Her face paled upon seeing his face. Aiden slid on the smooth wooden ground, stopping below her arm, jumped up, grabbed her hand with both of his, and forced his full body weight onto her.
They crashed to the ground. He seared his fingers into her hand, pressing a pressure point on her wrist with every ounce of strength to force her to loosen her grip on the weapon.
She bucked underneath him, and the ripple of her strength sent Aiden flopping against her like a dead fish.Shit. Hurry.He leaned harder, and his fingers dug into the guard’s wrist.Diane, hurry!
She bucked again, and Aiden flopped off of her and sprawled on the ground, heading straight for a wall. Warm hands caught him and kept his head and neck safe, stopping his slide at the last second. Aiden looked up to see Brendan holding him from behind as Diane ran out. Her heel sliced into the guard’s hand. She grabbed the woman by her short hair and shoved a piece of cloth into her mouth before the guard could scream. The gun slipped from the guard’s hand. Diane kicked the weapon away and jammed a needle into the woman’s neck not a second later.
She dropped to the ground, incapacitated.
Seconds ticked by before Aiden realized he was panting. He glanced up and felt Brendan’s face. Brendan nodded and leaned into his hand wordlessly. Aiden’s heart slowed. He stopped gasping, and he allowed Brendan to help pull him up from the ground.
Diane moved the unconscious guard back into the dishware room. She closed the door, and her electronic lock clicked. “I’m dressed like her with her hairstyle, but I don’t actually look like her. Is that okay?” she asked, checking the placement of her wig.
Aiden nodded. “They’re in the meeting now, so Mr. Yang won’t even glance at you when you enter. Mr. Zhou will lecture you for being late, but he’s not expecting to recognize you. You’re not one of his.”
“Then let us not waste any more time.”
“Were you able to lock all the other rooms?”
“Your instructions of the rooms were clear, so it was easy to do.” Diane shrugged. “More than enough time to put the locks on and be at the spot while the four dawdled in the dining room a bit longer.”
She walked past the two without any further comment. With the adrenaline squeezed out of Aiden, he summoned his remaining energy to force his feet forward. Brendan’s pinky finger linked to his, and he stopped in surprise at the calm gesture.He’s…not scared,Aiden marveled. He glanced at their interlocked pinkies and his gaze traveled up to Brendan’s face. “Are you ready?” Brendan asked with a gentle hum.
Aiden turned around to an empty hallway filled with screaming silence. He grasped Brendan’s full hand. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we must go regardless.”
The two walked hand in hand, following Diane for the final step of their mission—to tear Infinite apart from within.
Chapter Seventeen
The meeting room was designed solely for fake potlucks. It opened to two stories, where the guards stood up top and looked down for any suspicious behaviors, and the family heads sat below around a round table. The doors slid open into the walls, blending in with the rest of the home. Aiden spotted it only because of his experience working for the families.
The strange feeling continued to wiggle in his stomach.
Just as Aiden located the door, Diane grabbed his shoulders and dragged him away. “Alright, you’ve pulled your weight for this point of the mission.”
“What are you doing—?
“I didn’t know where the room was, and now you’ve showed me. You and definitely him.” She gestured to the confused Brendan. “You’re not going in that room with me. The recorder I’ve attached to Brendan is good enough to record from a distance away from the mic on me. The last thing I need to do is worry about you two under fire.”
She stopped in front of a large closet and swung the door open. Inside, columns of video games, board games, and entertainment for the kids were stacked on shelves against the walls. Some of the boxes were lined so tightly on a single shelf that not a single paper could slip through the cracks, but on another shelf, some of the games toppled over each other in empty spots left behind. She pushed Aiden in before shoving Brendan into the closet with him. “I’ll come get you. Stay.” She closed the door.
There was no light hanging in the closet of fun. Aiden slid to the ground and pulled up his legs. He stared up at the ceiling that loomed from an unreachable height. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light slipping in from underneath the door.
“Oh look, an advertisement for my mom’s company's games.” Brendan picked up one of the games from the ground. “It’s an old one. I don’t think this product sold well.”
Aiden looked over to Brendan. He moved across the floor and closed the gap between them.
Brendan now held the only way in to the meeting.
How do I ask him if I can listen in?
“Do you want to listen?” Brendan asked. He pulled out an earpiece. “Diane gave these to me in case I was curious what kind of recording I was going to hand over.”
“It’s not so much want…” Aiden hesitated. His hand hovered in its reach for the earpiece. After a moment’s pause, he gingerly took it, brushing his fingers against Brendan’s. “It seems wrong not to listen.”
“I’ll listen with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
