“If only,” Brock said as he approached with a plate full of food. “She’d probably have an easier time getting a date if she could do that.”
“Dates?” she asked. “What would you know about dates, Brock? Not sure there’s an immortal in this room who’d care to invite you back to their room.”
“Doesn’t keep them from inviting me, does it?”
“Desperate times, I suppose.”
“I believe you’ve already become thoroughly acquainted with Brock,” Quintz said. “He’s my third-in-command.”
“Nice to actually meet you,” Brock said, scanning Kinzer up and down in a way that suggested his interest. He reached his hand out to shake, but Kinzer didn’t reach back.
“Have you already discussed the plan with him?” Kelley asked, once again seeming to read the room, trying to keep the peace between everyone.
“No,” Quintz replied. “I figured the three of us would discuss it with him after breakfast. Kinzer needs to eat.”
Kinzer shook his head. “Eating is not my priority when we could be talking about what we need to do to rescue my friends.”
“Quintz is right,” Kelley said. “You need your strength. Without your immortal abilities, you’re very weak…and no good to us, frankly.”
“My strength will come later. You guys take me to wherever you want to go. We’ll talk about this plan, and then I’ll fucking eat. But until I know what the hell is going on, I’m not going to eat a damn thing.”
“I don’t fucking care if he starves,” Brock said, pushing his way past them, leading the way out of the room.
Kinzer, Kelley, and Quintz followed after him, heading not so far down the hall, into another room.
Bright fluorescent lights shone from an overhanging rectangular light fixture, illuminating papers that covered a table that took up most of the room. On the far wall, a bookshelf was stuffed with notebooks as well as leather-bound books that reminded Kinzer of what they might have seen in Heaven, in the Great Library.
As Kinzer assessed the papers scattered across the table, he could tell they were blueprints.
“These are to the Nest?” But even as the words passed his lips, the designs didn’t appear to correlate with what he knew of the Nest’s structure.
“No,” Quintz said.
It only took Kinzer a moment longer to realize what he was looking at. “The Colosseum of Parasonia?” Kinzer couldn’t conceal the frustration in his tone, not when he was waiting for answers no one was eagerly divulging. “You told me we were going to rescue my friends.”
“Boss,” Brock said, “I’m losing my patience with this guy. Why don’t we cuff him up and beat the crap out of him again? Then I think he’ll appreciate how we’re treating him right now.”
“Enough, Brock,” Quintz said. “Kinzer, we can’t infiltrate the Nest. We don’t have enough immortals in my team. And the infrastructure of the place itself is designed to prevent any sort of infiltration from occurring. It’s foolproof and was designed to be that way because it houses some of the most devious criminals in the history of creation.”
“But why the colosseum?”
“You know as well as I do there will have to be a Day of Judgment for Treycore. For his supposed crime—the massacre of all those immortals that day at Veylo’s mansion. The colosseum is the best opportunity we have.”
“It’ll be as guarded as the Nest, if not more so,” Kinzer said.
“Yes, but the guards will be scattered,” Quintz explained. “They will have their hands full because it will be the busiest they’ve seen the colosseum in a very long time. Treycore’s trial is the trial of the eons. Higherlings will be filling the stadium seats to behold the fall of the mighty Treycore.”
Kinzer didn’t doubt it, for there was only one other heavenly creature who had such envy and contempt against her as Treycore.
“There will be a lot of eyes watching,” Brock said. “But they’ll be scattered, divided up…easily distracted.”
Quintz pointed to the blueprints. “This back entrance is where they will take Treycore after his trial, where he will be escorted out and taken back to the Nest.”
“This is when we get him,” Kelley said. “I’ll manipulate what the guards see. We’ll use a distraction to ensure there are the fewest number of guards covering that area. And then when Treycore is being escorted out, I will convince everyone that another one of the guards is Treycore. They’ll take him, we grab Treycore, and head out.”
Kinzer tensed his jaw and balled his hands into fists. “I’ve noticed not one person has brought up Kid in all this.”
“Relax,” Quintz said. “We will be taking care of Kid in the same way. They will not be holding trial for Kid. Whatever fate they find for Treycore, they will effectively decide upon what to do with the mortal and escort him out as well.”
