Present

To say I felt relief would be an understatement. I had sent out the message that the mission was a success, that not even one warehouse was left standing. It felt like I could breathe for the first time in years, because this didn't just mean that the world was going to survive through New Year, it meant I was free. By destroying all the warehouses and all the safe houses, the people that worked for Queen would either all be dead or in hiding. She hadn't just failed at her plan; she had just lost all of her power.

There was no one left to do her dirty work.

The investors would be livid that the plan failed. The people who invested money into positions of safety would come for their money back. They would come to wipe their names off of this mess and made sure that no one ever finds out they were involved. I assumed that it also meant they would send people after Queen, because no one can manipulate as many people as she did, fail and live to tell the story of their failure.

Not that any hitmen would get to her in time, because I was watching the cameras for her movement from the hotel she was staying in the south end of France. I probably could have sent that address to Max, to get this over with sooner, but when we had talked about it more after the safe houses, she had expressed the need to do it at the estate. She wanted Queen to feel safe, to feel like she was going to make it through, because that would make her a softer target. And it would create the most amount of trauma.

All I was doing was watching the screens. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep until I had messaged Max. Maybe not even until she messaged me to say that Queen was dead. Even after destroying everything Queen had left, there was still an irrational fear that she could bounce back from it all. That she could still find someone to cling to, to have me and anyone else targeted for going against her.

That was when I heard the alarms go off for movement at the entrance to the warehouse I was sitting in. Shit.

I picked up the handgun that was on my table next to the computer and took off the safety, readying it in my hands and lifting it to the zone the warning had come from. The front door. Bold of whoever was breaking in and coming to kill me.

"Who's there?!" I shouted, but what I hadn't expected was someone to answer my question.

"Jacqueline, is that you?!" The voice shouted back.

"Ciara?" I asked as I saw a shadow move towards me. Their hands were up as they slowly came into the light.

"Will you put the gun down?" It was Ciara, who was eyeing the handgun I still had pointed at her.

"Uh, yes." I responded, putting the gun down on the table and putting the safety back on. She smiled as she dropped her hands and walked over to me.

"I called Micah, asked where I could meet him because I wanted to see him before the end of the world. He told me to come to Austria and would give me the address when I got here. So I landed, and I called him again. He told me the mission was a success and then to come here. That you would take care of me until everyone came back." She said. I smiled back at her. God, she was gorgeous.

"Of course I'll take care of you." I said, trying to shake my brain cells back into place. I needed them to work if I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of her. "And yes, the mission was a success. No zombie apocalypse for planet earth this year."

"Thank god." She let out a deep breath as she walked over to me, looking down at my short frame. Not only was she as gorgeous as a goddess, she was taller than me too by a solid five inches. Good.

"You know it still wouldn't have been your fault if it happened, right?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Doesn't matter now, especially since I have this for if any Dusk slipped through." She pulled out a bag full of vials. I looked at her in shock.

"Is that... is that a cure?" I asked her, her smile became even brighter.

"Well, it has to be administered within twenty-four hours of the patient ingesting Dusk, but yes. It's a cure with a ninety-eight percent success rate." She said, and I took a hold of the bag, the glass vials clinking against each other as I looked at the seemingly normal objects.

"And I thought I was a genius." I said, the liquid inside the vials was clear, like it could be water, but I knew better. This liquid could save lives if any Dusk tablets slipped through the gaps.

"You are. You found all the safe houses and production warehouses of Dusk."

"What if one slipped through, though?" I asked, as it was something I was panicking about. I had done all I could to find every single place I could, but what if I missed one?

"Well, I doubt that, it would mean Queen's outsmarted you, which I don't think is possible." She told me.

"Why are you here? Would it not be better to have the cure in London where it can be easily dispersed-"

"I had to run from MI6." Ciara said. I had to blink slowly.

"What?"

"The Director, they were in on the plan with Queen. I got the evidence for it too, but they found out and were going to come after me, so..."

"How did you get out?"

"Burn protocol." She said like it meant something. I looked at her in confusion. "When security is threatened by a presence that is in my lab, it instigates Burn Protocol. It burns it all to the ground. Burn protocol of the lab then starts burn protocol for the entire building. Thing is I can activate it from a distance. So I did."

"Merde. Are you okay?"

"Yes, but I need to talk to Esmond because I know how to move forward and destroy MI6 completely. He needs to know because he is the Director's choice to be promoted as the next Director."

"They're in France right now, but will be in Spain soon."

"Why? The mission's done, isn't it?"

"Max wants to..."

"She's going after Queen, isn't she?" Ciara asked. I nodded.

"She's waiting for me to tell her that Queen is on the move." I said. She nodded slowly.

"Can we meet them there? I don't want to wait any longer than I have to." I let out a slow breath.

"Okay. I know someone who can fly us down on a small plane, or we can get a car and drive. But only after I've seen Queen move." I said as Ciara watched the computer screen.

"Is that her moving?" She asked. I turned to look at the screen and saw Queen's blonde hair in the minimal light of the hotel carpark.

"Yes, yes, it is."