So Riley and Mist will finally bust the eggs out and about time too. But Riley is like without a hand without Wes so Madison will have to do.
Poor Madison is just a girl though and between hormones, their parent's endless dramas and discovering that she have met Riley before, this can feel like much to swallow. But she gets, her nails done and a dinner out ;)
...
Madison
"Not bad, reload and repeat." Lieutenant St Anthony said and returned his attention to his own targets coming at him at high speed.
I've always hated shooting, always. Ever since I was seven or eight and dad took me out shooting. This was the first time ever I saw my parents fight. And the beginning of the end of my relationship to dad. As mom opposed him making a soldier out of me he grew more and more distant and uninterested in me. Damn, that was not good.
"Enough for today." St Anthony reacted immediately when I missed ten out of seventeen.
He removed his hearing protection and came over to stand beside me. The shooting range was empty and I was grateful for that. No need for people not only knowing, that I sucked at shooting but also seeing it.
We've been in Vegas for a day now, dad made us stay at a hotel most of the time, but I was allowed to go shooting with the Lieutenant, because I might have been needing it in a few days, when I was supposed to help infiltrate a Talon facility.
I spent last evening with four dragons, planning.
Riley was clearly their leader. He and Mist argued about every single detail of the plan. Mist was beautiful in a cool, distant way, her platinum hair was perfectly smooth and her pale face gave little away about her feelings. It was obvious that the two had some kind of competition going on.
The other two arrived later yesterday. A black girl called Nettle and a gorgeous guy called Kain. Riley and Kain seemed at odds, though Kain didn't openly challenge Riley, the way Mist did.
I was supposed to disable facility's security system so that Mist could steal the eggs. Nettle have bought some backpacks, that could be used to transport the eggs. I was thrilled, even though I shouldn't have been. I was about to steal dragon eggs! This was so much more exciting than anything I have ever heard of the Order doing.
"You are going to have little support out there. So it's important, that you can defend yourself, should the shit go down." Lieutenant St Anthony interrupted my reverie. I resisted rolling my eyes at him.
"Sir, yes sir." I said instead, wondering if he would get the translation.
"I'm serious Madison." He looked into my eyes.
"We don't know what to expect there. You can refuse going you know?" He continued.
"Oh, but we do. I have managed to access emails to and from the leader of the facility, remember Lieutenant? I'm not completely useless." I answered sweetly.
Four Gilas were stationed at the facility, additionally to the normal staff and doctors. One of them was the trainer of Gilas, an adult called Mace. Dragonells were free to leave, but they never did. Kain said it's probably because they feared being locked out and completely losing their eggs.
Nettle and Kain would drop in to visit and teach them something, that Riley called glitch. They had two hours, to not raise suspicion with a prolonged visit. Meanwhile I would walk Mist and Riley through to where the eggs were kept in a giant incubator. They would disable the guards there and all would glitch away with the eggs. Easy.
"Is there a reason why you don't like me Madison?" Lieutenant asked, taking me aback.
"Nnno." I stammered.
"Good, because we need to work together for now. I feel responsible for your safety and safety of others on this mission. I need to know, that I can trust you not to do anything stupid." He said still looking into my face intently. I felt my cheeks reddening.
"Of course." I said lowering my gaze from piercing blue eyes. It fell on his slightly pursed lips and I quickly looked lower at his impressive chest muscles clearly outlined under a gray t-shirt. It took all I had not to close my eyes.
"Good. Let's head back then. There's a lot to do." He said and turned to walk away. I followed him obediently.
"Jason, we can just leave. Madison is not a soldier..." I knew it was going to be difficult talk, when mom used dad's first name in the very first sentence.
"We could leave if she's done her job." Dad cut her off and I winced.
I sat with my laptop and headset on a sofa in their room, but the playlist ended and I was too busy to start a new one.
Finding out how to access the trove of the Order of St George has taken backseat lately. Also I was hopelessly stuck and didn't dare to tell my dad that. That even at this one thing, that I was good at and that he valued, I have failed.
"Stop it. It's not her job. She could actually get a job, one that wouldn't get her killed or jailed and go to college like a normal girl. I could get a job at a hospital and you could work too, and we wouldn't have to risk our daughter's life to get money that isn't ours!" My mom countered.
"You didn't have any problem risking your life on every mission since she was an infant Amanda. She can handle herself or she'll learn. You've coddled the girl and now the life you've been preparing her for might never happen. It would have been better if she could shoot and take care of herself instead of painting, riding horses and dancing besides typing on her laptop all days." Dad said and I stopped typing, paralyzed by sudden ache in my throat.
I knew I was a disappointment for my dad, being a girl and mom wanting different things for me than a soldier life, but hearing him saying that in such a bitter voice hurt like a stab.
"Stop it! Stop hurting her because you're disappointed with yourself and what you've achieved in your life! The trove is not ours, we need to steal it. I was okay with it, when we were stealing from a corrupt orphans-abusing organization with a hypocrite as a leader. But now... Jason we would have to steal it from these boys, who are just as worthy of these money as you! Maybe they need it more? You've lived outside of the Order, you could walk out today and get a good paying job. I'm not sure I want my daughter's college to be paid with other kid's money..."
Mom said in low voice and then turned to me and said loudly.
"Madison, it's time to fix these nails of yours. I think I want mine done too. Would you find a good nails shop sweetheart?" I nodded, no use pretending that I haven't heard them.
"We're supposed to stay put." Dad said.
"Commander Sebastian God bless him, have just paid me my salary, and I better use it, before I go down in dragon fire with my only child." My mother spat and stormed out to their bedroom. I better got ready too.
It shouldn't matter but having my nails done helped. I sat now in a cozy restaurant and admired my shorter than usually, but absolutely lovely mint colored nails with juicy green palm leaves.
Mom usually had her nails short and plain, because of her job but today she got them extended and painted deep shade of red. She smiled to me and love shone in her hazel eyes.
"My little girl. You are so beautiful." She said.
"Why are you with dad?" I blurted out. I often wondered why my warm and caring mother, who loved fun chose my cold and conservative father. I never commented on their relationship and was scared by my sudden boldness, but also really angry at dad's words earlier today.
But mom just smiled.
"Because I love him." She sighed and her smile became sad.
I knew that mom's parents were flower children and she was a fruit of the free love of the time. My grandpa quickly moved on and left grandma before mom was born. Granny came back home from college without a degree but with child. Her father was a stern, hard working man, who was gravely disappointed in his younger daughter. Granny was depending on him to provide for them most of my mum's childhood and youth.
Mom told me that granny was a creative free spirit, who would save up to take her to see children theatre and music festivals. Grandpa turned up every now and then, charming and sweet only to suddenly disappear again. Granny loved mom, but mom felt humiliated by her grandpa's snarky remarks about her mother's "wasted life", and by worn clothes she inherited from her cousins. So when she met dad, he seemed to be everything she's ever dreamed of. Dutiful and traditional, dad was as different from grandpa as possible and mom finally felt... safe. Granny on the other hand hated dad, until she died, when I was twelve. She called him a Nazi.
I have only seen my grandpa twice, once he showed up to Gran's birthday, drunk and high. I remember that he was very funny and friendly, so I couldn't understand why all the adults including my mother's cousins seemed uncomfortable and angry. Second time he came to granny's funeral. Drunk and low, he cried and shouted. Him and mom had a heated discussion before dad threatened to call the police if he didn't leave.
I understood mom to some extent, no one pushed you around when my dad stood by you. No one touched you... even if you begged them to. Except for Garret...
"Your dad has a good heart. He's just too hooked by the idea of revenge on the Order for his stolen childhood and youth." Mom said in low voice and I wondered if she still believed that.
"Lieutenant St Anthony said that I could refuse to go." I said changing the topic slightly.
"Yes, darling! Please do. A battle is nothing you don't want to miss out on. I've been dragging scorched and mutilated young boys off the battlefields the past fifteen years and I can assure you. It's nothing you want to see." Mom answered immediately leaning forward.
I didn't know how to tell her, that I wanted to. I wanted to prove useful, a force to be reckoned with, a hacker worth of the hype. But instead I said.
"They need my help. We are not going in, we will have a satellite and their security system to warn us about any trouble. Please, let me go." I did not want to break my mother's heart. But I didn't need codling anymore. I wanted to impress dad and Lieutenant St Anthony and Garret...
Mom slumped slightly.
"Fine." She shrugged.
"That's it?" I asked shocked and somehow disappointed.
"That's it. We can pull it off. Me and dad and a couple of soldiers will be with you, if anything goes badly. And just as you said, we are not going in. Should things go spectacularly badly, we just run." She said as if this was nothing and I immediately felt anxious. I'd rather concentrate on fighting for her letting me go, than fearing what would happen, but I wouldn't say that.
"There you go!" I announced proudly as the satellite image of the hatchling school appeared on one of the two computer screens we've set up with Peter in his hotel room, that doubled as a tech room. Hacking into Talon's satellite was easier than expected and I was glad for any success lately.
They were watching us, I've discovered. So they knew about us being in Vegas and maybe about the other hatchling joining us. This was a risk we had to take though, as we had no more dragons available, who could show dragonells there how to escape.
This presented a challenge to our plans. Dragons could glitch and thus leave undetected, but they couldn't take all of us with them. At least not at once. Two days have passed without enough progress and the leaders were starting to act stressed.
"Won't they know you are using it?" Garret asked.
"Right now I am only stealing their footage. If I decided to point it in another direction, they would see something was wrong if someone saw that. Nothing in their system would alarm them to my actions." I said.
"Then let's not do anything just yet." Riley said watching closely the other screen showing our hotel.
"How are we going to exit here and reach the facility without them noticing?" I asked.
"That's your job!" Lieutenant St Anthony said exasperated.
"We are going to mix up some of this footage into 5 minutes of both night time and daytime and play it for them, while the soldiers leave the premises." Peter said smiling at me.
"Mist have been scouting the premises of the facility and found nothing particularly alarming, so they don't expect us to come back at them so quickly after they've nearly destroyed us, or they have set up a trap" Riley added with a charming bad boy smile and winked at me, seeing my worried expression.
"I remember you!" I exclaimed.
The others looked perplexed but now I remembered him from one of the chapterhouses, when I was a little girl. He looked exactly the same and now I was surprised, that I haven't recognized him before. But when our eyes met and he smiled to assure me, something clicked. Now the implications hit me and I felt blood leaving my face and tears in my eyes.
"What were you doing in that chapterhouse?" I choked out surprised at my own reaction and saw Garret's forehead crease as he exchanged worried looks with his Lieutenant.
"Oh, Madison. You are the Madison?" Riley smiled again, probably his knee jerk reaction to stressful situations.
"What is this about?" Peter asked putting his arm around my shoulders protectively, his other hand made a small move towards his gun, but he stopped before he reached for it.
Riley got serious.
"I'm glad you are fine Madison, really. I have never thanked you, but that day you have saved my life twice." He said leaning against the doorframe.
"So not only you've saved me from being captured by the Order of St George, you've saved everybody in that base from being blown into pieces and incinerated with dragon fire. And you've made me leave Talon and start this resistance. I really want to thank you for all of that Madison." Riley finished in serious voice looking into my eyes.
Peter, Garret and St Anthony looked positively horrified by the story of our first meeting. My head swam at the thought of what could have happened. If I didn't help him hide, if I haven't encountered him on his way out... A tight knot formed in my stomach and I had hard time breathing. Peter sent Riley an angry look before he said.
"Let's get on with this mission. Go time is in six hours and we don't even have a complete plan." He said gruffly.
But three an hour later the plan was ready and every soldier and dragon was busy with packing and getting last details in place. Soon all was ready.
I sat with my backpack between my knees in the tech room preparing the velvet glove takeover. In addition to satellites we've mixed 5 minutes of uninteresting footage from each and every security camera on our way out. We had one minute, thirty seconds to reach our car in the underground garage after our footage kicked in. Peter was to stay behind and be our eye in the sky after the footage comes back to normal.
Josh waited for me. I checked everything one last time and started the footage.
"Start." I said to my radio, when I initiated and stood up shouldering my backpack.
I stormed out of the room following Josh and we were at the end of the long throng of soldiers and dragons, each of which have stepped out of their rooms, as soon as the cameras went blind and were now on the way to the evacuation stairs secured by a couple of soldiers for this very purpose. We were only on the third floor and soon we entered the underground parking lot where a valet parked two of the Order's cars close to the exit, Joseph have already changed number plates to some others, that the Order had up their sleeve. Riley, Mist, Kain and Nettle were to drive a rented sedan.
Josh led me to a silver van, where my dad already started the engine and we drove out as soon as I shut the doors behind me.
Our team consisted of me, dad, mom, Josh, Bill and Paul. Mom and dad, because there was no way they'd let me go into fight alone. Josh, Bill and Paul to help defend me, should we get under attack despite all precaution.
We followed the two cars in front of us. We needed to blend into the traffic before the footage returned to live and showed us leaving the hotel.
Josh looked at his stopper, as we left shady basement and drove down the driveway.
My dad took a turn and followed the sedan down one of the side roads leading us out of the city.
"Four thirty..." Josh said as my dad sped through a crossroad on yellow lights.
"... Five minutes." He announced and my dad slowed down slightly. We drove in quite close traffic in silence for another ten minutes.
"What do you say Peter?" My dad asked into the radio.
"No activity. Satellites still point at the hotel and the facility with no change." Came Peter's voice.
"Good. We are on our way to the halfway camp. Keep an eye on Talon." My dad answered and put the radio away.
"Try to relax Madison. It's a long drive." Mom said twisting in the front seat.
I was surprised how tired I was considering, that entire exit took five minutes. The others seemed to be able to dose off when ordered, Paul and Bill pulled their hats over their eyes and leaned their heads back. Josh smiled at me before he did the same. I wondered if he have talked to Garret and dad about leaving, but couldn't dream of outing him by asking questions now.
I leaned my head back but felt anything but comfortable. View of my legs covered in cargo pants and boots kept reminding me of what awaited tomorrow. We were to camp at night. No need to risk showing on some hotel's security camera's footage. I tried to recount the plan but it kept on fraying and in the end I didn't notice, when I too fell asleep.
In my dreams I was a little girl again and met Riley, but he was in his dragon form. I screamed and turned to run as flames engulfed me.
...
Sorry if you feel that the OCs are getting out of control and have taken over this Emret fic. It's just so exhausting to write from Garret's, Ember's and Riley's POVs when they all feel pretty shitty all the time. So please give me some slack and let OCs carry the story to the point, when my OTP has a chance again.