Infiltrating Ravenrock’s most secure building is not something you should mess around with unless you have a death sentence.

We got fired at multiple times before we even got into the building but I guess it’s good security. It seemed like what had been firing at us were motion censored guns. I just prayed that they didn’t alert everyone.

By the time we got inside, it was go time.

I ran to the control room to hand Eliot a hard drive. One I used while they were climbing the building to load all of the command sequences in their outside security on to. They’d do the same for the inside security.

Then we’d have to find a computer to transfer the data to but that was an issue for later. 

Skylar and Max went east, me and River went west to find Eliot.

We snuck through the corridors, as silent as possible.

This place was a damn maze.

So many different pathways and doors.

Which made it easier to hide when we heard guards coming our direction. Perfectly synchronized marching heading our way.

We scrambled to find a hiding place.

The guards got closer, about to round the corner.

River found a janitor‘s closet and ushered me inside.

I went in quickly, he followed, clicking the door fastly shut behind him.

The closet was cramped, cold, and damp. His knee was against mine and our bodies way too close for comfort. I was pretty sure a mop was jamming into my shoulder blade. But we both kept our eyes glued to the door.

Keep walking. I said in my head. Hoping I could somehow will the guards to pass us.

We held our breath as the footsteps came closer then faded when they walked past us, into another corridor.

River opened the door once we couldn’t hear them, I didn’t realize how much we’d been leaning on the door till the fluorescent light rushed in and we both fell onto the floor, me landing half on top of him.

There was definitely eye contact, and I didn’t want to know what mine said.

We both grunted, trying to get up with a bit of our dignity intact.

Neither of us said a word, just brushed ourselves off, shut the closet, then we were moving again.

Very stealthy.

We paused at every corner, glancing both ways before making our way to the control room.

Finally we passed the right door—jiggled the handle—locked.

I didn’t have my lock pick set on me—Max took it so he and Sky could get into the computer room.

”Do you have-“

Before I could finish my sentence, the door opened.

Eliot.

Their expression neutral and calm like they didn’t climb through a ventilator shaft to get in there.

They held out their palm silently, a question without words.

I dug in my pocket until I felt the flash drive. I dropped it into their palm. They gave River a look, then disappeared back into the control room, shutting the door back behind them.

River and I looked at each other for a moment before running off to find Max and Skylar. They said they’d be in the second computer room in the third west hall.

Wherever that was.

Turns out—it was on the fifth story. We were on ground level.

I sighed. The elevators were too risky to take—too easy for it to stop on another floor then us be trapped by the guards waiting for the cart.

So we took the fire stairs.

When we walked into the room, it was much more damp and cold than the rest of the building. I looked up—all I could see were rows and rows of stairs, going all the way up to the roof.

There were also stairs going underground—that’d be a job for another day.

We started up the stairs, sprinting quickly turned to walking, then suffering. Our footsteps echoed in the empty room, each breath stung just a little.

I gripped the side railing and kept climbing, one foot after the other.

River was close behind, also struggling to climb the stairs. 

I had no clue how Thornblade’s guards could walk up and down these so often.

Eventually we made it to the top, collapsing on the ground to rest for a moment to catch our breath.

“That was…” River trailed off.

“Annoying.” I muttered, running a hand over my face before standing back up, ignoring the strain in my legs. “Let’s get this over with so we can get back before Ronan gets bored.”

I felt bad leaving the kid there. He could’ve helped even though the tranq was still wearing off, but I didn’t want to push him to come back here after everything that happened.

We both got up and walked into the fifth level of the building. The fluorescent lights and sterile smell hit me immediately.

We checked room after room, most empty or storage, until we finally found Skylar and Max, snagging files of what appeared to be soldiers.

“Every solider Thornblade has had.” Skylar said proudly, putting the massive file in her bag. “This’ll be helpful when a squad is chasing after us.” She winked.

I laughed slightly.

“Mission complete. Let’s get outta here.”

River groaned at the idea of going back down all those stairs, but we made it back alive.

~

The warehouse smelled like burning metal and electricity when we walked inside. That was not a good sign.

“Ronan?” I asked, spotting Tessa run towards me.

“Declannn!” She yelled, barreling into me, wrapping her arms around my middle.

“Hey kiddo.” I picked her up as she held onto my neck. “Where’s Nana?” I used her nickname for Ronan. She didn’t say “Ro” or just “Ronan”, she liked “Nana”. “It’s like “Ronana”, like “banana” but Ronan.” She once told me—I couldn’t argue with that logic.

“He’s making something, he said it was a surprise.” She answered. “He’s in the garage.”

The garage was just an empty room with storage for extra rations and a workspace for tinkering or attempting to make things.

When Tessa was distracted by saying hi to the others, I slipped over to the garage to check on Ronan. When I opened the door, the room was filled with smoke. A loud scraping noise echoed in the small room.

“Ronan?” I coughed. “What are you doing?” 

The smoke was thick but I pushed through till I found him. Leaned over the table, sparks flying as he welded something.

“Ronan!” I yelled over the machine. It slowed to a stop and Ronan perked his head up from where his project was. “What are you doing?”

“Making a comm system.” He said simply.

“Whats the smoke about?” 

He shrugged, looking around like he just realized the room he was in could’ve suffocated him. “Oops.”

I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh. “Well, how's the comm system coming?” I asked him, knowing he was dying to tell me.

The smoke started to clear up. I could see his dark eyes filled with focus and excitement, his brown curls pushed back by a cloth headband that had seen better days. This kid’s going to burn himself out one of these days, but no one could tell him that.

“It’s going well, I think we’ll need a few more radios so everyone can have one. And I’ll need to test the range of how far they can travel ‘cause if they travel far enough we could even talk to Tessa when we’re gone. I’m using stolen government walkie that you plug this into and it connects to this earpiece.” He explained lively, holding up a black cord to show me.

I nodded, trying to process the words he just spewed out at ninety miles and hour. The cord didn’t seem like it’d blow up if it was plugged into something electrical so that was vaguely promising.

“Have you been in here all day?”

Ronan shrugged again, looking down at his work. His gloved hands fidgeting with what would probably be the earpiece. “Yeah, got bored so I found something to do that’d be useful.” He mentioned. His voice quieter now.

I knew how hard it was for him to just stay back and do nothing to help. I admired the fact that he still wanted to make himself useful but also listening to what we said about staying home.

“Well, good work.” I smiled, squeezing his shoulder. “Let me know if anything bursts into incontrollable flames.”

“You want me to tell you when there’s a fire?” He laughed. “I’ll take care of it.”

I shook my head, laughing softly as I stepped out of the garage.

I glanced back one more time. He was already working again, hands moving with quiet precision — one gloved, one braced beneath the sleeve. We all knew it too well. I took a deep breath then left the door cracked behind me. He might have been the Fire Holder, but he still needed air.