Chapter 45
yulia
It was a strange feeling, seeing the five of them interacting—six if you counted the kitten, who was still clinging to Vera and Elaine like they were her mothers.
Elaine’s and Caitlyn’s strong sisterly love.
Vera and Petra still pretending that rivalry they had wasn’t just their form of friendship.
Petra and Caitlyn both taking shots at each other, affectionately teasing.
Jenna fussing over everybody, especially Vera’s and Petra’s injuries.
And of course, most of all, Vera and Elaine, with that incredibly intense bond between them. Unbelievable though it may have been, it was obvious the two of them were falling in love.
That was a disaster waiting to happen. But strangely enough, I found myself almost… rooting for them.
Penumbra, was it? Not a bad name for a family. A family full of rejects who didn’t fit into light or darkness.
I suppose it was no surprise I was here.
I hadn’t been expecting a Blackbird contact to call me for help, and I’d figured it was the world’s most obvious trap until I heard Elaine’s voice.
The truth was, I justified it to myself after the fact. Telling Quayle that my orders were to stop Horizon, and that this was my way of doing that…
The real reason I went?
I was still trying to figure it out.
The strategy room was in a mezzanine level with a chair lift recently installed that Caitlyn had been about to use before Petra simply scooped her up, chair and all, ignoring both Caitlyn and Jenna yelling about Petra’s hand.
A broad table in the middle was covered in notes, maps, documents, and screens on the walls showed network diagrams of the Blackbirds’ logistics.
From the way everyone looked at the screens, and how Caitlyn’s gaze was the only one that lingered, studying them, she was the one who’d been digging in their servers.
Apparently Whitners were just all like that.
“We have to go to headquarters,” Vera said, leaning over one end of the table.
Elaine went wide-eyed. “Straight to Glenn?”
“No chance,” I said. “If a few ragtag strays could just march into the Blackbird headquarters, take out Glenn, and kneecap the organization, the Whitecliffs would have done it long ago.”
Petra pushed her chair back, kicking one leg up over the other. “Who you calling a ragtag stray? You wanna go right now?”
Caitlyn sighed. “I can’t take you anywhere, Petra.”
Vera smiled dryly. “Yulia would make ribbons out of you in five seconds flat, Petra. Even I have a hard time keeping up with her.” She shook her head. “I know it won’t be easy. But it’s our only option if we want to do this. The logistics network was a trap.”
Caitlyn nodded. “They’re not moving anything in preparation yet. Which means they’re waiting to get Elaine first… and they’re not going to want to wait long.”
I leaned against the wall, folding my arms. “You have access to the entire logistics database?”
“Probably not for long,” Caitlyn said. “They’re scrambling changing encryptions. They must have realized that everyone showing up at the South Yard meant we have a ghost in their system. But they haven’t shaken us yet.”
“If we combine that with the Whitecliff operations network… we can launch a distributed attack at several key lines at once and force them to spread thin.”
Vera nodded. “The headquarters is the weakest point. Not the administrative offices… but the archives. Glenn doesn’t trust technology, which means everything important is stored as physical information.”
“Burning the Library of Alexandria,” Petra chuckled. I spoke flatly.
“It’s a misconception that the Library of Alexandria was destroyed in a fire,” I said. “It suffered neglect and fell apart over the years, from generations of people not prioritizing learning and knowledge, which is also what has gotten you where you are.”
Petra put her hands up. “Why’d we bring her on board?”
“We need her for now,” Vera sighed. “We’ll use the burning of the Library of Alexandria as a metaphor. If the archives are destroyed, the projects will all be stalled for at least a year. Long enough Horizon won’t have a chance.”
“So, do we just lob a shitload of bombs at HQ?” Petra said.
“Maybe Yulia was right about you,” Vera said. “Obviously it’s heavily reinforced. But the same thing that keeps fire out… will keep fire in.”
“So,” I said, stepping in and leaning over the table, unrolling a map of Merona.
Blackbird HQ was already marked with an X, and I tapped a marker to various points on the map.
“We sabotage supply networks in these four areas at once, which sends Blackbird operatives out. Once they’re in the field, we enter the headquarters. ”
“Then we split up,” Vera said, pulling out another diagram, floor plans for the headquarters building.
“You and Petra go to the top, look for Glenn, and I enter the archives while you’re keeping them busy and making it look like an assault on Glenn.
We’ll make sure the sprinkler systems are disabled, and then we unleash hell in the archive. ”
“This is suicide,” I said.
“This is the mission,” Vera said.
Elaine leaned over the table. “You can’t plan to die in there.”
Petra chuckled. “We’ve gotta die somewhere.”
“No,” Elaine said. “We can’t accept any suicide missions. We need to prioritize everybody coming out alive. Even if it means we fail for now. If we come out of it alive, it means we can try again another time.”
“We don’t have time to wait and see,” Vera said, and Jenna spoke softly.
“You at least have as much time as it takes for you two to heal from your injuries. You’re not storming an abandoned warehouse right now, let alone the Blackbird headquarters.”
Vera pushed out a sigh, slumping back in her seat. There was something more than usual driving her to this kind of fervor. I wondered what Quayle had said to her.
“Then we’ll try to figure out the weaknesses of the building in the meantime,” Vera conceded finally. “And get the distributed attack planned out. Together with Yulia.” She gave me a strange look, almost a smile. “I guess we’re counting on you, Mikhailovna.”
“Don’t get used to it, Wolf.”