{Huge shoutout to my dear Turquoise Scribe for helping me out a TON with this chapter and making sense of all my jumbled thoughts! You're the best ^_^}

"No." Nolan said firmly. "I'm not about to walk into a meeting full of people who are out for themselves. They can do whatever they want, but I'm not going to be a part of it."

"We have to." Toby replied. "We need to know what's going on...or what's going to happen. Besides, we have information on Egor. You've seen him, Nolan, and we can't just take our leave of this operation now."

As much as he hated to admit it, Toby was right.

"Plus, we might be able to influence their decisions." Grace reasoned. "I mean, look at this place." She gestured towards the hospital lobby that was congested with refugees. "People are scared. I trust the government just as much as the next person, and I don't believe they're going to do what's best for everyone. But maybe we can help make things better."

Nolan sighed. "Okay, fine." He pinched the bridge of his nose. Why did they have to make everything sound so logical? "What else did Howard say?"

"He's going to Austria to meet with the UN leaders. They're going to discuss what to do about the EMP situation and they want us to be a part of it. Howard's arranged for us to fly over there as soon as we're ready."

Secretly, Nolan wondered if Howard had an ounce of regret about bombing Kavala, but he decided not to dwell on it for too long. "Well, I'm ready if you are. Did the nurse get you fixed up?"

Toby glanced down at his abdomen. "Oh yeah. She was...forceful."

"I'm ready." Grace said.

Nolan met the eyes of both of them. "Alright then. Let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nolan was sitting on a plane, in a row all by himself when Howard called.

He almost didn't answer it.

Toby and Grace were seated behind him and he was the one to get booted to another row. He eyed the cell phone in his hand warily before pressing accept

"Hello?"

"Nolan."

"Well, if it isn't the biggest idiot on this side of eastern Europe. Or the rest of the seven continents for that matter."

A nervous laugh crackled through the other end. "Before we get too hasty, let me explain."

"Explain what?" Nolan spat, a surge of unexpected anger coursing through him. "You killed innocent people on a rash decision. You risked your agent's lives when you knew they were on the ground. You didn't give anyone else but Egor a second thought. You murdered a city to get to a single man you don't even know if you killed. Let me tell you right now, Howard, that you are very lucky I'm not with you on the other end of the phone right now."

"There's no need to make threats, Mr. Clay. We're trying to get all of this sorted out."

"And how many lives have to be taken before you actually get it "sorted"?"

Howard gave a sigh. "Nolan, this is exactly why I called. You three are coming to this meeting because you have information—not an opinion. Do I make myself clear?"

Nolan could envision punching Howard in the face. It would feel extremely satisfying. "Sure. I understand completely. You're going to represent the free states of America by oppressing people with a voice. Really, it makes sense for someone like you. Hear me when I tell you that I won't be silenced on this issue. You needlessly killed people; I've done that before in my life, so I can't blame you. But I will do whatever it takes to stop that from happening again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Clay—"

"See you in Austria, Howard."

Nolan hung up the phone, his blood still boiling.

He felt a kick in the back of his chair. He turned around in his seat and saw Toby wearing a smirk and Grace giving two thumbs up.

"You gave him the what-for." Toby said.

"A good verbal kick in the pants." Grace agreed.

Nolan couldn't suppress a grin. "He needed it."

The rest of the plane ride was quiet and soon they landed in Vienna. Howard had arranged for a cab to take them to an international meeting building nearby.

As they rode, beautiful gothic architecture blew by. There were several blooming fountains with golden statues perched on top of them scattered along the squares.

After a thirty minute drive they were standing in front of a tall Y-shaped building.

They gazed up at it nervously, the same thoughts cantering through their minds. What would happen in there?

They walked inside and checked in wordlessly. After they'd shown their I.D. they were escorted to the top floor by a young woman.

She gestured toward a mahogany door. "Your meeting is inside."

"Thank you." Nolan said.

As soon as she was out of sight, he took a deep breath and looked back at his partners.

Toby was mustering a cocky air again and Grace looked increasingly nervous. He opened his mouth to impart an encouraging word, but then closed it. What did he have to offer? He was in the same boat they were.

He turned the handle and opened the door.

The room inside revealed a deep burgundy carpet, a crystal chandelier dangling from the ceiling, and cedar cabinets lining the walls.

A huge round table sat in the middle of the floor with eight people strung around it.

Nolan immediately made eye contact with Howard and the two shared a brief but deadly glare.

"Mr. Clay, Mr. Fairfax, Miss Evans." A man with a thick German accent said, standing up and giving a slight bow. "Welcome to Austria."

"Thanks." Nolan said, detecting three empty chairs at the far end of the room. He walked over to one and sat down next to a slender Chinese man.

"Well then, I suppose this meeting can commence now." The German man said. "My name is Mandel Augustus." He began gesturing around the room to each person at the table. "From Africa, Taavetti Aboiye; from Russia, Vsevelod Boris; from China, Bao Chang; from South America, Pedro Matheus; from Australia, Noah Thomas; and, finally, from England, Rose McFarland. You already know Jeremiah Howard, of course."

Nolan offered a polite smile, although it was incredibly strained. He hoped there wouldn't be some kind of test later because he'd already forgotten most of the names.

The German, Augustus, sat down again and primly folded his hands. "Where to begin?" He said with a dry laugh. "I suppose we can start with discussing the aftermath of the Kavala bombing. There have been no sightings of Egor as of this morning, but no body has been found. Thirty-six people have been pronounced dead and over two million refugees have fled Kavala into the surrounding cities."

"Is there any way to repair the power grid quickly?" The English woman asked.

"No time soon." Augustus replied. "But we can't think of Kavala, or even Egor, right now. We need to focus on stopping the spread of the EMPs before Colossus can set another one off. Doing that alone will be difficult enough."

"I completely agree." Howard said. "We need to take bold strokes."

Everyone nodded grimly.

Augustus turned and gestured towards Grace. "From the maps you retrieved, we've concluded that there are five main EMP devices planted in Washington DC, Sydney, London, Brazil, and Tokyo. Kavala was just a test on a small city. There are at least thirty other devices planted around the world, but these five have the power to take down the main grids of the world's capitols." He leaned back in his chair. "Those are our targets. Kavala will recover eventually, but imagine if the entire state of Washington DC lost all power. It'll knock out a lot more than the lights."

Bao Chang spoke up next. "In order to keep the world going, we must protect our governments."

Nolan sat up a little straighter. "I'm guessing you've already discussed a plan?"

The leaders exchanged glances.

"Yes," Howard said, "But you have to understand that we're facing the destruction of the world as we know it and we don't know how much time we have to save it. We're sending in a bomb squad to each area. However, if we run into too much danger and can't get to the EMP within five days...we have biochemical weapons we're hoping to drop at these locations."

Nolan, Toby, and Grace stared at him in shock.

"But," Howard continued, a small waver in his voice, "we've done the research. We're using a concentrated form of Caro's acid. It's explosive and can corrode metal, so there's no chance of an EMP surviving it."

"Did you not learn anything from Kavala?" Nolan asked, his voice barely below a shout. "People are still going to die."

"This isn't Kavala." Howard countered. "I'll admit, issuing a missile strike was a grave mistake...but we were desperate to kill Egor. I do regret that decision. However, we're not after Egor anymore. We're after these devices that can rip our government to shreds. We'll try to do everything we can to disable it without the use of the biochemical weapons." He drummed his finger against the table, his forehead wrinkled in thought.

"Are you sure it'll work?" Nolan asked. "I mean, let's skip over the idea of a bomb squad, because there's a fat chance of that working. You're dumping acid on large cities. What if the EMP is buried twelve feet under the dirt? What if it's in a concrete building?"

"That is the thing." The African ambassador interjected. "Caro's acid can explode, which will clear out any obstacles. If we need to, we can send in a second bomb to finish the job. It can be localized, so we're not destroying the very things we want to protect."

"How many people will die?" Grace questioned.

"We're going to try—"

"How many?"

Howard's eyes flicked across the room before he answered. "We estimate at least six hundred thousand people will be effected, either by something as small as the fumes from the acid, or the explosions themselves. About one hundred and fifty thousand will die worldwide."

Before anyone could say anything, Rose, the woman from England, spoke up. "We must take into consideration how many we're saving. As long as our governments keep running, we can combat this apocalypse that is rising up. Without our political centers, we're defenseless."

"There has to be another way." Toby urged.

"We're going to try the other way." Howard said, frustration heavy in his tone. "We're sending in bomb squads and military troops before any of this."

Nolan frowned. He didn't like it.

The leader from South America sat up and cleared his throat. "Senior Clay, we received word that you had an encounter with Dimyan Egor?"

For the next hour, Grace, Toby, and Nolan had the floor. Nolan gave them a detailed account of his meeting with Egor and explained everything that happened in Kavala.

After everyone had finished scribbling down notes, Augustus began packing up his things in a small briefcase. "I suppose that's it for now. Meeting adjourned; good luck, all of you."

Nolan, Toby, and Grace waited while they all gathered their things and left the meeting room.

That only left Howard.

"So what happens to us now?" Toby asked.

"Well, you have a choice." Howard leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "I have no right to ask you to assist in this mission. Miss Evans, you've done an excellent job and have gone beyond the call of duty. Nolan and Toby, you aren't even official agents, so I can't tell you what to do."

"What happens if we stay?" Grace's face was a mask and her features taught. Nolan could tell she'd been nervous before the meeting had started, but now she seemed even more so.

"You'll join the ranks and wait to be called upon. No one's ever been on the brink of something of this scale...so I don't know if we'll need agents, SEALs, soldiers..." His gaze settled on Grace. "We could use you. You've experienced a lot more than most agents."

Grace frowned. "I just find a lot of things I'm not supposed to."

"You've survived being held hostage three times now. I think you're one of the more qualified."

Nolan gave her a sideways glance. Three times? That was...rare.

Grace chewed on her lip. "I'll have to think about it. I'm not exactly up for another mission."

"Understandable." Howard raised his eyebrows at Nolan and Toby. "I guess that leaves you two."

"Can we step outside for a minute?' Nolan asked suddenly.

Howard nodded slowly. "I—I suppose."

The three of them stood up and went out into the hallway.

Grace put her hands in her pocket and exhaled. "Thanks. I needed to get out of there."

"We can't support this." Nolan said.

"I agree." Grace replied quickly.

Toby seemed more hesitant. "Why not? They're going to try to stop this without the acid attacks."

"But it won't work." Nolan said. "We saw how many terrorists were stationed in Kavala; imagine how many will be in Washington or London. They won't be able to get close enough to disable the EMP and it'll go off before they can get the bombs into the area. They'll just be wasting time and I don't trust Howard. He'll forfeit this idea just so he can drop the acid and get it over with. I'm not willing to let that many people die."

Toby knit his brows together. "Then what do you suggest we do? We can't meddle with their plans or try to change it."

Nolan and Grace exchanged glances.

Toby took a step backwards. "No. You can't go against the CIA, much less the governments of the world."

"Toby, one hundred and fifty thousand people will die if they drop those bombs. There has to be another way." Grace reminded him.

"And what if we fail? What if we ruin the CIA's plan? Then we'll have EMPs going off everywhere and no way to combat it. If we fail it'll be a lose-lose situation." His blue eyes were flat and serious as he spoke.

For once, Nolan didn't have an argument. Even he didn't know what to do otherwise. But he knew he couldn't stay under Howard's authority.

"I'm sorry, Nolan." Toby said quietly. "But you can't just do whatever you want in a situation like this. Not this time."

Nolan firmed his jaw. "If there's a better way to end this, that's what I'm going to do."

"If you go against orders again," Toby continued, "you won't just be put in jail. You'll wreck the planet."

"I don't want people to die. Dropping acid on cities is bound to end in rioting, unrest, and catastrophe, terrorists aside. And don't look at me like I'm the traitor here."

Toby's eyes turned to steel. "And what do you call going against your government?"

"That depends on the government." Nolan said, "You saw how quick Howard was to destroy Kavala. And don't think I'm naïve...I know war more than anyone you've ever met. I killed a child once, Toby." A flash of pain crossed his features before he continued, "I know the price of war. And trust me on this, creating more panic than there already is will only end in more chaos."

Toby stared hard at the floor before shaking his head. "Alright then. I guess I'll see you on the other side."

Without another word, he turned and went back into the meeting room.

Nolan felt like all the wind had been sucked out of his lungs. Why did Toby's decision floor him so much?

He felt a hand on his arm. "I see his point, you know."

"Yeah?"

"If we do this, we'll have the terrorists and the CIA after us once they find out." Grace met his gaze firmly. "But I'm with you."

A small, forlorn smile touched Nolan's lips. "You'd be the first."

"Well, hopefully I won't be the last." She gave a nod towards the closed door in front of them. "He showed a lot of guts."

Nolan nodded. "Yeah, he did."

After a few moments, they went back into the meeting room, where both Howard and Toby sat.

"We've decided to stay out of this one." Nolan said. He held Toby's stare for a brief second, silently hoping he's change his mind.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Howard sighed and stood up to shake their hands. "But I hope you get some rest before the world starts falling apart."

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{Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading! So I'm still not feeling too good about this chapter and I welcome any critiquing you may have! Does the information make sense? Was it too boring and info-dump-y?}

What do you think about the CIA's plan?

What do you think of Toby's decision?

Do you think Nolan is in the right?

WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON??? O.O

Thank you again for reading! You all are the best ^_^