle, so the fact that the Faction would actively try and hunt these portals down points to some kind of agreement with the Unseelie. What purpose that agreement serves, I don’t know, but it’s causing the loss of innocent civilian lives, and that I can’t accept.”
“Never mind that it’s also made us public enemy number one,” Jamie said.
“That’s not everything,” I said. “I think they may have an idea where we’re hiding.”
“What? How?” Jamie asked.
“I don’t know. They were vague about the locations, but they said they had some leads. They wanted the MI branch to go and check them out, poke around.”
Abel shook his head, and the simple gesture itself let me know what it was he was thinking. He didn’t want to have to kill other magical investigators, but he knew something like that was on course to becoming a potential eventuality if agents came too close to where the Order was hiding. If I ever had any doubts about Abel Rios’ loyalty to the Order, not that I did, he squashed them then.
“What you did was reckless, and it could have gotten you killed,” Abel said, after a pause. “But I’m glad you did it, and I’m impressed you were able to pull it off without cracking in half. At least now we know what they’re thinking and where their priorities are.”
“Right,” Jamie said. “Secure Faction HQ, hunt down the Seelie as well as the Order, and prepare for a counterattack. Won’t that stretch them out a little thin?”
“It will, but a counterattack isn’t what we came here to plan. We came here to find out what we could about the barrier.”
“Speaking of which…” he pulled a small, black data slate from out of his pocket.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“This data slate contains the location of the facility that powers the Angel Dome.”
“Holy hell,” I said, snatching the data slate. “No way.”
“I know where it is,” Abel said. “I know how to get to it. I don’t know what kind of security the place has, but it’s such an innocuous location, I think the Faction relies on how unlikely anyone is to come across it as a means of protection rather than dressing it up the way they did the outer checkpoint.”
Having read the archive files, I understood the reference. “So, we could go right now if we wanted to?” I asked.
Abel nodded. “We could.”
“But we aren’t going to, right?” Jamie asked, swiping his hand horizontally across the air as if to create a line. “We just aren’t, right?”
“We don’t know how guarded it is,” Abel said. “That is the only reservation I have, and it’s a big one.”
“Who cares how guarded it is? We’re three unchipped mages. We could tear it down in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Jamie said, “but that doesn’t mean it’d be a good idea to do so, at least not without telling the Order. They need to be ready when the shield goes down to make a run for it in all directions. What if we take it down, and then the Faction finds a way to bring it back up? What if there are more than one of these facilities? Fail-safes, backups.”
“I agree with Jamie,” Abel said. “I don’t think storming the castle is a good idea, not until we know more about it and come up with a plan. We should take this information back to Charles for him to decide what to do, but ultimately, this is your call right now.”
“My call?” I asked. “Why is it my call? We’re a team.”
“Because you’ve gotten us this far, and while you might be reckless and prone to fucking everything up in your relentless pursuit of your targets, you’re also incredibly talented. If you think we could take this shield down ourselves, I believe you.”
I looked at Abel, really looked at him, and for an instant found myself… feeling… something. Maybe it was his astute observations about my hunting tactics, or the fact that he hadn’t just been impressed with something I had done, but he had called me incredibly talented. That was a cloud I would have difficulty coming down from, and not just because I considered Abel to be in every way my equal and rival.
“Alright,” I said, nodding. I dropped the gym bag and opened it, revealing the items I had stolen from the archives.
“Woah,” Jamie said. “What’s that?”
“Contraband,” I said, slipping Abel’s data slate inside, then zipping the bag up. The first droplets of what promised to be a whopper of a rainy day began to fall, so I turned my head toward the mouth of the alley. “It probably isn’t a good idea to go all cowboy on the situation,” I said. “I want to take this shield down and get the hell out of New Seattle too, but there’s a right way of doing it. That right way is to tell Charles and figure out a plan that works for him and the rest of the Order.”
Abel nodded. “That makes sense.”
Jamie sighed in relief. “Good,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to hear. We’ll go back home, tell my dad, and figure this whole thing out together.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll give us the go-ahead.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Absolutely not,” Charles said. “Are you insane?”
“With all due respect,” I said, “a direct attack on the facility powering the barrier is probably our best hope. Then we can scatter to the wind. The only alternative would be to go through the checkpoint, and I’ve seen the plans for that thing.”
“If we’re going to escape, if we are to have any chance at pulling this off, it has to be through the main entrance, and it has to be on one of the vehicles the Faction uses to get in and out. Those vehicles are armed and equipped to deal with the outside world. Do you expect us to go out there with nothing to protect ourselves?”
“No, but I—”
“Max, this isn’t up for discussion.” Charles pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “I know you’re desperate to get out of the city. I know you want to move on from this and start the next chapter, but we have to do things the right way. If we miscalculate even once, it’ll cost us lives, and I’m not risking the lives of my people anymore.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line. “Our people,” I said.
Charles looked up, nodded. “Yes, our people.”
“I don’t like inaction.”
“I know.”
“And we have a solid plan to deal with the situation.”
“I’m sure you do. But the fact remains, even if you shut the shield down, we have no idea what’s on the other side of it. We also have no idea what’ll happen to New Seattle itself. Did you stop to think about that?”
“Of course I have.”
“And? What if the world really is as ravaged as everyone says it is? What if the ash clouds never really left? What if the air is toxic and unbreathable? We tear that shield down, and we kill everyone in the city.”
I swallowed my words. No matter how frustrated I was, Charles was right about that at least. It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered it, I was just being impulsive. The truth was, I didn’t know what tearing the shield down meant for the people living in New Seattle, and wasn’t the taking of innocent lives what had started this whole thing in the first place? I felt like I had been punched in the gut by my own fist, hurt by my own lack of foresight.
“I’m sorry, Max,” Charles said, “But I can’t give you permission to go near that facility. Not right now. If you get caught, the Faction will know something is up, and it’ll double, or even triple, its security around the checkpoint out of the city. If what you say is true, then the last thing they’re expecting is for us to make a break for it. That means our chances of being able to escape are high. All we need are several vehicles big enough to safely transport everyone out in a single trip.”
“We’re go
ing to need a fleet of vehicles.”
“Then find me a fleet.”
I sighed, bit my tongue, and nodded. Leaving the room wasn’t easy. I wanted to fight, wanted to try and find a way to compromise. Okay, so maybe we couldn’t just bring the shield down because doing so risked the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But what he was asking for was just as insane. Find him a fleet of vehicles? There were at least a few hundred-people crammed into this bunker. We could fit six in the Avenging Ace, maybe twelve if we sat on each other’s laps, but weight distribution would start to become a problem.
Where were we going to find the kind of transport capacity required to pull off such a move?
Jamie was waiting for me in the corridor. “So?” he asked, falling in line with me as I walked.
“No,” I said. “Your dad’s dead set on me not going anywhere near that facility. Not even to scout it out.”
“Dammit. I had a feeling he was going to say that.”
“I wish you had been in there with me. Maybe you could have made him listen.”
“Doubt it. Once my dad’s made up his mind, it’s difficult to change it. Impossible, even.”
Jamie and I walked silently for a while. In my mind, I was running through ways of convincing Charles to give me something, anything, I could work with. Permission to scout the checkpoint, or even to scout the generator facility. Anything to keep me busy. The thought of sitting on my hands was worse than the thought of getting caught.
But then Jamie put his hand out in front of me, and we stopped in the center of the corridor.
“I think we should go,” he said.
I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at him. “What did you just say?”
Jamie lowered his head, glanced around the corridor, and then ushered me into a quiet spot where we had to stand close. Almost too close. “I said I think we should go.”
“You remember what I just told you, right? Your dad said no.”
“Screw what my dad says. He’s so concerned with what we might lose, he isn’t looking at what we might gain. We’ll go and do some recon, like you said. Figure out what makes it work, if there are weaknesses, vulnerabilities. Hell, for all we know, we may even find some vehicles we can steal.”
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