Red {Wolf Rebellion I}

Chapter 30~Keep Fighting~

I won't let you drown,
When the water's pulling you in,
I'll keep fighting.

-Hurts, "Silver Lining"

Chapter 30~Keep Fighting~

When I walked into the war room, everyone was gathered around the main table. Papers were once again spread out, and I noticed the blueprints of HQ from before. Carmine was leaning over Shani, pointing out something on the map. My team sat across from them on the other side of the table, still tense as they leafed through the papers.

Carmine turned his gaze to Cas when we entered. "I thought you were watching her."

I huffed, making my way over to a chair beside Kat. I propped my head up with a hand, discreetly massaging my temples as Cas raised his hands in surrender.

"Hey, I tried man. She's too stubborn for her own good."

I closed my eyes for a moment, mercifully feeling my headache begin to recede. Has the Advil started working already? "I can hear you, and I'm not a dog. You can't tell me what to do." I leaned over toward Kat. "What's going on? Have we decided anything?"

"Yeah a bit," she nodded. "We know it would be impossible to try and get anyone else out. Claret will have everyone on high alert, and we don't know who we can trust. But Phoenix came up with an interesting idea."

I turned my gaze to him, wondering. "What?"

Phoenix looked up from the section of blueprint he was studying. "Before we can even think about doing something major-like trying to get past those towers, or attacking Red-we're going to need someone on the inside, someone who could give us information on guard rotations, and equipment we need."

I frowned. He was right, but there was no one we knew for sure that we could trust. "But who-"

I stopped mid-sentence. There was someone we could trust, or at least, someone on the inside.

Jasper.

I found a few flaws with that plan almost immediately. "But how are we going to contact him? It's not like we can track him down, and I somehow highly doubt Claret will let us talk to him."

Phoenix grinned as he pulled something out of his pocket, making himself seem so much younger than twenty-one. "There's this wonderful thing, known as a cell phone." He held up his phone. Carmine must've decided it was okay to give him it back.

I gave him a doubtful look, finally able to think without my brain feeling like someone had set it on fire, "There's no way that would work." My eyes drifted to Adam involuntarily. He seemed to be studying the records from 2007 intently, but I could tell from the way his eyes weren't moving that he wasn't. Give him time. I looked away reluctantly.

"But that's the genius part. We can reactivate one of our phones for a few minutes and call him. When we're done, we trash the battery and find a car to throw it in. Even if they somehow manage to activate the GPS, it'll be on its way out of the city by then," he explained.

"How do we know we can trust him-Jasper? How do we know he won't go running straight to Claret and trace the call while we talk? Or that Claret won't listen in on our call?" Shani asked from the corner of the table.

I thought about what I now knew about Red, how likely it was that Claret had had Jasper's sister killed. He'd always been more levelheaded, and I hoped it would be enough for him to hear us out. "Jasper will trust us. Even if he doesn't fully believe us, I don't think he'll rat us out. As for Claret, there's no doubt she'll find out, but the calls are recorded. She won't be able to listen right away, we'll just have to hope that's enough."