Rebels

Ch. 15

Luca emerged from the bedroom, hauling with him a large blueprint. He had earlier explained to Jack and Lyla that although he had thrown away the previous blueprint, he had always had another in store. He claimed to be 'very imaginative.'

He grabbed the vase off of the dining table and handed it to Lyla, who had no choice but to grab it. She rolled her eyes as she turned and set it on the counter behind her, quickly admiring the flowers that were slowly fading away.

Luca turned around, mumbling to himself as he searched for a pen. He found one on the table which held the remote, and he grasped it, wasting no time. "Okay." He said, biting down on the pen.

Jack examined the blueprint, not sure what he was looking at. He found one building in the center that appeared to be a palace. He could see outlines of buildings in which he couldn't interpret the writing, and he noticed an old piece of faded gum stuck to the corner of the blueprint. "What am I looking at?" He asked.

Luca took the pen out from between his teeth and cleared his throat. "That monstrosity," he said, pointing at the gum, "was courtesy of Lyla."

Lyla scoffed and took the pen from Luca. "This is the layout of the center of the city. The buildings are surrounding the palace, which is where the king supposedly is. N-"

"What do you mean, 'supposedly is?'" Jack wondered aloud, interrupting Lyla.

Lyla seemed to remember that Jack was new to the city. "Well, no one has ever seen the king."

"He's never stepped a foot outside to anyone's knowledge." Luca continued for her. "Some rumors claim that he had died and didn't have an heir to fill the throne, but they are keeping that a secret."

"Anyways," Lyla got back to the point, "all of the doors are guarded to the palace. There are no vents that we can get through without being killed, for the vents have been lined with monitors that see our every move. Inside the palace, there is a large hall you walk through to get to the main ballroom. Just before that hall, there are two hallways that split off to the right and left. If you turn to the right, there is-"

"Don't confuse the man with all this." Luca interrupted, throwing his hands into the air. "Just get him the main ideas!"

Lyla sighed, trying her best to remain patient with her brother. "We plan to simply go in, grab Arin and get out. If he's dead, which we hope he will not be, then our plan was all for nothing and we will most likely be caught and wind up dead."

Jack pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat down, contemplating all of this information in his head. "How do you know so much about the interior of the palace?"

Luca smirked, crossing his arms. "Thanks to me, we can see through the palace monitors whenever we wish."

Jack stood, beginning to smile. "So, you're a hacker?"

Luca smiled. "I refer to myself as a computer specialist."

Jack couldn't help but laugh at this. "You're a hacker; that is all there is to it."

Luca frowned, looking to his sister, who only shrugged. She didn't want to state her opinion, for she didn't want to get caught up in the middle of Jack and Arin's little dispute. "Back to the main idea, the palace is an hour away from this place. We have to figure out a date to do this all. It should take at least two to three weeks for training, depending on your person, Jack, and there is a festival coming up, so we also need to take that into account."

Jack sighed in deep thought. He figured that the festival would be a perfect time for them to get Arin back, but that was depending on how far away it was. "When does this festival take place?"

"About a month from now." Lyla responded.

Jack secretly smiled. From what he had just heard, this new information meant that within four weeks from now, Arin could be back, alive or dead. Jack stood from his chair, the chair itself creating a loud high-pitched noise from scratching against the floor. "Well, we better get to work."

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Luca and Lyla had shown Jack to the basement of the house. Lyla was greeted to a few bottles of rum, and Luca pretended to think nothing of it and picked them up himself, hauling them back up the stairs into the kitchen.

There were a few wooden crates that had been opened, labeled 'FRAGILE' and 'EXPLOSIVES'. When Jack had questioned Lyla on who her friend was of which owned this house, Lyla simply replied, "All I know is that he's supposedly in jail."

There was one crate that caught Jack's eye. It was labeled 'FIREARMS'. What especially surprised Jack is that Luca headed straight for it, and Lyla stood there and thought nothing of it. Luca grabbed a gun from it and checked to see that it was loaded.

Jack instinctively took a step back from him. "What are you going to do with that?"

Luca smirked, "This is the first stage of the training." He looked to his sister, who nodded.

Lyla crossed her arms, silently amused already at what was occurring. "Pretend that Luca is one of the guards, and you were to be caught in the palace. This is going to test your reflexes."

Jack was astounded at this. "Reflexes? Isn't there an easier way to do this? And what if I am shot? This is insane." Jack pointed at Luca and Lyla. "You two are crazy." He looked to Luca, who had cocked the gun. He could see a faint smile on his face. "Are you enjoying this?"

Luca suddenly threw away his expression. "Not at all." He lied.

Jack was suddenly taken aback by the fact it was him in front of the gun. "Why me?"

"It was your plan." Lyla smiled. "Now let's begin."

Luca aimed the gun right at Jack's head. Jack raised his arms into the air, suddenly nervous of what was to occur. "Let's just take it easy." Jack said slowly, unsure of what he should say.

Luca smirked, "No promises."