Page 78 of Lovesick Titan

“Uhhh… We just need to pull it up on my computer! Hit enter. Bam. No more reflections. But we’ll need full power back first.”

“Give him your comms,” Mal ordered Lucy. “Hermes?” he spoke into his own as she complied.

“Here.”

“Vaughn is going to give you instructions for turning on a program in the main room at his computer terminal. Do you know where that is well enough to jump there when we need you?”

“Yeah,” Oz said. “I got a good look at the blueprints.”

“Then be ready.” Mal looked to Dom and Lucy in turn. “Don’t call for him before we have a clear shot. Gaia, guard the crew here. Our powers will be more effective offensively. Hephaestus?” he said into the comms again.

“Already working on getting the grid up and running. Care to lend a hand, Captain Shan?”

“Don’t think this is a sign of the times,Hephaestus,” Shan said.

Mal left them to it. “Stay put,” he told Team Zeus and gestured Dom to the door.

“No way,” Grant surged forward.

“Detective…”

“That’s myson.”

“Who’s kept youprisonerfor twenty-four hours.” Mal stepped into his space. “If Ludgate has him on a short leash, that’s good for us. You’ll be safer here. That’s what Danny would want, and you know it. Our powers have the best chance of disabling him without anyone getting hurt. Then we lock out Ludgate. Then we save Danny.”

Grant seethed with dissention, but for Danny’s sake, not against Danny himself, never against him the way Mal had grown up with. It warmed him more than he would ever say that Danny had had someone to raise him who loved him that fiercely.

“You have to trust me,” Mal said, expecting the scoff that followed.

“Trustyou?”

“Dad…” Stella tried to intervene.

“Hand John a set of comms,” Shan’s voice came over the line.

Mal paused before looking to Vaughn, who was about to hand Lucy’s back to her. “Just a merry band of misfits,” he grumbled, taking the comms himself and shoving them at Grant. “Doesn’t matter whether you trust me or not. Danny does. I’ll do what I have to, whatever it takes, to get him back to his senses and make sure Ludgate pays for what he’s done.”

While Grant lifted the comms to his ear, Mal tuned out whatever Shan said to him and turned for the door. He was surprised and troubled that Danny hadn’t tried to come back inside. He’d be ready, whatever they attempted next, so they had to be smarter.

The others held back as Mal and Dom approached the door. The ashes had all crumbled. It was clear now into the other room, though they couldn’t see much through the narrow opening or with the building still bathed in blue from the emergency lights.

Just before they dashed through, Mal heard Shan say, “Wouldn’t be on this channel, John, if I didn’t believe he meant to do right by your son.”

Starting at the end of the main hallway was to their benefit. It allowed them a full view of what lay ahead as they hugged the walls. Danny wasn’t immediately visible, but there were many rooms to hide in, doorways and side halls and ripe places for ambush. Mal kept Dom boxed closer to the wall so she could ready the heat field. Once they were safely out of range of the others, he told Dom to turn it on.

“Thehell—” Dom oomphed before the telling click of the switch could be heard.

Mal whirled around to see her facing the shiny surface of the wall with her hands held out in shock—amplifier gone.

“Asshole took mycuff,” she growled, tightening her hands into fists. “How—”

Mal pulled his own cuffed wrist in close and gestured for Dom to be quiet and to continue down the hallway with him, as he turned on the cold field to ensure Danny didn’t perform any sneak attacks on him.

Cautious, slow, they moved through the open doorway of the main room, edging closer to Vaughn’s computer. There was constant chatter over the comms: Lucy back on now, checking on Priestly and Captain Shan as they worked to get the power up—much harder than having it cut.

Mal’s eyes scanned every surface around them with Dom at his back to do the same, giving them an almost 360-degree view. Nothing.

“I can wait all night for you to slip up, Cho!” Danny called from…somewhere. “Why make it easy on you?”

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