I trust him with Oli, and that's the highest form of praise I can think of.
“She’s telling the truth,” Atlas finally says, his food abandoned on the plate in front of him, barely touched.
Gabe is the only one still eating, but after a day of fitting out Sheetrock and laying miles of tiles in dozens of bathrooms, I have no doubt that he's worked up an appetite.
North shrugs and swirls the amber liquid in his glass. He’s slowed down his drinking, but I think we all wanted to dull the edge a little for this conversation.
“From what we can tell, it's all true. Unless you can find some sort of code word in there or something, then we're going to tentatively move forward with this.”
Atlas frowns and turns back to the information, reading over it much slower this time, as if it hadn’t occurred to him that his mother might have hidden some message in there for him.
“What are we going to do with it though? How are we moving forward?” Oli says, pushing her fork through her shellfish risotto joylessly.
It makes me regret bringing it up, because it's the first time she's had seafood since we arrived at the Sanctuary and we've gone and ruined it for her.
Watching her eat is a particular pleasure for North and I.
I answer her. “We're going to set up camp outside the Alaskan Wasteland as we’ve planned, but we are going to put into place other teams to take out some of the smaller camps at the same time. We’ll hit as many of them at once as we can handle. If they're unable to call in for backup, we have a better chance of wiping them out.”
Oli nods and glances back at Atlas, but he is filtering through the pages with a scowl on his face. “There's nothing here. Nothing but the information we can all read.”
North nods. “I was expecting that. I think that our greatest threat in this will be the traps once we arrive. They will attempt to split us up, and we need to be prepared for that. They’ll expect us to hit the biggest camp, to hit where Davies is going to be.”
Atlas rubs at his chin, his eyes darting down to Oli at his side.
North takes another sip of his drink and says, “That's why we're going after the Alaskan one. It's not the most likely or the least likely, so it's the safest bet. They have enough resources to set up traps at every camp, so we need to be prepared for hell… and to give it right back to them.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Oli
The packing to set up camp in Alaska is about as difficult as it sounds. I'm only allowed to take the same bag that I’d taken on the overnight mission with Gryphon and Nox, but the extra layers I need for warmth make it near impossible to feel as though I have enough supplies. We don't know how long we're going to be camped out before we take over the Resistance’s area, thanks to our need for recon and our inability to entrust that work to anyone else.
Besides my entire Bonded Group, we're also taking Sage, Kieran, Felix, Sawyer, Gray, and Aro with us.
Sawyer is going to be pivotal in shutting down their camp’s security. He's the only person I know who can hack into it before we even get in there. Gray has been training to be able to fight alongside us, and he’s been showing a lot of promise as a TacTeam personnel. Honestly, we need as many bodies as we can get, and his Gift is strong enough that he is going to be an asset.
Both of them had refused to come unless Aro did as well.
She's keen to pull her own weight but also to see the destruction of the people who had kidnapped and hurt her. She’s reluctantly leaving her little brother behind with Vivian and his Bonded, the only people we trust enough to keep the little boy safe in our stead.
I can’t wait until we can all just go back to hanging out and acting like the college students we’re supposed to be. I’m not sure we’ll ever get that back but, fuck it, I can hold on to that image right now to get me through this.
When I finally emerge from my closet with my bag, still fretting that I don't have enough stuff, Atlas immediately takes it from my shoulders and slings it over his own. I want to argue with him about it, but I'm also keenly aware that he doesn't even feel the weight of it, thanks to his own Gift.
I'm also struggling to move with the giant, tactical puffer jacket I'm sweating in in preparation for the snow.
“It's probably barely going to be cold there. You do realize it’s the middle of summer, right, Sweetness?” Atlas says with a bemused grin, and I shake my head at him.
“It's Alaska. It's going to be cold. I'm sure of it.”
“Have you ever been to Alaska?“ he asks, grinning and totally ready to give me shit about this.
I nod my head because I’m not a dumbass who’s going to get caught again. “My parents took me there while we were on our glorious traveling trip that I’ve now found out was us running for our lives. I nearly lost a toe to frostbite.”
He shakes his head at me, biting off his grin, but I can tell he’s just tickled by my misery. “I highly doubt that your parents would’ve let it get that close, Bonded.”
When we make our way out to the kitchen, we find the rest of the Bonded Group already waiting there, each of them carrying their own heavy packs and dressed for cooler weather, though none of them have taken it to the extreme that I have.
Gabe bursts out laughing at the sight of me, and Gryphon rolls his eyes as though I'm being overly dramatic. I glance down at myself. “You guys all understand that it's Alaska, right?!”
I try to wrestle my pack back off of Atlas so that they don't have anything else to tease me about, but he just nudges me out of the way, stalking forward to get us all moving. I follow behind him and try not to stomp my feet too much at everyone happily giving me shit.
North raises his eyebrow at me, waiting me out, and I break so damn quick under his silent stare. “I don't do well in cold climates. I can deal with the rain. I can even deal with blistering heat, but add a few inches of snow and I'm ready to run for the hills.”
The idea that we could be camping out in it makes me sick to my stomach, far more than facing the Resistance ever has. That probably has more to do with my inhumane ability to compartmentalize than anything else, but that’s besides the point.
I don’t want to camp in the Arctic freaking Circle.
I'm expecting to take one of the ATVs down to North’s office, but when I get outside the house, I find Kieran, Sage, and the rest of our family waiting for us. They're all suitably packed, and I'm pleased to see Sage has an extra sweater on.
She tries, and fails, to hold back a laugh at the sight of me.
Sawyer doesn't even attempt it.
“It's summer, Oli.”
I consider throwing something at him. “I know what season it is, thank you! Clearly none of you have ever been trapped in a snowstorm before!”
There is one person amongst the group who could very easily call me out on my shit, having had a front row seat to the entire history of my life, but Nox doesn't look up from where he's busy poring over his tablet. All of his research and information has been loaded onto it to get him through the next few days of being stuck in the camp, and he’s already blocking us all out while he works.
North had offered to have him stay behind to continue his research. With Kieran at our disposal, it would be easy enough to bring him in when we were ready to move. Even before my stomach had the chance to sink at the idea of being split up, Nox had dismissed that idea.