Chapter 56: The Plan That Could Get Them All Killed

Chapter 56: The Plan That Could Get Them All Killed

"No choice," Jake said. "We've lost too many. We can't allow her to keep infecting that many with Seraph. The longer we wait, the more turn against us. We have to cut them off at the snake's head."

"And how do we do that?" Rico questioned, his tone oozing skepticism. "She's got her lab more secure than Fort Knox. Guards, security grids, never mind the Seraph-powered drones."

"We use what we have," Mia answered, her finger tracing along the map. "The underground network supplied us with schematics. We've got the map, the security systems, the guard rotation. We can turn it back on them."

Fountain ceased typing and looked up at Jake, his expression severe. "I have found out where the Seraph factory is. It's in the middle of the lab, guarded by soldiers. Getting in will be difficult, an exit even more so."

"We'll create diversions," Jake ordered, detailing the plan. "Snipe at her from overwatch, draw her troops away from the main lab. Zane, Fountain, you two disable the security grid. Mia, Rico, you two are with me. We get in quiet and grab the formula."

"And if we botch it?" Zane growled, his voice tense.

Jake's eyes flashed at him. "Then we make her wish she'd never lost a single life."

Jake's jaw was clenched. "And what are you going to do? Run? Hide?" He exhaled bitterly. "We've been playing catch-up long enough. If we don't take the fight to her, she'll just keep picking us off one by one."

Fountain coughed, the coughing dying in the back of his throat, and the others looked at him. "Lisa's fortress is not a house or an underground bunker. It's a fortress. Walled, top-of-the-line surveillance, and a team of enforcers who'd die before they'd betray her. But I can get in."

Rico smiled, crossing his arms. "Oh, great. And now you're supposed to be trusted? Everything you've ever proposed we've witnessed up until now has resulted in nothing but growing and growing violence."

Fountain flinched but held his ground. "I know I’ve made mistakes. But this… this is our only chance. Lisa has a vault beneath her stronghold. That’s where she keeps everything—the obedience drug formula, blackmail on every pack leader, and most importantly…"

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Proof that she’s planning to overthrow every pack. She doesn’t just want control over a few enforcers. She wants an empire."

There was silence in the room. 

It was shattered by Mia. "If we can obtain this proof, we can turn this around. The other packs are not going to just sit idly by and allow Lisa to tell them what they are going to do if they know what she is going to do."

"And what's to stop her from killing us first and then revealing us?" Zane fired back immediately, his voice incredulous.

Fountain took a deep breath. "She does have a failsafe. A secret laboratory in her complex where she keeps a concentrated dose of the drug. If she ever loses control, she'll give it to them—reducing all her werewolves to mindless drones."

Jake slammed his fist onto the table. "Then we remove it. We break in, we steal the proof, and we bring that complex crashing down."

Zane glared at him. "And how do we get out? You think Lisa just going to let us go?"
Fountain's face fell. "That's the part I'm still working on."

Rico laughed bitter. "Brilliant. We break into a fortress full of guards, steal the one thing Lisa can't live without, sabotage her most treasured possession, and then pray like madmen that somehow we all get out alive."

"I never said it would be easy," Fountain admitted. "But it can be done. We have something Lisa doesn't."

Jake's eyebrow flickered. "What?"

Fountain smiled. "Me."

The team exchanged glances.

"Lisa thinks I'm dead," Fountain told them. "I was doing work for her, following competition packages. When I found out what she had in mind, I staged my own death and left town. She's unaware that I'm alive, let alone sneaking into her company. I can handle security in front of you long enough for the rest of you to get in."

Zane's eyebrows contracted. "And what do you do when she discovers you're not dead like she thinks you are?"

Fountain's expression darkened. "Then I don't come back."

Jake's head was shaking. "That isn't going to happen. We all go down together. Nobody gets left behind."

Fountain glanced over at him briefly, then nodded, but the spark in his eye gave him away.

Mia took a slow breath. "Alright, we do this. We'll need to create some diversion to take out most of Lisa's enforcers."

"Leave that to us," Zane said to her. "We'll create enough disturbance to pull them off."

"You take the security override," Fountain said to him. "You just get to the vault."

Jake looked around at the group of faces, his own in turn meeting each of them. "This is it. Win or lose it all."

They each nodded in turn. It was crazy. Crazy. Maybe suicidal.

But it was their only option left.

And they were not going to let it slip away now