Present

"So, everyone is back, which is great. I was afraid some of us might not make it." I said, looking over the room with everyone who we started with back in the warehouse that was our home base. "From what Jacques told me, we hit nearly all of our targets, which is great. That goes for all of our international counterparts as well."

"Out of the couple hundred safe houses I found, we hit around ninety-five percent of them." Jacques said, as she stood next to me at the front of the room. "Queen is already on the move. She's already thinking about how to fix everything so her plan can still move ahead."

"But she doesn't know what we're going to do next. She might have an idea, but there's no way that she can stop us now." I said, watching everyone in the room. "Thank you, everyone, for your participation so far. What we've already done was the simple part. The security that Queen has will now be focused on the warehouses, which is what we're targeting next. Jacques has already located them all."

"Yes, the international teams already have their assignments and have started their travel and recon. Some teams didn't have two safe houses to hit, so we focused them on the production plants as soon as we could. There's only a handful on each continent, so we'll be able to split into larger teams and have enough difference of skill within each. We need to succeed at destroying these warehouses. We leave even one standing we lose, Dusk will still be distributed and while it will be a smaller group that will ingest it, there is no guarantee that it means all of humanity isn't still in peril." Jacques explained, a laptop tucked under her arm as she started toying with the earrings that followed her entire ear line.

"So, we need to get started on planning and leave as soon as we can to do recon. We once again have a set time that we want to hit all the warehouses. We don't want any warehouse to warn others of a potential attack. We want them going to the air, asking for help and not being able to get it. The aim is not just to destroy these warehouses, but to make sure that any survivors of the Court are too scared to even try anything else." I said, looking around at Micah's men and locking eyes with the Simmons' twin.

"When are we hitting the warehouses?" He asked, his projected through the silent room, echoing off of the iron walls.

"In twenty-three hours. If you have one that is far away, I recommend coming and talking to Jacques, as you will have less time for recon. But you will get access to camera feeds so you can still study security patterns and anything else you will need to know." I explained. He nodded.

"Does everyone already have designated groups they are going to work in?" Jacques asked, Micah nodded, and I looked to my team, who were off to the side.

"Good, let's get to planning, then. I want this place cleared out in an hour. If you need to refill ammo or get more explosives, do so now. You won't get another chance." I said, walking away from the front of the room to stand with my team.

"Are we actually ready to do this?" Leigh asked. I shook my head.

"Doesn't matter. We need to attack at that exact time. It gives us a little extra time in case some warehouses aren't destroyed to help. We simply can't fail, and the best way to do that is to move quickly and get it right the first time." I said, watching Kieran as he nodded.

"What exactly is our plan? Which warehouse are we hitting?" Jaxon asked the question I knew Kieran wanted to ask.

"We are hitting France. It's the biggest one in Europe." I answered, my eyes wandering to land on Esmond.

"And we aren't getting any extra backup?" I heard Alexis ask.

"We have an ex-marine, an MI6 agent, Kieran and Leigh who is big enough to instil fear in anyone."

"What about me?" Jaxon asked. I smiled.

"Well, you might think that safe-cracking isn't important to this mission, but it is. The produced drugs are highly likely locked up, so no idiot takes them. If they are in a safe, then they won't be destroyed with a bomb. We'll need you to crack it open so we can burn it all." I answered. Jaxon nodded.

"Okay, are we taking all of our cars?" Leigh asked. I nodded.

"We need as many getaway vehicles as we can take, just in case something goes wrong, and also so we can split up when we run to confuse any of the Court that's left." I said. Esmond walked towards me.

"That's the entire plan, right?" He asked. I nodded, which was a lie. I knew Queen had moved herself to France after we attacked the safe houses. She needed to be at her biggest warehouse that also happened to be the closest to her backup plan. To her Spanish estate that she would run to when we attacked the warehouse. No one else needed to know that I was going to run after her the second I could, that I would likely take Esmond back to the hotel and then sneak out in the middle of the night to get to Spain and take care of Queen myself. That I would finally get my revenge on her and be able to rest.

"Of course that's the entire plan, what else would we do? Dance through the ashes we leave behind?" I asked in a joking tone, but I tore my eyes away from him too quickly. He would know I was lying. But that didn't matter, because he had lied to me constantly about his plans. This was just to restore the balance between us.

Unless it killed me.