Fear Itself

“Brothers and sisters, we have gathered you today around our table to discuss with you the plans of our latest operation.”

While the mission was supposedly open to the entire Resistance, not many people were today. We came with the knowledge that a roster would be decided for the robbery of Karpov Military Supplies Warehouse, supposedly to gather and steal a massive amount of firearms and ammunition in preparation for the storming of the Atlantis Testing Facility. Dean and Sam, positioned in front of a large whiteboard, stood before a table of few, no more than twenty. Some were very familiar faces: Alex and Harley mostly. Dean and Sam stood in front of the group, briefing us, though Dean was doing most of the talking. During role call, I soon discovered the identities of some of the strangers.

The older, blonde man seated furthest from us, a man with cold, icy blue eyes, was a man simply known as Garrett. According to Avery, he was once a man with an impressive military career, a man who was very good friends with Conor Kennedy. The current Commander, his son, Clinton, was not fond of that. Avery said Clinton Kennedy had some underlying “daddy issues,” so once Conor Kennedy died in his sleep six months ago, Clinton’s first order of business was accusing Garrett of treason and banishing him to live among West London. Avery had his fair share of run-ins with Garrett, considering he turned to a life of crime (mostly assassinations) to make ends meet. He was ruthless and cold, certainly not a man one wanted to cross, and now, Kennedy was in his sights.

Leonard Larson, chestnut-haired and blue-eyed, sat nearby but much closer to the table, almost right beside me, actually. Larson was somebody I was growing to like. We only had a few conversations, really, not much besides his work as a geneticist and a professor at the University College London. Considering he was one of the enlightened few I had met, I enjoyed asking him questions, and he had no problem answering them for me, though he had a habit of wanting to shelter me, much like everyone else. He wasn’t all too fond of the fact that Avery taught me how to shoot a gun, but he and Avery seemed to be decent friends. That was nice. I liked to think that Avery had friends. I just hated seeing him alone. Other than being a genius, Avery told me that Larson used to work in the military, and he was good friends with Garrett. Larson seemed to adhere to a stricter moral code than Garrett. Avery said Larson has a hard time killing without justification. Garrett didn’t care quite as much.

Emma Kerry, despite her soft-sounding name, was not very soft at all. In fact, she scared me a little, though not enough to deter me from asking for her whole life story. Apparently, Emma was experimented on in the Atlantis Testing Facility, and she wanted to take it down for personal reasons, which made her suitable ally, at least for this mission. She didn’t seem very concerned with the Brotherhood otherwise. She was quiet, dark-haired, and intimidating. Avery said that a couple weeks ago, Garret and Larson brought him to break her out of an asylum for the criminally insane. I didn’t know much about her. She wasn’t very talkative.

Most of the others, I never stopped to talk to. There were a few gathered around Harley, otherwise known as her “squad,” who always accompanied her on missions. Ryan Fox was 25 year old ex-homeless man who joined up with the Brotherhood in exchange for shelter, originally. They were the leaders. The whole group, all five of them, lived down in the tunnels because they were “red-listed,” which Avery said meant that the League really wanted you dead. They had been captured by the League but escaped. Apparently, that’s a rare feat. One of Harley’s boys, Elijah Griffith, was rendered blind before they managed to get out. There were two others there, Lola Brady, who didn’t talk at all, and Shane Brady, who talked way too much. Siblings, they’d said.

That was about it. We were the only ones who showed up. Dean was attempting to pull off a large scale weapons heist with only 13 potentially-willing volunteers. Technically 12, since we all knew that Sam wasn’t going to do anything.

“As you all know,” Dean continued. “We plan to rally the masses of West London in order to take down the Atlantis Testing Facility and release the prisoners back into the world so they can rain down upon the League in a glorious firestorm of unbridled rage.”

“That was eloquent,” Sam muttered.

“Thank you,” Dean replied with a cheeky grin. “Anyway, I now hand you over to the not-so humble hands of Alexander Devlin, the mastermind behind this heist and also the team leader for this mission.” He held out an arm to present Alex, who came to stand in front of us all as Dean and Sam took seats at the table.

“The idea is pretty simple,” Alex began, reaching for a marker and uncapping it. “We need to get inside the building, take out staff and security, and eventually smuggle out somewhere between four and five thousand weapons… probably about the same amount of ammunition. We’re expecting a large turn-out for the testing center riot, and we need to give the rioters something to riot with, and we can use whatever is left over to arm ourselves for later operations. Getting down to business, there are a few key roles that need to be filled before we can get underway.” He began to scribble a list of roles down on the whiteboard.

“First, and most importantly, we need the muscle. We need someone to shoot and intimidate. They should be shooting to kill, first and foremost, if we want this plan to succeed. You will all be armed when you go in here, regardless, but this brave soldier will be taking the brunt of the fire. It’s your job to deplete the number of threats, especially upon immediate entrance. So do we have a willing participant?” Garrett almost immediately raised his hand but said nothing. “Brilliant,” Alex mused as he wrote Garrett’s name on the board.

“Second comes the transporter. We’ve contacted somebody in Bristol willing to let us use their van specifically for this. Whoever is acting as our getaway driver must be willing to drive fast and furiously. You need to get us there, and you get us out. The most important part of this is that we get the goods into the back of the van and get them back here safely. For that reason, we must ask that our getaway driver also be ready to shoot and kill if necessary.”

“I’ll do it,” Larson offered, nodding upward a little.

“Fantastic,” Alex said, adding his name to the list. “Our inside man is Dean, considering he’s a cherished customer,” he explained as he scribbled on the board. “Members of the team will be receiving a building layout from him in a little bit.” He cleared his throat. “Last, and probably most importantly, we need to get into that vault. That’s where the goldmine is. That’s our target, and anybody on this mission is charged with making sure that the locksmith can do their job and the safe is cracked. That’s the most important part of this mission, and whoever signs on for this is key for the success—“

“I’ll do it!” I chimed in, met with dead silence and a whole lot of stares.

“Princess,” Avery murmured, giving this look that said ‘you really shouldn’t be doing this.’

“What?” Alex murmured. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No. You can’t.”

“Why not?” I implored, awfully offended. “Everybody else volunteered and signed on no problem. Why can’t I?”

“This… I mean… Tali, you can’t—“ Sam stammered, but Dr. Larson cut him off.

“You’re going to get hurt, Tali,” he explained. “We really just don’t think this is a position you should be putting yourself in.”

“I think we should let her,” Dean said just loud enough to overpower the other voices. “She’s damn good at picking a lock. Have you seen her go to work? With a bobby pin, mates. A bobby pin.”

“I refuse to let a child run into a firefight,” Alex explained defensively. It was funny. All of these people were arguing about me, but none of them were looking at me, except Larson, who since quieted down.

“Excuse you,” I interjected. “I am not a child.”

“Okay,” Alex admitted, sighing. “You’re still way too young and inexperienced to be going on this mission.”

“But how can I gain experience without going on a mission?” I begged, and everything went quiet again, at least until Dean spoke.

“I still think Blondie should go,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “She’ll be fine. Garrett’s a great shot, Larson knows what he’s doing, and since you’re team leader, I suppose any sort of mistake would be resting on your head,” he commented with a cheeky grin. Alex just rolled his eyes and groaned a little.

“So, I guess that settles it, then,” I stated triumphantly, smiling wide as Alex added my name to the board.

“Alright, we’ve got our team together—“

“I’m goin’ too,” Avery grumbled.

“But we don’t have anymore room,” Alex argued nervously.

“I’m going,” he repeated.

“…Swell,” Alex chuckled as he turned to the whiteboard, hand searching for somewhere to write Avery’s name until he settled on a blank space in the corner. “Alright, everyone,” he said as he turned around and popped the cap back on the marker. “If you have signed on for this mission, we expect you here in two days, bright and early, eight-thirty AM. We’ll go over the rest of the gritty details, then.”

Everyone began to disperse, but I turned to Avery, who didn’t look all that enthused, and I gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “Well, this should fun,” I giggled.