“So, we are hoping people chose to make the right decision?”
Finn shook his head. “Yeah. We founded this whole rebellion on hope. When you went on your first mission with Stonewell, you wanted the opportunity to choose which side to stand on. It only seems fair that you offer others the same chance.”
Tessa couldn’t argue with his logic. She knew Finn was right, and they should target the projects and not the people. If they targeted the people, then they did not differ from their enemy, who slaughtered defenseless women and children. Tessa didn’t want people to see her as a monster. She didn’t want to do the one thing she condemned Stonewell for doing. She wanted to give people a choice.
Tessa allowed Finn to lead their remaining group through his plan. Unfortunately, all the talk of sparing H.I.V.E lives didn’t appeal to the gang leaders. All the Chicago gang leaders backed out of the plan. They lost too many in the attack, and Finn’s proposal seemed like a suicide mission. He was still hashing out some of the details, but with Sam’s help, they plotted a course. Tessa went along with the group majority. If this was the path they wanted to take, then she would agree. It wasn’t a terrible plan. In fact, they could show H.I.V.E that they were also vulnerable to infiltration.
After their meeting, Finn went to work on the credentials, and Sam started collecting what equipment and weapons they had left. Tessa remained behind watching Finn work. He multitasked several machines, and she found his chaotic bouncing endearing. He believed in this mission and wanted to ensure success. Tessa felt relieved that she wasn’t in the leadership position at the moment.
Watching Finn work while she relaxed gave her a moment of peace. She never in a million years would have guessed this would be her future. She never wanted to be a leader. Nor did she want to be an Evo, but some things are just fate. You don’t always get to choose your path. Sometimes it’s already laid out for you.
Tessa helped Finn with his preparations late into the evening. There wasn’t much for her to do, but she wanted to stay near him. She finally wrapped her arms around him, prompting him to finish for the evening. She was exhausted, and he had to be too.
Finn stopped what he was doing to return the favor, embracing Tessa in a tight squeeze. He kissed her forehead and stroked her back. He knew just how to put her soul at ease. The day was stressful, and all Tessa wanted to do was lay down in Finn’s arms and drift off to sleep.
They spent some time kissing and caressing one another, but it didn’t take long for fatigue to set in and pull them toward slumber. Tessa felt safe here next to Finn. He understood her better than most. Sam and Arica had grown up with her and known her longer, but Finn knew her soul.
20
The group spent the days following Tessa’s attack on Cheyenne Mountain preparing for their rebel counterstrike on Los Alamos Labs. Finn got the comm links working again, which also meant the radio functioned again. The H.I.V.E propaganda following the attack on Cheyenne Mountain gave fuel to the government’s fire. The organization preached the scourge of the Evo monster, and Tessa played right into their hands when she destroyed their base.
It sickened Tessa to listen and hear nothing about the assault on their rebel base. H.I.V.E’s covert attack ended many innocent lives with no mention of those murdered for the sake of political gain.
H.I.V.E exploited her actions to tout its anti-Evo rhetoric into overdrive. Tessa almost wished she hadn’t taken such swift action, but what’s done is done. She couldn’t go back in time now and change it, so she swallowed her pill and moved on.
The only upside was that H.I.V.E was distracted with their propaganda, and hopefully wouldn’t see the new threat on the move. Sam and Finn crafted a masterful plan to infiltrate the secret H.I.V.E base at Los Alamos Labs in New Mexico. With final preparations in motion, Tessa and her team prepared to disable H.I.V.E from the inside out.
After the bases H.I.V.E attack, supplies were limited at the airport base. Their team comprised of seven, Tessa, Finn, Sam, Arica, Norine, Melody, and Stonewell; everyone else abandoned their cause. The stakes were too high, and the danger too real. H.I.V.E retaliation for Tessa’s attack was a real fear. Sam collected enough H.I.V.E uniforms for everyone, and most of them fit well enough to look legitimate. Finn handed out badges, credentials, and comms while Sam distributed weapons. Most of their weapons were stolen from H.I.V.E anyway, so they appeared standard issue.
Sam opted to use an old fifteen-passenger van they found on the airport grounds. They couldn’t roll into H.I.V.E territory with a tactical vehicle. They needed to seem like ordinary citizens to get close enough to infiltrate. Their point of entry was the Denver Airport. Finn accessed satellite footage of equipment being salvaged and moved via train from Denver to Santa Fe.
Their journey would take fourteen to sixteen hours to drive. The most direct route would take them through Iowa and Nebraska, which boasted some of the harshest conditions in the remaining states. Nebraska was a wasteland with nothing but dust and death. The sun made the environment a desert with little life. They would need to pack extra supplies in case of an emergency because being stranded in Nebraska often meant death.
Iowa was no laughing matter. Several Evo controlled territories dotted the
