Rage and Ruin | 2

5 | 0

K A N E

As soon as he was let into the compound, Hunt handed Jaxon back the papers he'd taken a few days ago.

The blond boy eyed the director curiously and asked, "Well? What did you find?"

"A few things worth mentioning. First, my engineers were able to translate the blueprints and they found out what the Scorpions actually do. They're essentially cannons that shoot rays of plasma at their targets. Also, from what they can tell, they're meant for multiple targets, meaning that they take out more than one enemy at once."

"Rays of plasma," Finn repeated, turning the idea around in his mind. "What exactly does it do to a person that's hit?"

"That is a bit more sinister. Once someone gets hit by the ray, they're burned alive almost instantly. The very flesh gets melted off their bones."

"It's probably for the best that we didn't touch the machine when we were first in the factory then," Arlo remarked cheerfully. "Or we would have found that out firsthand."

After delivering Arlo a flat look, Finn said, "Got it. We'll stay out of the line of fire."

"Good. Second, we were able to find out where all the weapons factories are. Apparently, Jaxon, you also took a list of all the weapons delivery times and where they'd be coming from." Arlo slapped Jaxon on the back in congratulations. "There are three other factories over in Europe: one just outside Prague, one in Ukraine and another in Romania."

"We should split into groups to destroy each facility. That way, we save more time," Riley suggested. Her eyes found mine. "Kane and I will destroy the one in Prague."

Her voice dropped in volume as she leaned slightly over and spoke only to me. "They say that Prague is a very romantic city."

My voice was steady as I replied, "We'll have to see when we get there."

Almost everyone in the group that had heard me wore a surprised expression. Jaxon wore that easygoing smile as he gave me a slow nod. I knew they were all surprised that I'd played along with Riley's flirtatious banter.

"I'd say that Finn and I will go to Ukraine, but I'm afraid that we might not survive," Arlo said matter-of-factly.

"Speak for yourself," Finn mumbled under his breath.

"Don't worry, man. You two won't die on my watch," said Jaxon, resting a casual elbow on Arlo's shoulder.

That left Jake and Delphinium. Everyone turned to them. "We'll go to Romania," Delphinium stated, a hard look in her eyes, "And reduce that facility to rubble. We did it once, we can do it again." Jake said nothing, just stood there with that vaguely uncomfortable cold presence.

"Whenever you get back, come straight to the ONNT headquarters and brief me on what you saw there." Hunt paused. "I also recently set out a few groups of soldiers to scout out the area around Imperium's fortress in Romania. They're going to take out as many of the incoming vehicles and supplies as they can," Hunt told us. I'd been wondering what the ONNT was doing to help in the mounting war with Imperium and now I had my answer. But I wasn't sure how long a few groups of soldiers would hold out against Imperium's monstrous forces.

"Well, that's that," Jaxon said, half-shrugging. "I was designing some bombs to take with us for when we destroyed the other fortresses, but I guess that time has come."

As he went upstairs to gather the weapons he'd created, my gaze dropped down to Riley. She gave me a wicked grin and I partially wondered if I was going to regret this.