Epilogue - Riggs

EPILOGUE – RIGGS

Twenty-two of us enter Blackberry Hill and you'd think, with so many guys, it would be a shit show. Some would know what's up, some would be confused, some might be scared, some looking for blood.

But that's not how this goes.

That's not how this goes at all.

When you've got a team of nearly two dozen men, there's almost no way to get everyone in synch. But Collin, Amon, Nash, and Ryan somehow pulled this all together. Watching their new crew work is like watching a ballet. Everyone has a job to do and no one deviates.

It is seamless, and serious, and I would not want to go up against any of these men. They're all damaged. The military was the only thing they had. The only thing they knew. So when they got discharged, they were lost. Homeless. Drug addicts. Criminals. That's all they were before Edge Security.

Now they've got a nice compound to live on, friends they can count on, a regular paycheck, and a dog.

A dog .

I mean, is that brilliant, or what?

They've all got their own attack dogs. Some are puppies in training, and about half the guys share a dog, but they don't mind because there's always puppies coming up. I take my hat off to Amon Parrish for thinking this scheme up. Talk about inspiring loyalty and a sense of belonging. It's fuckin' genius.

Last time I worked with Collin, we were just a crew of ten and Ryan and Nash were special, of course. All of us were hand-picked by Charlie Beaufort, but not in a standout way like our fearless leader. They just happened to make it out the other end alive. It was a whole lot of ‘right place, right time' so they're partners now.

It was Collin running things. It's always been Collin running things. And, of course, since they grew up together, Amon has been his number one from the start.

Twenty-two guys is a lot, so we've been broken up into four teams—Ryan has six men, Nash has six men, and then Collin and Amon are their own team. Which leaves one team without a leader. I am not a leader. I'm lucky I'm even here.

Well, not here specifically because this is my mission, actually. But on the Edge team at all.

Clover really did save me when she came riding in on her big old horse. Collin really was gonna kill me. He wasn't buying the tattoo thing, which was meant as a pledge of loyalty when each of us guys under him got them done. He has said as much in the weeks since.

"You infiltrated my team," he said. That was the first day, when I left Clover with Lowyn at her house and Collin took me back to the Edge compound. We have a very long debrief. I told him everything, several times over, and by the end this was what he was stuck on.

I infiltrated his team.

He can't get over it. He might never get over it.

But it wasn't me. It really was Charlie. And even though the last time I saw Collin he and Charlie were close, something happened to that relationship because they're not close now.

If they had been, I'm sure Charlie would've denied it and I would not be wearing this uniform.

Even now, Collin still doesn't trust me. I'm working for Edge because I'm here, for better or for worse, and unless Clover kicks me to the curb, I'm staying.

"I'm gonna give you once change, Riggs ," Collin said. He sneers my name every time. Like he can't get over that Raleigh thing either. "And if you even think about betraying me or my men, I'll slip into your bedroom at night and end you and Clover won't have any say over it."

He will too.

I believe him.

So. Here I am. A bona fide Edge Security employee. Collin's gotta do something with me. He can't just let me live in his childhood home, hang out in Disciple, and make friends with everyone until I become a default member of the community, now can he? I guess he figures keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

When I'm not on a secret mission sweeping Blackberry Hill, I'm Revival tent security, Jim Bob Baptist's personal bodyguard when he needs to ‘do city work,' as he puts it, and kennel cleaner when there aren't enough hours to keep me busy.

It's gonna take time, I guess. But I've got that, so I don't mind.

This mission here, though, this one's all me. Because we've been doing recon on Blackberry Hill for about three weeks now and we think they bailed out.

Clover and Lowyn drew us a map of the place, including Ike's house and the secret bunker underneath it, so we're going in to see what's up.

It only takes a few careful minutes of sweeping to determine that this little mountain village is indeed empty. Not a single person here. It looks like they left in a hurry and didn't take much because the closets are all full of clothes, the kids' backpacks are overflowing with homework, and some of the houses even had breakfast rotting on the kitchen tables and full cups of coffee sitting next to them.

They probably left that same morning Clover escaped.

After the sweep is over, we all meet up in front of Ike's house. Collin nods to me. "You're coming with us. Let's go. Nash, you're in charge." Collin's voice comes off all tinny because we're wearing full-on state-of-the-art body armor. It's all black and super-soldier as all fuck.

Amon leads the way, opening Ike's door and heading in with his rifle at high ready. I follow and Collin comes in behind me.

We go straight to the door that leads down to the bunker. There's a security pad on it, but the door hasn't been shut properly, so we don't need to break in.

"It's probably been like this since Clover came up," Amon says.

Collin looks at me and I nod, but neither of us says anything.

"What's that noise?" Amon asks.

Collin goes to the door, pushes it all the way open with the end of his rifle, and then we all lean in. Because there is definitely a noise coming from down below. Something that sounds familiar, but I can't quite place.

"You're up, Riggs ." Collin still sneers my name every time he says it. I told him he could call me Raleigh if it made him feel better, but he found that funny. He nods his head to the door and I let out a breath, which forms a bit of steam on the inside of my visor before the helmet air conditioning can fade it away.

I go through the door and down the steps with my rifle ready, and when I get to the bottom, there's another door, also partly open.

I'm a hundred-percent sure there's no one down here, but I slice the pie anyway, peeking around the corner in appropriate military fashion, just to be extra careful.

And that's when I understand the noise we're hearing.

It's a set of elevator doors trying to close, but it can't, because Ike Monroe's dead body is in the way.

I sweep the whole room, then go back to the stairs. "It's clear."

Amon and Collin come in and they both sigh.

The body has been here for weeks. It's badly decomposed and if we didn't have these helmets on with filtered air, it'd probably smell pretty bad.

"What's that?" Collin points to the body. "Is that a note?"

It is indeed a note. Pinned to Ike's shirt like he's a second-grader going home to his mama.

Amon rips it off and hands it over to Collin. Collin reads it, then hands it to me.

It says: You're up next. Love ya, Hattie .

"What's it mean, Riggs ?"

God, the way he sneers my name is really getting old. "Obviously, I'm the next target."

Collin just grunts. Then he opens up Nash's line. "We've got a body we need to bring up. Get a bag and take care of this for me, will ya?"

"I'm on it," Nash replies in the open channel.

The three of us kick it, leaning against the wall, until the guys appear with a bag and take Ike's body up. Then Collin points to the elevator. "Let's go, Riggs ." Because of course, this isn't all there is to Blackberry Hill.

I argued with him for an hour, at least, back at the compound about this part. I mean, what if there's an army down there?

But Collin wasn't hearing it. Partly because he can't leave this thread dangling, but mostly I think he's just curious. He wants to see it with his own eyes.

So fuck it. I enter the elevator and Collin and Amon come with me.

I press the bottom button and the doors close.

Elevator music plays as we descend, which I think Hattie probably did on purpose to make this whole thing just that much more creepy, and the three of us stare at the doors until we stop and they open.

Immediately, the three of us are in high alert mode, practiced actions taking over. The tunnel ceiling is weeping water, the ground has puddles, and it's pitch fucking dark, so the hybrid night vision kicks in, making everything seem very first-person-shooter video game.

We don't say anything now. It's all business as we carefully walk down the long corridor.

We come to a crossroad of hallways and Collin stops. "Where to?"

"I have no idea," I say. "I've never used this tunnel. I don't even know where this is in relation to the actual city. It might be military."

"It's pretty quiet for military," Amon says.

"That's because they're gone."

"Gone?" Collin lowers his rifle to face me. Then he even opens his visor so he can see me properly.

Amon and I open ours as well and I shrug. "They're gone."

"I thought you said there was a city down here?"

"There is."

"So what'd they do? Evacuate the whole damn place?" Collin doesn't believe a word I say in the best of situations, and this isn't the best of situations.

I shrug again. "Let's go check it out, but I'm telling you, they've shut it all down and sealed it off. To keep you out, probably."

Amon and Collin look at each other, have some kind of private conversation, and then Collin looks back at me. "Lead on, Riggs . Because I'm gonna need to see every fucking inch of this facility."

We spend five fucking days down in the newly abandoned Blackberry Hill, people coming and going, relieving each other in teams of ten. There isn't a single crevice that we don't photograph and map. Just like the village up top, it's empty and people left in a hurry.

I go to the consulate and find my pack, Clover's too. Hell, our clothes are still there, strewn all over the floor, because Hattie took us out of there naked.

I pack them up, grab both packs, and then make my way back to the exit.

There's only one way in and out now. Every exit has been either sealed with concrete or blown up. The train tunnel below has been collapsed. Even the door that Clover and I came in from has been sealed with concrete.

And it kinda blows my mind that the Colony gave this place up.

It's a win for Collin Creed. A very big win.

Edge Security—sixty-five men, give or take—just defeated the Colony and captured an entire underground military installation.

And that's it, I guess.

This is war.

Collin, Amon, and I enter the Gavel and Quill Tavern in Capitol Hill and push past the ma?tre d'. He immediately opens his mouth as if to object, but you don't get to be the gatekeeper at the Gavel and Quill by being stupid, so that mouth closes just as fast because the three of us are dressed like we're on our way to ambush some underground city people, up to and including brandishing properly permitted weapons.

The brazen display of these weapons is almost enough to get past the ma?tre d's better senses and make him chase after us, but the whole thing happens too fast and by the time he makes up his mind on how to handle the situation, we're deep into the restaurant, twelve more Edge men are coming up behind us, and each of them has a dog at their knee.

Charlie Beaufort hasn't seen us yet. He's sitting in a big booth in the middle of the room and looks to be having a serious conversation with a senator's staffer, so Collin is already slipping into the booth next to Charlie before he even takes notice that the whole restaurant has gone silent.

When a team of ‘private security' dressed up in black tactical and carrying GhostMachine rifles enters a restaurant and starts surrounding people like a brick wall, it tends to garner one's attention.

Unless you're pompous Charlie Beaufort, that is.

Amon points to the staffer. "Get out." Then he hooks his thumb over his shoulder.

The staffer sitting opposite of Charlie—young guy, early twenties, I'd guess—is properly intimidated and scoots out of the booth without saying a single word.

Amon takes his place, sets his rifle on the table in front of him, and I slide in next to him, but face the open side of the booth so I can keep an eye on things while Collin has his chat.

He still doesn't trust me, but Charlie Beaufort seeing the three of us together is something Collin was pretty set on, since Charlie was the one who recruited me and told him I was dead.

"Hey, Charlie," Collin says. He even says it nicely. "How's your day goin'?"

I peek over my shoulder to catch Charlie's reaction and find him looking around, like he's got bodyguards to prevent unpleasant situations such as this, and he's expecting them to appear and take over.

He does have bodyguards, but we took them out first. They're tied up in Charlie's limo in a parking garage down the block.

Charlie, realizing that no one is coming to save him, forces a smile. "This is an unexpected visit, Collin." He's sincere when he says this because he still hasn't seen me. Because this man is so rich, and so insulated, and so powerful—I am no one right now. Just one of Collin's men.

It blows my mind that he lives and works in a city as dangerous as Washington D.C. and doesn't even bother to understand his surroundings. He reeks of privilege.

"Is it though?" Collin asks. "Unexpected?" Then Collin nods his head towards me. "Remember Raleigh, Charlie?"

Charlie mumbles, "Fuck," under his breath as he meets my side-eye gaze. Then he looks at Collin. "I can explain." He chuckles these words out. And they are so calm, and so easy, and filled with so much certainty, it kinda makes me sick. He's still not afraid.

"Wow," I say. "You are a lot stupider than you look."

Charlie's face goes red and he's about to have one of those blowhard, blustering reactions he's known for, but suddenly the tip of Amon's rifle is pressing up against Charlie's lips. Amon says, "Shut up, Charlie," before Charlie even has a chance to spit out excuses.

"Listen," Collin says, "we're all busy men, so I'm gonna get to the point. Well, points. I'm gonna make a few right now while I have your full attention. One, I do not owe you ten hours of work for helping me save Lowyn from Ike Monroe last spring. Two, you burned a bridge with me, so we're through. I'm keeping all the money you paid us for this current job, but all the active Edge men were pulled out this morning."

Charlie's eyes go wide—perhaps thinking of the consequences of this pulling out. I don't know what this job is, so I can't be sure what he's thinking, but I'm gonna go out on a ledge here and say that Charlie might be in the beginning stages of a panic attack over this. He even starts his infamous blustering.

But Amon's rifle pokes right into Charlie's pie hole and makes him choke those words back.

"Three," Collin continues, almost seamlessly, "Trinity County wants it to be known that we own all airspace above our county, as well as the ground below it. Blackberry Hill now belongs to us. If I see one drone, Charlie?" Collin stares at him with those viper eyes of his. "One. Drone? It's on. If I find one stranger in my new underground city, they are dead and so are you." Charlie is about to object to this, since it's hardly something he can control, now is it? But Amon shakes his head at him, and no actual words come out. Only a squeak or two. "Are we clear here, Charlie? No debts. No drones. No strangers." Charlie just stares at him, trying to process what is happening. "I'm gonna need a verbal answer at this point."

Charlie huffs out a breath. I'm expecting him to just agree, and that would be that. But instead he looks right at me, his eyes narrowing down. "You're making a big mistake, boy."

Collin scoffs. "That wasn't the answer I was looking for, Charlie."

But Charlie holds my gaze and his eyes are filled with threats. He might be afraid of Collin Creed. Maybe. He should be, but sometimes people don't know what's good for them. But one thing is for sure, Charlie Beaufort is not afraid of me .

"Your father," Charlie continues, "will never forgive you for what you've done."

"I don't think he's clear, Collin," I say, growling my words right back. "I really don't think he gets it."

Amon puts his fingers in his mouth and a sharp whistle fills the tavern. There's the clattering of toenails on hardwood, and then, a few seconds later, twelve K-9's trained to military standards are surrounding the booth on all sides. People are gasping, and starting to panic, but not a single person tries to get up and leave.

"Oh, he gets it," Collin says. "Don't ya, Charlie?"

"Collin, you don't understand what you're doin' here, son."

"I'm not your son. And trust me, I know exactly what I'm doin'. I'm cutting ties with you, Charlie. You and all the other liars in this town. You stay the fuck away from us and we'll stay the fuck away from you. But if any of my men, or Amon's dogs, get hurt? I'll come for you, Charlie. And you'll be dead before you even understand what's happening."

Collin slides out of the booth, I stand up and take a step back, and then Amon gets out. He snaps his fingers and those dogs line up on either side of him like foot soldiers.

I smile, give Charlie Beaufort a sloppy salute, and that's how we leave it.