Thirteen's POV
"You come any closer to me, and I will kill you," Jason states.
Devin stops in his tracks on his mission to sneak up behind Jason who's sitting on the couch across from me, his back to Devin. When Jason turns to face Devin, Devin quickly hides the bucket of who knows what behind his back.
Jason narrows his eyes at him. "Show me your hands."
Devin gets a look of wide-eyed innocence on his face. "Why?" He questions.
Jason's eyes narrow further. He opens his mouth to say something pretty nasty, if the look on his face is an indication, and the ringing of my phone shatters the moment.
I pick my phone up off the coffee table and look at the unfamiliar number flashing across the screen. I frown.
"What?" Chase asks me.
I shake my head. "I don't recognize the number," I tell him. I'm debating whether or not I should answer.
"Then it's most likely Garrett," Zack inputs. He stands behind my chair. "You should answer it and put it on speaker. I have some things I'd like to say to brother dearest."
I roll my eyes. "I don't want to answer the phone just to listen to you verbally assault your brother."
"Then do it to satisfy my curiosity. I mean, for all you know it could just be a wrong number."
I shrug and answer the phone, putting it on speaker and placing it back on the coffee table.
"We've got a problem," He says.
Zack frowns down at the phone. "That's not Garrett."
Devin narrows his eyes at the phone. "And that's not Sam or Lily either."
I ignore both of them and jump to my feet, grabbing the phone off the coffee table and switching it off speaker.
"Talk to me," I tell him.
"Sam's been compromised."
Shit. I can't have heard him right. "What?"
"Sam's been compromised." His tone is close to a growl and I can hear the stress behind the words.
I fall back into my seat. "Lily was supposed to call me if anything went wrong."
"Evidently everything went more than wrong. Lily was caught too." I hear shuffling on the other end of the phone. "Triple just called me to let me know, he couldn't give me any details though."
"Where are you?"
"Preparing to come out to you."
"Don't," I tell him.
"What? Thirteen, we have to do something," He says.
"I know, just give me a second to think."
"We don't have that kind of time."
"Shut up Hayden," I hiss. My mind's going over every possibility. I move out of the living room and into the kitchen so I have a little more privacy.
"Any time now," He mutters sarcastically.
"Shut up Hayden," I growl. "Are you still with Lydia?"
"Yes, why?"
"Tell her what's going on."
"How is that going to help?"
"Tell her I said that she could have the gold dagger if she helps us," I say.
"Are you serious? That's almost the equivalent of handing it to Garrett."
"Except that Lydia doesn't know exactly how many daggers there are. Plus, if we can take down Garrett, we'll get the black one back."
"And what happens if we can't take down Garrett?"
"Then Lydia goes after him later for the gold dagger, or if she manages to get hold of it, Garrett goes after her."
"They might end up killing each other."
"That's only a minor problem," I tell him, he lets out a long breath of air. "I'm hanging up now, I need to make some calls."
I hang up and quickly dial Zero's number. No answer. I dial again. Still no answer.
I call him every nasty name I can think under my breath.
"I don't have time for this," I mutter.
"What the hell is going on?" Chase asks from behind me. I turn to look at him. "You need to inform us."
I mutter more curses. "I will, but at the moment I have some more important things I need to do." I push past him and walk into the living room.
"Devin," I call out, he looks at me. "Let's go, you're with me."
Devin jumps to his feet quickly. "What's going on? What are we doing?"
"Sam and Lily are in trouble," I tell everyone. "Zack, Jason, Chase, Sam sent me the blueprints for the base they're at before he left, I'll send them to you and I need you guys to look them over and come up with a plan now. Devin and I will be back soon."
Devin follows me as I run from the room towards the garage. "Where exactly are we going?"
"To talk to your father."
***
"Why did I have to come along?" Devin asks as we wait outside Zero's office. I'm about two seconds from breaking the door down.
"Because he's ignoring me. You're his son, he can't ignore you," I tell him.
"So basically, you're just using me to get an audience with Zero," Devin says.
"Yep."
"Cool."
The door to Zero's office opens and Zero looks out to Devin and his face is pleasant until he spots me. He scowls and glares at me.
"What are you doing here?" He asks me.
"I needed to talk to you." I push past him and into the office. Devin smiles, waves, and takes a seat in the waiting area, leaving me to deal with Zero.
"What is so important that it couldn't wait?"
"You've been ignoring my calls. I needed to speak with you."
"About Jason, no doubt," Zero mutters.
I shake my head. "I'll yell at you for that later. That's going to be a longer conversation."
"Yes, it is," Zero agrees. "And I think you'll find I did the right thing in this case."
I shoot him an incredulous look but falter when I see how deadly serious he is. I suck in a sharp breath. "When?"
"Nothing major, but I was having him watched just in case," Zero waves me off. "What did you come here for then?"
"Garrett got hold of Sam and Lily," I tell him.
Zero raises his eyebrows. "Correct me if I'm wrong but that does sound like that's your problem."
I glare at him. "The time frame's been escalated. I left you a voicemail a long time ago explaining what I wanted to do, did you ever doctor those files like I asked you?"
"Yes. I did," He says nothing else.
"And?" I press.
"They were stolen about three days ago now."
I smile. "Thanks," I tell him as I start to leave his office.
"You mean I did something right for once?" He questions sarcastically. I glare at him and slam his office door shut on my way out.
Devin jumps to his feet and rushes to keep up with me. "You get what you needed from him?" Devin asks.
"Yep," I reply, pulling out my phone as we walk through the halls. I dial Hayden.
"Lydia's in, but she wants to do everything her way," Hayden says instead of greeting me.
"That's not going to happen. You're all on standby, but I need you in the area. I'll let you know of the plan and I'll tell you when you're needed." I hang up.
"Who was that?" Devin asks me.
"Hayden," I reply as we make it back to the car. He just nods. "As soon as we get back to my house I'll need you to start pulling weapons out of the weapons room. Right now I need you to call Zack and put it on speaker, I need to talk to him."
***
"What is wrong with just calling in an airstrike and leveling the damn base?" Zack questions as he crosses his arms over his chest, his face a look of disgust as he stares at the blueprints.
"Do the names Lily and Sam mean anything to you?" Chase questions sarcastically.
Zack scowls. "I meant after we get them out."
"Zero is not going to justify an airstrike. It's too high profile, too hard to explain away," I tell him.
"Not if you fill the newly formed crater where the base would be with water and throw some fish in it. Then it's just a lake. All anyone could accuse us of is improving the environment."
Jason looks at him as if he's an idiot. "That's not how that works."
"Says who?"
"Hmm, let me think. Everyone."
Devin's phone rings and he looks down at the screen. "Excuse me, as much fun as this is to witness, I need to take this." He points to his phone and walks out of the room.
"Boy, he's real concerned about this mess," Zack mutters sarcastically. Chase glares at him.
I ignore them and continue looking over the blueprints all Sam's notes.
"Security is going to be a nightmare," Jason says with a grimace. "This appears to be one of Garrett's most fortified bases."
"Well, you can expect him to double if not triple security," I reply. "He's expecting us to come. I'm surprised he hasn't called to gloat yet."
Chase points to a spot on a map we'd brought over. "There are only a few roads heading into this area, but they're all likely to be monitored."
Jason turns the map towards him and taps at a spot. "What's this?"
"It's a hiking trail now, but it used to an ATV trail," Chase replies.
Jason raises his eyebrows. "That would imply that the trail's wider than most. Wide enough to get a car through?"
Chase shakes his head. "Not likely, but we'd have to actually go there to figure it out for sure."
"Why can't we use ATVs?" Zack questions.
"Not enough time to get a hold of them. We need them now. We don't know how long Garrett will leave Lily and Sam alive," I tell him. Devin comes walking back in the room, a look on his face I can't decipher.
"Damn," Zack mutters. "Too bad you don't have any ATVs."
"May I make a suggestion?" Henri speaks up, all eyes turn to him as he stands in the doorway. He makes a gesture for us to follow and walks out of the room.
We all follow him to the garage. He stops in front of seven large cloth covered bundles.
I shake my head. "I never finished repairing them. They were all too damaged from the last time they were used," I tell him.
"You may not have had the time," Henri says. "But I happen to have a lot of time on my hands."
I raise my eyebrows. "You fixed them?" He nods.
"What exactly are they?" Devin questions.
I move and pull the cloth off the first of the bundles. A black motorcycle sits underneath. But these were not normal motorcycles, they had been made by the agency. The motorcycle is completely black, with a little bit of red here and there, and the number 13 painted on the side.
"They were specially made by the agency," I tell them. "Think of them as a mix between a motorcycle, ATV, and an armored tank."
"Specially made by the agency? How come I never got one?" Devin complains, grumbling something under his breath about talking to Zero.
"So," Chase says. "These could go down the ATV trail."
I nod. "Shouldn't be a problem."
"If they're part armored tank how did they get damaged the last time they were used?" Jason asks.
I wince at the memory. "You don't want to know."
"Uh yes. Yes, I most definitely do," Devin says.
I shake my head. "These will be better than trying to drive a car down that road. Five small moving targets are harder to hit than one large one." I wave my hand at the bundles.
"Pick one," I tell them. "Keys should be in the ignition."
Zack rips the cover off another one and so do Jason and Devin, the numbers 45, 57, and 61 are visible on the sides of the motorcycles. Chase rips the cover off another, and the number 77 becomes visible.
"Not that one," I tell him.
Devin recoils. "You'll probably become possessed by a demon if you sit on that motorcycle."
I give Devin a flat look.
"What?" He questions. "Better safe than sorry. You got any helmets?"
"On the shelves on the back wall," I reply.
He smiles evilly as he takes a helmet. "Let's get this party started."
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