No doubt that coat reeked of sperm, sexual juices, and sweat all in it. Still frowning, Kaoru placed the fur over his arm and said nothing.
In war mode, Hiro was not the best person to argue with. It was always smartest to work with him, rather than against.
My brother cracked his neck and looked at the building again. "Alright. We arrive without our father’s men knowing. And once we're inside?"
"We move through the kitchen.” I pointed. “Then, we take control of it fast and quiet.”
“I like that too. From the kitchen, there's a corridor that connects to the garden area. Over here." Reo tapped the pen against a section of the layout. "This opens to a waterfall feature. There’s a large indoor garden and a stone bridge. It's a transitional space. Very open and exposed, but the waterfall provides sound cover at least."
“And a lot of ways for us to die.” Hiro sucked on the lollipop. "We fight through the kitchen, through the garden, and then we hit the stairs. That’s a heavy fucking battle for us. We’ll be exhausted by the stairs."
I nodded in agreement. “We divide the Scales with jobs. One group for the kitchen. Another for the garden. A final to hit the stairs and clear as many as they can before we get there.”
“Much better.” Hiro took out his lollipop. “Now we rush inside and our biggest problem is not tripping over dead bodies.”
"And once we get to the stairs, we don't stop." I sneered. "We go up. Room by room. Landing by landing. All the way to the top. No matter how much pain we’re in. Everything ends with this battle. Neither the Fox or Akiro can escape."
Everyone nodded.
I looked at the layout and saw every place where my men could die.
The kitchen was tight—close quarters, limited visibility, and brutal.
The garden was too fucking open—exposed to fire from multiple angles, the waterfall’s mist would blur sightlines, and the Fox could have mines there.
And the staircase—that single, vertical, inescapable path—was a gauntlet. Each room a chamber that couldn't be skipped. Each landing a forced confrontation.
My father had made sure that anyone who wanted to reach him would have to earn every single step in blood.
Don’t worry, father. We will.
Reo continued, "The hackers will kill all feeds and cut cameras. They’ll also jam their internal communications. They will have no radios or phones. For the first five minutes, they won't know we're inside."
Hiro frowned. "Five minutes isn't long."
"Five minutes is enough to take the kitchen and reach the garden.” Reo shrugged.
Five fucking minutes.
The length of a song.
The length of a cigarette.
The length of a fight that decides whether any of us live to see the next day.
Reo sighed. “After that, it doesn't matter if they know. By then, we'll be on the stairs, and there's only one direction—up."
I felt the weight of everything this battle would bring—the inevitability, the narrowness of the path, the knowledge that this plan had almost no margin for error.
If the hackers failed, we'd be walking into a prepared defense.
If the kitchen took too long, we'd lose the element of surprise.
If any of us got wounded on the stairs, there was no retreat—only forward, upward, and through.
"We'll need smoke." I looked at Reo. "Heavy, industrial smoke for the kitchen and the first two rooms on the staircase. If they can't see us, they can't target us."
“Okay.” Reo pulled a small notebook from his jacket and wrote it down. "Done."
