Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"I'm good at figuring out how things work, but I don't know how this happened."
~Nora Roberts, The Collector
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Chapter 11: Conjecture

Blaze

The funeral for Percy was a small family affair. It'd been a closed casket viewing as there was nothing to see but charred bones. His dog tags were given to Bartlett and Major. They took off one of the dog tags and handed it to Shiloh. My daughter, although she didn't cry, teared up, giving them a small thank you.

Shiloh hadn't said much to anyone, keeping to herself. I understood exactly where she was coming from. Not only had she nearly died from having people attack Percy's apartment, but her best friend, her boyfriend, had just died. I was unaware of just how similar my daughter and I were until I brought up the subject with my brother and he said, "She's just like you when Chopper died."

I realized how true it was though. No one had been able to get through to me after Chopper died, and no one could get through to Shiloh. She had shut off the world. It was our defense mechanism to protect ourselves from further harm and heartache.

I noticed, however, that if Shiloh did talk, it was almost always to Allison. They'd become quite close over the whole ordeal. Saving each other's lives could do that. I'd invited Allison since I knew she'd been a close friend to Percy and of Shiloh's. I also owed her for saving my daughter's life.

Once the funeral was over, we lingered for a bit, talking softly to each other, trying to console the crying kids. Lux and Tessa were silently bawling their eyes out. Will and Jem had never looked so shaken. Alec and Henry sat on the ground next to the grave, staring in silence at the engraved wording of Percy's name on the granite headstone. Charlotte and Isabelle stood next to each other, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. Tears escaped their eyes but they didn't make a sound.

Major was sobbing into Bartlett's shoulder. Chopper was attempting to console Lux. Nagase walked over to stand next to her daughter which seemed to break the dam of tears in Isabelle's eyes as tears started freely cascading down her cheeks. Cassie kept wiping tears off her cheeks as she tried to talk about all the good times with Percy, ranging from when he was a little baby to when he was an adult. Genette stood and stared at the fresh mound of dirt. His jaw was clenching and unclenching. I wondered what was going through his mind but decided now was not the time to ask. Pops, Henri, Geller, Andersen, Snow, Harling, Cipher, and Pixy stood a little bit away from the group, quietly chatting with each other. I caught Percy's name a few times. Helena Geller joined Alec and Henry on the ground. Her face was red, her eyes bloodshot. She'd been close to Percy most of her life. They'd just always been friends. I wondered if it was because they were only children. I remembered on more than one occasion the two of them would convince people they were siblings rather than friends. Most people bought it.

As I watched everything going on around me, I noticed two people were missing: Shiloh and Allison. I glanced around the cemetery. I found the two of them sitting on the bench a little ways away. My daughter had her head buried in her hands. Allison was gently rubbing Shiloh's back in consolation. It physically hurt watching my family be in this type of pain, and adding my own pain from the situation to it, I felt the need to shut the world out for a while. I hadn't felt that since Chopper died, and it scared me to feel this way again. I couldn't shut the world out. I had a family who needed me, and I had some Gray Men to capture. They were at the root of this problem and I was going to get them once and for after what they did to my family.

After an hour of lingering, we all headed home. President Duncan had given us the next few days off but I found myself heading to the palace after only two days. I needed something to distract me from the thoughts of Percy being dead. I asked if Chopper or any of the kids wanted to come. Jem and Will agreed. Lux and Shiloh stayed home. Chopper chose to watch over them.

It turned out I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand being confined in the house. Genette, Pixy, and Cipher were all working when I arrived. They greeted me and my sons with somber hellos.

"Will, Jem, you have free reign of the palace. When you want to go home, just let me know. And let me know if you need anything," I said.

"We're going to hang out in the living room," Will said.

"We have our laptops so we'll be fine," Jem added. They gave me a kiss on my cheek and left.

Turning to my brother, I said, "Genette, do you want to grab some coffee with me?"

He looked up at me. "Yeah, I could use some."

The two of us walked out of our business room. Once we knew we were out of earshot, my brother asked, "How are you doing?"

"A little better now that I'm out of the house and doing something to capture the people who did this to Percy. You?"

"I'm handling it. Have you heard anything from Bartlett or Major?"

"No. They've shut everyone out completely. They'll come to us when they're ready."

Genette and I entered the kitchen. No one was in there at the time. We quietly made our drinks, tea for me, coffee for him. Once our drinks were both made, Genette said, "What's on your mind?"

"What were you thinking about at the funeral? You were the only one standing alone and I saw the tics in your jaw."

My brother ran his finger around the rim of his cup a few times before answering. "Percy's death sobered me up about the reality we live in. For almost thirty decades, we've been unstoppable. Whenever we went after something, we always got what we were looking for. Yes we almost died, but we always came back. I remember thinking after Chopper died of who was going to be the next one of us in the casket. And when he came back, I started believing we were invincible. I started believing that the Demon of Razgriz was protecting us from all harm. And then Percy died and it hit me that we're not invincible. We don't have these omniscient demon watching out for us all the time. Now I'm back to wondering who the next person in the casket is going to be."

I hung my head, unable to form words to comfort my brother. Was there anything I could say in the first place that could help? I doubted it. I was wondering which one of us was next on the Gray Men's hit list and why. What had Percy done that had made the Gray Men choose to kill him instead of one of us, instead of the actual Razgriz?

Then something dawned on me. I went back up to the office with Genette on my trail. Shutting the office door, I turned to my comrades. "Percy was alone when the Gray Men went after him. His friend that was running with him wasn't part of the Gray Men's plan but now they have him for some reason and we need to find out why."

"Wasn't Shiloh also alone when she was attacked?" Cipher pointed out.

I nodded. "They're going after the kids because the kids are the easiest to get to," I said, suddenly becoming convinced this was the Gray Men's plan this time. "They can't get to us so they go for the next best thing. They know the kids are stronger if they're together though and that's why they're attacking them when they're alone. I'm sure the Gray Men didn't expect Allison to show up that night. Get word to the others that the kids, and us as well, are not to go anywhere without another Razgriz member. I'm going to talk to President Duncan about this. Pixy, you're friends with that journalist still, Brett Thompson, right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Get in touch with him. He's good at finding people in remote locations. Ask him if he wants to join our crusade, tell him the dangers, and if he agrees, give him the list of names we have of high-profile Gray Men members that were never caught after the Circum-Pacific War. Cipher, can you contact PJ's wife and ask her the same thing?"

"Iris has already been looking into things. Whatever she finds, she tells PJ who tells me. It's kind of a... jumble of stuff right now and nothing we haven't figured out on our own but I have a feeling she's going to find something big soon. She always does when she puts her mind to something."

"Thank you."

"How are the kids holding up?"

"Shiloh's holding it all in around us, but she won't speak, and I've seen her face get red a few times as if she's trying not to cry. Lux seemed to do all her crying at the funeral but she's been very quiet for Lux. Will and Jem are trying to be the strong ones here and are trying to make people smile like they always do, but it's hard for them when they're having trouble smiling themselves," I said softly.

"Genette?"

"Isabelle and Henry have become really close over the ordeal. Alec is keeping to himself."

"And you two? Chopper and Nagase?"

"We're... hanging in there. I'll feel better once I catch the bastards who did this," I admitted.

"Nagase and I are just trying to be there for our children. We remember all too well what it feels like to lose a member of your family."

I briefly remembered the pain I felt from losing Chopper but hurriedly stopped that train of thought. Even after all these years, whenever I thought about that part of my life, the pain always felt fresh and new and there was enough pain happening right now. I didn't need it amplified by the past.

Suddenly our office door was thrown open. Geller and Snow stood heaving in the doorway with a Will and Jem standing wide-eyed behind them.

"What's going on?" I demanded, standing up from my chair. I felt my brother, uncle, and Pixy come up behind me.

Geller was finally able to stammer out the message. "Henri. He's gone. He's been taken."
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Lux

"Hey Lux, it's Henri. I know you're in your exam right now but when you're finished, I'm waiting outside to take you and Shiloh out for a celebratory lunch. I also know you're probably panicking over the exam and let me tell you know, you're going to do just fine, and if you find yourself stuck, channel your inner Chopper that I know you have and bullshit your way through. You'd be amazed at how far your dad got bullshitting his way through stuff but I'll tell you those stories later. Good luck and I'll see you soon. Love you!"

I played the voicemail over and over as I sat on my bathroom floor with the door shut. I'd been in there for hours, ignoring the attempts of my dad to coerce me out of there.

First Percy was murdered, then my sister was nearly murdered, and now my godfather was missing, most likely dead as well. I was in too much shock to even cry; all I could do was stare at the cabinet in front of me as I tried to wrap my head around what was happening to my family. We were falling apart. We were being targeted. I felt like a fox being chased by hunters. I despised the feeling.

I went down for dinner but went straight to my room when I'd finished eating and washed my plate. I took a shower early and crawled into bed, knowing that if I didn't try and get to sleep early, I'd be going to bed at three or four in the morning.

Like I predicted, sleep wouldn't come easily. I'd closed my eyes at nine and besides going in and out of consciousness a few times, didn't fall into a deep sleep.

At one in the morning, there was a soft knock on my door, followed by the quiet voice of Shiloh saying my name. I couldn't resist answering her. She'd barely spoken a word since Percy's funeral and if she was wanting to speak to me at midnight, I wasn't going to stop her. I opened the door to find her waiting patiently for me. She took my hand before leading me quietly downstairs. Will and Jem were at the kitchen table with a heaping plate of chocolate chip cookies in the center. There were four glasses of milk, one for each of the twins, one for Shiloh, and one for me.

When Will and Jem saw me, the former said, "We couldn't sleep with everything going on."

"So we made cookies to give us some comfort," Jem added.

"How did you not wake up mom and dad?" I heard myself ask as I sat down.

"Because we're stealthy like that," Will replied.

"Also, mom and dad helped us make them. They went to bed about thirty minutes ago," Jem said.

I grabbed a cookie, dunking it in my milk. The four of us ate in silence for a while, enjoying the deliciously gooey cookies until Will sneezed. His face scrunched up in pain as he muttered, "Milk and cookies taste good but not when they go up your nose..."

Jem hit his brother on the back in attempt to help but all it did was make Will grunt. I laughed a little. Even Shiloh cracked a smile. And then just like that, Will and Jem were cracking jokes at each other, and my sister and I were smiling and laughing at their antics.

For that short while, I was able to forget about the problems facing our family. For that short while, I was able to forget about my worries for my family's future.
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Shiloh

I managed to go back to school the week after Percy's death. It wasn't the same though. I found myself waiting for him to call me before bed so we could tell each other about our days. I found myself waiting for random texts of him telling me stupid, funny stories that happened at his base. I found myself zoning out of lectures only to be snapped back to reality when one of my professors yelled at me.

It was finally Saturday and I had time to rest. But in reality, my mind kept mulling over the last thing Percy said to me: My secrets are set in stone.

What the hell did that mean? Did he engrave his secrets in a rock somewhere that I was supposed to know about?

In order to distract myself from the aggravating question, I pulled out my laptop, googling if there was any significance to the statement. All that popped up was song lyrics. That was probably not what he meant. Percy could do many things, but write a song was not one of them and if he had, I most certainly would've known about that.

Sighing, I pulled up photos on my laptop. I had a designated folder that was strictly of family photos and videos. I started scrolling through them, smiling whenever I saw the signature smirk on Percy's face that clearly said he was up to something (the twins were usually in those photos). I even found the video of toddler Percy pushing Bartlett into a lake. That one made me laugh.

Soon I was in more recent pictures. Ones I'd taken when I was at Percy's flat only a little while ago. There was one of me and in front of the fireplace. There was one of us on the couch. There were a few of just me and a few of just Percy when one of us had stolen my phone to snap pictures. But the next photo I didn't remember taking. Percy was grinning proudly in front of his fireplace, pointing to it with his fingers. For a moment, I couldn't place what was wrong about the picture. Honestly, there wasn't. The only thing wrong was that it was on my laptop with me having no memory of uploading it. There wasn't even a hint of déjà vu or anything like that. When it came to pictures, I knew which ones I'd seen before and which ones I hadn't, and this one of Percy definitely belonged in the latter category.

And then it dawned on me. To anyone else, this photo would be inconspicuous. Just another photo in a folder. But Percy knew I'd know that it was more than just a picture. It was a sign.

"It's that damn fireplace," I muttered.

Set in stone.

Nice one Percy. I grabbed my phone, texting Allison to meet me at Percy's old apartment in a few hours, that I was catching a train ride up there. I told her I'd explain everything when I saw her. I grabbed my purse and was heading out the door when I hesitated. Percy's mistake had not been telling any of us what he was doing. That had gotten him killed. Not wanting to make the same mistake, I went straight for Alec's apartment since he was stationed at the Air Force base near the academy. I knew he'd help. When I knocked on his door, he told me to come in. He actually seemed surprised to see me when he opened his door.

"Hey," he said, moving aside so I could enter.

"I need your help. It requires you going to Percy's apartment with me. I promise you I will explain everything on the way, but I can't do this alone. Not just because I don't want to be alone in Percy's apartment again, but he was keeping a secret from us that got him killed. If I'm right about his apartment, we'll finally learn what the secret is," I told him in a rush.

"How are we going to get into the apartment?" He asked, grabbing his wallet and jacket.

"I know the clerk at the desk. I can sweet talk him into letting us up there."

"Then lead the way. When we get back though, we need to tell the others what's going on."

"I know. I just need to know exactly what's going on before I say anything."

We arrived at Percy's apartment around three in the afternoon. Allison was waiting for us in the lobby, her nose buried in a newspaper, but I knew better. I knew she was aware of everything going on around her.

"Hey," I greeted, walking up to her. She stood up and hugged me tightly.

"How are you doing?" Allison asked, pulling away. Her eyes settled on Alec. "Hi."

"Hey." Alec waved.

"I enlisted his help. I'm not going to make the same mistake as Percy did of not involving my family in this. Maybe I won't tell my parents but the other kids deserve to know. It all depends on what it is. I know you know what it is though. We'll talk about that when we get up to his apartment though." I walked over to the front desk. Greg the Front Deskman was typing away on his computer. He gave me a sad smile.

"Hello dear. How are you doing?" he queried.

"I'm okay," I said softly. "I know we're probably not allowed to but is there any way we could go up to Percy's apartment? We just... we've been having a hard time with closure and we think it might help us."

Greg hesitated. "There's some people coming to fix some of the damage in an hour, but I suppose you could. Here."

He handed me the key and waved us on up. I let out a relieved sigh, unsure if my plan had actually been going to work. I'd been acting but it hadn't been hard. The apartment would offer some closure because it would give us at least a clue as to what Percy had been getting himself into.

I unlocked the door to his apartment. The place still looked like it had when I'd been there last. Alec grabbed my arm.

"Shi... is this-" he began, staring at the dried-up bloodstains on the floor.

I nodded. "I was over there behind the couch. The men and women were here where we're standing."

Alec's hand traveled down to grasp mine. "I could've lost Percy and you that night."

"But you didn't. And we're going to get justice for his death. I promise. The last words Percy told me was that his secrets were set in stone. I finally think I figured out what he meant. He hid something in his fireplace."

"Do you know where?" Allison questioned, walking up to the stone.

"I thought you might."

"No. I just gave him some information."

"About the Gray Men?"

She nodded. "He would have me research into things, break into a few government files, stuff like that."

"You broke into government files?" Alec queried incredulously.

"Is that judgment I'm hearing?" she countered.

Alec grinned, responding, "Awe. That's pretty damn impressive."

"How did you get the information to him?"

"We would always meet up and I'd give him a USB drive with information on it. I never knew what he did with it."

"What was the last information you gave him?"

Allison hung her head. "It was about you. It's a conspiracy against your family by the leader of the Gray Men. I was trying to tell Percy that none of you can go out by yourselves. You must always have someone go with you."

"That's what we're doing. My mom implemented that rule."

"It's a good one. Stick to it."

"Okay, we don't have much time. My guess is one of these stones can be removed. We just have to figure out which one..."

"There's like... two hundred," Alec remarked.

"Then we better get working." The three of us set to work. I took the top part above the fireplace itself. Allison took the stones on the right side; Alec the ones on the left. I tugged on every single stone and more than once. Allison had the same trouble as me. Alec, however, seemed to have better luck.

"Guys, I think I have something!" he exclaimed, wiggling a stone out of its place. He turned it upside down, shaking it. A USB drive fell to the ground. I picked it up.

"Anyone bring their laptop?" I asked.

"Nope. We should head back. Our hour is almost up," Alec said.

"And I need to get back to base. I cued the waterworks to get out for a bit," Allison admitted. Nodding, I stuffed the USB drive in my pocket, wanting to keep it directly on me. Alec and I said bye to Allison before getting the train back to the OAFA.

"So Percy was digging into the Gray Men," Alec stated.

"Yeah. I knew he was, I just didn't know it was this... obsessive. The Parsberg attack really messed him up. He was never the same."

"It's not your fault Shi."

"What if I'd gotten him to tell me though?"

"Then you would've known. But you weren't at the base the day he was attacked. You couldn't have gotten on the base if you'd tried. You couldn't have stopped him from going to the base that day. The Gray Men knew Percy was onto them. If they knew you were too, they would've gone after you sooner than they did. You said they were at Percy's apartment to kill him, but they wanted to kidnap you until you shot at them."

"I just can't help but think this could've played out differently if at least one of us had known."

"Because you loved him. When you love someone and you lose them, you always think there's a way you could've saved them when in reality, you most likely couldn't. And I promise you, there was nothing you could've done that day to save Percy."

I leaned my head on Alec's shoulder. "We're going to catch the bastards that did this."

"We won't stop until we do."
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Lux

Shiloh had been MIA from base. I texted all the kids asking if they'd seen her. Only Alec responded, saying she was with him. I wondered how they'd gotten to meet up since none of us were allowed to leave alone. That's how we were all being attacked.

I called Shiloh multiple times but it kept going to her voicemail. I paced up and down my room until someone knocked on my door. I told them to come in. Liam leaned against my doorway, staring at me curiously. "What's on your mind?"

"My sister went somewhere with Alec and she won't text me where or why and she won't answer my calls and I'm getting worried. Alec's responding but he's not telling me anything except they're fine and they'll explain later, whatever the hell that means..." I took a deep breath. "How are you?"

"A lot less troubled than you seem to be. I was hoping you could help me with some questions for that assignment due on Monday."

"Yeah, sure. Anything to get my mind off of what trouble Shi is getting herself into." Liam sat down on my bed, pulling his laptop out of his backpack. I sat next to him. For the next hour and a half, the two of us worked the problems out. In all honesty, I needed help on them too so having someone work them out with me was tremendous. But my mind was never far from what Shiloh was doing.

"Would you like to try and call her from my phone? Maybe she's not picking up for you because it's you and probably knows she'll be reprimanded," Liam suggested.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"It's worth a shot," I admitted. Liam pulled out his phone and handed it to me. Just as I started dialing her number, my phone buzzed. Liam tossed it to me. The text was from Shiloh telling me to get my butt- along with Isabelle, Lydia, Sophie, Henry, Charlotte, and Liam- over to Alec's apartment immediately. I called her and finally she picked up.

"What's going on?"

"It's a long story and you have to trust me but please come over. Bring everyone else in the text. Lie your way out of the base," she ordered.

"Okay. Are you and Alec safe?"

"Technically."

"What does that mean?" I asked suspiciously, grabbing my purse. I wrote a note to Liam to get ready to go. He appeared totally confused but listened.

"It means that none of us are safe and I'll explain why when you get here. Now hurry up! And make sure you're not followed!" With that, she hung up. I turned to Liam.

"What's going on?" He queried, stuffing his laptop into his bag.

"I honestly have no idea. But she wants me to meet up with her and you to come. And the others. And warned us to make sure we're not followed. She sounded kind of panicked."

"Then let's get going."

"I owe you big for this."

"Your family doesn't freak out about just anything. If Shiloh's freaking out about something, it's got to be big. I'm just wondering how I play a part in it."

"Me too. What do you say you meet me at the front while I go get the others?"

"Sounds good." Liam turned left out of my room. I turned right. Isabelle, Charlotte, and Sophie were in Isabelle's room chatting. I told them to meet Liam out front, that I didn't have time to explain. Henry was chilling in his room. I found Lydia in the lab. They gave me questioning looks but listened. When I arrived, Liam had called three taxis.

"I figured we could ride two, two, three," Liam explained quietly. "I told them Shi said to make sure we're not followed so we're all going to take different routes to get to Alec's apartment and we're going to be dropped off a couple blocks away at surrounding hotels so we can escape out back doors."

"That's brilliant. Okay, I'll ride with Liam. Sophie, Lydia, and Charlotte ride together. Henry, Isabelle, you take the third cab. Everyone know the plan?" I questioned. They nodded.

Liam and I hopped into our cab. We instructed him to drop us off at the Royal Palace Hotel. I had no clue why it was named the Royal Palace Hotel since there'd never been any sort of royalty in Osea's history, but it offered a back door that Liam and I could escape from so we didn't question it.

I turned halfway in my seat so it looked like I was talking to Liam to anyone driving behind us, but my main goal was to keep an eye on any cars that seemed to be tailing our cab. A silver Camaro turned out to be my prime suspect. It was always two or three car lengths behind us, whether there were cars in front of it or not. It made every turn we did. I pointed it out to Liam.

"Follow my lead. I have a way to really lose them," he said. We were dropped off at the hotel. Liam paid for the cab. He took my hand and led me into the hotel. He acted as if he owned the place as he escorted me to the elevator. A man in a business suit tried catching up to us but Liam pressed the close button, giving the man a fake, sympathetic smile. We went to the sixth floor where we disembarked. Liam led me to the end of the hall to the stairwell.

"This should bring us to the back door of the hotel for guests to get into," he explained. We practically ran down the steps. Sure enough, we arrived at a back door when we reached the ground floor. From there, we took the alleyway to the other side of the block, trying to walk as fast as we could to Alec's apartment building without looking suspicious. We arrived without any further incidents. Liam and I were also the first to arrive.

Alec ushered us in. Soon Isabelle and Henry arrived. Then we waited for the last three. Twenty minutes passed before they finally arrived.

"What took so long?" I asked worriedly.

"We were being trailed. It took us twenty minutes to lose them but I'm positive we did. Now what's this all about?" Charlotte demanded. At that, Alec motioned for us to follow him. My sister was sitting on the couch with her laptop, but her laptop screen was also projected onto the flat screen TV.

"What is this?" I inquired, sitting next to her.

"This is what Percy was working on. This is the secret he was keeping from us," she answered.

"What exactly is it?" Henry queried. We were all staring at the TV screen where a word document with the Osean seal at the top was displayed.

"A third of it is all the history about the Gray Men. Another third is information about Gray Men members. The last third is their plans. I don't know how Percy got all this information, although I know Allison gave him quite a bit, but I'm pretty sure this is what cost him his life."

"What are the plans?" Charlotte piped up.

"Mom was right. The Gray Men are targeting us when we're alone. There's more information though. Percy figured out that the Gray Men were onto him and that they knew he was going to spill everything to either us or our parents sooner or later, so they needed to off him, but they didn't do it soon enough. He was able to figure out their last plan before he died, and he put it on this USB drive."

"What is it?" Isabelle asked warily.

"Instead of killing us one by one, they're going to try and get us all together. They're halfway there with all of us already being at the base. Will, Jem, Tessa, and Alec all just got orders to come to the OAFA because they have been given a 'special mission' regarding some terrorism threats."

"How do you know we're part of this?" Sophie questioned.

"Because our names were on that list. Just the kids. But then Lydia, Liam, and you were listed on there as well because you're close to us."

"What about Simon?" Isabelle asked quickly.

"He's on the list as well but mentioned as someone to be watched, not to be 'taken care of'. I've already talked to him. He's on his way to meet with Axel. Whatever the Gray Men plan on doing to us, they plan on doing it next Sunday. I'm going to meet with Axel because I've already told him what's been going on and I'm going to see if he can help us. The Gray Men will have figured out by now that we're onto them and I'm positive they have people working at the academy so this will be our last chance to get off base."

"So how are we going to escape from them?" Lydia prodded.

"That's what I'm going to ask Axel's help for. He specializes in rescues. He knows how to fly planes but he switched over to rescuing people later on. If anyone can create an extraction plan, it would be him. I've already contacted him. I'm going to find a way off the base so I can talk to him."

"You'll need a distraction," I remarked.

"That's where I was hoping Henry and Charlotte would help. Do you have architectural plans of the academy?"

"Of course," they replied simultaneously.

"Are there any secret tunnels that lead off base I could use?"

"A few, but they're difficult to get to without being seen. There's cameras all around there. However, if we had someone hack into the security cameras, tape some footage for a few hours, and then play that footage when you're making an escape, we could do it," Alec proposed.

"Didn't Riley Poole do that in the first National Treasure?" I said.

"Where do you think I got the idea?"

"Do we have someone here who could do that?"

"I can. I just need the right wires and someone who's good with technology," Lydia said. We all turned to Isabelle who agreed she'd do it.

"Awesome. Then I'll escape into the city for a bit to meet with Axel," my sister decided.

"You're going to need backup," I pointed out.

"I'll take you and Liam. It'll be less conspicuous to other people. It'll look like a double date or something."

"I'm game. Should we be armed?" Liam asked.

"Probably a good idea. Last time I was unarmed, I was shot at. I've also informed Allison and Helena of everything going on. Allison is meeting with Axel and he's going to sneak her onto his ship. Helena is being stubborn and won't move. I think she's kind of eager to shoot at one of the Gray Men."

"Aren't we all?" Alec said. His tone was joking but I knew he wasn't.

Shiloh smiled. "Then it's a plan. Once I talk to Axel and get a plan sorted out, I'll get back to you. Also, don't talk about this in any of the rooms. I don't trust them not to be bugged. If you're going to talk about it, write notes or type stuff to each other. Just don't say anything out loud. So, does everyone understand what's happening?" We nodded. My sister took a deep breath. "Then let the games begin."
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And the plot thickens! What do you think the extraction plan is going to entail? Let me know in a review :)