hero ➳ h.s.

chapter twelve

“She will, most likely, betray us,” was the first thing Louis said after Harry shared Indigo’s news with his four counterparts. Liam nodded, while Zayn interjected- “She could be a useful insider, Lou. Think about it.”

“Think about what?” Louis remarked, snidely raising an eyebrow. “Harry, did you even think while you were off, gallivanting with her and falling in love? Her husband is the Co-Caesar, for heaven’s sake, and you-”

“Hey!” Harry reprimanded loudly. “Number one, I’m not in love with her, and number two, he’s her fiancé, not her husband.”

“He could be her pet giraffe for all I care,” Niall retorted. “And I’d still not be comfortable with having her around.”

Liam spoke up in his soothing voice, softly saying, “Zayn’s right, guys. We need an insider if we’re going to crack 461. Admit it. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”

Harry held his breath as the four men turned, looked at each other, and then turned to Zayn. The dark-haired boy nodded, then held up a hand and said, “But this is only a trial basis, Styles. And if she betrays us, you’re the one whose going to pay.”

Harry nodded, eyelashes bowing before their leader before he whispered softly, “I’ll try, Zayn.”

“I know you will.”

--

“So, this is the washroom,” Harry said, showing Indigo around the law firm. “There’s a button underneath the sink that opens up a secret corridor in the wall if you ever need to get out fast. It leads out underground and opens up near Hal’s Diner.”

Indigo nodded, wishing she had brought something to take notes with, but she hadn’t.

“Through here is where we keep all our law files. Liam and Zayn do most of the actual business, Niall’s the secretary, but he’s more just in it for the food.”

“And what do you and Louis do?”

“Louis poses as the janitor, and my position is undecided. I’m the runt of this litter,” Harry winked, and Indigo giggled. “I do the running around.”

“And the protecting of the ladies.”

Something in Harry’s eyes flashed, but Indigo didn’t have time to decipher it before he was leading the way again. “Down this hallway are our ‘offices’,” Harry gestured to the tempered glass doors with each of their names written on it. Niall’s had a Dora the Explorer sticker pasted on the dot for ‘i’, but Harry explained it was a joke.

“All of them are essentially the same,” Harry explained. “The door is a two-way mirror, and if you come inside,” Harry led the way into his office, “and press this button on the desk-”

There was a slight movement in the room, and suddenly Indigo found herself underground, facing a huge workroom filled with buzzing people, machines, computers, and a huge map of the Empire set up in the middle.

“I thought you said there was only the five of you working at the law firm?” Indigo shouted above the noise, and Harry smiled.

“This isn’t the law firm, darling,” Harry leaned in close to her ear. “It’s the Revolution.”

So this was freedom, Indigo thought. At least a hundred people running around, carrying papers and computers and phones, and each of them with a different task. Harry explained that this was their headquarters in the Central Division. He pointed out 50 or so doors that led to tunnels, each of which led to a different place in the Empire City. He showed her that, on the map, there was around 25 other headquarters all across the Empire- 5 for each division- Western, Eastern, Southern, Northern and Central. “The Central is not really Central on this map, but it’s considered Central because we’re in the Empire City,” he explained.

He showed her the Responsive team- about 15 people with 10 computers, five phones and half an army of pens and pencils, waiting to hear people’s problems all across the Empire. “Civilians phone in,” he motioned towards a phone as one of the Responsers picked up, “explain their problem, and the RT is in charge of delegating how the problem should be dealt with.” Indigo watched as the Responser wrote down the problem, tacked it to a board hanging above her head, typed something in, and off the board went, flying along above people’s heads before it landed on an array of desks labeled ACTIVE.

“The Active team is the next step. There’s way more of them than this- at least 200 or so that have trackers injected into their skin. See that map? And the yellow dots? Those are the Active team personell. There’s only 5 here at the moment, the rest are all out in the City carrying out the proper jobs needed to help the civilians. For example,” Harry snatched a piece of paper from one of the desks. “Martha Rackow is at 662 Birch Avenue right now, being given fake ID so that she and her newborn baby can escape to our underground hideaway near Kernthaven and live there for the time being, until her husband comes back.”

“You have an underground hideaway?”

“Yeah, definitely. Louis and I built it a few years back.” By, ‘few’, Harry meant at least 30, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “If the Active team can’t deal with the problem, they send it on up to us.”

Indigo took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. “Wow.”

“Oh! I almost forgot,” Harry exclaimed. He took Indigo’s hand- was that too straight forward?- and led her back into his office, and into the main room of the OT5 Law Firm. “Here.”

On the wall, in big letters, was written an inscription in some kind of foreign language. “Yedi kez düşmek, sekiz ayağa,” Indigo read aloud. “What does it mean?”

Harry grinned sheepishly and put his hand on the back of his neck. “I have no idea. It’s Turkish.”

Indigo laughed, joining Harry in relieving herself of the harsh truth she had just faced, and sat down. “So what do I have to do, Harry? What’s my role in the Revolution?”

“To help us crack Code 461,” Harry responded honestly. “If you help us do that, we’ll be able to save the Revolution. If we don’t, we’ll all die.”

Indigo drew in a heavy breath. “How can I do that?”

“Just find out what you can. I’m sure whatever you do, it will help.”

--

okaaayyy then.

dedicated to @urtheonlydirection for being fabulous. :)