CHAPTER 424: A FEW HOURS EARLIER.

"Say, what do you want to do after this?"

"Hm?"

"Once it’s all over, I mean."

"Once it’s all over? You mean once I’m dead?"

"That’s... awfully passimistic..."

"What did you expect? This doesn’t end once you’re gone, you know?"

"That’s..."

"One day, something will happen, and you will stop coming. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get bored. Then-"

"Then... then why don’t you come with me?"

"...what?"

"Let’s get out of here. We can go somewhere else. Somewhere far from here. We can start an entirely new life."

"That’s..."

"I... I might have been thinking about it for a while now. I know you don’t want to stay like this, and..."

"Of course I don’t, but..."

"Don’t worry. We will come up with a plan, and everything will work out. Okay?"

"... You have to promise me one thing..."

"Sure. What is it?"

"I..."

~[ ]~

"Rose.... Rose?"

Hearing her name being called, Rose snapped back to the real world. She looked around her and met several pairs of eyes. A bit of discomfort grew in her heart as she realized her head had been in the clouds. This wasn’t the time for her to be spacing out.

Her gaze turned to the one who had brought her out of that condition: a red haired youth with sharp features and eyes so sharp they could cut through anything.

"Don’t space out on me now." Dante said.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to." Said Rose, smiling wryly. "Where were we again?"

"Seriously..."

Dante went on with his explanation. He had been talking about breaking into Red Garden and how he infiltrated its systems. He also talked about the detailed schematics he obtained. Long story short, he had managed to gather all the intel they required and more.

"Seriously, kid. How did you even managed to get all of this?"

Ben’s question echoed what the others felt. Many have attempted to infiltrate the gated community before, but few got far, and even fewer gathered enough information without taking any risks. Their confusion was only natural.

"I got my sources." Dante replied. "And I know some people."

Rose had an inkling, but she tried not to think about it. What mattered was that they made it in time for the raid.

"I think the best route we have is this." Dante circled a part of the projected 3D model. "We can dig a hole through the foundation and go through the basement. From there, we secure the exits, get the target, and get out."

He was pointing at a sewer tunnel that passed below the mansion. The idea seemed quite logical until one looks at the distance separating the tunnel from the basement floor.

"I don’t think we can get through that layer." Said Bruno. "Not without being noticed."

"Don’t worry about it. I borrowed some tools to help us get through." Dante said. "The problem comes after that. The mansion has a bunch of Level 3s guarding it. I don’t think we can finish this without making any noise, so... You sure you can take them on?"

His gaze shifted in her direction, and Rose met them with silence. This was their one and only opportunity—the goal she had been trying to reach for years.

It was unclear how long it would have taken if she followed the original plan, but thank to the red haired youth, everything had been brought forward. Because of that, she couldn’t help but feel that they were rushing things, making her fear the chance of failure. That fear didn’t overcome her desire to progress, however. She wasn’t about to think twice before reaching out to grasp it.

Getting up, she walked to the front then faced the gathering, allowing the light from the projection to illuminate her complexion. Most of them had chains tattoos circling their upper arms, signaling their allegiance to Los Aros, though a few had no affiliation to the gang. Looking at them one by one, Rose drew in a deep breath then spoke.

"Our main objective is capturing the Black Skull lieutenant known as Jason." She said. "We will try to keep it quite the entire time. Get in, grab the bastard, get out. If we manage to do that without tripping any of the alarms, then the mission will be a success." Pausing, she let her words echo in the minds of the others before continuing. "Of course, it’s unlikely that things will proceed so smoothly. Thankfully, Black Skull is in a bit of a bind now that the Daggers are hitting back. Most of their Level 3s had been moved elsewhere, so as long as we handle the ones already there fast, we wouldn’t have to worry about reinforcements."

She went on to divide the roles, all based on the weapons and tools they acquired specifically for this mission. She then proceeded to explaining the detail of the plan and the timeline they have.

"As for the exit strategy."

Just as she reached the last, Luis, better known as Lu, raise his hand and interrupted her. When she looked his way, silently giving him the signal to speak, he turned to look at the others before returning his gaze to her.

"I know we have out goals, but... but what about the kids?" He asked. "Are we going to just leave them there?"

The question was another one everyone had on their mind, and the answer couldn’t bee more obvious.

"As I already said, our main objective is to get Jason." Rose replied. "Our chances of pulling this off are already low. We can’t afford to lower them further by diverting our focus."

"But..."

"You know the reason why we’re doing this, right?"

The question came from Dante, drawing all eyes toward him. He met Lu’s and didn’t falter, piercing him with a glare that shut down any retort the gangster might come up with. When no answer came, Dante gave his own.

"We’re going in to get one guy and deal a good blow to the enemy. That’s it." He said. "We aren’t the police, and we certainly aren’t the heroes. Saving people isn’t our problem. Got it?"