When Songbirds Fly | Bellamy Blake

Chapter Forty: Full Circle

TW// Gun, taser, talk of murder

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'Has anyone been in your rooms, anyone at all?' I ask hurriedly as I make my way down the ramp and into the abandoned corridor.

Miller and Harper exchange confused glances, shaking their heads. 'No. Why?'

Shrugging my bag off my shoulder, I set it down on the desk next to Harper's computer.  'Bellamy bugged my place.'

'What?'

Glancing over my shoulder to see Kane approaching us, I nod. 'Guess there really is no limit to how much of an ass he can be. I've made some audio jammers so they don't know we know. Can't guarantee that they work, though. Raven's handwriting sucks and I stopped going to English class a long time ago.'

The three of them follow my gesture towards the bag, each of them taking a small, black box from it. Miller shrugs as he examines his, 'Guess there's only one way we'll find out.'

'Good thinking, Wren. Any word from Octavia?'

Harper disappointedly shakes her head, 'Been scanning different channels all morning. Nothing. I mean, either she's out of range...'

'Or they already got her.'

'Or she ran her battery down,' Kane snaps at Miller's pessimistic suggestion, 'or she needed the radio silence to run the blockade. There are a lot of reasons why she might have gone dark.'

I spare a glance towards the entrance but nobody else is in sight. Taking a seat beside Harper, I can still hear the two arguing beside us. Her head suddenly raises, dim lights catching the surface of her headphones. 'Guys, listen to this.'

She presses a button and Pike's voice drones from the small speaker. 'Results of this morning's missions inventory was sobering. In no way do we currently have the ammo for an extended series of firefights. Not even close.'

My lips part but Kane raises a finger, motioning for me to stay quiet.

Bellamy speaks next. 'So what's Plan B?'

'Our lookouts say the largest Grounder encampment is in this valley, so we deploy an assault team in Rover One, and we do as much damage as we can with automatic weapons.'

'And they'll just fall back and make a run for reinforcements? ' Hannah asks, almost reluctant. It's the most unsure I've heard her. Maybe she's starting to doubt.

Resting my elbow against the desk, I lean closer to the speaker so that I can hang on every single word.

'I'm counting on that. The only way there and back is over this ridge. Now, we can bottleneck their warriors and pick them off.'

It's hard to believe that this man used to be a farmer, a teacher. His strategies are sound and he seems to have a plan for almost everything. Maybe he was always destined to become a leader. It's a shame he picked the wrong side.

'We got the firepower for that?'

'We won't need it. We have a dozen concussive antipersonnel devices in our armoury. I've already got a weapons man rigging them with a remote trigger. We load the APDs into the rover and mine the field before we attack. After we strike, we lure their reinforcements onto the ridge, and once we have enough Grounders in the killing box—'

'We detonate.'

I clench my fists at Bellamy's words, looking to Kane with an anxious frown. This is beyond fucked up. This is even more than I had expected of them, despite what has happened so far. The Commander will never forgive us.