Repercussion: The Clandestine Saga Book 3 (35 page)

              "Or we can make him think we want to work with him, get him to lead us to Flynn, and then take them both out," Morgan countered.

              "Are you saying you want to work with this guy?" Cadence asked, her eyebrows knit together.

              "No, I'm saying we let him think we want to work with him, and then we don't," Morgan replied.

              "But if we promise him amnesty, we have to deliver," the Hunter shot back.

"Says who?" Morgan countered. "First of all, I'm not about to promise him amnesty. Lenience, perhaps, but not amnesty. Secondly, I don't think there was a whole lot of honest negotiating going on at the Sierraville Incident. If I can get a hold of our little fanged friend here, I'll get him to lead us to Flynn, and we'll talk about what happens to him as an after thought."

              "But if you do that, we'll never get another Vampire to work with us again," Cadence shot back.

"I'm not concerned about anything but bringing in these two bastards right now. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to bring them in while they are in my territory," Morgan returned.

              The last part of that phrase spoke volumes to Cadence and she was about to respond when Aaron interrupted.

              "All right," he interjected. "Maybe we don't need to negotiate. Maybe we can just pick up on his location and track him. If we can, he'll lead us to Flynn."

"Eventually," Morgan scoffed. "But that could also give him time to escape. And you have other names on your hit list, remember?"

              "I'm aware," he replied, the calmness in his voice precipitous, "but if we can take them both out without double crossing anyone, then don't you think that's the way we need to go?"

              "He's a Vampire," Morgan argued. "I could care less about his feelings of betrayal."

              "Look," Cadence chimed in, "I understand that you want to help us bring these guys in quickly, and I appreciate it. No one wants to get them as badly as I do. But if we can pick up his trail--at all--I can track him. I guarantee you that. And if he gets us to Flynn, I won't hesitate to take them both out."

              Morgan seemed to hear the conviction in her voice and take it into consideration. "It's just such a large area," she explained. "I don't think you understand what we're dealing with."

A light bulb went off in Cadence's head. "What about helicopters?" she asked.

              "Helicopters?" Morgan repeated, confused. "We don't have any. These are mountains."

              "I understand that," Cadence replied. "But if we brought in helicopters--pilots who are used to navigating around similar terrain--we would have a better chance to track them, should they escape the perimeter."

              "That could work," Aaron agreed.

"Helicopters would be awesome," Lucas agreed. "But, where would we get them?"

              "I have a friend who will let us borrow his," Cadence assured them.

              Morgan was listening intently. After a long pause, she finally said, "Fine. Let's try it."

"Great," Cadence smiled. "I'm glad we could all agree. I'll make the call."

              Morgan nodded in either consent or agreement. From Cadence's perspective, it didn't matter. "One last question," she stated. "How are we planning on bringing Flynn in?"

"What do you mean?" Cadence asked, a confused look on her face.

              "Well, he's a Hunter, so I assume we're bringing him in unharmed," Morgan shrugged.

              "Oh no," Cadence explained. "There will be no bringing him in--unless it's in a body bag. Don't mistake my verisimilitude for benevolence. I can be rancorous, too."

Morgan smiled. "I like you, Cadence Findley."

***

              Tracking Travis ended up being less difficult than they would have imagined. It turned out he was a straightforward sort of a Vampire. He basically seemed to stick to Highway 89 as he approached the Crazies and there were plenty of accounts of seeing a suspicious character, as well as the body of one elderly drifter that never made the evening news.

              Aaron was content to let Cadence make the calls, under his careful observation, and once she verified Travis was holed up for the day in a shed behind an old abandoned home near the foothills of the Crazies, she decided to coordinate the hunt for that evening. It seemed fairly certain that Travis would attempt to close the few miles to Flynn’s location as soon as he had the cover of darkness to facilitate the easy movement.

              Cale was more than willing to lend his choppers again. This time, however, he insisted on being at the location. He showed up at Morgan’s office late the evening of the scheduled hunt, dressed completely in black, with a new shorter haircut, and a very sexy five o’clock shadow. Aurora’s utterance of, “Holy hell,” was echoed in the minds of every woman present, including Cadence, who quickly pushed the thought aside. There was no room for distraction of any kind.

              “Thanks for coming,” she said, stepping forward and shaking his hand. He was alone, none of his team making the journey with him, save the two helicopter pilots who were at the airport awaiting his command.

              “Thank you for inviting me,” Cale replied, acknowledging the other team members in the room, including Aaron, who, if he was intimidated at all didn’t show it.

              “You know Morgan?” Cadence asked as the petite brunette stepped forward.

“Yes, of course. It’s nice to see you again,” he smiled, taking the hand she offered.

“Likewise,” she replied, and Cadence couldn’t help but notice she flashed that same flirty smile at him, the one she’d been directing at Aaron since their arrival.

              “If you have your IAC on so that your pilots can see, we can go ahead and go over our plan for this evening,” Cadence explained, ushering him to a nearby chair.

              Once they were all seated around the table, she asked Lucas to pull up the maps they had prepared and began to go over the plan. As far as they could tell, Flynn was still hiding near the same position as he had initially been spotted at a few days ago. They had an idea of the route Travis would likely take, based on available trails. They discussed staging areas for all members of the team, including who would be in charge of cutting off the two major exit points, and Cadence’s plan for using the helicopters to track the two villains. Lucas pointed out several potential terrain problems to Cale, who made sure his pilots were aware and comfortable with the obstacles.

“Does anyone have any questions?” Cadence asked, once she was done presenting her plan.

“My understanding is that all of our weapons will contain titanium bullets and that we are shooting to kill, is that correct?” Cale clarified.

              “Affirmative,” Cadence replied. “If either of them attempts to surrender, I leave it up to the individual teammate to decide whether he or she is willing to accept the capitulation. But if we happen to overlook a white flag, you won’t hear a word of disagreement from me.”

              “I agree. No one is going to question taking either one of these guys out,”
Aaron confirmed.

              Cale nodded. “That’s understandable,” he agreed.

              “Any other questions?” Cadence asked.

“What precautions are we taking in case he also has titanium bullets?” Morgan asked.

              “Excellent question,” Cadence replied. “In our former encounter with Flynn, most of our Guardians had bullet proof jackets on—except for Jamie,” she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He shrugged but didn’t offer an explanation to the group. “He’ll be wearing one tonight. All of us will. Nevertheless, it didn’t make too big of a difference last time. Meaghan was still wounded pretty badly, and we know that a headshot will take anyone out. So, be careful, shoot to kill, and watch your back. We’re going to have to make sure we cover each other. We always do a great job of that, and there’s no question a lack of communication had nothing to do with what happened last time, but let’s make sure we are continuing to coordinate, especially since we have members from three different teams here.”

“Well, I for one am looking forward to seeing this bastard get justice,” Christian exclaimed.

              “I have no doubt you won’t hesitate to take the shot,” Cadence agreed. After all, it had been Flynn who had shot Christian at Sierraville. “All right, if we have no more questions, we’ll be loading up in about an hour so make sure you have your equipment ready, and if you need any supplies, see Aurora for titanium bullets and Gretchen for anything else.”

              As the team members filtered out the door, Cadence turned to Jamie and quietly said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to call you out like that.”

“It’s fine,” he shrugged. “I just… I never thought they would target me, you know? I thought, even if we were in danger, Laura would never let them shoot me. I had just saved her life.”

“I understand,” Cadence replied, putting her hand gently on his arm. “That’s the kind of assholes we are dealing with, though. What you and I would consider unthinkable, they will do without blinking.”

              “Well, I will definitely be wearing a vest tonight,” he assured her.

              “Good, because if I get shot, you better be there to save me,” she smiled. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before pushing her chair back and crossing the office to where Aaron and Cale were conferring with Morgan.

“Everything okay?” Aaron asked as she approached.

“Sure,”
she replied.
“I just felt bad for calling him out.”

             
“Part of the job,”
he reminded her.

             
“I know. But he’s yours.”

              “Doesn’t matter. We are interchangeable.”

She nodded in agreement, though she wasn’t sure that made the discussion any easier. “You two clear on everything?” she asked, turning her attention to Cale and Morgan.

              “I think so,” Morgan replied. “I’m excited to work with you. I’ve heard how amazing you are on the hunt, but now I get to see it for myself.”

“Just don’t get in her way,” Cale advised. “She won’t hesitate to push you out of the way and leave you in her dust.” He was laughing, but Cadence wasn’t sure it was really meant as a joke.

“Oh, yeah?” Morgan inquired. “Well, in that case, I’ll just stay back and let you do your thing.”

              “It’ll be fine,” Cadence assured her. “I will be the only Hunter in pursuit when we move in, so I’m sure amongst the three of you, you’ll keep me safe. I’m more worried about what Laura said about there being more titanium bullets on the ground that we don’t know about.”

              “I can’t imagine that Flynn has any,” Aaron assured her, “but we’ll have to react as if he does.”

              “I agree,” Cale chimed in. “We’ll keep Jamie in reserve, fully protected. That way, if anyone gets hit, we can move him in. And, if need be, I may know a thing or two about sewing people up myself.”

              “But not yourself—so be careful,” Cadence cautioned, pointing at him sternly to make sure he understood she was serious. “I can’t take losing anyone else.”

              They all nodded and made their way out of the office, on their way to double-check their own weapons and rendezvous with the rest of their hunting party.

              As much as Cadence appreciated having the opportunity to plan the attack and place everyone in position, she was not confident enough in her own ability to actually call the hunt at this point, so she deferred to Aaron and his decades of experience when it came to actually running the show. This would be a little more difficult for him because he would be on the ground, rather than overseeing movement from above, as he generally preferred, but considering the importance of this particular assault, not to mention that he felt compelled to personally cover Cadence, he insisted on coordinating while actually participating. Cadence agreed that it was for the best and that if anyone could multi-task in such a stressful situation, it was the Guardian Leader.

The sky was breathtaking, the stars illuminated against the vast open spaces of ebony, their pinpoints of light shimmering against the eternal blackness. The mountains loomed around them as they wound their way to location A. While much of the team would be dispatched to location B., the lake where Flynn had been spotted, Cadence, Aaron, Cale, and Morgan would be beginning their journey from the shed in hopes that Travis would still be present and on his way to meet up with Flynn.

They arrived at the location after the Vampire had already begun his journey to reunite with the renegade Hunter. However, he had been there recently enough that Cadence could still hone in on his presence, and without a word, she began to track him, the three Guardians observing and following, ready to intercede if needed, but giving her room to operate.

              The dense forest reminded her of the last hunt she had participated in, and Cadence had to push those thoughts aside. Travis gave her a distinct feeling in her gut, and that particular sensation also reminded her of what it had been like last time. She had known it wasn’t Giovani because the feeling in her stomach was not nearly as trepidatious as it had been with the more dangerous Vampire, but it seemed each Vampire presented a unique sensation, and so she settled into the feeling of Travis and let her instincts take over.