Chapter 24
While Fyrow and Lanzar cooked for dinner some of the animals they’d hunted, Hayde oversaw Quintz’s work as he copied over the blueprints Hayde had given him for Janka’s tower. He etched them into the coffee table with a knife, marking different levels appropriately. Eilee lounged across the couch adjacent to the love seat Hayde was on, the others settling around her, none of the crew intruding upon her space. Everyone had gathered around to work on their plan of attack.
“The tower is surrounded by a special type of mirror to obscure it from mortal view,” Hayde explained. “There are a few places we can enter, through there. I suggest we go in from the west because there’s an entrance on the eighth floor of that side. I have a code for that entrance.”
“Wait, wait,” Yorro interjected. “And we’re going to break into this potentially heavily guarded tower…with who we have here?”
“It’s the only choice we have,” Kinzer replied. “We don’t have the advantage of creating an army. These grundars—the ones you guys have evidently encountered—are multiplying so fast that the longer we stay here, the more time they have to make more of those things and send them to kill more people.”
“How heavily guarded are we talking about?” Yorro pressed.
“Janka intends to use his base like the Almighty and the Leader use theirs,” Hayde replied. “It’ll be packed with those grundars and Morarkes, but he’ll have as few immortal guards as possible. It’ll minimize the risk of being infiltrated by a spy or someone who might seek to overthrow him. He’ll just be surrounded by his compliant drones.”
“Makes sense,” Quintz said. “A guy who’s done such a good job deceiving so many will trust very few.”
Hayde nodded. “Yes, every guard he staffs is a potential traitor who could stab him in the back tomorrow. Very few of his accomplices had access to his whereabouts for that very reason.”
“And who the fuck are you to know all this shit?” Yorro asked, his thick brows pulling together. “How did you even acquire this intel?”
“He used to work directly with Janka,” Kinzer explained.
“Well, you can’t tell me he’s wearing that collar because he’s trustworthy.”
Hayde knew this was the tricky part. Kinzer hadn’t told any of them about who Hayde was to him. They’d had too many other things to catch up on, to strategize about, and this was going to make everyone even more suspicious of the information he provided.
Kinzer shook his head. “He’s a known traitor, but we don’t have any other options right now.”
“A known traitor?” Yorro asked. “He could be leading us right into a trap.”
“If he does, he’s a dead flit,” Quintz explained. “That collar he’s wearing is so we can make sure we can kill him if he does try something.”
“What if he plans on sacrificing himself for this cause? Have you considered that?”
“Of course we’ve considered it,” Kinzer said, “but you got a better idea?”
“I didn’t come all the way here with my guys so we could thoughtlessly leap to our own spectacular deaths,” Yorro said. “And you’re talking about us potentially walking right into a death trap.”
“What else do we have to go off of?” Kinzer asked. “This is the fucking end of the world, and we don’t have options.”
They got into it.
Hayde wanted to say something, give up the fucking ruse, if only because it would help them realize he wasn’t fucking making this shit up, but providing grade-A intel. If only they’d known how much he was trying to help them.
As the room launched into a debate about whether or not they could use his intel to determine their next move, Treycore and Kid entered through the front door.
“What’s all the fuss going on in here?” Treycore asked.
Hayde’s eyes went right to Kid, who had been there that night at Veylo’s mansion. He knew about his promise to Maggie and that Hayde hadn’t really murdered her. There had been so much to discuss when Kid arrived, and the news of his status as the Antichrist had kept him occupied enough that he wasn’t around to say anything that might rouse Kinzer’s suspicions.
Until the moment he’d seen Kid enter the cabin earlier, Hayde had been skeptical he’d even still be alive. It was a fucking miracle he’d survived the Nest, but it made sense now that he knew the truth of who Kid was, his importance to their mission. Only problem was: Kid needed to stick to his promise not to say anything about Maggie, and Hayde wasn’t sure he would.
“We’re just debating about how to take on Janka,” Kinzer explained.
Treycore and Kid approached them, Kid plopping down on the love seat beside Hayde. He didn’t look like he wanted to think about any of this, but as if he felt, considering his importance, he needed to at least sit in on the meeting.
“Kid,” Treycore said. “You don’t need to be here for this. I thought you wanted time to yourself, to think.”
“Kid, get away from him.” Kinzer started around the table, toward him.
