Static/Cling (Subparheroes)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

THE PLAN

Bjorn spent the rest of the day reading. If they were going to go find and retrieve this list of names, he had to know every protocol he could jam into his skull before they set foot on the road.

“We’ll drive,” Sal said, tapping at their keyboard. “I’ll rent a van for passenger and cargo room.”

“You can’t just rent under SPAM,” Kassian said.

“I’m not. I’m using April’s name.”

“What is her last name?” Roger asked, but Sal appeared too focused on what they were doing to have heard the question, and it went unanswered.

“It’s a ninety-minute or so drive,” Kassian said after a bit. “So if we leave around six thirty tomorrow morning, we should have time for breakfast before we have to start breaking heads.”

“Who said anything about breaking heads?” Sal asked. “You’re going to go in and ask for the file, then walk out with it, and drive away. Easy-peasy.”

“How’s that?” Kassian frowned at them.

“I have an ID for you that’ll get you in and out before they even figure out it’s fake. There’s a new admiral or general or something reporting there soon. He’s not well known, so I used his name, but your picture. You just get in and out before he reports for duty in two days, and by the time they realize what’s happened, they’ll have no way to trace us back here.”

“What if someone realizes he’s not this guy?” Bjorn asked.

“Oh. You care?” Kassian’s tone might have been cutting if Bjorn hadn’t seen that split second behind the razor curtain earlier.

“I care,” he said, managing to keep his tone mild. “If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s always have a backup plan. You never know when something you expect to work doesn’t and you have to improvise. So we make ten plans, and maybe one or two of them cobbled together work.”

“Kind of pessimistic, isn’t it?” Roger asked.

“It’s practical. You have no idea how many innocuous things have hidden electronics in them. No. Idea.”

“Really?”

Bjorn grunted and dropped his feet from where he’d propped them on their desk so he could reach a Magic 8 Ball sitting in the middle of the surface. Leif always carried it around with him, and he’d placed it in the centre of their shared workspace.

Bjorn tossed it to Roger, who caught it deftly in one hand.

“Outlook Not So Good.” Roger looked at him. “That’s kind of ominous.”

“Been stuck on that since the first time I touched it.”

“Magic 8 Balls are not electronic,” Kassian stated.

“That one is. Or was. Or at least something in my static electric mojo fucked it up.”

“Well, that’s stupid. Nothing wrong with the original. Why mess with it?”

“We carry it as a reminder that anything he touches might unexpectedly fail for reasons,” Leif said. “And we always have a backup plan. Just in case.”

“So we keep it simple,” Kassian insisted. “Use the ID, I go in, find the computer with the file and make sure it gets out of the building with me.”

“And if it’s backed up somewhere?” Leif asked.

“All I need is a network cable and I can send a program into their servers that will wipe them out.”

“Then why can’t you do that from here?” Bjorn asked.

“I’ve tried. It’s slippery. Plus, if this was me, I would have an air gapped computer with this file specifically, to protect it from exactly that kind of attack.”

“Air gapped?” Bjorn asked.

“Not plugged in,” Leif clarified.

“Not even to power?”

“Not if this guy has half a brain, no,” Sal said. “He’d use a battery to charge it from, or a solar array. Something not connected to the grid. We’re on the net and all, but Kassian always has a machine that isn’t attached to the rest or allowed online at all, that carries our important stuff. He backs it up every day.”

“If I can get on one of their machines,” Kassian said, “or even plug into the network on mine from inside the building, I can kill their servers, and take the air gapped machine out with me.”

“No one is going to believe you are an IT guy,” Bjorn reminded him. “Look at you.”

“I can be a military guy.”

“They’ll believe that,” Roger put in.

And yeah, they probably would, given the size and shape of him. “Still. What if you can’t get plugged in?”

“He’s right,” Leif agreed. “If you do manage to grab the right machine, and you’re high tailing it out, or worse, on the run, you won’t have time to stop and program.”

“I only need to install a file. It won’t take more than five minutes.”

“And what is our back-up plan to that?” Bjorn asked.

“We don’t need one.”

“We always need one,” Bjorn and Leif said at the same time.

“Fine,” Kassian snapped. “You be the backup plan. You’re so proud of your power, if I can’t do it, you zap a power line or something, and kill their whole network.”

“On the list,” Sal muttered as they wrote it down. “As for getting onto the grounds, you won’t have a security pass for that. You’ll need to sneak in and get as far as the building where the ID gets you to the more sensitive areas.”

Bjorn grinned. “What kind of security pass? Please tell me it’s a swipe card.”

“It is. I can try to trip it remotely, but that may set off alarms, which is a problem, obviously. Why?”

Bjorn leaned across the desk, one finger held up.

Leif met him halfway and they touched, fingertip to fingertip. Sparks flashed and formed an arc between them just before they touched.

“If you melt down any circuit in a security system, you’ll lock the place down. It’s a common fail-safe with electronic locks.”

“I don’t have to melt anything down. I just have to make it blink.”

“Sounds like that would require a fair amount of control.”

“Well—” Bjorn swung around to glare at Kassian. “—you can piss me off right before we get there.”

Leif kicked him.

“What? Worked before.”

“It goes on the list,” Sal said. “Anyone else got an idea?”

Roger offered, “I can get a dog to run onto the grounds while the gate’s open for someone else, and Kassian can pretend to be the owner. They’ll have to let him go get his dog.”

“Wouldn’t they escort him in and, more importantly, out again?”

“I’ll be the owner,” Leif said. “Kassian can slip in while we have them distracted.”

“Risky,” Sal said, but put it on the list.

“You shouldn’t go in without me,” Bjorn said.

“I’m not really going in. I’ll be the one they have their eyes glued to, so no danger to me.”

“I’m not a fan of a plan that relies on a dumb animal to pull it off,” Kassian said.

Roger literally growled, threw his ball at Kassian’s head, and spun in his chair to face his blank computer screen, arms crossed.

“No, Rog.” Kassian caught the ball. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Whatever.”

Sal handed Roger another ball, and he started furiously bouncing it off the window, which created enough booming vibrations through the room to drown out Kassian’s protests.

“Roger,” Sal said, kindly, but firmly.

Roger moved his bouncing from the window to the wall next to it.

“I won’t be party to any plan that might get a dog hurt,” Kassian amended.

“As if I would allow any plan that was dangerous to a dog,” Roger said, like it should have been obvious.

“It’s on the list,” Sal reminded them. “Next?” They looked over at Kassian. “What about Rufus?”

“No.”

“He could help.”

“I won’t ask him to.”

“Who’s Rufus?” Bjorn asked.

“His brother,” Roger stage-whispered, as if the whole room couldn’t hear him.

“He’s military,” Kassian said. “And ex-hero.”

“Ex-hero?”

“He and Randolph, his twin, used to have powers that let them move things with their minds.” Kassian turned his back, apparently done with the explanation.

“Telekinesis?” Leif asked.

“I suppose,” Roger said, taking up the story. “They did it together, and the mass they could move was huge. The military figured there was no limit to how much they could move, or how far they could move it.”

“Or how fast,” Sal added.

“Oh.” There was the military, then.

“There were limits,” Kassian said darkly.

And there was the story.

“Are they like Firefox?” Leif asked.

Kassian grunted, a sound that seemed to be affirmative.

“Why is Rufus still military if they did that to them?”

“Because he’s not going to stop trying to get them to fix it. He’ll hound them until they figure out why it happened, or until Randolph stops obsessing over being broken,” Sal said. “And he figured he can do that better from the inside.” They looked at Kassian’s hunched shoulders. “He might be able to help us. He’d be willing.”

Kassian turned. “And if he gets caught, it’ll end everything. Right now, his hope that he can get them to fix this is the only thing keeping him from going off the deep end too.”

Sal looked sad but firm. “I’m putting him on the list.”

“No.”

“If you get caught, he might be the only way to get you out.”

“Don’t get me out.”

“Not an option,” Leif said at the same time Bjorn said, “No fucking way.”

Which was a surprise, because why did he care?

Because he wasn’t an asshole, that’s why.

“Fine. Put him on the list, but I swear to god, if he gets hurt, I will?—”

“Don’t say something you’ll want to take back later,” Leif advised with a smile softer than Bjorn had seen him use in a long time.

Kassian just grunted and returned his attention to his computer.

Sal, unsurprisingly, didn’t plan to go with them. They would stay behind to monitor everything and talk at them through the tiny earpieces they all wore.

Bjorn didn’t figure the device would even work for him, but Kassian insisted he’d adequately insulated it against his power. Sal got Leif to put the device in for Bjorn, and much to his surprise, it didn’t short out the instant it came in contact with his skin.

“Maybe you’re getting better at controlling it?” Leif asked.

Bjorn couldn’t help a grin, because his control had been spectacular last night.

“For fuck sakes,” Kassian muttered.

“Well, yeah. Pretty much,” Bjorn replied, winking at him. He wiggled his fingers at Kassian, letting a few sparks zip from the tips. They shot out, but didn’t quite reach the surface of Kassian’s skin.

Interestingly, Kassian didn’t move away. He watched the sparks glitter as they arched downward and disappeared. When he glanced up at Bjorn, lips parted, his eyes were dark and intense.

Very interesting.

Leif drew Bjorn’s hand down. “Don’t push it,” he warned.

“I’m not pushing him anyplace he doesn’t want to go.”

“We only have one of those earpieces for you.” Kassian pointed a thick finger at him. “And I don’t have the time or energy to make another. So don’t fuck around.”

Again, Bjorn winked, because yeah, okay. Maybe it wasn’t just the electricity he couldn’t always control. “You sure about that, big guy?”

“Fuck off.” He stalked away, shoulders stiff, to stuff more electronic gear into an insulated box.

“Dude.” Leif punched him. “Leave him alone.”

“He makes it so easy.”

“Maybe just…” He made a calming motion with both hands. “Give him a minute.”

“For what?”

Leif smiled and patted his arm. “Let him come to us. Always works better that way.”

“I don’t know about him, though. He’s stubborn.”

Leif nodded.

“But you’re okay with it?” Bjorn liked to double- and triple-check.

Leif’s cheeks pinked and he almost managed to suppress one of those really dirty grins. “Yeah. I’m okay with him.”

“If he ever gets his head out of his ass, that is.”

“All the more reason to wait for him to get on board. If he’s going to, it has to be his idea, yeah?”

“Fine.”

In his ear, Sal snorted. “Guess yours works, then.”

“Oh shit.”

Leif squinted at him, and he pointed to his ear. “Sal.”

That got a snicker from Leif as he, too, wandered off.

“He did stay up all night making that thing for you,” Sal said. “So maybe don’t break it and piss him off before you even get on the road?”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

Another snort. “Just comes naturally?”

“Apparently. To him, too, though.” And didn’t that make him sound like a defensive little shit.

“Well, he doesn’t warm up to people easily, so if that’s what you want, Leif’s right. Give him some time.”

“I don’t want him.” He sighed. Because yeah, that was a total lie, and Sal’s snort, along with Leif’s dirty chuckle, said they knew it.

“He could use more people in his life other than Rog and I and his older, angry brothers. Even if you’re just friends.”

Bjorn rubbed fingertips hard against his chest. “I am not a very good friend.”

“Bet Leif would argue.”

Bjorn couldn’t help a smile at the warmth that idea filled him with. “Maybe.”

“Okay. I’m turning you off now so I can test the others. Fingers crossed it comes back on when you need it.”

“Always.”

There was an almost imperceptible click in his ear and when he glanced over at Sal, they winked at him, then spoke, and across the room, Leif laughed and gave them a thumbs up.

They left soon after that, loading the van in one trip. It wasn’t a mission that required a lot of gear, which, Bjorn thought computers and backup computers, and maybe even backups for the backups, should have figured more heavily in the make-up of their load out, but what did he know about digital search and retrieval?

He wasn’t there to do the heavy lifting. He was there in case it all went sideways.

“Here.” Leif handed him the shirt he’d lined. “Put this on.”

“Why?”

“Insurance. I don’t want you building up a huge charge and shorting out that earpiece, or the van or something.”

It made sense. He donned the shirt and tried not to shiver at the way the static crawled along his skin as if trying to get away from it. After a few minutes, he could tell the charge he naturally built up over time had dissipated slightly. It was odd, and he couldn’t decide if he liked it or not.

Roger drove, which was a surprise. Bjorn would have thought him too flighty and distractible, but he proved remarkably competent behind the wheel. Although he did concede it was probably better not to have anyone sitting beside him, just in case.

Leif continued to work on the liner for Bjorn’s clothes, having moved on from the shirt—which Bjorn had on—to a pair of loose jeans he’d retrieved from Bjorn’s dresser. The project had taken over the entire middle seat.

Bjorn sat in the very back seat with Kassian, one shoulder pressed against the window with Kassian’s head on his other one.

Kassian snored. Loudly.

Half an hour after Roger pulled out of the Tim’s drive-through, Sal hmmmmed quietly in Bjorn’s ear.

He frowned. “Sal?”

“Hi. Listen?—”

“Kassian’s sleeping,” Leif whispered. “Please let him.”

“And Roger’s driving,” Bjorn added. “Maybe don’t distract him.”

“I’ve turned them both off. I just want to talk to you two.”

“What about?”

“I need you to watch over my boys.”

“Sal,” Bjorn said.

Leif chuckled. “Did you forget we’re the noobs here?”

“This is personal for Kassian. And Roger’s… well, he’s Roger. Keep him on task. He’s fine if he has a job, so just make sure he has a job at all times. And Kassian, keep him out of his head. Don’t let him start thinking about his brothers or get all vigilante on us. Get in, get the file, get out. That’s all we’re doing here. Not starting a war with the military.”

“We’re a team, Sal,” Leif reminded them. “We’ll all look out for each other.”

“I worry Kassian might forget to do that.”

“He’s a pro,” Bjorn reminded them.

“He’s a very hurt and angry little brother who’s just as likely to punch Rufus in the face as listen to him.”

“Assuming we even need to contact Rufus,” Leif said. “We’re going to try to not have to do that, remember?”

Sal pulled in a heavy breath. “I know.”

“So maybe don’t borrow trouble,” Bjorn suggested.

“I worry about them. I can keep an eye on them when they’re here, but…”

“We’ll keep them safe,” Leif promised.

Bjorn grunted, because he was making no such promises. He didn’t think it was wise to promise something he wasn’t positive he could deliver.

Leif twisted around in his seat to glare at him.

“What?” he mouthed.

Leif made his eyes big.

“We’ll do our best,” Bjorn said aloud.

Leif still scowled.

“Thanks, guys. I’m going to take a nap. I’ve set an alarm for forty-five minutes. Don’t. Do. Anything. Not until I’m back.”

“Of course,” Leif assured them.

There was a soft buzz, then nothing, but Bjorn hadn’t heard anything much when Sal had been on the line, either.

“They’re gone,” Leif assured him.

He didn’t question it. However Leif knew they were gone, if he knew, he knew. Bjorn had learned not to question what he knew or how he knew it. What he did question was Leif’s uncharacteristic assurance to Sal that they would make sure nothing happened to “their boys.” “Why did you promise that?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I have no idea what’s going to happen. Why would I promise them something if I didn’t know I could deliver? Why did you?”

“Because that’s what they needed to hear.”

“Who needed to hear what?” Roger asked.

“Nothing,” they said together.

“Sal asked you to look after us,” Roger said. It wasn’t a question, and Leif sighed.

“Maybe you just follow the plan and stay out of trouble,” Bjorn said.

“Always do. I’m good at doing what I’m told.”

“Please let that be true,” Bjorn muttered.

Kassian’s internal clock woke him as they arrived in North Bay. Sheepish, he pushed himself upright from his lean into Bjorn.

“Sorry.”

Bjorn shrugged.

“Thought I would park downtown,” Roger said, peering in the rearview at Kassian.

“At the mall, I think. Less likely anyone will notice.” Kassian yawned and laid his head back against the headrest, eyes closed.

“Okay.” Roger shrugged, flicked on his signal, and changed lanes.

“Then what?” Bjorn asked. “Public transit?”

“We walk. It isn’t that far, and we’ll get a good lay of the land on foot.”

“With no quick exit, if we need it,” Leif pointed out.

A brief crackle in Bjorn’s ear signalled Sal’s return. “Rog. You there?” they asked.

“Yeah,” Roger said, then lowered his voice. “You make that call?”

“What call?” Leif turned to look at him.

“They’re in,” Sal said.

“Who’s in?”

Roger nodded. “Good deal.” He looked at Leif. “Doesn’t matter who. All you need to know is they’ll be ready if we need extraction.”

“But you’re not going to tell us who it is? What if you’re unable?—”

“Don’t worry,” Sal soothed. “They’ll be there.”

“So what? We trust someone who’s never met us is going to pop up just when we need them?”

“I’ve met them,” Roger said.

“Goodie for you. What if you’re dead?”

Sal gasped.

Roger’s knuckles got white on the steering wheel.

“What if who’s dead?” Kassian asked, lifting his head and blinking, then tapping his ear. “Is this thing working?” He glared at Bjorn. “Did you wreck mine?” Then he winced, and Bjorn felt the crackle against his eardrum as Sal patched Kassian into the electronic loop.

“It’s fine,” Roger answered, smiling onto the mirror at Kassian. “No one is going to be dead.”

“I’ll be here, no matter what,” Sal reminded him. “We won’t leave you. I promise.”

“I don’t like it,” Leif told them. “Just want to go on record.”

“Duly noted,” Sal said softly.

“Can we get on with this now?” Kassian asked. “Before I die from this conversation.”

“I just want to be sure if Bjorn or me are the last man standing, we can still get out with your precious list.”

“Well, you two”—Kassian pointed first at Leif, then at Bjorn—“aren’t even going in, so you’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Bjorn tried to soothe them both.

“Fine.” Leif curled a lip.

“Fine,” Kassian snarked back.

“We all fine, boys?” Sal asked in their ears.

No one said anything.

“Kiss and make up. We can’t be arguing on the way in.”

Kassian made kissy motions in Leif’s general direction.

Leif tossed him a finger.

“Nice,” Sal muttered, as if they could see the interaction.

“You have no idea,” Bjorn muttered to them.

“Here we are!” Roger’s over-bright interruption at least jolted everyone back on task.

Once he’d parked and Bjorn had ditched his shorts to put on the jeans Leif had modified, they loaded up with the equipment Kassian deemed necessary, and started off, following Sal’s directions generally southward.

The walk from the mall parking lot took them past Burger World, which excited Roger to no end. Kassian only grudgingly let them stop for food when Roger turned puppy-dog eyes on him.

“You did say we would have breakfast,” Roger reminded him. “And this place is great. I haven’t eaten here in a million years.”

“Fine. Knock yourself out.”

“Kassian,” Sal said, voice low and soft.

“Sal.”

“Come on.” Bjorn opened the door and motioned Roger inside.

Leif followed him.

Kassian glared.

“You too,” Bjorn said.

“Not hungry.”

“Then just get coffee or something and stop giving Roger a hard time. He did good getting us here, and he’s hungry.”

“He deserves a treat?” Kassian sneered.

“He does, actually.”

“He talks to dogs,” Kassian said. “He’s not one of them.”

“But he does need a minute to loosen up and relax before we ask him to focus on something else.”

Kassian curled a lip. “Since when are you the reasonable one?”

“Since never. That’s Leif, but he’s working on keeping Roger calm and grounded. So congratulations. You get me.”

Kassian grunted. “Lucky me.”

Bjorn grinned. “You wish.”

To his surprise, Kassian’s eyes got very big, he blushed, then he bulled past him and inside.

“Maybe you do wish,” Bjorn muttered to himself, and really, that idea should have been way less appealing than it was. “Oh, fuck my life.”

In his ear, Sal snickered. “Do not,” he warned in a low voice.

His earpiece hummed briefly, and then they said, “Just between you and me, getting laid would not do that man any harm. Might relieve some tension.”

“You looking for a volunteer or something?”

“You volunteering?”

“Everyone needs a good source of stress relief. Even a grumpy IT guy.”

Sal snorted. His earpiece snapped and zapped and then he heard Roger going back and forth over menu items, so he knew he’d been patched back into the group. Even still, he could hear Sal sniggering.

He was tempted to remove the device, but so far, while it hadn’t shorted out, the sounds when Sal messed with the group settings were getting more intrusive, so he didn’t dare touch it. He wanted that to last as long as possible, since eventually, it was going to go on him, and at that point, he’d be on his own.

As it happened, far from not being hungry, Kassian ended up ordering the full steak and egg breakfast. Bjorn stuck to his tried-and-true eggs and back bacon, while Leif, always predictable, got pancakes. Roger dithered until Sal told him to order a grilled cheese and milk.

“Right,” he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Thanks, Sal.”

“Of course, sweetie.”

Bjorn’s earpiece crackled, and then Sal said, “You guys, make sure he eats it all. Kassian, you know how he gets when he’s nervous.”

“I know.”

“’Kay. Thanks.”

“We’ll take care of him, Sal. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll stop worrying when you’re all back here safe.”

“So you do care,” Leif teased.

“Shut it, you. Enjoy your breakfast, guys. I’m going to make coffee. Back in fifteen.”

The Burger World staff was efficient, and the food was hot and good. Roger picked at his sandwich until Kassian gave him a stern look, and then he ate it all and pushed his plate away, kneading at his stomach with restless fingers.

Leif pulled a tennis ball from a hoodie pocket and handed it to him. “But don’t bounce it here, okay? Just hang onto it.”

Roger nodded. “Thanks.”

He moved his nervous fidgeting from his stomach to the ball.

As soon as Leif had eaten, he stood. “C’mon, Rog. Let’s go see what we can do about a dog, yeah?”

“That’s a backup plan,” Kassian said.

“It is, but we have to have the dog to be able to implement it if we have to.” He turned to Roger. “How does this work? Do we need to borrow one from a pound or something? Should we have done that before we parked?”

Roger shook his head. “Nope. I just walk. One will come to me.”

“How?”

He shrugged. “They just do.”

“I’ll come with.” Bjorn pushed his plate away and got up.

“You’re the one who told me I have to eat,” Kassian said, “and I’m not done. You going to all leave me here?”

Leif tipped his head at the table and Bjorn sighed and sat back down. “Fine. I’ll wait.”

“Maybe finish your food,” Leif said, kneading the back of his neck briefly, sending a nice shiver through him. “You barely ate any supper last night. We don’t need you getting hangry halfway through this mission.”

“I do not get hangry.”

Leif snickered and pushed Roger towards the door. “Eat,” he called over his shoulder.

“So, he’s bossy,” Kassian said after a few bites.

Bjorn grunted.

“He seems to think he knows what everyone needs.”

“He’s usually right.”

“That his power, then?”

“What?” Bjorn stopped, fork part-way to his mouth. “What power? He doesn’t have any power.”

“He wouldn’t have answered a SPAM advert if he didn’t.”

“I answered the advert. He just came along with me. He always comes along.”

“As your keeper, yes. So you both said. But?—”

“He doesn’t have a power any more than you do.”

Kassian lifted one eyebrow.

“You do?”

A grim expression passed over Kassian’s face. He focused his attention on the condiments in the middle of the table, placed his hand on the surface, and waited. After a moment, the salt shaker jiggled. He frowned.

Without warning, a fork that had been sitting on the next table over flew through the air, straight at Bjorn’s head.

“Shit!” Only Kassian’s lightning-fast reflexes saved Bjorn being skewered as he caught it, mid-flight. He pursed his lips and sighed, setting the fork gently down beside his plate.

“You have telekinesis too?” Bjorn eyed the fork, which rattled against the tabletop. “So is that a family thing, or what?”

Kassian covered it with one hand. “Sort of.”

“Explain ‘sort of,’ please.”

“I can try and move something, but usually, something else moves and I’m never quite sure what it’s going to be. Like one time I tried to throw a book at Randolph’s head, and instead, I launched a pillow and exploded it in a shower of feathers.”

“Maybe because you didn’t really want to hurt your brother.”

Kassian grinned. “And what? I really wanted to impale you just then?”

Bjorn shrugged. “Maybe the fork was a metaphor.”

“For?”

“Impaling.” Bjorn winked at him. “Remember Leif and I are just friends. Either one of us is free to do what we want.”

“Or who. I am abundantly aware, yes.”

Bjorn grinned, though it was lost on Kassian, who still refused to look at him. “Or whom,” he agreed. “Sometimes it’s the same whom, and we do it together.”

A sigh emanated from Bjorn’s earpiece. “I’m back, guys,” Sal said. “Maybe hold off the flirting for a bit?”

“Not flirting.” But Kassian’s blush deepened as he said it.

Bjorn chortled. “We’re putting a pin in that,” he told Kassian. “Sorry, Sal.”

“Not a problem.” They sounded downright cheery, in fact. “If you’re not careful, you two might actually become friends.”

Kassian’s blush deepened.

“I make no promises.” Bjorn said. He wasn’t going to promise something he wasn’t sure he could deliver, and friends wasn’t exactly his anticipated destination.

After they’d paid, they followed the street to the end, then walked along the tracks for a few hundred yards. Roger and Leif joined them as they returned to the sidewalk, a hyper husky in tow.

“Where did you find this beast?” Kassian asked, eyeing the dog.

“He found me.” Roger bounced his ball as he walked. The dog watched it eagerly, but made no move to try and catch it.

“Does he have a name?”

“Faster than—” Roger shot a startled look at the dog. “That is not your name.”

The dog grinned at him.

“I’ll call you Dash,” he said.

The dog offered a sharp little bark and danced down the walk ahead of them.

“Faster than what?” Sal asked, amused. “What does he think he’s faster than?”

“Oh, it’s gross,” Roger assured them. “He’s a dog.”

“Meaning?” Bjorn asked, curious.

“Dogs interpret the world through scent,” Roger said. “Food, pheromones, piss, shit. Perfectly normal to them.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Not exactly the same as us, though.”

“Think of the worst adolescent toilet humour you know,” Sal said. “Triple it, and that’s dog, only to them, it’s just conversation, no shock value.”

“So how exactly do you talk to them?”

Roger shrugged. “I talk. Same as to you. They aren’t stupid.”

Sal made a noise.

“They aren’t.”

“I’ve met some of the dogs you think are the total shit, Rog. They aren’t geniuses. Even for dogs.”

“You just don’t get the hidden genius of them. A dog who speaks human is great, sure. Like a German Shepherd or something. Awesome. A dog who can speak human and dog without being an ass about it is something else.”

“What do you mean, being an ass about it?” Leif asked.

Roger shrugged. “Dogs people think are really smart tend not to be besties with other dogs.” He glanced at Kassian’s back. “Like how super jocks are, you know, not always super in other areas.”

“They’re bullies,” Leif guessed.

“Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes just not so great at admitting a weakness. Sort of full of themselves, and not interested in communicating with me, so much. Like they’re better than speaking to me in their own language, because I’m not as fluent, but without acknowledging that maybe they aren’t as fluent in human as I am.”

Leif nodded.

“Secret Life of Pets, The Sequel,” Bjorn said.

Roger smiled at the ground in front of him, pleased. “Yeah,” he said softly.

Bjorn had the sudden urge to wrap an arm around him and yank him to his side, protective, but also proud, because this guy, humble and sweet and just wanting to please, could do shit Bjorn would never understand, and that was cool.

Leif knocked their shoulders together and smiled.

“Here,” Kassian said, stopping and motioning to a mostly empty parking lot. “Which path, Sal?”

“Pink.”

They studied a huge map painted on a board under a peaked roof. A network of lines criss-crossed over the map of woods, each loop a different colour to represent a different path.

“That’s the farthest one from here,” Roger observed.

“You want the east side of the loop. It passes along the west wall of the compound.”

“This is a nature preserve,” Leif pointed out. “There is a military compound inside a nature preserve?”

“Beside it,” Sal said. “Used to be a quarry or a mine, or something. Convenient because no one ever went there, especially after it closed down, so a perfect place to build a secret military compound.”

“You said this butts up to the west wall,” Kassian said. “I thought we were planning to walk in the front gate.”

“Only people who don’t belong there use the front gate,” Sal said. “There’s a staff entrance on the west side, where anyone who is supposed to be there goes in. If you use the main gate, they’ll know you’re not who you say you are.”

“Seems risky.”

“It is a bit, but not as bad as announcing you don’t know where you’re supposed to be, and therefore, not who you say you are.”

“Right.”

“Besides, if we do have to go the dog route, it’ll be a lot more believable that some yahoo was walking their dog off leash in the bush, don’t you think? Along a nature trail?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Okay. So. Off you go a-hiking.”

Kassian turned to Bjorn and Leif. “You guys up for a half-hour walk?”

Leif squinted and Bjorn sighed. “How do you think we get around?” Bjorn asked, raising a hand and wiggling his fingers, though this time, there were no sparks.

“Right. Sorry. Fine. Let’s go.”

He snickered, but glanced to Leif with a frown as soon as Kassian’s back was turned. He was unused to not having at least a little bit of static skimming over his skin. The liner in his clothes must be doing its job.

He wasn’t sure he was a fan.

The walk wasn’t exactly half an hour. They did it in less time, because the dog set the pace. It was pretty, all the trees having been preserved for decades, so they were tall and lush, the shade under them cool, green, and, aside from birds, quiet.

As they neared the east end of the loop, occasional car wheels crunched over gravel a few hundred yards through the bush.

“That must be the drive up to the west gate,” Kassian reasoned.

Roger stopped and cocked his head, staring at the dog for a moment, then asking, “Are you sure?”

The dog made distinctly husky sounds at him.

Roger looked up. “He says this is the place.”

“What place?”

“Best place to sneak up where we can see the gate. We can get close here, but the underbrush is thick enough we won’t be seen.”

“You see?” Leif smacked Kassian with the back of his hand. “Dogs are useful.”

Kassian grunted and adjusted the straps of his equipment. “Let’s see what we’re up against, then.”

Carefully, they followed the dog, who led them down a deer track winding through a ribbon of trees towards where they had heard the cars passing. Sure enough, when they got to the edge of the trees, a wall of metal sheeting topped by razor wire came into view between the leaves and branches. From their vantage, it looked like it surrounded the compound.

A gate of steel bars offered the only opening through the four-meter tall wall. That gate loomed behind a stone-block, waist-high wall with a set of iron gates across the top of the drive, right by the road.

A guard hut sat outside the stone wall’s gate, and a solid wall of steel, knee-high, crossed the drive just inside the inner gate. Between the two fences was a wide swath of neatly cut grass with no cover in either direction for ten metres.

Even as they watched, a pick-up truck approached the first gate. A guard came out, talked to the driver, finally nodded, and waved at the hut.

“Two guards, then,” Kassian whispered.

One outside to talk to the driver, one inside, to operate the gates.

First, the gate in the stone wall swung inward, then the taller gate in the metal wall rolled open, rattling across the gravel. Finally, the steel wall retreated into the ground, allowing the truck to roll over it.

As soon as the truck was past each barrier, it began to close, so that by the time the truck’s back tires had passed over the lowered wall, the first gate was already closed.

“Shit,” Bjorn said. “They are really serious about their security. Are we sure about this?”

Kassian pursed his lips.

“I thought Sal said it was a swipe card entrance. You can’t just walk up to that gate and stroll inside.”

“There.” Roger pointed a little way down the outer wall to where a person-sized door offered access off a path branching away from the main road. As they watched through the bars of the main gate, someone on a bicycle approached from the interior of the compound.

Waving to the guards, they swiped a card over a pad near the smaller door in the fence, wheeled their bike through, then did the same at the stone wall.

“Guess that’s us,” Kassian said.

“Well within sight of the guard hut,” Leif agreed.

“Well, good thing we have Dash.” Roger scratched behind the dog’s ears.

“How’s that?” Kassian asked.

“You guys move down there.” Roger pointed in the general direction of the smaller door. “Get ready, and when I toss the ball, and Dash goes after it, slip in while the guards are distracted.”

“That is an extremely risky plan.”

“But it’s the one we got.”

He wasn’t wrong. Even had they brought the entire situation to someone like April’s attention, their organization just didn’t have the pull necessary to get them access to a super secret military base at anything like a legit angle.

One way or another, they were always going to have sneak in, and if it had been left to people higher up than them, Kassian’s brother would surely have been pulled into the mission. Kassian would never have agreed to that.

“Let’s go,” Sal said. “The sooner you get in there, the sooner you can get out and come home.”

Kassian heaved a sigh. “Fine.” He pointed at Bjorn. “You. Come with me. You’ll get the gates open, but you stay out of sight between the walls. I want you close in case I need you to get out, but I do not want you in there. Or anywhere they might get their hands on you.” He turned to Leif. “Stay with Roger.”

“No.” Leif moved subtly to be closer to Bjorn.

“I’ll be fine out here,” Roger assured Kassian. “Bjorn will need Leif more than I will.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“I’m not.” He tapped his ear and if everyone’s wince was an indication, his wasn’t the only earpiece that buzzed and crackled. “Sorry! But Sal’s right here in my head. I’ll be fine. I’ll sit tight until you get back. Promise.”

Leif turned to fix him with a serious look. “You have to stay alert, yeah? Like a guard dog. If you see anyone looking like they might be after us, you let us know.”

“Yeah.” Roger grinned. “I’m pretty much always the look-out. I got this.”

Leif nodded. “Okay.” He pulled in a breath and turned to Bjorn. “Lose the shirt, yeah?”

Bjorn frowned. “How did you know?”

“I know you, babe.” He tugged at a strap of the backpack he wore. “I got your sweats in here, so if you have to, you can ditch the jeans, too. It’s a good idea to have them, but not if they’re damping your ability too much.”

Bjorn nodded. “We’ll go with just the shirt for now.” He peeled it off and stuffed it into Leif’s backpack. It wasn’t cold enough out for him to need more than the T-shirt he had on underneath, so the three of them crept off towards the small door, leaving Roger whispering to the dog, ball in hand and ready to throw.