When I pull back, his eyes are soft.
"War room," he says. "Jagger's waiting."
"Let's go plan some murders."
The war room is a converted dining hall on the ground floor.
Long tables pushed together in the center, covered with maps and tablets and pencil shavings. Jagger stands at the head, pale eyes moving over data streams on his laptop. Jace is pacing, flipping his knife in the air. Jonah perches on a table nearby, legs swinging, looking entirely too cheerful for someone planning assassinations.
Marlee and Thiago are here too, both looking better than they did before. Thiago's shoulder is bandaged but mobile. Marlee's split lip has healed to a thin pink line.
"Good of you to join us," Jagger says without looking up. "I trust the reunion went well?"
"Lily's attached." I take a seat at the table, Asher sliding in beside me. "She's going to stay with us when this is over."
Jagger does look up at that, one eyebrow raised. "You're adopting a child."
"Apparently."
"In the middle of a war against a shadow government."
"The timing could be better."
"The timing is terrible." But he chuckles. "We'll discuss that later. Right now, we have two targets and seventy-two hours."
He pulls up the first file, projects it onto the wall. Abernathy's face fills the screen, scarred and hard, eyes like chips of ice.
"Abernathy. Currently in London."
"Security?" Marlee asks.
"Heavy. He's paranoid, with good reason. Never travels without a minimum of four guards, all ex-military. His office is a fortress, multiple checkpoints, biometric locks, armed response on call." Jagger pulls up building schematics. "But he has a weakness."
"Which is?"
"Every Thursday night, he visits a private club in Mayfair. Very exclusive, very discreet, very illegal. He goes alone, because even his guards aren't allowed inside. The club has its own security, but they're not his people. They can be bypassed."
"You want me to take him in a sex club?" Jace asks. “Fucking gross, what if he’s balls deep in someone.”
"Then cut his dick off, I don’t give a shit. Should be fun for you, Reaper." Jagger rolls his eyes and switches to the next file. "Oswald is in Dubai.”
"He's mine," I say.
Jagger shakes his head. "You're needed for the Board meeting. Oswald goes to Marlee and Thiago."
"He took children and sold them to be tortured. I want to watch him die."
"I understand. But the Board is more important. If we don't secure those seats, everything we've done means nothing. Someone else will rebuild the Foundry. Someone else will continue the work." Jagger's eyes meet mine, steady and certain. "Trust Marlee to handle Oswald. She knows what's at stake."
Marlee nods at me, her expression grim. "He'll suffer. I promise you that."
I want to argue. Want to insist that I be the one to put Oswald in the ground. But Jagger's right. The Board is the endgame. Everything else is secondary.
"Fine."
"What about the Board?" Asher asks. "We hit the Ministry directors, then what? We walk into a room full of Custodians and announce we've murdered their colleagues?"
"That's exactly what we do." Jagger closes the files, pulls up a new schematic. "The Custodian Board meets beneath the old cathedral in Geneva. Ancient chambers, ten seats, the sameroom they've used for three centuries. The emergency session is scheduled for midnight, three days from now."
