Ring. The sound penetrated her subconscious, pulling her out of her deep sleep. She turned over in her bed and ignored the sound. Ring. Ring. It became more insistent, and she opened her eyes, fully awake.

It took her a moment to figure out where the sound was coming from. She pushed the covers off and stood, peering through the darkness. A phone sat on her desk, it's face glowing. When did that get there?

The insistent ringing didn't stop, so she picked it up and turned it over in her hands. The caller ID was unknown. She glanced at her watch. 1:05 am. No one sane would call another person so early. She swiped the hang up button and set the phone down again. They could call back later, when she wasn't half asleep and annoyed.

She'd just crawled back into bed when the phone rang again. "Let me sleep!" she groaned, getting up again.

For a moment, she considered stabbing the phone. It wasn't hers, so whoever had left it there deserved it. But even half asleep, she couldn't help being curious about who had called her. This time she answered it. "Who is this?" she demanded.

"Ghost."

Yep. I should have stabbed the phone. Akram didn't give her a moment's rest. Why couldn't I have just gone back to sleep? "What do you want?"

"You're going to meet me by the garage in the next five minutes. Unarmed," he said.

"Okay, sure. Because that doesn't sound at all like a trap." She leaned back in her desk chair, glaring down at the wood. Whatever was coming, it wouldn't be good, and Ghost wouldn't just make demands without any way of making her cooperate.

"Because if you don't, River will die. Then we'll kill your mother. If that doesn't work, we'll kill your dad as well. However, if you do come, we'll release them." The words sent chills down her spine, and she shivered.

"So my life in exchange for the lives of the people I love?" How could she refuse such a simple deal? Of course Akram and Ghost would probably double cross her, maybe even kill her family anyway. But if she didn't go, their fates were sealed, and she couldn't let anyone else die because of her.

"You have five minutes to decide," Ghost answered. There was a click, and the call ended.

She stared at it. All of her planning. All of the effort she'd put into coming up with every possible scenario, and this had never crossed her mind. River. Alex. Her parents. All of them, hostages to make her cooperate. And she didn't have enough to find a way to double cross Ghost first.

It was likely they would kill her. After all, Akram considered her the entire reason the rebellion existed. He probably believed it would all fall apart if she died. But she knew better than that. She'd seen the camaraderie that the rebels shared, and experienced first hand just how well they came together in a crisis. Even if Akram did kill her, they would find a way to get past it. Most of the rebels didn't even know she was in charge. Her family would suffer the most, but they would come back from it, because that was what they did.

And that was the gist of it. They could function without her. The plans to take Akram down were already set, and she wasn't needed to complete them, so she would leave that to Hawk. She grabbed a pen and paper and scrawled a quick note. Then she took a deep breath, and headed into the arms of the devil.