Chapter 383: Preparations before the attack on the Golden Nugget [3]

It didn’t take us long to reach the Boardwalk. We probably could have gotten there even faster if we had taken the shortcut Summer always used to get to the Pier Shop mall, but that obviously wasn’t an option tonight. Not with this many people, and not when we were arriving as one group on purpose. It was better to come through the proper entrance and make it clear we were all here together.

By the time we reached the barricaded entrance, there were already more lights than usual despite it being well past midnight.

Which made sense.

This wasn’t an ordinary night.

A flashlight suddenly flashed straight into our faces from above, nearly blinding me before someone leaned over the barricade.

It was Theo.

"Theo, it’s Ryan," I called out.

"What, me?" our Theo asked from beside me.

"No, not you. There’s another Theo in the Boardwalk," Cindy said.

The Boardwalk Theo chuckled and turned his flashlight toward our Theo.

"Nice to meet you, Theo," he called down. "Good name you’ve got there."

"Not a bad one yourself," our Theo laughed back.

Sydney sighed. "God, who names their son Theo? That sounds like the perfect name to get bullied in middle school."

"Your name is literally Sydney," Cindy replied at once.

"The capital of beautiful Australia," Sydney said with a smug smile. "Jealous?"

"The capital of Australia is Canberra, genius," Christopher said.

Sydney frowned. "What the hell is Canberra? Sounds like some kind of cabbage."

From above, Theo looked down at all of us with his flashlight and let out a long breath.

"Gods," he muttered. "So these are the elites you’re bringing to help us, Ryan?"

"Yeah," I said dryly. "Sorry about that. But don’t judge a book by its cover. She’s a weirdo, but she can fight."

Theo snorted. "I’m trusting you, man."

A second later, the barricade was opened for us, and we stepped inside.

From there, it didn’t take long to reach the others.

Near one of the open squares, several lamps had been lit, making the area much brighter than the rest of the Boardwalk. A lot of people were already gathered there. At a glance, I counted at least forty.

I could hear Marlon’s voice carrying over the low noise of the crowd as he spoke to them, but he stopped the moment he noticed us approaching.

He turned.

Then so did everyone else.

"You’re finally here," Marlon said.

Then his eyes shifted past me, toward the people behind us.

"And it looks like you brought more than I asked for."

"They volunteered," I replied.

Marlon gave a low hum. "Good. It would’ve been disappointing if the reinforcements you brought me were only a bunch of kids." His gaze lingered on Martin and the others. "Thankfully, I see some proper men among them."

My expression hardened immediately.

Before I could answer, Sydney stepped forward.

"This old man clearly has no idea what we’re capable of," she said, pointing at him without the slightest hesitation. "Ryan alone could wipe your whole group if he wanted to. You do know that, right?"

As always to hype me up more than necessary, Sydney would be always first.

Marlon’s eyes shifted to her.

"Another one of his girlfriends?" he asked flatly. Then he lifted a handgun slightly. "Do you at least know how to use a weapon?"

Sydney smiled.

"I can do more than that."

She raised her hand, and blue sparks crackled into life across her fingers.

"What the hell—"

"Did you see that?"

"Is she like that freak Gaspar?!"

A wave of tension ran through the gathered people at once. Some flinched back. Others raised their weapons halfway before stopping. A few, though, looked more startled than truly panicked, probably because they had already heard enough from me over the last week not to react blindly.

Molly stepped forward from the group, looking more curious than afraid.

"Ryan told me already," she said, glancing from Sydney to the others behind me. "But yeah... seeing it for real is something else."

Then she looked at me.

"Are they all like that?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not all of them."

Marlon kept watching Sydney for another second before looking back at me.

"As long as they prove useful, I don’t care," he said. "But this will be a battlefield."

"There’s nothing to worry about," Martin cut in before I could reply. "They might look young, but I’ve seen these kids up close. They know how to handle themselves better than most adults."

Marlon looked at him for a moment, then gave a short nod.

That seemed enough.

So we moved closer into the square.

By now, most of the people there already knew me, and I knew most of them too. Spending the last week working all over the Boardwalk had done exactly what Marlon probably intended it to do. People had seen me hauling supplies, helping fix things, training, taking orders, doing whatever needed doing. I wasn’t some stranger anymore.

And because of that, Sydney showing her power didn’t send the whole place into chaos.

They were wary, sure.

But the fact that she had arrived with me made a real difference.

That had definitely been part of Marlon’s plan from the start when he first brought me in and had me spend a week helping around.

He wasn’t just testing me.

He was making sure that when this night came, his people would trust the ones standing at my side.

Maybe Marlon had already thought that far ahead.

Maybe even back when he first brought me in, he had been thinking about making future cooperation between his group and Margaret’s group easier through me.

It sounded like the kind of thing he would do.

"Anyway," Marlon said, turning back toward his people, "I already briefed you on the plan."

His voice carried easily across the square, sharp enough to cut through the low murmurs and metal clicks of men checking their gear.

"We take out as many as possible from the outside first. It’s night, yes, but these bastards are lighting up the whole damn hotel with some kind of alien tech, so visibility won’t be our problem."

Rico gave a short snicker. "Idiots are making it easier for us."

A few others laughed at that.

And yeah, in a way, they were.

Electricity was useful, but it also meant patrol routes were clearer, and anyone moving around outside stood out more sharply. With Zakthar likely inside, security had definitely been tightened, and Marlon had already confirmed that the hotel grounds were being watched. That only made me more certain the Starakian was still there.

Marlon pointed toward the rough map and the weapons table beside it.

"Snipers first. You get into position at the planned distances. The few of you with suppressors will fire first and take down as many outer guards as possible before the others open up. Best case, they stay confused for a few seconds longer. Realistically, they’ll notice fast."

Nobody interrupted him.

"The important part is surprise," he went on. "Even if they realize something’s wrong, they won’t know how many of us are coming or from where. So the second the first shots go off, everybody moves. Fast. We hit hard and use the panic before they can organize."

My group and I just stood there and listened.

This part was mostly for his people. They had already planned things on their side, so this was Marlon giving the final reminder, making sure nobody forgot their lane once adrenaline kicked in.

He spoke for another ten minutes, going over timing, direction, fallback signals, and distributing weapons laid out across the large table. Rifles, handguns, extra magazines, knives, even a few suppressors passed from hand to hand.

Once he finished, the crowd loosened and scattered a little, everyone drifting into their own last checks.

That was when I noticed some of them had bulletproof vests too.

Not many.

But enough.

After Marlon was done with his men, he finally walked toward us.

"If any of you need weapons, take them now," he said. "Tonight, you’ll want the best you can carry."

Martin laughed lightly as he glanced over the table. "You’re definitely not lacking."

Marlon gave him a look, though not an unfriendly one. "I was a Marine before taking my retreat here. I knew where weapons were stored around here. Though most of this came from Callighan’s men in the end."

"Marine, huh?" Sydney said, stepping aside just enough to glance toward Lucy. "Then you’ve got a colleague here."

The second Marlon looked at Lucy, the air changed.

It tightened so fast it was almost physical.

Lucy stood with her arms crossed, unreadable as ever, staring right back at him without even the smallest sign of backing down.

Marlon stopped in front of her.

"Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?" he asked.

Lucy didn’t move.

"Are you?" she asked back.

His jaw hardened at once.

"I don’t kill innocents."

"I didn’t kill innocents either," she replied coldly.

Marlon took a step closer. "You commanded people who did. My people. Innocent people. Their blood is on your hands."

Lucy’s expression didn’t change.

"Then the blood of everyone Callighan has killed is on yours too," she said. "Because you’re the reason he came here in the first place. You’re the reason he built that pack of twisted animals around himself."

For a second, nobody said anything.

Marlon just stared at her.

And Lucy stared right back.

Rachel stepped in before either of them could push it further.

"As hard as it is to accept," she said quickly, "Lucy is with us now."

Marlon’s eyes shifted to Rachel.

"She worked with Callighan because they saved her life," Rachel continued, "and because her brother is being kept there. That doesn’t erase anything. But it is the truth. Right now, she wants Callighan down and her brother back."

Marlon kept looking at her for another second, then turned back to Lucy.

"Marine," he said. "Which unit?"

"2nd Battalion, 8th Marines," Lucy replied without hesitation. "Echo Company."

Marlon’s expression shifted slightly.

"Infantry," he said.

Lucy held his gaze. "Yes."

He studied her for another second.

"You’re young," he said. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

That actually made Marlon’s eyes widen a little before they narrowed again.

"At that age, for a woman to have made that kind of impression and gained real field experience..." he muttered. "You must’ve stood out."

Lucy didn’t answer.

The rest of us just stood there, watching the exchange.

It made sense, in a way. Marlon had been a Marine too, but that was years ago, before he retired after the whole Callighan case ten years back. Back then, Lucy was probably still in high school. Even so, seeing another Marine in front of him, even one who had worked under Callighan, clearly struck something in him.

And honestly, from the first time I met Lucy, I had known she wasn’t normal.

If I hadn’t had Dullahan’s strength, she would’ve beaten the hell out of me and escaped without much trouble. Hell, from what Christopher told me, she probably could’ve escaped anyway if she had really wanted to.

But in the end, she didn’t.

Even with her brother’s life hanging over her head, she stayed.

"You’ll come with me, then," Marlon said, already turning away.

"No," Lucy said at once. "I’m staying with them."

Marlon stopped and turned back sharply.

Then his eyes shifted to me.

"What about you?" he asked. "No changes from what you told me?"

I nodded.

"We go through the back of the hotel and get inside," I said. "Once we’re in, I split off to look for Zakthar. The others clear the lower level and keep things open for me."

Marlon gave a low hum.

"You know exactly what you want to do," he said. "That’s good."

Then, annoyingly, he gave me a faintly approving smile that felt way too much like pride.

It made my skin crawl a little.

"Gross," Sydney said out loud, echoing my exact thought.

Cindy immediately grabbed her arm and pulled her back a step.

Marlon ignored that and kept looking at me, so I spoke again before the moment got any weirder.

"If Lucy isn’t going with you, then take Martin and the others," I said.

"Ryan," Martin said, already sounding like he knew where this was going.

"We’ll be fine," I said. "You know we’re not like ordinary humans. Strength, stamina, speed, reaction time... all of it. We move differently. Faster. It’ll be hard for you to keep up with us, and harder for us to coordinate properly if we’re all mixed together."

Malcolm frowned. "Then what about Christopher and Lucy? Aren’t they normal humans too?"

"Christopher’s been with us long enough," I said. "As crazy as it sounds, he’s already used to our pace. And Lucy was a Marine. She can move with us just fine."

Honestly, she might even be better at it than some of us.

Even with Dullahan making us physically stronger, Lucy still had actual training and real combat experience behind her. That counted for a lot.

Martin looked at me for a few seconds after that, then finally sighed.

"Alright," he said. "But be careful, kids. Better yet, just don’t die on us."

"Don’t worry," I replied. "And you better not die either."

"Yeah," Christopher muttered. "Because I’m not the one explaining that to Linda."

Sydney lifted a brow. "And people call me negative?"

"Shut up already," Cindy sighed.

That seemed to settle it.

Martin and the others moved off to join the positions they’d been given, but before Paul fully turned away, he stopped and looked toward Ivy.

Then he blinked.

"Wait," he said, pointing. "What about her? Ivy, right? Why is she standing there like she’s about to go on a field trip?"

All eyes shifted toward Ivy.

She was still standing there with her hands in the pockets of her white coat, looking so calm and detached that she really did seem completely out of place among the guns, vests, and last-minute tension.

Christopher answered with a slightly awkward smile.

"She looks like that, yeah. But don’t worry. She’s capable."

That was one way to put it.

Ivy definitely didn’t look the part, but appearances meant nothing with her. She was capable, faster, and more composed than most people there, and somehow she always carried herself like none of this was enough to truly disturb her.

Still, I really hoped she would actually listen once things started moving.

With the groups settled and everyone finally clear on what they had to do, the last preparations started wrapping up. Weapons got checked one final time. Magazines were adjusted. Straps tightened. A few last words were exchanged in lower voices.

Then, one by one, we left the Boardwalk in separate groups and disappeared into the dark.