It seems like even Dante’s apartment is calming Z. We started out planning in The Spire, but Silver’s scent was all overthe place and that seemed to make Z go feral. Like I said, he’s fully beast boy at the minute.
Hence the two new fist shaped holes in our drywall and the torn and bruised skin on Z’s knuckles.
“You’re growling again,” Dante comments, and Z glares at him. I figure maybe this is the point he’s gonna snap, but he just curses under his breath.
The door flies open and Fabian strides in, looking like a sweaty mess. His hair’s plastered to his forehead and his t-shirt is clinging to his chest.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Zeph growls at him.
“Moving Ember. I figured it would be better if he was somewhere safe, so Silver doesn’t have to worry about anything happening to him while she’s not around.” He drops onto the sofa. “I’ve also put word out to all our contacts that there’s a fifty grand reward if anyone can come up with a way of breaking him free.”
That’s... pretty thoughtful, actually. We should have thought of it before.
I tip my head to glance over at Seb who’s sitting at the far end of the couch, his head buried in his laptop. Pretty sure he’s not slept since Silver’s been gone and he hasn’t taken more than a ten-minute break to shovel some food into his mouth before he continues with whatever he’s searching for.
I’m feeling pretty useless right now. I tried helping in the beginning, but I’m not so good at planning and plotting. My instinct is to charge in there and deal with whatever comes our way as we go.
That got nixed pretty quickly.
“Any luck?” I ask Seb.
He snaps the lid on his laptop shut and rubs his eyes. “Not that much about the building. Everything seems to be hidden under layers and layers of security systems and there are norecords of anyone having escaped from the building before. The cells are locked electronically and there are likely to be wards all over the place. Cameras. Guards. The whole nine yards. Any of us getting in and out unnoticed is looking unlikely.”
“Fuck. She’s been stuck in there for days. How scared is she going to be? We need to get her back today,” Zeph rasps, tugging at his hair.
“If we can’t get her out unnoticed, then perhaps we should revert to Roscoe’s plan,” Dante says.
His words pull me up short. Pretty sure everyone had discounted whatever I said as a load of unhelpful garbage, but D’s watching me patiently. His hair’s disheveled and there’s a stain on his shirt, but otherwise he looks like he’s got his head screwed on better than any of the rest of us.
“What are you thinking?”
“Burn the fucking place down. They’d have to evacuate,” Zeph says.
Fabian scoffs. “Sounds like you’re channeling Hanna.”
Z just shrugs and mutters something about it being a valid idea. I think he’d set the entire city on fire if it got Silver back safe.
I can’t say I disagree, either.
“Has anyone heard from her or from Rook or Luna?” Fabian asks.
They’re all still at The Spire, trying to come up with their own solutions. But even escape expert Rook has come up with nothing so far.
“They’re all fine. Safe. Together,” I say. I had a very one-sided conversation over the phone with Rook earlier to make sure.
“I might not be good at all the blueprints or the door codes or security staff or whatever,” I say. “But I know how to cause a distraction.”
Z nods. “I can fuck up the circuitry in the building,” Zeph says. “I’ve got a lot of energy to burn.”
“Dante can sniff Silver out like a bloodhound,” I say with a grin, feeling a bubble of hope forming in my chest.
Fabian gets to his feet, smoothing down his creased shirt. “And I’m sure I can be of some use.”
I raise an eyebrow at him as he shoves his feet into his boots. “You’re happy just charging in there half-cocked?” What happened to all the plan A, plan B, blah blah blah.
“Half cocked, fully cocked, or with zero cocks, I don’t care. You’re right, Ro, we’ve wasted enough time and planning things out when there’s no information out there isn’t getting us any closer.”
Man, I never thought I’d see the day we’d have full agreement to do things my way. The last time someone went along with my total lack of plan was Silver in the forbidden archives.
