I’ve never seen Cameron this distressed and disorderly. His panic is palpable, which doesn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
I give him a concerned look. “We need to act normal. Wraith was in the kitchen last night and he heard everything too. I’m meeting him in the shed past the landing zone after breakfast. Damian is coming too. We can talk this out with them and go from there, okay?” I take his hands in mine and he stares down at the connection. His gaze empty, like he can’t process anything I just told him.
Cameron considers me for a moment before taking a steadying breath and nodding. “Okay.”
Wraith reacts the way I expected him to when he sees Cameron step in behind me.
“Why don’t you ever fucking listen?” Wraith throws his hands in the air.
Damian looks mortified, so I’m assuming Wraith already filled him in about what we overheard last night.
“Calm down, asshole, he’s been wary of them for a while now too. We need someone like Mori if there’s any hope of actually formulating a plan,” I retort, standing in the center of the old shed with my arms wrapped tightly around my chest. I don’t want to touch anything in here, the wood is rotting and the roof looks like it could cave at any moment. This is a hantavirus haven.
Cameron grunts, glaring daggers into Wraith. It’s not unknown to anyone that we all have reservations with him. I mean, he tried to kill me a few times. My eyes narrow at the memories. I wonder what became of Arnold. Was he placed on a squad? My hands clench at my sides. I hope that motherfucker can’t sleep at night after what he did to Bree.
Damian chews nervously on his thumbnail. “Are you guys sure they didn’t mean for us to literally get our cards? We might be getting out of all of this.” The hope in his voice is painful. Does he really think they’d let us out after just passing the trials?
I give him a sympathetic look. “Why would they station the Riøt Squad out here then? Fury is a highly capable team. It doesn’t make sense to send the one squad that hunts down fellow soldiers to aid us. And he didn’t say that they’ll help us in any way. He said they will be on watch until the mission is completed.”
Wraith adds, “As in, ready to terminate.” A beat of uncomfortable silence fills the small shed as the four of us take in those words.
“But that wasn’t specified, was it?” Damian asks. It’s painful to see him struggle with the truth of all this. I forget sometimes how reluctant others can be to see what’s really right in front of them. If it’s this hard for Damian, I don’t know how easy it will be to convince Thomas and Gage.
Cameron snorts. “Does it have to be? The evidence is clear. I’ve been around in the Dark Forces long enough to know thatyou don’t see a Riøt soldier unless you’re the one who’s going to be thrown out.” He sounds distant and emotionless. I glance at him and find his eyes dull with all of this. He’s hurting and burying the pain like he does best. He saw the lieutenant as a father figure so this must hurt worse for him.
I resist the urge to comfort him in front of the others.
“Okay, okay. So evenifthis is true, what’s the fucking plan? What do we do?” Damian looks at all three of us. When no one readily replies he covers his face with both hands and lets out a groan.
“The way I see it, we have two options. We can either attempt an escape, which will likely end with one or both of your trackers exploding, or we can be prepared for the worst,” Cam says sternly. Both of our trackers were removed, but I’m not leaving the rest of them to be slaughtered, I’m sure Cameron knows that. His reassuring glance at me says as much.
Wraith shoves his hands into his pants pockets and lets his shoulders relax. “Define theworst.”
The three of us look at Cameron. He mulls that over for a few seconds before muttering, “The worst would be us completing the mission and either being terminated right there and then, or being told we’re getting our cards and then likely poisoned before we can get on a plane back to the main base.”
“Jesus Christ.” Damian covers his mouth like he’s going to vomit.
“And you guys thoughtIwas the evil one?” Wraith snarls at me in particular.
I glare back at him. “Youare.”
He huffs. “I was just trying to survive in the Under. Exactly like I am now, and guess what, runt, if it wasn’t for me none of us would even be here right now. So you’re fucking welcome.” He throws it back in my face.
As much as I hate him, he has a point. I cross my arms and let a sharp breath out.
“Okay, so how do we prepare for that, Mori?” Damian ignores the two of us and moves on with the plan.
Cameron paces the room a few times before stopping and lifting his head with an idea. “First, we need to get the trackers out without blowing up. I have someone I can reach out to, and I think he knows how to safely extract them.” His eyes flick to me, and as much as I hate the idea of getting help from Reed when he’s clearly up to something maniacal, I reluctantly nod. We’re out of options.
“That’s not fucking shady or anything,” Wraith comments flatly.
Damian smacks the back of Wraith’s head. “Do you want to escape or not? Shut up and listen.” I grin at their exchange. It looks like Damian has already buried the hatchet with him. Though I doubt the same grace would extend to Arnold.
“I’ll try contacting him tonight. I think I have something he’ll want so the chances of him helping us are high. After the trackers are out, we’ll need to think of how to protect Gage and Thomas if we can’t get them on board. My contact may have a solution for us on that front as well.”
Damian frowns. “You really think they won’t believe us?”
Cameron looks at my friend like he’s a spring chicken. “They’ve both been in the underground forces for over two years. It’s hard to believe things other than what you’re fed. And I know they’re both desperate to be free.”
