Page 202 of Darling Wildfire
“Yeah, no help for that I’m afraid. I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid until I can get to him.”
“Okay, I missed a lot apparently,” Knight said. “But now that we’ve established everyone is alive, we have some logistics to go over.”
“Care to fill me in so I don’t accidently kill someone I’m not supposed to?” I said dryly.
The men exchanged looks.
“Oh no—don’t you fucking dare shut me out,” I said. “We’re all going to sit down at this table and you are going to fill me in on everything because I’m involved now. We’re beyond pretending I’m some damsel you need to protect behind your fortified walls.”
“North will literally kill us if something happens to you,” Knight said. “And I wish I was kidding.”
My jaw clenched. “I don’t think anyone here really understands what it is I do.” I looked around the table in annoyance. “For example, how wereyou planning to combat the massive fleet of drones Vetticus has? I’d like to remind everyone that I designed them. West can’t hack them. You need me.”
“It’s not that I can’t,” West said indignantly as he appeared behind Knight. “It would just take me more time than we have.”
“There you have it,” I said. “You’re stuck with me.”
I sank down in the nearest chair at the table and looked across at Demetrius.
“I'm sorry I almost killed you.”
Demetrius inclined his head, letting his grin appear. “I expected nothing less from you.”
“Fine, fine, I always did like living on the wild side,” Knight huffed, slipping into a chair next to mine. Cal shook his head in resignation and together with Ghost, Nyx and West, everyone took a seat around the table.
I pulled up a screen on a monitor on the wall and showed them a bunch of glowing red dots.
“Those are all drones,” I said.
“Wait—” Knight said. “You mean to tell me you already hacked the drones?”
I just stared at him until he ran a hand over his face and looked over at Cal.
“He’s going to kill me,” Knight grumbled.
“Okay, so that means you’ve found where Vetticus is holding them?” Cal sat up straighter.
I nodded. “Yes—” I turned back to the screen.
“Were you able to gain control of them?” West asked.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” Knight asked, looking suspiciously at me.
“I can track them and hack into their live feeds, but—”
“Why do I just know I’m not going to like this,” Knight said.
“I have to be on the inside to deliver the kill code,” I admitted.
Knight looked over at West who held up his hands in surrender.
“Don’t look at me, she designed them.”
“They’re military—they are meant to be impenetrable. Even my back door doesn’t have the ability to deliver a complete kill code. It would take me a lot longer to truly hack them. It’s faster if I can just get inside and take control there.”
“No,” Cal stated.
