J A X O N

I didn't think I'd ever get used to living with only one arm. Oftentimes, I found myself trying to will my left arm forward only to remember that it wasn't there anymore. Now, I couldn't even tie my own shoes by myself. The first thing I had done after getting home from the hospital was tinker in my workshop and I hadn't even really been able to do that. It was the one place I felt truly calm and confident and now it was ruined.

And if that wasn't bad enough, everyone walked on eggshells around me. It was hard enough as it was with the clear anger and frustration radiating off my teammates, but now this? I'd rather have their rage.

Sitting in a massive room with one impossibly long table in it, I stared down at my single hand in my lap. We were in the center of the city in some other governmental building, waiting for the rest of the people we were meeting here to arrive. This was going to decide everything: what we were doing about Imperium, how to approach the Russian fortress and most importantly, how exactly we were going to kick their asses and win the first real battle of this war.

I shot a glance down the row of chairs at my teammates. Arlo kept trying to tell some dirty joke he'd just learned to anyone that would listen but I ignored him, as did Finn. I'd heard it too many times. Riley and Kane were having a lover's spat, sitting in tension-filled silence; they clearly hadn't talked through their issues from the Romanian airport.

On my other side, Delphinium and Jake were having a conversation, looking as if they were seconds away from ripping each others' clothes off, as usual. I made a suggestive comment to them both, after which Jake delivered one of his famous cold glares and Delphinium wore a quiet smirk.

Light from outside bathed us all in yellow midday sunlight. Glancing behind me out the window, I surveyed the other skyscrapers around us. We were high up—so high that the ground couldn't even be seen from the angle in which I sat.

I whipped my head back at the sound of the door opening. From it came a flow of important-looking people wearing suits and professional dresses. After the string of world leaders came a second group of larger, more fit men that fanned out and stood against the walls at attention. Bodyguards. They'd remembered we were a group of criminals.

Hunt and two women I recognized from the counsel were last to enter the room before the doors were shut. They sat in the empty seats next to Jake.

"Well," Hunt began, making all the side conversations cease. "Shall we begin?"

"We should start with who exactly is going on the raid in the Russian fortress," said a woman in an accent I couldn't place.

"We're going," Riley said, placing both hands face down on the table.

One of the Russian officials asked Hunt with a raised eyebrow, "You let children fight your battles?"

"Alexi, you were there when we came to the agreement of forming them into a team to investigate the terrorist activity. You knew what we were doing." The ONNT director spoke in a hard voice, but not without politeness.

"I've also already infiltrated the inside," Riley said, to which both counsel women turned to give Hunt narrow-eyed looks, making me think they hadn't known. "I made a few rough sketches as to what the layout is." She stood and held the papers in her hand, going to the front of the room to attach them to a large board where everyone could see.

"We have a group of spies that has been patrolling the border of their fortress for days," the Russians told us. "They found another entrance leading to the top story, one that is nowhere near the main doors. It is smaller, but we should be able to get an army through."

"What did you find inside the fortress?" a Romanian woman asked Riley.

"They have great numbers of both soldiers and weapons. I made it deep underground, far enough to see what they've been building. The engineers were building onto the missiles they stole from the U.S., making them capable of even more destruction."

"Another reason we need to act now, before they use them," Delphinium spoke clearly.

"I actually have news on the government break-in," Hunt said next, making all the eyes in the room go back to him. "They took the smaller missiles, plasma guns and tracking devices. We also have reason to believe that Benton Shires was the one to lead the robbery." I glanced down at Kane, whose hard expression told me that he didn't like that at all.

"Yesterday, they hit one of ours as well," a British man stated, folding his hands on the table. "We're still inspecting the damages, but we know for certain they stole new guns that we'd been making—most likely to arm those new soldiers they've been inducting."

"Imperium now holds all that firepower." That was from the Czechs. "We need to keep that in mind when we do attack."

"How exactly will we be taking the fortress?" Finn asked, his face a mask of upmost politeness in the presence of all these important officials.

"We'll go through the side entrance. Once we sneak into the main area, we'll take out all the soldiers on that level, gradually working deeper and deeper into the fortress-"

"I also have a plan," Jake drawled, folding his arms across his chest. "It won't take half the soldiers your's will and it won't result in all of us dying, as I have a suspicion that yours would."

Even though everyone in the room was staring at him with varying degrees of suspicion, he leaned back in his chair and continued. "First, I'll need a computer chip with all of Traversa's information on it, fashioned to make it seem like she's one of their soldiers. I will then go down and find the room in which their physical database is stored, placing her information into it. That will allow her access to their keypads. Then, Tesla and Shires will go down with her, pretending to be those soldiers who deliver the fuel for their engine room. Riley will guard the door, holding off any company. However, they'll really be there to plant explosives inside."

"As I did with the Romanian fortress," Delphinium said softly. "We'll have no way out if they discover us there. Once they realized they've been breached, we'll be flooded from all angles."

"Also, there's no telling whether real Imperium soldiers will come by to deliver the real fuel," someone else said from the other end of the table.

"Exactly. That's why I wasn't done. Jaxon and Arlo will stay upstairs, making sure everything goes smoothly—whether that means killing survivors or making sure all deliveries don't make it inside." I frowned, not wanting to be so far from the action. It was because of my injury, I knew it. I never hated what had happened to me more than that moment.

He stood up and went to the front of the room. "Peterson, you'll go with the army through the side entrance, ensuring they get through to the top story. From there, you'll seal off all the top exits until the only one that exists is the secret one. That exit is the one the rest of us inside will be escaping through. If my guesses are correct, that staircase that Riley climbed is connected to that exit." He gestured to the drawings Riley had hung. "Of course, the exits won't seal easily. There will be a battle for power on the top level. That's where the army will come in. They will wipe out every one of the soldiers in Imperium's ranks.

"Tesla, Shires, Traversa and I will meet at the base of that staircase," he said, pointing to a spot on the map. "From there, we'll escape up the stairs and out the exit, where Peterson will be waiting for us and holding off any stray soldiers. After we all get out—and only after then—will the army seal that exit too, trapping the rest of the Imperium soldiers inside. Once everyone is clear, we'll blow the entire place to hell. Got it?"

I blinked. Had he just thought of that whole plan just now? Everyone else at the table looked slightly stunned, not having expected such a thing from him. All of our reputations preceded us, especially his.

One of the English asked, "I'm sorry, what-"

"How will you get inside?" someone else asked.

"I'll go in with the other three but break off as soon as I can. I will need to get to the database before the other three get to the engine room, or else Traversa won't be able to get in and you'll all be found out. We'll all be wearing stolen Imperium uniforms so they won't be able to distinguish that we're not meant to be there."

"Where will the uniforms come from?"

This time, Jake didn't have to answer. "Our spies will get them for you," promised one of the Russians.

"I like this plan," one of the Russians interrupted, giving Jake a look of newfound respect. "We will go through with it."

"So will we," declared the Czechs. "But how many men will we send?"

"They have thousands of soldiers inside," Riley warned. "We'll need enough men of our own to combat them all."

"We each send five hundred soldiers," said an English woman. "Together, we will have enough."

"Surely they have some radar monitoring the woods surrounding the fortress," a man said, eyes flicking between us and the Russians. "How will we sneak in undetected?"

It was Finn who answered. "We got in and out without a problem. It could have been an anomaly, but...perhaps they're only tracking vehicles, not individual people."

"Even so," one of the Russians grunted, "Our spies also found a smaller building half a kilometer out from the fortress. It appeared to have been abandoned by Imperium for ages. We will convene our forces there and then travel together to the secret entrance."

"Everything you've asked for should be ready by tonight," Hunt said, eyes surveying the entire room full of people.

"Until then," one of the Russians said, "Prepare for war."