Running with Wolves

Chapter 75

I woke up, I whimpered when I sniffed the air, Stiles' scent was old, where did he go? I saw the player, I pressed play,
Stiles said" Beast alert, bub. I'll be home soon." I sighed then curled back up, closing my eyes and falling back to sleep.
——
Stiles said" There's four steps. We get into Eichen, we get into the closed unit, we get Lydia, get out."
Scotty said" And we have to do it all of this while getting past orderlies, guards, electric door locks, and a mountain ash barrier."
Malia said" You have a plan for all of that?"
Stiles said" I stole this last night off an orderly. But it's useless 'cause they reset the codes each night."
Kira said" So why did you take it?"
" I'm getting to that."
Scotty said" The only way to get Lydia out of Eichen is to make that key card work again."
Liam said" How are you going to do that?"
I said" They're getting to that, just listen!" Stiles ruffled my hair,
He said" I pulled all the history off the key card. Two weeks ago, there was a brownout and the security system rebooted. During a reboot, all of the key cards revert back to a default code. So, if we trigger a reboot..."
Liam said" The card goes back to the default code. It works again."
Kira said" How are we going to cause a brownout?"
Scotty said" That's your part. You're going to draw power from the main line. But only enough to cause the brownout."
Stiles said" Not a blackout. Do that and you send Eichen into lockdown which would be bad. Very, very bad."
" There's an electrical room behind the reception counter. The main power line goes into two breakers that run power to all of Eichen."
Kira said" Okay, slight problem. I don't know how to do that."
" That's okay. You have time to practice."
Malia said" Let's say all this goes perfectly. How does a brownout get us into the closed unit of Eichen?"
Stiles said" The system takes five minutes to reboot. In that five minutes all the alarms will be turned off, the key card should work."
Scotty said" Liam, you and I get Stiles to the gate of the closed unit. But after that, he has to go on his own. We can't get past the mountain ash barrier. And when we're gone, all anyone's going to think is that there was a reboot of the security system caused by a brownout."
" Uh, any questions?"
Liam said" How do we get into Eichen House in the first place?"
Malia said" What's our worst-case scenario?"
Kira said" What if I can't do it?"
Stiles said" Okay, admittedly, a lot could go wrong."
Liam said" Everything could go wrong."
Scotty said" Guys, if we don't do this, we lose Lydia. She's going to die in there tonight. And she might take a lot of innocent people with her."
——
Parrish said" That's the worst plan I've ever heard."
Stiles said" Okay, the plan is perfect and it'll work perfectly, especially if you agree to drive the van." He slid the keys back to Parrish,
" Is the sheriff on board with this?"
" How do you think I got the keys?"
" I thought you stole them."
" While that's a perfectly reasonable assumption, I did not steal them. And we need you because all of the Eichen guards know all of the sheriff's deputies, okay. We need a real deputy. And one who won't ask questions."
" It's not safe to bring me along. I'm dangerous."
" So is the giant murdering werewolf that's killed over 30 people, but somehow didn't kill you." Parrish grabbed the keys, I looked at Stiles, he sighed and ruffled my hair.
——
We were walking down the library stairs,
Stiles said" My dad's got the lab working on the shoe prints. But, uh, we're both kind of mystified about how giant clawed werewolf feet turn back into a pair of sneakers." I tripped, Scott caught my arm and balanced me.
Scotty said" Argent said it wouldn't be like anything we've ever seen before."
" Did he say it was going to defy the laws of physics?" We stopped at Theo, I pressed my face against Stiles' side, gripping his shirt.
" What are you doing here?"
Theo said" I still need to graduate."
Stiles said" No. No. What you need is to be beaten severely with a lead pipe wrapped in barbed wire..."
" Okay, I admit that mistakes were made."
" Murders. Some murders were made."
" You know how the soviets helped us win World War II? They knew how to make it through a Russian winter."
" That it? Okay. Thank you, Theo. Very informative."
" If you're planning to break Lydia out of Eichen house, you still need to get past the mountain ash. We can make it through. You can't, Scott."
Scotty said" What do you really want?"
" I know you saw the fresco. Two seriously pissed off creatures, the hellhound and the beast, fighting over a pile of dead bodies. I don't want to be one of the bodies, it's that simple. I can get you to Lydia. Or we can see who gets to her first." He walked away from us,
Stiles said" There's no way he knows what Valack's doing. Why's he so interested in her?"
Scotty said" He probably thinks what we're all thinking. That Lydia's got something bigger to do with this. And maybe she's the only one who can actually save us."
——
We were back at Scotty's, Kira hasn't figured out how to do her part yet.
Scotty said" She took out the whole school?"
Malia said" She took out the whole grid."
Kira said" Look, I failed every single practice try. This isn't going to work."
Liam said" How far can we get without the brownout?"
Stiles said" The front door."
Scotty said" We're going."
Kira said" Scott, we went through boxes of light bulbs."
" It doesn't matter. You can do this."
" The keycard won't work unless there's a reboot. And there's no reboot without a brownout." I got bored and stopped listening, I played with an action figure I found in Scotty's room, it's a spider man.
——
I was sitting in my room, I wasn't allowed to go, so now I'm alone in my room waiting for Stiles to get back. I hope it goes like planned!