Chapter 363: Briefing about the Atlantic Theatre
It was close to half an hour before I made it back to the Whitesun Hotel.
Marlon’s group were still there. Several heads turned when I came through.
Mostly I received a lot of grateful words and glances after Theo and Paul came back safely.
But Marlon’s group had another question.
Where’s Maribel?
She hadn’t come back through here. I worked that out quickly enough, if she had, the atmosphere would have been different, less uncertain. She’d gone straight to the Boardwalk instead. Bypassed the hotel entirely, bypassed me, bypassed the conversation that neither of us was ready to have in front of other people. Given everything she was carrying right now that was probably the smartest thing she could have done, even if the Boardwalk was also where I lived currently and the reprieve it offered her was temporary at best.
I didn’t say any of this.
"Did something happen?"
Summer appeared at my shoulder almost immediately, reading my face. As expected I was unable to hide it.
"It’s fine," I said.
She held my gaze for a moment, not entirely convinced, then let it go. "You got two people out alive from a group that was being held at gunpoint. Whatever else went wrong in there, that counts for something."
"I know," I said. And I did know. Theo and Paul were alive and walking and that mattered.
But it wasn’t the only thing sitting on me.
Romero had the Nexon Battery. He’d walked out of that building with exactly what he’d come for while I’d been maneuvering around hostages and Infected and my own depleted reserves. And now Callighan had it, had the piece he needed to push whatever Zakthar was building closer to completion.
Tommy had called it a weapon capable of ending the fight. Those words hadn’t left me since he’d said them. A weapon built on Starakian technology, powered by Nexon energy, designed by someone who understood Symbiote physiology from the inside out, that wasn’t something I could file away as a future problem.
I turned it over and felt only frustration of knowing I could have pushed harder for it and also knowing exactly why I hadn’t. Maribel, Theo, Paul, three people in that hall whose lives were more immediately at risk than any future threat. I’d made the right call in the moment. That didn’t make the outcome easier to sit with.
Sometimes having power wasn’t enough. If it were, Gaspar wouldn’t still be moving so carefully around Marlon’s people. The world didn’t resolve itself cleanly just because one person in it was harder to kill than most.
"Ryan, come on, stop looking like the world ended!"
Shannon materialized from somewhere to my left and wrapped both hands around my arm, grinning up at me with her usual cheerfulness.
"Did Maribel upset you?" She asked, tilting her head.
"No. She didn’t," I said, the words coming out slightly more awkward than I’d intended.
"Sorry if she did anyway! She comes across harsh sometimes but she genuinely isn’t, she just runs hot and it takes her a while to warm up to people but I promise she is actually really good once you—"
"He understands, Shannon." Summer reached over and pulled her back with a sigh. "And stop hanging off people."
Shannon made a noise of protest but released my arm.
Then something hit me hard from behind.
"Look who is back!"
Legs wrapped around me, arms locked across my shoulders and I felt immediately her body pressed against my back.
It worked. I caught her legs on instinct.
Summer and Shannon both went slightly wide-eyed, they hadn’t seen this coming.
I didn’t need to turn around.
"Sydney," I said, somewhere between a greeting and a long-suffering exhale.
"Hmm." Her chin dropped onto my shoulder and she went quiet for exactly one second. Then I felt her nose against my neck, actually sniffing there.
"Something’s off," she said.
"What are you doing?!" Cindy appeared from nowhere and grabbed Sydney by the back of her collar, hauling her off my shoulders with more force than was strictly necessary. "You weirdo."
Sydney landed on her feet, grinning broadly, completely unbothered. But her eyes stayed on me.
"Where’s the angry hot lass?" She asked, looking around.
"She went back ahead. She was tired," I said.
"Tired." She repeated the word with a raised eyebrow.
I didn’t confirm or elaborate. Whatever Sydney had picked up on, whatever the Symbiote had registered that her instincts were translating into suspicion, the last thing I was going to do was hand her something concrete to work with. Maribel’s business was Maribel’s. That wasn’t going to change.
"We ran into Callighan’s men," I said, redirecting. "It was complicated."
"How complicated?" Christopher’s voice came then.
He and Rachel had just come through from the back.
I looked around at the faces turned toward me, Summer, Shannon, Sydney still watching me sideways, Christopher, Rachel, others from Margaret’s group filtering closer.
"Sit down," I said. "It’s a long one."
And I started talking.
It took over ten minutes to walk them through all of it. I kept it straight and in order, the theatre, Romero, the hostages, the Hybrid, Hall Seven, Tommy, and watched their expressions move through the whole range as I talked. By the end the lobby had gone quite as they all processed my words.
Sydney broke the silence first, as expected.
"A theatre packed with Infected on one side and Callighan’s people on the other, and you just walked straight in." She shook her head slowly, the expression on her face caught somewhere between disbelief and delight. "Truly. The protagonist energy never sleeps."
"Instead of telling him off you’re practically glowing," Cindy said flatly.
"Because I’m proud of him, obviously! He pulled two people out of a hostage situation, Cindy. Two people who were going to die in there."
"I’m with Sydney on that one!" Shannon raised her hand immediately.
"He also nearly got himself killed three separate times in the process," Christopher said with a dry look. "Ryan, man, seriously. Could you not have waited outside? Let them come out once they had what they came for and then moved on them?"
"I thought about it," I said. "But the inside of that building was already falling apart around them and Romero was using Theo and Paul as direct shields. There was also a Hybrid loose on the upper floor, if I hadn’t dealt with it when I did, it would have reached them before they reached the exit." I paused. "And there was Tommy. Which turned out to be worth being in there for."
"Romero."
The name came from behind the group. Lucy stepped through, and I noticed Summer and Shannon both go slightly still at her appearance.
Well, it was already hard enough for our people to accept her and I didn’t even want to think about Marlon’s community who lost much more people.
"She’s just walking around in front of everyone now apparently," I said, more observation than complaint. Though I could already feel the headache forming when I thought about what Brad and Kyle and Billy were undoubtedly doing with that fact somewhere around to not say brewing already troubles.
"Do you know him?" Christopher asked her.
"Romero, yeah. I know him. Piece of trash doesn’t cover it, honestly."
I wasn’t going to argue with that assessment.
"There’s something else though," I said, glancing around the group. "More important than Romero." I let my eyes rest on Lucy for a moment as I said the next part. "I found a way to get Mei out. Emily and Keith as well."
Lucy went very still.
I laid out the conversation with Tommy from beginning to end, all of it, the plan, the boat, the timing, the contact method, everything. When I finished the room was quiet again.
Sydney opened her mouth.
"Hold on, Tommy. Isn’t that the ex-boyfriend of your first lover?"
"That is your first question right now?" Summer stared at her speechless.
Sorry, Summer but you will have to get used to it if anyone could ever actually.
"I’m just establishing context! Aren’t any of you curious about—"
"Shut up, Sydney." Christopher cut her off.
Sydney was about to continue but Rachel reached over without a word and covered Sydney’s mouth with her hand. Sydney’s eyes went wide, then accepting. She subsided.
"Tommy is on our side," I said, steering past all of that. "I’m confident in that. He’ll get word to us when everything is in place and ready to move, all I have to do is be there to pick them up when the time comes."
"That’s the part that isn’t simple though," Lucy said. "To reach Brigantine from the back you’d have to cross that lake. And that lake sits right up against the State Marina. Crossing it in a boat, day or night, you’d be completely exposed. Callighan’s people would see you coming before you were halfway across." She crossed her arms. "And if they spot you on that water, it’s over before it starts."
She was right. The geography of it was the problem. The lake approach was the cleanest route to where Tommy would be waiting, and it was also the most watched, the most indefensible if things went wrong mid-crossing. There was no cover on open water.
I looked at her. Then at the rest of them.
"I know," I said. "Which is exactly why we need to secure the State Marina and the Golden Nugget Hotel first."
That was then plan to begin with but now more than ever we needed to succeed it. Once we recovered the hotel and the state marina, everything will turn out to be easier.
