Page 89 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

“I want her,” I say, just to be clear. “And I’m pretty sure Thomas wants her too. But yeah, even Sadie. She and I are only at the very beginning stages of our soon-to-be lifetime partnership. She stays here with them. Then we go to town, initialize the program, blow everyone’s minds, and watch them all fall down.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Case says.

We both look over at Lincoln. He’s still thinking about it.

“What?” I ask. “It’s perfect. Kills all the birds with one stone.”

“I feel like we’re missing something,” he says. “Something important.”

“We have the program,” I say, holding up a finger to tick off boxes. “We have the delivery device,” I hold up another finger. “We have the distribution.” Three fingers now. “And we have the initiation all set up. All we gotta do is tell it to start.”

“People are gonna be pissed off.” Case laughs.

“Very,” I say, laughing with him.

But Lincoln isn’t laughing. “We’re missing something.”

“We’ve thought of everything,” I say. “Thomas has been planning this for fifteen years. We’ve thought of everything.”

He hesitates, still thinking it through. “I can’t find a hole in the plan, even though I know there is one. Can’t you try to bring Thomas back?” he asks. It’s almost a plea. “I’d feel a lot better if it was Thomas in charge here and not…”

“Not me?” I say, finishing for him.

He shrugs. “It’s not personal, Sullivan. But we all know you’re the fuck-up in the family. Which was why you volunteered to be the secondary personality.”

“Hey, I’m the first to admit that Thomas is the evil genius on this team. But I’m all you’ve got. So we move forward with me taking the lead or we wait it out for Thomas to find his way back. But this is our time, you guys. We’ve set it up, it’s all ready to go, and if we let our moment pass by it might never come around again. So let’s make up our minds right now and just move forward.”

“I’m in,” Case says, looking at Lincoln. “Sullivan’s never been a traitor. He’s not going to start now. And yeah, he’s no Thomas, but he’s as close as it gets. I say we move forward tomorrow. Let’s do it.”

Lincoln stares at us. First Case, then me. And finally, he nods his head. “OK. I’m in. Let’s do it.”

A collective sigh of relief fills the room.

This is it. After more than fifteen years of planning we’re about to get our revenge. And when it’s all said and done, Cathedral City will never be the same.

“Perfect,” I say. “Someone got a phone I can borrow?”

Lincoln hands his SkyEye sat phone over and I take it and call the number Thomas set up. This will initiate the satellites and put them into the position to seamlessly interact with the towers. “Done,” I say, once the codes have been entered. “They’ll be ready in twelve hours. Now, let’s take the new crew out without drama, OK? Divide and conquer. That’s the plan right now. I need cover so I can take care of Sadie tonight.”

Sheila blips into the room. “I’ve got them in their rooms. Uzi is alone, Cyan is with Iziah, and I’m taking Sadie down to the lab for her tests.” She does air quotes when she says the word ‘tests.’ “Molly told them we’re having dinner. So she’s just gonna slip the drugs into their food, then they’ll sleep it off.”

“How long will it last?” I ask.

“We can re-dose them after they’re out,” Sheila says. “No worries on that.”

“You can’t babysit them, Sheila,” Lincoln says. “That would require you to split in two and we need you whole for tomorrow. Sullivan just initiated the satellites. We’re on a timer now and we need you one hundred percent present for when the shit goes down.”

“We’ll get the dosage right, don’t worry about a thing.”

Everyone, including Sheila, lets out a long breath of air.

This is it.

We’re really taking over the City and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop us.