Page 123 of Resolve
Elias pauses, glancing over his shoulder with a polite smile. “Of course. Don’t die, Adams. Once this is all over, you owe me quite a few favors. We have a lot of work to do, you and I.” He leaves without further explanation, the rest of us stunned into a moment of silence.
“What the hell does that mean?” Dane demands.
“We’ll worry about it after this is done. There are two locations left,” Aiden points out.
“We need to save Tobias,” I point out what feels like the obvious answer.
“We’d lose Charles,” Reid states flatly. “This is a taunt. Choose him to end this—and lose innocents—or try to save them, and he’ll go underground and come back to kill us later, once he’s rebuilt GE stronger than before. We need to kill him now.”
Dane pulls a document up on the screen. “Remember how I said I’d uploaded a bunch of data from that island Charles had me and the others on? Well, it had the schematics and location of the machine my sister warned us about. That location matches where Tobias is.” He faces Aiden. “Charles inadvertently led us there, and we could destroy that machine before more items are made. Even after he’s dead, his scientists could keep making those things. We have to destroy it before they realize GE is done for and try to moveand hide it.”
I didn’t need convincing to go to the island where Tobias is, but Dane brings up a good point. That machine should get destroyed while we're there so some scientist doesn’t decide to use it against us after Charles is dead.
“Say we take Charles out now,” I begin slowly. “What happens to the rest of GE? There are still agents and scientists out there, testing and brainwashing gifted. Those don’t go away just by killing Charles.”
Aiden answers without hesitation as if this has always been the plan. “Once the leadership has been removed, Dane can isolate each of the facilities from communicating with one another. They won’t know anyone is gone and will continue to operate as usual. That will give us time to clear them out one after another. It may take some time, even with Guild teams assisting, but we will get it done. And with no Charles, the corrupt cops and politicians won’t have guidance from him any longer. We’ll keep eyes on them, but they should settle down.”
Kellan snorts. “After Charles and the board are gone, the rest are probably just scientists and grunts. They’ll be easy to finish off. So how do we save our girl’s half-brotherandkill Charles?”
“We split up,” Aiden replies smoothly, saying the one plan I didn’t want. He doesn’t continue right away, before he shares the details with us. “Reid will take the Guild members prepared to fight with me, Raegan, and Dane to Charles’s location. Then he’ll bring Jackson, Kellan, and Tinsley to rescue Tobias and destroy that machine.”
Jackson’s head snaps to Aiden. He’s been silent this whole time, letting everyone else talk and plan. Now, he’s eyeing Aiden with cold, dark eyes. “No.”
“There’s no goddamn way I’m not going with you. We don’t split up, Aiden,” Kellan snarls. Small scales break out along the back of his clenched hand.
Aiden nods. “That’s exactly what Charles believes. If he sees you or hears that you’re there, he’ll assume the rest of us are as well. He’ll have his guard down. That will give us time to sneak in and plant the anti-teleportation devices somewhere in that building.”
“I’ll plant them,” Jackson counters, refusing to back down.
“No. I’m sending you two because I need you to be in and out. Let him see you, kill anyone who’s a threat, but then make a mess and get out without him realizing it. Then meet us before the fight. I don’t plan on fighting Charles without you.”
“You’re making them a distraction,” Reid muses aloud.
“It'll be more than that,” Aiden continues, his expression firm. “Charles loves his traps. It’s about time he falls into one of ours.”
Chapter thirty-nine
Jackson
Reidteleportsustothe center of the room with Tobias. Scientists look up, startled, before my knives find their throats and chests.
In and out. That’s what Aiden said.
The longer we take here, the more time they’re with Charles without us.
Kellan starts barking orders before the dead scientists even hit the floor. “Tinsley—check the island for any other prisoners.”
He turns to the Guild members we brought and points at Tobias, “Get him loose and outside. Wait for Tinsley and Reid to get him off the island before anyone starts trouble.”
The members with us will continue fighting and causing a distraction after we’re gone. It’s our job to weed out any strong players and eliminate them before we go.
“Jack and Reid. The machine.”
Nodding, I find the nearest stairwell and hop down each flight to the bottom. Dane guessed they’d have it hidden underground with security. Reid follows, unable to teleport until he can see where he’s going. There’s a hallway with more doors, but the first one has themost noise coming from it.
Reid peeks through the square window. “Found it.” He vanishes, reappearing through the window on the other side. A few button pushes later, and the door slides open for me.
We’re standing on a balcony overlooking a massive metal beast at the center of the room. Workers are busy moving barrels and boxes filled with jewelry from the machine to another area. Another group checks and polishes the jewelry before placing it back on the conveyor belt. The machine pumps out curves of metal in different directions, each with their own shape and style. Monitors and tubes are a tangled mess around it.
