“Say hello to Mount Weather—owned by FEMA, secured by Homeland Security. Nestled away in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, it’s used as a training facility and hideaway for all the pretty officials in case someone bombs us,” Luc said, snickering. “Also known as a complete front for the DOD and Daedalus, because underground, there are six-hundred-thousand-mother-effin’ square feet of training and torture.”
Blake stared at the screen. “You hacked into their security systems?”
He shrugged. “Like I said, star pupil and all. See this section here.” He pointed to the screen where a guard patrolled the fence, almost blending into the grainy background. “This is the ‘secret’ entrance that doesn’t exist. Very few people are aware of it—Blakey-boy is.” Pausing, he tapped the space bar, and the camera inched over to the right until a gate came into view. “Here’s the dealo: Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m. is going to be your best bet—it’s a shift change and staffing is at the minimal—only two guards will be patrolling this gate. ’Cuz, you know, Sunday is kind of down day.”
Paris pulled out a pad and a pen.
“This gate is your first obstacle of choice. You’ll need to take out the guards, but that’s a duh. I’ll make sure the cameras are down between nine and nine fifteen—you know, pull a Jurassic Park moment. You’ll have fifteen minutes to get in, get your buddies, and get the hell out. So don’t let a spitting dragon take you down.”
I choked on a laugh. Kind of liked this kid.
“Fifteen minutes,” Blake murmured, nodding. “Doable. Once inside the compound, the entrance leads to elevators. We can take them down to the sixth floor, go right up to the cell.”
“Great.” Luc tapped his finger off the screen, over the gate. “The code to this gate is Icarus. See a trend?” He laughed. “You get inside the compound; you’ll see three doors side by side.”
Blake nodded again. “The middle door—I know. The code?”
“Wait. Where do the other doors take you?” Kat asked.
“To the great Oz,” Luc said, hitting the space bar until the camera was now focused on the doors. “Actually, nowhere interesting. Just offices and actual FEMA stuff. Anyone want to guess what the code to this door is?”
“Daedalus?” Kat threw out.
He grinned. “Close. The code to this door is Labyrinth. It’s a hard word to spell, I know, but make sure you do it correctly. You get one chance. Enter the wrong code and it’ll get ugly. Take the elevator to the sixth floor like Blake said and then you enter the code Daedalus—all caps. Voilà!”
I shook my head, doubtful. “There’re only codes to enter? That’s their security?”
“Ha!” Luc hit a few buttons and the screen went black. “I’m doing more than giving you codes and taking down cameras, my new BFF. I’m going to take down their eye recognition software. It can go down once a day for about ten to fifteen minutes without raising an eyebrow.”
“What happens if we’re still in there and it goes back up?” Kat asked.
Luc raised his hands. “Uh, kind of like being on a plane that’s about to crash. Stick your head between your knees and kiss it good-bye.”
“Oh, that sounds great,” she said. “So you’re like a mutant hacker, too?”
He winked. “But be careful. I’m not taking down any other security precautions they may’ve decided to put up. That will raise concerns.”
“Whoa.” I frowned. “What other security precautions could they have?”
“Nothing but guards, but it’s a shift change.” Blake grinned. “We’ll be fine. We got this.”
Paris handed over a sheet with the codes scribbled down. I snatched it before Blake could and slipped into my pocket. “Thank you,” I said.
Luc’s smile faded as he returned to the couch and picked up the game he was playing. “Don’t thank me yet. Actually, don’t thank me at all. I don’t exist, you know, not until I need my favor. Just remember, this Sunday at 9:00 p.m., you have fifteen minutes and that is all.”
“Okay,” Kat drew the word out, glancing at Blake. “Well, I guess…”
“We’ll be going,” I offered, taking her hand. “It was nice, kind of, meeting you all.”
“Whatevs,” Luc replied, thumbs flying over the game board. We turned to the door, but he stopped us. “You have no idea what waits for you. Be careful. I would hate for my dealing to be one-sided if you all get yourselves killed…or worse.”
Kat shuddered.
I nodded at Paris as we headed out, Blake closing the door behind him.
“Well,” Blake said, smiling. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?”
Kat rolled her eyes. “I have the feeling we just made a deal with the devil, and he’s going to come back and want our firstborn child or something.”
Hmm… I waggled my brows. “You want kids? Because you know, practice makes—”
“Shut up.” She started walking ahead of me.
I laughed under my breath.
Mountain Man met us at the door. “Remember,” he said. “You were never here.”
Chapter 11
After school on Thursday, we were all gathered in the living room, hashing out the plans for the Sunday-night raid on Mount Weather.
Dee wanted to go in with us, but I wasn’t having that. It was bad enough that Dawson would be in the line of fire if shit went wrong. “I need you and Ash to hang back just in case something goes wrong, along with Matthew.”
She folded her arms. “What? You don’t think I can handle myself with you guys? That I might trip and stab Blake to death?”
I wanted to laugh. “Well, now that you say that.”
Dee rolled her eyes. “Is Katy going in with you?”
My body tensed as Kat dragged in a heavy sigh. “I don’t want—”
“Yes,” she cut me off. “Only because I got most of us into this mess, and Blake won’t do any of this without Daemon and me.”
Ash smirked from where she sat. “How valiant of you, Katy.”
Ignoring her, Kat continued, “But we do need people on the outside in case something does go wrong.”
“What?” Andrew asked. “You don’t trust Blake? Go figure.”
Sitting back, I scrubbed my fingers through my hair. “Anyway, we’ll be in and out. Then everything…everything is over.”
Kat was watching my brother. “How long… how long has it been since you’ve seen Beth?”
“I don’t know. Time there was different. Weeks? Months?” Dawson stood, rolling his shoulders. “I don’t think I was at that Mount place. The place was always warm and dry whenever I was taken outside.”
My jaw clenched. When he was taken outside? Hell, I wanted to punch something.
Dawson let out a ragged breath. “I need to walk or something.”
The sun had gone down a while ago, and it wasn’t exactly walking weather, but I got why he needed out of here.
“I’ll go,” Dee offered.
Andrew stood. “I’ll follow.”
“I guess I’m out of here,” said Ash.
Matthew sighed. “One of these days, we will get through everything without any drama.”
I laughed tiredly. “Good luck with that.”
Everyone except Kat left, and when I looked over at her, she was nervously fiddling with her sleeve. She’d been like that all evening, but who could blame her for being anxious?
We were finally alone, and I didn’t want to think about Blake or my brother, or what we had to do on Sunday night.
Kat looked over and our eyes met. “What?”
Standing, I stretched my arms above my head, noticing how her gaze dropped to the section of skin exposed when my shirt rode up. “It’s quiet.” I offered my hand and she took it. “It’s never quiet around here. Not anymore.”