The Illusion

Twenty Nine

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see this place." James chuckled, watching as Drew and Xav put out their cigarettes against the wall. I could barely see them in this light. A single lamp on the wall and it wasn't strong enough to pull their facial features. They both stepped forwards as James climbed out the car, shouting them over. It took the 3 of them mere seconds to have Leo down the stairs and into the seating room. I couldn't keep up. Nor did I particularly want to watch or listen to Leo's screams as they dug the bullet out of him before it caused more damage.

I bent down, picking up a collection of random sandy rocks and tossing them at the wall of the building one by one, trying to work out what I needed to do. I knew where he was. I knew he was stuck. I knew he had nothing. But I am not stupid enough to go chasing after him myself.

I could hear quiet footsteps coming out of the building, the door closing quietly so I knew it wasn't someone following me around.

"Just me." I sniffed, not responding to Lili as she slowly moved to stand beside me. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry Freya, it's not going to bring her back and I know there's not really anything anyone can do right now to make it hurt any less but we're here."

"I know." I dusted my hands off and crossed them around my front, turning to her. "Any news on Fin?"

"No, Pip's in with him and Keira."

"Keira? Oft. Tough day to be Fin." She nodded.

"Yeah, she's pissed. They're getting what they can out of him. Someone has to know where he's gone."

"I do."

"What?"

"I found a map that might as well have said 'here is my secret hide out please come murder me'."

"Then what the fuck are we doing here?" Lili grinned.

"I can't leave Leo." She sighed.

"Okay, We've got Heath, Aden, Xav, Drew, James, Isaac, Milo, Rohan, Wren and Libby. Let me get Jules and Dove here to sort Leo and we can ship them all off to bring him here."

"Did many of our guys go down?"

"We lost 2 but in reality, not really why?"

"Can we send them? Without anyone else knowing. Just me and you. It's not a million miles away and I don't think it's going to be a difficult fight. Only problem is the cameras around the place."

"Oh. Milo's here! I'm sure he could get into them. He did the cameras at the house when they came for you. I don't think Zane would be smart enough to use different firewalls for each place." I rolled my lips together, taking in a slow breath before closing my eyes. Plan Freya. You need a plan here.

This place is in the woods and we still have about an hour of darkness. If we're doing this today, we need to do it now.

"Okay, text Milo to come up now then. I'll talk to him can you sort the other guys together, I'll text you the details of where it is but they can't get too close without the cameras. I don't know if he has access to them out there."

Doing this without anyone else knowing was risky but truth be told, I wanted to be the one who controlled this. It had to be my plan my commands. Not even for Alara. I just did not want to risk this going wrong again. I could not risk him running away nor could I risk him gathering resources if we waited a few days for us to make a plan.

When Milo appeared, laptop in hand I told him what we were doing, giving him the details of the plans, I had just made, using the photos I'd taken on the map to show him I had thought this through. He didn't think it was smart. Neither did I but I'm ready to take the hit from everyone if this goes wrong. If this doesn't work, I will take whatever the punishment is because I know I tried. I didn't sit here crying over something when I could have been acting. I was doing something.

She can't have died for nothing. She won't have died for nothing. I'm not going to let her have died for nothing.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the joy of being told this feud between the Parks and the Bauer's has been going on for decades. Starting with Pip's parents before he was born and ending with me. Zane and Zara were the end of the Bauer line. Dad had slowly been dwindling them down over the past few years which is why Zane wanted me. I don't think he knew about me having the implant. The conversation on contraception never came up. I was starting to think getting me pregnant with his child was one of his other motives, if he didn't have a list a mile long already.

"They're ready for your go ahead Freya." Milo sat in the car, laptop open as he tapped away. I watched over his shoulder as he worked, Lili close behind me.

"He's definitely in there Milo right?"

"He went in." He nodded. "Hasn't come out this entrance but he could have another one off camera. The views I can get inside it looks empty but he could be in one of the rooms, only corridors have the cameras in them." I sighed, biting down on my thumb nail as I started to feel sick. Tonight, had been a lot. I was exhausted. "Okay, ready?" Milo turned his head back and I nodded.

"I want him alive, not bleeding, unconscious is fine." I looked at Lili who nodded. If he's not alive when he gets to me, this whole thing is pointless.

"They know."

"Okay Milo. Shut them off."