"You sound like a revolutionary."
"I am a revolutionary." He smiles, and it's the first genuine expression I've seen from him. "I just happen to be wearing a Custodian's face."
Together, we build a plan.
Step one: extract Elliot. Not with force, but with leverage. Briar has contacts in Ministry of Design who can get us the location of the facility. Landon can trace the comm signals from Webb's operation, give us a window when security is lightest.
Step two: expose Webb. Not to the authorities. They're compromised. To the Custodians themselves. Show them that Webb has been running unsanctioned operations, exceeding his mandate, treating his position as a personal fiefdom rather than a service to the collective.
Step three: offer an alternative. Not destruction of The Silent, but reform. An end to the conditioning protocols. An end to the asset system. A transition to something that still provides the power and protection the Custodians crave, but without the human cost.
"The hardest part will be the extraction," I say. "Webb won't leave Elliot unguarded. And the collar..."
"The collar is controlled remotely." Landon pulls up a schematic on his laptop. "I've seen the specs. There's a frequency band it operates on. If we can jam it—"
"Jam it how?"
"EMP burst, localized. It would fry the electronics without killing the wearer." He hesitates. "Probably."
"Probably isn't good enough."
"Then we need to get the control device. The one Webb uses to activate the collar." Briar taps his fingers on the table. "If we have that, we can deactivate it safely before extraction."
"Webb keeps it on him. Always."
"Then we take it from him."
I look at Briar. "You're talking about confronting a Director of Erasure in his own facility, surrounded by his own people, and taking something off his person."
"I'm talking about giving him what he wants. Or making him think we are." Briar's smile turns sharp. "He sent you to kill me. What if you showed up with my body?"
"You want to fake your death."
"I want to get close enough to Webb to put a knife in his hand. Or at least close enough to take what we need." He glances at Landon. "I've something similiar before. With Landon. He was supposed to be eliminated. Instead, I brought him home."
Landon snorts. "That's one way to describe kidnapping me at a charity gala."
"You came willingly."
"I came because you're very persuasive and I have poor survival instincts."
"You came because you saw something in me worth taking a chance on." Briar's voice softens. "The same thing Jace sees in Elliot. The same thing that makes all of this worth the risk."
They look at each other. It passes between them as something I can't interpret, but I recognize its shape. I've felt it myself, in the dark hours before dawn, holding Elliot's hand while he slept.
"It's ambitious," I say. "It's dangerous. It will probably get us all killed."
"But it's a chance," Briar finishes. "And right now, a chance is all any of us have."
"There's one more thing," I say as we finalize the details. "The file Elliot mentioned. The one in Moore's archive. The one with my family's name on it."
Briar's expression shifts. "Protocol Omega."
"You know about it?"
"I know it exists. I know it's buried deep, classified above my clearance level. I know that people who ask questions about it tend to disappear." He pauses. "I also know that it's the real reason the Custodians want me dead. Not because of Landon. Because I've been digging. Well and also because of Landon."
"What is it?"
