Walking into Nightmares

The Substance

Everything was going according to plan. It was almost suspicious that getting everything in place was as easy as it had been. Liano was expecting some resistance, or at least for someone to betray him, which was probably why no one knew everything. He had Webber on gathering the things he would need post breakout, and the other two carefully dealing with the same issue, just from different angles.

He had always known that his information network was extensive, but he hadn't, for some reason, known exactly how to get each piece to do exactly what he wanted it to.

The human race was full of mistakes, and if anyone had the potential to screw him over, they would. Humans were too difficult to control, he decided with a mental huff.

That didn't change the fact that he had to rely on others for the first time in his life. He knew exactly how delicate this was. All anyone had to do was talk about their part with anyone, and his entire plan would go up in flames.

He had to, dare he think, trust the people around him to not mess up. Or speak about it with each other. They each knew just their parts, and as long as they were mostly unsure of what the others were doing, he would be fine.

Probably.

He hated the margin for human error.

A knock on the bars made him look up and he resisted the urge to smirk at the young guard. He didn't know the guy's name, or who exactly he had pissed off in order to get stuck delivering a message to him.

"You've got a visitor, Mr. Altieri, sir." A guard told him with a slight stutter. The man looked terrified, clearly wanting to be anywhere but here. Liano wasn't sure whether he was insulted that the man thought he would kill him if he so much as raised his voice, or amused that someone with a gun , thought that he, someone hundreds of camera's watching his every move, was clever enough to not only kill the guard, but get away with it.

Then again, if he was Batty Matty, well... The man could probably make anyone disappear, even in the jail.

As it was, Liano had better things to worry about, he thought with a mental roll of his eyes. He stood calmly, and waited for the guard to cuff him. It was, honestly, a useless precaution, seeing as slipping out of handcuffs was one of the first things he learned, besides lock picking, pick pocketing, and figuring how to get out of ropes.

This would be too easy, he knew, should he actually want to get out of here just yet. But no, he needed to be patient. His leg was still screwed up, and his body still ached. He needed a little bit more time to get everything in place before he could actually go through with this. 

The walk to the conference room was a long one, and Liano amused himself by randomly staring at the guard. For some reason, the man either sped up and practically dragged him along, or broke out in shivers. If he was slightly less dignified, he would have been on the floor laughing.

If his sweet Sophie had been there, he would have been scolded for frightening the poor man, even though he clearly was not actually doing anything. If the guard wanted to actually succeed in this field, he would need to toughen up, and not just a little bit either. The other man somehow needed to grow a spine.

How disappointed the man's mother must have been, giving birth to something that was more cowardly rat than strong man.

Of course, Liano of all people saw the value of other types of strength, a strong mind was just as, if not more, dangerous than a strong body. That said, the man was not worth existing if he went through life like this.

Some days, like today apparently, he wished it was possible for someone to get rid of all of those that were holding humanity back. He understood, technically, that it was cruel for him to think that, but he couldn't help but wonder how much further human-kind would be if only the strong existed.