The Strays
Chapter Twenty-Two

I quickly changed the subject as we continued walking, working out some finer details for our plan. Ace was certain he could get Jeremiah into The Sanctum, but we all knew it would be safer if they had a distraction, which was where Colt and I came in. We needed to cause a scene while we freed the Trojans, enough to draw Delilah and her cronies out, without getting ourselves caught or killed in the process.

“Do you actually have a plan for how you’re going to execute this prison break with just the two of you, or haven’t you thought that far ahead?” Ace sighed.

“Actually, I still have a couple of caches that Ratchet doesn’t know about, if they haven’t been raided that gives us a way in through the front door, then all we have to do is get to Jeremiah’s men and we have the manpower to get ourselves out.”

“What if you run into Rocky and the Scavengers? Distracting the Elites by overpowering the Enforcers is one thing, but if Delilah takes reinforcements, you’re screwed.” He persisted.

I rolled my eyes. “Delilah’s forces are spread thin trying to replace us, even she isn’t going to expect us to walk straight through the front door, and she won’t have time to call in reinforcements, even Ratchet won’t. I know how your sister thinks, the moment Hatter betrayed her, everything started teetering on a knife edge, she’s had Rocky keeping tabs using the Scav’s making sure the Hellraisers don’t move against her.”

“If Rocky is watching Hatter, then she’ll know about the meeting in the museum.”

“Mac knows she’s being watched, they’ll give Rocky the slip, no problem.”

“And Rocky will no doubt mention seeing your brother, which will take priority for Delilah, she’ll have her people chasing their tails trying to replace him, whilst you and Colt distract everyone else.” Jeremiah quickly caught on to what I was doing.

“Exactly. We divide and conquer. Even she doesn’t have enough power to chase all of us, which we’ll use to our advantage.”

“This is a dangerous game.” Colt interjected.

“A lot can go wrong, but I trust we all know what we’re doing. Hatter will be the first stop they make, and they’ll lose any tails they might pick up before heading anywhere else, which means Delilah is going to be distracted looking for them for a good few days, I’ll make sure I trigger the alarm at the old police station so the rest of her resources will be diverted there, and I’ll use their own facilities against them.”

“How do you know for certain that’s where my sister will be keeping them?”

“It’s the largest, most fortified building under her control, she wouldn’t risk holding them anywhere else.” I smiled as we approached the point where we would have to split up. “Looks like this is where we part ways. Wait until you hear the alarm and the buildings clear before you try to enter.”

“We know how to play the game, just try your best not to get caught.” Ace called over his shoulder as he walked away.

I turned back on my heels, heading in the direction we had just come from.

“Where are you going?” Colt called after me.

“I need to go home and I don’t mean The Paragon, or one of my safe houses, I mean the place where I was raised, this is a shortcut.”

“Then why didn’t we separate from Ace and Jeremiah earlier?”

“Because Ace would never have let me go home, it’s too risky.”

“Then why are we going?”

“It’s the first cache I set up and our last option, Ratchet doesn’t know I ever went home, neither does Delilah so they have no reason to suspect there’s anything of value there, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have people watching it just in case Sean came here if we were separated again. You have to hand it to Delilah, she knows how to cover her bases.”

“You almost sound impressed.”

“Honestly, I am. Delilah is a smart, capable woman, even if I do want to see her pay for her crimes it doesn’t mean I can’t admire and respect her intellect, her ambition, even if it is morally corrupt, detestable even.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell Sean the truth about Ace, what he did to you, what he did to Miles? Is that because despite everything you respect him?”

“No, it’s because we were like family once upon a time and you may not understand why he did what he did, but I do, I’ve walked a mile in his shoes and I know that if I’d been in his situation, I’d have probably done the exact same thing. There’s no point dredging up the past and turning on each other, not when we’re all that’s left, when we’re all each other has. Despite everything I was able to forgive Ty and Wraith was able to forgive Ace, what Sean doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Colt went quiet all of a sudden.

“What, no witty retorts or lectures about how I shouldn’t be so naive?”

“Do you love him?”

His question caught me off guard.

“What?”

“Ace, do you love him? I mean he knows you better than anyone, he’s handsome, smart and has a strong moral compass, just like you, how can I compete with that?”

“Are you really asking me if I love my brother’s closest friend right now? If you are, then the answer is yes, I do, he’s like family to me, another brother that I never asked for, someone who always tried to watch my back, and usually has my best interests at heart, despite his own biological families loathing towards me, but that’s all he is to me, I love him the same way I love Sean. We’ve known each other for years and there’s never been anything between us, don’t you think if there was we’d have tried to work that out before all of this? I’ve never even had a boyfriend, Drew was the first guy to kiss me, and you were the first guy to kiss me that I actually kissed back.”

Once again, Colt went silent.

“This doesn’t make us a couple, you understand that, don’t you?”

He shook his head. “Wait a minute, you just admitted to liking me the same way that I like you, so what’s the issue?”

“Two things. The first is the apocalypse we’re living in. Now really isn’t a good time for all the drama that comes with being a couple, I have to focus on completing my mission, I don’t need you coddling me because you think I need protecting. We work so well because we’ve finally developed some sort of trust, we also respect each other’s judgement, you don’t completely freak out when I tell you I’m going to do something stupid, I don’t want that to change. The second thing is that I’m not 100% sure how I feel about you, I liked kissing you, sure, but I don’t think of you in that way, actually I’ve never thought of anyone like that, and I don’t want to lead you on whilst I try to figure out whatever this is.”

“Do you think we’d have ever been close in any other situation?”

“I doubt I’d have liked you or any of the Strays under different circumstances.”

“Really?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I didn’t even like the Strays when I first met them. It took me months to get used to them, and even then tensions were usually high, you saw that for yourself though.”

“What changed then?” Colt asked, as my old house came into sight.

“I realised what the Strays meant to Leo and I hate to admit it but after living with them for as long as I did, they started to grow on me; I started to care.”

“Why did you stay with them for so long? Your wounds had mostly healed, and you had so many other places you could have gone, yet you chose to stay with them, up until our fight that is. I never meant to cause a rift between you and the other’s by the way, it’s just, you had so many secrets, it was hard to know whose side you were really on.”

“You weren’t the only reason I left, truth be told, I needed an excuse to walk away, to focus on my mission, and you gave me that. I stayed because Leo needed me to, it was one crisis after another and I couldn’t justify abandoning him, but no matter how I frame it that’s still exactly what I did in the end. I swore I’d protect him, no matter what, but I failed him, just like I failed Miles. That’s why I have to finish this thing with Delilah, no matter what.”

Colt offered me a strange look.

“What now?”

“I just can’t picture the day you and Leo met is all, he’s such a quiet, nerdy sort, and you’re well, you. I know how you met Ty and the others, but I don’t think anyone told me the story of how it is you came to meet Leo.” He explained.

I took a deep breath. “I always thought there was something suspicious about how my Dad died, my Mum and Aunt refused to talk about it, Sean told me it was the disease, but I couldn’t shake the feeling he was wrong. After the car accident people that worked for my Dad’s employer insisted on taking Miles in, so I let people think I was dead, that way I could keep an eye on him from afar, but one day one of the guys taking care of him saw me and I had to leave the city. A few months later, everything went to shit. I tried to get back, but I kept running into trouble, which is how Azrael found me. She offered to train me, give me the resources I needed to get home, and never asked for anything in return, so I took her up on her offer. True to her word she helped me get home, but I was too late. I stayed in the city for a while after that, set myself up at The Paragon, I had food, water and a safe place to lie low until I could replace a way out without Delilah catching up to me first.”

There it was again, that look.

“One day my alarm system sounded, it was the first time in a while so I cautiously checked it out, assessing the situation before deciding if I should hide or fight. Low and behold, it was Leo, he had a knife sticking out of his stomach and he’d lost most of the colour in his face, he couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve, so I decided to fix him up. I spent weeks taking care of him, he reminded me so much of my little brother, then when he was better he asked if he could stay. I taught him everything I knew, helped him every possible way, and I swore I would always look out for him. I spent about a year with him before Delilah started getting close to me again, she was gaining power and I knew he wouldn’t be safe if I stayed so I left. I went back to Azrael, continued training, then I started to go into the field for them. I’d disappear when I could and they never minded, after all I worked with them, not under them, so they didn’t really have much say in the matter, and when I could I’d get Leo supplies. After a while he figured out I was Liberty, he tried to replace me a few times, but I wouldn’t let him, each time he got close, I vanished.”

I stopped the conversation there, realising that my house was being watched as I’d expected. I grabbed Colt by the hand and put a finger to my lips, warning him to keep quiet as we sprinted for the cover of a nearby alleyway. I led the way, sticking to the shadows as we approached my house.

“You grew up in Suburbia? Of course you did.” He whispered as I pried open the hallway window on the side of the house, away from prying eyes.

“Now really isn’t the time for this, so hurry up and get inside before somebody sees you lurking about.” I retorted, as I pulled him and gently closed the window behind him.

I made him wait by the window as I quickly searched the house, letting him know when it was safe.

I left him to potter around as I headed into Miles’ room. I tore up the floorboards beneath his bed and lifted out a large, grey gym bag, filled with everything we would need for a siege as well as an additional project of mine.

“Whatcha got there?” Colt asked as he peered over my shoulder.

“Just the gear I stashed.”

“Really, we’re playing this game again? The one where you try to convince me there is nothing more going on than what you’ve told me, all the while you’ve got some hidden scheme brewing that could get you killed.”

“Fine, I guess I was going to have to tell you at some point.”

“Tell me what?”

“There’s only one way we’re going to replace this bomb.”

“Nope, no way. Now I get why you were so coy around Ace and your brother, you knew that if they found out about this suicide mission, if Wraith found out, they’d never let you go through with it.”

“Which is why you’re here and not them. We didn’t like each other at the start of all of this, you didn’t trust me, but when I told you Drew was a traitor, you trusted me despite the danger it put me in and you stuck to the plan. I need you to do that again. I need that guy right now, otherwise everything we’re doing will be for nothing and a lot of innocent kids are going to die.”

“This isn’t the same and you know it. We were the ones in control when we dealt with Drew, it was logical, well thought out, we had back-up, this is suicide and you know it.”

I handed Colt a small monitor, about the size of a mobile phone.

“What’s this?” He sighed.

“That is the monitor that will allow you to track my movements. Its range covers the entirety of the city, so as long as I don’t cross the border you’ll be able to replace me, and don’t worry about someone jamming the signal, Delilah still has her radio announcement system working, so just keep an eye on the radio’s, nobody can block us without blocking them.”

“How is this thing supposed to track you? Doesn’t it need a signal to follow?”

I showed him the small device I’d modified that was no bigger than a pill. “I’ll hide this in the sole of my shoe, as long as I have this you can replace me with that. I’ve thought this through, honestly, if we go anywhere you don’t recognise, if we are there for more than five hours, then that’s most likely where she’s storing the bomb.”

“What if she takes you to more than one place, suspecting you might be followed, what if she sees through this plan and just kills you instead?” Colt reasoned.

“Delilah is arrogant and narcissistic, when it comes to me ego blinds her, logic goes out of the window, she won’t be able to resist gloating or rubbing my face in my defeat before killing me. She’ll take me to it, I’m sure, I simply have to make her think it’s her plan.”

“You are truly mental. Certifiably crazy.”

“Well, we’ve all got to be a little crazy to survive these trying times. Now, are you in or not?”

“You’re doing this one way or another, aren’t you?”

I nodded my head.

There was a pause for a minute as Colt thought about it. “Fine.” He sighed. “I’ll help, but only because you are literally giving me no other choice in the matter.”

“Thank you. The rest of the plan is still the same, the only thing that’s changed is I’m going to intentionally get myself busted, you just need to help me sell it.”

“I know how it goes. I’ll read the situation and act accordingly, what I’m not sure about is how I’ll explain it to the others when I join them, your brother already hates me, this might actually make him kill me.”

“Tell him and Ace this is just like when I kicked their arses during capture the flag at the annual game they organised, then show them that monitor, they’ll get the picture pretty quickly.”

Colt nodded his head and slipped the monitor into his pocket. “I guess we should get going before the sun starts to come up.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I smiled as we exited through the window.

The two of us made it to the police station shortly before midday, and Colt offered me a sceptical look as he counted the numbers we were up against. Delilah was definitely holding something important there, the place was swarming with heavily armed guards and if it wasn’t the Trojans, then it was certainly something we could use as leverage to get them back.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked as I slung the bag over my shoulder and across my chest.

“We sneak in, trigger the alarm, free the Trojan’s and arm them as best we can, then we hope everyone gets out with minimal bloodshed. We’re about thirty minutes away by car, which should give Ace an hour or so once our distraction gets under way, if I’m right then Delilah should get here just in time for you to make a swift exit with the others, whilst I replace a reason to get myself caught.”

“We’re really doing this then.” Colt sighed.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m in. I simply never thought I’d replace myself here, doing this with you.”

“Well, it’s not like this is any weirder than our first introduction.”