24. Lucian
LUCIAN
The dead plant fills over the course of an hour, and I make my whole army hold and watch them arrive, because Sophie's plan only works if every last one is already inside before we move.
We're on the north approach, the one she picked for its cover.
The dark swallows us whole. Kian's wolves are threaded through the scrub on the east and west faces, low and patient.
Kurtis has bears inside the concrete shells already, poured into the blind corners.
The coastal and northern prides hold the rail side and the far fence.
Hector crouches beside me with a spotting scope and a headset, counting arrivals under his breath, and I feel the specific stillness that comes over my lion side before I stop being a man for the night.
"Two SUVs on the south road," Hector murmurs. "Mercenary escort, heavy. That's the buyers." A pause. "Third vehicle behind them. Slower. "
Through the scope, a lean figure steps out under the security lights Sophie's fake utility order paid to switch on. Neatly combed gray hair, pale, taking in the ruin around him like he's surveying property he owns. Lincoln Cantu. The Collector, in the flesh.
"That's everyone she named," Hector says. "Cantu. Helena's already inside. The commanders. Every buyer on the list. Luke, the whole organization, all the snakes, are under one roof."
"Nobody moves until she's set." I don't take my eyes off the building. "We wait for her signal. Not before. If we go early, he never opens the drive, and the file survives."
Hector shifts beside me. "You're going to sit in a bush and watch her walk into that alone."
"I'm going to trust her to do what we can't. She does her job. I do mine."
She goes in ten minutes later, and watching her cross the open ground toward the maintenance entrance is the hardest thing I've done since I took responsibility of the pride.
Every instinct I own screams to break cover and protect her from this, but I stay put.
She moves with confidence, unremarkable confidence, a figure that reads as one more contractor among the mercenaries and technicians the buyers brought.
She slips through the side door Kurtis marked on the blueprint, into the part of the complex where the old server room still has power and network because I had Hector make sure of it.
Then she's gone from my sight, swallowed by the building, and I have to trust the walls will keep her alive.
My earpiece clicks, and her voice threads through.
"I'm at the terminal. Same subnet as the main floor.
I can see their session." A pause, keys moving.
"Clifford's setting up in the central bay.
He's got the drive. He hasn't connected it yet, he's making them wait, making a show of it.
Greedy men do love an audience." Another beat.
"Hold everyone, Lucian. The second that drive goes live, I'll tell you. Not one claw before then."
"Understood." I pass it down the line with a hand signal, and fifty fighters go from ready to coiled. "Every position holds for Sophie's mark. Nobody breathes on that building until she calls it."
Kian's voice, barely a breath over the frequency: "Any captives?"
"Unknown. If there are any inside, wolves and bears prioritize getting them out."
Hector checks the final positions through his scope. "Rail sealed. South road covered. Nobody gets a vehicle out unless we choose to let them."
"Good. Buyers stay alive if possible. I want names, accounts, and whoever they answer to after tonight.
" I glance once toward the maintenance entrance Sophie disappeared through.
"But nobody breaks formation for Clifford.
The database comes first, Sophie kills that file, then we deal with whoever's still standing. "
The wait stretches, and then Sophie's voice sharpens, and everything I've held in check for an hour gets ready to come off the leash.
"He's connecting it." Her words come fast now, fingers audible under them.
"Clifford just seated the drive. He's walking Cantu through the authentication, proving it's legitimate, showing them the directory tree so they'll pay.
The connection's going live. It's reaching out.
I've got it." A breath. "My code's on the wire.
It's fighting his security exactly like I said it would.
I'm in it, Lucian. I'm attacking. Go. Go now, while he's staring at the screen and not the doors. "
I'm already moving before she finishes the word.
"All positions, strike." My own voice is now a roar, not quite human anymore. "Wolves and bears to any captives. Hector, seal the exits. Nobody named on that list walks out of here."
Kian's wolves hit the east and west faces, and the mercenaries discover outside was never empty.
Kurtis' bears blast up out of the concrete shells the buyers thought were rubble, and chaos erupts.
Glass shatters around everyone, an alarm starts to wail.
Through it all I hear the mayhem of people running.
Cantu's commanders shouting positions that no longer exist, buyers scrambling for cars Hector's teams have already rigged, and stopped from moving.
I cross the open ground toward the main bay, and I catch one glimpse through a shattered loading door. Sophie, hunched at a terminal in the glow of a screen, her face lit and utterly focused, hands flying, doing what she does while the world burns around her.
The space fills with mercenaries pouring out of the bay, I shift into lion form.
It takes me fast and complete, gold pouring over me, my frame increasing and towering others.
The mercenaries between me and the fight understand that the assessment they were briefed on was wrong, and the ones who can run, run.
The ones that don't learn why they should have.
I tear through them, letting only the mercenaries scarper, but making sure the buyers, and more importantly, Lincoln, Helena, and Clifford are not any of those running.
I realize those three have concluded they are not in the safest place, and they've walked into their own graves. I put my head down and go find Lincoln first, and the war closes over the plant like a fist.