The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)

Morgan stared at the fence, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. “I’ll go in and distract her,” she said. “You sneak around her and put a bullet in her head.”


I eyed her wearily, feeling the stitch in my side still pulsing with every breath. “I don’t think I’m limber enough to sneak up on Desmond. And while my shooting with my left hand has improved some, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“You can use this,” she said, unzipping her jacket and revealing a flat black fabric that I recognized as the Liberator uniform. The material had the ability to camouflage the user for periods of time, rendering them practically invisible. “Distance won’t matter then.”

I stared at it, almost beyond shock, but then shook my head. “No, you keep it. You be the sniper. She’ll shoot you, but she’ll want to keep me alive. I’m sort of public enemy number one.”

Morgan hesitated, and then nodded, pulling off her coat and dropping it to the ground. “I’ve got your back,” she said as she quickly stripped off her street clothes. I envied her. The suit regulated her body temperature, keeping the nippy air at bay. She ran her hand through her short black hair, tamping it down again. “Let’s get this over with.”

I took a deep breath, pressing my fingers together once more. “Everyone,” I told the group via the radio, “we’ve located Desmond’s car near the UV treatment ponds outside the plant buildings. And we have a plan to take her down.”





35





Viggo





The concrete wall that separated this room from the next was ten feet tall, and the tunnel at the top of the ladder was small and cramped, barely wide enough for my shoulders to fit. But I managed, keeping my head low to avoid hitting it on the ceiling above. The sound of rushing water assailed my ears, drowning out any other discernable noises save those coming from our earbuds.

“We’re breaching the final door. About to make our assault on the control room,” announced Ms. Dale softly into her microphone. “Everyone make sure to keep the shutdown codes handy. First one there starts the process.”

“We’re moving into position,” I told her as I approached the end of the tunnel, taking a step on the catwalk that hung suspended from the ceiling. The thing creaked ominously, but held. I slowly stepped out onto it, fully trusting it with my weight, and it continued to hold firm.

“Viggo.” This time, Ms. Dale’s voice came on my team’s channel, strangely enough. “I need you to do me a favor.”

I knelt down on the catwalk, surveying the factory floor below. “What?” I asked guardedly.

“I’m missing Jay. He heard Violet’s announcement about Desmond and took off into the plant. I think he’s got some foolish scheme going on—I couldn’t stop him. There’s nothing we can do about it now, but could you please watch out for him in the area you’re covering?”

I could hear the concern in the woman’s voice even through her professional attitude, and my stomach sank. Jay was running around the plant by himself? He and Tim had done this running-off thing before, but now of all times…

“I’ll keep an eye out for him,” I promised Ms. Dale, aware that that was probably the most I would be able to do under the circumstances. She answered in the affirmative and signed off, sounding resigned. As much as that worry churned my insides, I couldn’t afford to think too hard about Jay now. I refocused on my surroundings.

The catwalk was suspended over a massive vat of water, the drop to the surface a healthy thirty feet. Below, the water churned, a long blade cutting across the surface, displacing the water and making it look as if some large aquatic beast were swimming just below the surface.

Six guards patrolled the ground around the vat, guns in their hands, and their body language and demeanor were extremely confident. It didn’t look like they’d drunk any of the water yet. I heard my comm link beep on the team channel, and switched over. “Where exactly is the objective?” asked Mags.

I pointed to the small door posted opposite us on the floor below, a concrete block with stairs on either side elevating the room to a position at the same level as the water tank. My guess was that it had been designed that way in case something in the system malfunctioned and began flooding the room, so the higher position would keep whatever electrical systems were inside safe. Initially.

“Croft, those women on the floor—we should shoot them, no? We have the advantage of elevated positioning.”

I frowned, considering Cruz’s question, and looked up at the bolts securing the catwalk to the ceiling. “It’s not a good idea,” I finally said. “The catwalk isn’t that secure, and the ricochet alone could tear us to pieces.”

I continued to study the room. The catwalk ran across its length, probably less than a hundred feet across, culminating in another rung ladder of the same design as the one before it, cleverly hidden behind rows of pipes. The ladder ended forty to fifty feet away from the door. The lid of the vat was higher up, but it was hard to gauge how much higher up from the angle I sat at.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” I announced softly into the microphone, looking back down at my team. “The control box is our goal, so make sure you have the copy of the code Thomas gave us ready to use. First one there inputs the code, the rest of us cover them. Ms. Dale’s team will be coming through the door on the other side, but don’t expect her to be the only one to come through that door—it needs to be covered as well.” I swallowed. “There’s no way to know we will make it out of this, but I will try my hardest to make sure that we all get back to safety and our loved ones. You have all fought more bravely than I could ever hope, and I am honored that you let me lead you this far. Now trust me for just a little longer.”

The faces that had been so filled with nervous energy at the beginning of the night were grim. Soot made an appearance on every person, and everyone had their fair share of injuries, from bumps, bruises, and scrapes, to Cruz’s bandaged shoulder, the white gauze already stained with blood.

I didn’t need to see the expressions on their faces to understand how they felt, because I felt it. I had been through it all with them. They were tired and already on the verge of breaking, in spite of the battles we had won. Still, it didn’t hide the determination in their eyes, and I felt proud to have them standing beside me in this fight.

“Let’s go,” I said, and I turned and began creeping across the catwalk. The suctioning sound of the water as it was moved by the massive blade covered up any telltale echoes caused by our boots, but I still took care to move as quietly as possible.

I was halfway across when the catwalk shuddered violently, and I froze. Everyone who had followed me did too. I looked down to see if our presence had been noticed by the wardens down below, expelling a slow breath when I saw that it had not.