12
Mercy
Wylder was scowling at me,but by now I’d perfected the art of ignoring his bad moods. “Going off like that was totally reckless,” he said. “I told you to stay put.”
“Oh, get over it already,” I said, and Anthea tried to muffle a snicker. I motioned to the supplies on the floor of the van by our feet. “We wouldn’t have been able to pull off this plan if I hadn’t done some scouting.”
Anthea fanned herself. “Why don’t we go over the last stages of that plan before I melt in here?” We’d turned off the air conditioning while the van was parked so we didn’t run down the battery, and it was already getting sweltering inside.
Kaige rolled his shoulders, his expression momentarily tensing as he looked at the bags of Glory that were among our other equipment. “Right. We go in, leave the drugs, get out, and sic the cops on the Storm’s people. No big deal.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Gideon said, glancing up from his tablet. We’d already gone over a blueprint of the arcade building, figuring out the best room to target and how we’d enter.
Kaige waved him off. “Details, details.”
“We also need to plant the drugs carefully,” Rowan said. “It won’t do us any good if the Storm’s people find the baggies like Mercy did in her apartment and dispose of them before the cops get there. But we don’t want them so well-hidden that even the cops can’t find them.”
Anthea nodded. “I was just getting to that.” She motioned to the smallest of the bags. “You want to leave a trail. Just a very light dusting, nothing you can even see. The cops will bring K9 units, and they don’t need much to sniff it out. Stash the larger bags somewhere really out of the way, where no human is likely to spot it, and lay down the trail to ensure the dogs will find it. Even better, put the larger bags in different places, each with their own trail, so even if one gets found, you still have a chance.”
I clapped my hands. “That’s fucking brilliant.”
Anthea grinned. “That’s what you brought me in on this operation for, isn’t it?”
“All right,” Gideon said, setting his tablet aside. “We’ve covered everything. I should get on with my part before the next shift change.”
He stood up, his expression typically cool and unfazed, but the flick of his tongue over his lip ring made me suspect he was more nervous than he was letting on. He didn’t normally go out to face our enemies so close up.
And he obviously wasn’t the only one concerned. Wylder got up too, frowning. “Are you absolutely sure you need to do this on foot? We could park closer to the building—”
Gideon shook his head. “I’ve taken a careful look at their security system. The device I can use to hack into the alarms only works at a very close range.” He cracked a rare smile. “Let’s just be glad I don’t have to go right inside. Through the wall should work just fine.”
It still put him awfully close to all the Storm’s men on the other side of that wall. A twinge of my own worry ran through my gut. “You’ve got your gun?”
He patted the back of his jeans. “I’ll be fine. It’s about time that I stepped up more and took one for the team like the rest of you do on a regular basis.” Determination hardened his voice.
Wylder folded his arms over his chest. “You’ve done plenty for the team already. You do all kinds of shit we don’t know how to.”
“You’re definitely the brains of this group,” Kaige said with a chuckle.
“Well, I’m going to use those brains in closer proximity than usual, that’s all.” Gideon stepped toward the back doors.
Wylder didn’t stop him, even though he still looked tense. He nodded to his best friend. “Give us the signal when you’re done and get the hell back here as fast as you can. We’ll take care of the rest.”
Gideon hopped out into the back alley where we’d stashed the van. It led all the way to the other end of the block and the back of the arcade building. With luck, we wouldn’t have to set foot on the street where we could be spotted at all.
As Wylder pulled the door shut, Kaige turned to me. “I’m more worried about Mercy. You’re the one who’s going to be leaping off of buildings.”
I rolled my eyes at him, adding an affectionate nudge of my shoulder. “I’ve done it a gazillion times. You’ve watched me do it plenty of times. I’ll be fine.” I’d been using my parkour skills since I was ten, and at this point, I could make the necessary leap with my eyes closed. I checked the knife at my hip and the gun at my back, and refastened the laces of my shoes to make sure they were secure, finally adding a pat of my childhood bracelet for luck.
“You need to actually stay put this time,” Wylder reminded Kaige. “No charging into the fray unless we get into a real fight. Otherwise, you’re just keeping watch.”
Kaige brought his fist to his chest in a salute. “Got it.”
We popped the buds into our ears so we’d be able to hear any warning Kaige gave us, and he put on the inobtrusive mic Gideon had fixed to look like a wristwatch. Just as I was tightening my ponytail, a message flashed across the screen in the center of the array of displays. ALL CLEAR.
Rowan reached for the door. “That’s our cue.”
The four of us other than Anthea spilled out into the evening shadows and set off in different directions, other than Wylder and Rowan heading down the alley toward the back of the arcade together. Kaige ambled over to where he could see down the street from the mouth of one lane, and I scrambled up onto a dumpster that put me in jumping reach of a fire escape. I clambered up the metal rungs onto the rooftop of a building on the opposite side of the alley.