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Edith stayed silent for a moment, calculating, no doubt. But eventually, she sighed heavily. “You know I’ve always got your back, newbie.”

I exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Edith.”

“But if you’re going to ask me to let you kiss Jay, Iwillslap you.”

“Shut up!” somebody chided.

Edith sat up in bed and looked around. “Who was that? Iwillcut you. Just ask Calista…that bitch got it good!”

Before I knew it, pillows were flying in the room as a gang of girls attacked Edith and me with pillows. It was the least of my problems.

Because tomorrow…tomorrow we’d finish it.

74: Incognito

The blades of the Blackhawk helicopter thrummed in the sky, flying 175 miles per hour, bringing us ever closer to the Telvian border. It was all coming down to this.

Northern troops had already deployed hours before us in broad daylight, and we flooded the Telvian communication systems with everything we had, sending mixed messages of imminent attack. We wanted them to know we were coming and exactly where we intended to hit. We wanted them to come get us and hit us with everything they had. Because every soldier, every REG official, every Telvian Enforcement officer that was at the wall was one less we would face when we infiltrated REG Command.

And we wanted the panic.

We wanted the citizens of Telvia to know what was happening and to lose their freaking minds, taking to the streets, and creating nothing but havoc.

The more chaos, the better.

The easier it would be to slip in among the crowd.

And we were ready.

Bullet-proof vests, knives, stunners, and pistols all concealed under ordinary clothing. Tactical vests hid under coats and sweaters. Backpacks shielded ammo and extra battery clips from view. Hats and sunglasses concealed our faces as much as possible. I even dyed my hair blonde.

Incognito.

Each one of us had a new identity. Retinal scans would identify us as anyone but who we really were. The real trick was making sure no one saw Jacob. Because the second someone recognized the First Son of Telvia, the gig would be up, game over.

That’s why chaos was our new best friend. And the more we created, the better.

And we were going to createsomuch of it.

“We drop in ten!” The pilot reported back to us. “Dissenter forces on the inside have reported that District 1 is in the process of evacuations. You’re going to access tunnel B35. It should let you out on Cameron Street inside of a clothing store.”

“Cameron Street? That’s a mile from the REG office,” I said.

“That’s right. Cameron Street’s already been evacuated,” the pilot confirmed.

“What about the REG? Are they still there?” Jacob questioned.

“Don’t know. Source says they haven’t evacuated the city center yet, but there’s talk of evacuating Command to another office in District 2.”

“Shit,” Jacob muttered as he leaned back in his seat.

“What?” Edith asked. “What’s the problem? Wouldn’t that be better for us?”

Jacob ran his hand through his hair. “Once they begin evacuations, they’ll move all the lab computers and prototypes to another location.”

“So,” Jay retorted. “I bet I can access the mainframe from any computer in Command.”

“No!” Jacob shot out too forcibly, and everyone looked at him. Recognizing his mistake, he cleared his throat. “No,” he repeated, softer this time. “That won’t work. We’ve got to get there before they evacuate the REG or all bets are off.”