by A and E Kirk
The rest of the Boys looked to Ayden for translation. He looked grim. “It’s not good.”
Matthias said, “I’m guessing they want us to—”
“On your knees,” the man with the megaphone said. “Hands behind your head. No powers.”
Ayden scoffed, flames surging up his arms. “No way.”
Matthias’ grey eyes flicked over the scene. Dozens of unmarked vehicles and Mandatum guards crouched behind open car doors, large guns pointed at the Boys through the open windows. His fallen friends. The red lasers that still quivered on the chests of the four Boys who remained standing.
Matthias shut down his shadows and reluctantly raised his arms. “We surrender.”
Ayden’s head swiveled in a double-take at the Aussie. “What?”
Logan huffed his displeasure, but also raised his hands.
“They didn’t use bullets.” Matthias lowered onto his knees. “They want us alive.”
The Mandatum SWAT team erupted into a flurry of shouts and activity.
“We have no knowledge of whether or not they are working in collusion with Renard,” Jayden hissed, his knives clattering to the ground as he raised his hands.
“Doesn’t matter,” Logan said quietly as he dropped to his knees. “We can’t win this one without Tristan and Blake.”
Jayden nodded and knelt. “Art of War. Lose the battle.”
“So save your strength and power down, Ayden,” Matthias growled. “What are they saying?”
With an aggravated groan and gritted teeth, Ayden lost his flames and thudded onto his knees, fingers laced behind his head. Guns still raised, the Mandatum agents advanced in a speedy crouch. A small team rushed past to climb into the jet. Others headed straight for the Hex Boys and pulled out thick high-tech handcuffs with blinking lights. The Boys winced.
Agents inside the plane shouted something in French.
Ayden swore under his breath.
“What?” Matthias hissed. “What are they saying?”
Two guards grabbed Ayden and threw him down, shoving knees into his back while they clapped the cuffs on.
“They’re saying the prisoners freed themselves,” Ayden grunted.
“What prisoners?” Jayden said.
With his cheek squished against the asphalt, Ayden said in a bleak tone, “Us.”
OPERATION:
Payne-ful Heroics
LOCATION:
Mandatum Paris Headquarters, Interrogation Room
Matthias sat in the austere room. Metal table. Metal chairs. Concrete walls. Florescent lighting. No windows. No clock. The sliding door with no handles was the only thing remarkable about it. That and the beautiful woman sitting across the table from him.
“Agreed?” Sophina Cacciatori said, her sultry voice somehow making even the simplest of words sound sexy.
Matthias nodded.
Sophina stood and knocked on the door. It slid open with a smooth hiss, and she strode past the waiting guard, her heels clicking sharply on the tile floor. “Remove the young man’s restraints and free his team,” she said.
“Ma’am?” The guard’s eyes went wide. “Are you sure?”
Sophina sliced him a scathing look. The guard dropped his gaze. Then she took out her cell phone and tapped with a frenzy. After a hesitant moment, the chastised guard removed Matthias’ cuffs, lead him out of the room, and down the hall. The man paused to put his hand on a futuristic touchpad beside one of the doors. With a beep, it slid open.
Inside another harsh, sterile looking room, Ayden reclined in a metal chair, eyes closed, feet up on the table. “Still got nothing to say, guys.”
Matthias folded his arms across his chest. “Really working that bad boy routine, mate.”
Ayden’s eyes snapped open. His gaping surprise quickly settled in a smirk. “Got a reputation to uphold.”
“Of course you do,” Matthias said. “But you can tone it down. We’re clear.”
The guard walked in and removed Ayden’s cuffs.
He rubbed his wrists. “Seriously?”
Matthias nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Ahhhh.” Ayden didn’t move. He glanced at the table, then the guard. With a wince he said, “Sorry,” and swung his feet off.
The table collapsed with a series of loud bangs and clangs.
Matthias gaped. Sophina rushed to the doorway as the guard jumped back.
“Yeah, that was petty.” Ayden smiled tight and dumped a handful of screws into the guard’s hands. “My bad. Thought you were going to put me in Mandatum jail.”
Sophina slid Matthias an amused look. “Are the rest of your teammates so troublesome?”
“No,” Matthias chuckled nervously as he grabbed a fistful Ayden’s leather jacket and shoved him out of the room. “Just the one.”
Sophina frowned and opened the next door.
Logan froze. He stood on his chair, which was on top of the table. One of the florescent lights hung drunkenly by one wire from the ceiling. Cuffed arms raised overhead, he held a mess of ripped and sparking wires. At Sophina’s entrance, he stopped twisting them together.
“Uh,” Logan said.
Matthias peeked in. “Bloody hell.”
Ayden snorted a laugh.
“Mr. Hough, you are no longer suspects,” Sophina moved down the hall. “Please stop destroying my facility.” She opened the next door, her eyes fluttering in surprise. “Oh my.”
Matthias took a deep breath and stomped down the hall to see what new havoc his team had wrought. Inside, the interrogation table was turned on its side and wedged into the corner. A makeshift fort.
Matthias sighed and stepped in. With a battle cry, Tristan jumped out of hiding against the wall next to the door and slammed a metal chair across the Aussie’s back.
Matthias cried out and slapped to the ground. Sophina stepped aside as Tristan rushed out of the room and thunked into Ayden who grabbed his friend. Panicked, Tristan whacked at him with wild strikes, trying to use his handcuffs as a weapon, his eyes closed as he screamed, “This is not where I die!”
“Whoa! Whoa! Chill!” Ayden dodged the blows.
“Ayden?” Tristan opened his eyes.
Ayden smiled. “We’re free, Rambo.”
“Logan!” Tristan gripped the lapels of the little guy’s shirt as his relief and hyperventilating caused his knees to buckle. “I thought you were guards coming to kill me,” he panted.
“No kidding.” Ayden eyed the fake fort inside.
“You bloody idiot!” Matthias struggled up onto hands and knees, rubbing at his back.
Down the hall, the guard opened the next door and Matthias heard Blake say, “Look. You’re a handsome dude. But I don’t think this is going to work. I’m just too much man for you. Where’s Madame Cacciatori? Your babe-a-licious boss will appreciate my multitude of never-ending charms.”
“Blake, be quiet!” Matthias surged to his feet, then rushed out of the room and down the hall. “No, please, ma’am, let me open the next door.”
But Sophina already had her hand on the touchpad of the final interrogation room. Flustered and moving too quickly, Matthias accidentally knocked Sophina aside and thudded against the doorframe.
The door opened.
Jayden sat at the interrogation table, hands clasped in front of him, a neutral expression on his face.
Matthias sighed with relief.
“Hello.” Jayden glanced from the gaggle of Hex Boys who filled the doorway to Sophina standing behind them. “She believes us innocent and we are no longer considered suspects?”
“Yeah,” Ayden said.
Jayden gave a curt nod. “Excellent work, Matthias.”
“Hey dude, for all you know, it was me.”
Sophina told the guard, “Please remove Mr. Ishida’s restraints. We are transferring the Boys to my office.”
Not about to question his boss’ orders again, the guard shoved past the Bo
ys and into the room. But before he could get to Jayden, the Hex Boy stood and his handcuffs clattered onto the table.
“No need,” Jayden said. “I disarmed mine almost immediately. So, what is our next order of business?”
With a groan, Matthias dropped his face in his hands. The rest of the Boys snickered.
While following Madame Cacciatori through headquarters, the five Boys whispered excitedly until a ferocious growl from Matthias hushed them into silence. After a quick detour to collect their things, Sophina locked them in her office promising to return shortly. The guard would remain outside to ensure their safety until she came back.
After her departure, the silence lasted all of five seconds.
Jayden rushed to peer out the floor-to-ceiling wall of glass overlooking the Divinicus Nex Task Force offices below. “Fascinating! It is exactly as Aurora described.”
Blake eyed the space with awe. “I can’t believe we’re in the gorgeous office of gorgeous Madame Cacciatori and we know more about the Divinicus than she does.”
“Shut up!” Tristan said. “This place could be bugged!”
“Doubtful.” Matthias dropped wearily into a chair in front of Sophina’s desk. “She wouldn’t risk her privacy and it’s highly unlikely Renard would have been able to get a bug in here.”
“Especially since technology is Madame Cacciatori’s specialty,” Jayden added.
Logan pulled a binder off a shelf and flipped through. “We should see if we can find out how close she is to locating Aurora.”
“Excellent idea.” Jayden tugged on the locked drawers of the desk.
“I’m still shocked she believed our story.” Tristan stole a bottle of hand sanitizer off the desk and shoved it into his medical bag.
“I can,” Matthias snorted. “A single high school junior who’s afraid of his own shadow masterminded the bypassing of next generation technology and veteran Mandatum members to sneak in a small, coordinated demon army into a hospital that’s treating his father? After that display of genius back there, I think Cacciatori is more certain than ever that Tristan is an idiot.”
“Hey!”
“That’s not fair,” Blake said.
“Thanks,” Tristan smiled.
Blake nodded. “There are six of us idiots. Not just one.”
“Blake,” Logan groaned.
“But that was the first time any of us besides Tristan had entered the facility in years,” Jayden said. “It would take an inordinate amount of skill to execute a complex plot of that magnitude without ever stepping foot inside. And as Matthias expressed, it appears obvious that we lack such inherently coordinated finesse.”
“And turns out Madame Cacciatori never even wanted to talk to us.” Matthias rubbed his eyes. “She was not too pleased to be ordered to leave her work on The Gathering to come here and deal with us. She thinks Renard pushed that agenda. She’s going to get this place out of lockdown so she can make inquiries to find out if that’s the case.”
“Speaking of Renard,” Ayden said. “Given that her story crumbles under the barest of scrutiny and she’s not an idiot, she must have another plan to get out of this.” He climbed on top of Sophina’s desk, shrugged off his jacket, and flung it onto the floor.
Matthias’ brow furrowed. “What are you doing?”
“Escaping.” Ayden squatted low and laced his hands together. “I don’t want to be here to find out what deadly plan Renard has in store for us next, do you?”
Logan loosened his tie, took a step back, then sprinted forward. He leapt onto the table, then planted a foot in Ayden’s waiting palms. Ayden hefted up. Logan launched airborne and landed on Ayden’s shoulders. Ayden grasped Logan’s ankles and steadied him.
“Stop! Get down.” Matthias winced a look out the wall of glass to the giant space bustling technicians on computers on every level, who were all potential witnesses.
Logan ignored the order and pressed his hands against the ceiling tiles.
Jayden gawked at his brother. “You cannot be seriously positing that we break out of one of the most secure facilities in all of the Mandatum during a lockdown.”
“Better than waiting here for Renard to kill us,” Tristan said as he ditched his bag and hurried to switch off lights.
“Madame Cacciatori would never let that happen,” Blake said. “She may not like you guys too much, but she adores me.”
“For all we know, she is a part of the group that let this place get infiltrated.” Tristan leaned against the desk and peered up. “Anything?”
“I think so.” Logan slid a tile away to reveal a dark square hole.
Logan stepped into Ayden’s palms. Ayden pressed his arms straight up, muscles straining. Logan’s head popped into the darkness above.
“I see a light. Think it’s a vent.” Logan lifted himself up and disappeared into the ceiling. “Leads out of the office.”
“Dammit, get back here,” Matthias hissed.
Tristan hopped on the table. “Is the vent big enough for us to get through?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Jayden said. “The ceiling certainly will not support Blake’s immense weight and since we won’t abscond without him, this entire exercise has nary any point whatsoever.”
“We’ve got our powers back,” Logan’s muffled voice came through the ceiling. “We’re fine.”
Tristan stomped a foot into Ayden’s waiting hands, and Ayden cheerleader-popped the blond up. Logan reached down and hauled Tristan inside the ceiling.
“Get down here now.” Matthias glanced over his shoulder. “That’s a direct order!”
“I’m not dying in some underground facility,” Tristan hissed.
Jayden frowned. “What does altitude have to do with making death more or less acceptable?”
Ayden hopped off the table and landed nose-to-nose with Matthias.
“No one has our backs,” Ayden said. “We can’t trust anyone here.”
Matthias’ lip curled. “You’ve been spending too much time with your girlfriend.”
“We’re ants,” Ayden continued. “Even if Renard gets exposed, the Mandatum could decide a betrayal like Renard’s would be bad press and cover it up. Even if we do everything right, there’s a dozen different scenarios where we could get buried. Too many variables that don’t favor us.” Ayden flicked a look at his brother. “Am I right?”
Jayden grimaced. “Unfortunately, his statement bears a strong element of logic. We could be considered expendable to retain the society’s reputation.”
“The system worked,” Matthias said. “We just got cleared. Sophina went to investigate Renard. We leave, we lose that. We look suspicious. We get investigated. Which would lead them to Aurora.”
“Oh, don’t even bring her into this,” Ayden jabbed a finger. “We are so beyond Aurora right now.”
“What?” Blake said.
“We’re smack dab in the middle of some international conspiracy.” Ayden snatched up his jacket and climbed back on the table. “They could throw us into a black hole. Kill us. No one who cares about us knows where we are or what’s going on.”
“We can’t protect Aurora if we’re imprisoned or dead here.” Jayden climbed onto the table. “Therefore, the long-term consequences of our actions are irrelevant for the moment. We focus on the short-term goal of survival.”
“Exactly.” Ayden tossed up his jacket.
“And if the Mandatum is the benevolent operation Matthias believes it to be, then they will understand and forgive our panicked, juvenile behavior of escaping.” Jayden flashed the Aussie a smile before his twin helped launch him into the reaching arms of Logan and Tristan.
“Our parents are gone,” Ayden said. “Bancroft is gone. Aurora couldn’t help even if she wanted to. Hoping for the best is going to get us killed. Now, get up here and join the escape.”
Matthias gritted his teeth. “No.”
“You’ve been out voted,” Ay
den waved a hand. “Five to one. Let’s go.”
“Four to two, dude,” Blake said. “This is a bad plan.”
“Blake, get up here!” Logan’s muffled voice snapped.
Blake crossed his beefy arms. “But if this place is bad, we have a moral obligation to help Sophina set things straight.”
Logan’s face popped over the edge, red with frustration. “Up. Now.”
“But—”
Logan stabbed a violent finger.
Blake groaned and lumbered up on the desk.
Ayden looked at the Aussie. “We can only make this right if we live another day. So get ready, you’re next.”
Matthias opened his mouth for a retort, but froze when they heard voices outside the door. One belonged to the guard.
“Go!” Blake grabbed Ayden and flung him up.
The Boys above caught Ayden and yanked him into the ceiling. With a frustrated groan, Matthias rushed to climb onto the desk.
“My bag!” Tristan said.
“Forget the bag!” Ayden said.
The door slid open with a hiss. Blake and Matthias jumped off the other side of the desk. The other Hex Boys shoved the ceiling tile back into place. Blake shoved the Aussie under the table while the big guy curled his bulk behind it. The Boys above cracked the ceiling tile an inch and peeked out. Hiding behind the desk, Blake and Matthias couldn’t see who entered.
But they recognized the voices.
Bill and Ted.
Last seen shooting Tristan’s car to smithereens.
With Aurora in it.
Ted swore under his breath and lowered his gun. “She’s not here.”
Bill groaned, dragging in the slumped body of the guard. “So he was telling the truth?”
Ted tapped his ear, then said, “Sophina’s not in her office. We need her location to do the job. What?”
Bill dropped the guard and pressed on his own earpiece. “Where did you say?”
They both began talking to someone with the electronic devices in their ears.
“Okay,” Ted said. “We’ll go take care of her.”
“How long do we wait to kill Cacciatori?” Bill asked.
“Okay. But what should we do until then?” Ted nodded. “Just kill two?”
