“You can bring your truck around,” my arms dealer, Andrei I’d learned recently, said from the intercom. “No weapons, understand?”

  “Yeah, no problem,” I replied.

  The intercom clicked and I turned around, heading back to the truck, really the armoured van that had been stripped last month. We’d welded a shipping container to the chassis, turning into a makeshift box truck. It worked well enough for our purposes, and now we had a real use for it. I got into the passenger’s seat and nodded to Reese.

  “Around back,” I ordered. “Leave your gun in here, don’t want to make them antsy.”

  “More worried about them backdooring us,” Reese muttered.

  “It’s no problem, they’ve supplied a lot of stuff so far,” I replied. “Like the plate that saved your life, and the one that saved Wick’s last week.”

  “Man, fair enough,” he sighed, starting the engine and getting us moving. “Feels a lot different than buying a gun.”

  “Well it is,” I said. “We’re buying a hundred.” And that wasn’t all.

  With the need for speed over conservation, I’d splurged a little. The six figure order included a ton of M16A2s, shockingly cheaper than AKs, along with a few high-caliber rifles for our snipers. Alongside them were ten machine guns, ‘saws’ was what Andrei called them though I didn’t know what that meant; maybe just the name. I’d abandoned the idea of non-lethal explosives, opting for a few hundred frag grenades instead. Rounding out the heavy options, and by far the most expensive line item, a pair of RPG-7s and an entire range of warheads for them.

  Reese parked the truck and we got out, heading to the garage door. It opened a moment later, and an engine rumbled. A forklift appeared carrying a crate, and Reese clambered onto the back of the shipping container to open it. There were three crates in all, each pushed in by the forklift one after the other. The loading was done in five minutes flat, and then the lift retreated inside. Andrei ducked under the garage door and approached me as it closed.

  “A lot of firepower,” he said flatly. “Do try and keep the fighting away from our establishment.”

  “Don’t worry, you’re not a target,” I replied simply as Reese shut the doors again. “Hopefully this won’t be our last order.”

  “Indeed,” he said with a nod. “Good luck.”

  I nodded back, then clambered into the truck with Reese. We headed out onto the quiet, early morning streets, on our way back to the ANTIFA’s place. They had essentially rented out an entire apartment building between them, only six blocks from the edge of Werwolf territory. Now it was our FOB, forward operating base, and we had a delivery to make.

  “This shit’s crazy,” Reese commented as we drove. “Man I’m no soldier.”

  “You’ve been a pretty good one as long as I’ve known you,” I said. “This won’t be much different than what we’ve been doing, except we’ll be doing it for days on end. You’ll be tired, but once we’re done we can all have some time off.”

  “Shit, if we make it,” he said gravely.

  “We will,” I said firmly. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Yeah?” It didn’t sound like he believed me. “How you figure?”

  “Just trust me,” I replied. “I’ve been doing pretty good so far, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he sighed. “Just worried our luck’s gonna run out real quick.”

  “I’m hopeful we won’t need any luck.”

  Unfortunately, I knew better than that.

  “Hello again Amelia,” Jaya said, offering a smile. “Samuel will be right with you.”

  “Thanks,” I said, taking a seat.

  With the coming assault, I figured a trip to my lawyer was in order. I was under no illusions that what I was doing was extremely illegal. It obviously had been for a while, but til now the Protectorate had kept their hands off. If I went out in broad daylight, there was no guarantee that would continue.

  Of course, I doubted Samuel could actually do anything for me if I was arrested. The mountain of evidence they could pull on would make it a slam dunk. Still, maybe he could do something to make sure I was the only one that went down for any of this. That would be the least I could offer to my teammates.

  At least only my identity was widely known by the PRT. Joy had done power testing at one point sure, but I wasn’t sure they’d connected it. Then again, they had Dragon on their side, so probably. Dammit, well Whatcha and Doppler were safe anyway. Whatcha would never work with the PRT, not with what she’d told me about her plans, and Doppler still hadn’t gone out post-trigger. That would be a nasty surprise for Werwolf.

  Six more days. Time felt like it was racing by, and it terrified me. Going back wouldn’t make my team any more ready for this, it wasn’t like I could take them with me. So much to do, so many preparations to still make. Had to make sure everyone was on the same page about rules of engagement, of ammo use, what to do with prisoners, and—

  “Amelia?” Samuel’s voice snapped me out of it. “Want to come inside?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry,” I said, rising from my chair. “Daydreaming.”

  “I bet,” he said dryly, opening his office door wider and gesturing for me to come inside. I headed in and sat in my usual seat, and he sat in his a moment later. “So, what kind of trouble are you into?”

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  “Something very dangerous,” I replied. “Is your office bugged?” He chuckled and leaned back in his seat.

  “Do you think I’d be in business if it was?”

  “Fair point,” I conceded. “Well, okay. I have a deadline to kick Werwolf to the curb, six days left. That means no more little raids, we’re scaling up.” His face fell as he realized just how serious I was.

  “Scaling up from kicking in doors and setting fires every single night?” Samuel shook his head. “Don’t tell me you’re upgrading to open warfare.” I just offered a shrug, making his eyes widen. “You’re serious. Jesus…”

  “I’m not so concerned about what happens to me,” I clarified. “I’m well aware someone’s going to need to take the fall. Just...I don’t know, I want to try and keep the blame off my crew. If you could just do that, then it’s fine.”

  “Well.” He took a deep breath, then cracked a tense smile. “Let it never be said I don’t like a challenge. I’ll start putting things together for a trial, I assume you’ll want a trial? No, don’t answer, I’m getting you one and that’s that. Not sure how much I can do, but I might be able to swing something.” My brow creased.

  “You don’t have to,” I said. “There’s not a lot you can do, I’m guilty of basically whatever they’ll charge me with. I just need you to run damage control for everyone else.”

  “Going to depend on whether they get taken in or not.” He arched a brow. “Are you planning on getting taken in?”

  “Hopefully not, but if they want to arrest me...I probably shouldn’t fight.” I wasn’t sure what I’d do until it happened… “I might be able to swing something where I surrender and tell my people to stand down, and they let them go.”

  “Try not to make my job any harder by resisting arrest, god knows that’d be the worst of your crimes,” Samuel said sarcastically. “Actually, any surprises I should know about? Murder, arson, terrorism obviously.”

  “Arms trafficking.” He snorted and I shrugged. “I bought a bunch of assault rifles and explosives, got to be ready you know?”

  “I’ll add it to the list,” he sighed.

  “You really don’t have to all this trouble,” I offered. “Get me a plea deal or something, even though I don’t know if I deserve it. I’ve...I’ve killed a lot of people.”

  “So have a lot of my clients, but everyone deserves a fair trial,” Samuel said. “Besides, I’ve taken a bit of a shine to you. I’d hate to see you tossed into the least ethical blacksite on the planet.”

  “Why?” I blurted, unable to help it.

  “You...remind me of you mother,” he said hesitantly, holding up a hand to stop my immediate protest. “Not like that. Carol was...stubborn. Once she had an idea in her head it was damn near impossible to shift her. Didn’t matter whether it was that black was the only way to drink coffee or that Jews run our country. Even if I don’t agree, everyone knows sugar and salt are the best for coffee, I admire conviction like that; and I appreciate you’re at least trying to do good with yours.”

  “Mm,” I grunted, looking away. “I wish I was less like her.”

  “We all wish we were less like our parents,” he said simply. “Just try and remember it’s not all bad. You’re using what you got from her to destroy her legacy, and considering what that was I’d say that’s admirable enough.”

  “Well, thanks, I guess,” I said, scratching at the scar on my neck. “Anyway, that’s it. I can’t promise you a major payday for this, everything’s gone into the fight, and I don’t know how much I’ll get from Werwolf.”

  “I’m sure I’ll figure something out,” he said, shrugging. “Let me handle billing, you do what you’re planning.”

  “Alright,” I said. No point arguing, this was as much as I could have hoped for. “Is there anything else you need from me?”

  “Let’s talk timelines,” Samuel replied, taking out a paper pad. “So I know how much sleep I’m going to lose.”

  I leaned forward and got down to business.

  “Welcome back Amaranth,” Nadir greeted me as I entered the apartment we were sharing with three others. “Get your errands done?”

  “Wrote my will, such as it was,” I said numbly, getting a look. “I’m joking, relax. Just making sure if we get taken in we have some legal support.”

  “Ah, well...thanks,” she said, relaxing a hair and offering a smile. “It’s nice that you think of that stuff.”

  “It’s my job,” I said with a shrug. “Anyway, how are things going here?”

  “Everyone’s moving in okay,” she replied. “Can tell they’re antsy though, feels like a storm’s coming.”

  “You mean literally or…?”

  “Yes and no,” Nadir said, the corners of her lips twitching down. “It’s tense, people are twitchy. A couple arguments over changing weapons from the newer teams.”

  “I’ll talk to them,” I promised. “I figured it was a good idea to standardize on ammo, make things that much easier to deal with.”

  “Huh, that makes sense,” she said, nodding. “Yeah, better you explain that. You’re better at dealing with arguments than me.”

  “Yeah?” I shrugged. “I’ll tell them to listen to you like you’re me then.”

  “Hey don’t—”

  “No,” I cut her off. “You’re my second in command, Nadir, my right hand. If you’re giving an order, they need to react like it’s coming from me. I’ll get them in shape before we move out because…” I chewed my lip.

  “Lia…” She reached out and I batted her hand away.

  “There’s a very good chance I get arrested,” I said flatly. “We have to be realistic about that. If I do, you’re in charge of finishing the fight, or leading them afterwards. I know you’re more than capable, you have the experience and the brains to call shots. So...just please, promise you won’t abandon the fight, even if you have to watch me go down.” She walked over and wrapped her arms around me, grabbing me tight.

  “I promise,” Nadir said gravely. “But I won’t let you go that easy.”

  I hugged her back and prayed to whatever god was listening she meant it.

  “You should talk to them,” Richard said, gesturing to the restless crowd gathered out back of the apartment we were basing out of. We’d gathered with five days left, ready for night one of fighting. “They’re nervous.”

  “So am I,” I hissed, fiddling with the charging handle of my carbine. With only a week left, I figured it was better to go heavy. “And I’ll be more nervous if you make me talk to them.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a speech,” he said with a sigh. “Remind them we have a plan, and why we’re doing this. A lot of them are here because they saw what you were doing, they admire you, for better or worse.”

  “Alright, fine,” I muttered. “Just don’t blame me when I get laughed down.”

  I slung my weapon and walked over to the crowd of people. My mouth dried in an instant, and any idea of what I was going to say fled my head. Heads turned towards me as I slowly circled the perimeter of the crowd. One-hundred eighty-two people in total, it was a hell of a force, more than I’d ever seen assembled in one place. All because of me, for my plans, for my fight. That didn’t make it easier, but it made me stop and turn towards everyone, clearing my throat loudly until they were all paying attention.

  “Thank you all for being here,” I said, swallowing against a dry throat. “I’m going to make this quick, because I’d rather be fighting Nazis than making a speech.” That got a couple chuckles. “This is going to be a dangerous operation, there’s no doubt in my mind. I know that might make some of you nervous, but don’t worry.

  “We have a plan,” I continued. “And even though the saying goes no plan survives first contact with the enemy, trust that we’re going to make sure you do. I can’t promise everyone will come home, I’m sorry, but I’m going to do my damndest to make sure anyone who doesn’t is avenged a hundred times over. Thank you for doing what no one else has had the courage to do for decades, to finish a fight that’s almost a hundred years old; at least in one city. That’s it. Good hunting.”

  I turned around and walked back to the van I would be riding in, cheeks burning behind my mask. A few scattered claps rose in my wake, rising and growing until there were cheers and applause ringing out. I looked back, confused, then turned and saw Richard smiling at me.

  “Told you they admire you,” he said with a hint of irritating smugness.

  “I don’t know why,” I sighed. “I didn’t even say anything special, just how I felt.”

  “That’s more than most leaders would,” he replied simply. “They recognize that, and for all your complaining, you’re not a bad speechmaker.”

  “Yeah well, I’m a better shot than a speechmaker.”

  “Shall we put that to the test?”

  I smiled and clambered into the van, ready for war.