I reached an area where the tunnel branched off into three directions. Nelson would eventually find the trap door and could be right on my heels, so I had to be fast and choose which direction to go in carefully.

A black piece of ripped cloth was taped to the wall of the left branch of the tunnels, which made me perk up. The Black House must be that way. I ripped off the piece of cloth and tore it up as I ran down the tunnel as fast as I could. 

As I did I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. A familiar paw reached down beckoning, and I ran faster. Once I was in arms reach I jumped up and Leo caught my arm, yanking me up through the trap door on his side and dropped me into the little storage room that he had been waiting in. 

He closed the door with his tail and we both pushed a nearby chest over it to slow down anyone who might have been trailing behind.

 

“Boy am I glad to see you,” Leo grinned, his canines glinting in the low light. 

“Same here, I can’t believe Nelson defaulted, he was so looking forward to being a librarian like you,” I said and gave my foster brother a half hug. He ruffled my hair affectionately and then nodded to the ladder at one end of the room, indicating that we should start climbing. 

“I didn’t realise it until 4 am this morning when I saw him fall in with the other assassins during the morning exercises. He never wakes up that early so, they must have stuck a deal with him that he couldn't refuse,” Leo said as he leapt up and scaled the ladder.

I followed after him, taking a look at my surroundings. This room seemed to be in the centre of the house somehow and stretched all the way to what looked like some kind of grinder.

“This is an indoor house mill if you are wondering,” Leo said as he sat at the top, watching me look around in curiosity. 

“Ah I see," I replied and ceased my inspection to finish climbing the ladder.

 Leo was at the top in what was a small watch tower space. There was just enough space to sit two people scrunched up, as the room was very low, and slanted at an angle that would make it hard for people to see into the room easily, we were protected from sight from the average onlooker, and we could see out at the town from every angle, making it a great vantage point to discuss our next move. 

“It’s 7:30 already, we are running out of time” Leo growled as he nodded to the town clock that was showing half past 7 on its clock face. 

“Do you have a plan?” I asked as I scanned the streets. Everything was chaos down there. I could see teens getting nabbed left and right.

 Those whose parents had paid the Winter assassins to abduct their foster children before they reached the job fair, were hanging out of their windows, not even pretending to care as their kids were tackled and dragged away into houses where they were probably bound and kept there until 5pm, their hopes at a new life away from their controlling guardians nipped in the bud.

“We could burn this town to the ground” Leo growled as he watched a bunny girl being picked up and run away with like she was a bag of rice.

“Well that won’t do, at least Margaret should still get to live, even if it is under High Right. Torching the town will torch her as well” I said and shoved Leo to get him out of his simmering rage daydream. 

Leo sighed and rubbed his forehead “ Yes, I know, but I don’t know how I’d feel if out of 18 of us, only the two of us make it to the fair. And how do we even get over the damn wall? Do you see the number of guards they have set up, it is twice as many as last year” Leo said, motioning to the black line of so-called knights standing guard at the perimeter. 

“Oh! I met an amazing moth earlier, she said she was an admin on the High Break website, and she gave me this” I said and took out the miniature jetpack. 

Leo gasped and took it from my hand, examining it from all angles. 

“Dude, this is amazing! It’s too bad there aren’t like eighteen more of these” Leo said.

Just as Leo was admiring the jetpack, a flash of pink and yellow streaked past us and flew into the house where Margaret the bunny girl had been taken captive. 

After a second, the pink and yellow flash flew out the other end of the house, and trailing after her was Margret, flying haphazardly with a jet pack strapped to her back!

“Leo Look! The Margaret has out!” I exclaimed and grabbed my brother’s arm, shaking him to look up and see what I was seeing. 

Leo looked at and an expression of relief past over his face as the petite girl bobby around in the air as she struggled to control the new device. 

Then, like the inventor Margaret was, parts of the device started to fall away as she fiddled with the item mid-air. 

On the ground, assassins had started to take notice and many climbed the side of the building, trying to reach the bunny girl, however, she was not having it. 

It seemed that the issue was that Margaret was too heavy for the device, and so after a few moments, a bag, two boots, several hairpins and both her gloves went hurling down towards the unsuspecting faces of the assassins who had finally managed to clamber onto the roof of the house Margaret had escaped from.

Before any of them could reach her, Margaret managed to steady herself, and with the finesse of the engineer she always hoped to be, she engaged the throttled and sent herself soaring high into the sky!

Like a rocket, she shot right over all the houses, and before any of the guards could react at the wall, shot past them too, and disappeared into the Job fair compound, hopefully landing safe and sound, but that was to be seen. 

“God that girl's amazing” Leo said under his breath and I laughed.

“Well if you wanna see her again, we better get going”, I grinned. 

Leo nodded and handed back to me the mini jet pack “ I have an idea. We split, you on the west side and me on the east. Once you are over, make a mad dash to the other side, I’ll try to get captured as close to the wall as possible. At that that point we use their numbers against them, and force them into a huddle where those who can fly, can’t because they are weighed down by their colleagues, and you pull me out of the crush before they can get a grip on themselves” Leo proposed, and I nodded in agreement. 

The one thing the fake Knights couldn’t do was be witnessed showing outward aggression in front of the High Council’s watchful eye during the job fair, or else the town and the individuals identified would be slapped with a fine for disturbing the peace and obstructing the job seekers ability to gain employment.

 If deemed detrimental enough, a person could even be stripped of their Class and would have to get re-educated starting from apprenticeship, which was the highest shame for someone who had already achieved First Class Honours, which most Assassins in the Winter household have managed to do so. 

“So we have to bank on them showing pleasantries, in that case, why don’t we just throw those who are struggling to make it over the wall while we are at it? You did say that you didn’t want to leave anyone behind” I said, looking at Leo hopefully. 

Leo looked at me, then scanned around town. 

“Yeah well, that would leave all of the responsibility of fetching everyone on you. What if you get caught? There goes our set of wings. We don’t all have a guardian moth handing out jet packs” Leo muttered concerned.

“Why not?” A familiar voice said from behind us.

We both turned to find Apple beaming, resting her slender arms on the small ledge and peering up at us as she sat on the roof outside of our small hidden chamber. 

“Apple!” I exclaimed in delight and she gave me a little wave.

“Look, I’ve managed to hand out five, but I don’t know how many more are left, and if I keep this up, my mom is going to get suspicious. Here, if you can find the rest of your cohort who do not have the means to fly, then distribute these and tell them to return the jets to me later” Apple said and dumped ten more mini jets onto the floor of our small chamber. 

“Hi err—thanks!” Leo said and scooped up the mini jets.

“Ok so if you helped five already, and there is us two, that leaves us with ten left…wait Apple how did you know –“ I started asking but the Moth had already zipped away. Like a flash, she headed straight for the job fairgrounds and before the guards had time to react, she was gone.

“Do you think she has been keeping tabs on all of us, from the website?” I asked and Leo shrugged, choosing to dump five mini jets in my hand and pocket one for himself. 

“West, Alison, Greg and Daemeon all mentioned that they would head east, going along the abandoned trail tracks until they reached the cave that opens up at the waterfall behind the job fairgrounds. I will track them down via the sewage tunnels and meet them to give them these. 

“So I guess I’m on search and rescue duty” I smiled wryly, unloading 5 daggers to replace them with the five jet packs. 

“You know you are the best at stealth and you are really quick on your feet, I believe in you, if you had your wings, you would be even faster than that Moth chick, so what you do with both wings tied behind your back, is amazing” Leo grinned and patted my head. 

I sighed, but couldn’t suppress a smile. It was high praise from someone who could leap up three stories in a single jump and actually fight and live to see the say against our foster vampire dad.