Smoke and Mirrors [HIATUS]

Prologue

On my left was the only person who I trusted in the world. On my right, someone who was trying to regain my trust, but probably never would. Beside him, someone who I was still making my mind up about. It would have been better for us if there was heavy rainfall that obscured the moon and gave us the cover of darkness, but alas, there was simply the cheerful light of the stars in the sky that would reveal our location.

We were outside of the capitol walls, in the blind spot of any cameras and garbed in clothes that masked our heat signatures. In moments, we would get to word to commence our mission, breaking into the capitol, hopefully without any event.

Our mission was simple (and not simple at the same time): get inside and retrieve (steal) an important piece of information that might (or might not) determine the next course of action for the rebels.

A lot of pressure to put on three sixteen-year-olds and a fifty-year-old, especially when you consider that two of the sixteen-year-olds have only been part of the rebellion for roughly a week and that the fifty-year-old hadn't been out of the stronghold in over fifteen years. Actually, the other sixteen-year old had a festering hatred for the city and was training for something like this for a long time, so I guess there wasn't much  pressure on him.

Falcon turned her head towards me, the darkness obscuring her expression, but not hiding the nervous tremor in her breathing. It was a surprise, especially since I have never known Falcon to be anxious or scared about anything. But then again, we were taught to mask any emotion as best as we could, so I guess any emotion that came from either one of us was a shock to the other. Of course, listening and feeling her emotion in my head was very different from seeing and feeling it out loud, so that could be a factor.

"We'll be fine," I whispered, aware that Winter was probably listening to whatever our conversation happened to entail. "It's not like a suicide mission, there's a fairly high chance that we'll make it out unscathed."

"I'm not sure," Falcon whispered back. That's not the reason why I'm scared- I heard her think before she blocked her thoughts. "They probably have the screens and extra security around the perimeter..."

"That's the reason why we're waiting for the signal; that's when they'll have the main security features down."

Falcon looked uncertainly at the looming walls and the gates that surrounded the city. "There are all sorts of things that could still go wrong-"

"I don't mean to be indelicate," I said, "but you're being a pessimist again. Stop. We'll be fine."

"Besides," Parkyr muttered, "you guys have the best knowledge out of all four of us, so the worst that could happen is that something happens to me or Winter. But come on, it's not like you guys are going to trip something that nets us for interrogation or torture. That wouldn't be good for us or for the rebellion."

"Of course not, partly because we haven't gotten a chance to tell General Tempest about all of the chinks in the armor and partly because Insigne's torture methods are... effective." Falcon said.

"How do you know?" he asked. "Have you guys ever experienced it?"

"No," I replied, "but our mentors didn't look so well before one of them got killed. Of course, the other was dragged away before we could ask her opinion on what happened and how it felt, so maybe you should just take our word that it's harsh."

"Hush, you three," Winter said in a gruff voice. "We have the go-ahead."

Without further warning, Winter darted out and made his way to the walls, nimbly avoiding the areas that we had already marked out as in sight of the cameras. Parkyr sighed and activated his goggles, a faint green glow shimmering before disappearing. Just like Winter, he made his way towards the walls, leaving me and Falcon crouched in the darkness.

"We're gonna be fine," Falcon said, letting out a breath and following.

"Hopefully," I muttered under by breath. And perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut, because I might have just jinxed the entire mission.