Chapter 108 108

Chapter 108 108
Kaelen's POV:
The motel smelled like someone had smoked about forty thousand cigarettes in here and then tried to cover it up with one of those pine tree air fresheners... but it didn't work. The carpet had a stain near the bathroom that looked like, I don't know, coffee or blood or something I didn't wanna think about too hard.
Marlen was on one bed with her legs crossed, picking at a loose thread on her jeans. Lucian kept pacing by the window. Back and forth. Back and forth. I wanted to tell him to sit the fuck down but I couldn't, 'cause I'd been doing the same thing until my chest started hurting so bad I had to stop.
Four days since the cabin. Four days since—
Nope. Not going there.
"Okay." Marcus dumped a bunch of papers on the other bed. Blueprints or whatever, printed on regular paper, covered in handwritten notes with red ink. "This is what my new contact got us."
I got up. The pain in my chest pulled with every step, right where the harpoon had gone through, and I ignored it because what the hell else was I gonna do. I sat on the edge of the bed next to the papers.
Floor plans. Security schedules. Entry points circled in red. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about believing in that new contact he had after the last one had sold us. But, what else did we have?
"Main facility," Marcus said. "Underground. About six hours northeast, in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. On the surface it looks like some industrial plant, water treatment or some shit. But everything real is below ground."
"Kansas." Lucian stopped pacing. "That's far."
"That's the point. They bring dragons here from everywhere. It's their only major hub, their headquarters." Marcus tapped one of the blueprints with his finger. "I was there when they had me. I know what it's like inside."
"Twenty-five years is a long time," Marlen said. Flat voice. Analytical. "They would've changed things."
"They did. That's why I needed new intel." He pulled out another paper, typed this time. "Guard rotations are different now. New security, motion sensors, electronic locks, the whole deal. But the structure's the same. Three levels underground. Cells on the bottom, extraction rooms in the middle, admin and surface access on top."
I stared at the blueprints. Tried to memorize them. Tried to make my brain do something useful instead of just repeating Annabeth Annabeth Annabeth like a broken record.
"How do we get in?" I asked.
"We don't. Not the normal way." He pointed to a spot on the east side. "Main entrance here. Cameras, checkpoints, guards with big guns. Anyone goes through there, they get logged, searched, everything. Can't infiltrate."
"So what, we knock and ask nicely?"
Marcus looked at me. His eyes flickered red for half a second, then back to normal.
"That's exactly what I'm gonna do."
"What?"
"I escaped from there twenty-five years ago. Killed fourteen people on my way out." He said it like he was talking about the weather. "They know my face. They know my name. They know what I can do. Second I show up at that front door, every guard in the building comes running."
Marlen's head snapped up. "That's suicide."
"It's a distraction."
"Same thing."
"Not if it works." Another paper, this one showing ventilation systems. "While they're busy with me, someone goes in through here. Service tunnel on the north side, connects to the vents, comes out near the control room. That's where they run the suppression system."
"Suppression?" Lucian asked.
"How they keep us powerless inside. Some kind of frequency or signal, I don't know the tech shit. But it blocks our abilities. Can't shift, can't use fire, nothing. Turn that off and every dragon in the building wakes up at once."
I thought about Annabeth in a cell somewhere. Powerless. Probably thinking I was dead.
The bond was still silent. Had been since the attack. I kept reaching for it anyway, kept hoping maybe this time I'd feel something, just a flicker, anything.
Nothing.
"I'll do it," I said. "The ventilation shaft."
Marcus nodded like he expected that. "Tunnel's tight. You go in human form, can't shift until you're inside and the suppression's down. Your chest—"
"I can handle it."
"Kaelen—"
"I said I can handle it."
Marlen gave me that look. The one where she wanted to argue but knew it wouldn't help.
"What about us?" she asked. "We're not staying behind."
"You're backup." Marcus said it before I could. "Wait outside, north side, near the service entrance. Things go wrong, you're extraction. Things go right, you're our exit."
"Backup." Her voice went flat. "You want us to just... wait."
"I want you ready. Your brother almost died four days ago. This goes sideways, someone needs to get him out."
"I don't need—" I started.
"Yes you do." Marlen cut me off. "You can barely walk across the room without it hurting. I can see it in your face every time you move. So don't, okay? Don't pretend you're fine."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to say I didn't have time to not be fine, that Annabeth was in there, that every hour we waited was another hour they could be hurting her.
But she was right. I wasn't fine. The wound was closed but the tissue underneath was still raw because I was still too weak. My siblings had saved my life but they couldn't heal me all the way, not in one session, and we'd been moving too much for them to try again.
"Fine. Backup. But if I call—"
"We come," Lucian said. "Obviously."
Marcus started gathering the papers. "We leave tonight. Six hour drive, hit the facility before dawn. Shift change at six AM, that's when security's most distracted. I go in front, you go in back, find the control room, kill the suppression. Once that's down, every dragon in there gets their powers back. Should be enough chaos for us to find Annabeth and get out."
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"There's something else," I said.
Marlen looked at me. She always noticed things, Marlen. Always saw more than she should.
"What?"
"The facility. It's where they take dragons they want to keep alive. For... for extraction. Long-term."
Silence. Lucian stopped moving.
"So?" Marlen said, but I could tell she already knew where this was going.
"So if Mom and Dad are alive..." I swallowed. "They'd be there. In that building. The one we're going to."
The ice machine hummed in the hallway. Someone's car alarm went off in the parking lot, three short beeps, then stopped.
Lucian's face went blank. That careful nothing expression he'd had since he was ten years old.
"You're saying, if they're alive, they're there in Kansas..." Marlen said slowly.
"Yeah."
"In the place we're about to attack."
"Yeah."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she stood up, walked to the bathroom, and closed the door. Didn't slam it. Just... closed it. Click.
Lucian was still at the window. Staring at nothing.
"Lu—"
"Don't." His voice cracked. "Just... not right now, okay? I need a minute."
I wanted to say something, talk about the remote possibility that our parents could be alive. But the words got stuck somewhere in my throat and Marcus was already putting the papers in a folder.
We sat there in silence for a while. The ice machine kept humming. A truck drove past on the highway, headlights sweeping across the ceiling.
Marlen came out of the bathroom maybe fifteen minutes later. Her eyes were red but her face was back to normal. Composed. Controlled.
"What time do we leave?" she asked. Like nothing happened.
"Three hours," Marcus said. "Rest if you can."
"Can't."
"Then eat. Gas station across the street had sandwiches that didn't look completely like shit."
She grabbed her jacket, but stopped at the door.
"If they're there," she said without turning around. "If they're alive and we get them out. I'm gonna be so fucking angry at the universe, you know? Five years thinking they were dead. Five YEARS."
"I know."
"And then I'm gonna hug them so hard their ribs crack."
"I know."
She opened the door. "Lucian. You coming or what?"
He pushed off from the window. Didn't look at me when he walked past. Just followed her out, the door swinging shut behind them.
Marcus waited until their footsteps faded.
"They're scared," he said. "That's all. Scared to hope."
"Yeah."
"They'll be okay."
I didn't answer. Just sat on the bed and stared at the blueprints. Memorized every line, every turn, every route from the shaft to the control room.
Six hours to Kansas. Then the facility. Then I'd find Annabeth or die trying.
I reached for the bond again. Habit at this point. That place where she should be, that warmth I'd gotten used to.
Nothing. Silence.
But silence wasn't the same as gone. Silence just meant waiting.
I could wait. I could fight through the silence and the fear and the pain in my chest that wouldn't stop.
I could do that. For her. For my parents. For all of us.
The bond stayed quiet. But I kept reaching anyway.