Wylan had been on many trains with his father when he had been small. They were a luxurious way to travel, full of white-gloved attendants and plush seats. This expedition was nothing like the ones of his childhood. They had been aboard three minutes and Nina already looked like she was itching to scalp someone.
"If another man so much as glances my way, I may cause a scene," she muttered darkly to Inej and fisted her hands in the fabric of her skirt. Wylan averted his eyes and scooted closer to Jesper on the bench just in case. They were seated across from the girls in third-class, though Kaz had long disappeared to do who knows what. The benches were uncomfortable and it was going to take hours for them to reach Carson City. Wylan's body ached at the thought of spending even another moment on the unforgiving wood.
Though it was daylight, the scenery had no hope of holding Wylan's interest. Flat desert pocked by spiny shrubbery and bordered by exhausted mountains paled in comparison to the fidgeting sharpshooter next to him. Jesper was humming some ridiculous showtune under his breath. If the conductor could hear him, he would probably weep in agony. As it was, Wylan winced as Jesper hit a particularly painful off-key highnote. Inej looked at the pinched expression on his face and tapped Jesper with the toe of her boot.
"Knock it off before you give Wylan a headache," she said.
"I'll have you know I have been told I sound like an angelic choir boy, Wraith. Just because your ears aren't refined enough to appreciate it, doesn't mean I sound terrible," Jesper shot back.
"Funny, I've never met a choir boy who likes to lose all his money at roulette and fall into bed with the first person who makes eyes at them," Nina snorted, pulling herself from her sullen introspection. Jesper stuck his tongue out at her. A woman down the bench gasped, horrified. In the spirit of mischief, he slowly looked her up and down and sent her a lascivious wink. The crone clutched at her shawl and moved further up the train car. Inej sighed.
"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile, you two. Knock it off before Kaz comes back," she said.
"Oooh should I be afraid that Dad's going to come and put me in time out?" Jesper asked as he leaned back on the bench and stretched his legs out.
"I'll do worse if you don't put a sock in it," a sudden voice muttered. The group turned to see Kaz occupying the space the scandalized woman had been sitting in. Wylan jumped and fell into Jesper.
"If you're going to sit on my lap, kid, at least try not to land so hard," the sharpshooter drawled and Wylan's cheeks flared brighter than Nina's lipstick. He scrambled off of Jesper as the rest of the group, sans Kaz, shared a quiet laugh at his expense.
Kaz shot them all a threatening look and the remaining few hours were spent in silence as they sped toward the capital. Wylan focused on not focusing on the man sitting beside him and tried to gauge the atmosphere of the group. Inej seemed to be mouthing prayers, rubbing her fingers together as if running them against the handles of her knives. Nina flexed her wrists repeatedly and had resumed her stoic staring out of the window. Even Kaz was tapping his cane against the floor of the train cart lightly and had narrowed his eyes at a spot in the distance.
"Scheming face," Inej murmured as the train pulled into Carson City. Jesper shot her a wide grin.
"Dirtyhands sure is up to something," he replied, shouldering one of the few bags Kaz had allowed them to bring. "I wonder if-"
A sharp rap of a cane against his shin kept Jesper from saying anything more.
"We're heading straight to the Bank Saloon. I've made us a reservation so we can regroup and plan before heading out tomorrow night. The owner said it isn't too far from the train station," Kaz said.
"The Bank Saloon? God help you, Kaz, if you booked some fleabag place for us to sleep in tonight, I'm shaving your head," Nina snarled. He glared at her, reaching a gloved hand to his hair.
"It is the midway point between the train station and the road to the prison," Kaz snapped. "It's for a single night, Zenik. Try not to go into hysterics. Apologies that Carson City doesn't have the featherdown pillows a girl of your calibre is used to."
A crumpled brochure of the sights of the town bounced off his head in reply before hitting the dusty floor.
Kaz had booked three rooms in a dumpy motor hotel. Carson City, while not much to look at, had plenty of frightening places one could sleep in if desperate. The dusty brick building looked ancient, though little in this town had existed for more than 100 years. After checking in with a leathery woman, room assignments had been given out: Nina and Inej in one; Kaz on his lonesome; and Jesper and Wylan taking the final room. They convened in Jesper and Wylan's room to hear Kaz's plan.
As the door creaked open, Jesper winked at Wylan and told him he'd better not hog all the covers.
"Wh-what do you mean? We have separate beds, right?" he managed to stutter out. An echo of laughter from the rest of the group followed the pair into the room. With a solitary double bed.
The room was nothing to write home about, not that Wylan intended on telling his father about his...adventures. Or that he had the capability to put pen to paper and make words form into something resembling a letter. And where was home at this point anyway? The large house on the outskirts of town that his father lived in with Wylan's new step-mother? Where his mother once lived? Was it the dingy squat a few blocks from the Crow Club, lovingly referred to as "the Slat" by its residents? Truthfully, Wylan wasn't sure. He felt adrift in a town he knew like the back of his hand. Or so he had thought. His education with the Dregs was proving that Las Vegas was not the city he once thought it was.
Nina bounced onto the bed to sit at the head with Inej crawling in beside her. In the cramped room, there was little else place to sit. Kaz settled for leaning against what Wylan could only assume was meant to be a dresser, while Jesper allowed the bathroom door to hold him up. Thankfully, the girls had left space at the end of the bed for Wylan.
"Tell us, O Masterful Leader, how we're planning on sneaking into a high-security prison, stealing a prisoner, and then getting out without ending up in stripes ourselves?" Jesper asked.
Kaz paused for dramatic effect before pulling out papers from his coat. Spread out over the bedspread, they were recognizable as maps of both Carson City and the prison. Kaz pulled a fountain pen out of one of his endless pockets and pointed at the map detailing NSP.
"This is the vault we're hitting tomorrow night," he began. "Nevada State Prison is one of the most highly guarded in the country. For those of you unfortunate enough to not be from this paradise of a state, it was the first in the nation to carry out executions by gas chamber."
Nina flinched, but Wylan wasn't entirely sure why. Inej moved closer to the Russian girl and gestured for Kaz to continue his lecture.
"We'll go in with the night-shift cleaners. I have paperwork that will get us inside. Nina, Inej, and Wylan will follow this path." He traced a line from the servant's entrance to a cell block two floors above. "You'll wait for me there."
Wylan shifted uncomfortably at the thought of sneaking into a high-security prison without Dirtyhands at their side. He noted the frown Jesper adopted; he didn't look any happier than Wylan felt. He opened his mouth, but Kaz raised a hand.
"From there, we'll move to Helvar's position here," he continued, gesturing to a square marked with a red star. "He'll be knocked out by Nina and secured in the underneath of a cleaning cart. We'll exit here and leave in the van Jesper will be waiting with."
"I don't like it," said Jesper. Kaz raised an eyebrow.
"You don't have to. This is the plan. I need you waiting with the car. There's not going to be any shooting in the prison. I need Inej if we need further intel. I need Nina to knock Helvar out. A sharpshooter isn't much use in a covert operation." His voice was cold in the face of Jesper's sulk.
"Then why do we need someone fluent in demo?" asked Nina. "I'm assuming there won't be any need for blowing something up."
Wylan glanced down at the lines of the maps. Internally, he had been wondering the same thing. Kaz tossed him jobs occasionally, but he wasn't the best demo man the Dregs had. His inclusion on jobs, especially on one being held as close to the chest as this one, often felt like a mistake. He was always waiting for someone to say, hey, wait, why is this kid here? Wylan never integrated well into the rest of the gang. Kaz hadn't even told him to go down to the tattoo parlour the others used to have the crow and cup inked into his arm. The fifteen-year old was beginning to wonder if he would ever fit in anywhere. If he couldn't make it with this bunch of misfits and thieves, what hope was there for him for the rest of the world?
Kaz and Inej shared a long look that was punctuated by the small girl furrowing her brows in discontent.
"As the son of our employer, it seemed prudent for Wylan to be involved," Kaz said finally. The effect on the room was palpable; Jesper stood up straighter against the wall as Nina's mouth dropped open in surprise.
"Jan Van Eck is the one who hired us for this job?" demanded Jesper. "Are you seriously telling me that a member of the City Council wants us to break a man out of prison and kidnap someone?"
"My dad isn't… He's the straightest arrow I know. He hates the people downtown, especially the gangs," Wylan interjected. And he likes me even less. "He wouldn't mingle with us, nor would he ever hire a gang for any reason"
Nina pinned Kaz with a hard look. "He's right. That sounds outrageous. What is so special about this recovery, Kaz? Pull your cards from your chest a bit and tell us the whole truth or I'm out of here."
"Helvar's release isn't enough for you? And I thought you were more loyal than that, Nina," Kaz tsked. Inej clamped a hand down over Nina's and sighed in frustration.
"Stop posturing, both of you. It's getting late and we still need to drill the plans into our heads so tomorrow night goes off without a hitch," she advised. "Kaz, on the way home, you need to tell us everything."
Kaz's face hardened at the order, but Inej's irritation at the pair of them brokered no compromise.
"Fine, let's go over the route to and from the prison," he said, rearranging the papers on the bed.
Wylan traced the colored lines with his eyes that Kaz pointed out. Trying not to let the labels interact with his memorization proved difficult. The damn letters wouldn't stop moving. Jesper broke him out of his frustrated trance with a nudge.
"Budge over, kid. As the driver of this job, I think I need to know where we're going," he drawled before throwing himself onto the bed next to Wylan. The invasion of his space brought vibrant blooms of red to his cheeks.
The fifteen-year-old glanced up at Nina and Inej who seemed to be hiding laughter behind their hands, only deepening the mortifying blush. Wylan studied the lines and tried not to focus on the incredibly warm body next to him. After missing a full five minutes of Kaz explaining part of the plan, he gave it up as impossible.
They split up to get some rest. Kaz disappeared down the hall without a word.
"I wonder if he remembered to pack his coffin," Nina said before the girls bid them goodnight..
Back in their room, the bed still hadn't magically duplicated itself, much to Wylan's distress.
Jesper cleared his throat. "I prefer the left side myself. I wasn't kidding about the blankets, by the way. I get awfully cold at night." Wylan nodded mutely. The bed looked far too small to hold both him and Jesper the giraffe. His cheeks flushed as he contemplated the various ways they could fit in that bed.
"I'm going to wash some of that train dust off of me, so don't spontaneously combust in my absence, kid. I wouldn't want to miss that," Jesper said before folding himself into the miniscule bathroom.
Wylan sat down on the edge of the bed and scrubbed his hands across his face. He was acting like an idiot. It was a single night. He could get through this without making a bigger fool of himself. All he had to do was act normal. Well, normal for him in the sharpshooter's company. For all Jesper's flirting, Wylan knew he didn't actually mean it. It was like an aura of charisma that he couldn't turn off. It tended to leak all over everything in his vicinity. Wylan was pretty sure he had seen flowers perk up in his presence as if he was the sun. It was a byproduct of being both pretty and charming: not intentional, and definitely not personal. Jesper would end up with some pretty showgirl and make stupidly pretty babies with stupidly pretty lives.
Determined to put a better face on, Wylan gathered his sleep clothes and toothbrush. As soon as Jesper came out, he was going to go in and then go to bed. The door opened and Wylan's plan fell completely apart.
Jesper Fahey stood backlit by steam wearing just a very small towel around his waist.
a/n:
Thank you for reading!