“Alright, so it is only two days until the big game, is everyone clear on the plan?” I asked.

Sutherland and Anderson both nodded.

“Of course. It’s simple enough and we’ve been over the blueprints and inspected the arena a dozen times already,” Sutherland smiled reassuringly. “Security is minimal. No one expects a problem. Getting everything in place is going to be a piece of cake. In fact, I bet you wish you could trade places with us.”

“Obviously. You got the easy job, Sutherland. You want to swap?”

“I would. I am too old to be doing this grunt work, honestly. But for some reason the bosses seem to want you to stay right here. Got any idea why that is?”

“Search me,” I shrugged. “The planning is basically done. I guess they just want me around in case you and the kids screw something up.”

“Right,” Sutherland chuckled, but it was a bit forced.

He wasn’t convinced, and rightfully so, it seemed off to me, too. I had lobbied pretty hard to do his job personally. It would have made sense, given my established relationship with the recruits, but Tom and Wallace had both refused, saying they wanted me to oversee things from here, focus on the big picture. It was odd. And inconvenient. The problem was that there was now no way for me to get word of this to anyone before it happened. Out in the field, it would have been easy to slip away and make a phone call, but here in Wallace’s research facility, it was basically impossible. I had to think that was intentional. But I wasn’t sure what could have caused the change. Up to this point, Wallace had been easing up on my restrictions, putting more trust in me, and I had been counting on that. However, once I arrived here, everything had changed. Our devices had been rendered all but useless, as there was no internet connection here, and no phone signal. Wallace said they were jamming it for ‘security reasons.’ And getting out without being seen was not an option, I had looked into it, they had all of the entrances and exits tightly monitored. Some of the exits were even chained shut, which had to be a violation of the fire code. Asking around with the staff told me that all of this was security was new, put in place just before our arrival. They didn’t think it was strange, just a normal increase in security ahead of a critical mission. I wasn’t so sure. But what could I do? I was in, now, it was too late to turn back. It figured that now that I finally had all the information I needed to put an end to this, I was stuck. That had always been the risk of this plan. Even Liz had seen it. Still, I wasn’t giving up just yet. I had continued with the planning as if nothing were wrong, in the hopes that something would present itself, but now I was running out of time. The devices were going to be moved into position tomorrow. I was going to have to do something, before that happened, regardless of the risk. That would have to wait until later, though. I turned my attention back where it was needed.

“Look, if you can’t hack it in the field anymore, Sutherland, just say the word and I will find someone else to do your part,” I smirked.

Sutherland laughed,

“I think I can manage this one last thing, as long as I eat my Wheaties for breakfast.”

“Good. Alright, tomorrow morning you will take the devices and travel to the arena. A few of the new recruits will meet you there to provide support and help you install them in the ventilation system. As spry as you are, do try to let them do most of the climbing and placement, alright? We don’t need anyone breaking a hip. You do any talking, point them to the correct locations and hold the ladder,” I paused until the two older men nodded. “Have the HVAC company uniforms arrived?”

“Yeah,” Anderson ducked under the table and opened a box, pulling out a set of coveralls.

He held them up to show the patch, which read: Randall and Sons Heating and Air. I inspected it briefly. It matched the logo for the company that was contracted to service the arena pretty well. Hopefully, no one would even look twice at them.

“Good. Remember, it is very important that there are no disturbances of any kind tomorrow. This needs to be neat and clean. No one is to get hurt, understand? If someone gets suspicious, you talk your way out of it, no violence,” I had been emphasizing this the whole time, but I really needed them to hear me, for more than one reason. “If anything goes wrong, just get out of there, you can always try again later. This won’t work if someone gets attacked in the building and the place is crawling with police, or even worse, the game is cancelled. Understood?”

“It won’t be a problem,” Anderson rolled his eyes. “No one questions a guy in coveralls carrying a ladder. I doubt we even needed the patches. We’ll be in and out with no one the wiser.”

“I hope so, because the second part won’t work if you don’t do this discreetly.”

“We know, we know,” Anderson shook his head. “Look, worry about Tom and Reardon getting their part done, we are set.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Good. Alright, well then, I suppose we should all get some rest before the big day. I’ll see you both in the morning for a final debrief.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sutherland saluted as they headed out the door.

I leaned back in my chair. Ok, now that that was taken care of, I had a plan of my own I needed to review.

As I had hoped, the corridors were empty this late at night. I crept through the hallways of the facility, towards the room where the devices were being kept. I hadn’t been here for very long, they had moved us only after the planning and surveillance of the location was complete, but long enough to know the rhythm of the place. The scientists generally only worked during the day, at night they returned to their homes and families to do… whatever normal people did in the evenings. Admittedly, I didn’t have a lot of experience, there. Either way, the fact was that they were not here now, so if I could get to the room unseen, I could hopefully sabotage the devices in a way that no one would notice until they tried to trigger them. It was the last viable option that I could see, after Wallace had locked me down. I obviously couldn’t let them be delivered like this. People would die. So, if I couldn’t get out to spread the word, the only thing left was to remove the chemical from the device and render them harmless. After that, well, they would probably at least suspect that it was me when things didn’t work out, but I would cross that bridge when I came to it. It was lucky that, as long as I was contained in the building, Wallace didn’t seem to be watching me too closely.

I opened the door to the darkened lab and approached the workbench. I retrieved the box of baking soda from my bag, then opened the compartment on the first device that held the white powder to be aerosolized and was about the begin making the swap from chemical agent to harmless white powder, when light suddenly filled the room. I froze in place, still holding the cannister.

“I have to say,” Wallace’s voice came from behind. “I am very disappointed, Rayna.”

Fuck. I took a deep breath and turned slowly to find Wallace and Tom standing in the doorway, backed up by several uniformed security officers in the hallway behind them. They didn’t seem happy.

“I thought, after all this time, after everything that we had done for you, that you understood. That you were prepared for what had to be done. But I suppose Tom was correct when he said that you couldn’t be trusted. What a waste. You really do have talent. You could have had real power, real influence here.”

“Look, I don’t know what you think this is, but I couldn’t sleep, so I was just inspecting the equipment one last time.”

“And that?” Wallace nodded to the box of baking soda, the only substitute I had been able to get my hands on.

“It was there when I got here, must be something the scientists use,” I shrugged.

“Save it,” Tom interrupted, tone cold. “We know about Britton.”

“Oh? You found him?” I asked.

A good liar never revealed anything, even if they thought the game was already up. That was how you got bluffed. No, you lived the lie like it was the truth, at least until it stopped serving you. Then you came up with a new one.

“No, we didn’t. And I think you know why. It took many visits, but Monica finally cracked. She told me everything,” the look of triumph on his face turned my stomach. I had known our ‘friendship’ such as it was, was long over, but the joy he took in this was more painful than I had expected.

“Monica? You mean the ubarae thrall? And you trusted whatever self-serving lies she fed you? What did she ask for in return for telling you what you wanted to hear?”

There was a gratifying flicker in Tom’s confidence. He apparently hadn’t considered the possibility that Monica might not be considered a trustworthy witness, or that this could look like him falsifying something for the sake of his own ambition.

“That isn’t…” he began to protest, but Wallace raised a hand to silence him.

“Very good, Rayna. I did consider that, of course. But the girl told us things that she couldn’t have known, unless they were true. Where else would she have heard the name ‘Liz’? How else could she have known Jess?” Wallace asked.

“Tom knew all that, of course,” I suggested.

“True. And if I thought he had the guile to come up with the plan the girl outlined, I might have suspected a fabrication. But I think we both know that is unlikely.”

Tom flinched at the insult. Good, I had no sympathy left for him.

“Still, that was early in your time here, so I had hoped it was merely a misguided attempt to help an old friend, rather than a true betrayal,” Wallace continued. “I know how close you and Jessica were, at one time. The way you engineered it was cunning, but that is simply your nature. I was willing to believe that you had seen the light, since then. I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Why do you think we are here, now? I’ve been watching you very carefully, as you prepared this gambit. And I must admit, you played it very well. Almost every action rung true, and the plan remains excellent. So much so, we will be able to go ahead with it on schedule. So, thank you for that. But even you couldn’t conceal everything. I saw how you demanded to be brought here, to see the devices in person. I saw you press to go into the field. I saw you looking for a way out. And now this. I see now that you always planned to betray us as soon as you knew enough to truly damage my operation. Had you bailed sooner, you might even have managed to inconvenience us. As it stands, you pushed your luck too far.”

Well, that was it, then. There was no way he was going to let me walk out of this room. We had reached the point where the pretense was just a waste of breath.

“Well, it was always bound to happen, one of these days,” I shrugged, elaborating no further.

“So, who were you going to tell?” Wallace asked, quiet menace in his tone.

“I hadn’t thought it out that far,” I shrugged. “I was just going to try and go to the authorities. Tell them about a terrorist plot.”

“An obvious lie. I know you would have gone straight to Gail.”

“Then why bother asking?”

“To see if you would tell me the truth. Clearly that is never going to happen. Even when I ask something so obvious. We will have to do this the hard way, then,” Wallace stepped aside, allowing the guards through the door behind him. “Restrain her and move her back to the prison. Have her prepared for interrogation. And be careful, she is dangerous.”

“There is really no need for an interrogation,” I raised my hands as several guns trained on me. “I can’t tell you anything you haven’t already figured out.”

“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” Wallace smiled as the guard shoved me to the ground and bound my hands behind my back.