“Fight breaks out by eight thirty-two,” Jasper signs.
“At eight thirty-three, CJ triggers the first accelerant remotely—small explosion in the basement. Real fire starts, and people panic,” Dredyn says.
“We evacuate—get every OCK brother out through the front and side exits. Make it look chaotic but ensure everyone’s accounted for,” Talon says.
“By eight forty-five, the house is fully engulfed. Emergency services arrive, and campus security responds. The Syndicate’s security detail splits—some stay with the three leaders, some respond to the fire,” I say.
“That’s when we move,” Dredyn finishes. “At nine p.m. we’re already in position at PTO, armed, ready. We use the chaos as cover to access the secret chamber.”
Silence. We’ve reached the end of the plan again—the part where they go into an underground room with three of the most dangerous men in the country and try to kill them.
The part where everything could go catastrophically wrong.
I look up from the table. “And if things go sideways? If you can’t get to them, or if there’s more security than expected, or?—”
“We abort. We get out, meet at the rally point, and we run. All of us. Together,” Talon says.
“No heroics. We’re not dying for this.”
“The goal is to live,” Dredyn adds, looking at me. “To be free. Not to be martyrs.”
Talon keeps moving forward. “Okay. Inventory—three handguns with silencers.” He pulls them out one by one, checking magazines, safeties. “Glock 19, Sig Sauer P226, and a Beretta M9. All loaded—one in the chamber, safeties on.”
Dredyn takes the Glock, Talon keeps the Sig, Jasper accepts the Beretta.
“Two backup magazines each, thirty rounds total, per person. That’s more than enough for three targets and their security,” Talon continues.
“Assuming we don’t miss,” I mutter.
“We won’t miss. We’ve been training for weeks in close quarters, with low light. We know what we’re doing,” Dredyn says with absolute certainty.
Do they?I want to ask.Do any of us really know what we’re doing?
But I don’t say it. They need confidence right now, not doubt.
Jasper signs,“Knives?”
Talon pulls them from the case—black, serrated, lethal-looking things. “Two tactical knives for backup, if things get close, or if we need silent takedowns.”
Dredyn and Jasper take one each, sliding them into sheaths that attach to their belts.
“Flashlights, comm devices, first aid kit. CJ provided encrypted radios—short range, but they’ll let us coordinate once we’re in the tunnels.”
He hands me one of the radios and I turn it over in my hands.
“I still don’t like that I’m not going with you,” I say.
“We’ve been over this?—”
“I know. I know the arguments. I’m a liability, I’m not trained, I’ll be a distraction.” I set the radio down harder than necessary. “But sitting in a safe house while you three go into a death trap isn’t exactly my idea of a good time either.”
“You’re not sitting in a safe house, you’re staying mobile. CJ’s setting you up in a vehicle two miles from campus with a police scanner, our radio frequency, and keys to three different cars. If things go wrong, you’re our extraction.”
“And if things go really wrong?” I ask quietly.
“Then you run,” Talon says. “You take the go bag, you use the fake ID, and you disappear. Don’t look back. Don’t wait for us. Just run.”
“Fuck that.”
