Fury and Flame | 3

5 | 2

A R L O

"No," Finn said, adamant. "I don't trust any of your ideas. Not when you smile like that."

      I wasn't deterred. "You said it yourself: we need to do something big and bad enough to draw the ONNT away from us. So we will."

"I'm more than happy to help," Benton said, probably for the first time in his life. "Krasowski needs to be taught a lesson."

"Attacking one of our own government bases should do it," I said, looking off into the distance thoughtfully. Jaxon snorted, apparently liking that idea very much. He didn't have to say anything for me to know he was in too.

Finn raised his head from his palm, closing his eyes in disbelief. "Oh God, you're insane."

"That's why you're coming with us," I said, smile growing. "I need someone to keep me in check." Jaxon and Benton certainly wouldn't.

"There's a facility up north." No one had to ask how Benton knew that; it was inevitably a potential target for Imperium. "If we attack tonight, it will seem like the attack on Riley spurred us to move again."

"I'm glad my untimely death will amount to something, even if I don't get to experience it," Riley replied from the chair, her clothes stained under her hands clasped over her wound. Kane glanced at her the second she began speaking.

Ignoring them both, Jaxon looked to me and asked, "What kind of attack are we talking about—casualties, explosives, blowing their entire operation off the face of the planet?"

Finn's answer was swift. "No casualties. We don't need to kill anyone to make them fear us."

I'd temporarily forgotten about his murdering the ONNT soldier in the Russian fortress—but despite his acceptance of his destructive power, I knew it still haunted him. Regret seeped into me.

"Okay," I said, willing to to anything to make things right between us. "We'll show them that we could have killed them but simply chose not to. It will be a warning." Turning to Jaxon, I asked, "Do you have anything that could do the trick?"

He looked at me like I'd asked an idiotic question. "Of course," he answered, as if he was offended that I'd doubted him. "I have a few poisonous capsules we could let loose inside the facility. They'll knock them out for a few hours, at most. I'd hate for them to go to waste." Glancing at Benton, who'd given him a look of distain, he added, "I got the idea to create them after Riley poisoned you and you nearly died. If we're lucky, perhaps we can recreate that day tonight."

Rolling his eyes, Finn got to his feet—wanting to avoid another fight. "If we're attacking tonight, we should get going."

Jaxon followed suit. Glancing back at Riley, Delphinium and Kane, he told them, "We should be back in a day. Don't do anything stupid."

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      The sky was dark by the time we arrived and the air was alive with the sounds of night. Crickets chirped in the bushes across the street. On the one road beyond a row of neatly-planted trees shielding the base from view, a car drove by.

"I'll go in first," Jaxon said as the four of us stood on the wrong side of the chain link fence. "Once I get the gate open, run through the front doors and start throwing the capsules at anything that moves."

He disappeared from sight before Benton could make a snide remark. I eyed the several bombs in my hands, already imagining the sweet, sweet destruction they'd cause.