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“Then we ditch them. We separate ourselves from them, and we get to the lab.” He squeezed my hands. “Mara,please. I have to fix this. I have to fix what I’ve done. And I don’t trust anyone to destroy the tech except for you and me. Help me do this. Help me fix what I’ve done.”

I sighed, feeling the heavy weight he was placing on me. He wasn’t wrong. I knew he was absolutely right. No one should have the nanochip technology. No one should have the power tocontrol people this way.Nobody. Not Sasha, not the East, and definitely not Charles. “Okay. We’ll separate from everyone, and we’ll destroy it all.”

Jacob’s eyes glistened, tears in his eyes as he cupped my face in his hands and kissed my forehead. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” I muttered, giving him a weak smile. He stepped away from me. “Hey, Jacob?”

“Yeah?”

I had a lingering question, one that weighed heavy on my heart. I was afraid to ask him, but I had to know. “What are the chances we make it out of the REG building alive?”

His brows furrowed as he rubbed his lips, looking away from me. It didn’t take a genius to know what that meant. It meant our odds were pretty low, and I didn’t really like those odds.

“That high, huh?” I joked half-heartedly, looking at the bruising on my knuckles.

“Hey,” he whispered, taking my chin in his hand and lifting my eyes to meet his blue ones. “No matter what happens, we can do it. We can handle anything as long as we stick together. You got that? And nothing will keep me from you again. I’m with you, Mara. And I’ll always be with you.”

Moisture filled my eyes. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that this very well might be the end of the road for us both. And the thought filled me with sorrow. I had made such a mess of my life. A mess that hurt the ones I loved most, and there was little time to make any of it right again.

“Hey,” he whispered, drawing my attention back to him. “It ends with us, okay? No matter what happens, we finish it.” He smiled, taking me into his arms and hugging me as though he hadn’t seen me in a thousand years. And it felt so good to feel his strength again, to feel the security that my brother always represented for me. I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his chest, and allowed myself this moment because Jacobwas right. Whatever happened tomorrow, it was going to end. I was going to make sure of it.

73: Honey-Baked Hams

Islumped into my bed in the barracks, utterly exhausted and emotionally spent. It was our last night before the mission, and I was allowed to spend it at Fort Warren. I was so grateful for it too, because the last thing I wanted was another surprise visit from Charles.

I was so overwhelmed by everything, though, and I didn’t even know what to do. After meeting with Jacob, I found out from Giza that the team would be Edith, Jeremiah, Wes, some guy called Geo, Jacob, and myself.

Matias wanted to go—insisted on it—but they gave him orders to hold back and take PTO. He was still recovering from his injuries at the tower, and with his current limp, he was in no condition to fight. Edith was probably the most prepared and had the most vigorous training since she had been doing the hell games with us. And, of course, she wanted to kick Telvian ass and was hellbent on doing this mission since they cut her out of the last one. So she was in.

Jeremiah—or Jay as he liked to be called—and Geo were tech experts. Their primary job was to upload the virus that everyone thought would destroy the nanochip technology into the Telvian mainframe. What theydidn’tknow was that the virus was a fake. It wasn’t going to destroy NIT-V2. It was going to give Charles control of it.

Wes wasn’t supposed to go. Like Matias, he was told to stay behind and take PTO since he was still recovering from Operation Silent Night. His answer, of course, was to flip the middle finger and enlist himself. Giza didn’t even try to argue with him.

That was our team. I didn’t know who Bynes’s operatives were, but in the end, nobody could know what Jacob and I were doing…not even Wes. Involving them made them accomplices and placed their lives at risk from Charles. And Charles had made it very clear to me that if I told anyone, he was going to kill them all. I couldn’t risk their lives.

But I needed somebody to help me…at least a little bit. And the only one I trusted for the job was Edith. I knew when the time came, I could count on her to help me get the team home safely. Because whether they were Charles’s operatives or not, in the end, they were just soldiers doing their jobs. It wasn’t their fault, and they all needed to get home alive.

I rolled onto my back, rubbing my eyes, staring at the ceiling of the barracks. There was one thing left I wanted to do, but I was out of time. I wanted to talk to Wes. The thought of going on this mission, probably dying, and leaving him without the truth…it crushed me. Stung like the venom of a thousand bee stings to the heart. But I didn’t know what Charles had planned for me or Jacob if we returned. And truthfully, I wasn’t sure I wanted to return.

Charles Calvernon was a wildcard, I realized. Absolutely crazed with the thought of power and more power, andincredibly unpredictable. He was no better than Raúl. That’s why the nanochips had to be destroyed. Although I was slowly trusting Sasha, I sure as hell didn’t trust Charles. And right now, the person who held the power was him, because Sasha depended on him for the survival of her rebellion. In the end, I feared she would acquiesce to whatever he wanted. And what he wanted was going to be no good.

“Psst!”

I turned to see the bunk next to me. “What’s up?”

Edith turned on her side under her covers to face me. “You’re still up.”

I looked back at the ceiling. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“Can’t sleep?”

I swallowed, my mind still whirling with thoughts. “No.”

“Nervous?”

I stayed silent a tick. “No.”

“Liar.”