Mother Hunter

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Leading a team meeting was a lot harder than it looked.

Cadon McReynolds stood at the front of the conference room, staring out at almost three dozen faces. He’d seen his father do this more times than he could count. Aaron always made it seem like it was the simplest task imaginable. Just stand up here and talk, tell everyone what the plan was, and they would listen and then do it.

Now that he was the one standing here, he could see why his sister had had so many problems with it when she’d first started leading the LIGHTS team. Still, Jo had made it look easier than this.

“Well, Cadon, where do you want to start?” Elliott Sanderson asked from a chair to his right. The Guardian was slouched so low, he looked like a high school student in the back row of math class. Except for much, much bigger. “We’re going to the Rock, right?”

Cadon nodded. That much had been decided. After the Capitol, the next largest number of LIGHTS team members was being held in Alcatraz. It just made sense that they would go try to get those people out before the Vampires decided it was time to execute them, too.

But just waltzing over to California and opening the prison cells wasn’t going to cut it. In order to throw the Vampires off of their trail so that they could sneak in without being caught, they’d need a diversion.

Cadon was hoping that Margie Joplin and the Australians would be willing to launch some sort of an attack on the other side of the country to draw President Crimson and his armies away from the west coast. Exactly what her objective should be, he wasn’t sure. He was planning to get that nailed down during this meeting.

The leader of the Australian army, as well as that region of LIGHTS, was sitting dead in the center of the room across from him, her arms folded, her face puckered, her blue hair making her look even more intimidating. Cadon tried not to focus on her.

“Cadon?” Jamie Joplin, Margie’s brother, said from a seat just a couple down from Elliott. “You want to tell us where we are going?”

“Uh… yeah… yes,” Cadon said with a firm nod, running his hand through his hair. “Yes. I would like to tell you what our next mission will be. I have been talking to some of the senior leaders of the team, and we agree that our next objective should be Alcatraz. As you may know, many of our LIGHTS team members are locked up there. So… we need to go get them out.”

“And how are we going to do that?” Margie asked, not unfolding her arms, and not changing her scowl.

“Actually, I’m glad you asked, Margie. Ms. Joplin… uh… ma’am.”

In his IAC, the tiny computer inside of his eye that let him talk to his other team members, Elliott said, “Calm down, bro. You don’t have to call her anything but Margie. Or Marge. Or Large Marge.”

He knew his “funcle” was just trying to be funny. Margie wasn’t large at all.

But she was intimidating.

Cadon cleared his throat. He wished his dad was there. If Aaron was in the room, even if he wasn’t leading the meeting instead of Cadon, just seeing his reassuring smile would’ve made everything better.

“My plan is that the Australians will actually create a diversion on the east coast so that the Vampires don’t know that we are taking a smaller force to the west coast to attack Alcatraz.” There. He’d gotten that much out.

“All right,” Margie said. “That sounds like a decent plan. Where, exactly, would you have us concentrating our forces? Keep in mind, I will have to send a large chunk of my forces back to Australia because they were only here to take down The Capitol. Now that they’ve done that, the prime minister wants them back. They are having their own Vampire problems. Now that Holland is no longer controlling the Vampires running around the continent, it’s a lot easier to blow their ashy brains out. She needs troops to do that.”

Cadon nodded. “All right. That’s understandable.” A lot had changed in the few days since Holland had been taken out. The vice-like grip she had over the rest of the Vampires was gone, so their powers had lessened significantly. They were back to being able to kill Vampires with one well-placed bullet, instead of needing titanium bullets or silver knives plunged over and over again. “Will you be able to stay to lead the diversion attack?”

“Yes, I will be able to,” Margie said. “But I’d like to know where I’m attacking.”

“There’s Grand Central Station,” Elliott offered. “The Vamps have really taken over that place. I hear it’s a great place to get killed--if you’re a human.”

Cadon had no idea what Elliott was talking about, but he didn’t want everyone else to know that. “Hmmm, that’s a potential target,” Cadon said, stroking his chin. Everyone told him he looked so much like his dad, except he had his mother’s chin. Not that a chin made a face…. “What other intel do we have about Grand Central Station?”

“Tunnels,” Brandon Keen, Elliott’s son, summed up. After everyone turned to look at him, he elaborated. “There’s a hell of a lot of tunnels from GCS that veer off to the buildings all around it, so it’s a great place for Vampires to hang out. They can go up through the buildings, find someone to eat, and then bring them back beneath the terminal.”

“Great, just what we need. More goddamn tunnels.” Cale Ryan, one of the Healers, who had incidentally gotten shot by friendly fire in their last attack concerning a tunnel, did not look amused.

“You’ll be with us, in Alcatraz, Cale,” Cadon told him, hoping he’d feel better.

“Great--an island covered with Vampires surrounded by rocks, frigid water, and sharks. Just what we need.”

Cadon cleared his throat. Apparently, the Healer wouldn’t be happy no matter what he said. “I think Grand Central Station is a great alternative objective. Margie, can you and your team look into what you will need in order to attack that location and destroy as many Vampires as possible?”

“Sure we can,” Margie said with a shrug. “What’s our ETD?”

“Uhm… I don’t know.”

“It means estimated time of departure, Cadon.” Amanda Sanderson, Elliott’s daughter, who was sitting by her dad piped up with a wide smile on her face. Whether or not the smile was intended to be encouraging or if she was laughing at him, Cadon wasn’t sure.

He had always found her annoying.

“Yes, I know. I just don’t know when we’re going to launch. Thank you, Amanda.”

“You’ll need to get into position before we even leave here for it to be a true diversion,” Jamie told his sister. She only nodded, like she already knew that.

Everyone thought they were smarter than everyone else today.

“I would like to launch our attack on Alcatraz by Thursday at the latest,” Cadon said. That would give them a day to plan and two to get there.

“That seems quick,” Ashley, Jamie’s wife, said. Cadon was surprised she’d said anything at all. He figured she was still lost in her thoughts. Her son was gone--into the portal with Jo and her team--so she was obviously worried about him. Having just gotten her husband back from the president’s prison in the Capitol Building, she was obviously stressed about her son being gone now. Hopefully, Jo would be back soon with all of the team members who had gone with her.

And one more--their mom.

“Yes, it is rather quick. I’ll give you that,” Cadon said with a nod. “But I think we need to strike while Crimson is still discombobulated.”

“Yeah, Ash,” Elliott said. “We don’t want to give him time to get bobulated.”

Chuckles filled the room. Cadon knew that Elliott was just trying to lessen the tension, but he didn’t feel like it was the time for jokes.

“How are we getting to Alcatraz?” Cale asked. “I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be able to take a plane in there.”

“No, but helicopters would work,” Cadon said with a nod. “Do we have any in the hangar?”

“Not that aren’t obliterated,” Brandon said. “Most of the vehicles we left here are junked now.”

“s**t,” Cadon muttered.

“There’s an air force base in Knob Noster,” Martin Green, another Healer who had been with Jamie at the Capitol all this time,” offered. “I don’t know specifically about that base, but I heard enough of Crimson’s assholes talking about air force bases around DC to have a pretty good idea that they were keeping as many birds at the ready as they could.”

“Why? Were they going to fly overhead and spew venom on all of the humans on the ground?” Elliott asked.

Martin didn’t seem to realize he was joking. “I don’t know why they were keeping them, but I don’t think it would be too hard for us to drive over there and take them.”

Cadon considered that possibility. Knob Noster wasn’t that far away. “All right. But there’s another problem. If we steal a helicopter… we’re going to need a pilot. A helicopter pilot. It was hard enough to find an airplane pilot before. What are our chances of finding a helicopter pilot?”

“I’ll get you a pilot,” Margie said, finally unfolding her arms long enough to wave at him like he was a nuisance, a pesky fly. “You make your plans to go steal the damn helicopter, and I’ll get you someone to fly you out of there.”

“Won’t we need more than one?” Elliott asked. “Once we land on the Rock, how are we going to get off--with all of those prisoners?”

Cadon tried not to look exasperated. He didn’t know the answer to that question either.

It was Heather McGraw, the other Hybrid, besides Cassidy, who chimed in. “Getcherself a big ol’ boat,” she said. “Any damn person can drive one of them barges. Have it at the ready, and y’all can get off the damn island and onto the boat.”

“That’s a good idea,” Cadon said. “I like that idea.”

“But why did you say ‘you’?” Brandon asked her. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“Hell if I know. The kid ain’t told me diddly squat yet. Well, kid? Who’s going where?”

Cadon realized he was ‘the kid’ in question. “Basically. Margie’s people will go to New York, and the rest of us will go to Alcatraz.”

“That’s too many damn people for one helicopter,” she said. “Besides, yer gonna wanna leave some folks here to make sure them damn Vampires don’t get back here why we’s gone.”

Cadon opened his mouth, intending to agree with her, but all that came out was an exasperated sigh.

“How many prisoners are there in Alcatraz right now?” Elliott asked--not even looking at Cadon. Just a general wondering.

“Last I heard, thirty-four,” Brandon said. “Aaron had talked about going in there right before the Holland sighting, remember? He’d popped out of the portal for a couple of days last spring, and we talked about what our next objective should be.”

Elliott nodded. “All right. I’m guessing they don’t have too many more Vampire guards than that. Maybe sixty tops. We probably need… twenty people?”

“You think we need that many?” Jamie asked. “Cale and I can patch up anyone who gets shot.”

“Tell that to Aaron,” Emma Burk muttered.

“Fair enough,” Jamie said, giving the younger girl the stare down. “But we can be fairly certain that none of the Vamps on the island are going to have some sort of supercharged scandium bullet ready to launch at one of us.”

Cadon’s eyes went over the people in front of him. He didn’t even know everyone’s names. Some of these people had been with Jamie in The Capitol Building. Some of them had come back to LIGHTS headquarters as soon as they’d heard that the team was taking the facility back. He knew there were other people elsewhere in the vicinity, too. He needed someone he could trust to stay behind and keep the headquarters safe and running smoothly--but he didn’t know who he could spare.

“I’ll stay here if you want,” Ashley said, raising her hand. “I think… when Scott comes back, it’ll probably be here, and I want to be here when he arrives.” She looked at her husband, and Jamie nodded, even though it was clear they didn’t want to be apart again.

Ashley was an experienced Hunter who knew what she was doing. Cadon nodded. “Great. I need to leave a Guardian with you, too, to head up the other Guardians that will be coming in.” People were coming from all around to rejoin the team, and it would seem odd not to have a Guardian there as well as a Hunter.

A short, balding man in the back raised his hand. Cadon didn’t even know the guy’s name. He could’ve used his IAC to look it up, but he found himself nodding at the gentleman before he had a chance. “I’d be happy to stay.” The guy sounded sort of mousy, like maybe he was afraid of his own shadow. Cadon wasn’t so sure he’d make a reliable leader, but he definitely couldn’t see him going on the mission.

“Great, thanks… you.”

“Schmidts,” Elliott said in Cadon’s head.

“Schmidts. Thanks.” Cadon knew he probably wasn’t fooling anyone, but the guy nodded and smiled. “All right then. It sounds like we’ve got our two teams. Margie’s people are going to New York City, and the rest of us, except for Ashley and Schmidts will be headed to California, as soon as we obtain the vehicles to get us there--and get us off the Rock, once we have our team members freed.” Cadon said the statement with an air of finality, but he knew that the hardest part wasn’t behind him. Not even close.