Page 74 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
Fey and doomed. He started the skimmer, got it hovering, and set off in the direction of the Fredamine Project, the Raptor grumbling behind him.
When they arrivedat the site the following day, they took up their previous position in the rocks on the gate side of the compound. Dryad shared her collapsible field glasses with Blaze since Shudder had appropriated the long-range scope.
Damien left them to it. The proximity of ten of his trails, steeped in misery and fear, made his head hurt too much for peering through viewing lenses of any sort.
"Why aren't they coming out?" Shudder asked as he scanned the visible piece of yard yet again. "Don't they have exercise period every afternoon? Is it sometimes in the morning?"
"Most days, yes." Dryad tapped the edge of the field glasses on her rock, squinting. "There were a few days… Maybe VIP visits. Or days when they'd taken a lot of kids to the labs at once. Those days they didn't let us out."
Shudder made an unhappy sound. "So it's kind of a crap shoot? We might get lucky and the kids'll be out tomorrow, or it might be days? Not that it's an enormous issue, of course, but I was hoping some part of this was going to be a teensy bit on the easy side at—"
He cut off with a pained grunt when Blaze backhanded his shoulder. "Shut the fuck up and let me think, Shuds. For once in your life, stop the damn verbal diarrhea."
There were, Damien supposed, still small miracles in the universe. The irrepressible Shudder McKenzie snapped his mouth shut and kept silent in favor of sitting beside Blaze and listening to the gears turn in his brain.
"You ever get better with localized tremors?" Blaze asked after a few moments.
Shudder startled and the grin blossomed slowly. "You think I haven't been practicing all these years?"
"You can do that?" Dryad glanced between them, wide-eyed, but they were busy staring each other down.
"Could you manage a sizeable one just under the compound? From here?"
"Your faith in me warms my heart."
"Yes or no, Shuds. Stop fucking around."
Shudder squinted at the compound and leaned forward to put both palms flat on the ground. He closed his eyes, his lips moving with what might have been prayer or calculation.
"Yes," he said slowly. "Might be some spillover, but yes."
"Got it." Blaze reached out and patted Damien's hand. "I'm thinking you can get us air support? You got an evac team out fast enough."
"I can." Damien hesitated. "But we talked before about what happens if armed roto-jets come in with those kids still in there—"
"Ah, see, that's why we get along so good, Twitch. You actually think." Blaze's fingers closed gently around Damien's wrist. He had the odd sense that the contact anchored Blaze, helped his thoughts coalesce. "You're right. The last thing we want is either a hostage clusterfuck that we created or kids getting mowed down in some gung-ho Guild rescue. What I'm thinking is that we have air support waiting. Maybe ten, fifteen minutes out. Once we're sure we can secure the captives, they need to swoop in."
"Can probably be arranged. Is the securing the captives part a secret?" A warm glow settled in Damien's middle when he received one of Blaze's swift, fierce smiles.
"I won't be stupid enough to say it's foolproof, but our best chance is to try to get to them while they're in the yard. Shuds starts a quake, maybe a high five or a six Richter-wise?" Blaze waited for Shudder's nod before he went on. "It'll foul any perimeter sensors and motion detectors they have, and it'll get everyone out in the open. Guards down from their towers, whoever else is manning the place out where we can see 'em. I'll melt a hole in the fence, and you and I go in. Dryad sticks close to Shudder, and then they can join us in case any of the kids spook. Chaos is gonna be our friend on this one. We grab the kids. Isolate them if we can't get them out. Cavalry moves in. Yeah?"
"Risky." Shudder shook his head. "And I can't believe I just said that to you."
"But better than no chance at all," Damien said softly. "Those kids are in trouble. They're suffering."
Blaze tightened his grip and pulled Damien's hand to his lips to kiss his knuckles. "I know. Your eyes show it. I can't make promises. But this'll be their best chance."
Damien shivered at the tender gesture. "It won't sound as impressive, you know."
"What won't?"
"Saying you took down the Fredamine Data Project. Just doesn't have the tough, butch sound that taking down the Mescap Syndicate does."
"Ha! Well, I won't put it on my résumé, then, how's that? Unless I can use the wordspiflicatein the description."
"We need to do something about your legolepsy before it's too late."
Shudder stared at them openmouthed. "You're both cracked, you know that?"
