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Alby: Minho, you can't make Thomas the Keeper of the Runners.

Minho: Yes I can. I have a permit.

Alby: This just says "I do what I want."

-✼-

Thomas stared at Vince for quite a few seconds. Then, slowly but surely, a small grin stretched his face. "That might just work."

I struggled not to shoot him a disapproving glare and instead kept my face neutral. These people were kidnapping Immunes— including guards at Crank Palaces, and separating people from their families. It didn't seem right to me at all. But, of course, I couldn't say that; the leader of the Right Arm was already weary enough of us as it was.

"I'm glad you approve," Vince replied blankly. I couldn't tell whether he meant it or not. But judging by what I've gathered about him so far, he probably didn't. "Brent has a contact and the deal is already arranged to sell them. It's our way in. We have to stop those people. Prevent them from wasting even more resources on a pointless experiment. If the world is going to survive, they need to use what they have to help the people left alive. Keep the human race going in a way that makes sense."

"Do you think there's any chance they could have found a cure?" Thomas questioned.

Vince released a long, low chuckle that almost seemed like mockery. I shifted uncomfortably at the memory of what Ava Paige had said to me after the Scorch Trials: "You are the one we need, Dylan. You could help us find the cure."

"If you believed that even for a second, you wouldn't be standing here in front of me, would you? You wouldn't have escaped, wouldn't be seeking revenge. Which is what I'm assuming you're doing. I know what you've been through— Gally told me everything." The larger man paused. "No, we gave up on their... cure a long time ago."

I decided to let Thomas do the talking while I debated on what Vince was saying. They were selling Immunes — using them — to get into W.I.C.K.E.D. Who was to say that the Right Arm was any better than the corrupt organization we ran from? Selling people for our own personal benefit...

"We'll go no further until you share what you know," Vince urged. "What can you offer us?"

"Tell him," Brenda ordered quietly with a nudge to Thomas' side. "This is what we came for."

"Okay," my brother began with a nod, "W.I.C.K.E.D thinks they can complete the cure, that they're almost there. The only missing pieces are Dylan and I. They swear it's the truth, but they manipulated and lied to us so much, it's become impossible to know what's real and what's not real. Who knows what their motives are now. Or how desperate they've gotten, or what they might be willing to do."

"I think they believe in a cure," I finally spoke up, switching my gaze between Gally and Vince. "But they may be so brainwashed after years of this issue, that they could be on a wild goose chase. But they certainly seem to think that we're the keys."

Vince tilted his head to the side. "How many of you are there?"

Thomas pondered it for a second, then answered, "Fewer than five more— waiting back where we were taken by Lawrence. We don't have numbers, but we have a lot of inside knowledge. How many are in your group?"

"Well, Thomas, that's a hard question to answer. If you're asking how many people joined the Right Arm since we started meeting and gathering forces a few years back, then we are well over a thousand. But for how many are still around, still safe, still willing to see it all through the end... Well. Then we're only talking a few hundred, unfortunately."

"Are any of you immune?" Brenda asked.

Vince sighed. "Almost none. I myself am not, and— after what's come to light in Denver — I'm pretty sure I've got the Flare by now. Hopefully the majority of us do not have the virus yet, but it's inevitable in this crumbling world. And we want to make sure that something is done to salvage what's left of this beautiful race called humans."

Thomas pointed to a couple of the chairs littered around. "Can we sit down?"

"Of course."

The three of us took a seat gingerly but hastily. Brent was still leaning against the doorframe behind us, his arms folded across his chest and utterly silent for once. But somehow, his presence was loud enough without him having to say anything.

"So what are you planning to do?" Thomas inquired.

Vince let out another infamous, rumbling chuckle. "Calm down, son. Tell me what you have to offer in all this, and then I'll tell you my plans."

Thomas tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair impatiently. "Look, we know a lot of things about W.I.C.K.E.D's headquarters and how things work there. And we have some in our group who've had their memories returned. Dylan, herself, is having more resurface every day. But the most important thing is that W.I.C.K.E.D wants us to come back. And I think we can use that to our advantage somehow."

"That's it?" Vince blinked, visibly unimpressed. "That's all you have?"

"All we have?" I repeated incredulously. My eyebrows raised, as well as my voice. "You're looking at the two people on the top of W.I.C.K.E.D's most-wanted list. Brent trained me himself— I can assure you I'm more than capable of putting up a fight. You know Garret, correct? You trust him? He's with us. We have some weapons. A very small amount, but still. If you didn't want our help, you wouldn't still be talking to us."

It was dead silent after I finished. Brent cracked a rare grin, and Gally gave Vince an I-told-you-so expression. But the former Glader didn't seem upset at my predictable outburst. In fact, he almost looked like he agreed. He was the one who invited us, after all, with that note he sent Thomas.

"You've got a point there, kid," Vince agreed, much to my surprise. I was so used to people telling me to shut up that someone conceding caught me off guard. "But we've got a way to make sure nobody can use any weapons."

I paused. "What?"

Gally took the lead. "Okay, think about the Right Arm. These people aren't soldiers. They're accountants, janitors, plumbers, teachers. W.I.C.K.E.D basically has their own little army, like where Brent came from. Trained in the finest and most expensive weaponry. Even if we could find the largest stash in the world of Launchers and everything else they use, we'd still be at a huge disadvantage."

Thomas didn't appear any less confused. His eyebrows were still furrowed, head tilted to the side. "So what's the plan, then?"

"The only way to even the playing field is to make sure they don't have any weapons. Then we might stand a chance."

"So you're going to steal them somehow?" Brenda asked. I couldn't blame her for her impatience— they still hadn't fully explained it to us, even after two people had asked. "Stop a shipment? What?"

"No, nothing like that." Gally shook his head, a childish grin on his face. It was nothing I've ever seen before— a positive facial expression directed at us. "It's not about how many you can recruit to your cause, but who you can recruit. Of everyone the Right Arm has gathered, one woman is the key."

"Who?" Thomas questioned curiously.

"Charlotte Chiswell," Brent spoke up for the first time in minutes, diverting our attention to where he continued to stand in the doorway. "A personal favorite acquaintance of mine. She was the lead engineer for the biggest arms manufacturer in the world. Every weapon from W.I.C.K.E.D comes from there, and they all rely on some form of mumbo-jumbo technology to function. Charlotte figured out a way to render their stuff useless."

I love this girl, was my immediate thought.

Brenda's reaction, however, was one of disbelief. "Really?"

Gally took over once again. "There's a common chip in every weapon they use, and she's spent the last several months trying to figure out a way to reprogram the things remotely – to jam them. She finally did it. It'll take a few hours once she starts, and a small device needs to be planted inside the building for it to work, so our people who plan to hand over Immunes will do the job. If it works, we won't have weapons, either, but at least we'll have a level playing field."

"If not an advantage," Vince added.

Brent nodded in agreement. "All of the guards are so used to those Launchers by now that they'll be useless without them. That's why I trained in hand-to-hand, and why I taught you and Sonya. Hardly anybody keeps up with their hand-to-hand combat, though, so if you kids are decent at that, it'll be sufficient."

I smiled at the mention of Sonya. So he did know our names, and being annoyed with us all the time was probably just an act. Maybe, somewhere inside of him, he cared for us. At least a little bit.

Brenda nodded to me. "Unleash her, and she could probably take down three men twice her size in a minute."

"Shame," Brent commented, and I was almost offended until he continued, "I trained her to do it in forty seconds."

"Enough yammering," Vince ordered, but without venom. He was just impatient. "We have three Bergs. We're going in with about eighty people— the strongest we have in our group. We'll hand over the Immunes to Brent's contact inside, plant the device - though that's going to be our hardest task - and when it does the job, we'll blow out a hole in the wall and let everyone else in. Once we've gained control of their facility, Charlotte will help us get enough of the weapons running again to stay in control. We'll do this, or every last one of us will die trying. We'll blow up the place if we have to."

Sacrificing some lives for the profit of many. But with most of the continent's Immunes in the building, the Cranks night just take over.

"If what Gally says is true, then you and your friends will be a huge help to our planning team, since some of you know the facility inside and out. And every extra body counts— I don't care how old or young you are."

I thought of Frypan, Sonya, and the others who were taken back to W.I.C.K.E.D. What were they enduring while we'd been gone? And how could we reach them once we were inside? If we got to them, they could help—

"We have a Berg, too," Brenda offered, cutting off my deep thoughts. "Unless Cranks have ripped the thing to shreds. It's just outside the Denver walls on the northwest side. The pilot is back with our other friends."

"Where are your Bergs?" Thomas asked.

Vince waved his hand behind him vaguely. "Thataway. Safe and sound enough. Everything's close. We'd love to have another week or two to prepare, but don't have much choice. Charlotte's device is ready. Our first eighty people are ready. We can spend the next day or so letting you and the others share what you know, make final preparations, and then we move. No reason to make it sound any more glamorous. We just go in and do it."

Thomas' expression shifted to one of slight anxiety. "How confident are you?"

The man gave him a look. "Boy, listen to me. For years and years, all we've heard about is the mission of W.I.C.K.E.D. How every penny, every man, every woman, every resource— how it all had to be devoted to the cause of finding a cure to the Flare. They told us they'd found Immunes, and if we could just figure out why their brains don't succumb to the virus, why then the whole world would be saved! While in the meantime, cities crumble; education, security, medicine for every other malady known to man, charity, humanitarian aid— the whole world goes to pot so W.I.C.K.E.D can do whatever they want to do."

"We know," Thomas said gravely. "We know all too well."

Vince kept going, though, seemingly unable to stop. I wondered how long he'd kept all of this pent up inside him. "We could've stopped the spread of the disease a lot better than we've been able to cure the disease. But W.I.C.K.E.D sucked up all the money and all the best people. Not only that, they gave us false hope, and nobody took the care they should've. Thought the magical cure would save them in the end. But if we wait any longer, we'll run out of people to save."

The room was silent again. Gally was looking at us as if waiting to see whether or not we'd object. But everything Vince said was true.

Still, he had more to say. "Our people selling the Immunes could certainly plant the device once they're inside, but it would be a lot easier if it was in place when we arrive. Having the Immunes will get us into the airspace and permission to land, but..." He trailed off, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

I understood immediately. "That's where we come in."

"Yes," Vince confirmed, a small grin lifting the corners of his lips. "I believe that's where you come in."

"You can drop us off a few miles away and let us hike in," Thomas rattled off as the gears turned in his head. He really was clever, coming up with the plan on the spot. "We can pretend we've come back to finish the Trials. Based on what I've seen and heard, they'll welcome us back with open arms. Just show us what I need to do to plant the device."

Another smile from Vince. "I'll have Charlotte do it herself."

"You can get information and help from my friends— Teresa, Aris, others. Brenda here knows a lot, too."

"All right, Gally. What's next? How are we going to do this?"

The muscular boy stood up and addressed my brother and I. "I'll get Charlotte to train you on the device. then we'll take you to our Berg hangar, fly you close to the W.I.C.K.E.D headquarters and drop you off while the rest of us are getting ready with the main assault team. you better be up for some good acting out there– we should wait a couple of hours before we come in with the Immunes or it'll look suspicious."

"Don't worry," I said, though I was slightly uneasy, myself. "We've done some acting before."

"Good." Gally nodded. "We'll move Teresa and the others over here when you leave. I hope you don't mind another little jaunt through the city."

And even though I may have appeared calm on the outside, I couldn't shake the idea that there were so many holes in this hot mess of a plan.

gif is brent being a savage

_____

and the award for "most boring chapter ever" goes to.......

it physically pained me to write this because there were hardly any places to fit dylan in, it was 90% dialogue, and thomas had -2 reactions to literally anything. i actually skipped some of the unnecessary parts and stitched three (3) of jdash's chapters together. plus a half.

i'm honestly not sure whether or not page 250 will be in the next chapter or the one after it....so prepare yourselves ahead of time (:

questions:

-do you agree with the right arm kidnapping immunes and selling them to wicked?

-now that sonya has her memories back, will she and dylan be closer?

-what will wicked want to do with dylan?

i wouldn't be surprised if i got 2 comments on this chapter because it's literally so boring lmaooooo

-kristyn