“I was hoping that would be your job,” he said, grinning at his friend. “With our help, of course. This is your thing, Gabe. You know what you’re doing, you’ve done this before.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that. I worked on that demo team last year, but I wasn’t exactly in charge,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “Let me do some more calculating before I agree to anything.”
He wasn’t surprised by his answer; Gabe had always been the most cautious of them all, but he knew that he’d come around eventually. “Tell you what, Stephanie and I will take our dinner up to my room and give you some space,” he said. “I need to start looking for those explosives if we’re going to make this work. I have a few favors I can call in, I just hope I can get enough.”
“Hey, I never said I would do it,” Gabe protested. “Or that it would work for sure.”
“I have faith in you, my friend,” he said, grinning at him. “You’ll make it happen, I know you will, especially when there’s so much at stake.”
“Oh, great, a guilt trip, that’s always effective,” Gabe said, giving him a dirty look. “Go away so I can work in peace.”
After grabbing both their plates, he jumped to his feet. “We’re out of here,” he said, winking at Stephanie, who was holding back a smile. “Come find us when you have a plan ready.”
Gabe didn’t respond; he was already tapping away at the keyboard again, a look of concentration on his face. “He’ll figure it out, he’s the smartest one of us,” he said, then leaned in and whispered. “But don’t tell Taylor I said that, he claims he’s a genius, but I think he just has a great memory.”
They both picked at their food while they waited for Gabe, but neither had much of an appetite, and it was a relief when there was a knock on the door. “I bet that’s him,” he said, pushing his plate away. “It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.”
He got up and opened the door. “It will work, but you better make dang sure everyone is out before you set off the charge,” he said, shoving a stack of papers at Cooper. “There’s a list of supplies I need, and we need at least two more people to pull this off.”
Before he could thank him, Gabe turned around and stomped down the hallway, clearly still not pleased to have been recruited. “Wow, he’s still really mad,” Stephanie said when he closed the door. “Maybe we shouldn’t have asked him to help.”
“That’s just how he gets when he's worried,” he said. “We’ve all learned to ignore it. He’s a solid guy with a brilliant mind, if he came up with a plan, it will work.”
“I hope so,” Stephanie said, sighing. “I just want all of this to be over. I want us to have a chance to act like normal people, Iwant to be able to walk around holding your hand in public, I want...”
“Hang in there a little longer, sweetheart. I know we’ve gotten swept away in this thing, but it’s almost over,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “This is so much bigger than just us; it’s about shifters everywhere.”
“I know how important this is, that’s why I haven’t given up yet,” she said, snuggling up to him. “I think I’m just tired.”
“Tell you what, why don’t you lie down here on my bed and close your eyes for a while,” he said, helping Stephanie under the covers. “I’ve got some phone calls to make, but I’ll go down to the library, and you’ll feel better after a little nap. I shouldn’t have kept you up so late last night.”
“You can keep me up all night anytime you want,” Stephanie said, but her eyelids were already drooping. “I don’t mind missing a little sleep.”
A second later, she was breathing deeply, a peaceful look on her face, and his heart swelled with love, leaving him feeling slightly breathless. “Sleep well, my love,” he said, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. “It will all be over soon, and we can figure out our future.”
It was almost midnight when he came back up to the bedroom and gently shook Stephanie awake. “Sweetheart, it’s time,” he said. “I’ve got the explosives, Gabe is getting everything ready in the garage, and then we’re going to the cave. Do you want to go with us or wait here with Hattie?”
“I’m going with you. I’m not going to miss this and you need my help,” she said, sitting up and wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Just give me a few minutes to freshen up, and then I’ll be ready to go. Who else is coming with us?”
“Malcolm and Walker,” he said, going to his closet and pulling out a sweatshirt. “This is probably going to be huge on you, but I thought you might like something clean to wear.”
“Thanks,” Stephanie said, getting to her feet and giving him a kiss. “I won’t be long.”
***Stephanie***
Stephanie followed Cooper along the fence line, feeling both foolish for sneaking into her own site and nervous about what they were about to do. If something went wrong, they might destroy a very valuable piece of history, but success meant that shifters would remain a secret and save a great many people from a great deal of pain and misery. She didn’t feel bad about what they were doing; it was necessary, if slightly painful, and she knew that crypt would still be there waiting for the day its stories could be told.
When Cooper paused to let everyone catch up, she nearly collided with him and realized she needed to pay closer attention to what they were doing. “There’s already an opening cut in the fence here,” he said, tossing down the wire cutters he’d been carrying, then pulled the chain link aside. “I bet this is how Sebastian got in.”
She stepped through, followed by the men, and they all made their way to the tunnel, the heavy packs on their backs making them all slightly breathless as they trudged through the trees and the ankle-deep snow. Sticking to the shadows, they managed one by one to slip into the tunnel without catching the guard’s attention, then quietly made their way down the tunnel. No one spoke as she and Cooper led everyone through the ruins, the only illumination in the cave coming from the small flashlights each of them carried.
When they reached the trap door to the crypt, she stepped back and watched as the men got to work, knowing that she’d only be in the way, but it was torture standing there doingnothing. It took several hours to hand-drill the holes into the rock for the explosives, and another thirty minutes to wire everything up. Gabe finally stepped back, nodded his head, and began picking up the tools, signaling they were ready for the next stage of their plan.
When everything was packed up, Gabe signaled to Malcolm and Walker, they saluted him, then turned and disappeared into the darkness, the glow of their flashlights making it easy to follow their progress. After the lights blinked out, Gabe stepped over to the electronic detonator, punched in a series of codes, making the lights flash first red, then green. Satisfied, he pulled a computer out of his backpack, tapped a few keys, then looked up at them and nodded.
“It’s not armed yet, you’ll do that right before you leave,” Gabe whispered. “Give me a few minutes to get outside and make sure the connection is still good. I’ll give you the green light over the radio when I’m ready; then, all you have to do is enter the final code. Do you remember it?”
“It’s both our birthdays,” Cooper said. “We won’t screw it up.”
