I help Bird to stand. Then I unwind the ropes from his wrists.
Joker reaches over Mr. Baskerville’s slumped body to gingerly pick up the needle, before slipping it into his pocket. “I was a second from shooting him myself. I couldn’t listen to anymore bullshit either. Okay, we have the evidence. What now?”
The Omega resistance agreed to back our attack on the Facility, as long as we searched for real evidence of the experiments.
They intend to leak what we find to the press and online to the public. The politicians in the Knight and the Saint packs in tandem will make sure that no one can look away from a fourth dynamic existing. A dynamic that can switch between dynamics. Because if you can be both Alpha and Omega, then how can our society continue to deny Omegas entry to college? If an Omega can become a Beta, who decides whether they are allowed to work?
The argument against equality crumbles.
Rogues aren’t something to be feared. We are the hope of this world.
It will still take time for people to argue and fight over what this all means, but still, nothing will be the same again.
Plus, with Joker’s invention of the watch to help Rogues control their powers, which a wealthy resistance pack called the Kings have agreed to fund, then if the government comes for us, we’ll be ready to fight.
Rogues will never be the prey again.
Suddenly, alarms start to blare and the room drops to the scarlet of emergency lighting.
“Well, we’ve lost the element of surprise.” My eyes spark with vicious delight. “How about instead we fucking tear this place apart?”
“Works for me.” Joker reaches into one of his many concealed pockets and pulls out a packet of small metal gadgets, which I remember seeing him tinkering on in his workshop. Back then, however, he was too scared to allow any of us to touch them. Joker hesitates. Then he steels himself, before he tosses them to Bird. “Press one of these over each cell lock, Cookie. Make sure that you step back though because after three seconds exactly, they’ll gokaboom. Then the Rogues will be freed.”
My eyes widen in surprise.
Bird appears just as shocked as I am that Joker is trusting him with this job, but also, the first time that he has faced this fear.
I can sense the glowing joy from Bird and how much it means to him.
Bird knows that he doesn’t have the same hand-to-hand combat skills as the rest of us. He isn’t a gun, weapon, or tech expert. He’s not the fastest, strongest, or smartest. He’s not the jock or the most experienced about the world or sex.
Yet he’s the heart of our pack.
The sunshine.
He’s not worthless, simply a pretty ornament like his mom treated him or simply there to be fucked like he was as a Hotel Omega.
I love that Joker and Phantom understand how important respecting Bird is to him.
Bird gives a determined nod. “What will you three be doing?”
Joker slips my courting dagger out of a compartment in his coat and throws it to me.
I catch the knife with a grin. “We’ll be doing what we do best. Killing.”
“Also, finding my sister.” Joker exchanges a glance with Phantom.
The first tendrils of fear curl through me.
I hope that Colette is still alive.
What if Dr. Gill — the Operator — has killed Joker’s sister in the experiments? My gaze flicks to the black case files on the shelves.
Then my expression darkens.
Time to burn down this fucking Facility.
I turn on my heel, before I lead my way to the music of the alarms out into the corridor.
