Hostile Takeover ❖ Jake Riley | ✓ [book 1]

18~ The Resolution to Succeed

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."

~ Abraham Lincoln

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"Are we absolutely sure about this?" Lex asked.

Jake began to explain, "Think about it. Max takes Lezebnik's uniform, he walks out, fooling everybody into thinking he's just another officer. He's on his own, he's got no where to go, by now, everybody has his picture. But he still as the transit tubes beneath ground,"

"Cameras are down, no patrols, but if you take one wrong turn, you get lost in the tunnels," Jenna said.

"And Tate's drones aren't going to detect the virus from underground," Jake added.

Lex started to nod as he thought it through, then he went right for the iPad and started tapping away, "Here's the district map. Here's the fun house," he made a large red circle over Plucky's Pennywhistle's, "Here's the plaza, and here's Rooney's," he made two more circles on the map.

"Once he's out of the fun house, he just slips inside a man hole and disappears," Jenna said.

"Which means that Max is somewhere within this triangle," Lex then drew a thick black triangle over the map, tagging each location.

"Do we pour officers down there?" Jenna asked.

"It's still too much ground to cover. We need to narrow this down," Jake replied.

"Well, where's the nearest man hole to the fun house?" she asked.

"Here," Lex made a dot only centimeters away from the fun house, "That's another block away,"

"He's going to release the virus," Jake said, "He needs a place where he can work freely, he needs somewhere with a lot of ventilation, power supply, and an easy introduction route,"

Lex suddenly had a pained look on his face, "Wait a minute," he zoomed in on another area of the map, bordering just along the triangle. Jake and Jenna saw it too.

"Isn't that..."

"The shelter," Jake said.

"That damned son of a bitch," Lex cursed.

"It would make sense though. The tunnels run right alongside the basement wing, and there's an old operator's room on the other side," Jake said.

"There is?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah. The bordered it up after they opened the MARTA lines in 79. Too many conduct offices, not enough operators. This way, they could put more eggs in one basket," Lex replied.

"And aid in a man's conquest for revenge against the government," Jake said.

"We've got to evacuate the shelter then, he could already be exposing everybody in that building!" Jenna exclaimed.

"We can't just yet, Max is going to know we're onto him, and he'll probably bolt," Jake said.

"Where's he going to go in a blocked-off tunnel?" she asked.

"If he's prepared, then he could probably hide out for weeks and we'll be chasing our tails," Lex replied.

"So then what do we do?" she asked.

"We need to get back to the base and assemble another strike team," he said.

"We need to get you out too," Jake told Jenna.