Page 69 of Fragile Facade
“Yeah,” Krypt snorts. “Wouldn’t fucking be in there if it weren’t for you.”
“He blew his own cover!”
“Boys,” Ransom says again. “Shut up and listen.” He shoves us apart and points at the wall where the screen is being cast.
Glitch clears his throat through the speaker while I simmer in a mix of guilt, worry, and honest-to-god fear. I don’t even know which part is scaring me the most, but not knowing makes it more intense and I need to use it to my advantage. Killian has already been in there for twenty-four hours, and the longer we wait, the less our chances are of getting him out alive.
“He’ll be here.” A part of the map lights up.
“If they haven’t killed him already,” I snap.
“He’s alive,” Director says. “They’ll know he’s from Moros, and they’ll be interrogating him. Especially because they still don’t know what was taken from their labs. Riot can withstand torture.”
Yeah, but for how long? What if he took his suicide pill and really does plan to meet me in Hell?
“Hello,” Facts says through the line. “We have audio and video to these parts of the compound. Twenty-three hours ago, we watched him being dragged through these doors. We’ve been monitoring the compound ever since, and he hasn’t come back out. He’s in there.”
“Alive,” Krypt says.
“Right,” says Glitch. “So, our best bet is to create a diversion while Ghost goes in undetected. It means one of you has to get captured, and the other two need to carry out the rescue. Ghost, don’t cut me off,” Glitch stops me when I start to speak. I throw the lamp across the room, pacing. “You know you’re the only one who can do this, so stop fucking fighting it. You want him back? This is how.”
“Think about it,” I tell them. “It’s me on their security cameras, so they’re already looking for me. If they capture me and throw me in some cell, they’ll stop torturing Riot and stop the lockdown, making it easier for us to get out.”
“Ghost, you’re?—”
“Hello. Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Facts cuts in. “If they think they have both of you, they’ll drop their guards, leaving more room for Ransom and Krypt to get in and out.”
I throw my arms wide. “Fuckingthank you. Finally. Can we go now?”
“No. We have no masks and no power here. We need your stealth outside of a cell,” Ransom tells me. “If you get captured, we’re all fucked.”
To finally get my recognition at a time like this is torture in its own form. Finally, they realize how essential to the team I am, but it’s coming at a time when I don’t want my skills to be the deciding factor. I want in that fucking cell with Riot to kill his tormentor and get him the hell out of there so he can follow through on his deal to hold my hand. Like fuck I’m gonna let that bitchy little girl be the only one to experience the feeling of his hand in hers. Fuck her, fuck him, fuck Vile House, and fuck Reaper Corp. That asshole is mine, and if I don’t get him back, the goddamn world is gonna burn anyway, so fuck it all.
“I’m sick of arguing about this. Fuck it! Tell me where the hell to go and let’s fucking go. We’re wasting time.”
Ransom nods, but Facts speaks. “Statistically, torture victims are killed between forty-eight hours and seventy-two hours after capture, either by their tormentor or from sustained injuries. That gives us less than twenty-four hours to plan and complete our rescue.”
My teeth chatter and my jigsaw scatters even more. I try so hard to steady my breathing that I start hyperventilating. Krypt notices but doesn’t call me out on it while we develop a new plan. Yeah, I threatened to rape his brother, and here I am, panicking over the guy like he means something to me. I’m not a person who struggles with a guilty conscience, but if this is the way Riot goes out, sacrificing himself for me like some noble asshole, I’ll kill myself just so I don’t have to live with the shame of it.
* * *
Beneath the securecompound with Ransom and Krypt, I shake my limbs out, mentally and physically preparing to be silent and stealthy. To be the Ghost of Reaper City.
“What’s happening?” Krypt asks me while Ransom talks to Glitch and Facts. “Why do you suddenly give a fuck about him?”
“I don’t.” I pace. “Just don’t want the stain on my record.”
“What fucking record, Ghost?” Krypt grabs my wrist and hauls me forward. “Your conscience?”
“What conscience?” I rip my wrist free. “Fuck off and let me focus. If you shit the bed on this mission, Remi’ll go back to being suicidal.”
Krypt snarls under his breath. “And if Riot dies on this mission, so will you.”
I glare at him, unafraid of his monsters. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck you back. You care.”
“About the job!”
