A R L O

"No," Finn said, adamant. "I don't trust any of your ideas. Not when you smile like that."

I wasn't deterred. "You said it yourself: we need to do something big and bad enough to draw the ONNT away from us. So we will."

"I'm more than happy to help," Benton said, probably for the first time in his life. "Krasowski needs to be taught a lesson."

"Attacking one of our own government bases should do it," I said, looking off into the distance thoughtfully. Jaxon snorted, apparently liking that idea very much. He didn't have to say anything for me to know he was in too.

Finn raised his head from his palm, closing his eyes in disbelief. "Oh God, you're insane."

"That's why you're coming with us," I said, smile growing. "I need someone to keep me in check." Jaxon and Benton certainly wouldn't.

"There's a facility up north." No one had to ask how Benton knew that; it was inevitably a potential target for Imperium. "If we attack tonight, it will seem like the attack on Riley spurred us to move again."

"I'm glad my untimely death will amount to something, even if I don't get to experience it," Riley replied from the chair, her clothes stained under her hands clasped over her wound. Kane glanced at her the second she began speaking.

Ignoring them both, Jaxon looked to me and asked, "What kind of attack are we talking about—casualties, explosives, blowing their entire operation off the face of the planet?"

Finn's answer was swift. "No casualties. We don't need to kill anyone to make them fear us."

I'd temporarily forgotten about his murdering the ONNT soldier in the Russian fortress—but despite his acceptance of his destructive power, I knew it still haunted him. Regret seeped into me.

"Okay," I said, willing to to anything to make things right between us. "We'll show them that we could have killed them but simply chose not to. It will be a warning." Turning to Jaxon, I asked, "Do you have anything that could do the trick?"

He looked at me like I'd asked an idiotic question. "Of course," he answered, as if he was offended that I'd doubted him. "I have a few poisonous capsules we could let loose inside the facility. They'll knock them out for a few hours, at most. I'd hate for them to go to waste." Glancing at Benton, who'd given him a look of distain, he added, "I got the idea to create them after Riley poisoned you and you nearly died. If we're lucky, perhaps we can recreate that day tonight."

Rolling his eyes, Finn got to his feet—wanting to avoid another fight. "If we're attacking tonight, we should get going."

Jaxon followed suit. Glancing back at Riley, Delphinium and Kane, he told them, "We should be back in a day. Don't do anything stupid."

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The sky was dark by the time we arrived and the air was alive with the sounds of night. Crickets chirped in the bushes across the street. On the one road beyond a row of neatly-planted trees shielding the base from view, a car drove by.

"I'll go in first," Jaxon said as the four of us stood on the wrong side of the chain link fence. "Once I get the gate open, run through the front doors and start throwing the capsules at anything that moves."

He disappeared from sight before Benton could make a snide remark. I eyed the several bombs in my hands, already imagining the sweet, sweet destruction they'd cause.

Finn sighed, eyeing the military base with wary eyes. "If you all get arrested, I'm not bailing you out."

"If we get arrested, you're coming with us," Benton told him, resting both hands against the fence.

But I scoffed, knowing better. "You'd bail us out and you know it. You'd never be able to bear life without me."

Some unknown emotion flashed across his face and I realized the weight of what I'd said. I never quite thought about the fact that he'd have to live after my sickness killed me off. Perhaps I hadn't wanted to; it would only make things more difficult while I was still here.

To my surprise, Benton stayed quiet, despite the fact he knew about my sickness before anyone else. He didn't pretend he hadn't heard, but at least he didn't say anything about it. That way, I could pretend it hadn't really happened.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, watching Finn as he stared vacantly off into the distance. His mind was clearly not here anymore.

Twenty feet away, the gate opened with a metallic scraping sound. Pulling up the gas masks Benton stole, the three of us jumped to action, eager to move on from what just happened. The pathway to the front doors was straight and easy to rush down undetected, even as the lights shone on our faces. As soon as we approached the doors, they swung open—Jaxon's doing.

I began throwing the capsules as soon as we entered, barely seeing the people coming toward us before they were enveloped in a thin layer of light smoke. There was no time to wait and see what we caused; we moved on blindly, bombing every room we encountered.

The sounds of our breaths through the gas masked was amplified in my ears as we rushed throughout the place. The coughing quickly ceased as the workers were knocked out. Jaxon really did a number on the security; no one was able to stop us in time.

We ran through the smoke gathering around our knees. Despite Jaxon's thorough decimation of the base's security, we couldn't afford to make a mistake or waste any time. The cops were bound to figure out something was wrong soon. There was no doubt that I was moving slower than usual; I could only hope Finn didn't notice and that it wouldn't get us caught.

Footsteps. And an extra series of breaths. My attention turned to the space behind us. Jaxon appeared in front of us, hair awry and eyes alight. "Time to get the hell out of here. Follow me," he said, gesturing with a flash of metal.

"Everyone here is down," Finn said, keeping in pace with me. "How is the ONNT supposed to know it was us?"

"I left them a little message," Jaxon responded, his smile telling me what that message could hold. "Hanging around Kane taught me enough to be able to crash their systems temporarily. And when they get back online...let's just say that I had a few choice words for Krasowski."

I laughed then, imagining what he'd said as we made our way to the exit. Finn glanced sideways at me, perhaps surprised I could even find humor in the situation, given my sickness. Or perhaps for some other reason entirely. Though I couldn't quite read his expression, I guessed it was somewhere between wonder and longing.

I shoved him through the exit then, already hearing the sirens far in the distance. We were halfway across the grounds—halfway to the chain link fence—when they were close enough for the others to hear. Jaxon turned and glanced back at us to make sure he wasn't imagining them; after all, they'd come sooner than we'd imagined.

Finn stared at the flashing blue and red lights in horror, but the other three of us were only further energized by the sudden threat. Adrenaline entered my bloodstream, making me run faster than my weakened state had previously allowed me.

We reached the fence nearly all at the same time. Jaxon went invisible as the beams of the police's flashlights washed over us. If I didn't enjoy dangerous situations as much as I did, I might have even panicked. But it only made my pulse race in excitement. Perhaps I truly was a criminal at heart.

The chain link rattled under my lanky weight and I jumped over it, feet hitting the ground. I'd barely landed before I was already running with the others, the police close enough behind for us to hear them shouting threats into the night air.

Sticks and leaves scraped at my skin as we escaped through the trees. I didn't even feel the pain. An insane laugh left my lips—even as the police rustled through the trees behind us, not as cocky as before now that they couldn't see us.

Jaxon came back into view in front of us as the trees cleared, jumping down into a small ravine. We followed closely with heads low, needing to stay out of sight. I ignored the way the stream of water splashed up beneath our every footstep.

The ravine led to a sewer opening. The smell of must and stagnant water made me wrinkle my nose in disgust, but it would be the perfect place to hide. We ventured farther into the darkness until the entrance was nothing but a dark blue circle. I listened for any sign of trouble—both before us and behind.

"I think...we're safe," I said, knowing the second I said that, the worst would happen. "I don't hear anything."

"If any cops come in here, we'll need to rethink the 'no casualties' policy," Benton replied, panting somewhere to my left.

Beside me, Finn lit his hands on fire. The low-ceilinged sewer walls flickered eerily with the flames. I turned my eyes to the fire, letting my eyes swallow it up.

We were quiet as we stood together in that sewer, knowing the police were searching for us nearby. I was unsure of how much time passed by. A draft passed through the passageway and I drew my arms closer together, trying to hide the fact that I was shivering. The sicker I became, the more susceptible I became to things like the cold.

Though I hoped no one would notice, I felt Finn eyeing me again. He pressed closer to me in the small place, sharing the warmth of his fire. Shoulder to shoulder, I was very aware that this was the closest I'd ever been to him. Close enough to see the barely-perceptible splash of freckles across his straight nose and the way the burnished gold hair curled above his forehead.

No regrets, he'd said. Still, I was tempted to close the meager distance between us. I didn't care that Jaxon and Benton were close by, especially not when Finn kept staring at me like that. He wanted me to, I knew it.

But I was sick. And Finn would have to deal with the aftermath of my death. Never before had I needed to think of anyone but myself. Never before had I wanted to. But now...as dark and sick and wrong as I was, I knew I couldn't do this to him. I couldn't promise him anything I didn't have the time to deliver.

I could be selfish in anything else, but not this. Not when it came to him.

So I stayed where I was, keeping my eyes on the entrance of the sewer, knowing Finn was wondering why I'd hesitated. Chewing on my cheek again, I shifted my weight, knowing we'd have to wait out here for quite a while before the police were gone. But deep down, I didn't mind how long we had to wait if it meant sharing the space with Finn.